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
Mastering Communication in Construction: Rik Rushton’s Tips for Team Success
Join us on the Level Up Podcast with Duayne Pearce for a cracking episode featuring keynote speaker Rik Rushton! Dive into powerful insights on communication, leadership, and building a winning team culture in construction and beyond. Learn tips from Rik’s book Power of Connection to master your mindset and connect like a pro. Like, comment, and subscribe for more!
Check out the Duayne Pearce website here...
https://duaynepearce.com/
To be a leading sports team at any level. You put a lot of work in as a team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, culture is conversations and if you've got a framework for that to work, then it's very easy to get it right. If you don't have a framework for that, you have disconnections.
Speaker 1:I've always felt that construction is a very, very different work environment. Nine times out of ten you're physically working with other people. You've really got to connect well with your team.
Speaker 2:For me. I just believe that today is going to be a great day, and because I believe it to be a great day, my mind is wired for that. Let's go looking for the things that are great. I wake up every day with the gift of gratitude. The most important conversations, mate, we're ever going to have are the ones we have to ourselves, when we're by ourselves, when no one else is listening, when we buy ourselves when no one else is listening.
Speaker 1:G'day guys, welcome back to another episode of Level Up. We are on screen today for another cracking episode and I've got a cracking guest for you. Today. We have with us Rick Rushton. So for those of you that don't know or might not have heard of Rick Rushton, he is a keynote speaker. He is an expert when it comes to communication. I first come across him, rick I'm trying to remember probably five, six years ago, when did the book come out? Power of Connection.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it came out in 2018, and I think you and I connected. I would have thought it would have been somewhere around about that 2020 mark, somewhere around that period.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mate, I'm so glad I reached out to you. Since I've reached out to you, you've done a couple of sessions with my builders in my training business of Build and then, only two months ago, we had you up here in Brisbane. You were one of the guest speakers at my big event, the Level Up Experience. Just mate, the feedback about you has been phenomenal and since then we've now got you speaking at another big Live Life Build event that we've got coming up later this year. So, mate, yeah, give our listeners a bit of background, I guess, to Rick Rushton and who you are and where you come from.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, mate. It was a joy sort of connecting with you virtually in that time. I think we were either in COVID or coming out of COVID, I can't remember, but we did something virtually. Then we did something in room and I think the in room one was a lot of fun and, you know, got so many good sort of people now in my sort of social network that are now from the building and construction industry. So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:But for anyone sort of involved in this little session today, I mean, my background is realistically is in the real estate industry and that's what was the industry that created me to a degree. And but from around about 30 odd years of that, and knowing that I was being asked more often than not, dwayne, just to share some sort of success strategies, I thought, well, if I'm going to do this, I want to do it the way I want to learn. So I don't like learning in a structured. I was no good at school, like terrible at school. I went to school for two reasons Number one to meet chicks and number two to play sport. Now, I was pretty good at the second, no good at the first. But what I did find in school was that you know there's a fair few teachers that go to every school every day. There's very few educators. I was lucky to find in one one sort of school, two very good educators who were able to align my thinking towards what are your gifts and talents and can you make that more than just a hobby? Can you make that your profession, moving forward? So it still staggers my mum to this very day, duane, that I get paid to do what she told me to stop doing. When I was a kid, she used to tell me to shut up, and yet I get paid to think. So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:So, after about three decades in real estate at every level that you could have, my wife and I bought the business in 1998. We sold it in 2016 and the book come out effectively back into 2017, 2018. It went okay and then it got reprinted. Then there was an audible, then there was a TED Talk and, you know, then the corporate world came knocking and that was interesting, and so then I get to meet people like you that are sort of saying, hey, I work with a bunch of, you know, builders who want to get better at what they do from a professional and personal sense and, you know, do you have any strategies to help do that? That's really the title of the book. The book is basically saying how to become a master communicator in your headspace, at your workplace and at your your place, ie the three modalities where we have the biggest conversations every day and I think it's.
Speaker 1:It's just really powerful stuff, mate. Like when I first listened to your book, it really hit home for me. It actually it actually made me take a lot more responsibility because I realized a big part of the problems I was having was I wasn't communicating correctly and I thought that I was, but obviously I wasn't. And correctly and I thought that I was, but obviously I wasn't. And actually I have a lot of conversations with my team now and I tell them, like if something's not going your way or you're not getting the outcome you want, you need to step back and actually think about how did you say it, how did you deliver it? And nine times out of ten, the issue is it's because we haven't delivered it correctly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I I think you know the success strategy I was given first day of real estate is just be yourself, which works well when you connect with someone who's just like you, which I find for every 10 people, that's probably two out of 10. If you're lucky now, anyone listening or watching this podcast right now. The business world is too cutthroat to have a strike rate of 20%. You just can't be doing that. You need to be connecting with people who are diametrically opposed to you. So I think one of the things that helped the book get published was a concept of tune in before you broadcast. So before you broadcast on Dwayne Pierce, dp Construction 101, make sure that the receivers tuned into that same frequency or adjust. And so that was the big learnings for me.
Speaker 2:That being myself was authentic, but it wasn't productive.
Speaker 2:And being myself was congruent with who I am, but it wasn't actually going to engage enough people in my network to make me profitable, both as a human being but, more importantly, as a provider, a father, a husband.
Speaker 2:As a provider, a father, a husband I'm now a grandfather, which has all sort of happened in the last sort of year, so for me, I'm still looking for new ways to tune in so I can broadcast more applicably and, more importantly, across different genres now. So, yeah, yours was the first of many firsts this year. I spoke for the quarrying industry I've never done that before the building and construction industry never done that before. I'm working with an oil company, I've never done that before. So it's really interesting to see, dwayne, that most strategies have universal principles in every area, principles in every area. And so I'm very big on starting the day with positive self-talk, having, you know, forward thinking with my conversations with my team and therefore, at the end of the day, doing a review and saying where did I win with that and where can I learn from that. And you know, I found that a lot of the time.
