Are My Standards Too High? Real Life Experience & Hard Truths from an Aussie Builder

Are you struggling to raise your standards and break free from mediocrity? In this powerful video, we dive deep into the mindset and habits that separate high performers from the rest. 

Discover why your life will only ever be as good as the standards you accept, and how small daily choices, like hitting the snooze button, can shape your future. Join us as we explore: The truth about setting expectations for yourself and your team How to break bad habits and build new, empowering routines The importance of leadership, discipline, and accountability in achieving success real stories and practical advice for anyone who wants to level up in work, fitness, and life Whether you’re a business owner, tradesperson, or someone seeking personal growth, this video will challenge you to rethink your approach and take action. 

Don’t settle for average, learn how to set, maintain, and exceed the standards that will transform your life. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Are My Standards Too High
• 3:52 Early Lessons In Craft And Speed
• 7:22 Perfection, Profit, And Organisation
• 11:52 Hiring Trades Who Meet The Bar
• 15:42 Leadership And Output On Site
• 21:28 Training Through Teamwork
• 25:58 Setting Quality By Relentless Review
• 30:28 Builders Must Lift Expectations
• 35:28 Clients Who Value Quality
• 39:28 Don’t Self‑Reject From High Standards

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:28

Are my standards too high? G'day everyone, welcome back to another episode of Level Up. We are back in the shed this afternoon for another solo podcast because uh if you haven't seen my socials lately, I did a post about are my standards too high? And uh you got quite a lot of questions, a lot of people reaching out to me, so uh I thought I'd do a podcast about it. But look why that post come about was I've been told lately by uh several people that are quite close to me, um including working in my business, that my standards are too high. And I actually find this hilarious because at the end of the day, the reason I've got to where I've got to, the reason I have everything that I have is because of my standards. And I am a firm believer that everything in our lives is comes about from the standards that we accept, and I truly believe that you will only ever be as good as the standards that you accept, whether that's in your personal life or your business life. So yeah, I just thought we'd have a podcast and I'd touch you about my opinions and feelings on this because I think it's a very good topic to talk about. So um when it comes to standards, like I've I've always like I think my I owe a lot to my um my old man, my dad, for um like when we're growing up, like I was pushed very hard to always try my hardest, to be my best, to to not cut corners, to work hard. Um and then definitely once I started um in the work environment, so my first job working in a uh truss and frame plant, uh, we were pushed very hard to make things right, to put in the extra 1%, to um whether I whether it was when I started in the cutting shed, like just measure twice, cut once, like, or whether it was in the assembly shed making the trusses or nailing together prenaled frames, everything had to be correct because our obviously the business lost money if frames and trusses didn't fit, or they they had to get sent back, or you had to send a team out to site to make modifications. So um I think that's where it really sort of started, and I really took notice that um time is money, and if you don't get things right, then it's affecting other people. And I picked that up very early on, and then working once I moved on from that that job and I moved into my apprenticeship, it was really drummed into me. Um, both my bosses that I had through my apprenticeship were um very well perfectionists in different ways. My first boss drove, as I've talked about many times on my podcast, like drove me very, very hard. Um and like honestly, people think they got it hard these days, including my own apprentices. Like they they do not know what hard is. Like if we weren't running on our job sites or walking fast with intent, um, if a tradesman was standing still uh and waiting for us to come back to them with something, then we were in trouble. Um, and that's look to be honest, I I push my uh team pretty hard these days, but yeah, that you just don't see that anymore. And people wonder why the cost of buildings is what it is. And I see a lot of dawdling and hand holding going on, but that's a whole other podcast. But basically, I had standards and expectations really drummed into me that you got stuff done, you got shit done, you worked hard. Um, and so that was the expectation that I I now live with. And then my second boss that um I worked with during my apprenticeship, uh he was a perfectionist, like he he really pushed, or they both were, but he more so um my first boss was more about speed and time and and getting things done in a quick manner, um, and that was more to do with the style of work we're doing, a lot of volume building type work. And if it didn't get done in a timely manner, like my boss just didn't make money, it was as simple as that. Whereas my second boss was a uh more of a custom home builder, did a little bit of volume work, but um yeah, he he wanted things right, like everything was neat and tidy. Uh I spent a lot of time in his in