Black Sambuca, Where is Mount Everest and Mateship.

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You've got to be genuine in business or people
won't buy from you, you know.
And you've got to be genuinewith family.
You've got to be genuine withyour friends or you'll lose them
.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
G'day guys.
Welcome back to anothercracking episode of Level Up.
It's actually a pretty bloodyhot one today here in Brisbane.
We're back in the shed thisafternoon.
This is going to be an absolutecracker.
I've been trying to get thisbloke on my podcast for a long
time now.
So, yeah, I won't keep you insuspense too long.
But a really good mate of mine,personally and in business, has

(00:36):
definitely been a big part ofmy journey over the years.
A good mate of mine, trentSpencer from Uptiles here in
Brisbane.
Uptiles, if you haven't heardof it, was Australia's well
still is Australia's number onetile showroom back-to-back 16
years in a row.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yep, how are you mate ?
Good mate, Really good Thanksfor having me on.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I would have put money on it.
I was sure you were going toturn up today with a bottle of
Black Sand Booker.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
I reckon it's probably the first time and I'll
give you.
My excuse now is that tonightI'm heading to the V8 Supercars
with Adam Deuce for the nextthree days, so I figured I
didn't really want to start itwith Sambuca, because you can
imagine it's going to end onSunday night with Sambuca, I
suggest.
I still remember our time here.
We lined all your staff andclients and everybody up to go

(01:23):
down and play golf once and theyweren't allowed onto the bus
until they'd had two shots ofSand Booker.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, no, trent's been a bad influence over the
years.
He doesn't mind a good time andwhenever Trent's around it is
always definitely a good time.
But yeah, we hired a bus onceto do a work function and Trent
was invited as one of oursubcontractors.
And everyone's out the front ofour subcontractors and
everyone's at the front of ourhouse waiting for this bus to
come and Trent turns up with abloody.
He had a bucket of pre-mixedshots.

(01:49):
Yeah, the party bucket.
And a couple of bottles of BlackSand Booker and no one was on
the bus led on the bus untilthey'd had two drinks and they
got off with plenty moreafterwards, didn't they, oh mate
that was a very, very bigafternoon and I think we made
the bus had to stop a few times,a few bottles along the way.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, I think we called into beanley.
Haven't been to beanley in 30years and go through a bottle
shop down.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
There was a new experience um, well, mate, look,
thanks very much for coming on.
You like, you're, um, I'd talkto you, to a lot of people about
you.
Like, you've definitelyinfluenced me a lot over the
years.
Trent's the one that actuallyasked me to go to Everest Base
Camp, so that was six years ago,was it?

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, 2018.
So yeah, six years ago.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
And I've told the story before about this Trent.
We were having a meeting.
Trent said oh look, I've chosensomething to help me exercise
and get fit.
I've set myself a goal I'mgoing to do Everest Base Camp.
Do you want to be in?
And I said, yep, where is it?

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, I mean it was good because, like you know, you
came and you introduced Justininto the group and the group
grew from me to 13 of us goingover there and everybody only
had one connection from one tothe next.
So we made a great group offriends out of it and, uh and
all did an experience that putus under a huge amount of
pressure mentally, physically,the whole lot, and not only just

(03:13):
for the, for the trip.
But you know, three or fourmonths leading up to that we, we
spent a lot of time togethertuesday, wednesday, four o'clock
in the morning, training, uh,but it was, it was like a men's
mental health camp of walkingand talking and you know, it was
probably the best mental healthI'd had in years because you
were able to talk to people andyou found if you walk with
someone for three hours, there'sno secrets left at the end of

(03:35):
that.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
A few times a week.
Yeah, like you've got to talkabout something.
Like it was brilliant formyself as well.
I think I'm definitely a bigfan of it, like you, you got to
just get out and have a chat topeople, don't you not keep it
all in your head?

Speaker 1 (03:46):
yeah, you do, and I mean that that there we, you
know, we experienced visitingquite natures and stuff like
that sort of thing.
So you're out there, there's noalcohol, there's no nothing.
Uh, you're chatting away.
Everybody tries to be a bitguarded in the beginning and it
all of a sudden you're walkingup a hill or a mountain and
everybody's equal becausethey're all puffing just as hard
.
They're all struggling, you know, and they're all trying to be

(04:08):
men and Group A and it's notgoing to hurt me, and then
eventually they all crack, theyall cry, they all sit down, they
all give up.
You know, and everyone getsaround them.
Saw a few tears along the way.
We did, yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Mate, I can't thank you enough Like that trip was
definitely life-changing for me.
I know you've had similarexperience.
Just to be in that environmentwith an incredible bunch of
people, which became very goodfriends by the end of the 10
days, but just to experiencethat environment, the people,
the culture.
So Trent's most of the time theorganiser.

(04:43):
He's the one that comes up withthese ideas and it doesn't
matter whether it's an idea fora pub lunch or some function on
a weekend or whatever.
Trent doesn't fuck around.
So he'd organise this wholething to Everest, the airfares,
accommodation and, mate, thetour guide that you found that
took us on that adventure wasjust.

(05:03):
We could not have done better.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
No, we were lucky and I think you know we saw people
lining up to get on the planes.
We managed to do it in achopper.
You know that was a whole newexperience.
You know, I've found a fondloving for choppers now because
they're weapons and we probablyhad the wildest chopper ride
I've ever had, landing with 5%fuel you know.