Speaker 1:If I did that sort of approach, I realized that words used well, change worlds, but if you don't use them well, you're in a little bit of trouble it's um, I find it really exciting that you're saying you're working a lot of industries for the first time, um, but you also do a lot of work with uh, like australian cricket team and afl teams and those types of things, and I just find it so amazing now, like I'm addicted to it.
Speaker 1:I love personal development, I love learning, but when you think about it, like to be a leading sports team at any level, whether it's kids sport or professional sport or australian teams you, you put a lot of work in as a team and yet most businesses have to operate as a team, but but there's very little, I believe, input from business owners to get their teams working better together. We've spent a lot of time, energy and money over the last 10 years doing lots of team development with our team, but it has definitely changed in the last four or five years. It used to be back in the days it was pub lunches or catching up for beers and pizzas or going go-karting and those types of things and they were really good for building team morale and creating good environment. But we've got far more success out of now doing I professional development as a team and I just find it really exciting that you're taking your expertise and what you've had a lot of success from successful sporting teams and now you bring it into the business world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think you know culture in the elite, high-performing sports environment is no different to a high-performing business.
Speaker 2:You know culture is conversations and if you've got a framework for that to work, then it's very easy to get it right. If you don't have a framework for that, you have disconnection. So we know, for a leader of an organization like you, you're only as good as the people around you and you're like you could be the conductor although having now met your wife, I know she truly is the conductor. You know there's no great conductor without a great orchestra and we need everyone to play the music. We need everyone. You need the banging of the drums and the clanging of the cymbals, but you also need the subtleties of the flute, otherwise the music just doesn't quite work. So I think our ability to communicate across different modalities, across different personalities, has so much importance in a modern day, 2025 and going forward. You know workforce, and the reason being is that this is the first time in human history that five generations are making up the workforce, the environment that we're in. So you've got Gen Z coming through. That's the biggest talent pool available to any employer listening to this particular podcast at the moment or watching and you've also got veterans who still probably forgotten more about the construction industry than they could even teach because they just they just do it so naturally. And I think back to the level up experience that you sort of launched into the industry back. You know, on the 31st of May I think it was, and I think about that panel that you asked me to sort of do a bit of a Q&A with. I mean, when I think of the veteran right at the end and I think of the young guys coming through, I just thought that's the diverse mix that's making up so many businesses across every industry at the moment. So yeah, if you go into a Bunnings store and you've got a Bunnings trade card, you'll see Generation Z combining with loyal veterans who are in their last job, probably working a few shifts a week not to sort of disrupt their super or their sort of pension if they're on it, and you can ask any one of them a question and they'll steer in the right direction. That's an amazing culture that I've seen from the inside out work really really well.
Speaker 2:So culture is conversations. High-performing environments are no different, whether they're in the construction industry, in elite sport. Everyone wants to know what they're doing well. Everyone wants to know what they could be doing better, and if you're working along a framework which we call values values based organizations are the place that you know don't have trouble attracting talent or retaining talent. You know people don't join companies, they join great cultures, and you know someone's going to come and work for DB Constructions because we just feel like it's a great place to work. I'm going to get better, but I'm going to have fun doing it too. I think that's half the battle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, values are an important thing, aren't they? I think a lot of businesses overlook, like we display our company values on our site signs. Everyone company values on our site signs. Everyone knows what we stand for, but it's a very powerful part, like if people haven't taken the time to actually establish what their values are, how can they connect with their team?
Speaker 2:like the team don't know what they're, what they're there to, what they stand for yeah, and I think also if they're not performing well, they didn't realize that was a standard they had to sort of perform to. So the first question I ask when people say to me, look, our performance is a little bit spasmodic, it's a little bit patchy, I go okay, if I come to work with you today, what's my clear understanding about what we value here at dp? Construct what, what would that be? Just so I'm real clear. Oh, mate, you just get in and work hard. See, now, that's pretty hard to measure. What gets measured gets done and what gets measured can be improved. And they go. What's an example? I go pretty simple.
Speaker 2:In our organization, if you came and work with us, you're going to believe in god. That was very heavy, they thought, but god was an acronym, god was. You're going to come and work with us and you're going to grow. We're going to grow. You're going to leave better than you arrived here if you stay with us for one day or stay with us for a decade or two. You will leave better for the experience because we're going to grow. You, you're going to leave better than you arrived here If you stay with us for one day or stay with us for a decade or two. You will leave better for the experience, because we're going to make you a better professional, but we're also going to make you a better person. I know it sounds bold, but that's our goal, because we figure if you're growing, if we can give you an experience of growth, you can't get anywhere else. You won't want to go anywhere else, anywhere else.
Speaker 2:So G is for growth and we're going to grow you. But it's a two-way street. You can't come here, clock on at 8.30 and check out till 4.30. You've got to help grow us too. So you've got to bring the best of you and you've got to give us your ideas. And you've got to bring us your talent. You've got to bring us your energy. You've got to bring us the best version of you. You're going to spend most of your waking hours here anyway. Why don't you give us the best of you?
Speaker 2:So G was for growth. O was for opportunity. We'll create growth opportunities for you, but you've got to create growth opportunities for us as symbiotic. And D was for discipline. If you don't have discipline, I can't coach that to you, I can't give that to you. I think you know, dwayne, most recruits are very disciplined to get to the job interview on time, and for about the first 90 days they show a lot of discipline.