his garage, in the in the work unit, in the trailer, making sure things were organized and and well laid out and prepped and all those types of things. So when it comes to expectations, um I've had a lot of people in my life that have influenced me, uh, I guess to be where I am now. But I I do find it like now that I run my own building business or uh in other businesses, but more so with my building business, it's on one hand, it can make things very difficult. So a lot of people won't work for my building business, they won't work for me because they they hear the stories, they know that if they do my work, it has to be as close to perfect as they can get it. I I won't accept excuses, I won't accept um below par work, I won't ex, I won't accept work that doesn't meet code, I won't ex, I I won't accept work that doesn't suit what I want for my clients. And so because of that, a lot of trades and and suppliers just simply will not work for us because they can't handle that they've got to step up and do things correctly. So hats off to all my trades that do work for me because I they do put in the effort. Um occasionally we have a little hiccup and they we've got to make them redo something, or um, we might have some conversations about how it can be done better, but we work together as a team to get the best outcomes for our clients. And um how this a lot of this conversation has come about is uh we recently brought on a um a new project manager or supervisor in our business, and a lot of the conversations that we've been having around job scheduling and time frames and um work output on site, it it keeps coming up that my standards are high. And I I just let I let it go. I I don't dive in, uh I don't bite, I don't take the hook when when those comments are made. But I've been thinking about it a lot, and that's why I did the post on my Instagram, and it's why I'm doing this podcast now. And I think it's really like I want to talk about this because I don't believe my standards are high. Um my standards have come from like when it comes to work output, my standard comes because I fucking spent 20 years, or actually yeah, close, a bit over 22 years on the tools. Um the last five years, not so much, but like 18, 18 odd years were flat out on the tools, and I know what I can get done in a day. Um, and I know what uh a team of whether it's two, three, five, ten uh carpenters should get done in a day. Um, I'm not a builder that has gone to and got a project management degree or gone and filled out some forms and got their builder's license. I've done the hard yards, I've done the work on site, and I I know what it takes to be organized, I know what it takes to show up to work with intent, and I know how much work I can get done in a day as a carpenter. And so it does make me frustrated sometimes when I turn up to site and I see the the amount of output that is getting done on site. But there's a lot of things that come into play, and I guess this is probably a little bit off the expectations um subject, but it takes a lot to get a lot of work done on site each day. It's not just about showing up and getting things done quickly. To get work of good volume of work done on job sites each day, and this is across all trades, the person leading the site has to be a leader. If you've got three carpenters or three plumbers or three plasterers on a job site, and all of them are doing their own thing, and I see this happen a lot within my own business, you are not going to get anywhere near as much work done as if you're working together as a team. And there's structure, and one person is stepping up, taking the lead, and giving tasks to the other people, and everybody's working together. One might be setting out and marking, one might be doing the task, the other one might be cutting and prepping and getting gear ready for that person. And everybody has a role to play in the system. Um, and that is why I got so much done. And I do find it very hard in my own business, um, the building business, to get that structure. Uh, and over the last 12 months, 18 months, we've been borrowing a lot of carpenters from a lot of other builders. So lots of other builders uh have had jobs falling over, um, haven't had the workflow to keep their teams going, and we are just non-stop flat out. So we've been taking them on board and uh getting them to work on our projects. And it in one in one way it's been a bit of a relief for me because I've seen that it's not only my team that are operating like this, and I actually see it across a lot of my contractors now as well, and it's very different from the way that I spent during my time as an apprentice and uh through I guess 10-15 years as a contractor and a builder on the tools. Everything we did was as a team, working very closely together. We all like the there was I was a leader, I was always a leader, and we always talked, discussed the tasks that had to be done, and everybody had a role to play to get those tasks done. Whereas what I see happening a lot on sites these days is everybody is trying to do a task on their own. And it's so inefficient and it's so slow, and it's costing businesses a lot of money, and it's costing homeowners a lot of money. If if you're working, if you're framing, if you're cladding, if you're doing plumbing rough-ins, electrical rough-ins, whatever the case may be, you've got to work as a team. You've got to have someone doing the work, giving directions to