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The "Level Up" with Duayne Pearce Podcast
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.
The "Level Up" with Duayne Pearce Podcast
Black Sambuca, Where is Mount Everest and Mateship.
#126 This weeks episode reveals how genuine connections and shared experiences shape success in life and business. Trent Spencer shares his journey from tough upbringing to successful owner of Brisbane based tile company Uptiles. His journey includes living life more authentically through memorable adventures like the Everest Base Camp trek.
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You've got to be genuine in business or people won't buy from you, you know. And you've got to be genuine with family. You've got to be genuine with your friends or you'll lose them.
Speaker 2:G'day guys. Welcome back to another cracking episode of Level Up. It's actually a pretty bloody hot one today here in Brisbane. We're back in the shed this afternoon. This is going to be an absolute cracker. I've been trying to get this bloke on my podcast for a long time now. So, yeah, I won't keep you in suspense too long. But a really good mate of mine, personally and in business, has definitely been a big part of my journey over the years. A good mate of mine, trent Spencer from Uptiles here in Brisbane. Uptiles, if you haven't heard of it, was Australia's well still is Australia's number one tile showroom back-to-back 16 years in a row.
Speaker 1:Yep, how are you mate? Good mate, Really good Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2:I would have put money on it. I was sure you were going to turn up today with a bottle of Black Sand Booker.
Speaker 1:I reckon it's probably the first time and I'll give you. My excuse now is that tonight I'm heading to the V8 Supercars with Adam Deuce for the next three days, so I figured I didn't really want to start it with Sambuca, because you can imagine it's going to end on Sunday night with Sambuca, I suggest. I still remember our time here. We lined all your staff and clients and everybody up to go down and play golf once and they weren't allowed onto the bus until they'd had two shots of Sand Booker.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, trent's been a bad influence over the years. He doesn't mind a good time and whenever Trent's around it is always definitely a good time. But yeah, we hired a bus once to do a work function and Trent was invited as one of our subcontractors. And everyone's out the front of our subcontractors and everyone's at the front of our house waiting for this bus to come and Trent turns up with a bloody. He had a bucket of pre-mixed shots. Yeah, the party bucket.
Speaker 2:And a couple of bottles of Black Sand Booker and no one was on the bus led on the bus until they'd had two drinks and they got off with plenty more afterwards, didn't they, oh mate that was a very, very big afternoon and I think we made the bus had to stop a few times, a few bottles along the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we called into beanley. Haven't been to beanley in 30 years and go through a bottle shop down.
Speaker 2:There was a new experience um, well, mate, look, thanks very much for coming on. You like, you're, um, I'd talk to you, to a lot of people about you. Like, you've definitely influenced me a lot over the years. Trent's the one that actually asked me to go to Everest Base Camp, so that was six years ago, was it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, 2018. So yeah, six years ago.
Speaker 2:And I've told the story before about this Trent. We were having a meeting. Trent said oh look, I've chosen something to help me exercise and get fit. I've set myself a goal I'm going to do Everest Base Camp. Do you want to be in? And I said, yep, where is it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it was good because, like you know, you came and you introduced Justin into the group and the group grew from me to 13 of us going over there and everybody only had one connection from one to the next. So we made a great group of friends out of it and, uh and all did an experience that put us under a huge amount of pressure mentally, physically, the whole lot, and not only just for the, for the trip. But you know, three or four months leading up to that we, we spent a lot of time together tuesday, wednesday, four o'clock in the morning, training, uh, but it was, it was like a men's mental health camp of walking and talking and you know, it was probably the best mental health I'd had in years because you were able to talk to people and you found if you walk with someone for three hours, there's no secrets left at the end of that.
Speaker 2:A few times a week. Yeah, like you've got to talk about something. Like it was brilliant for myself as well. I think I'm definitely a big fan of it, like you, you got to just get out and have a chat to people, don't you not keep it all in your head?
Speaker 1:yeah, you do, and I mean that that there we, you know, we experienced visiting quite natures and stuff like that sort of thing. So you're out there, there's no alcohol, there's no nothing. Uh, you're chatting away. Everybody tries to be a bit guarded in the beginning and it all of a sudden you're walking up a hill or a mountain and everybody's equal because they're all puffing just as hard.
Speaker 1:They're all struggling, you know, and they're all trying to be men and Group A and it's not going to hurt me, and then eventually they all crack, they all cry, they all sit down, they all give up. You know, and everyone gets around them. Saw a few tears along the way. We did, yeah.
Speaker 2:Mate, I can't thank you enough Like that trip was definitely life-changing for me. I know you've had similar experience. Just to be in that environment with an incredible bunch of people, which became very good friends by the end of the 10 days, but just to experience that environment, the people, the culture. So Trent's most of the time the organiser. He's the one that comes up with these ideas and it doesn't matter whether it's an idea for a pub lunch or some function on a weekend or whatever. Trent doesn't fuck around. So he'd organise this whole thing to Everest, the airfares, accommodation and, mate, the tour guide that you found that took us on that adventure was just. We could not have done better.
Speaker 1:No, we were lucky and I think you know we saw people lining up to get on the planes. We managed to do it in a chopper. You know that was a whole new experience. You know, I've found a fond loving for choppers now because they're weapons and we probably had the wildest chopper ride I've ever had, landing with 5% fuel you know. Know, doing like sort of side big swipes and nearly backflips in the chopper. It was pretty, pretty exciting, through cloud and having a mountain in front of you. A lot of people like thought you know you're just hiking up to everest. But there was a total adventure between going to the monkey palace and, you know, going out on the drink in the middle of, uh, catman doodle two or three in the morning. And there's some great photos of you, duane, that turned up after that exercise. So sam booker might have been involved in a couple of them no, remember we.
Speaker 2:So for anyone that doesn't know, sam booker, when I used to get on it was my go-to, like that was uh yeah, you're incredible.
Speaker 2:Hulk juice, hey, yeah I love it and the um, yeah, after we made it to everest or base camp, um spent the, got back, got stuck in lookla for a few days, finally got back to katmandu and it was like a three-day, two-night, just bender and uh, yeah, I remember we I don't know how many bars we went to, but it was like where, like nobody had sambuca. So I ended up walking around town and pluggers all night trying to find a bottle or a bar that had sambuca.
Speaker 1:I think there's a photo of you with pluggers on next to Rio sticking out of the floor in a nightclub. You know it was very health and safety and I mean we started the first day with a steak at the Australian Steakhouse thing we found in the middle of town with some beers, because we'd all been so disciplined with what we ate, drank and in the preparation to get there and jeez geez, that went out the window once we made it.
Speaker 2:Oh, mate, but it was just such an incredible experience and, um, the bonding that we, we got over that and then, um, after that we come back and the the following year we did one with the couples, so, um, most well, yeah, nearly everyone that come on that hike and we actually took our wives and we went over to new zealand. We did the Milford Track. That was another incredible experience.
Speaker 1:And that was supposed to be kind of like a relaxing effort, but that actually turned out to be more difficult than some of the days at Everest, you know.
Speaker 2:It was definitely more difficult. And then the last night was just as big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we seem to finish that way, don't we? So that was a good day and it was a beautiful spot to go to Milford Sound and it was good for the wives and that to come along and experience some of the walk and talk and that sort of thing too. So we got known as the Verve Crew, I think, after Catherine Campbell decided to drink us out of Verve.
Speaker 2:Well, the chopper had to fly more in, I think, to the last two lodges because they bloody ran out. Yeah, yeah. So Trent is always the instigator of a great time, and if ever Trent's involved, it's always. You know it's going to be a great time, you know it's going to be quality. But when it comes to the business side of things, you're always the first one to put your hand up, give people advice. You're involved with a business group here in Brisbane as well, aren't you where you help people out?
Speaker 1:Yeah, look, 20 odd years ago I got invited into the tattersalls. They had it there and at that stage I think it had been going 38 years and they wanted to start another brisbane business associates. They took a couple of the sons of the original group and I was their first invitation there and there was four of us. Uh, it's grown out to about 16 or 17 in the group. Uh, mixture again.
Speaker 1:You know builders, accountants, solicitors, financial solicitors, financial doctors, everybody. It's a group from different industries. I go along and I sit there as an importer from Europe and discuss about how the European markets and things are, the shipping, all that sort of stuff. So it's the idea is to get a bit of a spectrum of all industry and try and get an idea of where it's going. You know we have a guy there that deals with receiverships and those sort of things and for many years he's depressed and then when he's happy the rest of the table's not happy. So it's a good group to be in, being able to get some advice.
Speaker 1:We've seen through that period of time. I think nearly all of us started there unmarried. Since we're married Now, we've got children at 17, 18 years of age. So to know people that long has been great, see some big failures, some big successes, and all the time, every time we see it, it's the same rule, there's no difference. You know, the ones that go too hard, spend too big, grow too fast, don't survive. The ones that get rich slowly just continue to get more wealthy, get more sturdy, more strong, and then I think, in their mental health, their marriages, everything seemed to survive and they build a strong relationship with people you know it's important to like.
