014. MICHAEL ARTHUR DIAMONDS [VIDEO]

Michael Arthur – The Mastermind Behind Australia’s Most Sought-After Custom Jewellery

Step into the world ofluxury, precision, and entrepreneurship as we sit down withMichael Arthur, the founder ofMichael Arthur Diamonds, one of Australia’s leading bespoke jewellery brands. Known for hisone-of-a-kind engagement rings, high-end custom pieces, and celebrity clientele, Michael has built a name synonymous with craftsmanship and innovation in the jewellery industry.

In this episode, Michael getsraw and real about hisjourney from the workbench to building a global jewellery empire. We dive into hisunique approach to ring design, how he pioneered the60-second online ring builder, and the game-changing move of shippingengagement rings worldwide. He also shares thehard truths of entrepreneurship, including launching aflagship boutique in Paddington just three weeks before COVID hit, navigating financial setbacks, andthe mental and physical toll of overworking, which led to hospitalization.

Expectinsider secrets, industry truths, and no-holds-barred conversations about:

• The battle betweenlab-grown and natural diamonds—where does the future lie?
• Whatjewellers don’t tell you about the real value of your ring.
• Thedark side of entrepreneurship, including burnout and mental health struggles.
• Hisgrandfather’s influence on his relentless drive and business decisions.
• What it’s really likeworking alongside a powerhouse team of Greek women who run his showroom like a well-oiled machine.
• Thehighs and lows of designing for high-profile clients and celebrities.

This episode isn’t just about jewellery—it’s aboutambition, resilience, and redefining an industry. Whether you're in business, love fine jewellery, or just appreciate ahard-hitting success story, this conversation withMichael Arthur is one you don’t want to miss.

HOSTED BY@georgejohnphotography
PRODUCED BY@danieljohnmedia

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Let's laugh at this part. Michael Arthur, welcome.
To the career team. So much this.
Is a. This is a changing pace. 100% a
jeweller. Thank you for having me,
appreciate. It it's an honour.
Thank you. You know, I feel like I always
have people that are directly like in line with brides like at
a touch point. Yeah yeah.
So jeweller is like a good spacebecause I can grill someone
finally without being I hate it on TikTok in the comments or you

(00:32):
know, yeah, I've been erased it yeah, yeah, there's been some
comments, you know yeah, right. It becomes with that.
What, what, What have they said that's that's making you feel
this way? Honestly.
I'm a lie if I say I don't actually, it brings me humour.
Like I laugh at it. Yeah.
Like it's, it's almost comical because it's like get someone to
a point where like something is said and they get so angry over

(00:52):
it. It's like, your problems are
great. Yeah.
Yeah. But just like small shit about
the wedding industry in general,which always happens.
Happens to every industry. But yeah, I've never met you
before except for once at one ofmy brides, Demi's and Mark's
wedding. Yes.
Like. On the whim, like in the
reception, like, very briefly, yeah.

(01:13):
But we've actually like sat downand had a conversation with you
so. This is great.
This is great, but it's going tobe one of the first guests that
I like. I get to know at the same time
other people will hear this, which is awesome.
So I actually want to just actually know your story.
So obviously you're a jeweller. Yes.
And you're based in Paddington. I've done my research.

(01:33):
I kind of know a lot about you that I've kind of gone through
there's uniqueness to you that Ido see in the general market of
jewellery and jewellery, but just in your, your your whole
sector, I guess like your E commerce site is pretty
impressive. Yes, the whole 90 seconds to
design an engagement ring is pretty impressive.
Thank you. It's very like accessible and
tangible. Yep.

(01:54):
I do find that you have a lot ofconnection with like current
influences and like strategically place yourself
quite well in the market. Yep, which is never really an
accident in my opinion, Definitely some kind of like
excited to understand a little bit more about you in that
business sense. Yep.

(02:14):
But tell me the journey. Yes.
So basically starting off when Iwas younger, I was playing
soccer or football since I was 6.
And professionally, well, I would say leading toward that,
right at that age, you know, you, you're still quite young.
So it's, it's not there just yet.

(02:34):
Mm hmm. But that's where you're building
toward. Yeah.
So then as I started to hit, youknow, 14/15/16, I was still in
school. I was at a sports school,
Westfield Sports High, but I felt that I just wasn't good
enough like to actually make it as as pro.
So for me I just wanted out of school to be honest with you.

(02:57):
And my my father said look, you can't leave school unless you
can actually find a trade or something, do something.
And funnily enough, my next doorneighbour was a jeweller at the
time and he offered me an apprenticeship which I took at
16, left school. The apprenticeship goes well,
actually went for six years. So it's four years, you you

(03:20):
gotta go to TAFE and yeah, you're actually on the bench.
You're working with your master,as you call it.
Wow. Yeah, that's sort of how you.
Yeah, it's like a master jeweller, so.
This is I'm going to watch this back and try to remind myself to
change the internal communications in my business.
How do I change it to master? Exactly.

(03:42):
So I yeah. So basically from 16, I've been
in the industry. I had worked for different
jewellers until I reached 28. And once I hit 28, I went out on
my own, OK. And I worked for myself for
three years and then I started to get stuff.
Who would come and join the team?

(04:03):
So you're in Haberfield? Yes, Sir, Age of 28.
Yes, that's when I first startedwhen I was 28.
And then when did you go to Paddington?
Three years after that, so yeah,31, I sort of moved.
We moved into Haberfield, so from Haberfield to Paddington
and we've been there since. So it's, it's about 6-7 years.
We're we're heading to Washington now.

(04:24):
I find Paddington an interestingkind of move.
I was trying to touch on it before, but then I stopped
myself, 'cause I wanna talk about it here.
Yes. Because Paddington to me just
screams fashion. Yes, right.
Like, if I think of Paddington, I think of like the high end,
ready to wear for women. Exactly.
Mostly. Well, like, sometimes there's
like a few couturiers there, yeah.
Yeah. Well, you've got many dress
designers there. You've got many brands there.

(04:44):
Yeah. And I guess I wanted to be a
part of that because I never wanted to necessarily be a face
of my brand, but I wanted to create a brand.
Yeah. And, you know, we're creatives.
It's the same sort of thing. As it worked being in
Paddington. 100%, yeah, 1000% All right.
I think it was the best move that we've made because we

(05:05):
increased size in in actual store.
All the team are in one space and the actual storefront is
easy. It's accessible, you can walk
straight in. It's an actual storefront where
if you have many other jewels that are in the city, they're in
larger buildings, you got to go up at lifts.
And I just was trying to avoid that.
So yeah, close proximity to the city.

(05:27):
I want it to be because we have actually a lot of Interstate and
international clients that fly in.
OK, So that's why I thought I needed to be close to the city.
OK, I get it. And Paddington was a good, good
spot. It's a beautiful spot.
I guess it also helps if girls are shopping around they see.
So much walk in traffic. They're walking up and down.
Yep. And you know, all the rings are
in the front. You can stop.