somebody else, them giving that the that back to that person what they need, uh, whether like some sort of form of materials, whatever, they install it and and the the process keeps working. So um when it comes to accepting expectations, I really struggle with that one. It's something that I'm constantly talking to my team about and trying to get them on the same page as working together as a team instead of trying to do all the tasks individually on site. And I also think that doing tasks together as a team uh helps train apprentices a lot better. It's not like trying to explain something to an apprentice and then leave them on their own to do it, it's going to take them a lot longer to learn. When they work together as a group and they they get to do each part of the process and they get to physically see tradesmen doing the work along the way. Um, I believe it it um helps train them a lot better. But when it comes to like I make, I I quite often make my team even uh like I had a site weekly site visit on one of my sites this morning, um, did a lot, went through a lot of stuff with my lead carpenter and my supervisor on that job, met the client's head, went around the entire job. And there was one, two sections of walls that um I only had to look at for two seconds and said to my team, oh that they should line up that side over there's sort of five mil out or so. And they're like, No, no, no, it's not, no, it's not. And I'm like, Yeah, get it, grab a grab a straight into the level, let's check it. And as soon as they put the level on and checked a few things, yeah, it was four or five mil out on one side, which when you pulled a string line over the two sides, made it a lot worse. So, and that happens quite regularly. Um, and my team don't think anything of it. Like personally, I I don't believe I should have to be overseeing everything, but at the end of the day, it's my business, so and it's my reputation on the line. So, and I understand that when when carpenters, lead carpenters, supervisors are on projects all day, every day, and they're head down bum up trying to get work done, it's it's quite easy to overlook things and they just keep moving on to the next task. Like it's it's easy for me to walk on a job um a couple of times a week and just walk in with a clear, open mind and look around and and pick things up. So um I think that's all part of the teamwork, and um like I definitely take that role. Like, that's another ex a really high expectation that I have is that I review everything. I I every time I'm on site, I am running my eyes over everything, whether that's set outs, whether that's framing, whether that's cladding, whether it's joints, whether it's tiles, like you you name it. I am constantly, as I'm talking to people, as I'm walking around, I am reviewing everything. Um, my brain and my eyes work. It's like you see on those sci-fi movies where people have got like things built into their eyes or they got goggles on and they're scanning the building as they walk around. Like that's that's what I'm doing, and that's how we get the quality that we get. So, um, so back to the the standards that you accept. I could quite easily just go to my jobs, check on the team, walk around quickly, and not scan the jobs and check those types of things. But by me walking around, scanning those types of things, pulling my team up and explaining and showing and pointing those types of things out where I do, that's setting that's showing them the expectation that I have and that I do want things to be as close to perfect as possible. I completely get it that there is no such thing as perfect. Um, there is always a better solution, a better way, a better outcome, um, a different way to do things. But we all should be striving at a bare minimum to be that extra 1% better every single day at everything that we do. And I believe by me having very high expectations uh when it comes to, like, I'm still talking about stuff on site, so the quality of work and stuff, it is up to me to point out those things and set a high standard because ultimately that's why my clients are coming to build with DPS constructions. That's why I guess it's why people come to and join Live Life Build to run better building businesses because they see how I run my business. They they want to have a business like my building business. Like, and so for me, I'll never lower my standards. I'm I'm not, I'm definitely not going to ever get to a point where people just give me an excuse and I accept it and I move on. Um, and I do believe that all this is part of why our industry is in such a bad way. I I do feel like builders need to step up and start setting higher expectations and standards with their suppliers, with their trades, with their own team. I also believe that um trades need to set higher expectations with their own teams as well. Um like I like I'm very grateful to have the trades that we have on our jobs. Um, Aiden and the guys from Platinum Plastering, like Aiden is all over it. He's he's always investing in himself, um running a better business, coming up with better solutions to do plastering. And like we quite often have conversations around things and how to get better outcomes and scheduling and how we can do things differently on projects and those types of things. So I really appreciate that. Same as our the plumbers that we use, the electricians that we use, um, our tiler, Shane, Densley's Elite Umile and Stone. Like I