Speaker 2:I know people that just keep to them, like everything's very private, keep to themselves. They're not interested in being involved in groups and all that sort of things. But whether you're whether you're paying for a coach or a mentor or you're involved in some sort of group like I'm a big fan that you have to talk to people. You can't do it all on your own. Learn from other people's experiences and take on other people's knowledge. It might not be in the same industry or the same business that you're trying to set up, but if you just take a little bit from here, there and everywhere and then figure out what works best for you, you're going to get to where you want to be a lot quicker.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you've got to be honest, though Do you know what I mean? The thing I've probably seen in these groups a lot is a lot of dishonesty, and I've seen well, not dishonesty in that they're trying to make themselves appear bigger or better and rather than say I've got failings, I'm not perfect, because they can't learn, they can and they can't learn if they're not honest to say that I've got faults right or I need help. You've got to ask for help, and if you don't ask for help, you won't get it. You know, and I see a lot of younger people join the group and look up to some of these people and go oh my God, I need to be that. And you say you know what. I don't think that's possible. I think that's a fairy tale, I think it's a unicorn. Not everybody's always got everything you think they've got. When the wheel stops. That's when you see the reality of people, and I think it's important for a lot of younger people to be themselves and not worry about trying to be what everybody else is.
Speaker 1:I had an argument with one of my friends. He bought a Lamborghini at 30 years old. I said you're a dickhead. And he said to me why. I said what are you going to do when you're 50? You know, like, fair enough, you made it, you're great, you're very successful, you've got a Lamborghini. But then the problem is you get married, you have children, the Lamborghini's no good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you know what I mean? It's useless. So you know, as you know, I and we discuss business. You know, today I was working on computer systems and things for the business, spoken to three or four of the mini racers, two of the guys from the Brisbane Business Associates, about how they've implemented computer systems in their business, where it went wrong, how it fell apart, where'd they get ripped off, you know, and that sort of thing. And it's great to be able to be so honest. Go there and say I'm computer illiterate, I have zero knowledge about computers. I'm going to get done like a dinner if somebody works it out. Can you give me some help? Yeah, you know, and people just can't do enough for you you know it's super important.
Speaker 2:Like and I people would get to where they want to get quicker if they did that. Like they took a step back. Like social media is obviously bad for it. Like everyone's trying to live up to this perception of what other people have and do and are. Yeah, but you never know if someone's in debt to the eyeballs or if it's mum and dad's money, or like how they've got there.
Speaker 1:Well, as you say, you know me, I'm not on social media, right? So I'm probably one of the only people that's not. I do see it because our businesses and things are on social media and I think it's an important part of the business to be on there For me. You know, I used to go to the Brisbane Business Associates and they were all on social media and I wasn't. They used to say to me Trent, you need to be on Facebook. I said no, I don't. I'm going to sit here now and you're going to tell know what I mean. I didn't watch the recorded show back. I watched the live experience and I think it was good. It gave us something to talk about. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy seeing people do well on there, look on the social media and things like that, but I'm not one to post anything or do anything like that. I'd much rather sit down, have a drink with somebody, have dinner with somebody and talk about what's happened.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah. Well, again, that personal connection is getting lost a lot, isn't it? Because when people do catch up in person, they've got nothing to talk about because they've seen it every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you see it regularly People sitting around a table, six people, six phones. Yeah, you know I'm terrible. I tend to go home, put my phone on charge and leave it alone. I use it for business. I went away on holidays there recently for a month. In that whole month I took three phone calls, so I didn't deal with any emails. I had arranged so that it was all managed and looked after and that. But I literally put my phone in the suitcase and it's the best month I've had. I didn't have to worry about it calling. I didn't have to return any calls or emails to anybody.
Speaker 1:I put a lot of effort in for six months to be able to do that. It wasn't just I'm turning it off for a month. I don't agree with that. It was a lot of planning, a lot of discipline went into it, a lot of commitment from my people, my staff around me, that said yep, we're more than happy to manage this. But I tell you what sometimes that detox of being in touch with just the people that are around you I think probably Everest taught us that too. When we went to base camp we were just them, we virtually the phones and that were unimportant. They became a camera.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it was only. I think it was only myself, you and one or two of the other guys that, like literally didn't have our phones. Yeah, and everyone else was buying SIM cards and trying to like. That was one thing that disappointed me about that trip was I couldn't believe we were in this incredible place and if you wanted to, you could have phone service. So even the bloody Sherpas the Sherpas were walking up with 100 kilos of shit on their back, leaning over, scrolling through Instagram on their phone.
Speaker 1:It was a good place to go, though, when you've got so much entertainment natural entertainment of beautiful mountains and the streams and the yaks and bridges that you guys bloody rocked and rolled and scared the living crap out of me. So I reckon we spoke about the Hillary Bridge for about three hours, because we knew it was coming up and I've got a fear of heights, and they just could not work out how to give me more of a hard time. They were like you get on first, I'll get on after him. More of a hard time. They were like you get on first, I'll get on after him, we'll rock and roll this. Then they stuck a yak on with me. You know, like I was being punished for all the times I served too much.
Speaker 2:Sam booker, I think you know the um, like I really look just like your honesty mate. Like you you're very blunt and direct and I think that's you need someone around you like that to like get you to pull your head in. Sometimes, like we've had some pretty good conversations over the years or rung you with an idea or whatever, and your, your advice is always straight to the point, but, like, how have you got to where you are? Like, if we can, like I don't know if you're happy to talk about your journey a little bit- but I know you have worked your ass off since you were bloody 14.
Speaker 1:yeah. So I mean, you know I've got a tough family. My father's been a great influence on me. He's proper hard. You know. People would say he's a tough c**t.
Speaker 2:For anyone that's listening. He is f**king hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then when you met my grandfather, he was harder again. So you know, and my mum's side, my grandfather, was a businessman as well, very tough sort of people. So I suppose I grew up up that and my father's favorite saying my entire life whether it's hard but it's easy. And when you work that out, trent, you'll have made it. You know, and I've spent a long time working out what the hell is he talking about?
Speaker 1:Whether I was playing football, you know, I went down to the local public and at 14 years old and got a job, um, you know, and I worked there 35 hours a week while I finished high school, all through the night and go to school during the day, continued to play my football and stuff like that worked at the tile shop during that time as well. Um, and I, it took me a long time and I used to think he was a real mongrel, uh, and think why is he? Why is he so tough on me for this? You know, I've put in a hundred percent effort on doing that. And then you worked out.
Speaker 1:You know that hard but at easy means. If you do the hard work, everything else is easy. So I trained during the week. The football game was easy, you know, if I, if I went to work every day disciplined and executed correctly, paying my bills and making money and and buying things that I wanted was easy. So it took me a long time to work that out, but he used to say it to me flat out, with no explanation, didn't matter what it was, you know so it's a good.
Speaker 1:It's a good saying yeah yeah, you know you could bitch and moan. I'm building fences. You know we lived in bow desert and building fences. Keep my horse in. And you know he wouldn't let me use the auger on the tractor to get my hand. But you know, when I went to the football field it's about knock the guys over because I was that solid. You know, when I did kung fu, you go, people could punch me. It didn't hurt. It didn't hurt as much as a horse kicking you or digging a fence hole. I can give you the drum. So it was good that he gave me those lessons. You know it came from his father. These days, you know, they probably go.
Speaker 1:That's abusive to your children. You're not allowed to do that. You know I got plenty of beltings. That was how it was back then. I've back then. Um, I've never I've had to raise my hand once to my children. Uh, I got one of them and that that one took the other one out and we call it the kung fu hand. You know. So from about four years old now, I just roll my hand around with my wrist and my children just stop doing whatever they're doing. Dad only ever launched it once. But I think what come from my steer. Was that I only ask once?
Speaker 1:and I suppose you say that to me I only ask the children once to do something and they know that's the rules. With my staff I'm very fair. Some don't love me, some do love me. They know where they stand because I've come through that discipline of if you ask to do it or someone asks you to do it, or if you're going to do something, do it correct, do it right. We go to Everest. Put the time in. Don't take 13 people over there on a half-assed tour. Make it the best possible tour it can be, you know yeah, you're the most committed person I've ever met.
Speaker 2:Like everything you say you're going to do, you don't around, like it's if. Whether it's training for something or something for business, or like at the moment with your tile shop, like you're leading the way with the porcelain tops, like you've just you're ahead of the game you know, I looked at that five years ago and my father said to me you're nuts.
Speaker 1:You know you're going to tear up a lot of money, you're going to waste a lot of money. You know, stay on the core business. And I said to him well, it is a core business. It's just a very big, big version of our core business. They're made by the same people. They have the durability of the tile.
Speaker 1:I can see there's an issue with engineered stone. It's worldwide. I can see there's going to be a change and I think I can't see why people over there that know better than me spending hundreds of millions of dollars on building these factories are going to be wrong. I think we want to be first. So you know we were. We were first to bring the porcelain to Australia. We've had some big players come in Caesar Stones and Smart Stones and these guys that have brought versions from India and China.
Speaker 1:We've stuck at our core Italian. We only sell Italian and Spanish tiles. We've stayed there, you know and again it probably goes back to the heart, but it's easy. It's easy to sell the Chinese stuff. It's cheap. We stay with the Italian stuff, which leads the market, brings the quality in, brings the latest design. You know what do you want? To drive A Ferrari that's got the beautiful, all the latest and greatest, or the copy you know. So we want to be the leader. So I think the benchtops are something. Now, after five years, dad's turned around and goes geez, that's a bloody great idea you had there, you know.