(05:48):
They they can see something. And then we do get a lot of walk
in traffic. Too.
I walked past it. Oh, did you naturally?
Oh wow. I was with my wife and the kids
and we're just like walking one day.
There you go. Oh.
That's what my glove. Yeah, it's a bit of a trigger
and you know, a lot of people driving past, there's a lot of
driving traffic in Oxford Street.
So it's worked. It's worked.
Long, awesome. So I guess one thing I didn't

(06:09):
know about you or just the jewellery game in general.
To be honest, I'm going to be very ignorant with my
terminology here because I don'treally understand that side of
the world where I'm always at the consumer side of things when
it comes to this stuff. But you're a qualified jeweller,
yes, which even then I didn't understand.
So like doing the research this,that means you actually make the
rings correct, make the pieces correct.

(06:30):
Exactly. Obviously, I know your answer
probably that it actually helps the business, but in what sense
does being a jeweller help rather than just owning the
business and just like having a subcontractor jeweller in the
back and you just keep pushing the sales?
Yep. So excuse me.
For me, what it does, it helps the actual design process.

(06:51):
OK, so when you're making something to last forever or you
know, a lifetime, what you want to do is you want to make sure
the thicknesses, the widths, thedepths in the actual piece make
sense. So if you're not careful about
that and you don't know I guess how far to push or how thin you
can go in certain aspects of a design, you can come into some

(07:14):
trouble. OK, client could knock the ring
and things could break pretty quick and then you're going to
have some unhappy customers and clients.
So for me, it's a it's based around the design and especially
if something needs to be done quickly, then I can jump on
pretty quick and sort something out.
Mm hmm. So I'd say speed the design like
the production side of things and knowledge.

(07:37):
So when you are sitting down in a consultation, all the
knowledge that I know is actually with my team as well.
Also, I've trained them to be like me.
Before I get into personal, I'm just gonna give you the heads up
that I'm gonna really live aboutbusiness first.
Yeah, sure. That's the next few questions.
So if you're on the floor, right, you're the jeweller,
you've like you're doing things on and what you just said about

(07:57):
consultations, yeah. How do you then innovate
yourself to then not stay withinthe realms of your knowledge
when it comes to like what you just said, thinness thickness
cards and not just keep producing the same shit over and
over again? Yeah.
So I have been working in the business for a long time now.
I'm working on the business. So I've pulled back from seeing

(08:17):
too many clients. So now I have a team that is me,
right? That has my knowledge, OK.
And then now I'm focusing on thedesign and the actual business
itself. So the marketing, the strategy
behind it and pushing that forward.
So to be relevant, you have to keep moving.
You can't be doing the same thing day in, day out.

(08:39):
You have to do, do, do differentthings daily.
You need to come up with different ideas all the time and
the design aspect to that is huge.
OK. So where do you find how the way
to move next? I guess the word inspiration, I
guess I can lean on is where do you find inspiration when it
comes to like changing a ring design?
So I always obviously have conversations with my wife or

(09:01):
like any woman around me that really likes jewellery.
I like jewellery, I like watchesand stuff.
Like I get it, but I'm not like a fanatic of cry like I don't
like it doesn't consume me in the sense of like I keep up with
the pace of things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I know people around me thatdo what they talk about like I'm
trying to research like bezel islike in right now or like I see
like through clients that multi stacked diamond.

(09:23):
Hailey Bieber had two diamonds and everyone wants 2 diamonds.
You know what I mean? In a situation or.
You just hit the nail on the head.
You'll find that if a celebrity gets engaged, it is a piece
that's unique or different. A lot more people are liking
different. Selena Gomez, she just got
engaged. Now marquee shaped my blind eye.
So the last two weeks, what do you think I've been doing?

(09:46):
No way, of course. So I've invested in every size
of a marquee. I've I've created all new
designs in Marques so that when our clients come in, but they
can try it on, it's there, they can purchase it, they can try it
on. Or is it actually works though?
Do you find that it actually pays off?
Like are people really going to go after what Selena Gomez goes
after? 100% really it it has, it has,

(10:09):
it has already. We have got multiple orders, not
just one. If you don't like it, like only
if you don't like it, what like is trending?
You I still try to make it my own OK, so I can do it to a
certain certain way. So what I mean by that is if the
stone size was too big in a celebrity, I can make that a

(10:31):
smaller size for stock, but create it in a design that's
going to be usable and wearable daily.
OK, so I'm still making it our own and classic, but the
inspiration has come from celebrity.
OK, if that makes. Sense.
Yeah, yeah, it doesn't make sense so you're surrounded by a
lot of women do they face impacts so obviously like your
girls are too little. They're nine and seven yes, but

(10:53):
trust me, they're probably gonnahave an impact later and they'll
have the biggest voices around it but you have your wife that's
in the business around you yes. And have a team of girls around
you. Do they place impact of like
this is really in? Yes, 100%.
So my wife is a major figure in that she will see something
that's hot at the moment and she's like, look, that might

(11:13):
come out that that might kick off.
So then we have to then start designing pretty quickly.
We can't wait. It has to happen right then and
straight away. And then with the team as well.
So majority of the team are seeing clients.
So when they are seeing clients,we do custom made jewellery.
So we could see something they were like actually that that

(11:35):
customer has said why don't we mix this with this and it works.
So then we'll play, we'll then sort of change it up to suit.
Okay, yeah, you are in a very, very, very competitive market in
Australia. Yes, I am.
I don't even want to bother listing like the main jewellers
in Sydney alone. Like list.

(11:56):
Hundreds. Hundreds, but there's like when
I talk key players, there's a lot of key players that are
very, very good at their job. I actually like can't pick the
difference between it when theirnames come to my head, it's in
like 1's better than the other. Or you know, like it's it's a
very personal kind of experiencefor people, right?
Like you have to trust you do a lot, a lot of money.

(12:16):
It's a lot of trust. Even though there's like Gia
certificates, whatever. But what's other than
competition or if that would be a problem?
What's your greatest challenge when growing your business?
Greatest challenge, I would say perfection is a moving target.
It's really hard to perfect everything.
And when I say that you, you gotto try and perfect your

(12:38):
processes, you got to try and get the staff right, you got to
get the design right. So as a business moving forward,
you got to make the right decisions.
And this year, I'll probably sayI made the most mistakes as an
owner, but still we had the mostprofitable year.
OK, So what mistakes have you made?
I would say staffing, I had somestaff that I wanted to give a

(13:02):
chance and it didn't work out. So that was me having faith in
somebody and it it just didn't work.
Took took some large gambles with marketing spend each month
to increase the the I guess consultations, which has helped
and paid off. But there's a fine line as a

(13:24):
balance. You got to be a bit smart yeah,
because then you started spending right.
So I I needed to be a little bitmore strategic with that and as
a leader I, I know that I am a agreat leader but that can always
still be tweaked yeah. So for me, I always want to look
within myself as well. So if I'm not right, then the

(13:48):
team's not going to be right. If the team's not going to be
right, then the experience isn'tgoing to be right.
So that's probably the hardest thing as as a business owner
because you still need to, you know, be the be the head and
you've got to be able to lead with by example.
This is something that I kind ofgrew to learn preparing for this
podcast is that it was either just before COVID or when COVID

(14:11):
happened, you launched a big change in your E commerce.
Yes, we invested 6 figures. I did.
It's a lot. Of money to personally invest
back into a business to rebrand your online website.
I did, which now I don't know ifthis came from this moment, so
correct if I'm wrong, where you can like kind of design your
engagement ring on your website?Yes, exactly.
Yes. So what happened was we launched

(14:32):
the Paddington store 3 weeks later, so we had a massive
launch party. Yeah, I saw all the photos.
We had so many people there. It was amazing.
And we hit the ground running. It was, it was perfect.
Three weeks later, code hit shutdown.
Now I, I decided, you know, you can either crawl back in and be
defensive or you can go on the offensive.

