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#141 Luke Riemer transformed his 25-year building career into creating Akribis Leather, crafting custom tool belts that focus on efficiency and ergonomics for professional tradespeople. His journey from custom home builder to leather craftsman demonstrates how personal experience in the trades creates innovative solutions for common worksite challenges.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And so it's a dangerous thing to just kind of
give out a square footage priceuntil you've seen all the
details.
So it didn't take me too longuntil I'm like, hey, I'll put in
a price.
But I want to see thestructural plans, I want to see
the truss plan, I want to seethe floor joist plan, I want to
see all the cross sections.
I want to see the engineer'splan, where other guys are given
quotes by just the drawings andthey don't have the detail.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
That's a major gamble .
That's so cool, mate, likeobviously, like we're halfway
around the world from each otherand yet in the construction
industry, we'll all deal withthe same things.
We get the exact same stuffover here and, yeah, I'm
constantly trying to educate theindustry like it's all in the
detail, like you've got.
The more time you spend upfront, investing time sitting in
the office reviewing drawings,doing scopes of works and then
pricing based off the scope ofworks, the better your business

(00:47):
is going to be.
G'day guys, welcome back toanother episode of Level Up.
We've got an international onecoming to you today, so a big
welcome to Luke from AcrobusLeather.
How are you, mate?
I'm very good, very good.
Thank you for having me, mate.
Really appreciate you takingsome time out.

(01:09):
I think this is going to be acracking episode.
I've actually been sucked in afew times watching your YouTube
videos.
There's some good stuff onthere.
Yeah, thanks.
So, mate, what's so?
You're over in?
What is it?
Summerland, british Columbia.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, so you're over in Summerland, british Columbia.
Yeah, we're in Summerland, bc.
So, for context, we're about afive-hour drive from the ocean
on the west coast of Canada andan hour north of the US border.
So the area that we live in isactually called the California
of Canada.
So it's actually properly hotand dry in the summertime and
our winters are pretty short andmild.

(01:46):
So I was actually down in thestates but I and it's funny,
talking to the Americans and alot of places that we were it
gets hotter here than lots ofplaces in the states.
So are you guys Celsius orFahrenheit?
We're Fahrenheit, you'reFahrenheit, okay, so for context

(02:06):
, here we'll get.
We'll get a few days that'll belike 108 degrees.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Oh, sorry, we're celsius, so we we get celsius,
okay.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, we're in a sort of high 20s to mid 30s most of
the time yeah, so hot, hot hereis like 45 degrees we'll be in
the summertime we'll be kind of36 to 42, um, properly hot, and
then if we get, you know, minus20 in the wintertime, it's kind
of our cold day.
So it's like a 70 degree swing,so it's a huge swing.

(02:36):
So hot, dry summers in thislocation.
And then, of course, you know,over the coast by vancouver it's
uh, it's rainy, and when it's,when it's overcast, the rainy,
it's cold, uh, and then if yougo east across the country, the
winters are way colder, waylonger.
Um, but where we are is it's abeautiful, beautiful, a big lake
for the valley well, uh, soundsunreal, mate.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
So to give people um an idea of what I've got you on,
so you make the the best nailbags, or best uh, do you call
them nail bags over there?

Speaker 1 (03:07):
um tool belt is the most common common common name
yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
So you make the best uh tool belts in the world eh I
I'll never say that.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
I always appreciate when people mention it
themselves.
Um, you know, I'm fortunateenough to to kind of be
mentioned in the sameconversations, as you know
Buckaroo Occidental, badger,diamondback, those are kind of
the other competitors I suppose.
But over the years as I've kindof built that company and if I
mentioned in the sameconversation as those companies,

(03:38):
my response is always I'm sohonored to be included in that
discussion among these kind oficons of the of the tool belt
industry.
Um, because I'm somewhat new toit but I've got a unique
perspective on it, having been abuilder for 25 years yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
So uh, before we get right into the tool bags, can we
go back to um, where youstarted, because you've been a
contractor for a long time?

Speaker 1 (04:01):
yeah, so I, I grew up in a town of like 350 people,
small, small little place um acouple hours from here, and I
spent my childhood in the bushbuilding forts.
I, that's what I I did.
We lived in the outskirts oftown and there was a jump behind
us and there was piles of scrapwood and buckets of nails and I

(04:22):
spent my childhood buildingstuff.
My dad was pretty handy so hekind of got me started with how
to use basic hand tools and thenI just I love to build.
So I pursued alongside someother interests, but pursued
woodwork through like my highschool years, did cabinet
building and wood shop stuff andalways really enjoyed anything

(04:47):
with my hands, building stuff.
Um, as of about 15, 16 years old, my summer jobs were working
for a custom home builder and Ilived on the gulf islands at the
time out in the west coast ofcanada.
So I was, you know, sandingdoors and stripping forms and
whatever.
We did start to finish stuff,um, and then ended up going to

(05:08):
more central still, the westside, but alberta, which is
about, you know, quarter of theway across our, our country.
Um was actually going to pursuemusic, become a musician, and
was working as a tradesman tokind of provide for that.
And uh, that dream kind of fellthrough through some um went
back to the trades again.

(05:28):
So you know time since I was, Iguess, about 18, 19 and I'm 45
now and uh, so at that time Iwas I was building, working for
a framing company in alber.
We did framing, so no concretework, and I ended up spending
about four years there.
We built everything from spechomes but primarily kind of wood

(05:52):
, wood frame, four and a halfstory wood frame apartments, so
high production framing and 12man crew building apartments and
really enjoyed that.
It's hard, hard work, as you'refully aware, and banging up
walls all day long and there aswell it's properly cold for a
long time in the winter.
So we're working in, like youknow, minus 30 and you know

(06:14):
three, four months of bittercold winter and then still a few
months with snow on the ground.
And how do?