Speaker 2:Once they've gone off their probation, a funny thing happens who they ask starts showing up. So what we want to see is you know, if there's a daily huddle, catch-up get-together, what time does it start? Well, it starts at a set time and that's the time it starts. So you're expected to be en route before then. So that's the time it starts, so you're expected to be en route before then.
Speaker 2:So before the start of this interview today, I was on with your world-class producer and show and we were talking for probably 15 minutes, like I'd rather be a half hour early than one minute late. And it's hard to do when you're chasing planes and you're on conference stages and you know you're in meetings and all that sort of stuff. But I've never gone into a meeting yet saying and all that sort of stuff. But I've never gone into a meeting yet saying sorry I'm late because that's code, for you know, I've just made my time more valuable than your time waiting. So you know when people go sorry, I got here as soon as I could. I hear that as you got here as soon as you wanted to, and that's okay. You just don't have discipline, but I think I'll put my hand up, mate. Yeah, like you know, it's kind of.
Speaker 2:Is it important to be on time and you go? Maybe, maybe not. If you're an air traffic controller, I'm telling you it is, you know. Is it important to dot the I's, cross the T's, put a dot on the lowercase J, doing your wife's job in the business? Very much is. If you're siting up now a new build, is it important to get the string line right? Pretty sure it is Now. What time do we catch up for drinks afterwards? About five-ish, that's okay then. What time are we going to catch up for a barbecue? About two-ish? That's okay then. But the ish stuff doesn't cut it in 2025.
Speaker 2:We're either on time or we're late. There's no in between and we've got to get very good at being on time or good at excuses. There's really only two options there. So, anyway, that was the measurement. So when we did our one-on-ones, duane, we never said how are you going. We said how did you grow this last 21 days, like, give me some examples of where you grew, where you won or you learned. You know you've got latitude to learn here, especially for the first six months. Give me some feedback.
Speaker 2:So if I couldn't get them to identify the growth steps, I knew they were plateauing. And if they're plateauing and they're Gen Zs guess what mate they're going and they won't tell you they're going, they'll just go start somewhere else and they'll ghost you and you'll go. What happened there? And one of their mates will say, oh no, he just got offered 20 bucks more an hour, but he never asked me for a raise. No, he was never going to do that. You should have known that.
Speaker 2:It's like how am I meant to tune into that? Well, that's the issue, for you know, a leader of a team in 2025. A Gen Z is totally different to a veteran, totally different to a Gen Xer or a baby boomer, if you want to call them that. You know millennials are different again, so you just can't broadcast the same way. One way the way I explain it very quickly is if there was a 10 cinema complex in your town at the moment it's not playing the same movie in 10 cinemas.
Speaker 2:You know people love different forms of entertainment, just like there's not one radio station. I don't like jazz. It's a bunch of notes going nowhere fast. I can't handle it. But you know know, when Shane and I were just talking before you came online, before we started to record, we started talking about the music we love Fairly eclectic. But you know we're into rock, we're into, you know, silver chair, we're into like stuff like that. So I get that. You know my first concert that I kind of remember taking our kids to was Van Halen. Remember taking our kids to was van halen? Probably not. You know much people would want the wiggles right, but our kids love thumping music now because I've had that sort of experience.
Speaker 2:So for me it's about understanding no one way is going to get the job done. You'd find that as a lady, find that as a husband and a father, more importantly with your girls, right? So?
Speaker 1:yeah, but I love the um analogy of the god. That's um, that's a cracker. I'm gonna definitely use that. So, mate, when it comes to like your book was, well, you've got another book now too, don't you?
Speaker 2:Well, it's actually the same book, believe it or not. It's actually. It was just for the American Canadian Marketplace and they made a few edits and they asked me to add in a few subtle shifts, but it's. I don't know what the percentage is, but of the pages I would say, you know, don't get both, I'd get one or the other.
Speaker 2:The power of connection is the one that's on Audible. So people who love listening to books normally get that. I just tell them to listen to it one and a half times to speak, because they really made me slow down, like they were making me talk like this, which made me want to go to a funeral home and wait. I just don't know where you're going here, like let's. So I like to speak with energy and so, um, but people who listen to it, who know me, go, man, you must have been on decaf that day. It's like, yeah, I know right, so, um, but yeah, the power of connection is the book where we go through a few framework, few simple frameworks to help you with that, and, and one of those is the fact that you need to be aware that everyone evaluates information differently, so we've got to be very careful about how we're broadcasting as a leader.
Speaker 2:We can't broadcast on one frequency and expect that everyone's getting it, so we have to be aware of that. And again, three things I think your modern enterprise needs. Number one you need to be values-based, so everyone knows what we're being held accountable to. Number two people need to feel like they're valued and appreciated, and the best way we can do that is to have great conversations with them. They're the three big pillars, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and those three things will make an enormous difference to any business, but especially in construction.
Speaker 1:I've always I'd love to know your opinion on this, rick Like I've always felt that construction is a very, very different work environment. It's not like an office or admin role where you go to work and you might mingle for the first 10 or 15 minutes, but then you go, you sit at your desk, you've got your own space and you do your work, whereas on a construction site, nine times out of 10, you're physically working with other people, you're leaning over the top of each other, you're helping each other lift things, like. So you really got to connect well with your team, like because you're so, you work, you smell each other, you're sweating on each other, you're helping each other all day, every day, and I've always found it very tricky to have to manage so many different personalities and people and try and get them all to work together on site. I think we do a reasonably good job of it, but there's always room for improvement. What, hey, like what sort of tips have you got for for that sort of work environment?
Speaker 2:well, I think we all get there at the same time, don't we? With a coffee in one hand and maybe a bacon and egg roll on the other, and then we um, we get on site. If that's what we're talking about here, I would have a very quick huddle that would last for about 90 seconds. Going all right, team, here's the deal. What are we trying to achieve today? If we could be very simplistic, if we could only get three things done, what would be the three big outcomes from this day of production today? So we identify three things and, in an order of priority, where one's the most important, three is the least of the three. What would that look like? One would be this, two would be that, and three, if we had time for it, would be this one here. Let's shoot for that. So away we go.
