Ep. 42 – Digitizing the Trades: An Aussie Tradie's Mission - Blue Collar Business Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast
, where we discuss the realest,rawest, most relevant stories
and strategies behind buildingevery corner of a blue collar
business.
I'm your host, cy Kirby, and Iwant to help you in what it took
me trial and error and a wholelot of money to learn the
information that no one in thisindustry is willing to share.
Whether you're under that shadetree or have your hard hat on,

(00:30):
let's expand your toolbox.
Welcome back, guys, to anotherepisode of the Blue Collar
Business Podcast brought to youand sponsored today by
podcastvideoscom.
I happen to be in one of theirwonderful solo pod rooms here.
This is either rentable or youcan sign up at a subscription
based, and they take care ofeverything behind the scenes.

(00:52):
They do.
They'll even just do editingfor you guys.
So make sure you check outpodcast videoscom.
Been with them a little over ayear now and they, as you guys
can tell, are doing really,really great things with the
show and putting it in where itneeds to be.
To get to you guys, a couple ofhousekeeping items.

(01:12):
Today we're filming this twoweeks away, but we are one week
away as you're listening to thismy Atlanta.
I screwed that all up, but Iwould hope you guys join me on
the live stream, come ask somequestions.
We have about 10 standardquestions that I'm going to be
answering just completely acrossthe trades.
Getting into business what doyou do in this situation?

(01:34):
And I hope you guys can join usfor that, june 25th, from three
to five o'clock.
Butbluecollarbusinesspodcastcom
this is, I think, episode 41 or42.
So if you're looking for moreepisodes and this is the first
one you're joining us with headon over there you can watch or
listen straight from the websiteor, hopefully, you're joining

(01:55):
us from maybe one of the podcastplatforms drop us a like and a
follow at the end of the show.
Furthermore, guys, thank youfor the housekeeping items there
.
I have got a guest that is up ina very different time zone from
us today.
He got up super early thismorning, at 6 o'clock I think

(02:16):
it's literally the next day asthis is transpiring.
This is so crazy.
It's 3.30 in the afternoon herein my central United States
time zone.
But we have got a gentlemanthat is super passionate, shares
the same passion about you guysand trying to help bring
something to the table that isnew, out of the ordinary, but is

(02:37):
going to be a useful tool foryou guys, you non-techie guys.
He is making a resume systemthat is going and could take
over the entire skilled tradesplatform, so stay tuned for that
.
We're going to also be talking alittle bit about the trade

(02:57):
difference between literallywhat's it like over in Aussie
land?
Heck, I don't know, and I bet alot of our listeners here in
North America we have someEuropean listeners Shout out to
you guys.
But seriously, so excited tohear some generalistic
differences and we'll get intothat.
But I'm so excited to bring toyou guys Mark Webb, owner of

(03:18):
Grow2 out of Queensland,australia.
Dude, thank you so much forjoining us today awesome.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
So I thank you for the introduction I super
appreciate.
I'm looking forward to havingthe chat today.
And also, yeah, big thanks topodcastvideoscom.
They've been great to helporganize this between us.
So, yeah, looking forward todiving mark you have just shared
briefly.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
we've been talking just about 15 20 minutes here
before the show and I havegotten to hear about a very
interesting product, utrady, andwe're going to get there, but
it is a essential electronicresume that you can give new
employers, your currentemployers, but a way to track
your certifications.

(04:03):
That's where he's at now, butlet's go all the way back, buddy
, you were just sharing with mewhere it all started.
Give us kind of your version ofyour way through the trades.
And, man, you definitely bitoff some more than you could
chew there, as you admitted tome.

(04:23):
But that's what I want to hearabout today, because there's so
many guys out there that arejumping into opportunities that
maybe necessarily they're notquite trained for and we need to
make sure they get the propertraining that they need, and you
, trady, is also going to behelping there.
So, anyways, furthermore,brother, take it away.
Let's hear the Aussie versionof the trade.
Yeah, awesome.
Hopefully everyone canunderstand the slang as I
probably go through.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
furthermore, brother, take it away, let's hear this
aussie version of the trade.
Yeah, awesome, uh, hopefully,uh, hopefully, everyone can
understand the slang as Iprobably go through uh and
explain my story.
But, um, man, look again, I'msuper, uh, humbled and
appreciate, appreciative that,yeah, people are giving me the
chance to, to tell this storyand and to spread the word on
you tradie.
But look, man, I grew up in ain a small country, uh, coal

(05:05):
mining town in centralqueensland, um, so, yeah, pretty
blue collar, um, yeah, men andwomen around me my entire life,
my, I'm one of six kids, so Icome from a pretty big family.
That's pretty, pretty robust.
Uh, that was, you know, pretty,you know, highly focused in
sport and, uh, adore what theold man told you to do.
So my old man's a Vietnam vet.

(05:26):
He works in the coal mines.
My mum's also in the militaryas well, so a couple of my
brothers and sisters went offand went into the military road.
Actually, I've got a sisterthat lives in Canada and is
married to a Canadian, and I'vegot another sister that's
married to an American who was aUS Marine.
So I know a little bit aboutAmerica and Canada and actually

(05:49):
got the chance to live inAmerica for about six months,
went over there and played rugbyleague for New York, so I was
able to learn a little bit aboutyour country and meet some
people over there, which waspretty cool.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Listen, you can't judge us by the New Yorkers up
there 're a different breed.
We even, we even think they'rea different breed up there.
Okay, no, hey you get out, youget out of the city, but were
you in the city?
That's so cool.
I didn't even hear that part ofthe story.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
No, we spent a little uh town called study point uh,
which was out of the city, um,and met some people there and
was able to travel around.
It was, um, yeah, definitely awild experience, um, for myself
and and a mate.
We yeah kind of looked at asthat's a bit of a gap year.
We lived in the uk for a bitand and traveled around there
and then, yeah, went to americafor that for that small period
and then come back to australia.

(06:36):
Yeah, it was cool, but wow yeah, like the story really.
Um, obviously, you know, grew upin a small country town.
Yeah, whenever I was getting tothe end of their schooling,
everyone's applying forapprenticeships in the mines,
right, and all I ever reallyknew I was a pretty naive young
kid Again my brain was superfixated on sport more than

(06:57):
anything.
That's all I really cared about.
I wanted to get out of my smalllittle town and follow that
aspiration.
So towards those later years ofschool when we put people
applying for apprenticeships andyou know, all I ever really
knew about was, you know, beingan electrician or a diesel
fitter or a boiler maker orsomething like that.
I never knew what else was outthere in the big wide world.

(07:17):
But yeah, I was lucky enough togo to Sydney straight out of
school to follow that aspirationof mine and when I went to the
club that looked after me, theygave me an apprenticeship as a
greenkeeper.
So I started to work with Turf,which kind of links together
with the sporting background, Ithink.

(07:38):
Before that I did the odd jobsbrickies labour and just
carpentry labour and that, thatthat we all kind of go through.
But I remember I, I, uh, I rangmy parents when I got offered
the apprenticeship and I thinkthe old man said to me oh mate,
well, grass isn't going anywhere.
That's a pretty, that's apretty solid.
Uh, apprenticeship, yeah you mayas well do that, yeah, with

(07:59):
none of us realizing you knowwhat, what that world would,
yeah kind of turn.
So, look, it was cool, Ienjoyed it, like I worked on
private schools and collegesdown there in Sydney and
high-end sporting fields andstadiums, so I was exposed to
that, which was great.
And yeah, I listened to yourepisode there with Matt Keller

(08:24):
and he was talking about histime and everything and your
time on the golf course runningaround together.
Yeah, it kind of took me back.
I actually felt like I wasthere with you guys because I
had a pretty similarapprenticeship and I think when
you get exposed to that as ayoung man or a young woman,
that's what kind of gets you alittle bit excited about working
in the trades, and it's thoseolder guys that kind of gets you

(08:45):
a little bit excited about, youknow, working in the trades and
it's it's those older guys thatkind of you know, take you
under their wing or, you know,teach you the, teach you the
things or teach you the ropes,whether it's you know education
about the job or just educationon life.
Right, like you, you learn alot.
You know those periods betweenyou know 17 and you know 21.
So it's, um, yeah, I had areally good experience there
with the people that were aroundme which, um, yeah, helped me

(09:06):
sort of progress, you know,forward, you know, through sort
of positions up to looking aftersome sites.
So, um, as I mentioned to youearlier, I, I was super focused
on sort of outworking the personnext to me, uh, rather than
probably understanding you knowwhat we were doing.
So I, I focused on, you know,if we were mulching a garden or
something you can.
You were next to me.