Speaker 2 (06:19):
you even work in minus 30?
, Like that's like you'rewearing all the gear with the
warmers and stuff in it.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
I assume no, that was just no.
No heated vests or warmers, butjust just trying to.
I mean, you got to dress a veryparticular way.
There was little little trickslike like simple things don't do
your boots up too tight anddon't wear gloves that are too
tight.
You actually want to have somespace, so I'd wear like
polypropylene liners and loosergloves over top.
Make sure the cuffs on yourjacket and the shirts weren't

(06:45):
too tight.
You know limiting blood flow,and you were in, you know, like
balaclavas and face masks.
It was, yeah, it was.
It was miserable.
Um, your frame.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
I spent four years.
You're sorry, man, you're.
You're framing.
From what I've seen, yourframing is a lot um, a lot more
involved than our framing,because you use a lot um, like
what's your stuff?
I think you call it eight bytwos, don't you?
Or something like.
Your framing is very largetimber at times.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Um, I mean what I'm talking about now.
We were those primarily all twoby six back then.
Um, but depending on the heightof the building there was,
there was, you know, of afour-story wood frame apartment.
The bottom floor, yeah, mighthave been like two by eight
studs, you know, uh, one foot oncenter to carry those loads.
At the bottom end, um, yeah,lots of lvl structural beams and

(07:32):
parallams and flip, like youknow, four ply huge girder
trusses and so, yeah, pretty,pretty big stuff.
Um, yeah, so done that, donestuff.
Everything from basicentry-level spec houses up to
high-end customs and, uh, andapartments and that.
But those, those four years werespent just as a production
framer.
And then, um, ended up movingto the Okanagan, the area that I

(07:55):
live now I was talking about,that's so beautiful and uh,
moved out here, got married andthen started a business here,
ended up starting my own companyand my first, first job that I
got was a fascinating one inthat I put in a quote for the
framing and uh, that was allaccepted and look great and uh,
and then the builder says okay,and then when you come in to get

(08:17):
the foundation going, like, no,no, I'll come when the
foundation is done, the wholeframe like not here out, here
the the carpenters do their ownconcrete work, and so I was like
, okay, I'll get my books backout and I'll get some help and
we'll make it happen.
So my first big job to do acustom home here was the first

(08:39):
time actually doing hands-onconcrete.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
So did you have to adjust your pricing or you did
that job for the same price.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
No, I had to add a foundation quote into the
project and get that all workedout and I had done kind of the
head knowledge through schoolabout how to do form, but I had
never done it in person myself.
So I had a couple of closefriends that had done them here
and kind of helped me to thefirst one.
And I was always supermeticulous and picky with how I,

(09:06):
how I built and as much as I'msure, like yourself anybody
who's watching who's been abusiness owner, been a builder,
you know for myself I alwaystried to do the best job that I
could.
But now I look back at how Iwas building Then I build very
differently I did.
You're always evolving, you'retrying to pick up.
You know good tips and tricksfrom the, the jobs that you see
around you.

(09:26):
Um, so all of that to say, whenI did that first foundation and
I was kind of I brought acouple guys in to help me do it.
They knew what they were doingas I was kind of following their
lead.
I was also like when I'm incharge I'm not gonna do it all
like that.
There's things I'm gonna take,I'm gonna use, but I going to
also apply my own kind ofstrategy and common sense to it.

(09:47):
So yeah, for the next you know,four or five years it was
building custom homes and doingthe foundations as well, and it
was doing the foundations to getto the framing.
Concrete was always just amiserable, heavy, dirty job and
I loved framing.
But over the years, gettingbetter, better at it and knowing
that the better job I did ofthe concrete, the easier the
framing was, the more I startedto specialize in that and really

(10:09):
pursue it, to the point that webecame very good at doing
foundations and really quiteenjoyed it.
We could do a good, fast job ofit.
And then it was a joy to workon that concrete Because, having
done lots of builds on otherpeople's concrete and dealing
with, you know, level issues andsquare issues, you know what?

(10:30):
Uh, it can be really, reallybad.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
So controlling it myself is great yeah, I like
that you uh mentioned that howyou do things now is is
different to how you did themback then.
I think it's really importantin this industry, like every day
is a school day, like everysingle day, absolutely, you're
learning and, uh, yeah, itreally excites me now, like with
, obviously, social media andyoutube, like we all have access
to so many incredible craftsmenaround the world that are like

(10:57):
I really enjoy watching videos.
I've watched a lot of yoursover the last week, like, and
you just you're always pickingup little tips and tricks that,
um, you can employ in your ownteam, your own business, um, and
I'm a really big believer thatcontractors, builders, need to
talk to each other a lot more um, that was a huge part of my

(11:20):
year.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
To flee was I thought someday I might have my own
operation.
I wasn't, you know, banking onit and making sure that was
going to happen.
But I I always was thinking, ifI was going to run an operation
, what things can I take from myemployer now that I think are
great and what elements of howthey're representing themselves
do I want nothing to do with?

(11:40):
You know and try to pick andchoose and and learn from other
people's mistakes and you knowI'm going to have to learn some
lessons the hard way.
But if I can learn some hardlessons by other people's errors
, then I don't have to gothrough all that headache.
That's a that's a good deal forme.
Um, so, yeah, that was, that wasa big thing was like trying to
put together all the pieces thatI'd seen from different
employers over the years, likehow do I want to do my own thing

(12:10):
?
What are the important aspectsof business and communication
and relationship that I want tobring into my own business?
So, through my business, like Ibuilt around 400 homes by the
time I kind of wrapped things upconcrete framing and had a crew
.
I think at the max was about12,.
12 guys would split up to betwo or three different crews and
and building a big subdivisionup to you know kind of seven
houses at different stages atany given time.
Um, and there were some big,big lessons through that time,

(12:32):
for sure, but it was, yeah, alot of, a lot of houses went up.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
I assume it's no different over there to what it
is here in australia, like it's?
Uh, there's a lot of incrediblecraftsmen and tradesmen out
there, but when it comes to thebusiness side of things, you're
learning on the fly.
You're not taught how to run abusiness, and every job's a
learning experience.
You might lose some money onsome.
You learn how to do somethingdifferent on the next one.
Is it the same over there?

(12:57):
Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
It's interesting too is oftentimes how people are
pricing jobs here is by thesquare foot.
So a certain dollar per squarefoot is how things are
oftentimes priced both the samesquare footage and similar style

(13:23):
of finish, and that one housedepending how the floor system
and the truss system is designed.
No-transcript.
So you need to really have allthe variables on the table
before you put a price in versussaying hey, what do you frame
for per square foot?
Well, that might not have anybearing on my price, because the

(13:44):
job I'm doing that says thesame square footage is way more
involved.
Because instead of havingsingle parallel beams that are,
you know, they're five and aquarter by 16 inches deep I've
got a four ply glulam but I haveto bolt the whole thing
together and take half a day tobuild the beam you know.
So there's there's so manyvariables involved in that.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
So putting a price in .

Speaker 1 (14:06):
It's absolutely, absolutely, and so it's a.
It's a dangerous thing to justkind of give out a square
footage price until you've seenall the details.
So it didn't take me too longuntil I'm like, hey, I'll put in
a price.
But I want to see thestructural plans.
I want to see the trust plan, Iwant to see the floor joist
plan, I want to see all thecross sections.
I want to see the engineersplan, where other guys are given

(14:26):
quotes by just the the drawingsand they don't have the detail.
That's a.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
That's a major gamble that's so cool, mate, obviously
like we're halfway around theworld from each other and yet in
this construction industrywe'll deal with the same things.
We get the exact same stuffover here and, um, yeah, I'm
constantly trying to educate theindustry.
Like it's all in the detail,like you've got, the more time
you spend up front, uh,investing time sitting in the
office reviewing drawings, doingscopes of works and then

(14:54):
pricing based off the scope ofworks, um, the better your
business is going to be.
But we, we get the same thing.
So many guys like tell youstories like the.
The client or the architectrings them up, says, hey, I've
got this 300, we call it, we gosquare meters over here, but
I've got a 300 square meter home.
It's two-story, it's got adouble garage.
What's your price?
And like, without looking atdetails.

