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
Are You a Front Poucher? If Not, You Should Be.
GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE LEVEL UP EXPERIENCE HERE - https://duaynepearce.com/events/
#141 Luke Riemer transformed his 25-year building career into creating Akribis Leather, crafting custom tool belts that focus on efficiency and ergonomics for professional tradespeople. His journey from custom home builder to leather craftsman demonstrates how personal experience in the trades creates innovative solutions for common worksite challenges.
check out Akribis Leather here...
https://akribisleather.com/
Check out Duayne's other projects here...
Live Life Build
livelifebuild.com
D Pearce Constructions
dpearceconstructions.com.au
QuoteEaze
quoteeaze.com/Free-Offer.html
GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE LEVEL UP EXPERIENCE HERE - https://duaynepearce.com/events/
And so it's a dangerous thing to just kind of give out a square footage price until you've seen all the details. So it didn't take me too long until I'm like, hey, I'll put in a price. But I want to see the structural plans, I want to see the truss plan, I want to see the floor joist plan, I want to see all the cross sections. I want to see the engineer's plan, where other guys are given quotes by just the drawings and they don't have the detail.
Speaker 2:That's a major gamble. That's so cool, mate, like obviously, like we're halfway around the world from each other and yet in the construction industry, we'll all deal with the same things. We get the exact same stuff over here and, yeah, I'm constantly trying to educate the industry like it's all in the detail, like you've got. The more time you spend up front, investing time sitting in the office reviewing drawings, doing scopes of works and then pricing based off the scope of works, the better your business is going to be. G'day guys, welcome back to another episode of Level Up. We've got an international one coming to you today, so a big welcome to Luke from Acrobus Leather. How are you, mate? I'm very good, very good. Thank you for having me, mate. Really appreciate you taking some time out. I think this is going to be a cracking episode. I've actually been sucked in a few times watching your YouTube videos. There's some good stuff on there. Yeah, thanks. So, mate, what's so? You're over in? What is it? Summerland, british Columbia.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're over in Summerland, british Columbia. Yeah, we're in Summerland, bc. So, for context, we're about a five-hour drive from the ocean on the west coast of Canada and an hour north of the US border. So the area that we live in is actually called the California of Canada. So it's actually properly hot and dry in the summertime and our winters are pretty short and mild. So I was actually down in the states but I and it's funny, talking to the Americans and a lot of places that we were it gets hotter here than lots of places in the states. So are you guys Celsius or Fahrenheit? We're Fahrenheit, you're Fahrenheit, okay, so for context, here we'll get. We'll get a few days that'll be like 108 degrees.
Speaker 2:Oh, sorry, we're celsius, so we we get celsius, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're in a sort of high 20s to mid 30s most of the time yeah, so hot, hot here is like 45 degrees we'll be in the summertime we'll be kind of 36 to 42, um, properly hot, and then if we get, you know, minus 20 in the wintertime, it's kind of our cold day. So it's like a 70 degree swing, so it's a huge swing. So hot, dry summers in this location. And then, of course, you know, over the coast by vancouver it's uh, it's rainy, and when it's, when it's overcast, the rainy, it's cold, uh, and then if you go east across the country, the winters are way colder, way longer. Um, but where we are is it's a beautiful, beautiful, a big lake for the valley well, uh, sounds unreal, mate.
Speaker 2:So to give people um an idea of what I've got you on, so you make the the best nail bags, or best uh, do you call them nail bags over there?
Speaker 1:um tool belt is the most common common common name yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you make the best uh tool belts in the world eh I I'll never say that.
Speaker 1:I always appreciate when people mention it themselves. Um, you know, I'm fortunate enough to to kind of be mentioned in the same conversations, as you know Buckaroo Occidental, badger, diamondback, those are kind of the other competitors I suppose. But over the years as I've kind of built that company and if I mentioned in the same conversation as those companies, my response is always I'm so honored to be included in that discussion among these kind of icons of the of the tool belt industry. Um, because I'm somewhat new to it but I've got a unique perspective on it, having been a builder for 25 years yeah.
Speaker 2:So uh, before we get right into the tool bags, can we go back to um, where you started, because you've been a contractor for a long time?
Speaker 1:yeah, so I, I grew up in a town of like 350 people, small, small little place um a couple hours from here, and I spent my childhood in the bush building forts. I, that's what I I did. We lived in the outskirts of town and there was a jump behind us and there was piles of scrap wood and buckets of nails and I spent my childhood building stuff. My dad was pretty handy so he kind of got me started with how to use basic hand tools and then I just I love to build. So I pursued alongside some other interests, but pursued woodwork through like my high school years, did cabinet building and wood shop stuff and always really enjoyed anything with my hands, building stuff.
Speaker 1:Um, as of about 15, 16 years old, my summer jobs were working for a custom home builder and I lived on the gulf islands at the time out in the west coast of canada. So I was, you know, sanding doors and stripping forms and whatever. We did start to finish stuff, um, and then ended up going to more central still, the west side, but alberta, which is about, you know, quarter of the way across our, our country. Um was actually going to pursue music, become a musician, and was working as a tradesman to kind of provide for that. And uh, that dream kind of fell through through some um went back to the trades again.
Speaker 1:So you know time since I was, I guess, about 18, 19 and I'm 45 now and uh, so at that time I was I was building, working for a framing company in alber. We did framing, so no concrete work, and I ended up spending about four years there. We built everything from spec homes but primarily kind of wood, wood frame, four and a half story wood frame apartments, so high production framing and 12 man crew building apartments and really enjoyed that. It's hard, hard work, as you're fully aware, and banging up walls all day long and there as well it's properly cold for a long time in the winter. So we're working in, like you know, minus 30 and you know three, four months of bitter cold winter and then still a few months with snow on the ground.
Speaker 1:And how do?
Speaker 2:you even work in minus 30?, Like that's like you're wearing all the gear with the warmers and stuff in it.