(09:26):
I tried to, yeah, I tried to,do two buckets to your one
bucket.
That was just where, that wasjust where my, my head was at.
So I it worked for me prettywell, like I was able to, you
know, work my way up in into theroles and, um, um, yeah, become
become a tradesman and lookafter things.
So what, what happened for mewas I got the opportunity to

(09:49):
move to another city to play foranother team and when I turned
up to that town or that city,they offered me and said, oh,
yeah, because you still have towork, but the semi sort of
professional sports was yeah,we'll be on the, on the, on the,
on the golf course.
Uh yeah, we know you're agreenkeeper and so forth.

(10:09):
And at that stage I, yeah, Ithought, oh yeah, I was kind of
a bit stale, you know, whenyou've kind of just done
something and that's the onlything, you know, I was sort of
thinking, man, I need to do, Ineed to do something different.
And and I said, oh yeah, and Iwas lucky, that opportunity all
right, and I know, not a lot ofpeople probably get these
opportunities where you canprobably say no and and try
something different.
But I was lucky, at that stagethere were some people around me

(10:31):
that said, oh well, we'll seewhat else we could do.
So I got the opportunity towork with um, you know, disabled
kids within a school which youknow started.
You know, opening my eyes to youknow different things out there
and and I loved that I Ithought it was very cool and
enjoyed my time and because ofthat, some people had seen what
I was doing and heard what I wasdoing, and I then got the next

(10:52):
opportunity to go in and talk topeople about youth justice and
talking to them about kids thatcommitted crimes and working
with their victims to restorethe damage that they'd done.
So I became a youth justiceconference convener and I would
sit in a circle with an offender, their victim and the police
and a community representativeand would work out ways for that

(11:14):
young person to understand theramifications of their actions.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Time out.
I've got to hop on this trainreal quick.
Number one that sounds soawkward to any one American
where you have an offender and avictim in the same room.
That's just.
I mean, the only place thathappens over here is in a
courtroom, right.
But I want to jump on somethingreal quick because I think that

(11:40):
opportunity probably lets youlearn how to navigate number one
confrontation.
Obviously, it's always going tobe confrontational every single
time you walk in that room, butyou also navigated emotions,
which is huge in communication,yeah, but then you literally got

(12:01):
firsthand knowledge on how tocommunicate major issues, even
if they were minute.
But it's a crime, that's amajor issue right to the whole
country.
So, sitting there andnavigating all of that, tell us
a little bit about that.
Don't just skip over that,because that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah for sure.
Look, I love that.
You want to learn about it.
It was a big moment for my life, to be honest, even though,
even though got the opportunityto help kids, it was probably
helping me sort of grow, youknow, to the next level of my
sort of life, like before that,again, being a small country
town kid, I was pretty yeah,pretty shy and I didn't really
talk a lot.
We didn't know how to haveconversations really and ask the

(12:38):
right questions and listen.
So that opportunity that theygave me to go around and go down
and get that training andlearning to do was massive.
But that restorative justicethat they did, it actually came
from New Zealand.
So New Zealand were thepioneers for that type of
program.
And look that program reallyit's focused on first-time

(13:00):
offenders, so young kids underthe age of 17.
If you've got a repeat offender, it's not a program that's
probably suitable for them.
And obviously, yeah, you'reright, putting people in a room
together to talk about asituation can be challenging.
But you do a lot of pre-workbefore you go to that room and
you need to make sure thateveryone that goes to that room

(13:23):
is prepared.
So you would have the offender,their support person, a victim,
their support person, acommunity representative, and
then the police there.
You would always need to makesure that every person that was
in that room understood the rolethat they were playing in that
room.
And the biggest thing that youwere trying to teach with that

(13:44):
young person was then tounderstand that one action
created, you know, reactions toall those people that were in
that room and then, if it was afirst-time offender, it was very
powerful for them to understand.
And then obviously you know,when you get to the point of you
know working out what will youknow, what will that young
person do to fix what they haddone, and you'd write up an

(14:07):
agreement.
You obviously need to make surethat that agreement matched the
offence that they did.
You couldn't get a young personto go over and wash the windows
in a house and expect this typeof labour or anything from a
person, but usually they werevery powerful.
Meetings you would get peoplethat have had an offence against
them of labor or anything for aperson, but usually it was they
were very powerful.
Uh, meetings right, you would.
You would get people that havehad an offense against them and

(14:29):
they would realize, you know,they would see the other side of
where this young person's lifewas.
And it amazing to see how, youknow, humans react in that
situation.
And even though a person isthat just have an offense done
against them and it's hurt themmassively and hurt their support
people pretty powerful.
The agreements that you wouldcome to and usually they were

(14:52):
powerful in the sense of, well,let's try and do something
that's going to help that youngperson that's committed that
crime, and they were pretty cool.
It was a great time, but it wasalso a very challenging time as
well.
Emotionally, mentally, itcreates a big effort on you.
A great time, but it was also,you know, a very challenging
time as well.
Emotionally, yeah, mentally, um, it creates a big, a big um,
yeah, a big effort on you.
And, yeah, through that period,that's um.
You know, I decided to gooverseas and travel.

(15:14):
That's where I went with my,with my mate, to the uk and then
america, as I mentioned, andwhen I returned back back to
australia, obviously that's agovernment funded um program and
things change and there wasn'ta lot of funding in that when I
returned.
So I actually took up a jobcalled Work for the Dole, and I
don't know if you guys have thisin America, but Work for the
Dole, so we have social servicesfor you.

(15:38):
So if someone's been out ofwork for 52 weeks here in
Australia, the government willgive you a fortnightly allowance
to try and help you get backonto your feet here in australia
.
Uh, the government will giveyou, you know, a fortnightly
allowance um to try and help youget back onto your feet here in
australia.
But once you get to 52 weeks,you have to um start doing
conditions to make sure thatyou're looking for a job or
you're studying.
So, um, I think we call it.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
Unemployment here.
Unemployment, yes, yeah, okaylike no literally.
I think that's the, that's thegovernment funded program like
we yeah, literally we payunemployment tax oh yeah, yeah,
it's I.
I think that's sounding aboutright, so, but yeah, the
guidelines are really kind ofwashy.

(16:21):
I would.
We're supposed to be applyingfor jobs and interviewing, but
that's been a whole differentconversation for another day,
but I just wanted to tie that infor the audience.
It's sounding a lot likeunemployment, unemployment tax,
et cetera.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, definitely.
By the way, you've expandedthere.
Sorry, I thought you weremaking a joke of being
unemployed and not having a job.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
No, I saw your face.
I'm like no, that's really whatit called.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
I didn't defend anyone then while laughing at
that.
Definitely not, yeah.
So that again was the next stepof being exposed to different
things, because you have men andwomen there that generally
couldn't find a job right.
So we would then put them in aprogram where they would go and
mow not-for-profit agencies, mowthe grass and, obviously having

(17:06):
the green keeping background.
Obviously I was the one thathad to go in and sort of help
with those sort of things.
But I found it crazy becauseI'd just come from the world of
kids committing crimes and whenthey got put on orders we would
get them to go out and mow grassand I used to think like we're
treating young people thatcommit offenses and people that

(17:28):
are generally trying to get backinto work the similar sort of
way.
So, um, I work towards buildinga program there to try and
connect job seekers withnon-for-profit agencies to learn
skills that we could thenpromote those skills to
employers and say, hey, we'vehad this person in the program
for, yeah, a certain amount ofmonths and these are the things
they learned.
And we focus not on like,talented things, but more on

(17:48):
like, did the person turn up?
Were they willing to listen,were they courteous and polite,
the things that you'd want as anemployer, the challenges with
that, and all the people thatare still in those industries
right, I take my hat off to thembecause I'm, yes, trying to
work with some of them.
Uh, those organizations withyou trading now to to provide
some support, is there's not alot of money for those jobs.

(18:11):
So, people that are doing thosethat work, it's yeah, they're
helping other people, butthey've also got their own
challenges with it not being ahigh paying sort of role, kind
of like our teachers are.
Uh, and you know, people withinmedical centers as well.
They have those challenges.
But, fast forward from thatpoint, the owner of the company
that I did my apprenticeship andwas a tradie with called me up

(18:35):
and said there was anopportunity down in Brisbane,
because at that time I'd movedback to Queensland.
And he said would you like tolook after a private school or
are you interested in becomingthe operations manager for the
state?
Obviously, most of it is.
Once you start progressingforward, you want to continue to
progress, right?
So I jumped at that opportunityto become that operations

(18:57):
manager man.
It felt like an imposterstraight away once I jumped into
that, although I'd learnt allthese other skills and
everything.
There was like a whole new setof things that came towards you.
But I think that's the biggestthing with life, and I think
that's what I've learned with myjourney, is coming from a small
town of a few thousand peopleto then go into a city of

(19:20):
millions of people.
You get exposed.
I'm constantly, always gettingexposed to different things and
I kind of that awkwardness Ikind of enjoy if that's a weird
thing to say, like, because ifyou feel that awkwardness or
something, I think you're goingto learn something out of it at
the other end.
So, um, trying to get yourselfthrough that is a good thing,

(19:40):
but not to say that you don'tfeel embarrassed or you make
mistakes uh, through that that'sfor sure.
Um, so when I, you know, tookon that role, uh, so I, I, um,
yeah, I remember I was going toa quote, to, to um, to, to see
this lady to explain, like, whatwe needed to do, and I remember

(20:01):
sitting there talking to herand I could picture everything
about that job, like if you saidto me go, go, do the job.
I'd go order the materials, Iwould organize the boys, I'd
plan it out, I'd get the workdone and it would have a great
result and there'd be no issues,because that's what I focused
my entire trade career onoriginally was just being the

(20:21):
hardest work of sorting it out.
What I didn't realize when youstart getting into those new
positions was we actually got tobe able to explain and
articulate the reason why you'redoing something.
You know like, why is thedecision that you need to use
that equipment and you have tospend that amount of money?
Or you know why?
You know, will they not be ableto use that surface for this

(20:41):
amount of time?
Yeah, any of those sort ofquestions, right, and at that
stage I I remembered I couldn't.
I couldn't answer thosequestions during that quote and
I remember feeling superembarrassed, like a fish out of
water, no idea.
I remember leaving it.
I don't know if we won the quoteor not, but I do know at that
point it was a shift for me.