(05:26):
Know, doing like sort of sidebig swipes and nearly backflips
in the chopper.
It was pretty, pretty exciting,through cloud and having a
mountain in front of you.
A lot of people like thoughtyou know you're just hiking up
to everest.
But there was a total adventurebetween going to the monkey
palace and, you know, going outon the drink in the middle of,
uh, catman doodle two or threein the morning.
And there's some great photosof you, duane, that turned up
after that exercise.
So sam booker might have beeninvolved in a couple of them no,

(05:47):
remember we.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
So for anyone that doesn't know, sam booker, when I
used to get on it was my go-to,like that was uh yeah, you're
incredible.
Hulk juice, hey, yeah I love itand the um, yeah, after we made
it to everest or base camp, umspent the, got back, got stuck
in lookla for a few days,finally got back to katmandu and
it was like a three-day,two-night, just bender and uh,

(06:12):
yeah, I remember we I don't knowhow many bars we went to, but
it was like where, like nobodyhad sambuca.
So I ended up walking aroundtown and pluggers all night
trying to find a bottle or a barthat had sambuca.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
I think there's a photo of you with pluggers on
next to Rio sticking out of thefloor in a nightclub.
You know it was very health andsafety and I mean we started
the first day with a steak atthe Australian Steakhouse thing
we found in the middle of townwith some beers, because we'd
all been so disciplined withwhat we ate, drank and in the
preparation to get there andjeez geez, that went out the

(06:46):
window once we made it.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Oh, mate, but it was just such an incredible
experience and, um, the bondingthat we, we got over that and
then, um, after that we comeback and the the following year
we did one with the couples, so,um, most well, yeah, nearly
everyone that come on that hikeand we actually took our wives
and we went over to new zealand.
We did the Milford Track.
That was another incredibleexperience.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
And that was supposed to be kind of like a relaxing
effort, but that actually turnedout to be more difficult than
some of the days at Everest, youknow.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
It was definitely more difficult.
And then the last night wasjust as big.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, we seem to finish that way, don't we?
So that was a good day and itwas a beautiful spot to go to
Milford Sound and it was goodfor the wives and that to come
along and experience some of thewalk and talk and that sort of
thing too.
So we got known as the VerveCrew, I think, after Catherine
Campbell decided to drink us outof Verve.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Well, the chopper had to fly more in, I think, to the
last two lodges because theybloody ran out.
Yeah, yeah.
So Trent is always theinstigator of a great time, and
if ever Trent's involved, it'salways.
You know it's going to be agreat time, you know it's going
to be quality.
But when it comes to thebusiness side of things, you're
always the first one to put yourhand up, give people advice.

(07:56):
You're involved with a businessgroup here in Brisbane as well,
aren't you where you helppeople out?

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, look, 20 odd years ago I got invited into the
tattersalls.
They had it there and at thatstage I think it had been going
38 years and they wanted tostart another brisbane business
associates.
They took a couple of the sonsof the original group and I was
their first invitation there andthere was four of us.
Uh, it's grown out to about 16or 17 in the group.
Uh, mixture again.
You know builders, accountants,solicitors, financial solicitors
, financial doctors, everybody.

(08:25):
It's a group from differentindustries.
I go along and I sit there asan importer from Europe and
discuss about how the Europeanmarkets and things are, the
shipping, all that sort of stuff.
So it's the idea is to get abit of a spectrum of all
industry and try and get an ideaof where it's going.
You know we have a guy therethat deals with receiverships
and those sort of things and formany years he's depressed and

(08:47):
then when he's happy the rest ofthe table's not happy.
So it's a good group to be in,being able to get some advice.
We've seen through that periodof time.
I think nearly all of usstarted there unmarried.
Since we're married Now, we'vegot children at 17, 18 years of
age.
So to know people that long hasbeen great, see some big

(09:08):
failures, some big successes,and all the time, every time we
see it, it's the same rule,there's no difference.
You know, the ones that go toohard, spend too big, grow too
fast, don't survive.
The ones that get rich slowlyjust continue to get more
wealthy, get more sturdy, morestrong, and then I think, in
their mental health, theirmarriages, everything seemed to
survive and they build a strongrelationship with people you

(09:29):
know it's important to like.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
I know people that just keep to them, like
everything's very private, keepto themselves.
They're not interested in beinginvolved in groups and all that
sort of things.
But whether you're whetheryou're paying for a coach or a
mentor or you're involved insome sort of group like I'm a
big fan that you have to talk topeople.
You can't do it all on your own.
Learn from other people'sexperiences and take on other
people's knowledge.
It might not be in the sameindustry or the same business

(09:56):
that you're trying to set up,but if you just take a little
bit from here, there andeverywhere and then figure out
what works best for you, you'regoing to get to where you want
to be a lot quicker.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, and I think you've got to be honest, though
Do you know what I mean?
The thing I've probably seen inthese groups a lot is a lot of
dishonesty, and I've seen well,not dishonesty in that they're
trying to make themselves appearbigger or better and rather
than say I've got failings, I'mnot perfect, because they can't
learn, they can and they can'tlearn if they're not honest to
say that I've got faults rightor I need help.
You've got to ask for help, andif you don't ask for help, you

(10:26):
won't get it.
You know, and I see a lot ofyounger people join the group
and look up to some of thesepeople and go oh my God, I need
to be that.
And you say you know what.
I don't think that's possible.
I think that's a fairy tale, Ithink it's a unicorn.
Not everybody's always goteverything you think they've got
.
When the wheel stops.
That's when you see the realityof people, and I think it's

(10:47):
important for a lot of youngerpeople to be themselves and not
worry about trying to be whateverybody else is.
I had an argument with one of myfriends.
He bought a Lamborghini at 30years old.
I said you're a dickhead.
And he said to me why.
I said what are you going to dowhen you're 50?
You know, like, fair enough,you made it, you're great,
you're very successful, you'vegot a Lamborghini.
But then the problem is you getmarried, you have children, the

(11:09):
Lamborghini's no good.
Yeah, do you know what I mean?
It's useless.
So you know, as you know, I andwe discuss business.
You know, today I was workingon computer systems and things
for the business, spoken tothree or four of the mini racers

(11:29):
, two of the guys from theBrisbane Business Associates,
about how they've implementedcomputer systems in their
business, where it went wrong,how it fell apart, where'd they
get ripped off, you know, andthat sort of thing.
And it's great to be able to beso honest.
Go there and say I'm computerilliterate, I have zero
knowledge about computers.
I'm going to get done like adinner if somebody works it out.
Can you give me some help?
Yeah, you know, and people justcan't do enough for you you

(11:52):
know it's super important.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Like and I people would get to where they want to
get quicker if they did that.
Like they took a step back.
Like social media is obviouslybad for it.
Like everyone's trying to liveup to this perception of what
other people have and do and are.
Yeah, but you never know ifsomeone's in debt to the
eyeballs or if it's mum anddad's money, or like how they've

(12:14):
got there.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Well, as you say, you know me, I'm not on social
media, right?
So I'm probably one of the onlypeople that's not.
I do see it because ourbusinesses and things are on
social media and I think it's animportant part of the business
to be on there For me.
You know, I used to go to theBrisbane Business Associates and
they were all on social mediaand I wasn't.
They used to say to me Trent,you need to be on Facebook.
I said no, I don't.
I'm going to sit here now andyou're going to tell know what I
mean.
I didn't watch the recordedshow back.