Speaker 2:But he doesn't say that to me, he tells others. You know, yeah, I know, your old man is fucking incredibly proud of you, like.
Speaker 1:I know he might not tell you, but yeah, he definitely tells everybody else. Yeah, I reckon he's probably and, and you know, I reckon he's softened in the last couple of years. So you know, he uh, even in the race car and that sort of stuff, we've had a very good year in the race car this year and we won the open class in the minis and on the weekend, you know, he was very full of praise and it's been a great thing to do, you know. So, whether that's because he's satisfied with where I've got to and my determination, I suppose my discipline, you know in the business because the concern, I suppose, is, as you earn money, you become undisciplined and you start wasting, you start enjoying things too much and you don't continue to do the work. Because if you don't continue to do the work, at the moment I'm heavy because I've been away on holidays for four weeks. I had a great time putting it on and I'm going to enjoy the pain taking it off too. You know it's part of the journey. Same thing for him.
Speaker 2:If he, same thing for him, if he, if he thought that my I could just switch off in the business, I think his discipline would still be there, he'd still be very hard. But uh, discipline is definitely one thing I've learned. I've taken from you, mate, like because I, if I commit to anything that you ask me to do, I know that, fuck, I've got to show up, I've got to be there at the walking track 4 am every tuesday morning. Like, yeah, because if you, yeah, if you can commit to it, then I should as well.
Speaker 1:See, I'm not really a big one on checking with people. If I said to you we'll have lunch on the 1st of December, I'd turn up at the Bereke Creek for lunch, right? I'm not one of these ones that texts back and forth 25 times and just hey, just making sure you're right. Has anything changed? No, no, you say that goes in the diary and nothing changes.
Speaker 2:you know, and that's like, it's easy. It is Like if we book to go out to dinner with our wives, that's what we do, like you ring me or I ring you, or we lock in a date, that's it. We see you on that time, that day, and we turn up for dinner.
Speaker 1:And you go there committed to have a good time with those people. You know, and I like that about. If I have people that don't do that, then I just stop associating with them. It's simple, you know, and I have many people ring me and say I haven't seen you for ages. Yep, I invited you last time you came with me. We had a great time. Haven't heard from you so you know, it's a two-way street in friendships. It's a two-way street in families. It's if people aren't committed.
Speaker 1:You know, there's been a bit of discussion between the family over the last couple of years and this year I just said right, I've had enough of this. This is where we're going. I don't care if I'm paying for the whole lot or you're paying for yourselves or what. We're doing it because my son's 18, my daughter's 17, and in the next year or two they're going to have partners. Will they're going to have partners? Will they or won't they be at christmas day or not? Right? I'm the oldest grandchild, um, and so I've got the oldest children anyway, I couldn't believe.
Speaker 1:All my cousins committed to it. They're coming back from london and everywhere and we're going to the casino down the coast for the big lunch there and then we've booked, uh, all hotel together. We're gonna have a big dinner that night as well, in the park. So it you know, sometimes you get a reward for the discipline. Do you know what I mean? To push that and push it hard and say I'm going to do it, and they know me, they've all known me for their whole life. Yeah, and I'm not one that bullshits and says we're going to have Christmas together. If I say we're going to have Christmas together, we're going to have Christmas together, yeah, and I'll push and I'll work every angle I can to to make it happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's just a great way to live, mate, but can we go back to like back when you were starting, because that's where your discipline comes from. I've heard the stories about you like working at the bar and then you were doing shit in the pub that you shouldn't have been doing because you weren't 18. Like, you've just put a lot of effort into everything you've ever done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I was lucky there, I the pub. My parents got divorced so I had a bit more free time. I didn't have so many eyes watching me. Dad wasn't home, mum was over there, so we were ratbags. We had a ball, I had motorbikes, I had horses, so I had transport. Mum had a Telstra. I knew where the keys were. We'd definitely drive that around the Bodez a little bit. I think it was 14k to the caravan park and mum would come after an afternoon nap and wonder how we had hot chips from the caravan park. We used to just tell her the truth. We used to say Mum, we took the car. She goes yeah, you boys tell tall stories. So she said that to us constantly, you know. And anyway, I decided I needed to earn more money and the tile shop was only open Thursday nights and Saturday mornings at that time. So I had those two shifts and I thought you know what pub's open at night and I thought you know what pub's open at night. I'm going to ride my pushy down to the pub. So I went down there.
Speaker 1:A guy by the name of Lucky Pipos, a big publican in Queensland. He won his first hundred pound on a horse that won the Melbourne Cup twice and he actually bought a pub with it and that's how his story grew. And he had a lady down there called Jill Sloan and she'd come from a place called the Snake Pit and she was tough, you know, she was really tough. Where was the Snake Pit? No, I'm not sure where the Snake Pit was. I think it was towards Mount Isle or somewhere in that direction. It was pretty wild and she had a couple of rules that you pissed on your own time and you swept the front of the bar every hour. You know, and that's kind of how it started with her. And I came in there.
Speaker 1:She says you're too young. I said no, I'm not. I said I've read the rules and as long as I leave the premises by the time I'm into my shift, I'm allowed to work here, I'm allowed to do this, I'm allowed to do that. She says all right. I said I've got two weeks off from school. I said you work me as hard as them, right, but back then you didn't have to pay them. She said okay, come at five o'clock tomorrow morning and see this guy outside there called ray, and he'll get you to hose the car park and sweep this and do that. So I did anyway.
Speaker 1:At one o'clock when the pub shut, uh, in the morning I was still there and she goes oh shit, you're still here, no one's knocked you off. I said no, no one even knows I'm here except for you. You've just been shoving me around. I've done kegs, I can wash a glass and pour a beer. I can do this. Okay, come tomorrow five o'clock, see, ray, no worries. So this went on for about four days and she says to me, she calls me into the office and she goes you're not gonna fuck off, are you? I said no, I need a job. I want a job, you know. And she's okay. She says I've never seen anybody quite work like you and never complain, you know. So she put me in there at 17.
Speaker 1:I had a key to the pub, um, so that I could get in and out of the pub, I could lock up at night, um, and you know we had a great time with pokies. It just started and you know I had. It was a tough pub. We had a sign on the wall that said no bikies and blacks to pay on the same pool table, right. So we actually had a pool table dedicated to the bikies and that and I'm talking a different, different time ago, you know uh, it was racist, don don't get me wrong, but that's how it worked, right?
Speaker 2:This is like 30 years ago, oh, 30, yeah, 30-plus years ago.
Speaker 1:So I'm 48 this year. So you know I was 14, 15 when I started there yeah, so it's a good 30-plus years ago and the problem was, as soon as we had a combination mix, we'd end up with a punch-up right. I grew up there. I had Ray. He was a one-legged man that had a plastic leg. He was partly the security. He'd take the leg off, start whacking people with it if they misbehaved, and he taught me how to use pool balls and glass ashtrays to straighten people out that were bigger than me, you know.
Speaker 1:So I learned a lot of tricks at that pub.
Speaker 1:You know I've got a few marks on my shoulder.
Speaker 1:I went through a window one night with a couple of people and I've been in some proper brawls, you know, back in the day when it just went on, when we all sat back down and there was a bit of blood and sweat everywhere and we all had a beer again and it carried on, you know, and Jill would come out and go your band, your band and your band for a week and send very quietly and we'd go about our day. So you know I learned there, though I worked in the tab and I kept losing my punters off to go and get lunch in the restaurant. So I paid for and got a little chalkboard up and put some specials up steak, sandwiches and things and started out selling the the uh the restaurant. So then all of a sudden, about four months later, I became the restaurant manager. We all said go in there and sort that out, because obviously we need a bit more in there. We ended up seating about 100 and something people in there a night from Thursday, friday and Saturday nights.
Speaker 2:So where did all this come from? Because you obviously saw your old man in business Dad.
Speaker 1:You know he left school very early. They basically finished year nine and they said to him don't bring him back. He's very creative with his hands. He's a graphic designer graphic artist by trade and he went straight down to Collins Street and became a sign writer. He could draw everything, but then from the sign writing he learnt marketing. You know. He came up with putting writing on the football fields. You know, like anywhere I have a wind field and all that sort of stuff. He came up with putting scoreboards up at the football field so they could put the wind field's logos or the Marlborough's logos and things on there.
Speaker 1:So you know I grew up with all those sort of stories going on. I had a grandfather that ran fruit shops and nurseries. He was all about planning things, growing them bigger and selling them for more. You know he also bought a lot of property and I learned about all the property and buying them and you know everyone goes oh it's great, you're really wealthy. Yeah, it's fantastic, I'm a genius.
Speaker 1:30 years later, you know so, and I watched all of that, my mother invented the ruggers for stubbies, the stuff. So I grew up with mum there. She was a designer, fashion designer and had 300 sewers sewing her shorts. Anything she designed, they'd sew the shorts and then when she up with it, all australian men were starting to get a bit fat and she she made a first set of shorts in australia that had a like a string band and a bit of elastic around them and went away from the original stubbies. Stubbies made an absolute fortune.
