August 25, 2025 • 27 mins
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Wes Towers didn’t just stumble; his whole world collapsed. A failed marriage, a business undervalued to nearly nothing, and nights spent sleeping under his desk — this was the reality he faced. Yet, in the middle of one of his darkest days, Wes wiped away tears, pulled himself together, and closed the biggest deal of his career. That moment became the start of an unexpected journey — one where pain transformed into power.
In this episode of the Business Growth Architect Show: Founders of the Future, Wes shares the raw truth of what it’s like to rebuild when everything falls apart. He opens up about discovering the power of vulnerability, the role of breathwork and plant medicine in facing his inner struggles, and how authenticity gave him an edge in business when AI was predicted to take it all away. His story is not polished—it’s real, unfiltered, and deeply human.
Everyone has a story. We all faced it, being broken, stuck, or unsure of how to move forward, Wes’s story is proof that our biggest breakdown can lead to our strongest breakthrough. His journey will inspire you to embrace your humanity, lean into authenticity, and turn challenges into advantages.
👉 Watch the full episode now and learn more about Wes’s work at uplift360.com.au.
Resources Mentioned:
Wes Towers: Uplift360 | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | TikTok
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Wes Towers (00:00):
Yeah, look, it was horrendous time in my life. My
(00:03):
marriage fell apart. It was asclose to a full breakdown as you
could possibly get. I was on thefloor crying a blubbering mess
under my desk. Five minutes, andI was able to gather myself up,
put myself together, and closethe biggest deal I'd ever
closed. It felt like everythingwas broken and everything had to
(00:24):
be rebuilt.
BEATE CHELETTE (00:27):
Today's guest hit rock bottom, everything, all
at once, fell apart. Wes tell usabout the moment when your whole
life collapsed.
Wes Towers (00:38):
Yeah, look, it was a horrendous time in my life,
around three years ago, mymarriage fell apart, but that
affected all aspects of my lifeand my business and everything.
So it was something that I kindof knew was on the horizon, but
when I found out what Idiscovered, it was still almost
(00:58):
well. It was as close to a fullbreakdown as you could possibly
get. And so I moved out and wassleeping under the desk at the
office and all these sorts ofthings, and but I was still able
to keep up the facade ofeverything being okay to a
degree. So weirdly enough, whenit really struck me was I was on
(01:18):
the floor crying and blubberingmess under my desk, because
everything was so fresh and newthat then I realized I had a
zoom call within five minutes orso, and I was able to gather
myself up, put myself together,and close the biggest deal I'd
ever closed. And initially Ithought that was good, that I
was able to compartmentalize thepain and the torment in my own
(01:42):
life, and then put it aside anddo business. But it was later
that someone mentioned to methat that might not be so
healthy. There might be thingsin deep down that you really got
to deal with. And certainly thatwas the case. So it led to my
journey in my personal life, butwhich also led to the biggest
(02:02):
breakthroughs in my business aswell.
BEATE CHELETTE (02:05):
What do you think the transformation
challenge was like? Here youare. You run a successful
business, and now one part ofyour business falls apart. What
was the transformation challengefor you? What were you asked to
do
Wes Towers (02:18):
so the aspect of being able to compartmentalize
and hide who me was both a goodthing and a terrible thing,
because it was also the thingthat was trapping me. So when I
went to do the breath work wasreally transformational. I was
convulsing in all sorts ofthings and but I saw some
(02:40):
visions, which was reallyphenomenal. I saw a picture of
Jesus, like this stereotypicalwhat Jesus might look like, and
the stereotypical Satan face,and it was merging from one to
the other. And I realized, forme, it meant that it was kind of
like understanding I have thecapacities to be both and I am.
(03:03):
I am both, and I have failuresand flaws as a person. I have
the potential to be good and badand sometimes both, and it's
kind of so the way I presentmyself to the world isn't
necessarily the full picture. Ithink we all do that. So for me
to just to even understand thatinternally, helped me. And I
(03:24):
think I had to hit rock bottomto get to the point where I
would, where I would delve intothat and recognize my own flaws
as a person.
BEATE CHELETTE (03:33):
I want to jump in here. Do you think that this
had something to do with thatyou that you were putting up a
mask and that, okay, so talk tous about this, because I think
this part is really important tomention, is that we have this
fake it till you make itmentality, yeah, which I don't
think is necessarily a bad thingif you look at it from a
(03:56):
creation perspective. But Ithink the fake it till you make
it is oftentimes misconstrued asa pretend to be something that
you are not, not, not, you know,live as if you are becoming this
person that you are designing tobe, which I think is a big
difference. Where was that foryou? What was that internal
challenge?
Wes Towers (04:14):
Yeah, so well, so through the process of
separation, divorce andeverything, the a real tipping
point for me was, everything'son the table, and you've got to
because the business was goingalong, and it was moderately
successful, I thought, but I gotthe business valuation, and he
said, he sort of suggested thebusiness wasn't worth much at
(04:37):
all any, and he highlighted AIas a significant threat, it was
becoming evident that it wouldtake had the potential to take
over jobs. So I realized I'dinvested and spent all this time
building a business which maynot be worth what I thought it
was, and just to realizeeverything that I. Built. So at
(05:01):
this point, I've realized, okay,so my marriage has failed. So I
failed in that aspect, and thathas implications. And now my
business is, is, maybe it's notas healthy as it what it could
have been. And so myrelationships, my business,
everything was challenged. Andso I had to re from that point
of complete breakdown of who Ithought I was, because as
(05:23):
business people, I think we putour identities, at least to a
degree, in what we're buildingas businesses, because we're so
invested in it, obviously, andthat's not good or bad. It's
just that, just the reality,certainly for me, that it felt
like everything was broken andeverything had to be rebuilt.