(12:36):
I watched the live experienceand I think it was good.
It gave us something to talkabout.
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoyseeing people do well on there,

(12:56):
look on the social media andthings like that, but I'm not
one to post anything or doanything like that.
I'd much rather sit down, havea drink with somebody, have
dinner with somebody and talkabout what's happened.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
You know, yeah.
Well, again, that personalconnection is getting lost a lot
, isn't it?
Because when people do catch upin person, they've got nothing
to talk about because they'veseen it every day.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, well, you see it regularly People sitting
around a table, six people, sixphones.
Yeah, you know I'm terrible.
I tend to go home, put my phoneon charge and leave it alone.
I use it for business.
I went away on holidays thererecently for a month.
In that whole month I tookthree phone calls, so I didn't
deal with any emails.

(13:33):
I had arranged so that it wasall managed and looked after and
that.
But I literally put my phone inthe suitcase and it's the best
month I've had.
I didn't have to worry about itcalling.
I didn't have to return anycalls or emails to anybody.
I put a lot of effort in for sixmonths to be able to do that.
It wasn't just I'm turning itoff for a month.
I don't agree with that.
It was a lot of planning, a lotof discipline went into it, a
lot of commitment from my people, my staff around me, that said

(13:55):
yep, we're more than happy tomanage this.
But I tell you what sometimesthat detox of being in touch
with just the people that arearound you I think probably
Everest taught us that too.
When we went to base camp wewere just them, we virtually the
phones and that wereunimportant.
They became a camera.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Well, I think it was only.
I think it was only myself, youand one or two of the other
guys that, like literally didn'thave our phones.
Yeah, and everyone else wasbuying SIM cards and trying to
like.
That was one thing thatdisappointed me about that trip
was I couldn't believe we werein this incredible place and if
you wanted to, you could havephone service.
So even the bloody Sherpas theSherpas were walking up with 100

(14:36):
kilos of shit on their back,leaning over, scrolling through
Instagram on their phone.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
It was a good place to go, though, when you've got
so much entertainment naturalentertainment of beautiful
mountains and the streams andthe yaks and bridges that you
guys bloody rocked and rolledand scared the living crap out
of me.
So I reckon we spoke about theHillary Bridge for about three
hours, because we knew it wascoming up and I've got a fear of
heights, and they just couldnot work out how to give me more

(15:00):
of a hard time.
They were like you get on first, I'll get on after him.
More of a hard time.
They were like you get on first, I'll get on after him, we'll
rock and roll this.
Then they stuck a yak on withme.
You know, like I was beingpunished for all the times I
served too much.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Sam booker, I think you know the um, like I really
look just like your honesty mate.
Like you you're very blunt anddirect and I think that's you
need someone around you likethat to like get you to pull
your head in.
Sometimes, like we've had somepretty good conversations over
the years or rung you with anidea or whatever, and your, your
advice is always straight tothe point, but, like, how have

(15:31):
you got to where you are?
Like, if we can, like I don'tknow if you're happy to talk
about your journey a little bit-but I know you have worked your
ass off since you were bloody14.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
yeah.
So I mean, you know I've got atough family.
My father's been a greatinfluence on me.
He's proper hard.
You know.
People would say he's a toughc**t.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
For anyone that's listening.
He is f**king hard.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, and then when you met my grandfather, he was
harder again.
So you know, and my mum's side,my grandfather, was a
businessman as well, very toughsort of people.
So I suppose I grew up up thatand my father's favorite saying
my entire life whether it's hardbut it's easy.
And when you work that out,trent, you'll have made it.
You know, and I've spent a longtime working out what the hell

(16:14):
is he talking about?
Whether I was playing football,you know, I went down to the
local public and at 14 years oldand got a job, um, you know,
and I worked there 35 hours aweek while I finished high
school, all through the nightand go to school during the day,
continued to play my footballand stuff like that worked at
the tile shop during that timeas well.
Um, and I, it took me a longtime and I used to think he was

(16:35):
a real mongrel, uh, and thinkwhy is he?
Why is he so tough on me forthis?
You know, I've put in a hundredpercent effort on doing that.
And then you worked out.
You know that hard but at easymeans.
If you do the hard work,everything else is easy.
So I trained during the week.
The football game was easy, youknow, if I, if I went to work
every day disciplined andexecuted correctly, paying my
bills and making money and andbuying things that I wanted was

(16:57):
easy.
So it took me a long time towork that out, but he used to
say it to me flat out, with noexplanation, didn't matter what
it was, you know so it's a good.
It's a good saying yeah yeah,you know you could bitch and
moan.
I'm building fences.
You know we lived in bow desertand building fences.
Keep my horse in.
And you know he wouldn't let meuse the auger on the tractor to
get my hand.
But you know, when I went tothe football field it's about
knock the guys over because Iwas that solid.

(17:18):
You know, when I did kung fu,you go, people could punch me.
It didn't hurt.
It didn't hurt as much as ahorse kicking you or digging a
fence hole.
I can give you the drum.
So it was good that he gave methose lessons.
You know it came from hisfather.
These days, you know, theyprobably go.
That's abusive to your children.
You're not allowed to do that.
You know I got plenty ofbeltings.

(17:39):
That was how it was back then.
I've back then.
Um, I've never I've had toraise my hand once to my
children.
Uh, I got one of them and thatthat one took the other one out
and we call it the kung fu hand.
You know.
So from about four years oldnow, I just roll my hand around
with my wrist and my childrenjust stop doing whatever they're
doing.
Dad only ever launched it once.
But I think what come from mysteer.

