Why Your Small Goals Are Keeping You BROKE (Change This Now)

In this episode, I break down the 3 things holding builders and tradies back from real success:

❌ Setting goals that are too small
❌ Making everyone's urgent problems YOUR problems
❌ Letting old-fashioned values limit your potential

Stop answering every phone call. Stop chasing your tail. Start thinking BIGGER.

If you're not where you want to be in 2025, it's time to take ownership and level up for 2026.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome, Year In Review, Gratitude
• 4:20 Core Message: Ownership And Mindset
• 4:38 Small Goals And The Power Of Journaling
• 7:37 Breaking Old Values That Cap Ambition
• 10:27 Aim High, Measure, Review, Repeat
• 13:58 Visualising Big Dreams: The Expedition Boat
• 16:38 Urgent Problems And Lack Of Structure
• 19:30 Case Study: Site Chaos And Bottlenecks
• 21:43 Systems, Boundaries, And Phone Discipline
• 24:38 Train Your Team To Self-Solve
• 26:40 Redefining Efficiency And Respect
• 28:38 Values, Fear, And Shrinking Goals
• 30:48 Final Principles, Boundaries, And CTA

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:28

G'day guys, welcome back to another episode of Level Up. We are back in the shed this afternoon for another cracking episode. I tell you what, you guys are loving these solo podcasts. It's been fantastic getting the feedback, and I've been collating a list of uh topics that you guys want to hear me talk about. So today we're going to cover off on a few of those. But before we jump into it, uh like seriously, today is the 30th of October. Um, 2025 has just absolutely flown. I'll tell you what, it has been a huge year for all of my businesses. Um, and I just want to put a massive shout out to all my teams, all my staff, all my contractors, all my suppliers, uh, my managers, my site supervisors, my wife in the office, uh, my accounts manager Sharon, um, anybody at all that works for me, massive shout out because seriously, we have worked our asses off this year and we have absolutely smashed it. We've gotten a lot of shit done. So, look, I hope everyone's had a had a great year. But if you haven't, you may need to start implementing some of the stuff that I talk about on this podcast because as I say all the time, nothing happens to you. Everything happens because of you. And if you're not right, nothing around you can be right. Your finance, if you're not in the right headspace, if you're not in the right mindset, your finances can't be right, your relationships can't be right, your business can't be right, your employees can't be right, your team can't be right, like nothing. So um, yeah, if you haven't had the year that you expected to have in 2025, maybe it's time you started taking some ownership, some responsibility, and lifting your game, stepping it up a bit so that you can have an incredible year in 2026. So uh let's move on to today's podcast. So, today's podcast is small goals, urgent problems, and old-fashioned values are holding you back. There's a few things to unpack in in this one today, but um, it's all really good quality stuff. We'll start with the small goals. Um I I personally believe setting goals is one of the I guess cornerstones to being successful. Um look, everybody in this world's different, everybody does things differently, achieves things differently. But for me, I know a lot of my success has come because I am I am very I journal a lot, I write a lot of stuff down in my journals. I've got I talked about it a lot, I've got journals everywhere. I've got a journal beside my bed, I've got um right as of today. I can honestly tell you, I've got a journal beside my bed, I've got three on my desk, I've got one in the door of my truck, I've got one sitting here beside me. Um, I have journals everywhere because that way there's no excuses. Um, if stuff pops into my head, I write it down. And I know there's a lot of mentors and coaches and things out there or um influencers and like do it in the morning, do it before you go to bed. And look, that's great. But for me, my trick is that I do it when it's in my head. So when things pop into my head, whether it's through having conversations with people, whether it's just driving along, listening to podcasts, or just chilling out, listening to music, if something pops into my head, I will quite often just pull over, write it down, or um when I get to the next stop, I'll write it down. But so I believe that most people are setting small goals, and it's a big reason why they're not achieving what the things they want to achieve in their life. And the reason I've tied these three topics together today, um, because I do believe they all work together. Um, they either work together really badly or they work together really well. Um a lot of the reason people only have small goals is because of uh old-fashioned values, uh, the way that they've been brought up. But a lot of the time it's because they feel they hold themselves back on the goals they set because they feel that they can't overtake could be their parents, could be aunties and uncles, could be just uh people that influence them, that are older than them. It could be anything, but a lot of people are really held back in the goals that they set for themselves because of that. They they don't want to, they they feel uncomfortable, they don't feel that they deserve to earn a certain amount of money, or they don't feel that they deserve to overtake their parents when it comes to what they earn and what what their wealth is. Um, and that is a really old-fashioned value. Um and it's something you need to break. Like, we all every single person on this planet is our own individual human being. Uh, it is completely okay for you to have the whatever goals you want to have, and by like I talk about all the time, like run your own race, like just go for goal, like set goals that are so high that in this moment right now, you may think you would