(21:01):
Uh, and at that stage I, becauseof the, the, the previous
things I was doing in youthjustice and stuff like that, I
obviously was keen to look afterour apprentices in that new
role.
So I started looking after youknow the dozen or so apprentices
we had and I remember thinkingat that time, man, if, if I feel
like this and I'm meant to bein this role, right, and, and
many times, yeah, we get intosort of roles and you know

(21:24):
they're saying of faking ituntil you make it or whatever,
or faking it until you're caught, which, uh, I probably wasn't
caught in that quite, but Icaught myself and I sort of
realized at that point, if Ifelt like this I'm sure everyone
else is feeling like that,because it's probably not
something we hyper focused onand you do have some mentalities
of like, oh well, if, if thatperson doesn't work out, we'll

(21:45):
just get rid of them, we'll getthe next person in, not
realizing that we actually haveto, yeah, put the effort into
people for them to grow and tobecome better.
You know people and tradespeople as well, like one thing
that I I really get irritatedwith size when I hear older
tradies or people say, oh,there's just no good tradies
coming through and for me Got it.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, lights on fire, dude.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Oh my God it makes me upset.
Yeah, because, look, that's ourresponsibility and for some
reason we've lost it.
Right.
And look, no discredit to thosepeople that are saying that.
I think potentially it mighthave been the people before them
that probably didn't providethat support to them as well.
Right, so we have.

(22:30):
We have many challenges here,yeah, in the trades that we've
got to try and work through.
But when, when I, when that allhappened and I started working
with the apprentices and wechanged the way that we ran that
program and we're successfulwith some of the results we got,
I remember at that timethinking why are we still
training this way?
Why are we putting people inclassrooms, having someone at

(22:52):
the front talk, the peoplesitting there listening to the
information, regurgitating theinformation?
If you just haven't noticedalready, I've got ADHD.
I bounce off the walls, I'mhere, there, everywhere.
Like it's hard to you know,sort myself out at times, and I
think that's why I, yeah, mostlysuited the trades and suited
sports.
Right, because I could keepcontinually being active.

(23:13):
But that's not to say that Ididn't want to learn, I just
needed to try and find betterways.
So at that time I thought youknow why?
Why isn't there like a digitallibrary, in your pocket, on your
phone, that kind of stayed withyou throughout your entire
career that you could refer backto, even if you didn't quite
understand what that you weregetting taught in that moment.
You could refer back to it whenyou get to that point.

(23:34):
Because, also, when you'regoing through your studies and
you're learning as a tradie andwe're probably all seeing this
is you might be learningsomething in the course at one
section but you haven't evendone that in the workplace yet
and, depending on where you work, you may never actually get
exposed to that skill.
And I think the way that tradesare moving as well now that

(23:56):
we're kind of breaking thingsdown a lot like, even as a, a
greenkeeper or turf care manager, you're sort of shipping out
other people to come in and dospraying, you're shipping out
any of the machine maintenance,you're using other contractors
to come in and do those sort ofstuff.
So your apprentices and youngergenerations are getting exposed

(24:16):
to those kinds of tasks thatare a part of what their
qualification is.
And I think, as we continue tomove in that direction which,
yeah, from a business aspect itmakes sense, right, it is
cheaper to probably use someonethat is more skilled in that
field.
But the back end to thatproblem is, well, we're gonna
get less skillful people downthe track that only know their

(24:38):
one, their one thing.
So that's where the idea for youtradie came.
Um, I wanted to have like adigital library in your pocket
that you could connect todifferent skills and use them
when you needed them.
And look, that was 10 years ago.
It's a lot of grass to cut tobuild a software, that's for
sure.
But when that lit the fire andI started that journey, and and

(25:02):
again, yeah, tech has changed alot over 10 years um, yeah, I've
got a lot of friends that thinkI'm, yeah, batshit crazy.
Uh, that I've continued tospend a lot of my money, yeah,
building this.
And I've got mates that haveprobably got houses and
situations set up.
They're probably, yeah,different to where I am now.
And I kind of think, well, I'vealways had this just burning um

(25:23):
sensation in me to think thatthis would work and I need to
know that it would work, andthat's where we've kind of come
to.
So at that point I mentioned toyou about feeling like a bit of
an imposter.
As I started to build this.
I kind of thought, well, howcan I be an employee in one
business and then be buildingsomething again here and talking

(25:45):
to employers?
So at that stage I left thatbusiness and I started my own
greenkeeping business and Ithought at the time started my
own business, I would make extramoney and I'd have extra time
and I would set up a crew andthey would look after things and
I would go on to the world andbuild this amazing software that
people loved and life would beeasy.

(26:08):
But, as you would know and Ican see you laughing I'm sure
plenty of business owners arelaughing too when you start a
small business, you realizeyou've lost all your spare time.
You've probably lost, not thatyou lose, but your friendships
start to change as well, becauseeven when you finish that
normal day, you've still got allyour paperwork and things to do
to sort stuff out.
So I faced my new set ofchallenges being my business

(26:31):
owner.
But I think this is all part ofthe journey and what kind of
helped me with with my platform.
Because what I then realized atthat stage of being a small
business owner was was actuallynot any support there from
people that have done it before,that are willing to help and I
know you have this great podcastnow and you're shining the
light on some of these pressuresfor business owners and

(26:53):
everything.
But what I would have loved wasif I went onto a platform like
you, trady, and went to thementors feature and I saw Cy
Kirby there and you had a set ofthings that you mentor people
on and I signed up to asubscription for you and you
helped me understand already theuh you know the trials and
errors that you've already beenthrough.
Then I wouldn't make those samemistakes.

(27:15):
So that then, because of thatexperience of being a business
owner, is why that feature isnow created in the system to
connect people to mentors andhelp people along the tracks you
know.
And the other thing is, like youmight have I listened to one of
your episodes you're talkingabout when you were a young
fellow and having like a hardhat thrown at you if you made a

(27:36):
mistake or something you know.
Like that's another challengewe have.
You have apprentices that youknow they could be given a great
mentor or tradesman that hasthe time, because there's no
constraints around making surethat job's done to earn the
money, so if a mistake happens,they can take the time to
explain that to that youngperson.
But if you take that exact sameyoung person, you put them with
a tradesman who's got pressuresand stresses because they need

(28:00):
to make sure the job's done sothere's a profit margin, so they
can get things sorted.
Well, if a mistake happens tothat tradie, I feel for that
tradie because he's probablyalready under so much pressure.
So rather than taking the timeto go, hey mate, look, that's
not the way that we do things,let's take our time and work it.
He probably does get a hard hatthrown at him and says, like
pull your head in or go sit inthe lunchroom, but that's not

(28:20):
helping us because we're notprogressing.
That that next step forward andwhat I was, what we hope with
you, tradie, is we can connectthose tradesmen that are willing
to help.
Another episode I'll listen towhich I thought was great at
chad.
I think his name was like.
I listened to chad and Ithought, man, that is the guy,
that's the guy of why you chadis created.
Like exposing chad to you know.

(28:42):
You know thousands, millions ofyoung people around the world
that could be connected tosomeone that genuinely cares and
wants to see them move forwardcould be very powerful for us,
pivoted and changed things andmade me sort of realize this
would have been great if I hadthis when I was, yeah, one, an

(29:07):
apprentice, then as a tradesman,yeah, then as a business owner.
So those things pivoted at thattime.
And COVID changed everyone'slives really and, you know,
sporting fields weren't a bigthing at that.
Yeah, people, people worriedwere we ever going to play sport
again?
Right, so yeah, my businessstarted to, you know, take a bit
of a um, a bit of a knock, um,obviously we need to, you know,

(29:31):
look after the sporting clubsand let them know that, hey,
look, we understand you're goingto be able to pay these, you
know these contracts.
So we'll just we'll let it go.
I've tried to help my boys findall different jobs and I got to
the point where it was just meworking on my own again and at
that point I was just doinganything I could.
I remember I was even scrubbingtoilets just to get by during
that COVID period at a contract.

