October 12, 2025 • 18 mins
What do you do when you've built a successful business in a niche that most people don't even know exists? Oliver Lonergan went from selling lollies in primary school to running Professional Picture Hanging—a 12-person operation spanning Australia's east coast and London, with major contracts including Crown Sydney and luxury hotels. At just years out of school, he's facing the classic scale-up challenge: how do you grow from 1 million to 5 million without losing what makes you special?
In this episode, Naomi tackles Oliver's tough questions: building a memorable brand in an "invisible" industry, navigating the leadership shifts required for multi-location growth, and whether to plan for acquisition now or later. From AI-powered scheduling to strategic partnerships and the power of a well-branded van, this conversation is packed with actionable advice for any service-based business looking to scale. Plus, discover why being someone's first customer sometimes comes back to you in the best way possible.
NaomiSimson.com
www.professionalpicturehanging.com.au
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Apoche Production. Hello, I'm Naomi Simpson and Handpicked Season five
is here, and the entrepreneurs this time are not going
easy on me. Those questions just keep coming, whether it's
about building a brand in a taboo subject or what
(00:28):
about sales, Oh yeah, sales, sales, sales. We're all trying
to find more customers. And what about changing customer demands
or balancing high tech with high touch. These entrepreneurs and
business owners are really really asking the questions that will
help every business owner and their team just get more
(00:51):
ideas on how to cope with everything they're tackling in
the day. Now, new episodes drop every Monday, and remember
to subscribe so that here the next Lotus episode. Anyway,
join me on hand Picked on Mondays. Hi, I'm Naomi
Simpson and this is another episode of hand Picked, the
(01:14):
podcast where I get to chat to all sorts of
different founders, entrepreneurs and business owners. And today I've got
Ollie Lonigan. Now, Ollie and I do go way back.
In fact, I remember when it was a whipper snapper.
So I am so happy to see the next generation
of business owners and founders. And Ollie, You've got a
fabulous story. So maybe why don't we talk about your
(01:38):
first venture and now what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Thank you very much for having me, Naomi. I must
say you have been a big inspiration to me growing
up and seeing what you've done and seeing you on
Shark Tank, so I appreciate it. My first venture was
probably when I was in about in year four, selling
that I've always had business in my blood. I've always
loved it. I started selling lollies like these little Zappo
(02:05):
if anyone remembers them, and I bought a five pack
of them for two dollars at Woollies and we would
sell them each individually for two dollars. And I kept
selling these at school and then started hiring some of
my friends and paying them to start selling, and we
had about four of us selling them all until one
day one of my key workers, I should say, I
(02:29):
got busted by your dad with a whole bag full
of lollies, so that there was a phone call to
my parents and we had to stop that big booming business.
But ever since then, I've just loved business. I've loved
all like thinking outside the box and just like the growth,
you know, starting something from nothing and watching it grow.
(02:49):
I've loved it.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Now let's talk about your current venture, which you started
straight out of school if I remember.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yes, yes, absolutely, so I now own and run Professional Picchanging.