Speaker 1:I assume no, that was just no. No heated vests or warmers, but just just trying to. I mean, you got to dress a very particular way. There was little little tricks like like simple things don't do your boots up too tight and don't wear gloves that are too tight. You actually want to have some space, so I'd wear like polypropylene liners and looser gloves over top. Make sure the cuffs on your jacket and the shirts weren't too tight. You know limiting blood flow, and you were in, you know, like balaclavas and face masks. It was, yeah, it was. It was miserable. Um, your frame.
Speaker 2:I spent four years. You're sorry, man, you're. You're framing. From what I've seen, your framing is a lot um, a lot more involved than our framing, because you use a lot um, like what's your stuff? I think you call it eight by twos, don't you? Or something like. Your framing is very large timber at times.
Speaker 1:Um, I mean what I'm talking about now. We were those primarily all two by six back then. Um, but depending on the height of the building there was, there was, you know, of a four-story wood frame apartment. The bottom floor, yeah, might have been like two by eight studs, you know, uh, one foot on center to carry those loads. At the bottom end, um, yeah, lots of lvl structural beams and parallams and flip, like you know, four ply huge girder trusses and so, yeah, pretty, pretty big stuff. Um, yeah, so done that, done stuff. Everything from basic entry-level spec houses up to high-end customs and, uh, and apartments and that.
Speaker 1:But those, those four years were spent just as a production framer. And then, um, ended up moving to the Okanagan, the area that I live now I was talking about, that's so beautiful and uh, moved out here, got married and then started a business here, ended up starting my own company and my first, first job that I got was a fascinating one in that I put in a quote for the framing and uh, that was all accepted and look great and uh, and then the builder says okay, and then when you come in to get the foundation going, like, no, no, I'll come when the foundation is done, the whole frame like not here out, here the the carpenters do their own concrete work, and so I was like, okay, I'll get my books back out and I'll get some help and we'll make it happen.
Speaker 1:So my first big job to do a custom home here was the first time actually doing hands-on concrete.
Speaker 2:So did you have to adjust your pricing or you did that job for the same price.
Speaker 1:No, I had to add a foundation quote into the project and get that all worked out and I had done kind of the head knowledge through school about how to do form, but I had never done it in person myself. So I had a couple of close friends that had done them here and kind of helped me to the first one. And I was always super meticulous and picky with how I, how I built and as much as I'm sure, like yourself anybody who's watching who's been a business owner, been a builder, you know for myself I always tried to do the best job that I could. But now I look back at how I was building Then I build very differently I did. You're always evolving, you're trying to pick up. You know good tips and tricks from the, the jobs that you see around you. Um, so all of that to say, when I did that first foundation and I was kind of I brought a couple guys in to help me do it. They knew what they were doing as I was kind of following their lead. I was also like when I'm in charge I'm not gonna do it all like that. There's things I'm gonna take, I'm gonna use, but I going to also apply my own kind of strategy and common sense to it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, for the next you know, four or five years it was building custom homes and doing the foundations as well, and it was doing the foundations to get to the framing. Concrete was always just a miserable, heavy, dirty job and I loved framing. But over the years, getting better, better at it and knowing that the better job I did of the concrete, the easier the framing was, the more I started to specialize in that and really pursue it, to the point that we became very good at doing foundations and really quite enjoyed it. We could do a good, fast job of it. And then it was a joy to work on that concrete Because, having done lots of builds on other people's concrete and dealing with, you know, level issues and square issues, you know what? Uh, it can be really, really bad.
Speaker 2:So controlling it myself is great yeah, I like that you uh mentioned that how you do things now is is different to how you did them back then. I think it's really important in this industry, like every day is a school day, like every single day, absolutely, you're learning and, uh, yeah, it really excites me now, like with, obviously, social media and youtube, like we all have access to so many incredible craftsmen around the world that are like I really enjoy watching videos. I've watched a lot of yours over the last week, like, and you just you're always picking up little tips and tricks that, um, you can employ in your own team, your own business, um, and I'm a really big believer that contractors, builders, need to talk to each other a lot more um, that was a huge part of my year.
Speaker 1:To flee was I thought someday I might have my own operation. I wasn't, you know, banking on it and making sure that was going to happen. But I I always was thinking, if I was going to run an operation, what things can I take from my employer now that I think are great and what elements of how they're representing themselves do I want nothing to do with? You know and try to pick and choose and and learn from other people's mistakes and you know I'm going to have to learn some lessons the hard way. But if I can learn some hard lessons by other people's errors, then I don't have to go through all that headache. That's a that's a good deal for me.
Speaker 1:Um, so, yeah, that was, that was a big thing was like trying to put together all the pieces that I'd seen from different employers over the years, like how do I want to do my own thing? What are the important aspects of business and communication and relationship that I want to bring into my own business? So, through my business, like I built around 400 homes by the time I kind of wrapped things up concrete framing and had a crew. I think at the max was about 12,. 12 guys would split up to be two or three different crews and and building a big subdivision up to you know kind of seven houses at different stages at any given time. Um, and there were some big, big lessons through that time, for sure, but it was, yeah, a lot of, a lot of houses went up.
Speaker 2:I assume it's no different over there to what it is here in australia, like it's? Uh, there's a lot of incredible craftsmen and tradesmen out there, but when it comes to the business side of things, you're learning on the fly. You're not taught how to run a business, and every job's a learning experience. You might lose some money on some. You learn how to do something different on the next one. Is it the same over there? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:It's interesting too is oftentimes how people are pricing jobs here is by the square foot. So a certain dollar per square foot is how things are oftentimes priced both the same square footage and similar style of finish, and that one house depending how the floor system and the truss system is designed. No-transcript. So you need to really have all the variables on the table before you put a price in versus saying hey, what do you frame for per square foot?
Speaker 1:Well, that might not have any bearing on my price, because the job I'm doing that says the same square footage is way more involved. Because instead of having single parallel beams that are, you know, they're five and a quarter by 16 inches deep I've got a four ply glulam but I have to bolt the whole thing together and take half a day to build the beam you know. So there's there's so many variables involved in that.
Speaker 3:So putting a price in.