Speaker 2:So at least everyone knows where the priority is and where we're focusing our energy, as opposed to the activities, because on the job site there's lots of activities. Activities, because on the job site there's lots of activities, but you know, you've got to make sure that we're not sort of, you know, getting out of sync with what's required for the progress of the job. So I think the priority is the big thing. If we identify the priority and everyone's aware of it, it's hard to get that wrong. If everyone's doing their activities, it's like herding cats. It's going to be very hard to get that right. So I think none of us are as good as all of us. We're all dependent upon each other. Everyone's got a voice of value, but I think these are the three most important things. Looking at the weather, if we can get this section of it done in this period of time, I think that's going to be the best. How do we feel about that? Not what are your thoughts? How do you feel about that? How do you feel? Feel if we were to achieve these things today? Now gives them a measurement and how they feel at the end of it when they look back and go happy days, we, we, we tick that right. So now you go home with a gain, not a gap, which is you know a lot of what we do.
Speaker 2:We start off a day with an expectation, with a hope, with a plan, and then life gets in the way. Whether Weather on site would get in the way Trades, people don't turn up when they should gets in the way the person. I need to do their role before I can do mine. Hasn't done it, so it gets in the way. So I think the most important thing I'd be doing if I was leading a team of one, two, 10, 200, it wouldn't worry me, I'd be getting together, going.
Speaker 2:Okay, here's what the weather's like. It would almost be a bit of a descriptive sort of view on what the conditions are we're working in today. And, ultimately, if we could only achieve three things, what would they be? Prioritise them. Three is better than 33, I think, because you can get into the finality with that and then you can look at it at the end and go how good is that? But you know, if you can go away from the day looking at what you gained, not the gap of what you didn't get done, because of all the activities you're measuring the gain, never the gap, you feel fulfilled and momentum-based, as opposed to shortfall and feeling behind track and off track and not feeling great. So you know, I think setting the rules of engagement up would be the way I'd go about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's definitely good advice. That's definitely good advice. The other really big thing that I took away from your book was actually like I'm bad for it. My wife and well, not just my wife people around me pull me up or used to pull me up on it a lot, but letting the person speak, stop before I start talking.
Speaker 1:And you, I think you said a lot of times in your book that a lot of people these days have already come up with their response and their answer before they've actually even finished listening to what the person's saying, because they're so too tied up in their own shit. That's going on, and I've found that really powerful. Uh, in my businesses, in my relationships, like just to and and look at for me, it takes me a lot of work, like I'm always just go, go, go and I want to, I want to keep the conversation going and get it done and and move on, but so it's actually taking me a lot and I'm constantly telling myself just just let them go, let them go, don't talk yet, don't talk yet. Um, but just that little tip that you kept reiterating through your book has helped me out a huge amount in the last five years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you know we're a similar personality to a degree, like the clock's running. Let's get some progress here. So, you know, three words are better than 33. I'm always a stomp the right foot and get going, as opposed to hold back and just assess. It's almost like you know. Should we read the instructions? Nah, let's just start putting it together. We'll go to the instructions when we need to.
Speaker 2:Probably not the best thing for a building site, but you know, my message is that you know I'm a doer and a forward-thinking person, and so when I'm across someone who really has to think things through and have it all mapped out get all their ducks in a row I'm kind of going if you've got your ducks in a row, they're all going to get shot. Let's speed this whole thing up, right. But what I have learned is it really does help me if I just let people continue through and finish off. Then they feel respected. You know, if you start cutting them off or speeding them up, they realise that you're probably more self-centred than self-interested in helping them get better at what they do. So therefore, they're not going to give you the best of what they've got. I kind of work out very quickly, who's on the satellite feed and needs a bit more time, who needs all the information before they can make a decision and who's like me. It's like, hey, give me 50% of it, we'll go work on the 50%, while the back end you know problem-solving people sort out the other 50%. So thank God I'm not a bloody brain surgeon, because I just start scalping without sort of knowing what's going on.
Speaker 2:But I think you just find people out there. But what I find in that instance is this is just me. But I find the people who are very methodical, very linear, want to really map it out in their mind before they start. I want them in certain roles in my organisation. So you know, I just find for me I'm a point-and-shoot kind of guy and we'll build it as we go, like we'll launch the rocket and we'll build anything else we need in outer space. But if we wait for everything to be packed away, stowed away and done, we'll never launch is my view. So I'm always that way. But the people around me typically they're more thought-provoking than that and they're more detailed than that, which is great. So they pick up my deficiencies to a degree which I think is fine as well.
Speaker 2:But I think once you know who's who in your team, you've got to give them their space to be their best and for some they might need a bit more time to think, a bit more time to think, a bit more time to consider, a bit more time to communicate with you. And you just have to catch yourself in those moments where you go oh, I know where they're going, but you just have to get in your head it's just don't hit the throttle yet, just wait, just wait and go Interesting. Tell me more about that. What do you mean? Tell me more. You know where this is going, just speed it up. But no, no, tell me more. Well, this is interesting. No, my former boss didn't do that. Well, I'm thinking this and I'm thinking that I go. Great, I know where this is going, but before I actually get to the end game here, let's stay in the moment. So I think that's been a real revelation for me across my whole life.