never have a chance of getting to. Because I would rather have a goal that is fucking way up in the stars and only get to the clouds. Um, because getting to the clouds is a lot further than where I am now. So set goals that are super, super high. And look, if you only get halfway there, it's not a bad thing, you've still gone a long way. But setting goals means that you've got something to, you've got a target. And for me, everything I do in my life, I'm very structured. I am, as you hear me talk about all the time, I am all about the numbers. Like, numbers don't lie, and I am all over the numbers, and not just in finances, but with everything, like with time management, with uh time frames to set goals, time frames to achieve goals, and all those types of things. And for me, I think back like by having every a lot of stuff in my journals, it's super inspiring when you go back and you read them, and I think that's another thing that a lot of people don't do. They write things down or they set goals, but they don't go back and review them. And whether it's uh going back and flicking through a journal from five years ago or five months ago, I love going back and going through my journals, and like sometimes I'll get a pen and I'm like, I've done that, I've done that, I've done that, I've done that. Like and that inspires me to push harder and set bigger goals so that in five years' time I can look back again and see where I've um what I've achieved and where I've ended up. So stop setting small goals and raise your standards, believe in yourself, and set goals that you like there that are in your wildest dreams, and just go for it because the one of the best ways to move ahead in life and be successful and reach your goals is to set intention. And it's incredible how the universe works. When you like I I visualize a lot, like I I can see like some goal, some of the goals I write down, I can I can see myself in uh like one of one of the goals I have um at the moment is I want to have an expedition boat. Uh so I've I'm doing a lot of research, a lot of homework because with hopefully within the well in the next five to ten years, uh we'll be in a position where the businesses will operate themselves, we'll have enough passive income that we'll be able to travel a lot more. And I'm don't I'm not a normal traveler, like I want to visit remote places and locations and see incredible things that not many people get to see. And look, I could go and charter a boat or pay to go on a cruise or whatever, but I don't want to do that. I want to buy my own expedition boat, I want to have a captain, and I want to visit incredible places. So I'm putting it out there on this podcast, and hopefully I'll watch this podcast back in five years' time and I'll be sitting on the deck of my expedition boat. So I can visual, I've quite often visualize myself sitting on the deck of my expedition boat, up in the Kimberley or somewhere maybe around Antarctica or out in the mole dives or somewhere, whether it's fishing, snorkeling, exploring ancient Aboriginal art, like I can see it as clear as day that I am going to achieve that goal. I'm gonna purchase that expedition boat, and I'm gonna be in that position. So um I think that's another really important thing. You've you've got to visualize things, you've got to don't let thoughts of what other people are gonna think hold you back, don't let uh old-fashioned values about the way you've been brought up hold you back. Don't let the this thought that you you're overtaking people hold you back. Like, who get like don't worry about what other people think, just focus on yourself, run your own race, set your own goals, and visualize where you want to end up. Um so hopefully you can see how it's all starting to tie together with with values and those types of things. But the other part of today's podcast with the um urgent problems is I I was bad for this as well, and I see it now with the hundreds of builders um that I deal with through my training business and through my social media and and tradies. Everyone gets so caught up just simply by not having any structure, but making everybody else's problems their problems and having this urgency about trying to resolve everything, and this will take you away from your goals and it'll stop you from achieving things, especially when it comes to running a successful business. Because at the end of the day, unless you've got some structure, unless you um unless you set yourself up for success, unless you avoid certain situations and certain people and certain things, you will always get caught up in spending all day every day running around or wasting time solving problems that aren't getting you ahead or getting you anywhere. Alright, guys, I want to introduce you to a really exciting new product that I believe is going to play a massive role in Australia building healthier homes. As you all know, I am extremely passionate about healthy homes and I'm doing a lot of research and putting a lot of time and effort into making sure my construction business is leading the way when it comes to building healthy homes here in Australia. We've teamed up with the guys from Highwood Timber. Highwood Timber are pioneering condensation management with their high flow ventilated LVL batten system. High flow battons give builders a stronger, straighter, and smarter way to create a ventilated cavity behind cladding and underneath roofs without compromising on structural performance. While tackling condensation to improve building health and ease of insulation, highwood battons are built to perform. When it comes to dealing with condensation and ventilation, high flow battons will help you create continuous ventilated cavities behind all your cladding and underneath your roof sheeting. They reduce condensation risk and support healthier, longer lasting buildings. 