Speaker 1:So I suppose I was in a front row seat to see a lot of this stuff go on and and you say well, you know, if you put the effort in and you think about it and you execute it correctly, you're going to make money. You know, and all I was thinking about at the time of the pub and the thing was that I needed to buy a house. I've got to buy a house. So I'm one of these people that I come out this morning and I got in the garage and I'm looking out at my home and you know that was the home that I imagined as that 14-year-old boy. And you know I've got the car there that I wanted and I've got all the stuff. You know, and I suppose I've got to be cautious. I've got to set some other goals because Well, we've talked about this.
Speaker 2:You and I are the type of people you've got to have something to aim for. Yeah, because otherwise you're just fucking going in circles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it becomes difficult. And when I was young work it was easy to work. It was easy to do many, many hours because I wasn't there. I needed that. I've got to have this. You know, at 18 I bought my first home and I bought a house every year till I was 28. I lived on nothing. You know, I lived on nothing. Uh, I was very good at going. Getting wide bone from the butcher wasn't the best steak I've ever eaten and I ate it for 10 years straight. It was pretty rough but I liked steak. And you know I always went to uh nightworks for 20 cent drinks because they were cheap, you know, um, so you know it was such good times.
Speaker 2:I'm only four years younger than you, but like people like I tell the young boys at work now like we used to go to bloody um mary street and like thursday nights it was like dollar drinks, yeah, like, yeah, the shooters you know at 15.
Speaker 1:You know we used to go into transformers and uh I can remember thinking at 15, oh yeah, I must look old. You know I didn't look old. I've seen photos. I was no way I was old enough to get in there and I can remember there we've been there about three or four weekends in a row and um, going in and getting the dollar shooters. You know. Anyway, they had the liquor licensing act come around and the bouncers come in and said mate, out into the alley, the alley, out the back what, you're underage, you've got to go out. So they obviously knew, you know that they allowed us in in those days to do a bit of that. Like my daughter's 17 today goes out on a jet ski and I'm worried about her you know but like no idea what I was doing at 15, you know.
Speaker 2:So it's so. You've been surrounded by people that have influenced you, and seeing parents and uncles and grandfathers, and things do really well and it's obviously paid off because you're committed to everything that you do. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, look, I see Dad. We used to go out with a guy for lunch and that was Dad's first major boss. That really led him and taught him how to execute his energy, you know. So right from I would have been four or five years old the first time I went with Don and had lunch, right, and he used to sit at Gambaro's restaurant and have the same fish and chips every Thursday. So if Dad wanted to see him he'd go there, and we generally just go there so Dad could run some ideas around and talk to him around that sort of stuff, and I'd get dragged along. At five, you know, we went to my brother and I went to every single business dinner. There's no babysitter. We sat in the corner at the Chinese restaurant till one or two in the morning, probably drinking ouzo and Coke, because you know we'd sneak it off the table, but the it was. Yeah, you just got an education and I do worry that kids probably don't get as much now, like mine do I involve them in everything. You know we have many discussions.
Speaker 1:We had a funny argument the other day. My wife come over, we'll get shot if she listens to this, and she probably will. But I'd hung her dress up incorrectly on the. I've tried to do the right thing and I've hung the washing out and I've hung it up incorrectly. I've obviously pinned it wrong or something and she's blowing up. I can hear her in the laundry carrying on rah-rah. And I turned to the kids and I said now, this is how you demotivate your staff. I said because the chances of me hanging washing next week are fuck, all Right. So we had a discussion.
Speaker 2:It's true, yeah, it's true.
Speaker 1:It's true, yeah, it's true, it's true, right, and like she's just seen it and she's not thinking anything, but she's flowing up and I'm saying like to the kids there's an example in everything that you do. So don't just do business that way, do life that way, do your family that way, do your friends that way. So you've got to be genuine in business or people won't buy from you. You from you, you know. And you've got to be genuine with family. You've got to be genuine with your friends or you'll lose them. Yeah, and if they're not genuine with them, don't do it.
Speaker 2:and I don't do business with people that aren't genuine yeah, that's funny because camille and I had a bit of a run in the other night about a similar thing. So I'm I'm committed to doing more around the house, like um, as I think I should do, like camille shouldn't have to do everything, but um, I'm meant to cook a minimum of one night a week, yep, and so I'm trying to do that and I'm doing that most weeks, yep, but Camille's like you need to do it more and I said well, you need to give me better feedback.
Speaker 1:What do you call this love?
Speaker 2:Because I said, every time I cook, like you and the kids kids whinge and bitch that it doesn't taste right or that I've put too many herbs in or that I've done something wrong. I said, why would I want to cook if I'm getting picked at every time I cook? So yeah, same thing, and I think that's the same like, exactly the same with situations at work, like if you're whinging and bitching about people, they're not going to do things better. No, like, because they're just going to think that every time you win your bitch at them, you've always got to give constructive criticism and, ideally, motivate them to do better.
Speaker 1:Well, you often see them say, oh, that'll do, because you won't be happy anyway. Yeah, do you know what I mean? So if you're getting that sort of response, it's a drama. And I think it's important to have the right people, because I often say to people, like when we're interviewing people, if they haven't got self-motivation, they're no good. Yeah, because they're going to wear us out trying to motivate them, you know. So they're going to have their own discipline, they're going to have their own motivation. And and I often get people and they go oh, I don't know why you employed that person, they're a little bit different, or this or that. No, no, they're motivated, they've got motivation, they, they, they don't care that they don't know how to do anything or they can't do this. Look I. You know Jim always gives me a hard time because I put copper class up instead of Cooper class, right, just do silly things like that all the time. But you know, you're aware of it and you manage it.
Speaker 1:And don't let it stop me. I'm going to do it anyway, right, and then I'm going to laugh about it if I get it wrong, you know. So we're looking to employ people. We're looking for people that are self-motiv and they've got discipline. Then we can give them direction, we can give them the encouragement and then they'll grow.
Speaker 1:If I could start every one of my salespeople at their budget for the month and then carry on, because it's amazing, when you're hot, you're hot. They can close sales, they can sell tiles, they can give great interior design advice Amazing once they've got the ball rolling. But if they're four or five days in and haven't created a sale, and you just watch the energy in the person change they don't perform. It's mindset, isn't it? It's a mindset. And I often say to them, especially the young fellas you're looking a bit tired there, young fella. He goes yeah, you're a bit tired.
Speaker 1:I said if I was very pretty and had a nice dress on and I was in a bar and it was 1am in the morning, I bet you'd feel energetic then and oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it is. It's a mindset. Do you know what I mean? You've got to put yourself in the mood, yeah, so some days. I mean, we did our push-ups today, you know, and you do that, and you've got to do that sometimes to get yourself fired up. Yeah, I think, like every morning. I have often thought do I do it for health, do I do it for this?
Speaker 1:and I think the answer to is I do it for discipline to prove that I can do it that's the only reason I do it, yep I go I'm going to turn this to cold and I'm going to do it, and then I make my bed right so that I reward myself when I return home. So when I come home at night, I've got a made bed and it's the first thing I do every morning to go right. I've done something and I've achieved something for the day. I've made my bed, I've had a cold shower.
Speaker 2:Now I'm ready to fire up isn't unreal about how those two simple things can just set your whole day up for success.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, you've done two positive things for yourself and you're doing it for yourself, you know, and I think I think a lot of people also think that you've got to do things necessary for yourself. But, like I get a lot of satisfaction in creating all of those. Like, we went to Everest, I enjoyed very much watching the other 12 people going there, enjoying it, high-fiving, doing all that. I probably got the most reward out of anyone. I got 12 people to walk around in a forest. That I was going to do on my own. I was doing it on my own. If I was going on my own I didn't even care, it was going to happen, but I got great satisfaction out of turning up there and seeing five, six, ten people doing the same thing and putting that energy in. And I'm not driving the bus, I'm just going to be here at this time People came.
Speaker 2:That trip was truly life-changing. I could talk about it all day. We've got stories that we'll talk about for life. Some of them we'll have to save for another podcast. Naked massages with no oil and that sort of shit.
Speaker 1:But well, that was an experience. That was an experience and like, that's how you learn how to play poker. Because you know, I came back after that guy had put his dry finger through my crack and convinced you that was the best massage I'd had in a long time. And you went up there and then first thing you did was massage your face, I I think so it was pretty interesting. And I tell you what did I get some enjoyment out of that. That was pretty funny.
Speaker 1:And if you can't have that sort of fun and that sort of jokes with your mates.
Speaker 2:and then see this Well, that's what makes it so special, isn't it? Like you do that stuff. But we're going to have to give a backstory to that now, because people are going to wonder what Fingers Rubbing Through, through cracks is all about. But we had been walking. I think it was our fifth day, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Nambushar, which is kind of the highest town in Kathmandu.
Speaker 2:It's the largest, highest and largest city or something in the?
Speaker 1:Himalayas, or something With an Irish bar, with an Irish bar as well. And a masseuse.
Speaker 2:That's another story as well getting into a blue and the world's highest Irish bar. So as well having a getting into a blue and a the world's highest storage bar. But, um, so we'd been walking and a few people were whinging and bitching and moaning about like, oh geez, it'd be great to get a massage. And uh, like wonder if they got a massage here. And the the one of our lead, um, sherpas, goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, like at the next village.