So what we do in Professional Picchanging, as the name says,
we hang up. We do framing, we do picture rails,
we do art transport, so we do most things involved
around artworks. My main focus is going into people's homes, offices, hotels, casinos,
(03:22):
whatever it may be, offering that curation advice, getting all
the design right and then hanging it. So, yeah, I've
grown that from just out of school to now. We've
got twelve people, We've got places all across the East
Coast and over in London. We've got a branch over
in London as of about sixteen months ago. So I've
(03:43):
just been really enjoying the growth of that and yeah,
focused on that for now. I think it's really fantastic,
this niche. It's a problem that people have and sometimes
they don't even realize they have that problem.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
But I do. Remember I've had some massive contracts, didn't
you that get the contract for Crown in Sydney or something.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yes, yes, absolutely, those are the ones I love. I
love to chase those We've done the Crown in Barangaroo
in Sydney, so we did that was about fifteen hundred
pieces all throughout every single hotel room, the lobbies, the foyers,
the penthouse, so we get to see some pretty amazing
and also one Sydney Harbor where we did all the
framing for them and the installation of close to one
(04:24):
thousand artworks there and Capella Hotel, all those sort of
projects I absolutely love and yeah, we like to focus
on them as well.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
That's terrific. So what questions do you have for me today?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
So my first question is something you touched on It
was picturing. It is such a niche, right, and a
lot of people don't think they need it, or they
don't I don't think they even understand it's a service
that's out there, right, So I'm wondering how I could
build a brand story in a niche like this to
be able to be memorable and to also stay top
of mind for when people need it.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Well, first of all, I think the name of the
business is pretty fantastic because it does what it says
on the label means that you're discoverable and people will
find you. But I wonder what you could put around
it to make it a little bit more memorable, whether
it's visually or personality wise. You are a personality, and
(05:19):
I think about believe it or not. I think about,
do you remember Jimmy Brings? Do you know that? And
there's that guy's his name's actually Dave Berger, that's the
day but the guy who's on the side, and he
was actually a team member at Red Balloon, but he
founded that business a very long time ago, but it
was such a personality. Now I'm not saying you necessarily
(05:39):
put your mugget on your side of your but you
see my point. It's you see that you just know
what it is straight away. So I do think about
some visual cues, or I think about some auditory cues,
like what is it that you could put around it
so when people see it they go, oh, I never
thought of that. And obviously, because it's artwork and picture hanging,
(06:01):
there's an array of colors available to you. So I
do think that that could be really quite interesting. And
the thing about building a brand is it's the same
thing over and over again. So even if you think
you're getting bored, that consistency of doing it in every
contact point will actually build it. I was also thinking
(06:24):
about the word of mouth is really important to you,
because I was at the gym this morning and there
is like, I don't know, sixteen women who you know,
they just like they don't know what they need. So
I would look for some very niche audiences. And I'm
sure you've done this working with interior designers and architects
(06:46):
as well, but having something that reinforces it over and
over again. But yeah, look for some visual or auditory
cues I think would be great.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I like that. I like that. That is good.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I know you've got a mate who's very good at designs,
so we might have.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
To Matthew Dowie, Yes, he is looking at Oh yeah,
he designed our van branding and I get on it
all the time, which is awesome. So I just keep
you And I.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Know you parked that at the bottom of the peninsula
so everybody sees it and it's like a billboard, and
I guess it's like, how can you repeat that over
and over again to have it in the places where
the people are that need it and will refer it.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
So yeah, like the Jimmy Brings Vance, they were everywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
But you know, I was talking to Ronnie Kahan just
on Friday, and she's the founder of os Harvest, and
people would say, oh, I see you van, Oh see
you everywhere? How many trucks? You only had one truck
And we used to have red balloon minis, and we
did have two, but people would think the point was
just keep them on the road because it's a free
(07:56):
billboard and if it stands out enough, people will remember
that's the point.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So you know what I saw the other day, I
was driving back somewhere in the hinterlands of the Gold Coast.
I saw a big red balloon van, a big like minibus,
red balloon minibus in the middle of nowhere. I think
they're going skydiving or doing something like that. And I
was like, oh my god.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
It's actually kind of the similar thing of what I'm saying.