want trades that are going to turn up to my jobs and be concerned. Like a tile, like Shane turns up and and they're concerned about the tile set out. Like they they don't just come in and slap tiles down and just get them down as quickly as they can and move on to the next job. Uh, we've done a couple of these in the last like we've got two, um, like one$2.2 million job and another$3.2 million job that they've been doing the tiling work on uh over the last sort of four to six weeks. And like it, there's a lot of time involved before they even lay a tile. Uh by the time Shane actually does all their waterproofing and and stuff as well. So by the time he has site meetings with my site supervisors and uh understands the job, uh we set up all like we work together to set up all the drains to make sure that they're going to work with tile set outs. Um, we get him in to do all his waterproofing, he does all of his bedding. Um, we go through all the tile set out together, and then even on the day that he's his actual tilers turn up to start doing the tiling, on some jobs, it it is easily half a day, if not more. Sometimes it might be a full day. By the time you go through every single bathroom, all the floors, and set up lasers, um, flick lines, but you put in that effort to do the tile set out to make sure that there's not little tiny pieces of tiles in places that there shouldn't be, that grout lines join up or line up with tops of doors, tops of windows, or tops of nib walls, or tile set outs work so that there's full tiles around niches in walls and all those types of things. It all takes time, but the only reason that we get the best outcomes we do on all of our projects is because of the expectations that we're setting. And it's been really interesting over the last sort of 10 months, or nine months, 11 months, um seeing uh the new supervisor that come on board in our business understand the expectations that I have. And I completely get it that having such high expectations does lead to problems on our projects, but I'm quite happy to work my way through those problems and have those discussions with people to bring them up to my standard so that we can continue to get better outcomes for our clients on our projects. But um, yeah, just for me, hearing the fallback all the time that the reason we have certain problems is because our expect my expectations are so high. Um I as I said before, I think it's it's almost hilarious. Like we to get to some to get to somewhere, like if you want to be a well-known builder, if you want to run a great building business, it all starts with your expectations. You have to set expectations around what your minimum standards are across the board, like how do you want your business to operate, who do you want working in your business, what trades do you want working for you? What standards are you going to set for your um for your clients, and all those types of things. So if you're one of these people out there that is possibly getting told that your standards are too high, um then look, take it from me, stick to your guns. I know lots of great builders that have standards exactly like I do, or maybe even higher. And they're all great builders. I also know a lot of builders that let their trades just walk all over them. And I see this a lot, like in the past, like when we've been looking for new trades, uh, I might get recommended someone from another builder, and I meet with them or they start on site, and it's a disaster. Like we the first three hours are just me telling them how they should be doing things, and the number probably my the number one excuse that I hate, I hate this with a passion from people is that such and such accepts that or such and such does it like that. I don't give a fuck what such and such does it like. You're on my job now, you do it to my standards. And I feel in the building industry, this is like I said, it's a it's there's obviously you have like a lot of the and I'm not look, I'm not trying to bad mouth volume builders and project builders. Um, there is some great ones out there, but there is also a lot of really, really bad ones that are allowing shit work to take place, and a lot of that's happening because of that that race to the bottom to try and be the cheapest builder and deliver the cheapest home they can to a client. And I actually find in my building business we attract clients that want those high expectations that I set. Like that's why they come to us, and they're happy to pay for it. And the the more we educate them through our pack process, the more they want. The more I educate them on why we use a certain material and the durability of why we a material or the way we're going to do something, or the the lifespan of something versus something else, or um how the house performs, like all these things that a lot of people tell me that my standards are too high, are actually things that are adding value to people. And so this all comes back to you've got to try and you've got to attract the right types of clients that want the value that you're adding. So, yeah, if look, I guess a word of advice for anyone that's ever um thinking about coming and working for me or doing or being a tradie on one of my jobs, like I don't accept that comment that uh all the other builds I work for are fine with this, or all the other builders I work for, let me do that. That doesn't cut it on my job. So um just putting it out there. But the other