Speaker 2:The truth be known, my wife and I were very opposite attracted early on right, and my best friend I remember clearly saying mate, I don't know, like I don't know, she's got an accent, I don't know what. She doesn't say anything. She's got no hope hanging in with you. You talk a glass eye to sleep, great, she's like uh, she's the exact opposite to me. But now people who meet my wife will say, my gosh, she's so engaging. And she would say it's probably the benefit of rick allowing me to find my space in the relationship. And I would. She's so engaging and she would say it's probably the benefit of Rick allowing me to find my space in the relationship.
Speaker 2:And I would say she's given me the gift of listening and really, because most people like you and I mate, we stop listening when our lips stop moving because we just want to get on with the job. But she was very good at making sure I could really understand her position in things and we found it through arguing, arguing if the truth be known, and we found it through all the you know. But again, experience is what you get when you don't get the result you wanted. So you know I learned some things that how she processes information. I thought to you, for me to have her in my life and for me to be the best version of me for her in her life. I'm going to have to adjust what I do, but she picked that up as well. So it's like if you take care of me, I'll take care of you in a business relationship.
Speaker 2:No no, I'll take care of me to be ready to go for you if you need me, lean in, but I need you to be the best version of you so I can lean into you if I need it. Let's go get this thing done. What's the three big outcomes today? Away we. I think life rolls best personally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, I liked you. I didn't get a chance, I was flat out at my event. I didn't get a chance to see your entire presentation, but I definitely connected with the bit where you were talking. Well, you sort of did it in your own way, but you were talking about disk profiling. I'm pretty sure Did you touch on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's lots of methodologies out there myers-briggs, disc there's, there's a lot of them and I think I'm qualified to deliver nlp, myers-briggs and disc. I think, if the truth be known, if I go looking um through all my um qualifications, if you will. But I just found all those things way too complex and way too deep to work in an environment to work out. If someone is a driver, an influencer like it, like it's kind of too hard. I just put people into very simple colour formats. There's just four of them. There's just red type personalities, there's yellows, there's aquas and there's blues. And so red type personalities for me are very fast talkers, fast movers, very clear on what they're trying to do. You know instant coffee is not fast enough for them. They want to get to the end really, really quickly.
Speaker 2:If you drive with a red, you know it because they're changing lanes to get one car space ahead of the next set of lights. You know if the lights have been green for a while. They're speeding up because they know the lights are about to turn sort of like amber and red. They want to get through on orange, if they can type things so like amber and red and they want to get through on orange if they can type things. So you know, for me, anyone who drives like me on a freeway is awesome. Anyone who drives faster is an idiot. Anyone who drives slower should just go again and just get out of my way. But what I realised was that I'm very red when I'm in certain modalities and so I need to pick it up faster. Talk three words are better than 33. If you authorize me, today, I'll go and sort this all out for you, rather than give you all the options for you to then say I don't have time for that. I knew you didn't have time because I'm a red. You're a red, I can save you time. So you know, speed is their currency.
Speaker 2:Yellows are very opposite to reds. Yellows are very descriptive, very out there kind of people you know. Red will say hi, I'm rick, shake hands, let's get going. A yellow go. Hi, twain, I've seen you. You do a lot of stuff and I'll start going off on a tangent. You'll go.
Speaker 2:Where's this going like? You gotta let them roll. They're like a tuner on the line. You just gotta let them go. And you can't land them because they're just. They haven't finished wriggling around yet. They've got so much energy and then it'll be like, okay, now what were we doing? Of course, the quote. What do I have to do to get a quote from you? It's like, well, we're 20 minutes in. I would love to have sort of found out what you're trying to achieve here. By the way, I don't do free quotes. This is like you know, like Reds would go. I respect that. This guy respects his time. Yellows go. I don't want to rush you, though. It's like yeah, because they'd love to have a conversation.
Speaker 2:Acqua's are very reserved, like my business manager, very quiet. Three words are better than 33. They sit right back. They don't like being the center of attention.
Speaker 2:You know, if you can think about a pot plant, reds are like. You know, if someone says, look after my pot plant, I'm going away for a month, sure, how do I look after it? Care instructions are there. It's like full sun, full water, full fertilizer. Reds, right, yellows are plenty of sun, don't need watering too much, don't even need much fertilizer. They're fine. Aquas are like leave in full shade water periodically, if ever at all, and whatever you do, don't bring them out out in front of the sunlight and just try, and, you know, celebrate them in front of the whole team because they will just shrink like a violet right. They will just go no way.
Speaker 2:So aqua people, very slow, very reserved, but they're some of the greatest thought leaders in modern times. So if you think about guys like Steve Jobs, if you think about you know absolute, you know Bill Gates, awkward people, all those reserved personalities, very subtle, took a lot for Jobs to learn how to present to his wider team and the wider marketplace. And then Blues are like you know, know, they are just so linear, so logical. They love process, they love procedure. If they can show, if you can show them the process, they can already bank the result here. Because because they know how to follow it, one plus one equals two. A red goes one plus one. How do we make it equal 11? Uh, yellows aren't doing math because it's not fun and aquas are going to be very, very considered before they'll think of every answer possible, before they actually come in with that.
Speaker 2:So if you can think about those modalities, you pick it up pretty quickly that you know when you're talking to uh, like a guy like I was yesterday he was trying to book me for an accounting conference and I said, the challenge I've got is you probably love excel spreadsheet, right, right? He goes yeah, I've got it open right now. I said I don't even know how to open it. I don't want to know how to open it, I can't stand Excel spreadsheet. But give me keynote and three concepts and I'll get back a slideshow for you in three minutes. I'm very creative.
Speaker 2:So you know, for me, when I travel I'm very red. I want to be on time, ahead of schedule, ready to go. When I'm at home on a weekend after a long road tour and I've hung out with my family, paid a bit of respect, I'm probably an aqua on the couch, just in in a tracky and moccasins just channel surfing, just not wanting to think too much. So I think we're all of those modalities, but we're a predominant one.