Because we're an online business, we don't have that many
physical touch points, and so we started working with our
partners and our suppliers and saying, oh, you need a
new van, why don't we help you with that, But
it's going to have our logo on it. So yeah,
we have hot air balloons, we have that bus. We've
(08:40):
got a whole bunch of different assets around the place
with our partners because we needed something physical, a physical reminder.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Can I actually ask a question in terms of that,
do you do you say, hey, let's like go halves
in the van or how do you kind of incentivize those?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
So each of the deals is different. So with the
hot Air balloons, I think we actually own the envelope,
which is the silk piece, like I think actually assets
of our business, so it's the same like we might
sign somebody with an exclusive like for instance, we did
to deal with the Sydney seaplanes. I don't remember the
exact specifics, but part of that was to wrap the
(09:18):
seaplane with Red Balloon logos and so that was flying
over Sydney Harbor for years. So yes, there is a
there is a commercial part of it, but because we've
had such long relationships as well, it is often tied
up with exclusivity. We've got a jet boat in Perth,
so everybody's like, oh, red Balloon is in Perth. I've
(09:41):
been on the Red Balloon jet but we go, no,
we're not. We're virtual. So that physicalness has really been
important wherever we can because we don't have it, you know,
Janine on the show Janine who had boost you. So
I was always really well envious because if somebody buys
and they're walking around with that green pup, it's reinforcing
(10:02):
that that's what people want, and it's re forcing the
brand over and over. So anyway, let's get to question
number two.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Question number two, So the journey from zero to one
million is one thing, right, that's a whole, it's awesome journey.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
And then then you make it sound easy, but yes, that's.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
A lot of challenging. But from the road from one
to five is a completely different ballgame, right, with completely
different things in your experience. What sort of personal shifts
do you need to take in that journey and do
you think there needs to be a change in leadership
styles in the different journeys.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, you've really touched on it perfectly. Because to get scale,
it's about systems and processes. Like you can be quite
hands on, know every customer, know every transaction, but if
you're ever going to scale, you have to be able
to replicate the customer experience and that takes investment. If
(11:00):
you don't have the foundations right in a business, you
can never really scale. So one of the things that
I did was you probably remember it was it was
chaos at home and at some point I had seven
people working, all in the office and we're all doing
everything and it didn't work anymore, Like you know, it
was just oh, the phone's ringing, who's answering it? You
(11:20):
know that sort of thing. So the first thing I
had to do was work out what people's strengths were
and what they would be best at. So there were
some people who were naturally great at talking with people
on the phone. There's others who I had to work
through what people's strengths were, and I used something called
strengthsmind It, which is an online thing, and then innately
what they'd be great at. And then I had to
(11:41):
develop job descriptions for them. And this might sound really obvious,
but many startups it's just like, no, we're all at
work and we're all working, and at some point people
need to know their role, know what success looks like,
and also that they're going to get career right. So
that was one thing first of all, defining the roles,
and then the second thing was just looking at was
(12:02):
there a system that could do it? So understanding what
the repeatable tasks are especially now with AI. So AI
is for tasks. So I heard about this really interesting
business in Queensland and they're using AI to schedule where
their drivers go. It's in Mold removal works with real
(12:23):
estate agents and AI agent is able to and he
talks about this in the public domain, so it's not
commercially sensitive, but AI is able to work out the
schedule based on traffic and then let the customer know
exactly the time the technician is going to be there,
you know, within minutes. So there's a great customer experience.
(12:45):
So I think of what are the repeatable tasks that
could be done by a system and that will allow
you to be with what is your secret source, which
is your personality and your ability to build relationships. So
that'd be two things that I work on. But you know, Olie,
I've got a bunch of things. But if you just
(13:06):
do those to start with, and then we'll look about
a few other things I reckon.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah, yeah, wow, that that AI I think sounds amazing.
I know Sharon in the office, she has a tough
time trying to list, you know, get all the jobs
perfectly with travel time, traffic, get them close together.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Installed with Google maps AI Aurgentic or AI studio in Google.
And if you're integrating AI maps, you can actually then
you can be really specific and give that to your technicians,
you know, straight away, and there's such transparency and I
think that that would really support Oh, everyone's going to
So it's all the things that people are doing over
(13:42):
and over, bind a system, find somebody's done it before
in a different space.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, And then I've got another question, So the next journey.
So if you were going to mentor me directly to
scale a service based business and around multiple different locations
as well, what would be your top three areas of
focus over the next two years. And would you also
be thinking and planning for a possible acquisition or is
(14:08):
that something to just worry about later or when it arises.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
So there's a few things in that you touched on
before about leadership, and I do think that with time,
your leadership style does need to change. You know, you
can no longer be mates with everybody when you're their employer.
And that was a really tough journey that I went on,
and it was hard when I realized that it was
(14:33):
all for one and one for all. But if people
weren't doing the right thing. There was one particular team
member who was showing up to work who was always
hungover and didn't matter how many times I'd said, you've
got to be available to our customers. You can't do that,
and blah blah blah, she has ah it's all right
and I could no longer be a mate. And that
was a really, really tough thing to do. So leadership
(14:54):
does have to change. And people are looking to you
for employment security and knowing that they've got a future.