Speaker 2:So we logged into our place where we were staying, and every everyone in the group said, yes, I'll get a massage, and there was only they could only fit a certain amount in in the afternoon and then the rest of us were going to go in the next morning and, uh, trent and jimmy, another mate of ours, they went and had theirs and they come back, um, I had gone for a shower and like we're in himalayas and everyone was whinging and bitching that the hot water wasn't working. I was like I don't give a fuck, I just had a cold shower and so I've had a shower, got changed, ready for the night to chill out, and they come back and said, all right, who's up? And everyone else was whinging and bitching about not having a shower and I was the only one ready, yeah. So I said, oh well, fuck it, I'll go today instead of tomorrow morning. Anyway, walk up through the village, up these uh, I didn't know where the hell, I was going.
Speaker 2:Little set of stairs tiny little set of stairs up into this room in the top of this dodgy building and the sheets hanging over, and there's this old man sitting there and I wasn't he's like 80 years old. Oh man, he was old and uh. The minute I've walked through the door to that room I've gone. Holy fuck, I've just had a shower, got ready for the night and I've got no jocks on.
Speaker 1:Well, I managed to stitch Jimmy up because I came out of there and old mate's got onto the lubrication bottle and he's going nothing's coming out zero, it was empty.
Speaker 1:He's full Chinese burning me and he's sack, whacking me as he's full chinese burning me and he's sack, whacking me as he's, as he's rubbing my inner thighs and then and then bloody. You know he had no fear. He's like roll over. But because first off I get in there and he's like pants off, everything off, you know anyway I, I get out after being, you know, fondled and everything, and and I come out and jim's sitting outside going how is this? It's great, mate, but it's a full Monty job. He's like all right, I said get your gear off out here and in you go, mate. I said she's lovely, he's rocked in there. He must have thought they've had an exchange of masseuse.
Speaker 1:But he came back and I saw him walking in and he's looking at me like he was going to kill me and I'm giving him the old hey, Don't let the cat out of the bag just yet. This is going to get funnier, yeah.
Speaker 2:I thought, well, fuck it, I'm here, no one knows me, whatever. So, yeah, starkest. And then, yeah, and then same thing. I could hear him squirting the bottle and all that's coming out is air and I've got pretty airy legs and it was seriously like laying there for 45 minutes getting a Chinese bag. And yeah, there was no, uh, there was no holding back, like his pinky was rubbing through my ass crack and, uh, he did do my face and my lips and my eyebrows and yeah, I definitely got some of your ass crack on my face. But uh, the uh.
Speaker 2:The funniest part was and I don't know, it's gonna you're gonna have to watch this if you're listening. But, um, I finished up and I'm walking back down through the village to where we were staying and it was a very long, slow walk and I'm thinking, holy shit, I've been molested. I sat down on a bench for a little bit and I thought about what had just happened and I was like I wonder if this just happened to Jimmy and Trent. And then I walk in, I open the door and you guys are sitting in the bar and before I even finish shutting the door and walking in the room, trent's on the other side of the room and he's holding his hand like an ass crap and he's rubbing his hands through it.
Speaker 1:We laughed for 45 minutes straight while you were up there, I could tell you, jim's going oh my God, why didn't you warn me? I said no, it was funny. And then I said now it's even funnier because we've sent Dwayne up there and he's a hairiest man I know, so he's going to tear him a new one. It was pretty rough.
Speaker 2:And then we kept it like we had a bit of a laugh, but we kept it quiet and then everyone else went out. I think the next morning only one or two went and they're like what the fuck?
Speaker 1:was that but you know, you've got to have some fun with people you know Like it's a good time to do that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:So you know, yeah, there's a lot of memories in that town because then later that night we nearly well, yeah, we ended up in a brawl in a bloody Irish. The highest Irish pub in the world, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:But, and we were there watching the tennis, weren't we on the TV? And some crazy Irishman that had way too much to drink decided he wanted to get in a fight with eight people. So we calmly made our way out of there eventually, which was good, and Jimmy kept his head cool and he'd only known us a few days, hadn't he?
Speaker 2:I'm thinking I hope this bloke keeps himself cool here, because we do need to walk out of here I had visions of bloody ending up in a nepalese prison, but um, anyway, it all ended well. But like, this is the type of person trent is like. He organized these things and he just goes full, full into a hundred percent commitment and then, uh, only what? Three, two, three years ago. So since we come back from that everest trip, um, a good mate of ours, justin, he's got right into the breath work and ice baths and stuff. He has a business now called Inner Breath and I've been doing the cold showers and breath work and stuff and Trent's given us a bit of shit about it and sent me a message to it was to hike Kosciuszko, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:in the winter?
Speaker 2:Yeah to Johannes's. Oh, I've gone blank. What was it called?
Speaker 1:It was like breath and ice bath work for the hiking up there. I can't think of what he called the challenge, but we had to be in our underpants I know that much and hike to the top of Mount Kosciuszko in winter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Trent sent this to us as a bit of a joke and I texted back and said, yeah, I booked it. And he's like, oh shit, I was only joking, but we, we ended up with a. That was a bloody good trip as well.
Speaker 1:It was good because we really stitched Jimmy up because he's been telling me how he wants to go hiking in the snow. So I sent him the photo of the hiking in the snow and said book this. He paid his couple of thousand. He booked the flights to Canberra.
Speaker 1:We get down there and we go into the village and into the little hut, remember, and they start handing and I just watched what was it called? 12 strangers or something like that, with nicole kidnam where she'd been microdosing the people and uh, and you know they're hallucinating and stuff. And they start handing out hot chocolate in this funny little hut and I'm saying to jim, don't drink the hot chocolate, don't drink. And he's looking at me what, what, what you'll see, you'll see. Anyways, like, oh, you're nuts, now you can make me laying in a circle and they're banging drums and they're breathing and and Jim's going, I'm going to fucking kill you. I said we haven't seen nothing yet, mate.
Speaker 1:Then they took us outside and lined us up in our underpants, didn't they? Breathless expeditions, breathless, that was it, that's right. And he said we had to line up and make two lines and you had to stand next to somebody you didn't know and this lovely lady from Sydney. She was about 50 years old. She was a yoga instructor. She lines up next to me and I said hold hands, I turn around. Jim's got this bloke, alex, he's got to be 130 kilos, he's just got out of prison, shaved head massive unit and Jim's go. Oh, you're kidding me, aren't you? Then they took us down to the river and put us up to our chins in Snowy River for about ten minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was an exercise. Yeah, so Jimmy kind of worked out that it wasn't the tour he thought it was going to be.
Speaker 2:But that unbelievable experience again, it wasn't just about that would have been a great experience if you just went along on your own, but the fact that we get a group together every now and then and we do it with good friends and mates and we have a good time, yeah, and it was a good mix.
Speaker 1:It was a bit like Everest and you know you knew Jimmy and I did, and Chris from CMA came along and your mate Carl came along, who I know through another friend. But there was a little bit of connection between us in some of us but a lot of those other guys only knew each other just via us. So to be that close, that quick, you know it was a great experience. It took five days or four, four days or whatever it was, to crack jimmy eventually and uh and get in. It took me a little while to relax into the the thing, but you know like it was really good, like the breathing exercises. You don't realize how much um you get out of that, you know.
Speaker 1:I think that was important. The cold stuff's one thing, that's the discipline, but the breathing exercises, relaxing. And I think I thought about that earlier Dwayne, when I went on the trip. Probably what I learned from there was you've got to use your discipline as well for your downtime. So you've got to be disciplined enough to let go of work to be able to sleep at night. My wife says you shit me. Fifteen seconds after you're in bed you're asleep and I sleep like the dead, but when I'm awake, awake, then I'm awake. So I might get six hours or seven hours, might be three or four o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1:There's absolutely zero point in me trying to go back to sleep I just get up and get into it I get cold shower, exercise, whatever it is, um, but when I'm ready to go to bed, I'm ready to go to bed and I think your discipline's got to be the same. We went away on that trip, didn't touch a phone. Uh, you know we had a great time. I'm not sure we really enjoyed every part of it or every day, but looking back it seems very enjoyable now, yeah.
Speaker 2:The bad habit snuck in Bart. I think it was the fourth day when we had a few well Snuck into town. We quickly raced back to town, found a bottle of oil and then snuck some booze back into our room.
Speaker 1:I think that was the cuddle puddle. Not sure that Jim was a massive fan of those ones, but yeah, that was quite interesting the first night with the cuddle puddle, and it was good because you've got all these people and you can see how a cult could work very easily. Everybody was struggling to say no, weren't they?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's just good to have a great time, yeah, and I think that's something that I always, whatever you organise, whatever we do, it's always a great time, and it's not always drinking, no, we've had a few occasions where it's just been dinners with wives and just family things.
Speaker 1:I used to look at it there. We went down to Cades County what's it called now? Wet and Wild.
Speaker 1:Remember, we took all the kids down and I can remember as a kid, some of my best memories were just the one time we went there with cousins or friends and it was like, oh, it was great. So I look back on that childhood and go on and replicate that I want my kids to do that and I think, well, I'm going to ring six, seven of my mates, get all their kids together and we're going to go there and we're going to, we're going to make a better version of that and that's what that? You know, we did that a couple of times and we had an absolute it was unreal and look that I'd never done anything like that.