(17:59):
Was that I only ask once?
and I suppose you say that to meI only ask the children once to
do something and they knowthat's the rules.
With my staff I'm very fair.
Some don't love me, some dolove me.
They know where they standbecause I've come through that
discipline of if you ask to doit or someone asks you to do it,

(18:20):
or if you're going to dosomething, do it correct, do it
right.
We go to Everest.
Put the time in.
Don't take 13 people over thereon a half-assed tour.
Make it the best possible tourit can be, you know yeah, you're
the most committed person I'veever met.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Like everything you say you're going to do, you
don't around, like it's if.
Whether it's training forsomething or something for
business, or like at the momentwith your tile shop, like you're
leading the way with theporcelain tops, like you've just
you're ahead of the game youknow, I looked at that five
years ago and my father said tome you're nuts.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
You know you're going to tear up a lot of money,
you're going to waste a lot ofmoney.
You know, stay on the corebusiness.
And I said to him well, it is acore business.
It's just a very big, bigversion of our core business.
They're made by the same people.
They have the durability of thetile.
I can see there's an issue withengineered stone.
It's worldwide.
I can see there's going to be achange and I think I can't see
why people over there that knowbetter than me spending hundreds

(19:15):
of millions of dollars onbuilding these factories are
going to be wrong.
I think we want to be first.
So you know we were.
We were first to bring theporcelain to Australia.
We've had some big players comein Caesar Stones and Smart
Stones and these guys that havebrought versions from India and
China.
We've stuck at our core Italian.
We only sell Italian andSpanish tiles.
We've stayed there, you knowand again it probably goes back

(19:37):
to the heart, but it's easy.
It's easy to sell the Chinesestuff.
It's cheap.
We stay with the Italian stuff,which leads the market, brings
the quality in, brings thelatest design.
You know what do you want?
To drive A Ferrari that's gotthe beautiful, all the latest
and greatest, or the copy youknow.
So we want to be the leader.
So I think the benchtops aresomething.
Now, after five years, dad'sturned around and goes geez,

(19:59):
that's a bloody great idea youhad there, you know.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
But he doesn't say that to me, he tells others.
You know, yeah, I know, yourold man is fucking incredibly
proud of you, like.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
I know he might not tell you, but yeah, he
definitely tells everybody else.
Yeah, I reckon he's probablyand, and you know, I reckon he's
softened in the last couple ofyears.
So you know, he uh, even in therace car and that sort of stuff
, we've had a very good year inthe race car this year and we
won the open class in the minisand on the weekend, you know, he
was very full of praise andit's been a great thing to do,
you know.
So, whether that's because he'ssatisfied with where I've got

(20:34):
to and my determination, Isuppose my discipline, you know
in the business because theconcern, I suppose, is, as you
earn money, you becomeundisciplined and you start
wasting, you start enjoyingthings too much and you don't
continue to do the work.
Because if you don't continueto do the work, at the moment
I'm heavy because I've been awayon holidays for four weeks.
I had a great time putting iton and I'm going to enjoy the

(20:57):
pain taking it off too.
You know it's part of thejourney.
Same thing for him.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
If he, same thing for him, if he, if he thought that
my I could just switch off inthe business, I think his
discipline would still be there,he'd still be very hard.
But uh, discipline isdefinitely one thing I've
learned.
I've taken from you, mate, likebecause I, if I commit to
anything that you ask me to do,I know that, fuck, I've got to
show up, I've got to be there atthe walking track 4 am every
tuesday morning.
Like, yeah, because if you,yeah, if you can commit to it,
then I should as well.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
See, I'm not really a big one on checking with people
.
If I said to you we'll havelunch on the 1st of December,
I'd turn up at the Bereke Creekfor lunch, right?
I'm not one of these ones thattexts back and forth 25 times
and just hey, just making sureyou're right.
Has anything changed?
No, no, you say that goes inthe diary and nothing changes.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
you know, and that's like, it's easy.
It is Like if we book to go outto dinner with our wives,
that's what we do, like you ringme or I ring you, or we lock in
a date, that's it.
We see you on that time, thatday, and we turn up for dinner.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
And you go there committed to have a good time
with those people.
You know, and I like that about.
If I have people that don't dothat, then I just stop
associating with them.
It's simple, you know, and Ihave many people ring me and say
I haven't seen you for ages.
Yep, I invited you last timeyou came with me.
We had a great time.
Haven't heard from you so youknow, it's a two-way street in
friendships.
It's a two-way street infamilies.

(22:15):
It's if people aren't committed.
You know, there's been a bit ofdiscussion between the family
over the last couple of yearsand this year I just said right,
I've had enough of this.
This is where we're going.
I don't care if I'm paying forthe whole lot or you're paying
for yourselves or what.
We're doing it because my son's18, my daughter's 17, and in

(22:39):
the next year or two they'regoing to have partners.
Will they're going to havepartners?
Will they or won't they be atchristmas day or not?
Right?
I'm the oldest grandchild, um,and so I've got the oldest
children anyway, I couldn'tbelieve.
All my cousins committed to it.
They're coming back from londonand everywhere and we're going
to the casino down the coast forthe big lunch there and then
we've booked, uh, all hoteltogether.
We're gonna have a big dinnerthat night as well, in the park.