(29:51):
Yeah, I remember, even throughall those periods I was just in
autopilot, constantly thinkingabout this software, like I was
doing the work.
I was just thinking about thissoftware, thinking about this
software and I'd always beenputting money into it and
putting the work in at latenights and talking to developers
and changing things.
I got to the point a few yearsago where I knew I was done.

(30:15):
I knew I couldn't continuedoing the trade stuff because my
mind wasn't in it.
My mind was in this software.
So I was very lucky at thattime I'd met a guy on my journey
who was another tradie, whocreated his software and he's
gone on to be pretty successful.
Then he's in the panel beatings, the smash repair industry, and

(30:36):
he looks after parts andeverything.
He's a widely successful partscheck and he so smash repair um,
um industry and he looks afterparts and everything is, you
know, widely successful partscheck.
And, uh, he become a bit of amentor to me and I kind of then
restart an apprenticeship insoftware and understanding kind
of how software and tech works.
And that's now got me to thepoint now where, yeah, I'm, um,
you know, doing this stuff formyself, for you, trotty man.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
What a dadgum story, dude.
That is insane.
Like you had, for some reason,god puts you on a certain path
to affect hopefully I know youdid just from the little I've
spoke to you those young people,hopefully setting them up, but

(31:17):
just your passion for connectingthe younger, the new age
generation, and finding a way totrain them.
It's up to employers to findnew ways to adapt, to retain the
gen z, the alpha generation.
We have to find a way thatcommunicates with them.
And you're right, sitting upany any person in the trade was

(31:42):
sitting in third and fourthgrade or grade four, grade three
, however you say it andliterally sat there staring out
the window watching whatevertractor roll by and was getting
told that we weren't going toever succeed if we didn't get
that stinking piece of paperturned in by this time.
And I'm like I couldn't careless about any of this.
Dude, just get me out there.

(32:03):
And it's so funny on gradethree, grade four, that are now
running multi, multi-billiondollar, million dollar
operations and projects andliterally building the freaking
world.
So it was so funny.

(32:28):
When I immigrated, I went toelementary school in Canada.
Then I immigrated.
Literally what we call downhere, they call it middle school
, sixth, seventh, eighth grade,before high school, anyways,
there's junior high in there aswell, but it's a little
confusing.
But when I moved down hereelementary school, obviously not
really talking about careerpaths.
But when I got here, dude, Ithought it was so weird that in

(32:50):
eighth grade I'm sitting herehaving to fill out this giant
maps binder about which college,how and which, and what job I
was going to get after.
I procured all this debt instudent loans and there was no
way, this guy, I could havedefinitely found some grants and

(33:11):
scholarships for being aminority, et cetera.
But at the same time, dude, Ihad zero.
I did my work program in mysenior year.
I only went to school for threehours my senior year and had
college credits done in myjunior year.
I did okay.
It's not like I had an issuewith school, I just knew I
wasn't going to go to college.

(33:31):
But nobody and I mean nobodyChad Burkett is an amazing man,
dude we went to school.
Basically, rogers, about 30minutes away is the school
district, he's a part ofSpringdale, and none of that,
like I mean, none of that wasn'teven a remote, wasn't allowed
to be talked about.

(33:52):
Anything was college, college,college, college, college,
college.
And I'm like man, what aboutthe guys working on the water
lines?
What about the guys paving theroads?
What about the guys pouring theconcrete for the sidewalk?
I wasn't necessarily thinkinglike that, but like, how do you
get to there?
I'm sitting here in myself.
I knew I wasn't going tocollege, so I had to figure out

(34:14):
how to, number one, make moneywith my hands.
Eventually, hopefully, I getgood enough my hands in the back
that I can run a few peoplewith my mind.
And you know there's, there's atrack to that and just like you
did, you know.
But, um, you hit so many goodkey points.
The imposter syndrome point,man, when, when you served in an
operations manager role, um, Iface that every day.

(34:39):
I literally do.
It's not like I was 23 when Iwas started.
I'm 33 years old, we're fixingto click over start our 10th
year in business.
I mentioned that and I'm soproud of that, but I promise you
it's not like we're justunbelievably super successful
man.
I'm going through the worstgrind of my life right now,

(35:00):
making sure that business isfoundationally set for the rest
of our lives, like literally thelast episode that I had last
week was this lady, michelleMichelin a shout out.
I hope you guys listen to thatepisode on processes, systems
and procedures.
She has literally sat acrossfrom my desk and helped me get
stuff out of my head on thepaper that my wife asked to do

(35:25):
this five years ago, but Iwouldn't listen to her.
But, now we're anyways.
It's got me into enough a jamthat and enough good people have
left me and I looked like anidiot long enough that I had to
literally put the shame andembarrassment cap on and go.
Man, this really kind of sucks,but I've got to figure it out
for these people that care aboutthis business.

(35:46):
Out of the nine years most ofmy leadership have been here,
three to six years.
In that gap I still have myfirst ever employee.
I've had some really goodemployees that left me as well,
because you know I would blamethe company because we didn't
have trainability.
We didn't grab a hold of thatguy that you know maybe couldn't
figure it out and explain whyand how we normally do it If he

(36:10):
had.
You know, a video a threeminute video about onboarding,
about hey, your hard hat has tobe on when you get out of the
truck.
It's company policy.
I don't care where we're at, Idon't care if you're out in the
middle of 40 acres and thereain't nobody inside for 52 miles
.
You are going to have your hardhat if you want a freaking
paycheck every single day here.

(36:30):
Very adamant about it.
But at the same time, if I hada two minute long video, which
we're working on directly rightnow.
During that implementation andonboarding and it came from me,
not from some superintendentthat they barely met, you know
and I said, hey guys, look, thisis our PPE, this is our high
visibility vest.
This is why we wear it, sothose operators can see you when

(36:52):
it's a cloudy day, like, hey,we wear.
And I can go on, but it'ssimple things like that that I
never thought of.
I'm like why I only do videosfor YouTube and everything that
we've got going on with CyclonesYouTube channel.
Why the heck am I not justsitting down and doing five to
10 videos for these guys thatare onboarding with us?
And that's literally what I'mdoing.

(37:14):
But it's people like youchallenging the system and going
hmm, these people need help,and nobody and I mean nobody on
the freaking planet In the USmarket it's really trendy to
talk about Gen Z's into college,alpha generation choosing, I'm

(37:36):
sorry, into the trades overcollege and alpha generation is
going to end up in the trades,and we can go off on AI and what
that's going to do to the whitecollar world as well, and I
think it's going to force peopleinto the trades.
And now I can see clearly folkslike Chad have come onto the
show and shown that there isprograms out there.

(37:57):
It's up to people like myselfto bring awareness about them so
folks like you can eventuallymeet them.
And you're right, get Chad onthis platform and connect with
those.
He keeps with students thathe's had in this program four
and five years ago.
He's still talking to themabout just like you're probably
an influence and you have threeor four people you probably

(38:17):
still talk to that you helpedwork through years ago, right,
but dude, number one congrats.
I'm going to jump right herereal quick.
And then I've got aninteresting question for you.
I got to find out what a tradieand a tradesman is actually
qualified in Aussie.
Blue collar performancemarketing guys.

(38:38):
They're a results-drivenmarketing agency.
They're not some big fancycreative marketing.
Hey, let's do this new design.
Let's do this.
If you want results that arevaluable as you're paying for
the service and you can seeresults, this is your bunch.
Hit upbcperformancemarketingcom

(39:00):
backslash bcbpodcast and you'regoing to get a full,
comprehensive marketing insight.
Look, that's your website.
That's your social mediapresence, that's whatever kind
of posting you're doing onblogging on your website.
Any of that we're going to takeall of that into account.
Ike and the team is going to goover maybe some solutions right

(39:20):
in that discovery phone callthat maybe you can start working
on right now.
So jump over there, hit that up.
I ain't going anywhere else.
Me and O'Ike Ike's helpedPsyCon and what we're doing here
also at the Blue CollarBusiness Podcast.
So shout out to Blue CollarPerformance Marketing.

(39:45):
All right, mark, I got to knowyou have been referencing
through this and I want to shedsome light here on the US.
In the trade world there'sbasically two types you can go
into.
Okay, very generalistic.
Here you have union andnon-union.
Okay, so I'm a non-unioncompany, sir.
That means basically a guy cancome start working for me
tomorrow and start working onwhat I call the four-year degree

(40:08):
.
In four years, I mean, you canbe a superintendent here, write
proper training, especially withwhat we're working on, but
there's no actual formaldocument to make you a tradesman
.
Now, on the union side of things, which I am not as koshered
with, obviously, I didn't gothat route.
Arkansas is not.