(14:55):
So I'm like, no, I'm, I'm not going to sit back and wait for
any of this. I'm not going to let this
dictate what my future is going to be.
So I came up with the idea. I'm not what sorry, I'll start
again. I, I realised that it wasn't
COVID proof. Now what COVID proof is,
regardless of if your shop is allowed to be open or not, there

(15:17):
was no way that we could make money because the the actual
website wasn't good enough. Now right now, you and I could
literally build within 60 seconds.
Check out ping, the team will get the order and we'll process
right now, the way that I built this, I spent seven months
building this website, 30,000 renders.
So when you start building the actual ring, holy shit, that

(15:39):
image shows up. I did every single one by hand.
It was far. Out every single one by hand
within that seven months. And that was the dedication that
I wanted to put toward this. I was not backing down.
I was heading straight on. And not now, but like when he
first released after putting like so much money into it,

(16:00):
right As a business owner, I'm just curious yes, did you how
long did it take to kind of 2 1/2 months to see the?
Reward 2 1/2 months. We got that money back.
Yeah, so and that was, that was an amazing feeling when the 1st
order came through. You know, we we could watch the
back end of it because I remember I don't.
Even know how you got people to trust it to be honest.

(16:24):
Yeah, I understand. And I put it if.
I show you like but I want to see it.
If I show you, you know, how much sales we've done in three
years, you would go nuts. That's just online only, right?
It is a huge factor of our business.
Now. It's not the biggest, but it's a
huge factor. And I remember we got a phone
call when we first launched the website, and it was like, what

(16:45):
you're saying, wanted to make sure that we're legit.
The team answered and said, oh, we might be getting our first
online order. Someone's about to check out.
And we can go on the back end and actually see if people are.
Yeah, how many is on and what's about to check out and what's in
someone's car. Yeah, we get to see all that.
Yeah. And funnily enough that he he
purchased. So that was a a pretty special

(17:06):
experience. That's awesome.
Yeah, it was, it was pretty unforgettable.
I'm sure 100% would. If it took seven months to build
and then 2 1/2 months to get your money back, it's a pretty
good investment. Yeah, it's a great investment,
yeah. Do you?
Enjoy it though, as much as likemeeting with a groom to be to
kind of like sit down and designit so.

(17:27):
I'm, I'm lucky enough to have a business that can have multiple
streams because you know, if you're not making money when
you're asleep, you, you don't have a business, right?
That's first and foremost. But to answer your question, no,
100% consultations are so much better because you're meeting
new people. You don't know who you're going
to meet. You don't know who's going to
come through the door. There's been multiple people

(17:49):
that have come through the door that are well known that we
didn't know we're going to turn up.
And even just normal people, it's great to connect.
And some clients turn into friends, some friends turn into
family. Yeah.
So that connection is what makesus different.
And you know, you, you did say before that there's hundreds of
jewellers. But the reason why we've become,

(18:11):
who we've become and how and thereason why we're busy is we
create that connection with our clients.
And it's pretty much word of mouth.
That's how we built it. The marketing will come as well.
That helps. But word of mouth is, is by far
the strongest. This is why I'm sitting right
here with you. If you didn't have people
saying, oh, you should have me on, you should have me on, yeah,

(18:31):
we wouldn't have this conversation.
Is that my cousin Kardia's house?
Exactly. Grilled me.
Yeah. She was like, happy New Year.
Congrats on your son. You need to have my glasses.
Like no, no pressure. Where's the bathroom?
I just came here. To gonna have a drink.
I'm thirsty, man. So yeah, it is word of mouth,
honestly, like 100%. And she's like, no, no, no, you
need to. She advocated for you hard.

(18:52):
Yeah. She's my cousin, so I have to
say she needs Commission. It's a level in me coming out.
Where do you see Michael Arthur in five years?
It's a good question because you've you, you.
Pretty much innovative quite quickly since 2020, right?
Yeah. We're just entering 2025.
It's January still. Yeah.

(19:13):
Is it still January? Yeah.
Just. Yep.
Is it the last day? Just Yeah, it's the last day.
So yes, I'm always trying to pivot, but for the past year or
two, I've, I've been wanting to see how the sales are going to
go from a business point of view.
I wanted to see if it's going tobe steady, if it's going to be
the same or if it's going to be a slight uptrend.

(19:34):
Yeah, because I don't want spikes as a business owner, I
don't want a spike. I want, I want to see a slight
trend going up, which which it has been.
That means that the word of mouth, the brain recognition,
what we're doing is working and we can now look at expanding.
OK, now I have, you know, amazing stuff.

(19:55):
What do you mean by expanding Interstate?
I think I think that might be the next.
Step. Do you not fear that?
No, because the staff that I have who have been with me for
five or seven years, that will be their baby.
OK? So they'll be lucky enough to
get. So they'll move potentially or
if they come, come and go, but they can set that up and that's

(20:16):
their, that's their baby. And, and I'm sort of like a solo
partner behind that. Yeah, no, that's awesome.
That's very. Exciting they get the brand.
All right, I'm going to change the pace a little bit still work
related, but this you have no idea about this by the way, but
I spoke to your team. Oh no.
And then now they're going to become my Co host.
Oh. No, here we go.

(20:38):
They knew you were going to hatethis.
So obviously Debbie and Mark areclose to me at their wedding.
So I call it Demi And I was like, your boss is going to be
on the podcast and she was so excited.
I go, I've got an idea. You guys Co host, you give me
some questions and I'm going to ask her.
So these are just not from me. These are from the team.
They're not from the public, they're from your team.
Who's going to read it out? The girl.

(21:02):
I I don't know the back story toany of these.
By the way, the girls have a song they think perfectly sums
up the daily chaos of Michael Arthur Diamonds.
What do you think that is? Yeah.
What is it like working alongside 5 Greek women every
single day? It's.
Challenging. Why?

(21:23):
I thought you were Greek. No.
Yeah, I'm. I'm not.
But you know, I do get that a lot.
It's, it's actually amazing, right?
Honestly, we can joke about it. We can do whatever we need to
do. But the loyalty and the respect
that they show me is something that I can't put a, a figure on.
I love them all. They're amazing.
It can get chaotic, but every business does.