(22:59):
So it you know, sometimes youget a reward for the discipline.
To push that and push it hardand say I'm going to do it, and
they know me, they've all knownme for their whole life.
Yeah, and I'm not one thatbullshits and says we're going
to have Christmas together.
If I say we're going to haveChristmas together, we're going
to have Christmas together, yeah, and I'll push and I'll work
every angle I can to to make ithappen.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, I think it's just a great way to live, mate,
but can we go back to like backwhen you were starting, because
that's where your disciplinecomes from.
I've heard the stories aboutyou like working at the bar and
then you were doing shit in thepub that you shouldn't have been
doing because you weren't 18.
Like, you've just put a lot ofeffort into everything you've
ever done.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
Yeah, well, I was lucky there, I the pub.
My parents got divorced so Ihad a bit more free time.
I didn't have so many eyeswatching me.
Dad wasn't home, mum was overthere, so we were ratbags.
We had a ball, I had motorbikes, I had horses, so I had
transport.
Mum had a Telstra.
I knew where the keys were.
We'd definitely drive thataround the Bodez a little bit.
I think it was 14k to thecaravan park and mum would come

(23:59):
after an afternoon nap andwonder how we had hot chips from
the caravan park.
We used to just tell her thetruth.
We used to say Mum, we took thecar.
She goes yeah, you boys telltall stories.
So she said that to usconstantly, you know.
And anyway, I decided I neededto earn more money and the tile
shop was only open Thursdaynights and Saturday mornings at
that time.
So I had those two shifts and Ithought you know what pub's

(24:21):
open at night and I thought youknow what pub's open at night.
I'm going to ride my pushy downto the pub.
So I went down there.
A guy by the name of Lucky Pipos, a big publican in Queensland.
He won his first hundred poundon a horse that won the
Melbourne Cup twice and heactually bought a pub with it
and that's how his story grew.
And he had a lady down therecalled Jill Sloan and she'd come

(24:43):
from a place called the SnakePit and she was tough, you know,
she was really tough.
Where was the Snake Pit?
No, I'm not sure where theSnake Pit was.
I think it was towards MountIsle or somewhere in that
direction.
It was pretty wild and she hada couple of rules that you
pissed on your own time and youswept the front of the bar every
hour.
You know, and that's kind ofhow it started with her.
And I came in there.
She says you're too young.

(25:03):
I said no, I'm not.
I said I've read the rules andas long as I leave the premises
by the time I'm into my shift,I'm allowed to work here, I'm
allowed to do this, I'm allowedto do that.
She says all right.
I said I've got two weeks offfrom school.
I said you work me as hard asthem, right, but back then you

(25:29):
didn't have to pay them.
She said okay, come at fiveo'clock tomorrow morning and see
this guy outside there calledray, and he'll get you to hose
the car park and sweep this anddo that.
So I did anyway.
At one o'clock when the pub shut, uh, in the morning I was still
there and she goes oh shit,you're still here, no one's
knocked you off.
I said no, no one even knowsI'm here except for you.
You've just been shoving mearound.
I've done kegs, I can wash aglass and pour a beer.
I can do this.
Okay, come tomorrow fiveo'clock, see, ray, no worries.
So this went on for about fourdays and she says to me, she
calls me into the office and shegoes you're not gonna fuck off,

(25:51):
are you?
I said no, I need a job.
I want a job, you know.
And she's okay.
She says I've never seenanybody quite work like you and
never complain, you know.
So she put me in there at 17.
I had a key to the pub, um, sothat I could get in and out of
the pub, I could lock up atnight, um, and you know we had a
great time with pokies.
It just started and you know Ihad.
It was a tough pub.

(26:11):
We had a sign on the wall thatsaid no bikies and blacks to pay
on the same pool table, right.
So we actually had a pool tablededicated to the bikies and
that and I'm talking a different, different time ago, you know
uh, it was racist, don don't getme wrong, but that's how it
worked, right?

Speaker 2 (26:26):
This is like 30 years ago, oh, 30, yeah, 30-plus
years ago.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
So I'm 48 this year.
So you know I was 14, 15 when Istarted there yeah, so it's a
good 30-plus years ago and theproblem was, as soon as we had a
combination mix, we'd end upwith a punch-up right.
I grew up there.
I had Ray.
He was a one-legged man thathad a plastic leg.
He was partly the security.
He'd take the leg off, startwhacking people with it if they
misbehaved, and he taught me howto use pool balls and glass
ashtrays to straighten peopleout that were bigger than me,

(26:54):
you know.
So I learned a lot of tricks atthat pub.
You know I've got a few marks onmy shoulder.
I went through a window onenight with a couple of people
and I've been in some properbrawls, you know, back in the
day when it just went on, whenwe all sat back down and there
was a bit of blood and sweateverywhere and we all had a beer
again and it carried on, youknow, and Jill would come out

(27:16):
and go your band, your band andyour band for a week and send
very quietly and we'd go aboutour day.
So you know I learned there,though I worked in the tab and I
kept losing my punters off togo and get lunch in the
restaurant.
So I paid for and got a littlechalkboard up and put some
specials up steak, sandwichesand things and started out
selling the the uh therestaurant.
So then all of a sudden, aboutfour months later, I became the

(27:38):
restaurant manager.
We all said go in there andsort that out, because obviously
we need a bit more in there.
We ended up seating about 100and something people in there a
night from Thursday, friday andSaturday nights.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
So where did all this come from?
Because you obviously saw yourold man in business Dad.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
You know he left school very early.
They basically finished yearnine and they said to him don't
bring him back.
He's very creative with hishands.
He's a graphic designer graphicartist by trade and he went
straight down to Collins Streetand became a sign writer.
He could draw everything, butthen from the sign writing he
learnt marketing.
You know.
He came up with putting writingon the football fields.

(28:14):
You know, like anywhere I havea wind field and all that sort
of stuff.
He came up with puttingscoreboards up at the football
field so they could put the windfield's logos or the
Marlborough's logos and thingson there.
So you know I grew up with allthose sort of stories going on.
I had a grandfather that ranfruit shops and nurseries.
He was all about planningthings, growing them bigger and
selling them for more.
You know he also bought a lotof property and I learned about

(28:39):
all the property and buying themand you know everyone goes oh
it's great, you're reallywealthy.
Yeah, it's fantastic, I'm agenius.
30 years later, you know so, andI watched all of that, my
mother invented the ruggers forstubbies, the stuff.
So I grew up with mum there.
She was a designer, fashiondesigner and had 300 sewers
sewing her shorts.
Anything she designed, they'dsew the shorts and then when she