Speaker 2:like normally, that's the place you go with your family and stuff, but like to go there with yes, whatever it was six, seven, eight mates and our kids and like the kids can run amok and then we'll run amok on the slides and shit as well You're back like you're 12 years old again, you know, and we're going down the slides racing each other.
Speaker 1:I mean I'd come home. I was a bit sore and sorry, but you really enjoyed it, you know yeah do you remember, justin?
Speaker 2:We were trying to get on the bloody wave machine. Justin, ate shit big time. Remember that. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:But you know we did the AFL Grand Final there there a few years back and got the bucking bull into the front yard and have the bucking bull competition and all the wives turned up. They all rode the bull. You know, my mother-in-law at 80 rode the bull, yeah. So I think if you don't put the effort in to create those times, you're not going to have the memories. You know, and if you want those memories you've got to put the effort in you know, and it doesn't happen.
Speaker 2:It's something that that I've become really focused on um in the last six to twelve months. Like you've got to create experiences. Like you can't just be so focused on the money or like the, the car or the property or whatever it is. Like you've really got to take the time to enjoy the experiences along the way well, I think.
Speaker 1:I think the thing is too is an experience is not sitting in the qantas club. An experience is not driving a ferr Ferrari, necessarily on your own with no friends. That's not an experience. An experience can be going camping with your mates and setting the bush on fire and then getting out alive. That's an experience.
Speaker 1:I went jet skiing with Mark Rainbow, another mate of ours, in a cyclone and we nearly both drowned. But to this day we talk about how good we were and how big the waves were and all that. But I was telling my daughter when she goes jet skiing for the first time today you know, I was good once, you know, but hey, I did nearly drown. I did see a person with a broken leg and an arm and you've had those experiences, you know. And if you don't have that experience not all of them are good, right, because that's character building. When you have a tough time, yeah, you come out the other side of it and you look back on them more fondly than you do sometimes, than the. You know it's an experience. Go to the chronoscope. It's great, it's good, tick box done but, it's not something that's been created.
Speaker 1:Like you know, we came here and we did a burnout in your shed. You know you wanted to show me how the car worked and then we touched it on the wall. You know, like things like that go on and but it's all part of the night, it's all part of the story and, uh, you've got to enjoy yourself. If you don't enjoy it, there's no point.
Speaker 2:It creates memories that you'll talk about, for, like the trips we've been on, those stories are going to continue to get better every time they're told.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, you know we've been to birdsville and stuff and we ran into you on the way out there and you know you blow tires, you get bogged, you you know. But the kids got out on their bikes and there was no rules and you run around, do whatever you want to do burn, make a fire, you know? Yeah, we went to the cape. You know a lot of guys there 10 fathers, 10, 10 dads, 10, uh, 10 sons and two granddads and we had an absolute ball.
Speaker 2:Um, well, I think that's another thing I've learned off you like you like we started doing those um easter camping trips like we haven't done them for well since covert, but like um, a lot of people that started to come on those trips like were completely out of their comfort zone like I remember the first one we did, everyone was like, oh, I haven't been camping, what do I need, what do I get? Like, and like there's been people on those trips that started in swags and then went to tents and now they've, now they've got caravans and camper trails and all sorts of things like, but again, it's just that um like probably my best memory of those trips, that um, that first one we did, and like I designed the, the well, I um what not design? But I put together. And the first afternoon was at Paradise Dam at Bigot, like just past Bigot in there, and Megan and Ant's son I've gone blank.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's his name. You've done it to me now Elliot. No, not Elliot. Elliot's their last name.
Speaker 2:Max, max, like he'd never been canoeing or paddleboarding. We had the canoes and paddleboards on the track and everyone was literally sitting around watching Max have an absolute ball and out of his normal comfort zone.
Speaker 1:And we turned up and I can remember going there and we had this awning that came off my ute and we zipped the tent to it. We got it down at King's $149. And my wife's going, going, my god, they've all got caravans and everything. And I said, yeah, it doesn't really matter, I don't care, I just want to be here with my friends. I bought a deck chair and I'll be over the end of the fire and, uh, you know, we'll make a feed and we'll have a few drinks.
Speaker 1:And the kids are going to get absolutely filthy and I don't care whether they have a shower or swim in the dam, whatever, it doesn't matter, it's just about being there and you don't have to have the biggest you, you don't have to have the flash as tense. You know, and I I probably purposely go the other way sometimes just to try and prove that point. That doesn't really matter. Do you know what I mean? I've never been bothered to go and buy a rolex watch or do anything like that, because I don't need one you know I've still got the watch on that I wore to everest.
Speaker 1:I bought it for a purpose, because it told me how far I'd walked and how my heartbeat and everything was going, and it told me the altitude. And you know, since then I went. You know what? It's still going and the next watch that goes on there will be after that one breaks, so I don't really need anything else, you know.
Speaker 2:But again it's creating those experiences and those memories. Again, that trip, that Easter. We ended up staying in a big four for the last few days and our group just created this big circle. Everyone else in the caravan park is doing their own thing and we just had an absolute ball. We had downhill races.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I mean? We get egg and spoon races. We had egg catching competitions and this sort of stuff that you heard about when my parents were young and did things, and I think when we went out to birds we took a rope and we had tug of war. Like when we went out to birds we took a rope and we had tug of war, right, and we had mums versus the kids and the kids upended the mums. It was hilarious because the mums just thought, oh, we'll be nice, we don't want to hurt the children. Kids wanted to win. And I think you go back and probably, if you ask my kids and I expect they've got memories of all of that, it's not a computer game. We went into town, we found cap guns.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my kids never seen a cap gun.
Speaker 1:They didn't know what it was so we went back to the farm and went into the shearer shed and had a shootout. Yeah right, it's fantastic fun, like here we are 45 years old, running around and you can imagine, oh, jimmy and mark a few very competitive people. You know they're gonna win it. Yeah, you know, we did things, I remember, with flynn.
Speaker 1:He had it was his uh, I think it was his 12th birthday and I said let's have a water fight. He said what everybody's got to bring a water pistol. I'm going to get a thousand water bombs, I'm going to get every hose in the yard and we're going to fight it out, you know, and we had like two hours of of just absolute fun, you know. So I think if you don't create those and you just go, I'll get a cake and we'll have the 12th birthday party and dad and mom will just get on the piss. That's not a memory for the kid. Do you know what I mean? But I didn't miss out on anything because I had the best day running around there being 12 again.
Speaker 2:Just while you're talking, I'm just thinking about the. I think it was something to do. When we got back from Everest. We had the catch-up at your place and one of the boys jumped on the kid's flying flight. Rusty, yeah, ended up half in the bloody, had a massive bail and ended up in the fish pond. I think he ended up in hospital later that night didn't he?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Half in the fish pond, half on the path, oh dear, it was pretty wild. But again, there's no limits. Have some fun. You don't want to hurt anyone, but if you want to have a go on the flying fox, I'm like, knock yourself out mate, what do you like your staff are like.
Speaker 2:I know you have the same issues that a lot of people have, but overall your staff are really good, like your truck drivers that deliver your tiles. Like there's no other truck drivers like them. Like we get a lot of deliveries on job sites and your guys are the most helpful. They can put the tiles where you want them.
Speaker 1:I think, because there's no pressure on them to be anywhere. At a certain pressure they're not like the truck driver point of view, but they've also got to take ownership. So if you employ that person, as I said, they've got to be self-motivated. So the guy I've currently got and we generally have a truck driver for 10 or 12 years and then they retire and then the next one comes along and Troy's a similar sort of thing. He was an ex-rugby league player, he was a professional and he'd do kickboxing and things like that. So he's a very self-motivated sort of a person.
Speaker 1:He also just wants to do the hours he needs to do and then get back onto his life, you know, and so he doesn't want to be under a stressful situation. He wants to be involved in a team where he enjoys coming to work each day and he likes to start early. And I said well, no problem, what do you mean? I said let's pick the Gold Coast being the furthest point. You're allowed to be there on site 630. What's it take you to go from here? So you leave at 5, mate, and then you can knock off early. Customers don't care that they're getting a delivery at 5 in the afternoon If you're happy to leave at 5 in the morning or 4 and drive up further north or whatever, and work your way back.
Speaker 1:let's do it so individually on how their life wants to work. I suppose you know his name's on the truck right? So you know I got the new truck recently and re-wrapped it all and signed to the signer and I put his name here because it's his truck. It's not my truck, it's his truck. It's his place. Every day that he's got to be, where he has his lunch every day and he's got to be happy every day that's brilliant, that's really.
Speaker 1:And he looks after it. You know he does a lovely job of looking after that truck and then he enjoys. Then that comes to when he gets to site. He's happy You're not going to wreck his day right, he's got a good place, he's happy in there and then he does a good job. And we call it the uptiles experience. And the experience starts from the moment you walk into the shop and that's a smiling young person on the front counter greeting you and asking you what are we tiling, what are you doing? Not a pressure sales. We don't employ anybody in sales. Everybody's a qualified interior designer in the shop. We're not there to take an interior designer's job. We're just tile experts with knowledge and what we do is we go through and understand a person's project and thing and they get enjoyment out of creating that design for you.