So I think that's an interesting step. The second thing
thing is to have a bigger picture, a bigger plan.
So whether acquisition be on that or being acquired, it's
to do the thinking. There's a great product from vern
(15:15):
Harnish which is called the One Page Plan. It's available,
it's free. You can download it and just begin to
think about so why do I do what I do?
Where is the area of work? It's the why, the how,
the who, the what, and it's all on one page
and that'll help you do the thinking to determine what's
(15:36):
next for you. I was also thinking that whilst you've
got this really specific, niche and technically accurate business, there
is other people who are also speaking to the same audiences.
So who could be a great strategic partner for you
where instead of going at alone, you do it with
someone else. So I don't know who that is, but
(15:56):
might be electricians, I don't know. It could be somebody
who's also in the same domain and you're offering effective
league an additional service. The licensing of how you go
about your work as well could give you scale. So
that's not a franchise system. It's a licensing system. There's
very strict laws in Australia around franchising, but you could
(16:19):
license your technology and that might give you also scale
without having a lot of people. But it starts with
the plan. It starts with designing what do I want
this to look like and doing the work. And he
has a terrific book called Scaling Up as well, which
is a really really great book.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Okay, back in the early days, I just followed his
things step by step and it really helped, like really helped.
So it was great.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Okay, good, I've got a lot to think about. Well,
you knew it.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Was never going to be easy to don't you, So, Ollie,
congratulations on your business. I think it's just terrific. Was
I your first customer?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
You were my first customer, I must admit, I think
on that on that Saturday or whatever it was, Oscar
and I came down. When you've got a house full
of art, you've got art coming out of your ears
so well.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
As you know, I love to paint, so it's just like,
what more paintings to hang? So we've got a terrific
video of you actually being here and hanging some of
my paintings, which will share on socials when this goes out.
I think you hung those paintings behind me too.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
By the way, hopefully it's still straight yeah, looking good.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I had to straighten them before this. Anyway, I think congratulations.
I think it's absolutely terrific that you've found this really
great niche. And if there's something that we're seeing out
of the US, it's that service businesses are in growth.
It's service businesses that can't be shipped in a box,
and as such, I think you've got a terrific future.
(17:56):
So thank you so much for coming on handpicked and
good luck, enjoy yourself and have fun.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Thank you so much, Nami. I appreciate it, and I'll
see you. I'll see you soon,
Apoche Production. Hello, I'm Naomi Simpson and Handpicked Season five
is here, and the entrepreneurs this time are not going
easy on me. Those questions just keep coming, whether it's
about building a brand in a taboo subject or what
(00:28):
about sales, Oh yeah, sales, sales, sales. We're all trying
to find more customers. And what about changing customer demands
or balancing high tech with high touch. These entrepreneurs and
business owners are really really asking the questions that will
help every business owner and their team just get more
(00:51):
ideas on how to cope with everything they're tackling in
the day. Now, new episodes drop every Monday, and remember
to subscribe so that here the next Lotus episode. Anyway,
join me on hand Picked on Mondays. Hi, I'm Naomi
Simpson and this is another episode of hand Picked, the
(01:14):
podcast where I get to chat to all sorts of
different founders, entrepreneurs and business owners. And today I've got
Ollie Lonigan. Now, Ollie and I do go way back.
In fact, I remember when it was a whipper snapper.
So I am so happy to see the next generation
of business owners and founders. And Ollie, You've got a
fabulous story. So maybe why don't we talk about your
(01:38):
first venture and now what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Thank you very much for having me, Naomi. I must
say you have been a big inspiration to me growing
up and seeing what you've done and seeing you on
Shark Tank, so I appreciate it. My first venture was
probably when I was in about in year four, selling
that I've always had business in my blood. I've always
loved it. I started selling lollies like these little Zappo
(02:05):
if anyone remembers them, and I bought a five pack
of them for two dollars at Woollies and we would
sell them each individually for two dollars. And I kept
selling these at school and then started hiring some of
my friends and paying them to start selling, and we
had about four of us selling them all until one
day one of my key workers, I should say, I
(02:29):
got busted by your dad with a whole bag full
of lollies, so that there was a phone call to
my parents and we had to stop that big booming business.