And so interestingly enough, AIdidn't destroy my business as
(05:45):
the business of value suggestedit might. It was something that
I could introduce into mybusiness, and I don't think I
would have done it to the degreeI have if I didn't hit the rock
bottom. So I mean, I've justcome off. We report our
financial years, mid year, soJune, and it's just the
strongest financial year we'veever had. So we had little
(06:07):
incremental growth even fromthat point of breakdown, just to
have a reality check and say,Hey, you're not as good as what
you thought you were, and toadjust some things and turn what
the business value I thought wasa threat into an advantage. How
did you
BEATE CHELETTE (06:22):
manage the emotional aspect? Because at
this point, you know somebody'ssitting there with a frying pan
and giving you a good whippingover the head multiple times,
right? So your relationship'sfallen apart. Your business
isn't what you think it is.
What's your mental emotionalstate at this point? How do you
how do you manage to get throughthat?
Wes Towers (06:40):
The first few things that I did was to build
relationships around me. So Idon't think it's something men
do particularly well, is tobuild strong relationships where
you can have you can be open.
And I was, I was certainly likethat. Historically, I was always
fairly closed and never revealpersonal hardships or anything
like that. Just always speakpositively and that kind of
(07:01):
stuff, but things got so badthat was like that was broken.
So I just made sure I builtaround me great friendships who
could have open discussions thatI could call
BEATE CHELETTE (07:13):
upon. You also mentioned one of the things
that, of course, I'm veryinterested in is alternative
medicines, plant medicine, anddifferent types of journeys.
How'd you how'd you come up withthat? Because you, and forgive
me, if I say that, you look likea pretty straight, straight
laced kind of guy, you know? Sohow does somebody like you get
(07:34):
into something like that? Howdoes that happen?
Wes Towers (07:38):
Yeah, well, I was, I was fortunate in that I went to
a psychologist who was reallyquite progressive. Now she
didn't encourage plant medicinedirectly, because what I had may
not be legal here, but it'smoving that way. She encouraged
me through the breath work, butI knew the clinic that I went to
(08:00):
were pushing along the path ofbeing a place where you the
plant medicine will be availableonce it's here in Australia,
it's kind of in this weird pointwhere it's become legal to a
degree, but there's no onefacilitating it, because it's
just complicated.
BEATE CHELETTE (08:18):
What was your what was a trigger event in that
journey that you took thatchanged everything for you.
Because typically, there is,
Wes Towers (08:28):
yeah, so I mean that vision that I had with to
realize the good and the bad,the plant medicine I had the one
time, and I have no like, I'venever had any desire to do it
again. I feel like it wassomething that I certainly
wasn't recreational. It wasn'tfun, but it was certainly
(08:50):
revealing. And I saw lots ofthings, and I was really
intentional about how I did it.
I had a journal. I wroteeverything down that I could and
just a forgiving process aswell. So forgiving my now ex
wife for the things now in anyrelationship, in any marriage
breakdown, there's pro usually,probably both parties have done
(09:12):
things wrong, wrong along theway. So firstly, to recognize
all the things that I probablydid wrong, but also to forgive
those things that were wrongedagainst me, because I think I
feel like there's, it was hardto move past the need for the
feeling that for vindication, tosay, you know, you want to,
particularly when there's kidsinvolved. So that was a big
(09:34):
challenge, too.
BEATE CHELETTE (09:36):
So now you have this, this newfound knowledge,
right? You are going throughsome traumatic experiences. You
are trying to figure out how tohow to continue with the
business. So let's talk aboutthe businesses through the shop.
Talk. What is your business?
What's the problem that you'resolving for your clients?
Wes Towers (09:55):
Yeah. So Uplift 360 is the company here in
Australia. So. We do websitesand SEO Search everywhere.
Optimization is what we'recalling it now, because it's not
just Google, but that the nicheI moved into, even to a greater
degree, was the construction andtrades businesses, because I
realized all well, the majorityof our very best clients were
(10:18):
kind of similar. They were kindof in the same space with
construction, building,materials, those sorts of
things. They've still got legacyclients outside of that. But
moving forward, we've reallyniched in because that's what,
that's who we serve the best.
They're the happiest clients. Sowe're just so going after that a
little bit more. And I thinkthat whole the whole breakdown
was just a time to reflect andsay, Okay, what do I really
(10:42):
want? And how do I build thebusiness? So it's more
authentically me. So I'mconnecting with people that I
naturally work well with and andso for me, I'm a really
relational sort of person. So Ithought, I'm going to do my own
networking I've been tonetworking events before, but
(11:03):
they were kind of structured andeverything, but I'm more relaxed
and relational. So I just did myown networking event down at the
wine bar, which is near here,and just invited people, and
business people, and a greatcaliber of people started coming
and and just doing things thatwere healthy and helpful for me
as a human, and connecting withthe with the right
BEATE CHELETTE (11:27):
people. Would you say that this was the
transformation that that you mayhad to undergo anyway? Is that
it was to be more real first?
Did you discover your humanityin that process in a different
way.
Wes Towers (11:42):
Yeah, for sure, it's for the as you say, the mask is
a good way to put it. So, Imean, you know, in deep down,
internally, your flaws andfailings and your mask it, I
don't think you just mask it toeverybody else. You kind of try
and mask it to yourself, andthen you've got internal
conflict. Well, certainly forme. So the internal conflict, I
(12:04):
wasn't very healthy at all.
Through the marriage, I becamereally quite overweight, and I
think a lot of that was justunhappiness with my myself,
really. So I just started to dosome healthy things. You know,
go to the gym, eat eathealthier. But I think you're
right. These things have neverbeen more important, the human
(12:24):
aspect, because AI is changingthe way we work and the way we
interface with the world,really. So it's got the capacity
for us to think less, to be lesshuman, which is the downside,
but the upside is maybe it canforce us to be more human,
because it's the onedifferentiating point.