Speaker 1:It's absolutely, absolutely, and so it's a. It's a dangerous thing to just kind of give out a square footage price until you've seen all the details. So it didn't take me too long until I'm like, hey, I'll put in a price. But I want to see the structural plans. I want to see the trust plan, I want to see the floor joist plan, I want to see all the cross sections. I want to see the engineers plan, where other guys are given quotes by just the the drawings and they don't have the detail. That's a.
Speaker 2:That's a major gamble that's so cool, mate, obviously like we're halfway around the world from each other and yet in this construction industry we'll deal with the same things. We get the exact same stuff over here and, um, yeah, I'm constantly trying to educate the industry. Like it's all in the detail, like you've got, the more time you spend up front, uh, investing time sitting in the office reviewing drawings, doing scopes of works and then pricing based off the scope of works, um, the better your business is going to be. But we, we get the same thing. So many guys like tell you stories like the. The client or the architect rings them up, says, hey, I've got this 300, we call it, we go square meters over here, but I've got a 300 square meter home. It's two-story, it's got a double garage. What's your price? And like, without looking at details. You, you can't like anyone that gives a verbal price over a phone with conversations like that, just uh, asking for trouble.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, for sure that's um, and you guys build very differently, um over there, when it comes to getting out of the ground as well. Like we, we excavate all of our foundations in trenches in the ground, whereas, like you, guys build a flat pad, don't you?
Speaker 1:and then form them up yeah, um, there's, there's a, the ones I'm doing right now.
Speaker 1:One of the projects is slab on grade, so it basically could have been done with uh trenches and footings, built foundation walls and then basically backfill to about four inches below the wall height and the slab put in there. And then we have other projects that'll be a crawl space, so then it is more so like footings of the slab down there, and then there's like a anywhere from like a two to six foot two crawl space, um, and then we've got, yeah, full height basements and uh icf builds that we've done as well, where it's all the insulated styrofoam forms and we've done just basements with those. We've taken them right up to the trusses before, um, so, yeah, pretty wide range. And then there's there's some where there's like a raft footing, where it is just a great big structural slab and you're putting walls on top of that, which you don't see too often. Um, yeah, there's going to be some pretty substantial differences for sure yeah, well, that that sort of says a lot about you.
Speaker 2:obviously your new business like spending time on the tools with the tool bag on. You obviously had a lot of experience with what works and what doesn't, and so where did the passion come from to go out and start making tool bales?
Speaker 1:That's a funny story. So I've always been one to like I want to try stuff myself Instead of buying something. If I can make it, I'm open to to trying that. So a good example of that is, like I mentioned before, I was into music a lot in my past and there was a very expensive guitar that I wanted. So instead of buying that $3,500, taylor, how about I'll try and make my own acoustic guitar? And now I have my own custom acoustic guitar that it sounds pretty good. The neck hasn't broken off yet, so I'm not afraid to try some unique things. I've done some cabinetry and furniture building and stuff as well.
Speaker 1:What was happening on the job site was that I was in this big subdivision building houses like crazy and my old store-bought tool belt was getting really worn out and I wanted to replace it. And on the job side, I'm always looking for efficiencies on the site. How can we? I've always thought of a funny definition of efficient efficiency is just a smart, lazy person Like what's the least amount of effort I can put in to do the best job that I can. So I started researching tool belts to see what the different options were out there and then right away I'm like, oh, could I make my own? Is that something you can do? And so I then started researching for a couple of weeks and basically did enough research to understand the kind of equipment that you need. And that's not something that you try to do. That's to try to find the leather that's required, a sewing machine that can sew the leather, where to get rivets and hardware. That's incredibly complex and expensive and it's not something you can just do on your own and do a good job of. So I put that out of my head. Building one doesn't seem like a good option.
Speaker 1:And then spent what ended up being about two years trying to purchase the perfect tool belt and, um, I wanted leather. I've always preferred leather tool bags over nylon or canvas ones, and so that brings me to occidental and buckaroo. And they're great products are, but they weren't set up in the way that I wanted to work, um, so I bought stuff and sent things back and researched and trying to find someone who could make me a custom one, finally found a company in Vancouver there's a lady there that builds a fairly basic tool belt. You can buy in the hardware stores here, but I'd heard from one of those companies, one of those stores that you can get in touch with her and she'll custom build you a tool belt. Okay, this is my chance to get my my tool belt layout the way that I want it. So I actually drew up plans. I've got the plans on the wall in my shop. I drew up plans and talked to her on the phone and emailed her pictures and and spent a couple of months communicating with her to get this custom tool belt and she finally got it together and it arrived and I was all excited. Here's the end of this two years of trying to get the right tool belt.
Speaker 1:Well, I pulled out of the box and I put it on and I couldn't fit my hand in some of the pockets, some of the tools, lots of tools just fell right through. Things didn't fit and I was so discouraged and I became aware in that moment, like she's not a trades person, she doesn't have tradesman size hands, she doesn't run the tools. There was things that I actually now I'm aware that things I asked for her to build into the tool belt. She should have said no to because she's like, oh, that won't work, but she just did her best to kind of force it, so I wore that tool up for a week at work and then by the end of that week on the Friday I would I want to throw it the garbage.
Speaker 1:I was so fed up and so discouraged. I went home that night and I went onto a local classified website and that shows all kind of local things for sale in our area and from all my research that I'd done a couple of years beforehand kind of like the entry-level sort of machine that I would need to sew leather I'm like I'm just going to look. I'm so fed up I got to build this myself and I went online and I found a heavy duty upholstery slash leather sewing machine that would do the job and it was a couple hundred dollars cheaper than it could have been. And my wife says whatever you have to do to stop talking about tool belts. So she was so fed up with hearing me complain about the tool belt thing. So so then I reached out to this person and turns out she's like yeah, the timing's a little bit, you know what. I'm just going to knock a couple hundred bucks off the price just because you're picking it up. I'm like great. So that was the beginning. I bought this sewing machine. How?
Speaker 2:long ago was this. What are we talking?