(15:15):
You, you can't like anyone thatgives a verbal price over a
phone with conversations likethat, just uh, asking for
trouble.
Absolutely yeah, for sure that'sum, and you guys build very
differently, um over there, whenit comes to getting out of the
ground as well.
Like we, we excavate all of ourfoundations in trenches in the
ground, whereas, like you, guysbuild a flat pad, don't you?

Speaker 1 (15:36):
and then form them up yeah, um, there's, there's a,
the ones I'm doing right now.
One of the projects is slab ongrade, so it basically could
have been done with uh trenchesand footings, built foundation
walls and then basicallybackfill to about four inches
below the wall height and theslab put in there.

(15:57):
And then we have other projectsthat'll be a crawl space, so
then it is more so like footingsof the slab down there, and
then there's like a anywherefrom like a two to six foot two
crawl space, um, and then we'vegot, yeah, full height basements
and uh icf builds that we'vedone as well, where it's all the
insulated styrofoam forms andwe've done just basements with
those.
We've taken them right up tothe trusses before, um, so, yeah

(16:20):
, pretty wide range.
And then there's there's somewhere there's like a raft
footing, where it is just agreat big structural slab and
you're putting walls on top ofthat, which you don't see too
often.
Um, yeah, there's going to besome pretty substantial
differences for sure yeah, well,that that sort of says a lot
about you.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
obviously your new business like spending time on
the tools with the tool bag on.
You obviously had a lot ofexperience with what works and
what doesn't, and so where didthe passion come from to go out
and start making tool bales?

Speaker 1 (16:51):
That's a funny story.
So I've always been one to likeI want to try stuff myself
Instead of buying something.
If I can make it, I'm open toto trying that.
So a good example of that is,like I mentioned before, I was
into music a lot in my past andthere was a very expensive
guitar that I wanted.
So instead of buying that$3,500, taylor, how about I'll

(17:11):
try and make my own acousticguitar?
And now I have my own customacoustic guitar that it sounds
pretty good.
The neck hasn't broken off yet,so I'm not afraid to try some
unique things.
I've done some cabinetry andfurniture building and stuff as
well.
What was happening on the jobsite was that I was in this big
subdivision building houses likecrazy and my old store-bought

(17:32):
tool belt was getting reallyworn out and I wanted to replace
it.
And on the job side, I'm alwayslooking for efficiencies on the
site.
How can we?
I've always thought of a funnydefinition of efficient
efficiency is just a smart, lazyperson Like what's the least
amount of effort I can put in todo the best job that I can.
So I started researching toolbelts to see what the different

(17:56):
options were out there and thenright away I'm like, oh, could I
make my own?
Is that something you can do?
And so I then startedresearching for a couple of
weeks and basically did enoughresearch to understand the kind
of equipment that you need.
And that's not something thatyou try to do.
That's to try to find theleather that's required, a
sewing machine that can sew theleather, where to get rivets and

(18:16):
hardware.
That's incredibly complex andexpensive and it's not something
you can just do on your own anddo a good job of.
So I put that out of my head.
Building one doesn't seem likea good option.
And then spent what ended upbeing about two years trying to
purchase the perfect tool beltand, um, I wanted leather.

(18:40):
I've always preferred leathertool bags over nylon or canvas
ones, and so that brings me tooccidental and buckaroo.
And they're great products are,but they weren't set up in the
way that I wanted to work, um,so I bought stuff and sent
things back and researched andtrying to find someone who could
make me a custom one, finallyfound a company in Vancouver

(19:04):
there's a lady there that buildsa fairly basic tool belt.
You can buy in the hardwarestores here, but I'd heard from
one of those companies, one ofthose stores that you can get in
touch with her and she'llcustom build you a tool belt.
Okay, this is my chance to getmy my tool belt layout the way
that I want it.
So I actually drew up plans.
I've got the plans on the wallin my shop.
I drew up plans and talked toher on the phone and emailed her

(19:26):
pictures and and spent a coupleof months communicating with
her to get this custom tool beltand she finally got it together
and it arrived and I was allexcited.
Here's the end of this twoyears of trying to get the right
tool belt.
Well, I pulled out of the boxand I put it on and I couldn't
fit my hand in some of thepockets, some of the tools, lots
of tools just fell rightthrough.

(19:46):
Things didn't fit and I was sodiscouraged and I became aware
in that moment, like she's not atrades person, she doesn't have
tradesman size hands, shedoesn't run the tools.
There was things that Iactually now I'm aware that
things I asked for her to buildinto the tool belt.
She should have said no tobecause she's like, oh, that
won't work, but she just did herbest to kind of force it, so I

(20:08):
wore that tool up for a week atwork and then by the end of that
week on the Friday I would Iwant to throw it the garbage.
I was so fed up and sodiscouraged.
I went home that night and Iwent onto a local classified
website and that shows all kindof local things for sale in our
area and from all my researchthat I'd done a couple of years
beforehand kind of like theentry-level sort of machine that

(20:32):
I would need to sew leather I'mlike I'm just going to look.
I'm so fed up I got to buildthis myself and I went online
and I found a heavy dutyupholstery slash leather sewing
machine that would do the joband it was a couple hundred
dollars cheaper than it couldhave been.
And my wife says whatever youhave to do to stop talking about
tool belts.
So she was so fed up withhearing me complain about the

(20:55):
tool belt thing.
So so then I reached out tothis person and turns out she's
like yeah, the timing's a littlebit, you know what.
I'm just going to knock acouple hundred bucks off the
price just because you'repicking it up.
I'm like great.
So that was the beginning.
I bought this sewing machine.
How?

Speaker 2 (21:07):
long ago was this.
What are we talking?