(21:45):
But I am so fortunate to have them in not only my life in the
business, because they've been able to allow me to step back so
I can concentrate on what needs to be done to propel it.
They trust me. They they know that I'm doing
the best that I can for them as well.
But honestly, they do the best that's without them, I'm

(22:06):
nothing. That's beautiful, man.
That's really special. What do you love most about
working with them? I feel like you just answered
it, but is there anything else? There's always something new
every day because you don't knowwhat you're going to walk into.
You know, I could I when you, when you work with them for so
long, you can sense energy. So if someone's energy is high

(22:26):
or someone's energy is low or someone's upset, you can sense
that straight away. So for me, I train in the
morning and then I come in a bitlater.
So they're all there, right? They've opened the shop, it's
ready to go. So as I'm walking in, I'm
sussing everybody out to see howeverybody is.
But I think it's it keeps it fresh.

(22:48):
OK, this is my question. This is not there as I'm going
to go on the spanner of things. Do you feel like this is a hard
question? And Damian and the girls, I love
you. I just have to ask this.
But do you feel like having sucha close relationship with like a
small group of people can be an over investment for the
business? Because if they do the wrong
thing or they're going down the wrong path, it's harder to like,

(23:10):
tackle that. Yeah, I hear.
I hear what you're saying with that and it is.
But the way I've structured the business is a little bit
different to others. So you may have one manager that
controls the whole team, but theway they are structured, this is
a little bit different. There's actually multiple.
So the reason why I've done thatis they need to discuss between

(23:30):
them and sort it out between them before it comes to me, all
right. So if it doesn't need to come to
me, they can sort that out. So for them, they need to figure
it out before it comes to me. If it comes to me, then they
know they're in pretty serious in trouble.
Yeah, so. I'm talking more about like self
performance, like have you ever had someone that you really
loved in the team? Those like family, TV.

(23:52):
Just like I can't keep paying this salary because they're just
not performing. No.
And I'll tell you why, because when they first start working
with me and I say I'm going to hand you my hand, you either
decide to shake it or slap it. It's up to you what happens
next. And every single one of them get

(24:13):
a bonus each year if they do theright thing.
So that helps them keep keep going.
They they, they respect the brand and respect me enough to
do the work that they need to do.
I don't need to be on top of anybody.
They are all driven. Like honestly, they are driven.
They are ready to go. They they are amazing.
So no, I've been fortunate enough to get to this point.

(24:36):
Now the bonus diamonds, yes, plus more, but I'm glad you I'm
I'm pretty I'm pretty generous, but it's worth it because they
they, you know, like I said, without them, it's it's not
going to run. I've heard the girls play pranks
on you all the time. What's the best or worst?

(24:57):
Give me the best and the worst prank they've ever put on you at
work. They've they, they just did one
recently actually. So we all have lunch together.
That's something that we just do.
Whoever is in it doesn't matter because everyone stays, are
rostered. We just always block out that
time and we have lunch. When was it?
Maybe yesterday or the day before we're having lunch 100.

(25:18):
Percent they're doing it just because of the lead up of.
The maybe. Yeah, yeah.
This question. I, I went to throw the rubbish
out. So I walk out and I come to walk
back here and everyone's disappeared.
So they've all run to the back of the shop and gone outside and
they've just hidden outside justto see my reaction, to see what
I'll do. And then what they've done is
they've gone back in in the cameras and then they've saved

(25:40):
everything and created like a real.
Tonight, that's so funny. So they mock you.
They just they try to get a reaction. 100% they poke the
bear. It's hilarious.
Are the women in your life covered in diamonds or do they
expect? Too much?
No, they, they don't expect too much.
But yeah, definitely. Kind of ask this question
unexpectedly. Yeah, they they don't expect too

(26:01):
much. No, no, not at all.
Which is amazing because they let me lead.
See, they, they let me lead. They know that if they're doing
the right thing, they're going to get looked after.
And they do. So I've all my staff right now
have never actually said, you know, I want a pay rise or I
want this, I want that. They get that, yeah, you

(26:21):
perform, you're going to get that because they're seeing the
business progress. So if they're putting in the
effort, then they get looked after.
But yeah, I'm I'm blessed that they haven't actually tried to
hit me up. It's gonna be a hard one.
Let's do it. Because now that I'm reading it
like it's hard. Question and answer, they asked
What's your worst habit at work that the girls constantly

(26:41):
complain about? So in that I'm assuming in their
perception you're in their eyes,what do they think?
Yeah, I'm, I'm having a look at that probably if I'm asking too
many questions. So if I'm trying to make sure
that everything's running smooth, so if I see something
and I'm like, oh hey, did you guys jump on that?
And they're like, yes, we saw ittype of thing.

(27:03):
You know it's locked and later that's the answer.
I think that's it. All right, I'm going to ask him.
I'm going to fuck chicken. See if that was the yeah, the
worst answer. I think it's you.
They can. They can lash it out publicly on
one of our pages like he's wrong.
This is his worst habit. I'm assuming there's going to be
a funny story behind this. I think I was going to ask about
if you could switch roles with one of the girls for a day, what

(27:24):
would it be or who would it be and why?
That's a great question. I don't know their roles, to be
honest. I don't even know the girls.
Yeah. So, so to give you an idea, my
right hand, Gabby, who's been with me for seven years, she's
the productions manager and doessales.
Demi does PR and sales and then Christina does social media
sales. And then I have another

(27:47):
Christina who does a lot of the website work behind and then I
have Elektra who's our admin staff.
So that's a good question. That's the best role.
Who has the best role? Yeah, I'm assuming that's the
answer the question. I think it's me right now.
I'm not. Switching stay in your.
Lane. I think I'm.
I think I'm here. Stay in your lane.

(28:08):
I'm going to switch things up a little bit.
Just change the pace. I want to talk about your
grandfather. Yep.
So he was a major figure in yourlife and you used to smite set,
Yes. Tell me a little bit about your
grandfather and what's the best lesson he's ever taught you?
So he was a great man. He passed away three years ago.

(28:31):
Sorry to hear, man. Thank you.
And it's funny because that unlocked so much in me as a as a
person that forced me to look within because I I never knew I
was going to react the way I reacted when he passed.
Those are unexpected. No, it wasn't.
That's The funny thing. So he lived to 95, which is
amazing, but I, I think I underestimated the weight of him

(28:57):
being around. Yeah.
So he would always tell me to invest, right.
So he's like, buy property, invest.
I actually purchased my first investment property off him, a
small, small house in Guildford,and that helped me propel myself
to start the business. So he would always say the

(29:20):
famous words, trust nobody, right?
So he, in his mind, it was like everyone was against him growing
up. He came here from overseas and
unfortunately him and his family, it, it didn't really
work out. So that's, that's where that
came from. OK, So he created a tight knit
family within his family, right?And he was a, a major figure for

(29:42):
me because of his drive and his work.
So not only my grandfather, but my father as well.
So both of them have an amazing work ethic.
And that's where I started and Igot that from.
But then I realised you don't necessarily need to just
continue working until you're 65.
Like that's not the goal for me.The goal for me was to try and

(30:05):
find balance. Balance is when you can decide
if you want to work, if you wantto go in today, if you want to
go overseas. That's what I want to strive
toward. But he helped me realise that if
you are smart with your money, you'll be OK and you'll be able
to get that goal. Yeah.