Speaker 1:So if they're just there're selling a product and it's the cheapest product on the market, there's no interest. We're selling the best quality available product from italy. I've just come back from italy. We've bought all the new, the latest and greatest. We sat an ipad on the front counter and the moment I took a photo in italy it instantly synced with the with there. So every morning the team would come in and see what I'd taken photos of and then they'd send me feedback, right, because then they're helping select what are we getting. They're involved in the product. They like the product.
Speaker 1:They're then showing to clients instantly, saying this is from italy this morning, yeah, um, and I think, because they're involved in the whole business, they're not just I bought all this. That's on display there, it is in the prices, that's the code. You sell it. Yeah, they're going, trent, get me that pink one. I want the pink one. Okay, and we name it after them or we do things like that with them. You know, um, and if they don't want to be there, don't be. That's what I always say. You don't, you're not forced to be here yeah right, this is a democracy.
Speaker 1:I'm in charge. Yes, I can't go anywhere, I'm stuck right, but the rest of you can come and go as you like. If you don't want to be here, don't be. Don't come to me and say I don't like working weekends. 30 years I've been doing seven days a week. If I'm not car racing or I'm not at the AFL or climbing mountains with you or whatever, I'm at work.
Speaker 2:You do have a very good life balance part. You do what you've got to do with the family and Callie and the kids, if the kids have got a piano thing on, I'll be there. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right and it's not under any stress. I just make sure I'm there and I enjoy that. I go there and I watch them do it Right. If it's important to them, I'll be there. If Kelly says I'd want you to have tomorrow off, I'll just have tomorrow off. It's the thing I think it's.
Speaker 1:You know, as I said, I'm going to the V8s for the next three days. Why am I going there? Well, I mean, just a mate rang up and said haven't been to the V8s in 10 years. I'd really like to go with a few mates. What do you think? So, you know, I say to myself I've got to say yes, I time since I've been, and go down there. You know, out of that there'll be something that I learn too. I love watching the V8 teams, how they manage the cars, they manage the teams. You watch every guy in that team or girl in that team. They want to be there, right, and that's what we want our team to be like. We want our team running around standing in frames like they're putting wheels on a V8 supercar, you know? And if they're not, aren't they? So I'll often say to people maybe it's not the job for you, yeah, if you don't want to be here, don't be you know, and that's a, that's a really good analogy for to look at it.
Speaker 1:Well, they always think I'm crazy because you know, I do the sales meeting and I'll talk about things like football. So you're the forward on the back, right, you're going to kick all the goals, so you're going to look fantastic, I'm going to warm them all up at the front door and introduce them to you and you're going to close all the sales today. But as part of the team, we work together and you know, and, and we go through different things, so they always they're always laughing at me, because I'm not talking about take the tile and sell it like this. It's always got something else to do with it, whether it's a v8 team, whether it's a, whether it's playing football on there, whether it's kung fu fighting or whatever it is. Yeah, um, there's a way to win, and and you and you've got to do it correctly, because if you cheat, I suppose it comes back to the heart. It's easy, you do it the easy way. You'll get a couple of sales, yeah, but you won't get the return. So if we don't give them the full experience, you know, like we bake cookies in the morning, they're hot. You make we make fresh coffee every day as people come in on the machine. We cook meatballs on our induction cooktop, our hidden induction cooktop in the shop every day, there when people come in at lunchtime, because it's part of the flavor, the smell, the experience, and then you sit down with a qualified person that gives you good advice. You go home that night and you tell many people and the business continues to grow.
Speaker 1:You know, don't gonna be wrong, do I not? And I say to the staff I'm unhappy with two, threes and four stars. I'm happy with five stars and I'm happy with one stars. They said one stars. I said, well, one stars on us. They hated us. Right, we did something wrong, we stuffed it up or they're a dickhead. There's only two options okay and there's a few dickheads. So there's a fewheads on there and there's a few times we've just completely stuffed it up. Yeah, and we own the stuff up.
Speaker 1:And I'll write to them sorry, know what happened? We delivered you broken boxes and da-da-da and we told you now you can't have a credit or whatever. Sorry about that. You know, we'll learn from it and we do was out of our control. We go sorry, we couldn't help you, but if you've got twos, threes and fours, you've not got it right. Do you know what I mean. It should be a five, and if it's not that, then it should be a one, and then a one is something we should learn from. As I said, I'm disciplined to the point of doing it at 100%, so that's five, and when you get it wrong, it's won. Yeah, you know, it shouldn't be in between, never just good. Yeah, there's no average or okay Participation award. Not real good with those, you know my kids always say. You said to my kids, they're off to tennis. What would Dad say? If you're not first, you're last. Yeah, right, and that's just how it is Simple. Find somewhere else to stay tonight and I'm joking, I'm mucking around, but it's life.
Speaker 2:Oh mate, I got in huge trouble at the Netball Grand Final this year. I was pretty annoyed at the end of the game and I've been pulled up a fair bit at Netball. I don't yell out or any of that sort of stuff, I just tell it how it is sometimes. And yeah, after the Netball Grand Final they lost and I just said to them girls, look, next year you've got to go 100%, you've got to be all in. And they're like, yeah, no, we did, we did. I was like you didn't, you lost that game before it even started. When we turned up here today you were already talking of the other parents there. I was like that's the truth.
Speaker 1:It is what it is. Well, you know you didn't get the building contract so you didn't feed your family. That's just the world, that's life. Right? If you don't get it right, you don't earn, yeah, and just half doing it and then coming up with an excuse why you didn't get it and your business failed, is exactly that right. If your business is failing, change something, have a go, don't blame right, there's no blame, I just go. Well, I got it wrong.
Speaker 2:I've not got it right. I need to change something. You've got to take ownership of everything in your life, everything you do, and no one else can make things better. You're the only one that can change things.
Speaker 1:Well, I say that. You know I get depressed, I get down on myself, right. It happens I get and say I've got to make a change. I have to front myself.
Speaker 1:You know I went away with massive determination for this last trip that it was about my wife, right, and I love her to death. You're getting me emotional now, but she is the backbone. She cops the good, the bad, the ugly, the, the sad, the happy, the, the crazy person, the, everything right and never judgmental, never gives me a hard time about anything, just accepts the whole lot. You know, um, and this trip was all about her and again it gave me massive enjoyment. Every single thing that I surprised her with, she, she had a lot of enjoyment but I got probably more out of it because I'd spent a lot of time thinking about it, planning it and thinking about somebody else and putting an effort in for others will give you the most enjoyment out of it. So even employing people, teaching people how to work for you and enjoying the role should give you enjoyment. If you're just driving them for the reason of a return income, get out of business, shouldn't be there.
Speaker 1:I did that. I tried really hard, busting people's asses and yelling at them and jumping up and down and being an angry ant. All I did was make myself unhappy. And then I'm unhappy and got an okay result. Got a three. You know to get fives. I think you've got to. You've got to make people happy. You've got to got to think through their eyes and things and create an environment where they're enjoying themselves, because then you'll get enjoyment while they're doing it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And there's nothing better than sitting back and seeing a team that's happy and the wheels are turning and everything. It's not going to be like that all the time, but ultimately you want to build that team. That you're not the only one coming up with solutions like your team is something. If the wheel's broken, then the whole team's getting involved and wanting to improve things and make it better and trying to figure out what's wrong and if they don't feel their opinion is important, they're not going to give it right.
Speaker 1:So if, if you don't take on some of their feedback or get them involved, it's hard. You can sit there and throw an idea on the table and they all go yes, yes, yes. I hate it. I really don't like that because I think, oh my God, this is the only option I've got. I don't want to be one of the driving the bus. The biggest rule we run by is that don't bottleneck. Make a decision. If the decision's incorrect. I'm not going to come back and say, if I did that, if you did it again. This is how I'd like you to handle it. Great that you made the decision.
Speaker 1:Maybe we spent like one, not this time, but the last time I went away. I came back and my truck had every tire replaced. It needed a new tire. I agree, not 15, you know. So I spent quite a lot of money on tires and I said to the, to the warehouse man, it's really nice if we can just spread that out a little bit. You know it's called cash flow and it's great, he said, and otherwise those two would need it next month and those two the following month and now the truck's got all brand new tires on it.
Speaker 1:Um, but you know it never happened again. And then you know this time what happened. We had a forklift company come the other day changed four tires on the forklift, which they did need to be done. He gets the bill and he looks at and he goes how can they charge that much labor? That guy was only here 20 minutes. He goes and gets the camera footage, he downloads it, he sends it to the forklift people and says not on, not on my authority, on his. But that was a lesson that he'd learned previously from the truck tire situation. And now he's managing my business for me to help me keep people accountable for what they're doing you know so and you reward.
Speaker 2:You reward your staff like you do some pretty good things for your staff yeah, we do some crazy parties.
Speaker 1:Um, I am concerned these days. You know like it's getting more difficult. You know we had no rules like I mean roger, my father, 75 years old. He's in a trolley on saturday night racing down warwick right taking on, taking on one of the campbell boys in the trolley doing a trolley race. You know I'm going.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, if he comes out of the trolley he's going to end up with more than a couple of fractures in his back, you know yeah but that's, that's how, how we roll and we've always played like that and you play, you work hard, you play hard, and I say to the staff that I do hope that we don't get too woke in that situation. Do you know what I mean? There's too much of this on monday now, where people come in and go such and such did this or such and such said that you know you need to almost have a sign-off to say you're going to the party and we're going to the party, we're having shots of Sam Booker, and so be it. We all have to turn up the next day, it's just how it is.