BEATE CHELETTE (12:47):
Let's talk about that. Yeah, I want, I want you
to actually dive into that alittle bit more, because you had
said this when we were doing ourprep for for our podcast
interview, that you said the onething that AI cannot replace is
humanity. To me, it sounds likein your story, as you're sharing
this is that you had firstdiscovered your own humanity,
(13:08):
and then as you recognized whoyou were and what you liked and
disliked, you could add that toyour business. Do you think this
happens all the time to businessowners that they don't know,
what that secret, specialhumanity, source of themselves
Wes Towers (13:28):
is probably has, but it's probably heightened. So we
do, as I say, search everywhere,optimization for we help clients
in that and often speaking tothem about their uniqueness, and
that's often the humans aspectof who they are as personal
brands, because businesses areled by people and they're and
(13:49):
our businesses are usually areflection of who we are as
individuals, to a degree, thepersonality, The strengths and
the weaknesses, but tounderstand what sets you apart
in the world as a business andas an individual, leading the
business is is really helpful.
So in terms of like content. Soproducing content, lots of
(14:10):
people are just jumping onchatGPT and and crunching out
content, because it can helpwith marketing, but it's just
the aggregate sum total of whateveryone else is is saying,
that's pulling everything infrom what everyone else has said
about a topic and streamliningit into a piece of piece of
content. You write something inchatGPT, for example. But what
(14:32):
is it can that you can addthat's uniquely your, you and
uniquely only you think acertain way, so they're the
really interesting part. So itforces us to be more human,
really. It forces us to beunique and set stand out, not to
be like everybody else. So I
BEATE CHELETTE (14:52):
like this idea to look in chatGPT, and say, if
this is the average of everybodyelse, how do I compare to that?
And I'm actually finding thatmore people use chatGPT, the
more vanilla it's getting. I amreally shocked into the
mediocracy of a lot of the stuffthat it's now creating. And I
(15:16):
wish there was a way to create acontainer, which I'm sure is
going to be the next big thingon how to keep my information
protected within my ownframework, so that I don't have
these mediocre outside pieces.
But as it gets so diluted, whatI'm hearing you say is that when
you discovered who you were, itchanged how you show up. What
(15:37):
would you tell our audience nowthat is probably struggling with
finding their positioning andbeing seen and heard in this
nutcase perma whiplash market?
Wes Towers (15:55):
Yeah, that's a, that's a really interesting
question. So we're often, I'moften talking to clients about
this very thing, maybe in thatnot those same words. One of the
things I is often a doorunlocking of their mind is to
ask them, what is it thatfrustrates you about your
industry? What are all the othercompany, all your competitors,
(16:15):
doing wrong? What are you doingdifferent to them? What's, what
are the flaws in your industry?
BEATE CHELETTE (16:21):
Yeah, what's the what's the irritation, what's
the itch you can scratch? Yeah.
Okay, go ahead, yeah.
Wes Towers (16:28):
So if there's something that really frustrates
you in your industry, so we'reworking with lots of
construction trades, those sortsof things here in Australia, I
don't know about everywhere, buttrades are notorious for turning
up late or leaving a mess, thosesorts of things. So if, if I'm
speaking to someone in a tradeand they say, I just really
can't stand lateness. So okay,well, this is a, this is an
(16:52):
important thing, because it's,it's unique, and it's a
frustration for the endcustomers as well. So just
opening up those frustrations,because what whatever irritates
you the most, it probably drivesyou as well. And you know, the
opportunities to be different inthe in the marketplace, and it's
going to be different for everyperson as well.
BEATE CHELETTE (17:13):
Yeah, I love that. Do you think that this
emotional and spiritual painthat you were experiencing
turned into the fuel of the workthat you do right now?
Wes Towers (17:24):
Yeah, definitely, it would have, for sure. So the
things that I struggled throughpersonally to my own identity,
personally and who I was,because everything was torn
apart, I had to think about whoI was and rebuild myself. And
off the back of that I rebuiltmy own business, but some of
those key questions I had to askmyself are the things I'm asking
(17:47):
from a business context ofclients just to so they can
unpack who they are, todifferentiate and be set apart
in the world that's becomingincreasingly bland, really, if
You just leave the AI to do thework
BEATE CHELETTE (18:02):
for you. Did you expect that this journey is
going to turn out this way? Ordid or what part of this
surprised you, if any?
Wes Towers (18:11):
Yeah, so I didn't expect to for the business. So I
didn't look at it from abusiness growth perspective. I
just looked at the reshaping ofhow I show up was really about
just being happy, just doingthings that I enjoyed doing. So
(18:32):
the surprising part was,business grew phenomenally
easily, the strongest financialyear that we've ever had, and I
wasn't pursuing, well, I wasn'tpursuing business growth. I was
just pursuing happiness and
BEATE CHELETTE (18:46):
personal and personal growth. Yes, for
somebody who is now listening tothis interview and says, Well,
the guy's an SEO guy. Youhaven't even talked about that,
what do we tell them? Whatshould they do?
Wes Towers (18:56):
Yeah, so there's search everywhere. Optimization
is the thing everyone'sinterested about, I mean,
there's lots of letters beingthrown around of how we
repackage what was once SEO. SoSEO banks previously search
engine optimization, so rankingas highly as you can in Google,
because you rank highly intraditionally, you have 10 links
(19:19):
changed over the course of time,but links and people would visit
your website, and then hopefullythey'd make an inquiry or a
booking or whatever. But noweveryone's sort of using the
internet differently, so peoplemight search for me. I use chat
GPT all the time, so peoplearen't even just searching the
same way, either. So previously,you'd search for the product or
(19:42):
service and the location. Soplumber Melbourne. So I mean, I
mean in Victoria, in Melbourne.