(40:29):
There's a line you can actuallyGoogle and see where the union
hubs are in within the US, butSt Louis, only five hours from
us is very, very heavy unionpresence and it's hard for me to
go up there and compete withthose guys.
It just doesn't make sensebecause a skid steer operator on
the union side may be making 38, $45 an hour.

(40:53):
I can't pay a guy to sit in askid steer $38 an hour but I can
maybe $25.
Yeah, and they have a totallyset of different benefits and
they have a certain set ofbenefits that comes with that.
That's where the non-union guyslike myself have to compete.
We offer full coverageinsurance and I know that's kind

(41:15):
of blurred lines with it beingcountry.
But give us a little insightabout apprenticeship into the
tradesmen, what makes them atradesman in Australia, and kind
of give us that tour.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Yeah, sure, sure, yeah.
I'll touch on that and thenI'll double back to a couple of
things you said earlier therethat I think I'd love to unpack
as well.
But look, I think for us rightwhen you talk about unions,
that's a whole different.
We use the word union in adifferent context here in
Australia.
So if you're a union andnon-union in Australia, a union

(41:48):
in Australia supports workers'rights, so they'll fight for
workers in the sense that theymight create EPAs, enterprise
agreements for an industry andeverything or a sector to make
sure that everyone's beinglooked after in the same sort of
sense.
But they don't regulateeducation in that sense.

(42:11):
So we have RTOs, registeredtraining organizations
throughout Australia.
So one of the biggest ones isTAFE, that a lot of people go
and do their trades through TAFE.
But you can have private RTOsthat provide certifications Cert
2, cert 3, cert 4.
Traditionally a trade here inAustralia, you need to complete

(42:32):
a Cert 3 to be able to say thatyou are a tradesman.
With an apprenticeship that's afour-year period you can
apprenticeship.
That's a four-year period.
You can be signed off beforethe four-year period.
There is certain requirementsin the sense that you have to
prove competency of your skill.
So usually when you start anapprenticeship you may be given

(42:53):
a set of 11 elective unitswithin your course that are a
must that you have to do, butthen you might have four or five
selective units so you canchoose from a list that refers
to your industry, like what youwant to do.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
So say for example turf care management.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
You might have your 11 electives and then you may
choose five selectives onherbicides and pesticides and so
forth.
So learning how to spray andfertilize might be what you want
to move into more prominently,but you have to have your core
understanding of how soil andturf and everything like that
works, and that same conceptworks across the board in all

(43:35):
sort of industries.
So that's how you become atradie or a tradesman is you
need to have that certificate,not to say that you can't work
for a business as a laborerright, and a lot of laborers
still have.
They've got a lot of on the jobskills and understanding, but
they might've gone into thetrades a little bit later.
So for them to start anapprenticeship on a smaller wage

(43:58):
is probably too hard for them.
So they will probably just stayas a labourer and potentially
get RPL, which is recognisedprior learning where they can
get a certificate given to them,and then, in that sort of sense
, a tradie still is, I guess,someone that has a certificate.
Some may argue that you need todo your time as an apprentice
to claim being a tradie, but Isuppose if you still have the

(44:21):
certificates, you have the samequalifications as someone else,
so essentially it sounds verymuch.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
A couple episodes ago I had Jerry's Plumbing has a
20-year plumbing business here.
Now the plumbing and electrical.
They have their own school thatthey put on through the state
and you actually get exactlylike you're talking about.
But it's not for every trade.
Does that make sense.
So like if I wanted to go pickup a carpentry tradesman and

(44:52):
guys, let me know, reach out tothe show if I'm just talking
absolute Spanglish here.
Let me know, reach out to theshow if I'm just talking
absolute Spanglish here.
But from my understanding isthat you can go be an apprentice
carpenter in the union but youcan be non-union and go work for
a labor and end up being asuperintendent for a non-union
company but nobody really givesyou any certification.
Now you're growing things likeOSHA 30, osha 10, communications

(45:16):
courses, any types of trainingsand so like.
Back to pesticides andherbicides.
No, nobody can.
Just I can't just go startspraying chemicals on somebody's
yard here.
I would have to accrue acertain herbicide, pesticide
spray license to be able to dothat application, but it's not
really necessarily.
That would be something thatthe company has more or less

(45:39):
than a single person.
If that makes sense, yeah, andit gives you a license, right.
But there is guidelines andboards that ensure that you stay
within those parameters workingwith these licenses.
So like I have a unlimitedlicense in the state of Arkansas
.
That's a contractor's licensefor just the state of Arkansas,

(46:01):
if I jump over 45 minutes overhere into Oklahoma.
there's not a state contractor'slicensing board, they handle it
more per city.
Anyways, it's just very blurredthe state.
So that's very interesting.
I just wanted to hit on that.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, yeah, so we probably have a similar sort of
structure, I guess states so, um, that was that's very
interesting, I just wanted tohit on that.
Yeah, yeah, so it seemed likewe'd probably have a similar
sort of structure, I guess.
Yeah, the difference yeah, wehave obviously australian award
rate when it comes to um payingsomeone.
So the government has a clearset of guidelines depending on
what your level of qualificationand what you do within that
business is what we call theaward rate.
So to be able to go up in awardrate, you would have to provide

(46:40):
, obviously, a certificate.
So if you're just a tradesmanand you look after your own type
of work, you might be a levelone, but then if you're a
manager within that industry,you may be a level three, which
would get you a few dollars moreper hour because that's how
you're connected.
So everything's connected backand pretty regulated.
Yeah, here in australia, yeah,certain trades, like you said,

(47:03):
they're electrical and thatobviously that they have their
requirements where there's alicense that they have to have
for them to be able to doelectrical work and all those
things need to be complied tomake sure that you can actually
do the work and get yourinsurance and everything here
which is, um, yeah, pretty,pretty highly regulated in
Australia.
That sort of stuff, theAustralian stands for those.

(47:23):
But look with you, trady, thisis some of the stuff that you
know we want to expose, right?
So you talked earlier about,yeah, looking out the window and
, yeah, thinking about, yeah,other jobs, like people you know
working on asphalt and doingroads and stuff like that.
One thing that I love abouttradies and I get excited about
is, like, it's true, likewithout tradies, the world

(47:46):
wouldn't turn.
It's interesting, yeah, that wefeel this sense of I don't know
like Matt referred to it asbeing people looking at you as a
lower thing and, yeah, that guytaking the photo for whatever
reason he was taking that photolike it's strange, and I
remember people like referringto me as like the mold man and
that used to get under my skinbecause I was like man, I've got

(48:06):
some qualifications and, withmy previous background, that
used to irritate me.
But what?
What we want to do, andconnected to the conversations
we're saying here about like, oh, what do you need in our, our
marketplace, our contentmarketplace?
We've got some information upthere about different trades and
jobs and what we want to do isget into schools and give it
free to school kids that theycan go into the marketplace and

(48:29):
search you know what is it to bea diesel fitter?
And it provide them thatinformation.
Now, from our point of view,we've just done it at a basic
level.
What I want from the listenersand what we're trying to do is
to get people that are in thoseindustries to create this
content and put it on themarketplace, for them to promote
their industry and for them tobe the advocates to get people

(48:49):
in, because where we're sort ofleading to right is an aging
workforce.
You know, not just in australia, but in America, in the UK, in
other countries, we've got a lotof men and women that are going
to retire and there seems to bea bit of a gap between who's
going to take over that stuffand, like anything, if we
haven't got our processes andthings in place, then the

(49:12):
standard of things are going tostart to drop.
So our goal, and then the onlyway you tradie will become
successful, is to honouring thepeople that are in the trades
and them helping each other.
So you tradie is not a storyabout me, it's a story about you
.
Like you as a tradie, you putyour story on there.
It's your passport, it's yourinformation, it's what
information you want to sharewith the next generation or your

(49:35):
mate.
How do we connect each other totry and help each other?
Because I would have loved,yeah, if I rewind to that young
16 year old mark, you knowdeciding what am I going to do
when I leave school and I wantto stay in this coal mining town
.
Man, it would have been cool tosee that.
You know be an aviationtechnician and work on airplanes
or something like that, likesomething that you like at that

(49:56):
stage, on 100%, would never havethought that was even a job
that existed as a kid growing upin a small country town and
what are those otheropportunities around there.
You know like working on oilrigs and so forth.
Yeah, I did some time as a fullcircle and doing FIFO work and
going and working in a differentcoal mining town for a little

(50:16):
bit to get exposed to that and Ididn't realize.
Even I grew up in a coal miningtown, didn't realize all the
other jobs that were involved ina mine.
You know like operator roles.
You know driving a dozer doinga drag line excavation.
You know even soil sampling andthe things that have to go
there.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
You got drag lines over there and operations still.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
We've got all that stuff.
Yeah, Big mines, big mines.
Yeah, they're the things I wantto expose and I want to get
people talking about thosethings to show each other what's
there, right, Like I think weall get to a point in trades
where we get a little bitstagnant and worried because
you've just spent your entirelife learning a skill.