Speaker 2:So you, you're actually quite energized and quite red, but you're not really red and you're not really yellow and you're not really even orange, because you've got a bit more detail about you too. So I kind of put you in more like purple, you know, which I think is an issue. So you'll speed up when you need to, but you're okay to give someone else the spotlight as well, like you're not someone who needs to have the sun shined on them 24-7 like most Reds, right? So Reds want to be regaled. Aquas want to be left alone and just do my job and just acknowledge I'm doing a good job, but they don't need fanfare. I guess is kind of the modalities.
Speaker 1:The reason I brought that up, rick, is I think it's really important and I really feel like I spend a lot of time, I guess, figuring out who I am, and that led me into understanding more about other people and I really feel like, uh, it'd be massive. Like most 99 of people on this planet, I don't think really understand who they are, what type of persona, personality, all those things in there. They're just living with old beliefs and religions and concepts and whatever you want to call it, from the way they've been brought up. But I think knowing more about yourself and I like the way that you, that's why I've sort of it caught my ear when you're on stage and I was trying to keep things organized and I thought, shit, I'm gonna sit down for five minutes and listen to this part. But because I think it's really helped me in my businesses understanding more about the sonas of other people, because it does allow me to change depending on who I'm dealing with.
Speaker 1:I definitely know, like my team in my building business and there I have a few of everything there is guys that are like me, just head down, bum up, get it done, and then there's guys that are just completely reserved. You can hardly get a word out of them. But if you take the time to connect with them and explain it in a way that connects with them, they do a really good job. But if you come in on fire, go, go, go, do this, do this, do this, do this it goes in one ear and out the other and you come back a day later and they've achieved nothing. So I think it's something that needs to be discussed more in the business world and it's something that business owners, I do believe, need to know more about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think if you give an acqua person a bit of space, like you just said there, they'll share something with you that you go. Gee, that's pretty insightful, like I didn't think about that. But if we did that in our business, we'd be now in my red modality. I'm thinking.
Speaker 1:I'm bringing that to life.
Speaker 2:That's a great idea. But that aqua person, dwayne, would never have shared that with you if you didn't give them the space to step into it. So that's the beauty of that. If we come in as a red and go, okay, this is what I need from you, this is what I need from you, this is what I need from you, let's go well, you've got their skin but you haven't got their heart. Like you've got their paycheck but you haven't got their innovation and creativity and everything else that they could potentially bring to the organisation. So again, if, if one of our values is growth, I want to give you this. You tell me how, because people don't come with care instructions. Like it's pretty, it's a pretty cool analogy when you think about it.
Speaker 2:If someone said, could you look after my dog? Okay, give me. Like, what's your dog like? Oh, just got to be walked morning and night. Has to be exercised chasing balls. If you did that, for, like they give, here's what he eats, here's what he loves.
Speaker 2:Okay, next person, could you look after my dog? Yep, I'm going to walk it early. Oh God, don't walk it early. No, no, no, its walk will be getting up off its dog bed stretching outside to do what comes. Naturally it will come back inside and fall asleep again by the fire.
Speaker 2:Really, I just looked after a dog last week. It was totally different. Yeah, because not all dogs are the same, right. So what we've got to be aware of is dogs come with care instructions from the owners. Plants come with care instructions from the little you know water periodically, leaving shade, no, putting full sun water. Often it gives you instructions on how to look after it. Humans don't, and we think their care instructions are their resume. It's not even close, I think. At a job interview, two of the biggest lies are told the prospect tells the biggest lie about their skill set and the company tells the biggest lie about the offering. I think in between there's reality, right, and we find out typically after the probationary period where it's really at. So my message is what attracted you to our role here in our team? What was it that alerted you to it? How did you find us, by the way? What alerted you to it? What attracted you? What would you need from us for you to be successful here?
Speaker 1:Where do you?
Speaker 2:see the growth opportunities for you if you were to join our team. Do you have any questions of us, like I'd be asking? Tell me what it's going to take for you to have the right environment to be your best. Your best is good enough. You can make us better. You know, if you're hiring someone at JB Hi-Fi, you're not worried about whether they've got an ear pierce, a nose pierce, a nipple pierce. They can look like a fishing lure so long as they've got tech knowledge right. If they've got technology knowledge, they're going to be okay and they've got a service orientation. They want to help people. They're your people. But you're not going to rock out to KPMG and see someone who would ordinarily be walking the floors and the aisles at JB Hi-Fi greeting you. So we've got to pick our mark. I get that, but I think people come into our organizations with gifts and talents.
Speaker 2:My question to everybody who's a stakeholder in this podcast today, dwayne, would be I'm asking a question do you have the environment that allows your people to be their best? If the answer is no, that's on you as the leader. If that's if that and, by the way, if you're a sole operator, that's on you to say am I bringing my best? Are the people who value me getting the best of me every day? Because if they're not, that's on me. I've got, I'm in control of that. I mean, if you've woken up, taking a breath, the first thing you got to do is realize, as I took my first inhale tonight, someone's taking the last exhale overnight. I've got what a great gift today's a gift, not a given. So am I bringing the best of me to DP constructions? And if I'm not, then I need to give myself a stiff uppercut. That's kind of what a leader does.
Speaker 2:But even our team members, our Aqua members, who are just a paycheck player, potentially can we get more of that from them? And I think if we give them, dwayne, the space to bring their best talents, their best is good enough and we reinforce that and we show them where they're winning and we give them some feedback on where they could learn so that, given the same set of circumstances, they'll be better for it next time, then we're progressing. Now, if we're having the same conversation week after week, we've got to ask the question do we have the right person and do they have the right skill set? Maybe they need to go back to trade school. Right, I get all that, but I think for the majority of the people involved in today's offering, I think they can understand what we're talking about here.