(29:03):
up with it, all australian menwere starting to get a bit fat
and she she made a first set ofshorts in australia that had a
like a string band and a bit ofelastic around them and went
away from the original stubbies.
Stubbies made an absolutefortune.
So I suppose I was in a frontrow seat to see a lot of this
stuff go on and and you say well, you know, if you put the
effort in and you think about itand you execute it correctly,

(29:23):
you're going to make money.
You know, and all I wasthinking about at the time of
the pub and the thing was that Ineeded to buy a house.
I've got to buy a house.
So I'm one of these people thatI come out this morning and I
got in the garage and I'mlooking out at my home and you
know that was the home that Iimagined as that 14-year-old boy
.
And you know I've got the carthere that I wanted and I've got

(29:44):
all the stuff.
You know, and I suppose I'vegot to be cautious.
I've got to set some othergoals because Well, we've talked
about this.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
You and I are the type of people you've got to
have something to aim for.
Yeah, because otherwise you'rejust fucking going in circles.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, it becomes difficult.
And when I was young work itwas easy to work.
It was easy to do many, manyhours because I wasn't there.
I needed that.
I've got to have this.
You know, at 18 I bought myfirst home and I bought a house
every year till I was 28.
I lived on nothing.
You know, I lived on nothing.
Uh, I was very good at going.
Getting wide bone from thebutcher wasn't the best steak
I've ever eaten and I ate it for10 years straight.

(30:19):
It was pretty rough but I likedsteak.
And you know I always went touh nightworks for 20 cent drinks
because they were cheap, youknow, um, so you know it was
such good times.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
I'm only four years younger than you, but like
people like I tell the youngboys at work now like we used to
go to bloody um mary street andlike thursday nights it was
like dollar drinks, yeah, like,yeah, the shooters you know at
15.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
You know we used to go into transformers and uh I
can remember thinking at 15, ohyeah, I must look old.
You know I didn't look old.
I've seen photos.
I was no way I was old enoughto get in there and I can
remember there we've been thereabout three or four weekends in
a row and um, going in andgetting the dollar shooters.
You know.
Anyway, they had the liquorlicensing act come around and
the bouncers come in and saidmate, out into the alley, the

(31:02):
alley, out the back what, you'reunderage, you've got to go out.
So they obviously knew, youknow that they allowed us in in
those days to do a bit of that.
Like my daughter's 17 todaygoes out on a jet ski and I'm
worried about her you know butlike no idea what I was doing at
15, you know.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
So it's so.
You've been surrounded bypeople that have influenced you,
and seeing parents and unclesand grandfathers, and things do
really well and it's obviouslypaid off because you're
committed to everything that youdo.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
Well, look, I see Dad .
We used to go out with a guyfor lunch and that was Dad's
first major boss.
That really led him and taughthim how to execute his energy,
you know.
So right from I would have beenfour or five years old the
first time I went with Don andhad lunch, right, and he used to
sit at Gambaro's restaurant andhave the same fish and chips
every Thursday.
So if Dad wanted to see himhe'd go there, and we generally

(31:53):
just go there so Dad could runsome ideas around and talk to
him around that sort of stuff,and I'd get dragged along.
At five, you know, we went tomy brother and I went to every
single business dinner.
There's no babysitter.
We sat in the corner at theChinese restaurant till one or
two in the morning, probablydrinking ouzo and Coke, because
you know we'd sneak it off thetable, but the it was.

(32:14):
Yeah, you just got an educationand I do worry that kids
probably don't get as much now,like mine do I involve them in
everything.
You know we have manydiscussions.
We had a funny argument theother day.
My wife come over, we'll getshot if she listens to this, and
she probably will.
But I'd hung her dress upincorrectly on the.
I've tried to do the rightthing and I've hung the washing
out and I've hung it upincorrectly.

(32:35):
I've obviously pinned it wrongor something and she's blowing
up.
I can hear her in the laundrycarrying on rah-rah.
And I turned to the kids and Isaid now, this is how you
demotivate your staff.
I said because the chances ofme hanging washing next week are
fuck, all Right.
So we had a discussion.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
It's true, yeah, it's true.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
It's true, yeah, it's true, it's true, right, and
like she's just seen it andshe's not thinking anything, but
she's flowing up and I'm sayinglike to the kids there's an
example in everything that youdo.
So don't just do business thatway, do life that way, do your
family that way, do your friendsthat way.
So you've got to be genuine inbusiness or people won't buy
from you.
You from you, you know.
And you've got to be genuinewith family.

(33:14):
You've got to be genuine withyour friends or you'll lose them
.
Yeah, and if they're notgenuine with them, don't do it.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
and I don't do business with people that aren't
genuine yeah, that's funnybecause camille and I had a bit
of a run in the other nightabout a similar thing.
So I'm I'm committed to doingmore around the house, like um,
as I think I should do, likecamille shouldn't have to do
everything, but um, I'm meant tocook a minimum of one night a
week, yep, and so I'm trying todo that and I'm doing that most

(33:39):
weeks, yep, but Camille's likeyou need to do it more and I
said well, you need to give mebetter feedback.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
What do you call this love?

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Because I said, every time I cook, like you and the
kids kids whinge and bitch thatit doesn't taste right or that
I've put too many herbs in orthat I've done something wrong.
I said, why would I want tocook if I'm getting picked at
every time I cook?
So yeah, same thing, and Ithink that's the same like,
exactly the same with situationsat work, like if you're
whinging and bitching aboutpeople, they're not going to do

(34:11):
things better.
No, like, because they're justgoing to think that every time
you win your bitch at them,you've always got to give
constructive criticism and,ideally, motivate them to do
better.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Well, you often see them say, oh, that'll do,
because you won't be happyanyway.
Yeah, do you know what I mean?
So if you're getting that sortof response, it's a drama.
And I think it's important tohave the right people, because I
often say to people, like whenwe're interviewing people, if
they haven't got self-motivation, they're no good.
Yeah, because they're going towear us out trying to motivate
them, you know.
So they're going to have theirown discipline, they're going to
have their own motivation.
And and I often get people andthey go oh, I don't know why you

(34:43):
employed that person, they're alittle bit different, or this
or that.
No, no, they're motivated,they've got motivation, they,
they, they don't care that theydon't know how to do anything or
they can't do this.
Look I.
You know Jim always gives me ahard time because I put copper
class up instead of Cooper class, right, just do silly things
like that all the time.
But you know, you're aware ofit and you manage it.