thing is with um, like I've already touched on it, it having high standards does uh affect us when it comes to attracting trades, but it does it also affects us when it comes to attracting new team members. It's like again, because I put myself out there so much on social media and I talk a lot about the quality of our work and how we do things, a lot of people don't apply for jobs with us or um like I I've had you wouldn't believe the amount of messages I've had on uh Instagram when we've been putting uh we've actually got one out now, and I'll I guess I'll talk about on this podcast. If you're a chippy out there that is looking to work with a quality builder, we are on the hunt. We need to build our team. So uh give us a shout out. But I get so many messages, you wouldn't believe the messages I've had from carpenters that say, Dwayne, I would love to work with you, but I don't know if I'm up to your standard. And again, I think that's a really shitty comment. I I feel if you want to come, if you want to come and work for me, come and work for me. You'll only learn how to like I'm like I put it out there all the time, I don't know everything. Um, I'm always learning. Every day is a school day. There is always something to learn, something to do better, like there's a better way, all that type of stuff. So don't like don't talk yourself down. Like, how do you know you're not up to my standard? Or yes, you may not have been taught to do things the way that we do them on our projects, but that doesn't mean you can't learn. So don't hold yourself back or put yourself down by thinking that you're not up to somebody's standards. If you want to be at that level, if you want to um lift your standards, if you want to do better work, the best way to do it is to put yourself out there and go and work with someone that is doing the work that you want to do. Don't hold yourself back because you think that you might not be up to their standards, because that you you will be stuck there for the rest of your life. Um so I guess to move on and to get away from the work side of things, it's exactly the same in your life. Like your life will only ever be as good as the standards that you're accepting. If you're one of these people that struggle every day, you feel you constantly feel tired, you struggle to get motivated, you deal with depression and maybe anxiety, um, you feel like things don't go your way all the time. Like, all this comes back to a standard that you're setting for yourself. And nine times out of ten, that is how you start your day in the morning. If you're someone that hits the snooze button, that standard that you have set for yourself is ruining your life. If you're someone that just keeps hitting that snooze button or hits the snooze button, then tosses and turns in bed, closes your eyes, tries to force yourself to sleep, you are setting a standard that is ruining your life. If you flick that standard to be the alarm goes off, you jump out of bed, doesn't matter how tired you feel or how shitty you feel, you jump out of bed, you have a cold shower, you hydrate yourself, you do five, ten minutes quick exercise, you get the blood pumping, you have just completely changed the expectation for the rest of your life. If you do that every single day, your life will excel faster than you can imagine. Because it's all about the expectation and the standard that you set first thing in the morning. If you start the day strong, you will finish the day strong. It's that simple. Um, it's the same with the people we hang around. Like if you if you are hanging around people that aren't adding value to your life, if you're hanging around people that are still having this just the same boring shit conversations that you've had for the last five, ten, fifteen, twenty years, that are you might be still hanging around people that you went to school with and they're still talking about the same shit they were 10, 20, 30 years ago. Um if you're hanging around people that are just sitting around drinking piss all the time or smoking all the time, like you can you can't, it's impossible. You cannot get to the next level because you're always accepting that expectation of the people around you. So um, yeah, you you need to set new expectations for yourself, and that will allow you to grow and excel and be someone different. So um, so many people are scared to break bad habits, and those bad habits can be, like I said, the way you get out of bed in the morning, um, the people you associate and hang around. It could be like one of the best bad habits that I broke uh in my entire life is completely switching off uh radio, news, television. I cannot tell you the last time that I've listened to the radio, I can't stand it. Um like my Camille gets a shit every time I'm in the car, I cannot have the radio on. If she has it on, I turn it off straight away. And um occasionally she'll say, Oh, it's good, just something different. I'm like, I don't want it, don't want to hear it because I do not want to hear the same shit repeated to me every fucking 30 minutes, like on the 30, like every half an hour on the half hour. Like it's just it's brainwashing us. Um, same with news, like television. Like, I I cannot tell you, I don't know what's going on in the world. I don't care about other countries, I don't care about other governments, I don't care about finances. Like I run my own race, and that is an expectation that I've set for myself. I