(30:25):
Which was? In what sense?
I want to get a little bit of your grandfather's lessons and
learning. So my grandfather, before he
passed away, he purchased a house next to my uncle because
he knew that my grandmother was going to be by herself.
He was someone that invested heavily into property, multiple
properties still. And you know, he set my

(30:48):
grandmother up and I saw that. And yeah, for me to see that I'm
like. That's what that's great.
That's what you got to do, you know, that's that's setting up
your family, that's setting up your wife.
That's. It's thinking about the time of
what's going to happen after you're gone, correct?
Which is beautiful, yes. And being selfless, yeah.
And that is something that I gotfrom him for sure.

(31:08):
But yeah, I didn't realise the the, the weight that I was going
to feel once he passed. I was an absolute mess.
I would be crying non stop. And I don't cry.
I am, I'm laser focused. I'm a guy that's if I have
something in my mind, we're doing it and I'm going to get it
done. No one's going to stop me.
Top thing. No, I lost all control.

(31:30):
And that taught me to look within myself and, and see
what's going on there and try and unpack that.
And it forced me to to speak to somebody.
And that helped a lot. You know, his passing was a very
pivotal moment in my future, notnecessarily just because of what

(31:50):
he's done before, but me understanding why.
You felt that way when you lost him.
Yes, I know where you're gettingat.
Yeah. Why do you feel like you're so
unprepared when you lost him? Like, what do you think was or
were there any lessons you've learned in the last three years?
And by the way, on a personal level, I I really much relate to
this. Yeah.

(32:10):
I'm glad that you're talking about it.
I have an uncle that like, but he passed very suddenly and I
wasn't prepared for it. And it's.
I'm still learning. I'm still growing.
It's still very hard. So is there anything that you
can look back on now over the past few years as to like why he
didn't? I think I've been fortunate
enough to be at an age where he passed when I was still like,

(32:34):
I'm an adult, right? And that's the first time I
actually ever grieved where I was lucky enough, no one
actually passed away when I was younger.
So for me, this is the first time grieving.
So I didn't know how to grieve or know how to deal with it.
And it was a weird thing for me because I knew he was going to
pass. He wasn't well for a long, long,
long period of time. And 95 is a beautiful innings.

(32:55):
Like, jeez, if you can get to 95, there's no, there's no
issue. There wasn't sudden.
But I think the, the, I think atthat point in time as well, my
business wasn't at where it's atnow.
And I had always wanted him to see this.
Oh, yeah, this moment right now is, is the moment that I would

(33:15):
have loved for him to see because he actually helped me
get there without him realising,even though, you know, I had
purchased that property from him.
He would, he was the one that forced me to, to buy properties.
Like if you've got some money, just buy it, just do it.
And then I think I purchased that when I was 23 and then sold

(33:37):
it at 27 and use the profits to start the business.
Yeah. So if I didn't do that, I
wouldn't have made that money, right?
So we wouldn't be here right now.
Yeah, that's beautiful. That's awesome.
You're very fortunate. Very.
It's very, very, very. I call it the biggest blessing
when you have grandparents that can, you know, spend time with
you and teach you in life because their wisdom is 95 years

(33:57):
of wisdom, right? It's a great lesson to learn.
Tattoo topic. Sorry to bring it up, but I just
kind of thought it's important to bring it up.
You obviously have a successful business, yes.
It wasn't handed down, it wasn'tinherited.
It was self started. You just mentioned about your

(34:18):
grandfather pushing you, but youknow, you still have to make
those decisions and make those risks.
I don't know you're well enough,but you do seem like an
overworker. And I do know I kind of through
conversations that it's gone to exponential kind of levels of
overworking. Have you ever lost touch of

(34:38):
overworking and like getting that balance or lost such a
balance or yes, have you ever come?
Where are you at right now? Yeah.
So when the business was on the the climb, we also had our
daughters and our daughters weren't very good sleepers.
OK. And so, you know, running on a
few hours sleep, trying to run abusiness, trying to, you know,

(35:01):
do everything right, make clients happy, not eating,
running on caffeine, that is a recipe for disaster.
So I was hospitalised. I, I still remember it like it
was yesterday. The I was 32 at the time.

(35:21):
I had finished work and went andhad dinner with some family and
friends in the city with my wifeand I had drove, drove us there
from, from, from work. And then on the way home, I
started to feel off and I couldn't, I couldn't breathe
properly. And I, I still feel that now

(35:42):
just my, my chest just went so, so tense and I started sweating
and, and I was driving mind you.And I just said to my wife, I
said maybe this isn't a good idea, but Google these symptoms,
what comes up? Heart attack.
Heart attack. That's what I thought when he
just said it. Yeah, so this is at 32, and it's

(36:04):
not something that you can just do deep breathing over, and it's
going to be OK. So I remember at that time, our
daughters were at home and my wife's cousin was looking out
for the girls. So she goes, well, go have a
shower, take it easy. Try to lie down, see if you feel
better. As soon as I laid down, I
stopped breathing. I had to force myself to

(36:26):
breathe. So I'm like, Nope, I got up, I
drove myself to the to the hospital and I literally just
left the car anyway. And I said, I don't know what's
going on, but help me. I literally gave him everything.
And what happened was I had a panic attack.
So an anxiety or a panic attack,which mimics the same as a heart

(36:49):
attack. Yeah.
And I had a chat with the doctorand I told him what was going
on. And he said, I'll be honest with
you. If you continue this, you
actually have a heart attack by 35.
Fuck. So that moment is when I said to
myself, I'm going to make sure Ican set this business up where
it's going to run with or without me.

(37:11):
I don't need to work this hard. Yeah, I know that.
That's what was ingrained in me from my family.
And that was a beautiful thing. But we don't need to do that.
So from then on, I changed my perspective and I pivoted off
that. Yeah.
And that was pretty scary. I was.
I remember laying in the hospital and everything was
aglaze. It felt like, I'm like, is this?

(37:33):
Is this it? Is this when I'm going to end?
He's 32. He's getting started.
So for me, that was a huge moment.
Huge, huge moment. Yeah.
So that was the lowest point forme.
Did you ever like was the changes that like instantly or
would we like then we just. Had to be instant, had to be
instant, you know, and the messages to my team for the next

(37:55):
day and it wasn't nice. So I needed to make sure that I
wouldn't put myself in that position again, and I haven't,
which is great. We have two daughters that are 9
and seven, yes. Do you reckon they understand
your level of like success or the business growth at this age?
And regardless, what do you hopethat they take from your like I

(38:19):
guess work life? I think they know we're doing
OK. I try and shield them from that
or, you know, don't talk figuresor anything like that.
They still see my work ethic forsure because even if I decide to
have a few days off, I'm still working.
I could still work from home, I'm still organising something.