(35:04):
And don't let it stop me.
I'm going to do it anyway,right, and then I'm going to
laugh about it if I get it wrong, you know.
So we're looking to employpeople.
We're looking for people thatare self-motiv and they've got
discipline.
Then we can give them direction, we can give them the
encouragement and then they'llgrow.
If I could start every one of mysalespeople at their budget for
the month and then carry on,because it's amazing, when

(35:25):
you're hot, you're hot.
They can close sales, they cansell tiles, they can give great
interior design advice Amazingonce they've got the ball
rolling.
But if they're four or fivedays in and haven't created a
sale, and you just watch theenergy in the person change they
don't perform.
It's mindset, isn't it?
It's a mindset.
And I often say to them,especially the young fellas

(35:46):
you're looking a bit tired there, young fella.
He goes yeah, you're a bittired.
I said if I was very pretty andhad a nice dress on and I was in
a bar and it was 1am in themorning, I bet you'd feel
energetic then and oh, yeah,yeah, yeah, and it is.
It's a mindset.
You've got to put yourself inthe mood, yeah, so some days.
I mean, we did our push-upstoday, you know, and you do that
, and you've got to do thatsometimes to get yourself fired

(36:06):
up.
Yeah, I think, like everymorning.
I have often thought do I do itfor health, do I do it for this
?
and I think the answer to is Ido it for discipline to prove
that I can do it that's the onlyreason I do it, yep I go I'm
going to turn this to cold andI'm going to do it, and then I
make my bed right so that Ireward myself when I return home

(36:27):
.
So when I come home at night,I've got a made bed and it's the
first thing I do every morningto go right.
I've done something and I'veachieved something for the day.
I've made my bed, I've had acold shower.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Now I'm ready to fire up isn't unreal about how those
two simple things can just setyour whole day up for success.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah well, you've done two positive things for
yourself and you're doing it foryourself, you know, and I think
I think a lot of people alsothink that you've got to do
things necessary for yourself.
But, like I get a lot ofsatisfaction in creating all of
those.
Like, we went to Everest, Ienjoyed very much watching the
other 12 people going there,enjoying it, high-fiving, doing
all that.
I probably got the most rewardout of anyone.

(37:04):
I got 12 people to walk aroundin a forest.
That I was going to do on myown.
I was doing it on my own.
If I was going on my own Ididn't even care, it was going
to happen, but I got greatsatisfaction out of turning up
there and seeing five, six, tenpeople doing the same thing and
putting that energy in.
And I'm not driving the bus,I'm just going to be here at
this time People came.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
That trip was truly life-changing.
I could talk about it all day.
We've got stories that we'lltalk about for life.
Some of them we'll have to savefor another podcast.
Naked massages with no oil andthat sort of shit.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
But well, that was an experience.
That was an experience and like, that's how you learn how to
play poker.
Because you know, I came backafter that guy had put his dry
finger through my crack andconvinced you that was the best
massage I'd had in a long time.
And you went up there and thenfirst thing you did was massage
your face, I I think so it waspretty interesting.
And I tell you what did I getsome enjoyment out of that.
That was pretty funny.

(38:02):
And if you can't have that sortof fun and that sort of jokes
with your mates.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
and then see this Well, that's what makes it so
special, isn't it?
Like you do that stuff.
But we're going to have to givea backstory to that now,
because people are going towonder what Fingers Rubbing
Through, through cracks is allabout.
But we had been walking.
I think it was our fifth day,wasn't it?

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Yeah, Nambushar, which is kind of the highest
town in Kathmandu.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
It's the largest, highest and largest city or
something in the?

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Himalayas, or something With an Irish bar,
with an Irish bar as well.
And a masseuse.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
That's another story as well getting into a blue and
the world's highest Irish bar.
So as well having a gettinginto a blue and a the world's
highest storage bar.
But, um, so we'd been walkingand a few people were whinging
and bitching and moaning aboutlike, oh geez, it'd be great to
get a massage.
And uh, like wonder if they gota massage here.
And the the one of our lead, um, sherpas, goes, yeah, yeah,
yeah, like at the next village.
So we logged into our placewhere we were staying, and every

(38:56):
everyone in the group said, yes, I'll get a massage, and there
was only they could only fit acertain amount in in the
afternoon and then the rest ofus were going to go in the next
morning and, uh, trent and jimmy, another mate of ours, they
went and had theirs and theycome back, um, I had gone for a
shower and like we're inhimalayas and everyone was

(39:16):
whinging and bitching that thehot water wasn't working.
I was like I don't give a fuck,I just had a cold shower and so
I've had a shower, got changed,ready for the night to chill
out, and they come back and said, all right, who's up?
And everyone else was whingingand bitching about not having a
shower and I was the only oneready, yeah.
So I said, oh well, fuck it,I'll go today instead of
tomorrow morning.
Anyway, walk up through thevillage, up these uh, I didn't

(39:39):
know where the hell, I was going.
Little set of stairs tiny littleset of stairs up into this room
in the top of this dodgybuilding and the sheets hanging
over, and there's this old mansitting there and I wasn't he's
like 80 years old.
Oh man, he was old and uh.
The minute I've walked throughthe door to that room I've gone.