do not allow myself to get sucked in to all the bullshit you hear on the radio and you see on the TV. Uh the other expectation is social media. Um, look, this one is this one is life-changing. If you if you are accepting that you it's okay for you to scroll through social media half an hour a day, and that's that's lean on because I'm telling, like, I guarantee you, if I was to run into your street, get your phone off you, look through your page and see how much screen time you're spending on social media, it would be more than likely one to three hours a day. And like seriously, the in in the industry, the building industry that that I'm uh I'm creating a new one, the number one excuse that I get given to by hundreds of people is that they don't have enough time. If you changed your expectation, so instead of allowing yourself to flick through social media for even if it is only half an hour or an hour a day, if you change the expectation and you said to yourself, My new expectation is that I am only going to get on social media for 15 minutes a day, that will change your life. Because that other 15 minutes or that other 45 minutes, that is time that you can now spend doing. Doing productive things, educating yourself, listen to audible books, listen to podcasts, get in the office, smash out some quotes or do some do some estimating, just do something productive because it's an expectation that you're setting with yourself. And again, you're only as good as the expectation that you accept. And if you think it's okay to accept that you can scroll on social media for hours a day, then don't blame the universe for not giving you what you want. Um, you'll never achieve your goals if you're wasting time on social media, listening to the news, listening to the radio. Um, you've got to break those bad habits and set yourself new expectations. Um guys, look, I hope this I hope this is resonating with you because honestly, and look, I guess just back to the reason I did this podcast, um, are my standards too high? My standards will continue to grow. I don't believe my standards are too high. If anything, I think they're too low. And I'm working on a lot of things in my businesses to um to lift my expectations, to lift my team, to lift my performance, to lift my personal wealth, to lift my business um, like all that sort of sort of stuff. Like I am part of everything that I do and uh all the personal development that I'm doing uh and my growth is all because I am lifting constantly lifting my expectations. Even when it comes to uh exercise, like I said, and if you listen to my podcast regularly, you would have heard me say this. I don't know what uh day I'm on now, but um over 12 months ago, or just over 12 months ago, I committed to do the Kakoda track in uh PG. Uh it's booked in, we're doing it in 2026 in April for Anzac Day. I made that commitment to myself. Um, like I said, it's over 12 months ago now, so we're currently in November. So um yeah, 18 months prior to doing the trip, and I made a commitment and set an expectation that I would train every single day. And I'll put my hand up. I have missed a couple, a few days. Like there's there's honestly, there'd be less than half a dozen days that I've missed. I've made a commitment to do some form of training every single day, but not only did I set that expectation with myself, I have lifted it probably 10x since I set it. I started off just doing some body weight stuff. I then got a trainer involved. I'm now doing multiple different exercises, body weight stuff, hiking, walking, weights. Um, I've changed my diet completely. So I have 10x'd the expectation that I've set with myself to reach a fitness level that I'm happy with. And the reason that I've done that, um I turned 45 a couple of months ago, and I'm aware that I'm getting older. And the older that I get, the harder it's gonna be for me to get fit, the harder it's gonna be for me to lose weight, the harder it's gonna be for me to feel good. So I've started a bit of a mission now, and I'm I feel like I'm in my 20s again. And I'm so glad I've done that over the last 12 months, because if I continue to put in the effort and set that expectation about what I'm doing, I am hoping that I'll continue to feel good. I'll I'll be able to be more energetic, I'll be able to do more stuff with my kids, I'll be able to do more stuff on my farm, and I'll be able to enjoy my life a lot better. So, as I said, like the the more you lift the expectations of yourself personally, and the more you lift the expectations of your business and what you accept in your business, the more everything will improve around you. So, guys, I'm gonna wrap it up there. Um, I hope this has been a good podcast. Um, look, I I love this shit. I love talking about it, I love putting it out there. I love the feedback I get from all you guys that are listening and watching. Um, and I love the fact that I can inspire so many of you. So, look, as always, um like, subscribe, share, all those types of things. Make sure you go to the DwaynePearce.com website uh and get your hands on all of our merch, the caps, the T's, the shorts, the socks. We've got so much gear now. I appreciate everyone that's buying the gear, it's fantastic. Um, because you guys are really helping my level up movement towards creating a new building industry. Um, yeah, look forward to seeing you on the next one. Cheers, guys. 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