Speaker 1:Four years no, it was like seven years ago ago about that, yeah, um, so get the sewing machine. Like great, I got a sewing machine. How do you sew? I don't have a clue. So I in grade eight, in, uh, in school, we did a class called home economics and I remember we had to. We had to build a pillow and a pair of boxer shorts, and so there's my, my sewing experience. Um, so I, I pulled out old pairs of work pants and jeans and like I'm gonna try and make. So I cut out a rectangle of fabric and I fold it in half and I sewed the edges and I turned it inside out. There's the most crude basic little sleeve you can make. Um, and so that was a starting point.
Speaker 1:So I've also done a fair bit of drafting and kind of architecture stuff and, um, I'm kind of fascinated by origami and three dimensional kind of conceptualization sort of things, and so the first few weeks my goal was to find a pouch, a leather pouch that would perfectly fit the tape measure that I used. That was my starting point, and I knew that the failure points of the traditional store bought tool bags you know, were in these certain certain locations like so I need to add strength here and here and make sure this can't rip and that it hangs open up I can grab it out of here. So I went through a whole bunch of pairs of pants and and fabrics trying to create this, this piece, and sitting at my drafting table and drawing templates and and finally developed a pouch that was like, really well reinforced and was elegant in its design, somewhat based off of my last store-bought one for some of its dimensions, and the one that I had bought from the store had some little gussets that had been added on and just kind of riveted on to strengthen those weak points. But it was really really crude how it was done, how it was reinforced. It'd be like the difference of like throwing a great big plywood gusset over top of some failure point and just nailing the crap out of it, versus doing some really nice bit of joinery to do something really really nicely. And so I kind of developed, um, a way to create a gusset that was part of a hem and all one piece of leather. That made it really strong and was also, um, really elegantly done and it looked great. So that was one of my big pushes from my woodshop teacher was like you always want to find the best combination of form and function. So you want you know good function and you want the form of the item to also be appealing. So I feel like I kind of struck that I found that Once I had that assembly kind of figured out, now I can just resize that for all the other bags.
Speaker 1:So that was the beginning and after a few months I had a tool belt that I could wear that work and I was doing. I was working on it evenings and weekends and hand cutting leather out with a utility knife on the floor and hand setting all the rivets and hand punching all the holes and using my little crap sewing machine. And so I got it together and I put it on and weren't at work for a couple months. And then I became a little bit unsatisfied and I can do better. So I gave it to one of my employees and I built a second generation one. I think I did that two or three times until I got where I'm pretty happy with this. Now I'm going to do this as a gift for my employees. I'm going to build.
Speaker 1:I think I built six or seven of them and that took me like a month or two to build these things and then gave them to my employees. So now my crew had my tool belt. I'm like, okay, there I've done that, I've kind of like hit the target that I was after. And by now I've got these templates and I've kind of got some equipment. And what do I do now? And I got then a few local guys that saw them like, hey, can you build me one, can you build me a custom tool belt? And and I start thinking, okay, this is actually a side hustle, little business maybe.
Speaker 1:Um, so I took on the first custom build, a new one for a customer, a friend of mine and, um, I kept trying to put bigger needles and heavier thread in my little machine and using thicker leather and buying it from Sadleries and stuff. And so I was building my first one for a customer. And by this time I'm wearing safety glasses while I'm sewing because I'm exploding needles in my face, I'm breaking stuff. And I got to the point where I'm like I can't do a good job of this. I'm breaking stuff like crazy. If I'm gonna sell this to somebody, I have to do a better job.
Speaker 1:So that was like the first step where again, I talked to my wife like, okay, if I'm gonna continue on with this, I need a proper sewing machine. That's the. That's the the first hurdle to get over. I need a sewing machine. I can sew through anything but um. So again with her blessing, I did, went to research and found a harnessed stitcher, so for building building saddles, and you can sew through like three-quarter inch plywood with these things that need to like a two inch nail. So that was the, the first substantial purchase to remove that first barrier. Now I can sew through anything that I want. Um, it's a cylinder arm machine. So that means, instead of having a flat table, it's just got a round arm that sticks out so you can manipulate your the leather in all different ways around that arm and you can kind of sew in really unique ways with it. Um, so that was the first step to like having some proper equipment, and then you kind of fast forward through that. I'm taking some time here so so then.
Speaker 1:So then I started uh, selling some, some local people and, uh, getting getting known by that. I'm still framing full-time, um, do this kind of evenings and weekends, and I guess one thing I should probably step back to a bit. And this kind of evenings and weekends, and I guess one thing I should probably step back to a bit in this kind of is an element to just building a business and being successful. There's a really hard lesson I learned, so let me jump back a couple of years for a second. I was building this high end, fancy house on a cliff side on a lake down here, and homeowner was a fantastic guy. We'd done this great project for him, we'd basically wrapped it all up, but he needed us to come back and do a little bit of back framing on this project. So I sent my two top guys, my kind of lead hand carpenters, back to this job to do some back framing, so doing some arches and little detail work. And, um, that night the owner called me and he says hey, chad and lance, the guys came out, did the stuff, stuff I needed. They did great. Thanks so much. Things look awesome, like great. Glad to hear you're happy. That's great. He's like just a heads up, though.
Speaker 1:So you're aware there was a couple other things that I wanted them to look at and what their advice on and make a decision. They were just petrified of what would Luke do. They had no confidence to make a decision and when I heard that, two things kind of occurred to me. One of them was well, damn right, I'm the boss, I should make the call. This is my company, it's my reputation, the decision is for me.
Speaker 1:And then right on the heels of that thought was I'm doing my guys a disservice and I am shooting myself in the foot by making sure that I'm the only person with any authority that can make a call. So that was a major shift in me for how I was kind of building my company and for the next two years, trying to be encouraging to those guys, allow them to make decisions and mistakes, but I had to pay for so they could build confidence, start to make decisions. And then those two guys now, like in my area here, now work for other companies and they are some of the most highly sought after guys. Um, because they're such good framers and I had a bit of a part in that. But more than anything, I was able to step away to allow them to kind of get their feet under them and develop confidence. And then my company grew.