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Four years no, it was like seven years ago ago about
that, yeah, um, so get thesewing machine.
Like great, I got a sewingmachine.
How do you sew?
I don't have a clue.
So I in grade eight, in, uh, inschool, we did a class called
home economics and I remember wehad to.
We had to build a pillow and apair of boxer shorts, and so

(21:32):
there's my, my sewing experience.
Um, so I, I pulled out oldpairs of work pants and jeans
and like I'm gonna try and make.
So I cut out a rectangle offabric and I fold it in half and
I sewed the edges and I turnedit inside out.
There's the most crude basiclittle sleeve you can make.
Um, and so that was a startingpoint.
So I've also done a fair bit ofdrafting and kind of

(21:53):
architecture stuff and, um, I'mkind of fascinated by origami
and three dimensional kind ofconceptualization sort of things
, and so the first few weeks mygoal was to find a pouch, a
leather pouch that wouldperfectly fit the tape measure
that I used.
That was my starting point, andI knew that the failure points

(22:13):
of the traditional store boughttool bags you know, were in
these certain certain locationslike so I need to add strength
here and here and make sure thiscan't rip and that it hangs
open up I can grab it out ofhere.
So I went through a whole bunchof pairs of pants and and
fabrics trying to create this,this piece, and sitting at my
drafting table and drawingtemplates and and finally

(22:35):
developed a pouch that was like,really well reinforced and was
elegant in its design, somewhatbased off of my last
store-bought one for some of itsdimensions, and the one that I
had bought from the store hadsome little gussets that had
been added on and just kind ofriveted on to strengthen those
weak points.
But it was really really crudehow it was done, how it was
reinforced.
It'd be like the difference oflike throwing a great big

(22:56):
plywood gusset over top of somefailure point and just nailing
the crap out of it, versus doingsome really nice bit of joinery
to do something really reallynicely.
And so I kind of developed, um,a way to create a gusset that
was part of a hem and all onepiece of leather.
That made it really strong andwas also, um, really elegantly
done and it looked great.

(23:17):
So that was one of my bigpushes from my woodshop teacher
was like you always want to findthe best combination of form
and function.
So you want you know goodfunction and you want the form
of the item to also be appealing.
So I feel like I kind of struckthat I found that Once I had
that assembly kind of figuredout, now I can just resize that
for all the other bags.

(23:37):
So that was the beginning andafter a few months I had a tool
belt that I could wear that workand I was doing.
I was working on it eveningsand weekends and hand cutting
leather out with a utility knifeon the floor and hand setting
all the rivets and hand punchingall the holes and using my
little crap sewing machine.
And so I got it together and Iput it on and weren't at work
for a couple months.
And then I became a little bitunsatisfied and I can do better.

(23:59):
So I gave it to one of myemployees and I built a second
generation one.
I think I did that two or threetimes until I got where I'm
pretty happy with this.
Now I'm going to do this as agift for my employees.
I'm going to build.
I think I built six or seven ofthem and that took me like a
month or two to build thesethings and then gave them to my
employees.
So now my crew had my tool belt.
I'm like, okay, there I've donethat, I've kind of like hit the

(24:20):
target that I was after.
And by now I've got thesetemplates and I've kind of got
some equipment.
And what do I do now?
And I got then a few local guysthat saw them like, hey, can
you build me one, can you buildme a custom tool belt?
And and I start thinking, okay,this is actually a side hustle,

(24:40):
little business maybe.
Um, so I took on the firstcustom build, a new one for a
customer, a friend of mine and,um, I kept trying to put bigger
needles and heavier thread in mylittle machine and using
thicker leather and buying itfrom Sadleries and stuff.
And so I was building my firstone for a customer.
And by this time I'm wearingsafety glasses while I'm sewing
because I'm exploding needles inmy face, I'm breaking stuff.

(25:01):
And I got to the point whereI'm like I can't do a good job
of this.
I'm breaking stuff like crazy.
If I'm gonna sell this tosomebody, I have to do a better
job.
So that was like the first stepwhere again, I talked to my wife
like, okay, if I'm gonnacontinue on with this, I need a
proper sewing machine.
That's the.
That's the the first hurdle toget over.
I need a sewing machine.
I can sew through anything butum.

(25:22):
So again with her blessing, Idid, went to research and found
a harnessed stitcher, so forbuilding building saddles, and
you can sew through likethree-quarter inch plywood with
these things that need to like atwo inch nail.
So that was the, the firstsubstantial purchase to remove
that first barrier.
Now I can sew through anythingthat I want.
Um, it's a cylinder arm machine.

(25:44):
So that means, instead ofhaving a flat table, it's just
got a round arm that sticks outso you can manipulate your the
leather in all different waysaround that arm and you can kind
of sew in really unique wayswith it.
Um, so that was the first stepto like having some proper
equipment, and then you kind offast forward through that.
I'm taking some time here so sothen.

(26:05):
So then I started uh, sellingsome, some local people and, uh,
getting getting known by that.
I'm still framing full-time, um, do this kind of evenings and
weekends, and I guess one thingI should probably step back to a
bit.
And this kind of evenings andweekends, and I guess one thing
I should probably step back to abit in this kind of is an
element to just building abusiness and being successful.
There's a really hard lesson Ilearned, so let me jump back a

(26:28):
couple of years for a second.
I was building this high end,fancy house on a cliff side on a
lake down here, and homeownerwas a fantastic guy.
We'd done this great projectfor him, we'd basically wrapped
it all up, but he needed us tocome back and do a little bit of
back framing on this project.
So I sent my two top guys, mykind of lead hand carpenters,
back to this job to do some backframing, so doing some arches

(26:48):
and little detail work.
And, um, that night the ownercalled me and he says hey, chad
and lance, the guys came out,did the stuff, stuff I needed.
They did great.
Thanks so much.
Things look awesome, like great.
Glad to hear you're happy.
That's great.
He's like just a heads up,though.
So you're aware there was acouple other things that I
wanted them to look at and whattheir advice on and make a

(27:12):
decision.
They were just petrified ofwhat would Luke do.
They had no confidence to makea decision and when I heard that
, two things kind of occurred tome.
One of them was well, damnright, I'm the boss, I should
make the call.
This is my company, it's myreputation, the decision is for
me.

(27:32):
And then right on the heels ofthat thought was I'm doing my
guys a disservice and I amshooting myself in the foot by
making sure that I'm the onlyperson with any authority that
can make a call.
So that was a major shift in mefor how I was kind of building
my company and for the next twoyears, trying to be encouraging
to those guys, allow them tomake decisions and mistakes, but

(27:54):
I had to pay for so they couldbuild confidence, start to make
decisions.
And then those two guys now,like in my area here, now work
for other companies and they aresome of the most highly sought
after guys.
Um, because they're such goodframers and I had a bit of a
part in that.
But more than anything, I wasable to step away to allow them
to kind of get their feet underthem and develop confidence.
And then my company grew.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
It's hard, um, um.
Like we all, it's very.
When it's your business, it'shard to step back and I think
that transition from being onthe tools to becoming a business
owner that's what it takes.
Like you've got to put trust inyour team, because if you don't
put trust in your team, you'llnever have freedom to grow or
work on your business or, likeyou've done, go and start
another business exactly so.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
So I mentioned that because that's that was the, the
environment that I hadfortunately created to allow me
to step away and start to focuson on this parallel interest.
So I'm still on the tools,still building.
I would you know, the things Ilike the most on the job site
were building stairs, buildingroofs, doing timber work.
I always loved that stuff.