Speaker 1:It is a concern, we like to do it that way and I like to be that way as much as I can. You've got to probably show a bit more caution these days with some of that stuff.
Speaker 1:Mate, we've talked a lot of personal stuff and business stuff and, like I was, uh, what can we talk about tiles, like you're the tile man, so well, look, I think, uh, in tiles, things that have changed is obviously got the large format tiles now, so you can go from floor to ceiling with one single tile. Um, no grout joint, obviously with a digital image. Now we can create anything from natural stone to concrete to timber. We can make it to a bench top, we can make it into a driveway cobble, you know. So there's nothing that can't be done with a tile.
Speaker 1:The newest technology, I suppose, is something they call reel up now, where when they put the glaze on the surface and the design during the process of heating it, it actually changes every tile. So no longer do you have a replication. So in the old days you had natural stone and then your tile might have five or six different faces. Now they have the ability that every tile has a different face or a different texture. So I suppose we're getting to a point where the product now is a good replacement for lots of natural items, and the thing with that is that the majority well, every tile we sell now is a good replacement for lots of natural items. Uh, and the thing with that is is that you know the majority.
Speaker 1:Well, every tile we sell now is 45 recycled up to 98 recycled um yep, so we again b corporation, which is the biggest green sustainable certificate you can achieve in the world. Intraganedia is the second only tile factory in the world to have that and we've been with them for 44 years. So family business like ours, a father and daughter, and they've spent a huge amount of money. Look, even they capture the heat from the kiln and reheat the offices. All the places run on solar power. All the water that goes through the toilets goes through and cools the kilns and the tiles. Even the cardboard packaging is recycled. The pallets are made from recycled timber through and cools the kilns and the tiles. Um, even the the cardboard packaging is recycled. The pallets are made from recycled timber. Um, not just then taking uh building materials, re-crushing them and making the base of the tile that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I I didn't.
Speaker 1:I wasn't aware of that yes, well, our glass tiles that we make for the swimming pools are 98% recycled. So we take window and bottle glass and recycle it into the pool, um, and then, like what we've done, there is, we put the digital image on the top and we went to space with satellites and took photos from around the world of all the different reefs and created the colors of fiji, bahamas, hawaii, just to be something unique and different, you know. So I suppose if I'm going to be involved in the tiles, I've got to be interested. I'm not selling rectified white tiles for $9, right, it's not happening. So I've got to have some fun. And if you don't have a story or a character to the tile, why do it?
Speaker 2:The technology is insane. Some of the tiles you have at your store, like when you hear you say like they look like concrete, they look like timber, they look like stone, but I'm surprised at the depth. Like when you look at them now. Like you look at a timber-look tile and it looks like it has a knot in it, like you want to go and touch it because it's like you're wanting your finger to go into that knot. But it's yeah.
Speaker 1:Part of the reel-up now is that you actually can feel the texture. So some up now is that you actually can feel the texture. So some of the new stones and the marbles we have like, if you took the natural marble and you closed your eyes, from the white across the gold vein you can actually feel the change in the surface because it is a different characteristic in the natural stone. So they've even gone to the length now within the porcelain that they digitally image that in, so you can close your eyes and you can feel the different colors on the stone. It changes from the thing. It even gets the coolness of the stones and things.
Speaker 1:The advantage is we're not digging up uh, these natural stones a lot of the health and safety issues around those sort of products as well too, because they're mined in countries that aren't necessarily safe, um. So we're running in a procedure where we're able to control the environment. We're able to reduce product with recycled material. The product has got like 50 year warranties, so it's expected to last a lifetime and you don't have to replace it. So only fashion is generally what kills off a tile is that a quality tile. We don't run any sealers or chemicals or anything in the surface of the tiles. So we stay with products that are good for the environment in that aspect and good for your health at home. And once you've invested in them, you don't have to go. You know Dad always says buy. Well, buy once. That's his saying. He loves that. You know, if you invest in it correctly, go and buy the cheap one, you'll be back down buying it and you'll be wasting your time right. Time's valuable. Yeah, put it in correctly.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. 100%, like you've got to. Like people think that bathrooms and kitchens and things are things that they can just renovate over time. But like you shouldn't be that wasteful, you should be putting the time and the effort and the money into doing it correctly the first time.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean in Australia. I suppose our biggest issue is trade, you know. So a tile is hard to. Why would you save a few dollars on the finishings? I say this to people Would you go out and buy a car and then get the spray cans from Bunnings and paint it yourself? Right, the tile's, the finish right, so you can get the most fantastic-looking designed car and then start hand-spraying it. It's going to look terrible, right? So your finishing product, which is generally the tile on there, you might as well invest the money there, because you've already put all the money into the trades to make the room structure and everything else work.
Speaker 1:Um, you put it into the finishings in the room. Um, now you know, if a tap or something else, it's changeable quite easily. Tiles are not. Yeah, that's a rebuild of the whole room. So, and then in a flooring situation, same thing carpet roll it up, put new carpet down, tile jackhammer job, weeks worth of work, that sort of thing. So if you're going to do it properly, do it properly once. Um, and you should never touch them again. You don't have to. You know you can drive on them, you can roller skate on them, you can do whatever you want so um for people listening.
Speaker 2:Like we've got a lot of listeners um in queensland but a lot of our listeners are sydney, melbourne. That as well. Like, how do they go about getting tiles from you?
Speaker 1:yeah, no problem. Obviously we run the websites and the social media and things. So we do companies like dominoes, michael hill jewelers and those. So we do them in new zealand, canada, australia, um. So we're working at the moment to go, looking to go to the us with a couple of the fast food places. So we've developed tiles that we will send here. We're doing, uh, you know, like prize homes at the moment in fiji, um. So again, we did all the design here in Queensland. We put concept boards together, we sent them down to Sydney to be signed off, we loaded the containers and sent them to Fiji for the prize home and stuff over there. So nothing for us. We've got to bring the tile from Italy right Sydney, melbourne, perth, down the road On the way here I was talking to a guy in New Zealand who needed a couple of hundred square metres of tiles and he's like how do we do it, mate?
Speaker 1:Just tell me where you want them, which suburb and when, and I can produce a price. You know we bring 40 containers a month in. You know it's about 45,000 square metres a month. So we have the ability to ship 200 metres anywhere or 300 metres anywhere, samples, those sort of things you know and, as I said, the experience is that we will give the service. I say to the staff don't say no right.
Speaker 1:You know, I tried hard. A few years ago. We had a big architectural day at the shop and I want to get all the architects out. I end up spending eight thousand dollars on limousines. They went round and round around. We picked all the architects and designers up in town, we drove them out there. I wanted to helicopter them. I wanted to have I'd organized to land the helicopter next to the shop, got approval to do that. I just couldn't land a helicopter in Brisbane. The day I can land a helicopter in Brisbane I'm going to do it again Because I think it would be an excellent experience. You'd be out there in 5, 6, 7, 8 minutes, landing there, doing the tour of the showroom and as you've been down there. We spent a million bucks on that showroom when we built it originally and it's been a never ending renovation.
Speaker 2:It's unreal. The amount of different just a variety of stuff you have in that showroom is insane.
Speaker 1:I think the difference to us, to everyone else in Australia, is it's exclusive to us. So you can go around many, many of these corporate-style shops and see the same thing over and, over and over again. We go there, we source it and we've dealt with you know Tau Ceramic or Intra Graniti Lanka, dealt with you know tau ceramic or intra granita lanka for for 40 years and they're exclusive to us. You can't get them elsewhere. So when you go and see it there, you haven't seen it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right. So that's why, when you come in there and you haven't seen this, uh, it gives a fresh experience. So if you've got a project or something, you want something unique and new for you know, literally I flew back, so did the samples from the fair. So the stuff that was displayed and released there two weeks ago is sitting in the showroom on the floor, and the product will be here in January. Yeah, so we're not waiting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's unreal mate. Look, we'll wrap it up. We could definitely talk for hours, there's a lot more stories yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot more stories to go.
Speaker 2:We might get you back for round two, but um, look for anyone that's listening. If you want to um reach out, we'll put um links and tags and stuff in for uh up tiles. Um, thanks for coming on, mate. Like been a long time trying to get you on here. It's been a really, really good chat and I think you've definitely given a lot of people a lot of value.
Speaker 1:So, um, I really appreciate your great job and, like you know, you've been busting your backside at this for years and years and years. You you've got plenty of shit over it in the beginning and you know you've stuck at it and you know that shows discipline. You know, and and that's why we're mates because, uh, we're on that track that you know, do something, you're going to do it well and you're doing a great job with this cheers, mate really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Look guys, um like subscribe. Uh, tell your mates, tell your family about this podcast, because we want to continue to make this aust's number one construction podcast. Look forward to seeing you on the next one. Are you ready to build smarter?
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Speaker 2: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 your own risk. We recommend that you obtain your own professional advice in respect to the topics discussed during this podcast.