But ever since then, I've just loved business. I've loved
all like thinking outside the box and just like the growth,
you know, starting something from nothing and watching it grow.
(02:49):
I've loved it.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Now let's talk about your current venture, which you started
straight out of school if I remember.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yes, yes, absolutely, so I now own and run Professional Picchanging.
So what we do in Professional Picchanging, as the name says,
we hang up. We do framing, we do picture rails,
we do art transport, so we do most things involved
around artworks. My main focus is going into people's homes, offices, hotels, casinos,
(03:22):
whatever it may be, offering that curation advice, getting all
the design right and then hanging it. So, yeah, I've
grown that from just out of school to now. We've
got twelve people, We've got places all across the East
Coast and over in London. We've got a branch over
in London as of about sixteen months ago. So I've
(03:43):
just been really enjoying the growth of that and yeah,
focused on that for now. I think it's really fantastic,
this niche. It's a problem that people have and sometimes
they don't even realize they have that problem.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
But I do. Remember I've had some massive contracts, didn't
you that get the contract for Crown in Sydney or something.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yes, yes, absolutely, those are the ones I love. I
love to chase those We've done the Crown in Barangaroo
in Sydney, so we did that was about fifteen hundred
pieces all throughout every single hotel room, the lobbies, the foyers,
the penthouse, so we get to see some pretty amazing
and also one Sydney Harbor where we did all the
framing for them and the installation of close to one
(04:24):
thousand artworks there and Capella Hotel, all those sort of
projects I absolutely love and yeah, we like to focus
on them as well.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
That's terrific. So what questions do you have for me today?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
So my first question is something you touched on It
was picturing. It is such a niche, right, and a
lot of people don't think they need it, or they
don't I don't think they even understand it's a service
that's out there, right, So I'm wondering how I could
build a brand story in a niche like this to
be able to be memorable and to also stay top
of mind for when people need it.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Well, first of all, I think the name of the
business is pretty fantastic because it does what it says
on the label means that you're discoverable and people will
find you. But I wonder what you could put around
it to make it a little bit more memorable, whether
it's visually or personality wise. You are a personality, and
(05:19):
I think about believe it or not. I think about,
do you remember Jimmy Brings? Do you know that? And
there's that guy's his name's actually Dave Berger, that's the
day but the guy who's on the side, and he
was actually a team member at Red Balloon, but he
founded that business a very long time ago, but it
was such a personality. Now I'm not saying you necessarily
(05:39):
put your mugget on your side of your but you
see my point. It's you see that you just know
what it is straight away. So I do think about
some visual cues, or I think about some auditory cues,
like what is it that you could put around it
so when people see it they go, oh, I never
thought of that. And obviously, because it's artwork and picture hanging,
(06:01):
there's an array of colors available to you. So I
do think that that could be really quite interesting. And
the thing about building a brand is it's the same
thing over and over again. So even if you think
you're getting bored, that consistency of doing it in every
contact point will actually build it. I was also thinking
(06:24):
about the word of mouth is really important to you,
because I was at the gym this morning and there
is like, I don't know, sixteen women who you know,
they just like they don't know what they need. So
I would look for some very niche audiences. And I'm
sure you've done this working with interior designers and architects
(06:46):
as well, but having something that reinforces it over and
over again. But yeah, look for some visual or auditory
cues I think would be great.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I like that. I like that. That is good.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I know you've got a mate who's very good at designs,
so we might have.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
To Matthew Dowie, Yes, he is looking at Oh yeah,
he designed our van branding and I get on it
all the time, which is awesome. So I just keep
you And I.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Know you parked that at the bottom of the peninsula
so everybody sees it and it's like a billboard, and
I guess it's like, how can you repeat that over
and over again to have it in the places where
the people are that need it and will refer it.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
So yeah, like the Jimmy Brings Vance, they were everywhere.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
But you know, I was talking to Ronnie Kahan just
on Friday, and she's the founder of os Harvest, and
people would say, oh, I see you van, Oh see
you everywhere? How many trucks? You only had one truck
And we used to have red balloon minis, and we
did have two, but people would think the point was
just keep them on the road because it's a free
(07:56):
billboard and if it stands out enough, people will remember
that's the point.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So you know what I saw the other day, I
was driving back somewhere in the hinterlands of the Gold Coast.