(28:58):
But now I can come in as asupport and assistant to them on
their jobs to help out, versusme coming on site say, okay,
give me the plans you cut for me.
Now I'm the boss, let me do it.
So that environment kind offacilitate an opportunity for me
to like start to focus on thistool belt endeavor.
So I was.

(29:18):
Then I kind of developed a fewdifferent models of tool belts.
I was selling them out of theback of my pickup truck.
I'm still working on my kid.
How does this thing grow?
What do I do next?
And I ended up wanting to builda website, didn't know how to do
that and thought maybe I shouldget into social media, get some
exposure.
And that was a huge catalystfor me for just exposure,

(29:40):
because in social media you knowthe people like yourself who
are interested in building, goon there and we see other
builders and how they're doingwhat they do.
And you know I had a goodreputation in our area here.
I was a highly sought afterframer and I don't take that
lightly.
I struggle with impostersyndrome greatly.

(30:03):
So putting out social mediacontent which I'd never done any
of that before, I'm like, okay,here's how I lay out a wall,
here's how I nail stuff up,here's how I cut a hip, oh, and
here's the tool belt that I madefor myself.
All of a sudden, our audiencewas like you're a framer, you've
built hundreds of houses,you're doing concrete and
framing and you're building atool belt.
Maybe you actually have aperspective on how these could

(30:25):
go together.
That would make some sense.
And that was just a really,really good combination.
And it was also a hard thing too, because you know I live in a
very small kind of bubble in myarea, in my region, and for
instance, for me, I wear a frontworn, stitched in place tool
belt.
That means is I got a tapemeasure hanging in the front of

(30:46):
my pants.
Yeah, well, that's not a verycommon thing.
Um, and so there was a a biginfluencer actually, that
somewhat local here that reachedout to me.
He's like you're doing this,this, this front tool belt thing
, that's what you want to do.
I'm like I think it's the best.
It's like super efficient.
He's like, okay, you go aheadand you do you, but if you're
going to get into social media,I know you're going to get so

(31:07):
much hate for that.
I'm like what are you talkingabout?
It's like normal where I am.
It's like all these things.
You never trust a front poucherand like all kinds of all kinds
of insulting, really nastythings that are said.
So I had okay, well, it's goodto know, I'm also a hands-on

(31:28):
tradesman, have had tons ofemployees and and dealt with
trades my whole life, um, so Ikind of understand how to
communicate with them.
I've got some thicker skin tokind of handle that.
But I'm also a business owner.
I want be professional, so Idon't want to be a total ass to
people and that.
So I want to be humble andrespectful.
So trying to manage all of thatwas interesting.
So getting into social mediafollowing starts to grow, we

(31:51):
start to get way more ordersthan I can handle.
So we ended up actually for thefirst, I think five, six years
at the beginning.
So I was, I was doing thecustomer emails, I was doing all
the sewing, I was doing all ofthe shipping, and I can only
sell 20 of these things in amonth, or 15 at the beginning by

(32:11):
myself.
So I we put together this kindof janky little website and
there's I got.
Once these spots are full, Idon't sell any more this month,
and that would take like aminute and a half.
The spots are sold out likeokay, site's closed.
I gotta build those ones out,ship them before the end of the
month and then the firstSaturday of next month I'll do
it again and hope that got alittle quicker by then.

(32:32):
And more machinery.
So basically what that allowedme to do was control the demand
first come, first serve, andthen, as I bought machinery and
hired people to help, we couldincrease those numbers.
Until it was about a year and ahalf ago, we finally kind of
took the breaks off and saidlet's just open the online store
and see if we can handle thedemand.

(32:52):
And we are still hanging on byour fingernails, but we have now
stayed open and we've never hadpeople have to wait longer than
three and a half weeks fortheir order to ship.
That's kind of been our, ourdeal.
So, yeah, I built a thousandsquare foot shop into my house,
thought I'd be there for 10years.
A year and a half later therewas five of us and wall-to-wall
equipment.
I'd taken over our garage andother parts of our house.
Okay, I ended up buying a fivethousand square foot facility

(33:15):
five minutes from home.
That was this old piece ofgarbage building, tear it apart,
rebuild it and then now we'vegot, you know, 15 to 20 people
and a thousand square footstorefront and we build and ship
these things worldwide and I'mnot getting any bigger.
This is the, the boundary ofthe business.
That was my, my plan.
So we're not outsourcinganything.
Uh, we build them all in personin the shop and, uh, now I'm

(33:37):
actually freed up enough I canget back in the tools again and
mate when it comes to frontpoucher.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
I've been a front poucher for a long time, like
that's uh that's.
Um, I did my apprenticeship witha really old school tradesman
and that that's just what he did.
And and to begin with, I don'tknow, 20 odd years ago, we would
buy a standard nail bag andjust put it on backwards, but,
um, and yeah, now, now there'sobviously ones around that have
it in the front.
But, um, I, I like that you'vedone it through efficiency,

(34:05):
cause, like my, my big, like theold fashioned saying is a
tradesman's only as good as histools, like nail bags.
I think that's is somethingthat's been overlooked for a
very, very long time.
Um, I actually didn't realizeyou could get such custom bags
until I mentioned to you before,like a good mate of mine, craig
Stewart he's the one that putme onto you and he was showing

(34:27):
me his bag that you custom madefor him and I'm like man, this
thing is freaking insane andhe's going through all the bags
and he got you to do a fewcustom things for him.
But efficiency is huge and likejust seeing your bags and like
one or two things I really loveabout your bags, um, is the nail

(34:48):
puller, like where you like youput that on the diagonal, like
so it's not stabbing in yourbloody calves or stuff, when
you're kneeling down like likeyeah, why has that not been done
before?

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, that was a very interesting process.
I mean, I've got actually the.
My original nail bag is hangingon the wall in the shop and
there's a whole evolution of the, the different bags and updates
and the diagonal nail puller.
That was.
That was a bit later on andthat was one that I kind of
considered didn't think it wasgoing to work.

(35:20):
And then my brother that hashe's worked for me framing and
then he helped me in the leathershop.
It's something he was like, hey, you gotta, you gotta get make
that thing work.
The diagonal layout probably somuch better.
And, uh, it was actually one ofthe things I kind of like I did
, like I'll, I'll try it.
It's not really gonna work, orit worked great.
I had to mess with the angle ofit and play with things a bunch
, but that ended up becoming oneof the big features that

(35:42):
between kind of he and I, um, weput together.
That was great.
The ones that always drove menuts with my old tool belt was
no good spot for my raftersquare, which to me you know the
tools that go on.
As a right-handed person, thetools on my left got to be my
rafter square, my nail puller,my fasteners.
Those are like the for sure nobrainers.