So, but now everyone kind ofrealizes the machine understands
a full sentence, so you mightsearch for an entire sentence,
but precisely what you need andwant. So you. Instead of plumber
Melbourne, it might be searchingfor a plumber who can fix
(20:02):
particular brand of todatoilets, yeah, whatever it is,
and, and, and the location. Soyou need to optimize, not just
for Google, but for chat GPT,and all the other AI platforms.
But it's all kind of the same.
All this information is beingpulled from online, really. So
(20:24):
to have your informationpublished in the areas you can
control, firstly, so yourwebsite is a is an area you
control, because it's yourspace. So you've got to get that
right as a foundational, keypillar of what you're doing
online, but also other noisierplaces like social media. So
obviously, publishing in socialmedia is helpful, but anywhere
(20:46):
you can get published betterthan that, the areas you can
control better than that is ifyou're doing something
remarkable and people aretalking about it. So if you get
mentioned back historically, youkind of, you needed a backlink.
So a link from another websiteto yours, and it sort of built
authority and trust, and Googlesay, oh, people are linking to
(21:07):
this site. It must be credible.
Let's, let's boost up theranking if it was a reputable
link. Now they you don't evenneed the backlink. You just need
the brand mentioned, because theplatforms can read the content,
understand the context,understand who's being spoken of
in relationship to whatever thetopic is. So just being
mentioned in media and otherpeople's platforms is really a
(21:31):
key thing. So doing thingsremarkable is obviously ideal,
but still to get the strongfoundations of your own website
right, so you've got your coremessaging in there. Your
uniqueness is never been moreimportant, because anyone can
publish heaps of content, butthat those aspects that set you
apart are the key. So we'redoing supporting people with
that content as well, from asearch engine, search
(21:54):
everywhere, optimizationstandpoint as well,
BEATE CHELETTE (21:59):
I think that the way this is happening is really
changing. So what you're tellingme is that the quality really
matters.
Wes Towers (22:08):
Yeah, for sure, yeah, the quality of your own
voice. So one of the key thingswhere we're getting done
foundationally with the contentwriting that we we help people
with is to get the style guidetheir voice captured. So
everything that that's producedand AI assisted, obviously, it's
produced in their voice, andit's got the nuance of what's
(22:32):
important to them that I thinkthat's where people trip up.
They just jump straight totrying to, trying to get a piece
of content together, but doingthose foundational, key aspects
of their own unique voice, andhow their style guide of the
writing, but the key messages sothat's laced through everything
that's published is reallyimportant.
BEATE CHELETTE (22:54):
Do you set up like a dictionary type thing, a
verbiage for a style guide?
Because one of the things thatwe very adamant about. So we do,
you know, it's a blueprint. It'sthe five star success
blueprints. Everything that wedo is a blueprint. It's not a
framework. We try toconsistently refer to things in
the same way. How can somebodykind of flush these key
(23:16):
components out? Because I dothink that's really a very
simple way to get your uniqueuniqueness out in the world, is
to have what we call a signaturegrowth system, and then within
the system have a consistentlanguage. How do you help people
to figure that out?
Wes Towers (23:33):
That's really important. The way I look at it
is even your processes andsystems, if they act almost like
brand. If you can come up with aphrase that defines your unique
process and you become known forthat, that's magic, because you
get known for that particularprocess, or whatever it is,
(23:54):
anytime someone's looking forit, you own that space. It's
almost like a hashtag. You know,people used to create all that.
Still do create hashtags and tryto own that thing, but it
doesn't just live inside socialmedia anymore. If you can be
known for a particular packagedwhatever it is, that's powerful,
and I think that's aligned withwhat the way you do that the
(24:17):
blueprints, I think that'sreally cool,
BEATE CHELETTE (24:19):
yeah, and that's what we teach our clients,
because I do agree with you. Ido not agree with the notion of
more is better, even though, andAlex hermosi and a lot of the
big internet marketers havegotten to where they go by just
like blowing up the market withall this content. But unless you
(24:42):
put a million dollars out amonth in that kind of messaging,
you're going to have a realproblem. So then the flip side
of it would be quality and theclarity of the message with
which you show up and theconviction that you actually.
Leave into what you're saying,what you're saying yourself,
(25:03):
anything else that you want toadd? Or do you feel like we got
a good little package here thatwe can give our audience?
Wes Towers (25:09):
Yeah, I think that, hopefully that's helpful for the
audience. I think, as you werejust saying, it's really
difficult to take on some of thebig players if you're trying to
do everything, but if you canget really specific and niched,
or niche, however you want tocall it, then you can own that
little piece of territory,because it's it's aligned really
(25:30):
deeply with who you are. I thinkthat's the key
BEATE CHELETTE (25:34):
beautiful I love it. And so now, as we wrap this
up, we covered a lot today, wetalked about your own spiritual
I don't want to say awakening,but really a transformation,
journey to figuring out who youwere, outside of what you did
and outside your marriage. Wetalked about how you stepped
(25:57):
into finding your own authenticvoice and as a result of it, and
how the business really, reallychanged. What part of your story
do you think is the greatestgift?
Wes Towers (26:08):
Yeah, I think the well, hopefully, the
vulnerability of being human is,I think now is the right time to
be vulnerable and to connectwith other people and and to
know we're all flawed. We're notAI bots, we've got personalities
and we've got strengths andweaknesses, and I think there's
(26:30):
a real beauty in that. So justto just to own your strengths
and your weaknesses, I think isa really powerful position to be
in.
BEATE CHELETTE (26:38):
Yeah, and I really appreciate that you were
open to go to the places thatI'm sure are very painful for
many people to even think aboutgoing because to admit that
we're not perfect, and to ownour own flaws, and to recognize
(26:58):
that both sides are required forus to be a human is a challenge
for most people. So I want tothank you very much for
Wes Towers (27:07):
that. Thank you.