I saw a big red balloon van, a big like minibus,
red balloon minibus in the middle of nowhere. I think
they're going skydiving or doing something like that. And I
was like, oh my god.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
It's actually kind of the similar thing of what I'm saying.
Because we're an online business, we don't have that many
physical touch points, and so we started working with our
partners and our suppliers and saying, oh, you need a
new van, why don't we help you with that, But
it's going to have our logo on it. So yeah,
we have hot air balloons, we have that bus. We've
(08:40):
got a whole bunch of different assets around the place
with our partners because we needed something physical, a physical reminder.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Can I actually ask a question in terms of that,
do you do you say, hey, let's like go halves
in the van or how do you kind of incentivize those?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
So each of the deals is different. So with the
hot Air balloons, I think we actually own the envelope,
which is the silk piece, like I think actually assets
of our business, so it's the same like we might
sign somebody with an exclusive like for instance, we did
to deal with the Sydney seaplanes. I don't remember the
exact specifics, but part of that was to wrap the
(09:18):
seaplane with Red Balloon logos and so that was flying
over Sydney Harbor for years. So yes, there is a
there is a commercial part of it, but because we've
had such long relationships as well, it is often tied
up with exclusivity. We've got a jet boat in Perth,
so everybody's like, oh, red Balloon is in Perth. I've
(09:41):
been on the Red Balloon jet but we go, no,
we're not. We're virtual. So that physicalness has really been
important wherever we can because we don't have it, you know,
Janine on the show Janine who had boost you. So
I was always really well envious because if somebody buys
and they're walking around with that green pup, it's reinforcing
(10:02):
that that's what people want, and it's re forcing the
brand over and over. So anyway, let's get to question
number two.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Question number two, So the journey from zero to one
million is one thing, right, that's a whole, it's awesome journey.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
And then then you make it sound easy, but yes, that's.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
A lot of challenging. But from the road from one
to five is a completely different ballgame, right, with completely
different things in your experience. What sort of personal shifts
do you need to take in that journey and do
you think there needs to be a change in leadership
styles in the different journeys.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, you've really touched on it perfectly. Because to get scale,
it's about systems and processes. Like you can be quite
hands on, know every customer, know every transaction, but if
you're ever going to scale, you have to be able
to replicate the customer experience and that takes investment. If
(11:00):
you don't have the foundations right in a business, you
can never really scale. So one of the things that
I did was you probably remember it was it was
chaos at home and at some point I had seven
people working, all in the office and we're all doing
everything and it didn't work anymore, Like you know, it
was just oh, the phone's ringing, who's answering it? You
(11:20):
know that sort of thing. So the first thing I
had to do was work out what people's strengths were
and what they would be best at. So there were
some people who were naturally great at talking with people
on the phone. There's others who I had to work
through what people's strengths were, and I used something called
strengthsmind It, which is an online thing, and then innately
what they'd be great at. And then I had to
(11:41):
develop job descriptions for them. And this might sound really obvious,
but many startups it's just like, no, we're all at
work and we're all working, and at some point people
need to know their role, know what success looks like,
and also that they're going to get career right. So
that was one thing first of all, defining the roles,
and then the second thing was just looking at was
(12:02):
there a system that could do it? So understanding what
the repeatable tasks are especially now with AI. So AI
is for tasks. So I heard about this really interesting
business in Queensland and they're using AI to schedule where
their drivers go. It's in Mold removal works with real
(12:23):
estate agents and AI agent is able to and he
talks about this in the public domain, so it's not
commercially sensitive, but AI is able to work out the
schedule based on traffic and then let the customer know
exactly the time the technician is going to be there,
you know, within minutes. So there's a great customer experience.