(36:04):
Go on my left side.
My dominant side is going to behammer pencil.
Go on my left side, my dominantside gonna be hammer pencil.
Um, chalk line pliers, thingsyou use in your right hand, um,
and that's something I've alwaysfound so funny is that you know
, we get all this praise for howthey're set up.
I'm like there's, there's norocket science here, it's just
this is the hand you use that in.
It should go over here.

(36:25):
And then these things go overhere and let's, let's make them
so they're easy to get a hold ofand make sure they don't hurt
you when they're hanging there,like it's.
It's really not thatcomplicated, but when you kind
of come from a background oflike that old cheap leather tool
belt that you're talking about,you can wear it forwards or
backwards and it's universal,right, it's not right-handed or
left-handed, it's just like youput stuff where you can fit it

(36:46):
and that becomes your normal.
So I kind of took that belt thatI thought was really efficient,
because that front center tapepocket and this is a whole huge
debate when does your tapemeasure go?
What's the best tape measure?
Well, for me as a builder and,having done rough construction
and finishing, it depends.
If I'm framing tape's left hand, pencil right hand, because I'm

(37:07):
doing all day long, tape is inmy left hand all the time.
If I'm doing finishing, it's inmy right hand.
A lot of the time you'reclipping on your pants or in a
belt there because you're takingone measurement and and so it's
oftentimes on your right.
Well, if you have a spot, bothhands have access to it.
You're like incredibly fluidand it's really really smooth.
Um, so developing that wholetool belt that had a front

(37:31):
center tape pocket that wasactually right-handed just
hadn't been done before, whichto me, is just bizarre.
It's such a strange thing Likelet's make it right-handed.
Um, and the reality of ourbusiness too is like I want to
be totally fair across the board, so everything I ever develop
right-handed, well, let'sdevelop the left-handed version

(37:51):
as well.
So everything on our website isright-handed or left-handed,
whereas a lot of companiesthey'll have a couple
left-handed options but nottheir full product line, and I
wanted to do that across theboard the same.
And then I became aware ofwrong-handed people, which just
throws a wrench in the works.
So one of my lead handcarpenters his name is chad.

(38:13):
Just the gem of a guy.
He's wrong-handed.
So what I mean by that?
He swings his hammer with hisright hand but he writes
left-handed the rafter squareand your hammer are on the same
side.
Like everything gets all allall screwed up, yeah, so so
there we have some stockproducts.
You can kind of put onetogether that works that way.

(38:33):
We do now probably three orfour custom builds each month
that are specifically for thatorientation and we call, like
right hand but left handdominant or vice versa.
It's, it's bizarre.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
It just it all makes so much sense, mate, it's, it's
bizarre, it just it all makes somuch sense, mate, like and I
think it's one of those thingsuntil you see it done and it
just doesn't cross your, crossyour mind.
But, yeah, like, having youryour front pouch, your rafter
square, your, your, um, yournail bar, like everything just
so efficient.
But yeah, like, obviously, withyour nail bag buddy, your nail
bar, stabbing you while you'retrying to work, but, um, it's

(39:07):
just unreal.
Like you, I think you guys doit so much better than we we
seem to be 10, 15 years behindover here like, even even your
hammers, like your hammers areunbelievable forget the name of
it like that hammer that you'vegot that you can use it for
everything, like undoing yourforms and like, yeah, it's just
earner brand.
Yep, it's just insane like thatjust makes everything more

(39:30):
efficient and cuts out theamount of tools that you need to
have on your bag.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
And there's a fine line too, because you can also
get too detail-oriented and thenyou overcomplicate it.
So it's like a happy mediumthat we're trying to find In
building the business in theleather shop.
Here it's been the same thingwhat are the hurdles that we
need to get over and theefficiencies we've developed in
the shop.
But let's not take it so farthat we get caught in the weeds

(39:56):
with all the fine little detailsbecause we've overdone it.
You know it's.
It's like when you're, whenyou're building a house, the
same thing.
Like I'm building buildingfootings this morning.
They're like a deer in theheadlights.
They're like I have to build ahouse, the whole thing, and
they're looking at the entireproject.
I know, no, right now, just thefootings.
Do the?
Do the footings?
Well, don't worry about thatstuff that doesn't affect.
Just focus on the footings.

(40:19):
Um, and that's not everyone'swired that way.
You know that's.
That's not how everyone canfunction.
So, yeah, when I'm putting atool belt together, I'm trying
to decide what, what elementsare worthwhile to develop, but
not over complicate it.
And because we offer, you know,custom builds, um, we deal with
some people that overanalyze um,and it gets, they get really

(40:41):
carried away and at the end ofthe day, you know, doing, doing
custom off um to our customers,the the option to do a custom
build.
It's not a moneymaker, right,as you know, like you might, you
might do okay on 75% of themand the other 25%, like we have
blown through the budget on thisover and over and over again.

(41:02):
There's got 50 emails back andforth Like how's that time
getting covered, you know?
But I it's a, it's something Iwant to offer because I see
value in it and it's not a moneymaker, it's so we can honor our
customers and and we also knowsometimes and that's that's one
of the the biggest bits ofadvice that I give to anybody
who asks about you know, whatare some most important things

(41:25):
that you've learned throughbusiness and having your own
company?
I'm like no, they know yeah,yeah, that's huge and uh, they
said you just you can't say noto work, you can't turn business
down, and I'm like you have to.
You have to or you don'tcontrol anything.
You'll end up being a run offyour feet.
You they'll do nothing that youenjoy.
You won't be able to keep yourword, like you got to know when

(41:47):
and how to say no.
It's so huge.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Saying no is one of the most powerful things you can
say in business, because everyperson you say no to opens up
the door for a perfect client.
You don't just do them forframers, you do bags for
plumbers, roofers, electricianseveryone don't you.
So you cater for everyone.
So how have you learned howthose guys need their placements

(42:12):
?

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Yeah, I mean there's a reasonable amount that you can
kind of assume.
You know, who does they carry?
Where would they carry them?
But then it's a lot of askingquestions and there's several
products that I have built kindof through social media and I've
been like okay, I'm going tostart working on an electrical
bag.
Everybody, here's my prototype,here's what I'm thinking.
This is how I think it would beused.
What do you guys think?

(42:35):
And then you get every.
You know you, it's a difficultthing to to wade through all of
the comments because you haveall these opinionated.
I mean, I'm a tradesman myself.
We're a pretty opinionatedbunch of people.
We're pretty ruthless a lot ofthe time.
So you've got to wade throughall of these comments and kind
of figure out what stuff do Ineed to pay attention to?

(42:57):
What do I put aside?
How do I keep the majority ofpeople happy?