It's good to talk about it, andthat's
BEATE CHELETTE (27:11):
it for us, for today. Thank you so much for
listening to or watching thisepisode of the Business Growth
Architect Show, founders of thefuture. And if you heard
something in here today that youfeel a friend or colleague or
somebody you care about shouldhear please do share this
episode, and with that, I saygoodbye, and until next time,
that's it for this episode ofthe Business Growth Architect
(27:32):
Show, founders of the future. Ifyou're done playing small and
ready to build the future onyour terms, subscribe, share and
help us reach more Trailblazerslike you, and if you're serious
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at uncoverysession.com. Leadwith vision. Move with purpose.
(27:53):
Create your future.
Yeah, look, it was horrendous time in my life. My
(00:03):
marriage fell apart. It was asclose to a full breakdown as you
could possibly get. I was on thefloor crying a blubbering mess
under my desk. Five minutes, andI was able to gather myself up,
put myself together, and closethe biggest deal I'd ever
closed. It felt like everythingwas broken and everything had to
(00:24):
be rebuilt.
BEATE CHELETTE (00:27):
Today's guest hit rock bottom, everything, all
at once, fell apart. Wes tell usabout the moment when your whole
life collapsed.
Wes Towers (00:38):
Yeah, look, it was a horrendous time in my life,
around three years ago, mymarriage fell apart, but that
affected all aspects of my lifeand my business and everything.
So it was something that I kindof knew was on the horizon, but
when I found out what Idiscovered, it was still almost
(00:58):
well. It was as close to a fullbreakdown as you could possibly
get. And so I moved out and wassleeping under the desk at the
office and all these sorts ofthings, and but I was still able
to keep up the facade ofeverything being okay to a
degree. So weirdly enough, whenit really struck me was I was on
(01:18):
the floor crying and blubberingmess under my desk, because
everything was so fresh and newthat then I realized I had a
zoom call within five minutes orso, and I was able to gather
myself up, put myself together,and close the biggest deal I'd
ever closed. And initially Ithought that was good, that I
was able to compartmentalize thepain and the torment in my own
(01:42):
life, and then put it aside anddo business. But it was later
that someone mentioned to methat that might not be so
healthy. There might be thingsin deep down that you really got
to deal with. And certainly thatwas the case. So it led to my
journey in my personal life, butwhich also led to the biggest
(02:02):
breakthroughs in my business aswell.
BEATE CHELETTE (02:05):
What do you think the transformation
challenge was like? Here youare. You run a successful
business, and now one part ofyour business falls apart. What
was the transformation challengefor you? What were you asked to
do
Wes Towers (02:18):
so the aspect of being able to compartmentalize
and hide who me was both a goodthing and a terrible thing,
because it was also the thingthat was trapping me. So when I
went to do the breath work wasreally transformational. I was
convulsing in all sorts ofthings and but I saw some
(02:40):
visions, which was reallyphenomenal. I saw a picture of
Jesus, like this stereotypicalwhat Jesus might look like, and
the stereotypical Satan face,and it was merging from one to
the other. And I realized, forme, it meant that it was kind of
like understanding I have thecapacities to be both and I am.
(03:03):
I am both, and I have failuresand flaws as a person. I have
the potential to be good and badand sometimes both, and it's
kind of so the way I presentmyself to the world isn't
necessarily the full picture. Ithink we all do that. So for me
to just to even understand thatinternally, helped me. And I
(03:24):
think I had to hit rock bottomto get to the point where I
would, where I would delve intothat and recognize my own flaws
as a person.
BEATE CHELETTE (03:33):
I want to jump in here. Do you think that this
had something to do with thatyou that you were putting up a
mask and that, okay, so talk tous about this, because I think
this part is really important tomention, is that we have this
fake it till you make itmentality, yeah, which I don't
think is necessarily a bad thingif you look at it from a
(03:56):
creation perspective. But Ithink the fake it till you make
it is oftentimes misconstrued asa pretend to be something that
you are not, not, not, you know,live as if you are becoming this
person that you are designing tobe, which I think is a big
difference. Where was that foryou? What was that internal
challenge?
Wes Towers (04:14):
Yeah, so well, so through the process of
separation, divorce andeverything, the a real tipping
point for me was, everything'son the table, and you've got to
because the business was goingalong, and it was moderately
successful, I thought, but I gotthe business valuation, and he
said, he sort of suggested thebusiness wasn't worth much at
(04:37):
all any, and he highlighted AIas a significant threat, it was
becoming evident that it wouldtake had the potential to take
over jobs. So I realized I'dinvested and spent all this time
building a business which maynot be worth what I thought it
was, and just to realizeeverything that I. Built. So at
(05:01):
this point, I've realized, okay,so my marriage has failed. So I
failed in that aspect, and thathas implications. And now my
business is, is, maybe it's notas healthy as it what it could
have been. And so myrelationships, my business,
everything was challenged. Andso I had to re from that point
of complete breakdown of who Ithought I was, because as
(05:23):
business people, I think we putour identities, at least to a
degree, in what we're buildingas businesses, because we're so
invested in it, obviously, andthat's not good or bad. It's
just that, just the reality,certainly for me, that it felt
like everything was broken andeverything had to be rebuilt.
And so interestingly enough, AIdidn't destroy my business as
(05:45):
the business of value suggestedit might. It was something that
I could introduce into mybusiness, and I don't think I
would have done it to the degreeI have if I didn't hit the rock
bottom. So I mean, I've justcome off. We report our
financial years, mid year, soJune, and it's just the
strongest financial year we'veever had. So we had little
(06:07):
incremental growth even fromthat point of breakdown, just to
have a reality check and say,Hey, you're not as good as what
you thought you were, and toadjust some things and turn what
the business value I thought wasa threat into an advantage. How
did you
BEATE CHELETTE (06:22):
manage the emotional aspect? Because at
this point, you know somebody'ssitting there with a frying pan
and giving you a good whippingover the head multiple times,
right? So your relationship'sfallen apart. Your business
isn't what you think it is.