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And a good example of this is like I used to see it all the time, we we don't get it anymore because we have so much structure in my building business. But when I was doing a lot of the site supervision, I it didn't matter what job, it didn't matter how much information we had in the Google Drive or whatever program we were using. But if I turned up to site, I could quite easily turn up expecting to be there for an hour, and five hours later I'm still there because everybody on site has made all their problems my problems. And some of those problems were that trades hadn't even taken the time to review documents that they'd been sent or give their team their own documents, and then I would have to spend all my time sorting out stuff for them, and that would take me away from what I'd planned to do for the day, which then felt like it was snowballing, which would get really overwhelming, because then obviously what I didn't get done would flow onto the next day, and I was just constantly chasing my tail all the time. And then I started to work on myself, do a lot of professional development, change my mindset, change the way we do things, get a lot more structure, and step back a bit from my businesses as they grew. And then I started to see this happening to my supervisors, and so then I had to spend some a lot of time with my supervisors, and I still spend a lot of time with my supervisors educating them and helping them grow so that they don't end up in those situations where they're just wasting all day, every day, constantly getting caught up in problems that shouldn't be their problems to start with. So I see this happening every day to trade and builders all over the country. I see it on Instagram, and some of the stuff I see on Instagram really quite frustrates me. It really annoys me when I see tradies and builders whinging about these types of scenarios because they're the they're part of the problem because they're not stepping back and they're allowing everyone else's problems to become their problems instead of having systems, processes, structure, and giving people time to sort um sort themselves out. And a good example of this is so many builders and tradies just will not ignore their phone. Their phone, if their phone rings, they're answering it. Most of the time, the people that are calling them, they know that they then it doesn't matter where they are or who they're with, they're going to answer their phone. And so the person that's calling, instead of looking up the Google Drive on their phone or looking up whatever software the business is getting run on on their phone, or even instead of going to the site box and reviewing drawings or looking at documents, they know that it's easier just to get the phone out of their pocket, ring up the boss, and ask the question. And if you're the type of boss that is constantly just answering every single call and giving them the information they need, you're actually the bottleneck. You're the problem. Because they will never learn how to fend for themselves. And this this sort of thing happens through life with with kids, with parents, with like just people in general, family and friends. But when it comes to running a business, you can't operate like this. It's really bad. And it's probably a little bit of a, I guess, a test for some of you to try out. Try not answering your phone. And some of you are probably, you probably already know this, you've you've already realized that this happens. If you don't answer your phone, they have to go and sort things out for themselves. And look, let's face it, it even the worst employees aren't just going to stand around and waste all day for you to call them back. Yes, they might waste a little bit of time, but sooner or later then they know they're going to have to find information out because when you come to site, they can't just say to you, hey, you didn't answer your phone, so I've got nothing done. Because you you'll sack them, you'll get rid of them. Because if that's the case, they shouldn't be working in your business. And so they know sooner or later you're going to be back, you're going to want to know why they haven't done anything. So they're going to realize they've got to sort stuff out for themselves. And it doesn't take long for this to snowball. And if you um if you structure yourself and your team know that they're you're not available all the time, you will slowly start to see that your team will start to figure things out for themselves. And yes, there's probably going to be some situations along the way where things might not be quite how you want them or quite go to plan, but that's where you step in and you educate them on what you set expectations and how you wanted things done. And it just keeps growing. Like you never get perfection straight away. I think this is a big thing for a lot of tradies and builders. Like, you're so afraid to not answer the phone call from the employee or from the client, even, or from the subcontractor, or whoever it may be, because you're so concerned that if you don't answer that call, they're not going to do something correctly, you're not going to get to like something done in time, you're not going to make money, or it's going to cost you more money. And you have all these fears flying around in your head that are holding you back from growth. Um, and that's just the way the way things work. So I encourage you to just take a step back. And there's so many ways you can do this. You can not take your phone into meetings, and you should you shouldn't be anyway, really. Like the person you're meeting with should have your full attention. So start by not taking your phone into meetings. Start by leaving your phone in the office after like after outside of your working hours. Um, start by if you're having a site meeting with a client or if you're a contractor or a builder and you're having a uh you're on site and you're talking through work with your team. Um just