Speaker 2:It's hard, um, um. Like we all, it's very. When it's your business, it's hard to step back and I think that transition from being on the tools to becoming a business owner that's what it takes. Like you've got to put trust in your team, because if you don't put trust in your team, you'll never have freedom to grow or work on your business or, like you've done, go and start another business exactly so.
Speaker 1:So I mentioned that because that's that was the, the environment that I had fortunately created to allow me to step away and start to focus on on this parallel interest. So I'm still on the tools, still building. I would you know, the things I like the most on the job site were building stairs, building roofs, doing timber work. I always loved that stuff. But now I can come in as a support and assistant to them on their jobs to help out, versus me coming on site say, okay, give me the plans you cut for me. Now I'm the boss, let me do it. So that environment kind of facilitate an opportunity for me to like start to focus on this tool belt endeavor. So I was. Then I kind of developed a few different models of tool belts. I was selling them out of the back of my pickup truck. I'm still working on my kid. How does this thing grow? What do I do next?
Speaker 1:And I ended up wanting to build a website, didn't know how to do that and thought maybe I should get into social media, get some exposure. And that was a huge catalyst for me for just exposure, because in social media you know the people like yourself who are interested in building, go on there and we see other builders and how they're doing what they do. And you know I had a good reputation in our area here. I was a highly sought after framer and I don't take that lightly. I struggle with imposter syndrome greatly. So putting out social media content which I'd never done any of that before, I'm like, okay, here's how I lay out a wall, here's how I nail stuff up, here's how I cut a hip, oh, and here's the tool belt that I made for myself. All of a sudden, our audience was like you're a framer, you've built hundreds of houses, you're doing concrete and framing and you're building a tool belt. Maybe you actually have a perspective on how these could go together. That would make some sense. And that was just a really, really good combination.
Speaker 1:And it was also a hard thing too, because you know I live in a very small kind of bubble in my area, in my region, and for instance, for me, I wear a front worn, stitched in place tool belt. That means is I got a tape measure hanging in the front of my pants. Yeah, well, that's not a very common thing. Um, and so there was a a big influencer actually, that somewhat local here that reached out to me. He's like you're doing this, this, this front tool belt thing, that's what you want to do. I'm like I think it's the best. It's like super efficient. He's like, okay, you go ahead and you do you, but if you're going to get into social media, I know you're going to get so much hate for that. I'm like what are you talking about? It's like normal where I am. It's like all these things. You never trust a front poucher and like all kinds of all kinds of insulting, really nasty things that are said. So I had okay, well, it's good to know, I'm also a hands-on tradesman, have had tons of employees and and dealt with trades my whole life, um, so I kind of understand how to communicate with them. I've got some thicker skin to kind of handle that. But I'm also a business owner. I want be professional, so I don't want to be a total ass to people and that. So I want to be humble and respectful.
Speaker 1:So trying to manage all of that was interesting. So getting into social media following starts to grow, we start to get way more orders than I can handle. So we ended up actually for the first, I think five, six years at the beginning. So I was, I was doing the customer emails, I was doing all the sewing, I was doing all of the shipping, and I can only sell 20 of these things in a month, or 15 at the beginning by myself. So I we put together this kind of janky little website and there's I got. Once these spots are full, I don't sell any more this month, and that would take like a minute and a half. The spots are sold out like okay, site's closed. I gotta build those ones out, ship them before the end of the month and then the first Saturday of next month I'll do it again and hope that got a little quicker by then. And more machinery. So basically what that allowed me to do was control the demand first come, first serve, and then, as I bought machinery and hired people to help, we could increase those numbers.
Speaker 1:Until it was about a year and a half ago, we finally kind of took the breaks off and said let's just open the online store and see if we can handle the demand. And we are still hanging on by our fingernails, but we have now stayed open and we've never had people have to wait longer than three and a half weeks for their order to ship. That's kind of been our, our deal. So, yeah, I built a thousand square foot shop into my house, thought I'd be there for 10 years. A year and a half later there was five of us and wall-to-wall equipment. I'd taken over our garage and other parts of our house.
Speaker 1:Okay, I ended up buying a five thousand square foot facility five minutes from home. That was this old piece of garbage building, tear it apart, rebuild it and then now we've got, you know, 15 to 20 people and a thousand square foot storefront and we build and ship these things worldwide and I'm not getting any bigger. This is the, the boundary of the business. That was my, my plan. So we're not outsourcing anything. Uh, we build them all in person in the shop and, uh, now I'm actually freed up enough I can get back in the tools again and mate when it comes to front poucher.
Speaker 2:I've been a front poucher for a long time, like that's uh that's.
Speaker 2:Um, I did my apprenticeship with a really old school tradesman and that that's just what he did. And and to begin with, I don't know, 20 odd years ago, we would buy a standard nail bag and just put it on backwards, but, um, and yeah, now, now there's obviously ones around that have it in the front. But, um, I, I like that you've done it through efficiency, cause, like my, my big, like the old fashioned saying is a tradesman's only as good as his tools, like nail bags. I think that's is something that's been overlooked for a very, very long time.
Speaker 2:Um, I actually didn't realize you could get such custom bags until I mentioned to you before, like a good mate of mine, craig Stewart he's the one that put me onto you and he was showing me his bag that you custom made for him and I'm like man, this thing is freaking insane and he's going through all the bags and he got you to do a few custom things for him. But efficiency is huge and like just seeing your bags and like one or two things I really love about your bags, um, is the nail puller, like where you like you put that on the diagonal, like so it's not stabbing in your bloody calves or stuff, when you're kneeling down like like yeah, why has that not been done before?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a very interesting process. I mean, I've got actually the. My original nail bag is hanging on the wall in the shop and there's a whole evolution of the, the different bags and updates and the diagonal nail puller. That was. That was a bit later on and that was one that I kind of considered didn't think it was going to work. And then my brother that has he's worked for me framing and then he helped me in the leather shop. It's something he was like, hey, you gotta, you gotta get make that thing work. The diagonal layout probably so much better. And, uh, it was actually one of the things I kind of like I did, like I'll, I'll try it. It's not really gonna work, or it worked great. I had to mess with the angle of it and play with things a bunch, but that ended up becoming one of the big features that between kind of he and I, um, we put together. That was great.