(12:45):
So I think of what are the repeatable tasks that
could be done by a system and that will allow
you to be with what is your secret source, which
is your personality and your ability to build relationships. So
that'd be two things that I work on. But you know, Olie,
I've got a bunch of things. But if you just
(13:06):
do those to start with, and then we'll look about
a few other things I reckon.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah, yeah, wow, that that AI I think sounds amazing.
I know Sharon in the office, she has a tough
time trying to list, you know, get all the jobs
perfectly with travel time, traffic, get them close together.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Installed with Google maps AI Aurgentic or AI studio in Google.
And if you're integrating AI maps, you can actually then
you can be really specific and give that to your technicians,
you know, straight away, and there's such transparency and I
think that that would really support Oh, everyone's going to
So it's all the things that people are doing over
(13:42):
and over, bind a system, find somebody's done it before
in a different space.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, And then I've got another question, So the next journey.
So if you were going to mentor me directly to
scale a service based business and around multiple different locations
as well, what would be your top three areas of
focus over the next two years. And would you also
be thinking and planning for a possible acquisition or is
(14:08):
that something to just worry about later or when it arises.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
So there's a few things in that you touched on
before about leadership, and I do think that with time,
your leadership style does need to change. You know, you
can no longer be mates with everybody when you're their employer.
And that was a really tough journey that I went on,
and it was hard when I realized that it was
(14:33):
all for one and one for all. But if people
weren't doing the right thing. There was one particular team
member who was showing up to work who was always
hungover and didn't matter how many times I'd said, you've
got to be available to our customers. You can't do that,
and blah blah blah, she has ah it's all right
and I could no longer be a mate. And that
was a really, really tough thing to do. So leadership
(14:54):
does have to change. And people are looking to you
for employment security and knowing that they've got a future.
So I think that's an interesting step. The second thing
thing is to have a bigger picture, a bigger plan.
So whether acquisition be on that or being acquired, it's
to do the thinking. There's a great product from vern
(15:15):
Harnish which is called the One Page Plan. It's available,
it's free. You can download it and just begin to
think about so why do I do what I do?
Where is the area of work? It's the why, the how,
the who, the what, and it's all on one page
and that'll help you do the thinking to determine what's
(15:36):
next for you. I was also thinking that whilst you've
got this really specific, niche and technically accurate business, there
is other people who are also speaking to the same audiences.
So who could be a great strategic partner for you
where instead of going at alone, you do it with
someone else. So I don't know who that is, but
(15:56):
might be electricians, I don't know. It could be somebody
who's also in the same domain and you're offering effective
league an additional service. The licensing of how you go
about your work as well could give you scale. So
that's not a franchise system. It's a licensing system. There's
very strict laws in Australia around franchising, but you could
(16:19):
license your technology and that might give you also scale
without having a lot of people. But it starts with
the plan. It starts with designing what do I want
this to look like and doing the work. And he
has a terrific book called Scaling Up as well, which
is a really really great book.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Okay, back in the early days, I just followed his
things step by step and it really helped, like really helped.
So it was great.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Okay, good, I've got a lot to think about. Well,
you knew it.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Was never going to be easy to don't you, So, Ollie,
congratulations on your business. I think it's just terrific. Was
I your first customer?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
You were my first customer, I must admit, I think
on that on that Saturday or whatever it was, Oscar
and I came down. When you've got a house full
of art, you've got art coming out of your ears
so well.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
As you know, I love to paint, so it's just like,
what more paintings to hang? So we've got a terrific
video of you actually being here and hanging some of
my paintings, which will share on socials when this goes out.
I think you hung those paintings behind me too.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
By the way, hopefully it's still straight yeah, looking good.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I had to straighten them before this. Anyway, I think congratulations.
I think it's absolutely terrific that you've found this really
great niche. And if there's something that we're seeing out
of the US, it's that service businesses are in growth.
It's service businesses that can't be shipped in a box,
and as such, I think you've got a terrific future.
(17:56):
So thank you so much for coming on handpicked and
good luck, enjoy yourself and have fun.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Thank you so much, Nami. I appreciate it, and I'll
see you. I'll see you soon,
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.