(38:40):
They definitely see my work ethic, but I also want them to
see my balance. They care, so that's something
they want. You want them to.
I want them to have balance for sure.
That is priority. Yep, because without that
everything else doesn't make. Do you?
Get worried about them being tooconnected to like materialistic

(39:01):
items. They don't actually get anything
that's materialistic. So that's.
Never like when they're like in their teens and adult height.
I think they'll see that if you introduce it, you know, So I
think what you do in your home, you can show them goals.
I think it's super important to have goals.
We write down goals as a family every year, whether it be to go

(39:22):
overseas or to you know. Learn a new skill.
Learn a new. Skill, you know, read a certain
amount of books or you know, commit to a weights programme or
a fitness programme, which is what we're doing.
I think that's super important. But yeah, materialistic things,
they're going to notion. To ask, I was just curious.
Yeah, no, I think they're going to know pretty quickly.

(39:43):
Yeah. It's not the be all and end all.
Yeah, it really isn't. And and you know, I've had
nothing and I've got something and it doesn't change anything.
I am who I am. I haven't changed and and they
won't either. If you were to talk about
misconceptions about your business.
Yep. Or yourself or your industry?

(40:04):
Yep. What could be the most running
misconceptions that you could kind of tackle?
Look, I think about my business.I think they think we're a lot
larger than what we are. That's that's for sure.
We're a small, tight knit group,a small machine that's, you
know, pumping through. It's almost like when you see a
duck floating on water, their legs are going like crazy and it

(40:24):
all looks smooth from the top. It's good analogy.
Right. So that's us.
We're we're constantly moving and and having to change
direction as, as the business for sure.
That's that's a big misconception.
I think they think we're a lot larger than what we are because
of their presence on on social media.
How's it been like? You work with influencers a lot.
Yes, we do. Feel like the most like
recognised 1 is Martha Yes at Google Michael Arthur Martha.

(40:48):
Comes up. Yeah, she's pretty influential.
Do you actually find business gain from connection or
affiliation? You do to a certain degree.
Mind you, I hate the word influenza.
I call it yeah influenza. Not because they are influenza,
but it's not a stupid term. Yeah, what?

(41:08):
Like you, it's like insta scam too.
Yeah, like it's the same thing. Fucking hate the word, just
putting it out there. So there are people that funnily
enough are quite influential anddo have that backing, similar to
like celebrities, right? So if someone has something new
or will, will pop out with something 100%, they have that
power. We the Australian influencers.

(41:31):
It's it's a slower pace rather than larger celebrities for
sure. But Martha, for argument's sake,
she, she has a, a, a decent following.
Like she has people that are, you know, very much following
what she does. So we we definitely get jobs
from from that for sure. So you've seen the world.

(41:51):
We always asking that if how do you hear about us?
You know, we we always find out.Ohh we saw so and so was wearing
this piece. Or is it borrowed?
Or is it gifted? Sometimes borrowed depending on
the the yeah, and depending on what Demi has sort of discussed
with them because everybody's different.
Demi, come on man, you know me. Yeah, some's borrowed, some's

(42:12):
gifted, some is 5050 where they might have to pay a certain
amount and then we might, you know, take a hit on a certain
amount. But yeah, Demi's sort of across
all that. I don't.
I don't look too much into that one.
No, that's fair. That's cool.
What's the hardest thing that you've ever faced with business?

(42:36):
I think at one point in time, sowe're on our 11th year, right?
When you're starting out with nobrother that has something or no
father that's handed you down orno, you know, literally starting
from zero, cash flow is always aproblem.
I remember reinvesting in the business so heavily to have

(42:59):
enough stock to have to, to showpeople, because when we first
started, all our stock was like silver and cubic, which is just
fake and it doesn't look anything like the real deal.
So you're selling yourself to say no, no, no, like I'm going
to make sure it's going to be perfect.
I know this is only 50% of what it's going to look like, but
just trust in me that I'll, I'llget it done.

(43:19):
That took so long and then I hadto completely reinvest the money
early on. I remember I had Gabby working
with me at that time and I was paying her a salary.
I was trying to pay myself salary.
My bank account went down to 10 grand.
And I said to myself, I'm never going to let that happen again.
And I, and from then on, you know, I was a lot smarter with

(43:42):
how I moved money around, but I needed to make that decision to
bring more people in. The people were coming, but
we're losing them because we didn't have.
Right. Sure for yourself.
Exactly. We had, like, you know, 20 rings
when I first started out. It was nothing I started from.
The general this is so stupid. It might be stupid in your
world, but like, yeah, so like the Gia diamonds, do you like

(44:03):
pre purchase them, bank it in the hopes that people will
actually get their diamonds? Or do you wait until like I say,
hey, I want a radiant cut. That's yeah, 5 carat and you're
like OK cool, I'll order it. So we do both, OK.
Now before we didn't do both before, we would only wait until
we had an order. So you came in, we had a, you
know, discussion. Yep.
You're happy with the price, you're happy with everything.
We'll lock it in. Then we will, you know, get that

(44:24):
done for you. We'll make the ring, you pick it
up. Happy days.
But now I had to pivot again. So not only with the E commerce
website where you build your own, I then just last year
introduced ready to ship. So now I've got all this stock
that we can ship literally tomorrow.

(44:44):
If you purchase it online, we can ship it to you straight
away. The reason why?
Imagine risking that, bro. 100% yeah, huge.
But it's working. And funnily enough, we're
actually getting more sales and ready to ship than we are with
the custom well online. All right, this is the big
question I've been dying to ask this be honest.

(45:07):
Lab grown. Yep.
Online. Are you asking my opinion or are
you just saying, are you just saying like what people are
going for, you're OK? So if we're looking at it from a
value point of view, mine diamond for sure.
If we're looking at it from a point of view where it is a
piece that you're going to present your partner and it's

(45:28):
not the be all and end all of your partnership.
And also, if you're not looking at selling something, the way to
go, and I'll explain if you like.
So when you when you mine a natural diamond, it's a rough,
OK, so it's a rough, it's not cut, it's not polished.
If you imagine in that rough, wetake a small cut.

(45:50):
So we've, we have the natural, we take a small cut from that
natural and we then place that into a machine that actually
just speeds up the growth. So technically it's a natural
diamond, but we need to let you know that it's been lab grown.
It's not lab made, it's lab grown.
So it's a natural diamond. That's just speed up the
process. There's no mining cost.

(46:11):
It's done within a couple of weeks.
It's the same heat, temperature,chemical makeup.
It's the same thing. So that's a lab diamond.
Exactly. So a lab diamond itself isn't
made in the lab. It's just grown a lot faster in
a lab than it would in the the earth.
So to give you an idea, A2 caratnatural, right?