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Sorry, All right, mate, you're probably getting my
dog barking in the backgroundas well.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
How do I satisfy the majority of people and be okay
to have those few outliersunsatisfied?
So it's a matter of askingfellow tradesmen.
So, because I've been a builderfor a long time, I've got great
connections with drywallers,with electricians, and I'll have
them come in the shop and bringyour tools with you let's see

(43:29):
how they fit.
Does that work for you?
Does that make sense?
And also try not to reinventthe wheel.
There's some products out therethat I'll get asked by a
customer hey, can you make meyour version of whatever that is
?
Can I even send you my old toolbags?
You can take them apart andremake them in leather.
I'm like, no, don't do that.

(43:52):
If there's a good productsomeone else makes that serves
that need, buy theirs.
That's great.
I don't need to go and make acopy of it.
Yeah, so it's quite complex.
You want to still do somethingthat's unique, that is
justifiable but not overcomplicated as well.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Yeah, but it's bloody awesome everything and I just
think it's something that needsto be thought out more.
Hopefully, a lot of peoplereach out to you and check the
bags out.
I think they're bloodyfantastic.
But you also I really liked um,when I watched your story on I
think it was on youtube or oneof your socials um, but you're
you're really big on culture inyour team, like I saw.
I saw in the nail bag or in thetool bag business.

(44:31):
You've got a ping pong table,you've got a dart board.
That's pretty cool because alot of businesses don't, I guess
, have a focus on culture, butculture is really important when
it comes to building asuccessful business.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I mean.
Well, here's something my dadsaid to me for years and years.
He's like as an employee, yourjob is to make your boss's job a
joy.
As an employer, your job is tomake your employee's job a joy.
A lot of, I think, young guysin the trade that are kind of

(45:06):
full of piss and vinegar andthey're like yeah, my, I can't
till I'm a boss, I can telleverybody what to do and boss
everybody around and yell andscream and rant and rave.
What are you investing in?
What are you setting yourselfup for?
Down the road?
You're going to just be burningbridges all day long, and
offending people like that doesnobody any favors.
So there's a need to bevulnerable to a degree that

(45:34):
invites people in, but then alsohave the resilience required to
deal with the hard stuff thatcomes.
And that's a hard balance and,depending on how each of us are
wired, that's different.
For each of us too.
It's complicated.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
It is.
That whole employee thing isone of the hardest parts of
running a business.
So trying to and especially thebigger your team grows, you
you've got more personalities,more opinions, different
religions.
There's so many things thathave to be constantly managed.
So, um, yeah, I it was onething that really made me smile
watching your video and thenseeing your team do that,

(46:09):
because I, in my businesses, Ithink teamwork's the most
important thing.
You've got to build that.
You've got to focus on thatculture and you want that
culture to represent you.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
And, yeah, that was fantastic, yeah well with the
with the shop here when I when Ibought this building so it was
a cabinet shop that got out ofbusiness and it was.
It was a mess, it was justgross.
So I gutted the whole thing,tore it all apart, and so I had
this like opportunity with thislike kind of clean slate.
How can I build a facility thatis like, as a tradesman, I'd be

(46:39):
excited to walk into astorefront and what's the kind
of environment we want to createin the back.
And so I took one big area andI built a full, full kitted out
kitchen with like a lunchroomand couches, and so we've got
about half of our staff arewomen and a few of them love to
cook.
So, like every week or twothere's like a great big potluck
and they'll come in and bakeand make stuff and we have these

(46:59):
amazing meals.
Yeah, we've got a ping pongtable and dartboard and so, like
at break time the staff willplay.
Whoever gets closest to thebullseye um will get uh, get to
get off work five minutes early,so it's like on one day a week
and they can bank their time.
So there's people who've gotlike they've got like an hour
and a half for the last like sixmonths.

(47:20):
They've got like a couple hoursof time that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
I love that idea in the storefront.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
we got a foosball table and we've become quite
competitive with foosball um, sothere's a my storefront manager
, dustin, usually at the end ofthe day, if there's, we don't
have any customers in thestorefront the last half an hour
, 40 minutes, if we're kind ofdone emails and we're kind of
caught up like, hey, dust, let'sgo and uh, and we have a good,
sometimes heated, foosballbattle.

(47:46):
So it's a, it's a lot of fun.
I've also, you know, a realityof my, my business over the
years is I've also had myclosest friends and family
working for me, which adds awhole another dynamic, you know,
to uh, to a workingrelationship.
And that was another goodlesson I learned working with my
brother.
He's three years younger thanme, um, and we're very

(48:07):
stereotypical.
I'm first born rule follower,uh, he was the young redhead,
kind of full of all kinds ofattitude, um, and we were great
friends.
We're spent lots of hard timesin the midst of that and I
remember at one point saying tohim like brad, when we're on the
job site, like I've got to justbe your boss, you, you got to

(48:27):
be my employee, like there's,there's God, we got to have that
relationship.
It can't be so different fromeverybody else and then he
pushed back.
It was like, yeah, but we'realso brothers that work together
and there's truth in that.
You know both of them in thatrelationship and it's hard and
it's it's not so cut and dried,because there is a relationship

(48:49):
there that is different than myother employees and that having
my best friends you know, workfor me and I've got to at times
I'm, you know, lots in your mindand there's hard days and
there's, there's, there was dayswhere the next morning I had to
like, hey guys, we gotta have atalk.
I, I lost it yesterday.
I got frustrated and,regardless of the justification

(49:09):
for the pressures and tensions Iwas dealing with, the way I
interacted and I was nippy and Iwasn't okay and I got to be
vulnerable and apologize forthat Kind of do our housekeeping
.
I don't want any grudges held.
You know what do you need tosay?
Here's what I need to say tomake it right.
And then you facilitate areally healthy environment and
you, you welcome people andbring in.

(49:30):
You know you build trust.
But that's also a hard thing forme because I'm also a very if
you picked up by now, I'm prettyblack and white Like I.
If there's something to bedealt with, let's get it in the
open and deal with it.
Well, not everybody works thatway, right?
Some people are like I'm goingto sweep under the carpet and
maybe in six months we'll talkabout it, you know.
And if I hear that like oh,this thing's been bugging me for

(49:51):
the last six months, I'm likewhy didn't you talk to me six
months ago?
This could have been anon-issue for the last six
months instead.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Yeah it's important to get stuff in your chest, and
I like that you mentioned theword vulnerability a lot I talk
about become a lot easier, and Ithink that's another really
important part of having a goodteam showing your team that it's

(50:19):
okay to be a bit vulnerable andhave those difficult
conversations or or even not thedifficult ones, like the ones
about mental health and allthose types of things.
It's good to talk about allthat sort of stuff, but, like,
where to from here?
I see you've, uh, like you'vegot your own podcast as well now
.
So what's uh is the podcast forhelping the building industry
over your way, or what's it for?