don't answer your phone. Turn it off. One thing that has allowed me to have huge growth uh in my mindset, in my um, I guess my attitude around things, um, uh with the attention that I give people is that I do not have one notification on my phone. I do not have, I talked about this a lot, I don't have any buzzer or ringing, I have nothing. So I don't I never know what is happening. I never know what's happening on social media, I never know when I'm getting emails, I never know when I'm getting messages. For me to see any of those things, I have to physically pick up my phone, unlock it, and go to my emails or go to my social media or go to To my messages or WhatsApp, whatever it is. And so I can give whoever I'm spending time with, whether it's uh having a site meeting with some of my teams on site, whether it's uh one of my supervisors, whether it's my wife coming in the office, Sharon, my accounts manager, um, or some someone in my live life build business or quotes, doesn't matter, whoever it is, they get my full attention because even if my phone's in my pocket, it doesn't vibrate, it doesn't ring, it does nothing. And I don't know what's going on in the world until I finish that meeting, I leave, I jump in the Ute, or I get outside the building or the office, or I leave the site until I actually look at it. And that has allowed me to not get caught up in all these um urgent problems that everybody every at the end of the day, everyone will always think they're more important. Everyone will always think that what they need is urgent, and you're the only one that can um you're the only one that can control how you handle those situations. And look, as simple as all this stuff sounds, it will change your life. It won't just change your business, it will change your life. You will start to feel like you've got more control, you'll start to feel like you've um you've got more structure, you'll and probably the best one, you will start to feel like you've got a lot more time. So, again, the reason I've tied these three things together about small goals, um, urgent problems, and values is because a lot of people won't like will feel uncomfortable. Um, they'll think they're ignoring someone if they don't answer their phone because of their values. Like they're you might be brought up with values that um you can't like you've got to answer people, you've got to give people answers straight away, you've got to respond quickly, you've got to be efficient with things. That is not being like answering all your phone calls is not being efficient. Um, not answering your phone calls or your messages or your emails and giving someone full attention is not being rude. Um, it's actually more it you're actually being a lot more rude if you take a call or you respond to a message or you look at an email while you're having a meeting with someone. So yeah, don't let the your values like have rethink your values and how you um how you interpret things because it will make a very big difference. And again, it it ties in with the goals because lots of people have these goals that they want to run a great business, they want efficiency from their business, they want freedom from their business, but because they everything become so urgent, they they'll never get there and they'll never reach that goal. And so those those goals get reduced and reduced and reduced and reduced. And before long, a goal that was to have a great business with uh multiple staff and an office and a business that runs itself so they can go on away and enjoy themselves on holidays gets reduced to they just want to be able to turn up on site, do work, get paid good money because they feel they don't have time to do everything because everyone else's urgent problems are becoming their urgent problems and they feel like they haven't got enough time to do everything. So this um everything, everything fits together, and it's really important that you are open-minded about all these things. So, guys, I'm gonna wrap this podcast up because I could go on for hours and hours about this sort of stuff because I am addicted to it. I love this stuff. Like I said at the beginning, absolutely nothing in life happens to you, everything happens because of you. Grant Cat, I know that's a Grant Cardone saying, but uh I absolutely love it. I live my life by it constantly, I think it every day. Um, and the other thing, just to repeat again, is if you aren't right, nothing around you can be right. So if you haven't evaluated your values and you are the one that's the bottleneck, that's the problem, that's making, that thinks everything's urgent. And if you don't deal with it, if you don't respond to it, if you don't answer it, if you don't look at it, then you're not like things that the world's gonna end, the jobs are gonna slow down, you're not gonna make money, uh the whoever's calling won't be happy, your clients won't be happy. You're you're the problem. You've got to set boundaries, and those boundaries can be as simple as not responding to things urgently, not answering every phone call that you get. Change your bloody voice message for like seriously, just um let people know that if they miss you, you'll get back to them in a timely manner. So, guys, as always, I love your feedback, love your questions. Um, your support on social media lately has been absolutely fantastic. So, uh, look, I genuinely appreciate all of it. Um, if you haven't been to the DwaynePears.com website yet, make sure you go on there and check out our merch. Um, thanks to everybody that has bought merch over the last sort of month or two. We've had some uh pretty cool orders going out. Um, because yeah, by you wearing wearing the level up merchandise, it's continuing to help my mission and my purpose of creating a new building industry. Um, guys, look forward to seeing you on the next one. Like, share, subscribe, all of those things, and uh continue to have a cracking day.