Speaker 2:You've just got to create an environment where the people's best comes and they're giving you more than what they're paid to do, because that's what I was taught to do growing up. Bring more value than what you're paid to do and leave it better than you found it, because that's your investment in your own personal development. If you get that done, you're going to be a person of value moving forward. Always add more in value than what you paid for economically and there will always be abundance and opportunity for you moving forward. I found that's kind of worked for me for the best part of my professional career, which dates back now, coming up in only 50 years, which is scary, but anyway. So hopefully that answers that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, look, I think you had an enormous amount of value. But on the wall there behind you it says master your beliefs and you'll become master communicator. Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Well, I think all communication is belief-driven. If I believe I'm a chance, I'm going to speak optimistically. If I believe I'm no chance, I'm going to be very reserved and I'm going to be laid back. If I don't believe I've got any value to add, I'm going to sit there and be very quiet. If I believe I've got a voice of value, I'm going to create the value around that and create the space to do that.
Speaker 2:So all behaviour is belief-driven. If you're behind at three-quarter time in an AFL sense, kicking against the five-goal breeze, and you're 10 goals down, you probably believe the game is busted and you're not going to go out there and give your best effort. But if you believe that you're not looking to beat your opponent, you're just trying to beat the previous three quarters of effort and give yourself a measurable game that you can win. I might not be able to get the scoreboard right, but I'm not going to lose the next two one-on-ones I go to as an example, but I'm not going to lose the next two one-on-ones. I go to as an example. Now you're setting up the game to win. So all behaviour is belief-driven. You've got to set it up so that you can give your best performance. And for me, I just believe that today is going to be a great day. And because I believe it to be a great day, my mind is wired for that. Let's go looking for the things that are great. I wake up every day with the gift of gratitude. I think back to earlier this year, around Easter, if you think about this one, dwayne, I'm not really religious at all, but on Easter Sunday the Pope gave Easter communion. He went to sleep on Sunday night. He didn't wake up Monday morning. Now, all I believe was that if he was given that choice, that's exactly how he would have wanted it to go. I would have thought because of a life of service, no greater time in his calendar than to do it than on that Sunday. And what a perfect time to sort of check out right. So all behaviour is belief-driven. If you believe you can, you can. That's the old saying. If you believe you can't, you most assuredly won't. But it's more than just saying I believe I can, I believe I can, but I'm not going to do anything with it. So now the belief locks in. I'm a chance here and I'm going to win or I'm going to lose, and experience is what I'm going to get if I don't get the result I wanted, but I'm going to go for it. Now, what's the worst thing that happens? I get an experience. Well, there's a lesson, that's okay. What's possible I could win?
Speaker 2:So what a loser does? Playing golf as an example and I've worked with some really good golfers getting their mindset right they can all hit the ball. Golf's an interesting game. Dwayne, the ball doesn't move, it sits on the tee. Hit me anyway. But golfers get the yips because their mind starts racing. But what a loser does on the golf field is they go.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm on the course. I'm a casual golfer. I'm playing with some mates, but coming up to a water hole, I've got a brand new ball that's worth 30 bucks. I don't want to waste it here. I'm going to go with a very old one that's been sitting in my bag since I was a boy, probably. So the first thing we do is we put an old ball on the tee just in, not expecting to, but just in case we hit it into the water. So we've already set ourselves up with a pre-frame for water, right? So what an average golfer sees is water trap around every green. What a great golfer sees is a green around every water. So set yourself up with belief around what's going on here so you know, see the line, know the line, hit the line, see it in your mind, believe that you can hit it.
Speaker 2:Go and execute. See the goal, know the goal, hit the goal. See it, know it, believe it, execute Now. If you don't, you can correct. You get some feedback, you get an experience and same set of circumstances going forward. I'll know how to do that better now. So I'm winning or I'm learning. Experience is what I get when I don't get the result I wanted. I wake up with gratitude. Today is a gift, not a given. They're my beliefs. I can give you more, but I think they're the ones that kind of you know dovetail into this section. Dovetail. Look at me. I'm sounding like when you know what?
Speaker 2:cantilever was I go, mate, let get in the choice to go over 1,100 so you can have a little balcony there. But he's looking. How do you know all this stuff? I go because I really studied for it. Level up, I want to be all over it.
Speaker 1:You're getting on to it, but, mate, so many builders and tradies set themselves up for failure. With exactly what you're talking about and I know I did it for a long time like you you're working at a proposal or a cost for somebody and in your mind you're telling yourself, oh, this is going to be too expensive, they're not going to accept this, and you've already talked yourself out of losing the job before you've even presented the proposal.
Speaker 2:um, how often? How often does that happen? I mean some people smell the flowers and say where's the funeral. Others smell the flowers, say where's the funeral.
Speaker 2:Others smell the flowers and say where's the wedding? Same flowers, but one's predetermined to the negative. One's predetermined. I don't even know why I'm wasting my time here. I could tell over the phone. They got me chips. I had to fight them just to get them to pay for the quote. If they're not going to pay for the quote, heaven help me for all the extras that I know I've got to it like no, no, hey, they're inviting me into this is a gift to you.
Speaker 2:I've got a chance here. I'd rather be pitching for business than, you know, not pitching at all. Is there a guarantee I'm going to get this business? No, I'll give you the only guarantee there is If you don't pitch, you can't get it.
Speaker 2:So now I'm in the game, now I bring the best of me. What can I do here? What am I thinking? Can I get out the one unasked question that the client has that the others won't get out? And if I can get that out of them and I can show them a solution, does that put me ahead of the game? Of course it does. So I'm not going to be the budget motel here, but I'm not going to be crown towers either. I'm probably going to be value for money. That's me. I'm value for money, so my quote probably going to be value for money. That's me. I'm value for money, so my quote's going to be. Now I've just got to display the value. The three most important things to the client are this, this and this. The most important was timeline. They need to be in their new home by this date. If I can show them a process that can guarantee that date, no matter what the fee is, I'm in the game away we go.