(50:58):
You get to a point where you'relike what do I do?
Have I got to bite down on mytongue and just keep doing this
to provide for my family?
Get up at 4 am, 3 am, get mybreakfast sorted while
everyone's still sleeping, getout the door or do I change Now?
That's a scary thought for alot of us because you've got to
restart again.
Like me, education wasn't thebest thing, as I said, for me to

(51:21):
start with, so to do that againis a challenge and I feel for
that for other people.
If this platform provides a newopportunity where people can
talk and say, oh, actually, ifyou've got that skill, you just
need to do these couple offillers and you'd be able to
change your career and move onto become X, Y and Z, and
there's new opportunities foryou to go down, and I think you

(51:44):
touched on there with AI.
Ai is going to change us right,and it already is Like.
Ai excites me, Me also yeah.
Obviously, ai excites me nowthat I'm in this world of
technology and understandingstuff, and I think, like
anything, we go throughdifferent stages in life where
things change the landscape ofhow work happens, and I think

(52:08):
white collar are probably undera lot more pressure than what we
are, even though I don't thinkit's a lot of pressure.
I think you just got to learnto work out how AI is going to
help you enhance your, your roleand move with it.
I think if you try to ignore itand I think you think it's not
coming then you may be affected.
Um, it's the same as that covidperiod.
If you stood there and thoughtthat you know, I'm not going to

(52:28):
do anything different and, um,you struggled right.
But if you pivoted during covidand you found different ways,
you were able to, you know,continue right.
It's the same with this AI, butI think what it's going to do
and I obviously read and listento a lot of things is even the
fast pace of where AI is goingand the changes that it's going

(52:49):
to create to our technology andour infrastructures.
Traders are still going tobuild that infrastructure right,
like.
The biggest thing that I likeand I think about is is power
lines.
Like power lines are.
If you really stop and thinkand I'm sure someone could
probably put this in the chat,gpt or whatever and think, like
our power lines, the best way totransfer electricity between

(53:11):
buildings, I'm sure it mightgive us a better idea.
But when that comes to thatpoint and they decide, okay,
this is the direction we'regoing to go, it's going to be
tradies that will have to changethat infrastructure.
There'll be tradies that willhave to change the road
infrastructure to help electricvehicles or whatever, whenever
that period comes right.
But right, I think when it comesto trades, we're in a pretty
secure and safe safe sense, aslong as you're continually

(53:34):
looking to improve and and togrow and to and move forward.
So, yeah, that that excites me,but obviously our goal is, yeah
, to try and connect peopletogether and help each other.
That's what you know.
Grow to is about it.
It's, uh, you know, growingtogether is is the motto of our,
of our business and and peoplehelping people I think you need

(53:55):
to get a hold of my guys over atboom nation.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
I'll put you in.
But I really think for you oiland gas guys.
So I'll tell you.
In the US, the oil and gascontracted work, these guys can
go from North Dakota one minute,oklahoma the next minute, and
then all of a sudden they're outin Pennsylvania.
They're all over the place.

(54:18):
They have kind of a moneychasing mentality, but when
you're on the road I mean that's, that's all you're chasing.
You want to go back home?
I mean I do.
And so, um, long story short, Ithink this could really help
those guys us, they are thebackbone like welders, rig

(54:40):
helpers, et cetera and give themthose opportunities that hey,
do you have a digital resume?
Maybe move out of their currentrole where they're at and maybe
put a resume.
I mean literally just type itinto chat GBT, but literally hop
on, hop on.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
You, tradie, put a passport together and I'm
assuming you can export a pdfand send it straight over to
anywhere anytime yeah, well, youdon't even need to export it,
you just, um, yeah, you justgive the link, uh, to the
employer, they would sign up.
We'll give them access to afree account for them to check
your passport, because obviouslythat's how we need to grow.
Currently, at the moment,businesses pay $55 a month to

(55:22):
use uTradie it's free forapprentices and students or
anyone that's looking to have alook and then $5.50 a month for
tradies to try and help keep alltheir information in one place.
But obviously, my goal is newto this side of software
business and everything is tolink with the right people to
see how we can then turn thisplatform into being, yeah,

(55:43):
completely free for everyone.
Um, the goal is obviously Idon't want it to be too, yeah,
heavily marketed.
Um, yeah, that you, that itloses its power of what it's
meant to be.
But you know, obviously in this, this day and age, we've got to
try and work out that is likeyou talk about um, yeah, the
challenges we have as businessowners.
Right, I love your honestythere about putting these things

(56:06):
in place, and you probably lostpeople because you didn't have
it in place.
Man, I was exactly the same.
As much as I even care.
I care and I'm passionate aboutthis and I'm spending money and
getting this done in thebackground.
I was, in a sense, probably theword neglecting is probably a
little bit too harsh on myself,but you know, for the lack of
words probably neglecting thegrowth of some of those boys

(56:27):
that I had there, not realisingthat, um, I needed to put those
effort in.
I need to have these things inplace for them to sort of grow.
Yeah, what I would love withyou tradie with the marketplace.
You say that you're now creatingcontent.
Right, you could create thatcontent even though it works for
your business.
You could put on themarketplace for a business.

(56:47):
Say, if I'm starting tomorrow,I could purchase your content to
use for my employees, whichmeans that creates a new revenue
stream for you, rather than youjust creating it once for
yourself.
You can actually help yourindustry and provide that.
You talk about influencers likeChad.
Well, they're the influencersthat I think that we should be
celebrating and helping.
I've got young boys and theylook at YouTube and, don't get

(57:10):
me wrong, I love looking atYouTube clips as well and stuff
like that, but when I hear theword influencer from a YouTube
perspective, uh, that probablydoesn't appeal to me, but if you
were to tell me that there is a, a guy you know in, yeah, in
the plumbing industry that isproviding support and and help
in guiding people, well, that's,that's a person that's an
influencer in my, in my eyes,and how do we promote them and

(57:33):
how do we reward that person?
You know, how do we connect youknow, businesses like supply
chains or products, to thatperson so they can promote those
in those businesses.
For me, when I used to haveindustry reps come out and talk
to me about, you know, newfertilizers or chemicals or

(57:53):
machinery and stuff like that,also under the pump, just to get
the work done, to make surethat I could finish the day, I
would never have time to be ableto talk to that industry rep.
And again we talk about howthings are changing rapidly and
there's probably new productsout there that would make life
easier.
You kind of stick to whatyou're used to because you don't
have the brainpower to learnsomething new.

(58:14):
What we'd love to see isindustry reps providing content
in the marketplace.
So a business owner, ratherthan stopping for 45 minutes and
learning about that product,they could just be given access
to that information and again,like you said before, a
three-minute conversationdirectly to them about why the

(58:34):
benefits of this product.
So it's trying to streamline andspeed up the benefits of this
product.
So it's trying to, you know,streamline and speed up the way
that we give information to eachother.
So we're not in the, you know,the game of trying to fight with
rtos or academies or anythinglike that.
Like we, we don't want to, uh,we don't want to focus on
accredited content andcertificates.
We actually want to partnerwith them.
So we, we want, you know,academies that already have this

(58:55):
content and certificates.
We actually want to partnerwith them.
So we, we want, you know,academies that already have this
content and information provideshort, non-accredited
information into the platformwhere business owners can give
that to their employees to helpthem upskill, which then is.
Then it connects back to the,to the user's passport and shows
that person progressing,progressing forward.
Yeah, so, trying to create thatloop of how everyone helps each

(59:18):
other, because trying to engagea young person to come into to
trade industries, I know here inaustralia and I believe user in
a similar situation is you knowwhat is appealing to them.
Like you know, start this tradeand you're going to be swinging
a shovel until you're 60 yearsold.
Uh, that probably scares a lotof people, right, and the bad
stories that we already talkedabout earlier of like well, uh,

(59:39):
you know, I've got an uncle thatgot treated like you know,
treated like shit, when he wasdoing an apprenticeship, like
why would I go do that?
Whereas if we can use youtradie as a um, a way to show
people the, the life cycle whereyou start off as an apprentice,
you, you learn your trade andyou become skillful and become a
master in that knowledge andthen you become an influencer
that provides information backand start creating a passive

(01:00:02):
income that leads towards yourretirement and helping the next
generation.
Well, that starts to then buildthis new model of how do I get
off the tools, and that's whatwe want to achieve.
How do I help a guy that's rightnow in his 50s, 55, his body's
starting to break down and he'sgoing?
I've got all this knowledge andinformation that there's only

(01:00:25):
two guys that I work with can'tmake money off telling those two
guys how to do stuff.
How do I, how do we take thatguy and expose him to the, to
the wider industry, because I, Iwould guarantee there are some
amazing human beings out therethat are very supportive, very
knowledgeable, that could helpus move in a direction that we
need to go, but we just don'thave.