(46:32):
So A2 carat natural might take two years to to grow in the
earth. Find it, mine it huge amount of
cost involved in that huge. If we put that seed, we call it
a seed once we cut it off the natural rough.
If we put that seed in, like I said, two weeks, you've got A2
carat natural cut, finished Polish certified.
It's in my hands, it's done. OK, So a lot of people say, oh,

(46:58):
you know, there's no value in lab, but are you going to sell
it? Value only comes into play if
you're looking at selling something.
So yes, there is value in it because the stone is still a
natural diamond. Technically it still has the
same strengths. It's still going to do what you
need it to do, but it just, it'sjust not going to increase in

(47:19):
price each year the way that natural diamonds do.
And the reason why natural diamonds increase in price each
year is it's the cost of mining and you might not find as many
at that quality, do you? As Michael Arthur.
Yeah. Not Michael Arthur Jewellers.
Yeah. Believe in mind or loved.
If I was to purchase yeah, today, yeah.

(47:40):
If I was to purchase today, I'll.
Probably not yours. You're not engaged.
I'll probably go lab grown and I'll explain why.
OK, if I was to spend $30,000 onor whatever you want to pull it
on a a natural diamond, I can put that money towards something
else that will make me money are.
You just saying that because of like your business?
No. Or like genuinely think about
it, right? If you're going to invest that
30 grand into a stone, that isn't really going to change the

(48:03):
look, the feel or anything that this is supposed to do for you.
If I didn't have my business, I I think I would be fine with it,
personally. Yeah, being a lab.
But you know, looking at both ends of the spectrum, I still
see the value in in natural and having that handed down to your
children. And that's where I see the value
as opposed to it being sold. But it should be.

(48:25):
It's not going to go with you tothe grave.
It's in Irlam. Exactly.
Yeah. Exactly.
So I think, you know, natural isstill definitely going to be
around always, but let me tell you mate, they've taken a hit.
Oh yeah, no way. Because everyone's it makes
sense because everyone's going lab.
Yep. And now like mine.
So do you think the cost of minewill go down?
It has oh wow, hectic. It's good.

(48:47):
For me. It was like Diamond said, it's
unto Alexia if my wife's listening to display but not
doing it but. Yeah, for sure.
OK. That's, that's interesting to
know. It's not competition.
Coming in. Yeah.
No, no, 100%. I actually didn't think about it
that way exactly. This is.
Mind blowing yes. So I have noticed over the past
2-3 years the slowly the slow drop in in natural diamonds.

(49:10):
OK, so it is. It is actually a pretty good
time if you are hell bent on natural.
But another question about engagement ring specifically
because we're at 2025 now. Yep.
So it's like the perfect time tokind of understand this.
There's always been that notion of a guy needs to spend 3 months
of his salary to buy. I think that that's how it goes.
That's. What they mentioned.
To buy an engagement ring. How much is a guy now spending

(49:34):
on an engagement ring? Or how much do you think he
should answer both? So right now I'd find out
average is anywhere between 5 and 15, right?
On average. The reason why it's.
Labbed or mind labbed? Right.
So because of the fact that lab ground prices have dropped,
that's why the price point is quite low, right?

(49:55):
Yeah. So if we're talking natural,
then we're talking between 20 and 50, OK, depending on the
size and the quality. Again, there's there's ones that
go well above that, of course. There's no limit, but if we're.
Talking about an average, I would say if someone's going
mind, sorry, if someone's going lab, it'll probably be between
5:00 and 10:00. I I see the market heading that

(50:17):
way and. What would that get then?
How many carrots? Probably 2 to 3 carats between.
Is that the average people are spending.
Yeah, for sure, yeah. Two to three carats, you'll be
able to get something quite highin the quality with the ring
finished. But if you're talking about that
in a in a mind sense, you, you're yeah, two carats are like

(50:38):
30 plus for a nice one, you know, and you know, 3 carats is
probably 50-60 seventy plus depending on the quality that
you want to go for. Yeah, fire out.
It's huge difference. Yeah, I think we just got a
client that went ahead. It's about 75 grand for a three
carat this week. Jeez, yeah, it's crazy.
If you were to see a celeb that you'd want to make a peaceful

(51:02):
gift of purchase, who would it be?
Like who do you look at? And you're like, have good taste
in jewellery, man. You know what, funnily enough,
it's it's usually the older celebs.
So like Sofia Vergara or Salma Hayek, I'm not expecting.
Yeah. Yeah, I like to see what they
are doing because they are very classy.
They have been around for a longperiod of time.

(51:24):
They are not just celebrities now, they've been around for
years. So they're doing something
right. So if you want longevity, that's
how I see it as well. Obviously, if you're looking at
if you want to be influential and you want to use it as a
business point of view, unfortunately the Kardashians
are the ones that. You don't say that unfortunately
on my table. Break.

(51:45):
They're the most influential. It's.
Getting do you sell? I'm just curious.
I'm trying to understand like a business because I've never like
popped in. Do you sell other pieces other
than diamonds? Like jewellery?
Yeah, so we do. Watches and stuff.
We do more. So diamond tennis bracelet.
Yeah, necklaces like any. Branded.
Stuff. No, no, no.
It's. All Is this something you would

(52:06):
ever consider? Like.
Are you even allowed like to be like you you.
Got to apply for that. Rolexes.
You need to be a dealer. You got to be a authorised
dealer or a secondhand dealer technically, technically if you
want to do it properly. But I think what I guess what I
want to focus on is what we're doing best.
And I've been able to find that niche.

(52:30):
And I know that people come to us for the engage rings because
that's our niche. And then we build that
relationship with them. And then by the as follows for
sure. So that's that's what I want to
concentrate. On Out of Curiosity Rolexes
versus AP? I love both, my goal is to have
one of each. But what are your?

(52:51):
AP's pinnacle for me. Look, you know why AP.
'S so hard to get. It's it's to to maintain the the
value. It's that's what it is.
It's to make sure that you feel OK about spending that amount of
money. OK.
Yeah, is there any code to crackwith Rolex or AP?
If any of my listens that are obsessed with it then they just
want to know. It's it's a tricky 1 you need to
buy your bide your time. Sorry, you got to try and and

(53:14):
put your name down with a lot ofpeople.
Otherwise you're going to buy second hand, you're going to pay
overs. OK.
Yeah. So.
I'm asking more crazy questions.That's a good place.
Let's do it. Less expensive ring you've ever
created. For a pick time, I think that
was a little bit under 200 K Jesus Christ.
Yeah, a little bit under 200 grand, that is.
And that was actually shipped, Yeah.

(53:36):
So that was actually, that had to be armoured guard to
Brisbane. That wasn't just someone that
was going to come pick it up. We had to have two guys with
guns pick it up and and make sure that he was going to be
home call and and drop that off.Yeah, I didn't like that.
I still haven't actually met him.
Isn't that crazy? That's wild.
All right? You do a lot of engagement
rings. Yeah.