Speaker 1:The ones that always drove me nuts with my old tool belt was no good spot for my rafter square, which to me you know the tools that go on. As a right-handed person, the tools on my left got to be my rafter square, my nail puller, my fasteners. Those are like the for sure no brainers. Go on my left side. My dominant side is going to be hammer pencil. Go on my left side, my dominant side gonna be hammer pencil. Um, chalk line pliers, things you use in your right hand, um, and that's something I've always found so funny is that you know, we get all this praise for how they're set up. I'm like there's, there's no rocket science here, it's just this is the hand you use that in. It should go over here. And then these things go over here and let's, let's make them so they're easy to get a hold of and make sure they don't hurt you when they're hanging there, like it's. It's really not that complicated, but when you kind of come from a background of like that old cheap leather tool belt that you're talking about, you can wear it forwards or backwards and it's universal, right, it's not right-handed or left-handed, it's just like you put stuff where you can fit it and that becomes your normal.
Speaker 1:So I kind of took that belt that I thought was really efficient, because that front center tape pocket and this is a whole huge debate when does your tape measure go? What's the best tape measure? Well, for me as a builder and, having done rough construction and finishing, it depends. If I'm framing tape's left hand, pencil right hand, because I'm doing all day long, tape is in my left hand all the time. If I'm doing finishing, it's in my right hand. A lot of the time you're clipping on your pants or in a belt there because you're taking one measurement and and so it's oftentimes on your right. Well, if you have a spot, both hands have access to it. You're like incredibly fluid and it's really really smooth.
Speaker 1:Um, so developing that whole tool belt that had a front center tape pocket that was actually right-handed just hadn't been done before, which to me, is just bizarre. It's such a strange thing Like let's make it right-handed. Um, and the reality of our business too is like I want to be totally fair across the board, so everything I ever develop right-handed, well, let's develop the left-handed version as well. So everything on our website is right-handed or left-handed, whereas a lot of companies they'll have a couple left-handed options but not their full product line, and I wanted to do that across the board the same.
Speaker 1:And then I became aware of wrong-handed people, which just throws a wrench in the works. So one of my lead hand carpenters his name is chad. Just the gem of a guy. He's wrong-handed. So what I mean by that? He swings his hammer with his right hand but he writes left-handed the rafter square and your hammer are on the same side. Like everything gets all all all screwed up, yeah, so so there we have some stock products. You can kind of put one together that works that way. We do now probably three or four custom builds each month that are specifically for that orientation and we call, like right hand but left hand dominant or vice versa. It's, it's bizarre.
Speaker 2:It just it all makes so much sense, mate, it's, it's bizarre, it just it all makes so much sense, mate, like and I think it's one of those things until you see it done and it just doesn't cross your, cross your mind. But, yeah, like, having your your front pouch, your rafter square, your, your, um, your nail bar, like everything just so efficient. But yeah, like, obviously, with your nail bag buddy, your nail bar, stabbing you while you're trying to work, but, um, it's just unreal. Like you, I think you guys do it so much better than we we seem to be 10, 15 years behind over here like, even even your hammers, like your hammers are unbelievable forget the name of it like that hammer that you've got that you can use it for everything, like undoing your forms and like, yeah, it's just earner brand.
Speaker 2:Yep, it's just insane like that just makes everything more efficient and cuts out the amount of tools that you need to have on your bag.
Speaker 1:And there's a fine line too, because you can also get too detail-oriented and then you overcomplicate it. So it's like a happy medium that we're trying to find In building the business in the leather shop. Here it's been the same thing what are the hurdles that we need to get over and the efficiencies we've developed in the shop. But let's not take it so far that we get caught in the weeds with all the fine little details because we've overdone it. You know it's. It's like when you're, when you're building a house, the same thing.
Speaker 1:Like I'm building building footings this morning. They're like a deer in the headlights. They're like I have to build a house, the whole thing, and they're looking at the entire project. I know, no, right now, just the footings. Do the? Do the footings? Well, don't worry about that stuff that doesn't affect. Just focus on the footings.
Speaker 1:Um, and that's not everyone's wired that way. You know that's. That's not how everyone can function. So, yeah, when I'm putting a tool belt together, I'm trying to decide what, what elements are worthwhile to develop, but not over complicate it.
Speaker 1:And because we offer, you know, custom builds, um, we deal with some people that overanalyze um, and it gets, they get really carried away and at the end of the day, you know, doing, doing custom off um to our customers, the the option to do a custom build. It's not a moneymaker, right, as you know, like you might, you might do okay on 75% of them and the other 25%, like we have blown through the budget on this over and over and over again. There's got 50 emails back and forth Like how's that time getting covered, you know? But I it's a, it's something I want to offer because I see value in it and it's not a money maker, it's so we can honor our customers and and we also know sometimes and that's that's one of the the biggest bits of advice that I give to anybody who asks about you know, what are some most important things that you've learned through business and having your own company?
Speaker 1:I'm like no, they know yeah, yeah, that's huge and uh, they said you just you can't say no to work, you can't turn business down, and I'm like you have to. You have to or you don't control anything. You'll end up being a run off your feet. You they'll do nothing that you enjoy. You won't be able to keep your word, like you got to know when and how to say no. It's so huge.
Speaker 2:Saying no is one of the most powerful things you can say in business, because every person you say no to opens up the door for a perfect client. You don't just do them for framers, you do bags for plumbers, roofers, electricians everyone don't you. So you cater for everyone. So how have you learned how those guys need their placements?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean there's a reasonable amount that you can kind of assume. You know, who does they carry? Where would they carry them? But then it's a lot of asking questions and there's several products that I have built kind of through social media and I've been like okay, I'm going to start working on an electrical bag. Everybody, here's my prototype, here's what I'm thinking. This is how I think it would be used. What do you guys think? And then you get every. You know you, it's a difficult thing to to wade through all of the comments because you have all these opinionated. I mean, I'm a tradesman myself. We're a pretty opinionated bunch of people. We're pretty ruthless a lot of the time. So you've got to wade through all of these comments and kind of figure out what stuff do I need to pay attention to? What do I put aside? How do I keep the majority of people happy?