What's your mental emotionalstate at this point? How do you
how do you manage to get throughthat?
Wes Towers (06:40):
The first few things that I did was to build
relationships around me. So Idon't think it's something men
do particularly well, is tobuild strong relationships where
you can have you can be open.
And I was, I was certainly likethat. Historically, I was always
fairly closed and never revealpersonal hardships or anything
like that. Just always speakpositively and that kind of
(07:01):
stuff, but things got so badthat was like that was broken.
So I just made sure I builtaround me great friendships who
could have open discussions thatI could call
BEATE CHELETTE (07:13):
upon. You also mentioned one of the things
that, of course, I'm veryinterested in is alternative
medicines, plant medicine, anddifferent types of journeys.
How'd you how'd you come up withthat? Because you, and forgive
me, if I say that, you look likea pretty straight, straight
laced kind of guy, you know? Sohow does somebody like you get
(07:34):
into something like that? Howdoes that happen?
Wes Towers (07:38):
Yeah, well, I was, I was fortunate in that I went to
a psychologist who was reallyquite progressive. Now she
didn't encourage plant medicinedirectly, because what I had may
not be legal here, but it'smoving that way. She encouraged
me through the breath work, butI knew the clinic that I went to
(08:00):
were pushing along the path ofbeing a place where you the
plant medicine will be availableonce it's here in Australia,
it's kind of in this weird pointwhere it's become legal to a
degree, but there's no onefacilitating it, because it's
just complicated.
BEATE CHELETTE (08:18):
What was your what was a trigger event in that
journey that you took thatchanged everything for you.
Because typically, there is,
Wes Towers (08:28):
yeah, so I mean that vision that I had with to
realize the good and the bad,the plant medicine I had the one
time, and I have no like, I'venever had any desire to do it
again. I feel like it wassomething that I certainly
wasn't recreational. It wasn'tfun, but it was certainly
(08:50):
revealing. And I saw lots ofthings, and I was really
intentional about how I did it.
I had a journal. I wroteeverything down that I could and
just a forgiving process aswell. So forgiving my now ex
wife for the things now in anyrelationship, in any marriage
breakdown, there's pro usually,probably both parties have done
(09:12):
things wrong, wrong along theway. So firstly, to recognize
all the things that I probablydid wrong, but also to forgive
those things that were wrongedagainst me, because I think I
feel like there's, it was hardto move past the need for the
feeling that for vindication, tosay, you know, you want to,
particularly when there's kidsinvolved. So that was a big
(09:34):
challenge, too.
BEATE CHELETTE (09:36):
So now you have this, this newfound knowledge,
right? You are going throughsome traumatic experiences. You
are trying to figure out how tohow to continue with the
business. So let's talk aboutthe businesses through the shop.
Talk. What is your business?
What's the problem that you'resolving for your clients?
Wes Towers (09:55):
Yeah. So Uplift 360 is the company here in
Australia. So. We do websitesand SEO Search everywhere.
Optimization is what we'recalling it now, because it's not
just Google, but that the nicheI moved into, even to a greater
degree, was the construction andtrades businesses, because I
realized all well, the majorityof our very best clients were
(10:18):
kind of similar. They were kindof in the same space with
construction, building,materials, those sorts of
things. They've still got legacyclients outside of that. But
moving forward, we've reallyniched in because that's what,
that's who we serve the best.
They're the happiest clients. Sowe're just so going after that a
little bit more. And I thinkthat whole the whole breakdown
was just a time to reflect andsay, Okay, what do I really
(10:42):
want? And how do I build thebusiness? So it's more
authentically me. So I'mconnecting with people that I
naturally work well with and andso for me, I'm a really
relational sort of person. So Ithought, I'm going to do my own
networking I've been tonetworking events before, but
(11:03):
they were kind of structured andeverything, but I'm more relaxed
and relational. So I just did myown networking event down at the
wine bar, which is near here,and just invited people, and
business people, and a greatcaliber of people started coming
and and just doing things thatwere healthy and helpful for me
as a human, and connecting withthe with the right
BEATE CHELETTE (11:27):
people. Would you say that this was the
transformation that that you mayhad to undergo anyway? Is that
it was to be more real first?
Did you discover your humanityin that process in a different
way.
Wes Towers (11:42):
Yeah, for sure, it's for the as you say, the mask is
a good way to put it. So, Imean, you know, in deep down,
internally, your flaws andfailings and your mask it, I
don't think you just mask it toeverybody else. You kind of try
and mask it to yourself, andthen you've got internal
conflict. Well, certainly forme. So the internal conflict, I
(12:04):
wasn't very healthy at all.
Through the marriage, I becamereally quite overweight, and I
think a lot of that was justunhappiness with my myself,
really. So I just started to dosome healthy things. You know,
go to the gym, eat eathealthier. But I think you're
right. These things have neverbeen more important, the human
(12:24):
aspect, because AI is changingthe way we work and the way we
interface with the world,really. So it's got the capacity
for us to think less, to be lesshuman, which is the downside,
but the upside is maybe it canforce us to be more human,
because it's the onedifferentiating point.
BEATE CHELETTE (12:47):
Let's talk about that. Yeah, I want, I want you
to actually dive into that alittle bit more, because you had
said this when we were doing ourprep for for our podcast
interview, that you said the onething that AI cannot replace is
humanity. To me, it sounds likein your story, as you're sharing
this is that you had firstdiscovered your own humanity,
(13:08):
and then as you recognized whoyou were and what you liked and
disliked, you could add that toyour business. Do you think this
happens all the time to businessowners that they don't know,
what that secret, specialhumanity, source of themselves
Wes Towers (13:28):
is probably has, but it's probably heightened. So we
do, as I say, search everywhere,optimization for we help clients
in that and often speaking tothem about their uniqueness, and
that's often the humans aspectof who they are as personal
brands, because businesses areled by people and they're and
(13:49):
our businesses are usually areflection of who we are as
individuals, to a degree, thepersonality, The strengths and
the weaknesses, but tounderstand what sets you apart
in the world as a business andas an individual, leading the
business is is really helpful.