(53:57):
What's the worst proposal story you've ever had?
Oh, worst proposal story? I don't know if I've heard any
horrible ones, but did you ever get guys said no?
Yeah, like unfortunately, yes. That's what I was just about to
say. There's there's some time that
it says, look, unfortunately it just hasn't worked out.
What can I do with the ring? You know, so we're trying to

(54:19):
assist and help them resell it. We put on like a consignment
basis. So if someone comes in, what's
the buy it? Then we can sort of pay them
once it's solved. Oh, far out.
Yeah, to be. True.
Is it as often as what you think?
It's it's starting to happen a little bit more.
It is, it's not good to see. But I guess with the volume of

(54:40):
the business increasing, I knew that it was going to come.
Do you see any increase or decrease of like girls coming in
to pick their engagement rings and what's your thoughts around?
That so there is definitely an increase.
I think because of social media.They get to see certain images
and rings. So they are coming into trial
and a lot more. My point of view is, again, I'm

(55:05):
pretty old school so in terms ofthem knowing what's going to
come, I'll prefer not. I think it's nice if the partner
picked up themself, but I understand that if they are
going to spend a certain amount of money they want.
To get a get a bit of a say. I get both sides, you know it's
tricky because your. Clients get to have a say, like

(55:27):
let's say like a guy does it himself and he like fucked up,
come back and say like someone'sgoing to change it.
Or in terms of the actual design, you mean you got?
It wrong. Yeah, this, this just the fault
that just hit. Me.
Yeah, yeah, we can't I. Hate it?
We we like the engagement ring process.
Why they should have been the best process for?
You Nah. It's pretty stressful because my
wife didn't give me any clue at the time when we were dating.

(55:50):
So you have to gamble on. I have to gamble, like on my own
whim. We've got to go with my feeling,
you know what I mean? So did you go with what you
liked, or did you go with what you thought she might like?
Like a bit of both. So in that.
Instance I just didn't like the feeling like I just it's not for
me. I'm decisive for myself.
So like I don't agree with I'm with you.

(56:12):
I'm old school. I feel like it's supposed to be
a gift and it's supposed to havemeaning to it and like some sort
of significance because like notjust like a like, oh the he's a
diamond. It's supposed to be some sort of
like emotional connection and the significance around it.
But for me, it's also like, it'sawkward to like have the
conversation because then you ruin the surprise.

(56:33):
So I didn't want to like ruin the surprise for me.
I love the surprise element. Yeah.
And it, I held off the surprise like it worked.
You know what I mean? Like it was a surprise.
So like, do you ever get guys toturn around?
And and I'm still I'm, I'm very happy with my decision.
Getting me wrong, I was about tosay.
You regret. No, I'm not.
Regretting it at all, but it's more just like, yeah.
And I guess someone who like completely fucked up was like,

(56:54):
she hates a pair. Yeah, we, we do get that a
little bit and I try my best to accommodate.
Obviously, you know, if someone is going to be willing to give
it a a crack and if you know they want something different,
pretty much we try and do like abit of an exchange where it's
like, you know, this is the value that you pay.
I don't want to be in your. Shoes in that situation, it's

(57:14):
it's a bit tricky. Yeah, I'm looking at a lot of
you. What's the biggest change you've
made on personal growth of? I've done a lot of of personal
growth. I'm I'm currently doing
something now. I don't know if you've ever
heard of 75 hard, 75 soft soundsa bit funny, but no, I haven't
told me. So pretty much it is 75 days of
you training twice a day. What the fuck?

(57:38):
So train twice a day. The hard one is no alcohol, the
soft one is you can have alcohol.
I'm obviously doing the soft 1 so but let's fuck it off.
No, no, no. So that is, that's a choice.
So wait, it's 70. 75 days, so constantly for 75 and then 75.
No. So you pick which one you want
to do. So if you do soft, it's a

(57:58):
different banner. So you can, you're still
training twice a day. You, you can have alcohol in
moderation, but you're still reading and you're still doing
everything for yourself, right? The only difference with the
heart is there's no alcohol. OK, so you decide which one you
want to do. So I'm currently training for 75
days. In the morning I'll do the yard

(58:21):
and then in the afternoon after.Do you like the yard?
Love it because there's one that's open up near nearby me.
Do it actually this conversationwith cardio because she goes try
it. It is.
Probably an open day next week. I think there's an open day for
people just to try. It doesn't cost you I'm.
Just so curious. So the good thing about the
yard, I'll explain that to just quickly, they do 2 parts.
So you can do the weights or youcan do the cardio, but during

(58:43):
that situation, you have trainers there to help you.
Instead of going to go pay for someone for a personal trainer,
you're doing it in a group environment.
You're pushing each other, you're meeting new people, and
you're actually motivated to give it your best.
So you get to choose weights or cardio in the session.
Yeah. So it's one after another.
So for instance, on Monday is leg day for argument's sake, and

(59:04):
then Tuesday's leg day as well. So if you do what you call turf,
which is the cardio session, youcan then do the weights on the
Tuesday. So it's it's geared to
alternate. OK, that's mad.
Yeah, so you could heard good things.
It's amazing. It's try it out.
In the last three months I've dropped like 5% body fat.
Bullshit. Yep, before and.
After so you've seen results. 100%.

(59:25):
Fuck, that's mad. Yep, I've got, I've got the
paperwork to show it. So I tried that.
Yeah. And obviously reading books,
Right. So a lot of people don't realise
how much that's going to help you because that can change
reading or audio. I do audio, me personally,
because in the afternoons I likeeither go for a bike ride, run
or walk. Yeah, I struggle to read because

(59:48):
I I feel like I just get distracted.
Do. You listen to podcasts.
I do podcasts, podcasts and podcasts and audio books.
I'm an audio person. Yeah, yeah.
I can't sit and read. Try Relentless by Tim Grover.
OK, He trained Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.
It's a good recommendation. Unbelievable.
My brother's going to love this recommendation.

(01:00:09):
When he listens to this relentless.
My brother's listen to my every episode relentlessly and I and
he's he's a big Kobe fan, so I don't know if he has.
But Tony, if he sort of reminds you about it, that's very good.
Well, I'm very, very grateful tohave you on.
Thank you so much for everything.
I feel like I've learnt to grow who you are as a person.
I've got to know a lot about you.
Thank you. Thanks.
Great. I'm excited to see what happens

(01:00:30):
out, but before we do finish, I'm going to just do this.
Let's do a card game. This is going to be your final
question. I hope you get a good one.
It's. Just like a random card game
from a company called Laga. And essentially they just spit
out random questions and they'reall different topics.
So what you're going to do is you're just going to mind you
the colours. I don't think that, I don't

(01:00:50):
think they mean anything. People have tried to pick
different colours but they don'treally do much.
Pick one and then pass it back to me.
Don't look at it right in the centre.
Michael Arthur. Let's do it.
Strady, kind of centred guy. All right?
You always focus. Focus What is a memory you've?

(01:01:13):
Sorry, let me start that again. What is a memory you're thankful
to have shared with someone? I think I'll go back to my
grandfather on that one for sure.
Yeah, I think, I think being able to pick his brain,
understand how hard he worked toget to where he got to and the

(01:01:37):
culture that he created within his family, I think for for sure
he's he's left a mark on me. That's awesome, bro.
Yeah, that's really beautiful tohim.
I'm sure he's very, very proud of you.
Thank you Mommy, no doubt in it at all.
Thanks for coming. Thank you for having me.
It's been an honour to get to know you.
Congratulations on the podcast. Mate, thanks bro, I appreciate

(01:01:57):
it. Thanks.
Jesus, 2025. Thank you.