(01:00:47):
We don't have a platform thatconnects them right.
You have youtube.
If someone wants to go out andcreate a youtuber.
You also have a lot of tradiesthat for myself, as I mentioned
earlier, like the impostersyndrome, I've put myself out
there to come on podcasts.
It's a bit of a thing for me tosort of overcome, right, like
I'm sure there's other tradiesthat do not want to put

(01:01:08):
themselves on YouTube, wherethey're exposed to millions and
millions of people.
But if they were in anenvironment where it was
like-minded tradies and peoplethat want to learn from them, I
think you may start to changethe mindset of that older tradie
.
And they're the people we needto touch, because they are the
guys and girls that have theknowledge, that have the

(01:01:29):
real-life experience, that arethe ones that are going to help
the next generation come throughLike we keep reinventing the
wheel with things, and I thinkwe don't need to.
I think people have alreadybeen there and done it before.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
No, 100%, dude.
What an amazing, amazingproduct you're building
seriously, and have built.
I'm actually jumping on itmyself and we'll be on there.
So check me out, if you guysjump on there, maybe we'll have
a little conversation on there.
Man, I am just a littleintrigued, more than a little

(01:02:07):
very intrigued, at what you'reright.
It can not only, it justbenefits everybody.
It literally user businesses,people up skills, not networking
relationships, influences, likeand there may be a way that you
know, for the content creators.
You know, like myself, I hatethe word influencer, dude, I

(01:02:28):
hate it, I hate it, but at thesame time I think, someone like
yourself with what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
That, and I know you talk about imposter syndrome too
, but I think you've got to giveyourself some credit that you
are influenced and I thinkyou're influencing in a positive
way, like you're having theseconversations, like I think it
takes a great person to sitthere and say I've made these
mistakes and you know, I may notbe proud of it, but I'm happy
to try and be told or learn howto get to that next step.

(01:02:54):
And if we could all have alittle bit of that, I think we
get to get to a point I thinkyou mentioned earlier about the
you know, fake it till you makeit.
I think with where we're movingto with ai and the way you can
verify someone's information,you know, like that fake it till
you make it is that's not goingto be a thing you know pretty
soon.
So how do we help a youngperson not have to feel like

(01:03:18):
they're going to fake it to themake it, that they've made it
and then all they're doing nowis, um, just improving
relationships with people,because that's where I sort of
hope ai takes us to right.
Like previously, you could, Iguess, probably have an ego
based off your knowledge, andthat's one thing about tradies
that I've I I don't know ifyou're like in America, but you

(01:03:39):
always get.
Yeah, if I had one builder turnup here and have a look at
something in my house and they'dtell me something, then another
builder turn up and they'd sortof peacock it a little bit of
like who's got the better ideawith it and stuff like that,
whereas I'd love us to get awayfrom that and just be more
focused on buildingrelationships and having good

(01:03:59):
conversations with each otherthan that stuff.
And I think AI will help thatbecause you'll be able to verify
when a tradie comes in and says, oh no, you're going to have to
remove all those pipes and putin a new set of pipes.
Well, yeah, eventually we'llget to the point where AI is
pretty good and you can takephotos and it'll it'll let you
know that stuff.
So I hope, yeah, uh, that thatwe will move into a direction

(01:04:20):
where it's it's morerelationship building that we'll
we'll start to focus on again.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
Yeah, as people dude, I talk about it on every
episode of the show andbusinesses relationships.
It's not just about buildingthem, as crucial as that is, but
it's nurturing once you'vebuilt that relationship as well.
That is so crucial that a lotof people you used the word
neglect earlier and that isanother word they neglect that

(01:04:48):
relationship once they've builtit, not because they don't
necessarily they don don't wantthat, it's just happening.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
As you know, distant happens anyways, but um, well, I
think we strapped with a bit ofthat sigh right.
I think that's the way we'releading not to get too too deep
in in our first conversation,but we're leading to a little
bit of that with.
When it comes to communicationbetween people, these days it's
seems to be more challenging,you know, um, and I think, um,

(01:05:16):
yeah, ironically I will say this, considering I I have a
software company, but with witha lot of these softwares and
things that are out there, theyare creating more of a distance
between each other that it'seasier to have a conversation
with someone on a chat systemthan it is to actually, you know
, sit at a bar or at a pub andhave a yarn about, like, what

(01:05:37):
happened that day or what'sgoing on in your life.
And that's concerning like wherewe're sort of leading to.
And I hope that we can sort ofreverse that and change that in
some sort of capacity that welearn how to communicate with
people.
And you're 100% right, likebuilding uh is challenging, you
know, like a relationship, likewhether it's you know your

(01:05:59):
family, your wife and all thatthey're the most important
things in it in your world, butthey take time and they have
their challenging moments andstuff like that to you know, to
kind of work through the sameconcept with you know the
broader circle as you start to,you know, move into those next
steps in your working andprofessional, professional life,
is is building thoserelationship dude, I have

(01:06:23):
absolutely loved thisconversation and I have one more
thing for you today, my guy Ihave a feeling we may have to
get you back on here, becausetoday I really I would love to
hear how you tradies doing herein about a year, man, because I
think you are on the.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
I have a feeling we may stay in contact, but I have
a feeling, truly, you're on theverge of something that's needed
, that needs to happen, andyou're right.
We just need to bring focus, weneed to bring awareness to it
and we need to let people knowhow awesome of an opportunity it
is, and there are people outthere willing to help you.

(01:07:00):
Here is the platform to do itall.
So the last thing I got for you, my guy go as far in depth as
you want.
I ask this on every singleepisode.
And what's the takeaway, man,for the tradie worker out there
who is just sick and tired ofbeing stuck in the mud, mentally

(01:07:22):
, physically, emotionally, anyof those?

Speaker 2 (01:07:28):
Oh man, that's a good question.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
And it's those guys that are out there in their
first year apprenticeshipmoney's kind of crap and they're
just oh, maybe should I do this, should I not, but it's also
that guy that's been in the samejob for 10 years and he's like
man, am I ever going to get apromotion?

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
Man, that's a great question.
There's probably so many waysto answer that question.
Look, I think, look, if westart from the the bottom, we
work our way up.
I guess right, like if we talkabout apprentices and everything
is, um, what's that?
What's that old old saying oflike, if something is easy to do
, it's not worth doing, if it's,if it's hard to do, then it's

(01:08:11):
worth doing, or so forth.
I'll probably mess that up, butthat's probably the best way to
look at your apprenticeship issometimes you've just got to,
you've got to start at thebottom to understand things and
you've got to sit there andyou've got to listen, and there
are people you know around youthat have done it before.
And I think the key is to be,you know, courteous and polite
and to listen is the main, isthe main thing.

(01:08:33):
I probably that was my intent,probably the way that I was
raised by, you know, a father,you know that had a military
background, it was, you know,don't speak unless spoken to and
uh, you know, listen and learn,uh, so that's it, that's.
That's probably just myupbringing of what I was, but
that that that that helped methrough those stages.
Um, I think the also the thing,too, is you're not always

(01:08:57):
probably going to find the exactthing that you want straight
away, right, but that's not tosay to stop and give up on
things, because you learn.
You learn through perseverance,right.
You learn more things aboutyourself if you can stick
through something, if it's'shard, and I think from my
sporting background, the thingsthat I learned is those tough

(01:09:19):
times create something, a betterperformance when it comes to
moving into business andstarting that small business
again.
It's that perseverance is whatcontinually pops into my head.
For me, I felt like I didn'tgive everything that I should
have with sports.

(01:09:39):
I felt like I gave up.
So I constantly live with thisinternal battle with myself that
I'm angry about, which isprobably something that drives
me, for you, where I'm now at apoint where I need to know will
it work or will it not work?
I can't just stop until I knowthat answer.
And if I know that answer andit doesn't turn into the

(01:10:01):
aspirations of what I wanted, atleast I know that I would feel
happy with myself that I saw itthrough to the end, because I
don't want to live with thatfeeling twice.
I've mentioned this before andI'll give this guy probably a
rap.
I don't know if you guys knowEric Thomas.
He's an American motivationalspeaker.
They call him the hip hop.

Speaker 1 (01:10:21):
Yes, I know of who you're talking about.
Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
So through all the tough times when I was running
my business and you go throughtough times like that's, the one
thing that you learn inbusiness is one minute you will
think the world is crashing downon you and how could I possibly
even make it through to nextweek and pay people wages, and
pay my tax bill and make sure myinsurance is covered and deal

(01:10:45):
with these customers and I needto get a new customer, otherwise
things are going to struggle.
You find those ups and downswill happen and if you persevere
and you keep learning, you willunderstand that they become
easier and smaller, shorterdowns than they are.
But there's a saying that hehas in that one of his videos is

(01:11:05):
learning about pain.
You know that pain will lastwith you either for a minute, an
hour, a week or a year, or itwill subside.
But giving up will last forever, you know.
So my biggest thing with peopleis, you know, learn to find
ways to keep going.
Um, you know mental health Italked about.
You know adhd.
With adhd comes anxiety.