Speaker 2:So how we talk to ourselves which we start off this whole podcast about. The most important conversations, mate, we're ever going to have are the ones we have to ourselves when we're by ourselves, when no one else is listening, and the way we talk to ourselves is so stupid. If we really thought, if we were parenting ourselves, we would go. Do not talk to my child like that. That's how we talk to ourselves. You absolute idiot, you bloody dickhead, you loser, would you tolerate anyone talking to your girls like that? The answer is no, of course you wouldn't. My message is well, don't talk to yourself like that too. You know it's a yeah, you go.
Speaker 1:It's a hard oneick in there like that. I I definitely think a lot of my success has come from that, changing my mindset and the way that I talk to myself and I am. I talk about it a bit like I I'd love for someone to randomly bloody stick a camera in my truck or something recall me. But like I will do myself up on the way to some meetings, like because no one else is going to do me up, so I'll fist pump and I'll sing and I'll like scream and do whatever it takes. And uh, even after some meetings, like if I've had a had or I've left a site, like whatever it is, but if I don't support myself the best, I can't. I believe I can't show up the best. So, um, my saying is like if I'm not looking after me, I can't look after like no one else can be right. So I've got to turn up to my sights positive. I've got to turn up to my team positive. And look, I'm not saying I'm perfect, like there's days that are not the best days, but, as you say, I do the same thing you do Every day. I get up, mate. I just feel so grateful that I've been able to take a breath, step out of my bed, walk outside, play with the dog because, yeah, someone that night hasn't been able to do that.
Speaker 1:So, um and so, starting every day with that positive note and setting up your mindset for the entire day, and, like you see it so many times, I remember back in the day when you'd I'd get into, uh, like it just snowballs, like you start having those bad, or someone might not pay you, and so all of a sudden, everything's a drama, yeah, and then all of a sudden you're getting every red light and then you're getting cut off by people, and and then something you get up to the next site and something's not done correctly. But it's purely because that's what you're focusing on, whereas if you just focus on all the getting the green lights, showing up to site, the team doing well, like all this stuff is really well, mate, and I really appreciate you jumping on this afternoon and having a chat. I definitely feel you've got an enormous amount of value to add. That's why I keep getting you back to have talks, but I'm looking forward to coming down to Melbourne in whatever it is nearly two months' time and catching up with you again down there.
Speaker 1:I've seen your run sheet for that, mate. It's going to be another cracking presentation. So, mate, is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap it up?
Speaker 2:Oh no, I just think, mate, everything you're saying, you know, is a conversation you and I could talk for another two hours and we'd only scratch the surface to a degree. But I think you know I do. I do believe in setting yourself up for success. If you've ever flown, you get through that boring safety demonstration where they show you how to buckle up a seat belt, just in case you've never been in a car since the 1960s, right? But the one that always gets me every time when I fly and I fly probably once a week is the oxygen mask. The first question, they say, is, if you're traveling with others is, put your own mask on first before helping others. I think that's a guide for all of us, right? You can't help others if you're not the best version of yourself, so let's get that one right first. And the simple framework I'd leave everybody with is just think of these words here. Right, think of these four words here After I, I will. After I wake up, I, I will. After I wake up, I will think about four things F-O-U-R. I'm grateful for, f-o-r. Just think of four things you're grateful for. After I brush my teeth, I will think about my three big outcomes today, after I get dressed, I will say to myself or ask myself a very leading question am I ready to add value today after I have my first cup of coffee? Or my morning routine of breakfast, whatever that looks like, I will. What can you add after? I will, after I, I will. If you think about the routines you do every day, I just gave you three or four simple ones there. You can add anything you like there to set yourself up for success. Just like if you go and Google something online right now, the minute you go back online again, algorithms are pushing all that stuff to you. You decide to buy a new tradie ute. Once you start researching the new tradie ute, you start seeing it on roads everywhere including no through roads and you go. What's going on there? It's your mind's way of reinforcing a thought you've had. So if the mind reinforces thoughts you had, if you're going to describe a horror story, get ready to act in that. But I say, act in your own sort of life story about you know you're planting a flag in Everest, whatever that looks like, that's on you. So if you can get around podcasts like this, you know. What are you putting into your diet physically and mentally, you know so I think that's important too. So getting on something like this, mate is a pleasure. Getting in a room with you and your crew is wonderful. The level-up experience for me was just something that I was always looking forward to. I was so glad that it went bigger and better than you thought, but what I know is because it was the best is yet to come from that, so that'll be exciting and any chance I have to share with you and your crew and your tribe, your community, is a pleasure, mate, so it's been my pleasure to be with you today.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it, mate. You always just absolutely smash the value out of the park. So, um, keep doing what you do, mate. No, yeah, I appreciate your time. We'll uh catch up with you when we're down in melbourne thank you, buddy, appreciate it guys, uh, thanks for listening, as always.
Speaker 1:Uh like, comment, subscribe all those things so that we can continue to make this australia's number one construction podcast. Look forward to seeing you on the next one. Make sure you go to the duanepeircecom website and grab your merch and stay tuned on our social medias, mainly instagram, to see what we're up to.
Speaker 2:See you on the next one are you ready to build smarter, live better and enjoy life?
Speaker 1:then head over to live like buildcom forward, slash, elevate to get started everything discussed during the level up podcast with me, duane pierce, is based solely on my own personal experiences and those experiences of my guests. The information, opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only, and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk. We recommend that you obtain your own professional advice in respect to the topics discussed during this podcast.