So in terms of like content. Soproducing content, lots of
(14:10):
people are just jumping onchatGPT and and crunching out
content, because it can helpwith marketing, but it's just
the aggregate sum total of whateveryone else is is saying,
that's pulling everything infrom what everyone else has said
about a topic and streamliningit into a piece of piece of
content. You write something inchatGPT, for example. But what
(14:32):
is it can that you can addthat's uniquely your, you and
uniquely only you think acertain way, so they're the
really interesting part. So itforces us to be more human,
really. It forces us to beunique and set stand out, not to
be like everybody else. So I
BEATE CHELETTE (14:52):
like this idea to look in chatGPT, and say, if
this is the average of everybodyelse, how do I compare to that?
And I'm actually finding thatmore people use chatGPT, the
more vanilla it's getting. I amreally shocked into the
mediocracy of a lot of the stuffthat it's now creating. And I
(15:16):
wish there was a way to create acontainer, which I'm sure is
going to be the next big thingon how to keep my information
protected within my ownframework, so that I don't have
these mediocre outside pieces.
But as it gets so diluted, whatI'm hearing you say is that when
you discovered who you were, itchanged how you show up. What
(15:37):
would you tell our audience nowthat is probably struggling with
finding their positioning andbeing seen and heard in this
nutcase perma whiplash market?
Wes Towers (15:55):
Yeah, that's a, that's a really interesting
question. So we're often, I'moften talking to clients about
this very thing, maybe in thatnot those same words. One of the
things I is often a doorunlocking of their mind is to
ask them, what is it thatfrustrates you about your
industry? What are all the othercompany, all your competitors,
(16:15):
doing wrong? What are you doingdifferent to them? What's, what
are the flaws in your industry?
BEATE CHELETTE (16:21):
Yeah, what's the what's the irritation, what's
the itch you can scratch? Yeah.
Okay, go ahead, yeah.
Wes Towers (16:28):
So if there's something that really frustrates
you in your industry, so we'reworking with lots of
construction trades, those sortsof things here in Australia, I
don't know about everywhere, buttrades are notorious for turning
up late or leaving a mess, thosesorts of things. So if, if I'm
speaking to someone in a tradeand they say, I just really
can't stand lateness. So okay,well, this is a, this is an
(16:52):
important thing, because it's,it's unique, and it's a
frustration for the endcustomers as well. So just
opening up those frustrations,because what whatever irritates
you the most, it probably drivesyou as well. And you know, the
opportunities to be different inthe in the marketplace, and it's
going to be different for everyperson as well.
BEATE CHELETTE (17:13):
Yeah, I love that. Do you think that this
emotional and spiritual painthat you were experiencing
turned into the fuel of the workthat you do right now?
Wes Towers (17:24):
Yeah, definitely, it would have, for sure. So the
things that I struggled throughpersonally to my own identity,
personally and who I was,because everything was torn
apart, I had to think about whoI was and rebuild myself. And
off the back of that I rebuiltmy own business, but some of
those key questions I had to askmyself are the things I'm asking
(17:47):
from a business context ofclients just to so they can
unpack who they are, todifferentiate and be set apart
in the world that's becomingincreasingly bland, really, if
You just leave the AI to do thework
BEATE CHELETTE (18:02):
for you. Did you expect that this journey is
going to turn out this way? Ordid or what part of this
surprised you, if any?
Wes Towers (18:11):
Yeah, so I didn't expect to for the business. So I
didn't look at it from abusiness growth perspective. I
just looked at the reshaping ofhow I show up was really about
just being happy, just doingthings that I enjoyed doing. So
(18:32):
the surprising part was,business grew phenomenally
easily, the strongest financialyear that we've ever had, and I
wasn't pursuing, well, I wasn'tpursuing business growth. I was
just pursuing happiness and
BEATE CHELETTE (18:46):
personal and personal growth. Yes, for
somebody who is now listening tothis interview and says, Well,
the guy's an SEO guy. Youhaven't even talked about that,
what do we tell them? Whatshould they do?
Wes Towers (18:56):
Yeah, so there's search everywhere. Optimization
is the thing everyone'sinterested about, I mean,
there's lots of letters beingthrown around of how we
repackage what was once SEO. SoSEO banks previously search
engine optimization, so rankingas highly as you can in Google,
because you rank highly intraditionally, you have 10 links
(19:19):
changed over the course of time,but links and people would visit
your website, and then hopefullythey'd make an inquiry or a
booking or whatever. But noweveryone's sort of using the
internet differently, so peoplemight search for me. I use chat
GPT all the time, so peoplearen't even just searching the
same way, either. So previously,you'd search for the product or
(19:42):
service and the location. Soplumber Melbourne. So I mean, I
mean in Victoria, in Melbourne.
So, but now everyone kind ofrealizes the machine understands
a full sentence, so you mightsearch for an entire sentence,
but precisely what you need andwant. So you. Instead of plumber
Melbourne, it might be searchingfor a plumber who can fix
(20:02):
particular brand of todatoilets, yeah, whatever it is,
and, and, and the location. Soyou need to optimize, not just
for Google, but for chat GPT,and all the other AI platforms.
But it's all kind of the same.
All this information is beingpulled from online, really. So
(20:24):
to have your informationpublished in the areas you can
control, firstly, so yourwebsite is a is an area you
control, because it's yourspace. So you've got to get that
right as a foundational, keypillar of what you're doing
online, but also other noisierplaces like social media. So
obviously, publishing in socialmedia is helpful, but anywhere
(20:46):
you can get published betterthan that, the areas you can
control better than that is ifyou're doing something
remarkable and people aretalking about it. So if you get
mentioned back historically, youkind of, you needed a backlink.