Speaker 2:Sorry, All right, mate, you're probably getting my dog barking in the background as well.
Speaker 1:How do I satisfy the majority of people and be okay to have those few outliers unsatisfied? So it's a matter of asking fellow tradesmen. So, because I've been a builder for a long time, I've got great connections with drywallers, with electricians, and I'll have them come in the shop and bring your tools with you let's see how they fit. Does that work for you? Does that make sense? And also try not to reinvent the wheel. There's some products out there that I'll get asked by a customer hey, can you make me your version of whatever that is? Can I even send you my old tool bags? You can take them apart and remake them in leather. I'm like, no, don't do that. If there's a good product someone else makes that serves that need, buy theirs. That's great. I don't need to go and make a copy of it. Yeah, so it's quite complex. You want to still do something that's unique, that is justifiable but not over complicated as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's bloody awesome everything and I just think it's something that needs to be thought out more. Hopefully, a lot of people reach out to you and check the bags out. I think they're bloody fantastic. But you also I really liked um, when I watched your story on I think it was on youtube or one of your socials um, but you're you're really big on culture in your team, like I saw. I saw in the nail bag or in the tool bag business. You've got a ping pong table, you've got a dart board. That's pretty cool because a lot of businesses don't, I guess, have a focus on culture, but culture is really important when it comes to building a successful business.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. I mean. Well, here's something my dad said to me for years and years. He's like as an employee, your job is to make your boss's job a joy. As an employer, your job is to make your employee's job a joy. A lot of, I think, young guys in the trade that are kind of full of piss and vinegar and they're like yeah, my, I can't till I'm a boss, I can tell everybody what to do and boss everybody around and yell and scream and rant and rave. What are you investing in? What are you setting yourself up for? Down the road? You're going to just be burning bridges all day long, and offending people like that does nobody any favors. So there's a need to be vulnerable to a degree that invites people in, but then also have the resilience required to deal with the hard stuff that comes. And that's a hard balance and, depending on how each of us are wired, that's different. For each of us too. It's complicated.
Speaker 2:It is. That whole employee thing is one of the hardest parts of running a business. So trying to and especially the bigger your team grows, you you've got more personalities, more opinions, different religions. There's so many things that have to be constantly managed. So, um, yeah, I it was one thing that really made me smile watching your video and then seeing your team do that, because I, in my businesses, I think teamwork's the most important thing. You've got to build that. You've got to focus on that culture and you want that culture to represent you.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, that was fantastic, yeah well with the with the shop here when I when I bought this building so it was a cabinet shop that got out of business and it was. It was a mess, it was just gross. So I gutted the whole thing, tore it all apart, and so I had this like opportunity with this like kind of clean slate. How can I build a facility that is like, as a tradesman, I'd be excited to walk into a storefront and what's the kind of environment we want to create in the back. And so I took one big area and I built a full, full kitted out kitchen with like a lunchroom and couches, and so we've got about half of our staff are women and a few of them love to cook.
Speaker 1:So, like every week or two there's like a great big potluck and they'll come in and bake and make stuff and we have these amazing meals. Yeah, we've got a ping pong table and dartboard and so, like at break time the staff will play. Whoever gets closest to the bullseye um will get uh, get to get off work five minutes early, so it's like on one day a week and they can bank their time. So there's people who've got like they've got like an hour and a half for the last like six months. They've got like a couple hours of time that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I love that idea in the storefront.
Speaker 1:we got a foosball table and we've become quite competitive with foosball um, so there's a my storefront manager, dustin, usually at the end of the day, if there's, we don't have any customers in the storefront the last half an hour, 40 minutes, if we're kind of done emails and we're kind of caught up like, hey, dust, let's go and uh, and we have a good, sometimes heated, foosball battle. So it's a, it's a lot of fun. I've also, you know, a reality of my, my business over the years is I've also had my closest friends and family working for me, which adds a whole another dynamic, you know, to uh, to a working relationship. And that was another good lesson I learned working with my brother. He's three years younger than me, um, and we're very stereotypical. I'm first born rule follower, uh, he was the young redhead, kind of full of all kinds of attitude, um, and we were great friends.
Speaker 1:We're spent lots of hard times in the midst of that and I remember at one point saying to him like brad, when we're on the job site, like I've got to just be your boss, you, you got to be my employee, like there's, there's God, we got to have that relationship. It can't be so different from everybody else and then he pushed back. It was like, yeah, but we're also brothers that work together and there's truth in that. You know both of them in that relationship and it's hard and it's it's not so cut and dried, because there is a relationship there that is different than my other employees and that having my best friends you know, work for me and I've got to at times I'm, you know, lots in your mind and there's hard days and there's, there's, there was days where the next morning I had to like, hey guys, we gotta have a talk.
Speaker 1:I, I lost it yesterday. I got frustrated and, regardless of the justification for the pressures and tensions I was dealing with, the way I interacted and I was nippy and I wasn't okay and I got to be vulnerable and apologize for that Kind of do our housekeeping. I don't want any grudges held. You know what do you need to say? Here's what I need to say to make it right. And then you facilitate a really healthy environment and you, you welcome people and bring in. You know you build trust.
Speaker 1:But that's also a hard thing for me because I'm also a very if you picked up by now, I'm pretty black and white Like I. If there's something to be dealt with, let's get it in the open and deal with it. Well, not everybody works that way, right? Some people are like I'm going to sweep under the carpet and maybe in six months we'll talk about it, you know. And if I hear that like oh, this thing's been bugging me for the last six months, I'm like why didn't you talk to me six months ago? This could have been a non-issue for the last six months instead.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's important to get stuff in your chest, and I like that you mentioned the word vulnerability a lot I talk about become a lot easier, and I think that's another really important part of having a good team showing your team that it's okay to be a bit vulnerable and have those difficult conversations or or even not the difficult ones, like the ones about mental health and all those types of things. It's good to talk about all that sort of stuff, but, like, where to from here? I see you've, uh, like you've got your own podcast as well now. So what's uh is the podcast for helping the building industry over your way, or what's it for?