Speaker 1 (50:39):
where I had a designer in and I did uh, you
want to have a discussion.
Okay, how do you design?
What are, what are the thingsthat you're you're keeping in
mind with um, with how you'retrying to design?
Like, have you, have you been abuilder before?
Do you understand thedimensions that are convenient
for us as builders on site?
You know what things you takeinto account, how you work with

(51:01):
homeowners, with the, the thingsthat they want to see what's it
?
Like dealing with I'll have to.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
I'll have to listen to that one.
That would have been a goodconversation.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
Yeah, it's pretty fascinating and I did one with
our local ready mix concreteplant and talking to them what's
it like for you, dealing withhomeowners and the bills and the
pump trucks, and then uscarpenters that are bellyaching
and complaining about you guysbeing late or the concrete mix
not being quite right and and umand finishers that are stressed

(51:34):
out of their mind trying to getflat work done and um.
So I've had podcasts with himand then a local high-end
builder and you know theirinteraction, getting from them.
You know information, what it'slike to deal with with
everybody.
You know you're dealing withthe homeowner, you're dealing
with the tradies, as you guyscall them, um, and trying to
organize and orchestrate.

(51:55):
You know a smooth process, um.
So, yeah, lots of, lots ofthose sort of discussions.
And then I've had lots of otherfellow tradesmen, other framers,
on and we've talked about, youknow, different kinds of
injuries that we've had or nearmisses or, uh, yeah, close calls
and and projects that we'vebuilt and challenging stuff.
I've done some with my family,so I've had my, my wife, in and

(52:17):
we kind of told this whole story, the background of all of this.
Um, I've got two, two of thewomen that work in the shop.
Uh, we have podcasts with themlike the ladies of acrobats and
kind of their background, theirstory and some some fun stuff
there.
So one of them, she wasactually the canadian karate
champion, uh, years and yearsago, yeah, so all kinds of fun
stuff that we get into that's,that's just fun to listen to and

(52:39):
good conversations, so yeah,all kinds of that's unreal.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
well, uh, look, I definitely appreciate your time,
um, coming to us from a halfwayacross the world telling your
story and, look, I hope a lot ofpeople reach out to you.
So where's the best place tofind your stuff?
Where can people look?

Speaker 1 (52:57):
Yeah, so our website is acrobistcom and then on
social media at Acrobist Leather.
So Instagram is kind of the oneI I focus on the most, but
everything obviously loads up tofacebook, so I deal with all
the comments in, uh, instagramand in facebook myself.

(53:17):
Um, I do push our content overto tiktok, but I don't do any
communications there and then Iput stuff into youtube.
So there's lots of shorts andthen longer form stuff.
We just started doing somelonger form youtube videos,
which is uh, which is pretty fun.
So the build I'm doing rightnow.
We did like a kind of tutorialon how I build my footings and
and then how to put my walls upand there's some comedy.

(53:38):
And then my brother is a videoeditor as well, so he edits
those videos together and addsall kinds of crazy stuff in
there.
It's pretty fun to see.
So people get an idea of how webuild here, and I try to also
up front mention to people whenI'm putting that kind of content
out.
This is how I do it where I'mat.
You do it different, that'sokay.
Let's have a discussion aboutit.
You know, hopefully you'lllearn something.
I'll probably learn something.

(53:59):
Yeah, um, yeah, so it's beenreally good actually just
quickly before we wrap it up.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
so the the um tool belt business is kicking in
golds now, and so you're goingback to doing a couple of
projects a year for yourself.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
Yeah.
So I've always loved building.
I miss it when I'm not.
So I have the opportunity nowwhere I've kind of got a
storefront manager, productionmanager, shipping manager.
I've worked myself out of allof those roles so I've freed
myself up.
I can do a little bit of sewingif I want and I can take on a
couple jobs each year and that'san opportunity for me to get

(54:34):
back on the tools, show how ourtool belts work, kind of put on
all of our different setups andsay this is what this is for,
why it's designed this way, todo this job that I'm doing right
now, and then also kind ofshare my building practice with
kind of how I've the methodsthat I use and the reason why,
um, and little tips and tricksand helpful things to uh, to

(54:55):
give people a hand, and then youknow, because of that then I'm
also I get the perk of beingsent some nice equipment and
tools and do some collaborationswith some companies.
So I cannot wait.
I think in about a week I'llstart framing on these
foundations I've done and I getto use max high pressure, which
I can't wait.
They're sitting all brand newgear sitting in the tool trailer

(55:16):
.
I can't wait to plug it in andstart using those tools and
showcasing that stuff too.
So that's been really funwhat's that?

Speaker 2 (55:21):
is that?
Uh?
Is that all cordless gear?
What's that stuff?

Speaker 1 (55:24):
um, max, uh max.
So I'm not sure.
Maybe you guys don't have themover there, but Max is a
Japanese company and they make.
One of their premier lines ishigh pressure compressor, so
it's a 500 PSI compressor.
The guns run at 350 PSI.
The airlines are the size of anextension cord.

(55:46):
They've got nailers you canshoot into steel and concrete
with.
They're like super lightweight.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
It's phenomenal stuff I'll have to check they also
make a, that's great.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
And they also make a tying rebar, tying guns, so I've
done a bunch of posting aboutthat.
So, like my last foundation, um, like I tied in six hours the
amount of rebar that would takein like a four-man crew two days
so it's like, yeah, we actuallyhave the max um retie guns, so
yeah, but I didn't I didn'trealize I did.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Uh, all the nail guns and the compressors, yeah yeah,
yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
So they do regular, regular psi nailers as well, but
they got their high pressuresystem stuff too.
That's, that's phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Yeah, it's really fun , unreal, but I think it's
hilarious.
Like you're, you're halfwayacross the world and yet I even
had a little laugh before whenyou mentioned the Ready Mix
trucks being late.
We're always dealing withconcrete never being on time
over here as well.
But, mate, really appreciateyour time.
Keep doing what you're doing.
Absolutely love it.
Look for any Aussies or NewZealand guys or anyone listening

(56:48):
.
If you want the best tool bagsout there, make sure you get in
touch with Luke and the team atAcris Leather.
Mate, yeah, love it, Appreciateyour time.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Thanks, mate, it's a pleasure.

Speaker 3 (56:59):
Are you ready to build smarter, live better and
enjoy life?
Then head over tolivelikebuildcom.
Forward, slash, elevate to getstarted.
Everything discussed during theLevel Up podcast with me,

(57:23):
Dwayne Pearce, is based solelyon my own personal experiences
and those experiences of myguests.
The information, opinions andrecommendations presented in
this podcast are for generalinformation only, and any
reliance on the informationprovided in this podcast is done
at your own risk.
We recommend that you obtainyour own professional advice in
respect to the topics discussedduring this podcast.