So a link from another websiteto yours, and it sort of built
authority and trust, and Googlesay, oh, people are linking to
(21:07):
this site. It must be credible.
Let's, let's boost up theranking if it was a reputable
link. Now they you don't evenneed the backlink. You just need
the brand mentioned, because theplatforms can read the content,
understand the context,understand who's being spoken of
in relationship to whatever thetopic is. So just being
mentioned in media and otherpeople's platforms is really a
(21:31):
key thing. So doing thingsremarkable is obviously ideal,
but still to get the strongfoundations of your own website
right, so you've got your coremessaging in there. Your
uniqueness is never been moreimportant, because anyone can
publish heaps of content, butthat those aspects that set you
apart are the key. So we'redoing supporting people with
that content as well, from asearch engine, search
(21:54):
everywhere, optimizationstandpoint as well,
BEATE CHELETTE (21:59):
I think that the way this is happening is really
changing. So what you're tellingme is that the quality really
matters.
Wes Towers (22:08):
Yeah, for sure, yeah, the quality of your own
voice. So one of the key thingswhere we're getting done
foundationally with the contentwriting that we we help people
with is to get the style guidetheir voice captured. So
everything that that's producedand AI assisted, obviously, it's
produced in their voice, andit's got the nuance of what's
(22:32):
important to them that I thinkthat's where people trip up.
They just jump straight totrying to, trying to get a piece
of content together, but doingthose foundational, key aspects
of their own unique voice, andhow their style guide of the
writing, but the key messages sothat's laced through everything
that's published is reallyimportant.
BEATE CHELETTE (22:54):
Do you set up like a dictionary type thing, a
verbiage for a style guide?
Because one of the things thatwe very adamant about. So we do,
you know, it's a blueprint. It'sthe five star success
blueprints. Everything that wedo is a blueprint. It's not a
framework. We try toconsistently refer to things in
the same way. How can somebodykind of flush these key
(23:16):
components out? Because I dothink that's really a very
simple way to get your uniqueuniqueness out in the world, is
to have what we call a signaturegrowth system, and then within
the system have a consistentlanguage. How do you help people
to figure that out?
Wes Towers (23:33):
That's really important. The way I look at it
is even your processes andsystems, if they act almost like
brand. If you can come up with aphrase that defines your unique
process and you become known forthat, that's magic, because you
get known for that particularprocess, or whatever it is,
(23:54):
anytime someone's looking forit, you own that space. It's
almost like a hashtag. You know,people used to create all that.
Still do create hashtags and tryto own that thing, but it
doesn't just live inside socialmedia anymore. If you can be
known for a particular packagedwhatever it is, that's powerful,
and I think that's aligned withwhat the way you do that the
(24:17):
blueprints, I think that'sreally cool,
BEATE CHELETTE (24:19):
yeah, and that's what we teach our clients,
because I do agree with you. Ido not agree with the notion of
more is better, even though, andAlex hermosi and a lot of the
big internet marketers havegotten to where they go by just
like blowing up the market withall this content. But unless you
(24:42):
put a million dollars out amonth in that kind of messaging,
you're going to have a realproblem. So then the flip side
of it would be quality and theclarity of the message with
which you show up and theconviction that you actually.
Leave into what you're saying,what you're saying yourself,
(25:03):
anything else that you want toadd? Or do you feel like we got
a good little package here thatwe can give our audience?
Wes Towers (25:09):
Yeah, I think that, hopefully that's helpful for the
audience. I think, as you werejust saying, it's really
difficult to take on some of thebig players if you're trying to
do everything, but if you canget really specific and niched,
or niche, however you want tocall it, then you can own that
little piece of territory,because it's it's aligned really
(25:30):
deeply with who you are. I thinkthat's the key
BEATE CHELETTE (25:34):
beautiful I love it. And so now, as we wrap this
up, we covered a lot today, wetalked about your own spiritual
I don't want to say awakening,but really a transformation,
journey to figuring out who youwere, outside of what you did
and outside your marriage. Wetalked about how you stepped
(25:57):
into finding your own authenticvoice and as a result of it, and
how the business really, reallychanged. What part of your story
do you think is the greatestgift?
Wes Towers (26:08):
Yeah, I think the well, hopefully, the
vulnerability of being human is,I think now is the right time to
be vulnerable and to connectwith other people and and to
know we're all flawed. We're notAI bots, we've got personalities
and we've got strengths andweaknesses, and I think there's
(26:30):
a real beauty in that. So justto just to own your strengths
and your weaknesses, I think isa really powerful position to be
in.
BEATE CHELETTE (26:38):
Yeah, and I really appreciate that you were
open to go to the places thatI'm sure are very painful for
many people to even think aboutgoing because to admit that
we're not perfect, and to ownour own flaws, and to recognize
(26:58):
that both sides are required forus to be a human is a challenge
for most people. So I want tothank you very much for
Wes Towers (27:07):
that. Thank you.
It's good to talk about it, andthat's
BEATE CHELETTE (27:11):
it for us, for today. Thank you so much for
listening to or watching thisepisode of the Business Growth
Architect Show, founders of thefuture. And if you heard
something in here today that youfeel a friend or colleague or
somebody you care about shouldhear please do share this
episode, and with that, I saygoodbye, and until next time,
that's it for this episode ofthe Business Growth Architect
(27:32):
Show, founders of the future. Ifyou're done playing small and
ready to build the future onyour terms, subscribe, share and
help us reach more Trailblazerslike you, and if you're serious
about creating, growing andscaling a business that's
aligned with who you are,schedule your uncovery session
at uncoverysession.com. Leadwith vision. Move with purpose.
(27:53):
Create your future.
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