Speaker 1:where I had a designer in and I did uh, you want to have a discussion. Okay, how do you design? What are, what are the things that you're you're keeping in mind with um, with how you're trying to design? Like, have you, have you been a builder before? Do you understand the dimensions that are convenient for us as builders on site? You know what things you take into account, how you work with homeowners, with the, the things that they want to see what's it? Like dealing with I'll have to.
Speaker 2:I'll have to listen to that one. That would have been a good conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty fascinating and I did one with our local ready mix concrete plant and talking to them what's it like for you, dealing with homeowners and the bills and the pump trucks, and then us carpenters that are bellyaching and complaining about you guys being late or the concrete mix not being quite right and and um and finishers that are stressed out of their mind trying to get flat work done and um. So I've had podcasts with him and then a local high-end builder and you know their interaction, getting from them. You know information, what it's like to deal with with everybody. You know you're dealing with the homeowner, you're dealing with the tradies, as you guys call them, um, and trying to organize and orchestrate. You know a smooth process, um. So, yeah, lots of, lots of those sort of discussions.
Speaker 1:And then I've had lots of other fellow tradesmen, other framers, on and we've talked about, you know, different kinds of injuries that we've had or near misses or, uh, yeah, close calls and and projects that we've built and challenging stuff. I've done some with my family, so I've had my, my wife, in and we kind of told this whole story, the background of all of this. Um, I've got two, two of the women that work in the shop. Uh, we have podcasts with them like the ladies of acrobats and kind of their background, their story and some some fun stuff there. So one of them, she was actually the canadian karate champion, uh, years and years ago, yeah, so all kinds of fun stuff that we get into that's, that's just fun to listen to and good conversations, so yeah, all kinds of that's unreal.
Speaker 2:well, uh, look, I definitely appreciate your time, um, coming to us from a halfway across the world telling your story and, look, I hope a lot of people reach out to you. So where's the best place to find your stuff? Where can people look?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so our website is acrobistcom and then on social media at Acrobist Leather. So Instagram is kind of the one I I focus on the most, but everything obviously loads up to facebook, so I deal with all the comments in, uh, instagram and in facebook myself. Um, I do push our content over to tiktok, but I don't do any communications there and then I put stuff into youtube. So there's lots of shorts and then longer form stuff. We just started doing some longer form youtube videos, which is uh, which is pretty fun. So the build I'm doing right now.
Speaker 1:We did like a kind of tutorial on how I build my footings and and then how to put my walls up and there's some comedy. And then my brother is a video editor as well, so he edits those videos together and adds all kinds of crazy stuff in there. It's pretty fun to see. So people get an idea of how we build here, and I try to also up front mention to people when I'm putting that kind of content out. This is how I do it where I'm at. You do it different, that's okay. Let's have a discussion about it. You know, hopefully you'll learn something. I'll probably learn something. Yeah, um, yeah, so it's been really good actually just quickly before we wrap it up.
Speaker 2:so the the um tool belt business is kicking in golds now, and so you're going back to doing a couple of projects a year for yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I've always loved building. I miss it when I'm not. So I have the opportunity now where I've kind of got a storefront manager, production manager, shipping manager. I've worked myself out of all of those roles so I've freed myself up.
Speaker 1:I can do a little bit of sewing if I want and I can take on a couple jobs each year and that's an opportunity for me to get back on the tools, show how our tool belts work, kind of put on all of our different setups and say this is what this is for, why it's designed this way, to do this job that I'm doing right now, and then also kind of share my building practice with kind of how I've the methods that I use and the reason why, um, and little tips and tricks and helpful things to uh, to give people a hand, and then you know, because of that then I'm also I get the perk of being sent some nice equipment and tools and do some collaborations with some companies.
Speaker 1:So I cannot wait. I think in about a week I'll start framing on these foundations I've done and I get to use max high pressure, which I can't wait. They're sitting all brand new gear sitting in the tool trailer. I can't wait to plug it in and start using those tools and showcasing that stuff too. So that's been really fun what's that?
Speaker 2:is that? Uh? Is that all cordless gear? What's that stuff?
Speaker 1:um, max, uh max. So I'm not sure. Maybe you guys don't have them over there, but Max is a Japanese company and they make. One of their premier lines is high pressure compressor, so it's a 500 PSI compressor. The guns run at 350 PSI. The airlines are the size of an extension cord. They've got nailers you can shoot into steel and concrete with. They're like super lightweight.
Speaker 2:It's phenomenal stuff I'll have to check they also make a, that's great.
Speaker 1:And they also make a tying rebar, tying guns, so I've done a bunch of posting about that. So, like my last foundation, um, like I tied in six hours the amount of rebar that would take in like a four-man crew two days so it's like, yeah, we actually have the max um retie guns, so yeah, but I didn't I didn't realize I did.
Speaker 2:Uh, all the nail guns and the compressors, yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So they do regular, regular psi nailers as well, but they got their high pressure system stuff too. That's, that's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really fun, unreal, but I think it's hilarious. Like you're, you're halfway across the world and yet I even had a little laugh before when you mentioned the Ready Mix trucks being late. We're always dealing with concrete never being on time over here as well.
Speaker 2:But, mate, really appreciate your time. Keep doing what you're doing. Absolutely love it. Look for any Aussies or New Zealand guys or anyone listening. If you want the best tool bags out there, make sure you get in touch with Luke and the team at Acris Leather. Mate, yeah, love it, Appreciate your time.
Speaker 1:Thanks, mate, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 3:Are you ready to build smarter, live better and enjoy life? Then head over to livelikebuildcom. Forward, slash, elevate to get started. Everything discussed during the Level Up podcast with me, Dwayne Pearce, 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.