(01:11:25):
I I struggle massively withanxiety at times, you know, and
uh, at times I yeah, especiallywhen you're running a business
and you you're getting up in themorning and you think I've got
to go talk to these people andyour brain is in a million
different ways is, yeah, again,finding that way to persevere,
and it's not about trying tofind the answers itself, but

(01:11:46):
it's trying to find the peoplearound you that will help you
get to those answers.
So definitely not weak to speakand to go talk and find someone
that can help you with that.
Definitely not weak to speakand to go talk and find someone
that can help you with that.
You know, I was very lucky that,as I probably tried to deal
with a lot of stuff myself, butas I've got older, I've learned
to understand that the more youtalk about something, the more

(01:12:06):
it gets out of your chest, andthen you're open to getting that
information back in, which thenhelps you to the next step.
So, yeah, I guess really thethe key probably to that is
perseverance is where you willlearn and you know three times.
You'll know when it's right tostay and when it's right to go.
The old song, the Gambler youknow, know when to hold them,

(01:12:28):
know when to fold them.
You've had a tough time, justprobably put that on and that'll
probably give you a guidance ofyou know what you need to do.
So, yeah, I think, just stickto it, learn and and always know
.
Like you know, it's not whereyou start, it's where you end,
right, uh, where it's abeautiful thing, life, and you
listen to my story.
I started off as a yeah, kidcarrying up bricks in a

(01:12:49):
stairways, uh, in in sydney.
To now, you know, talking toyou know, uh, a podcast on the
other side of the world.
It's pretty exciting, yeah, sojust keep going, keep trying,
put yourself out there and don'tworry about failing.
I mentioned earlier to youthere's a sportsman here in
Australia that I really like.
He's a little bit controversial.

(01:13:11):
He's a boxer and a rugby leagueplayer.
One thing that he talks aboutis you know, when we have kids
and you mentioned you've gotkids, I've got, um, I've got my
third boy on the way and inabout 10 days time.
So it's chaos here in our house, but, uh, one thing that he
talks about is you know, whenyou have kids, you're constantly
encouraging, you're motivating,you're helping and, um, you're

(01:13:32):
getting them to the next step ofthem learning how to walk,
learning how to talk, like whenthey have an issue at school,
he's overcoming that school.
You're constantly helping themand guiding them and helping
them.
But for some reason we get tosome sort of age as adults and
if someone puts themselves outthere like decides to create a
podcast or something like that,rather than the encouragement or
the like, okay, well, what canI do to kind of help?

(01:13:54):
We may say something and look,we're all human right, like
sometimes we say things that wedon't mean, but like words can
cut, especially to a person thatis, you know, putting their
self out there to try and dosomething different.
So, you know, my probably hopefor other people is, you know,
let's help each other.
Let's help each other get tothose next sort of stages and

(01:14:17):
and see where that sort of yeah,it takes us.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
I think would be very cool dude 100, because but it
takes people like me and youhaving a conversation, putting
ourselves out there and drivingawareness on this subject.
It needs so much awarenessbrought to it.
We need more tradesmen tradiesI'm probably going to call them
tradies from here on out, Ican't.
We've got James Starbuck.

(01:14:41):
I don't know if you know thatgentleman, but he's an
excavation contractor over therein Australia and we've been in
contact through LinkedIn and sowe're going to have another
Aussie here not too long and I'mexcited to learn more.
But at least I can have somecommon language, at least you
know.
But, man, what a great answer.
You just had that four partsthere and you hit every one of

(01:15:03):
them.
But perseverance and puttingyourself out there, man can
change things, man seriously.
So where do we find you, trady?
Youtradycom?
Right yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
YouTradycom, so it's just a U and then T-R-a-d-i-ecom
.
Look, if you go to that landingpage, there is a section down
the bottom where you can, um,you know, create a calendar link
and have a meeting with me andhave a chat.
Uh, again, I started as atradie.
Uh, this is something I'vebuilt, you know, for us and
something that I I thought Iwould have loved I was going

(01:15:35):
through.
So, the more feedback and themore that people want to get
involved and help move this inits direction that it needs to
go to, I encourage that.
You know the good, bad and theugly.
I've learned to get a bit of athicker skin as I've got older,
so I'm happy to hear what youfeel we need to change and what
we need to improve because, yeah, we're still early days in what
we can become.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
but, um, yeah, hopefully touch some people and
people sign up and they look to,you know, start creating some
content on the marketplace andand help each other dude, I
can't thank you enough today forjoining me from literally
across the dad cum world and, um, as I shared with you, I've got

(01:16:15):
some family over there inAustralia and the UK obviously.
So if you guys are listeningfrom there, thank you guys so
much for the constant week afterweek investment and I truly
hope this is bringing you guyssome value.
I know today, literally Ilearned so much just about a

(01:16:36):
whole different side of theworld and what they're going
through and they're fighting thesame fight that we're fighting
yeah and it's, and it's just socrazy the similarities and yeah,
there's obviously going to besome differences, of course, but
yeah, yeah and it was veryenlightening to hear that we're
dealing with it's not just anamerican problem.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
This is a global freaking problem really, really
big and, uh, you know not this.
I know we're getting close tothe end here, but yeah, we could
even touch on you know what theglobal market will be in the
next decade like.
I feel we'll get to a pointwhere we may have an abundance
of carpenters here, you may havean abundance of electricians
there and we may people maystart moving between countries a

(01:17:17):
lot more.
My wife is Colombian, right, soI go to Bogota, colombia, and I
love South America and, yeah, Ilook at even the infrastructure
and everything that they've gotthere and some hard workers and
everything, maybe differentregulations, but that's the one
thing trades could really beawesome in the future is the
ability to travel and experiencedifferent cultures together.

(01:17:38):
That's where I would love youtradie to get to that point of
like.
Is it a digital highway fortradies to travel between
different countries?
That would be the ultimatesuccess story, but I think we're
many years away from that beingbeing a um, a reality dude.

Speaker 1 (01:18:00):
That's, that's some visionary thinking right there.
That's some, uh, trulyvisionary thinking.
And we need people like youpushing the envelope on the
vision of what it could be.
Not what it is now, not what itwas, but what it could be.
Not what it is now, not what itwas, but what it could be.
And I encourage you, I lookforward to working with you on

(01:18:27):
the Utrady stuff and building mylittle passport repertoire on.
There Should be nice and shortand sweet dirt and pipe guy.
Truly, guys, I hope you learneda little bit more about the
digital age, the software worldin general, like we spoke on.
But go check out utradeycom.
I'm very intrigued.
Some of this stuff that Markjust literally has me captivated

(01:18:51):
.
Up here I got my gears turningjust a little bit but, man, I
did come through from country tocountry.
Obviously I wasn't chasing atrade, I was my mother's son,
but at the same time I don'tthink people even think that way
across the world.
But to have a pathway that agentleman is so passionate about
building and helping every manand woman on that platform.

(01:19:13):
Guys, I encourage you go checkit out.
But that basically wraps up ourepisode here on Blue Collar
Business Podcast.
Go, check outbluecollarbusinesspodcastcom and
if you're here at the end ofthis, would you mind dropping a
rating and a follow?
It helps the show out so much.
And if there's an episodethat's your favorite, share it
on your favorite social platform.

(01:19:34):
All it's going to do is driveawareness, drive the show even
more.
If you're a sponsor or aproduct in the Blue Collar
working space, hit the, become aSponsor,
bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom,and we'll make sure you get an
ad placed in here.
They've been converting on someothers already.
So last little bit, at the veryend of the show, I have an ops

(01:19:57):
manager role for Sycon on myLinkedIn and on our webpage at
wwwsyconexccom.
Check us out there and let meknow.
Shoot your resume in Beentrying to use the podcast as a
hopefully a platform to securesomebody.
So, mark again, brother, thankyou for getting up at 5.30 in

(01:20:19):
the morning tomorrow to jump ona podcast today with me at three
o'clock in the afternoon.
I've enjoyed it thoroughly andI know the audience will.
But, man, until then, until wetalk again, you be safe, be kind
, be humble, my guy.

Speaker 2 (01:20:34):
Awesome.
I appreciate that, mate.
Thank you for your time.

Speaker 1 (01:20:38):
If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it
a like.
Share it with the fellers.
Check out our website to sendus any questions and comments
about your experience in theblue collar business.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you may have.
Till next time, guys.

All Episodes

Ep. 42 – Digitizing the Trades: An Aussie Tradie's Mission

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

The Breakfast Club

Crime Junkie

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 42 – Digitizing the Trades: An Aussie Tradie's Mission