(39:59):
Holy fuck, I've just had ashower, got ready for the night
and I've got no jocks on.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
Well, I managed to stitch Jimmy up because I came
out of there and old mate's gotonto the lubrication bottle and
he's going nothing's coming outzero, it was empty.
He's full Chinese burning me andhe's sack, whacking me as he's
full chinese burning me and he'ssack, whacking me as he's, as
he's rubbing my inner thighs andthen and then bloody.
You know he had no fear.
He's like roll over.
But because first off I get inthere and he's like pants off,
everything off, you know anywayI, I get out after being, you

(40:29):
know, fondled and everything,and and I come out and jim's
sitting outside going how isthis?
It's great, mate, but it's afull Monty job.
He's like all right, I said getyour gear off out here and in
you go, mate.
I said she's lovely, he'srocked in there.
He must have thought they'vehad an exchange of masseuse.
But he came back and I saw himwalking in and he's looking at
me like he was going to kill meand I'm giving him the old hey,

(40:51):
Don't let the cat out of the bagjust yet.
This is going to get funnier,yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
I thought, well, fuck it, I'm here, no one knows me,
whatever.
So, yeah, starkest.
And then, yeah, and then samething.
I could hear him squirting thebottle and all that's coming out
is air and I've got pretty airylegs and it was seriously like
laying there for 45 minutesgetting a Chinese bag.
And yeah, there was no, uh,there was no holding back, like

(41:19):
his pinky was rubbing through myass crack and, uh, he did do my
face and my lips and myeyebrows and yeah, I definitely
got some of your ass crack on myface.
But uh, the uh.
The funniest part was and Idon't know, it's gonna you're
gonna have to watch this ifyou're listening.
But, um, I finished up and I'mwalking back down through the
village to where we were stayingand it was a very long, slow

(41:41):
walk and I'm thinking, holy shit, I've been molested.
I sat down on a bench for alittle bit and I thought about
what had just happened and I waslike I wonder if this just
happened to Jimmy and Trent.
And then I walk in, I open thedoor and you guys are sitting in
the bar and before I evenfinish shutting the door and
walking in the room, trent's onthe other side of the room and

(42:02):
he's holding his hand like anass crap and he's rubbing his
hands through it.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
We laughed for 45 minutes straight while you were
up there, I could tell you,jim's going oh my God, why
didn't you warn me?
I said no, it was funny.
And then I said now it's evenfunnier because we've sent
Dwayne up there and he's ahairiest man I know, so he's
going to tear him a new one.
It was pretty rough.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
And then we kept it like we had a bit of a laugh,
but we kept it quiet and theneveryone else went out.
I think the next morning onlyone or two went and they're like
what the fuck?

Speaker 1 (42:30):
was that but you know , you've got to have some fun
with people you know Like it's agood time to do that sort of
thing.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
So you know, yeah, there's a lot of memories in
that town because then laterthat night we nearly well, yeah,
we ended up in a brawl in abloody Irish.
The highest Irish pub in theworld, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
But, and we were there watching the tennis,
weren't we on the TV?
And some crazy Irishman thathad way too much to drink
decided he wanted to get in afight with eight people.
So we calmly made our way outof there eventually, which was
good, and Jimmy kept his headcool and he'd only known us a
few days, hadn't he?

Speaker 2 (43:08):
I'm thinking I hope this bloke keeps himself cool
here, because we do need to walkout of here I had visions of
bloody ending up in a nepaleseprison, but um, anyway, it all
ended well.
But like, this is the type ofperson trent is like.
He organized these things andhe just goes full, full into a
hundred percent commitment andthen, uh, only what?
Three, two, three years ago.
So since we come back from thateverest trip, um, a good mate

(43:32):
of ours, justin, he's got rightinto the breath work and ice
baths and stuff.
He has a business now calledInner Breath and I've been doing
the cold showers and breathwork and stuff and Trent's given
us a bit of shit about it andsent me a message to it was to
hike Kosciuszko, wasn't it?

Speaker 1 (43:49):
in the winter?

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah to Johannes's.
Oh, I've gone blank.
What was it called?

Speaker 1 (43:56):
It was like breath and ice bath work for the hiking
up there.
I can't think of what he calledthe challenge, but we had to be
in our underpants I know thatmuch and hike to the top of
Mount Kosciuszko in winter.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
Yeah, Trent sent this to us as a bit of a joke and I
texted back and said, yeah, Ibooked it.
And he's like, oh shit, I wasonly joking, but we, we ended up
with a.
That was a bloody good trip aswell.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
It was good because we really stitched Jimmy up
because he's been telling me howhe wants to go hiking in the
snow.
So I sent him the photo of thehiking in the snow and said book
this.
He paid his couple of thousand.
He booked the flights toCanberra.
We get down there and we go intothe village and into the little
hut, remember, and they starthanding and I just watched what
was it called?
12 strangers or something likethat, with nicole kidnam where

(44:36):
she'd been microdosing thepeople and uh, and you know
they're hallucinating and stuff.
And they start handing out hotchocolate in this funny little
hut and I'm saying to jim, don'tdrink the hot chocolate, don't
drink.
And he's looking at me what,what, what you'll see, you'll
see.
Anyways, like, oh, you're nuts,now you can make me laying in a
circle and they're bangingdrums and they're breathing and
and Jim's going, I'm going tofucking kill you.
I said we haven't seen nothingyet, mate.

(44:58):
Then they took us outside andlined us up in our underpants,
didn't they?
Breathless expeditions,breathless, that was it, that's
right.
And he said we had to line upand make two lines and you had
to stand next to somebody youdidn't know and this lovely lady
from Sydney.
She was about 50 years old.
She was a yoga instructor.
She lines up next to me and Isaid hold hands, I turn around.
Jim's got this bloke, alex,he's got to be 130 kilos, he's

(45:20):
just got out of prison, shavedhead massive unit and Jim's go.
Oh, you're kidding me, aren'tyou?
Then they took us down to theriver and put us up to our chins
in Snowy River for about tenminutes.
Yeah, it was an exercise.
Yeah, so Jimmy kind of workedout that it wasn't the tour he
thought it was going to be.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
But that unbelievable experience again, it wasn't
just about that would have beena great experience if you just
went along on your own, but thefact that we get a group
together every now and then andwe do it with good friends and
mates and we have a good time,yeah, and it was a good mix.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
It was a bit like Everest and you know you knew
Jimmy and I did, and Chris fromCMA came along and your mate
Carl came along, who I knowthrough another friend.
But there was a little bit ofconnection between us in some of
us but a lot of those otherguys only knew each other just
via us.
So to be that close, that quick, you know it was a great
experience.
It took five days or four, fourdays or whatever it was, to

(46:18):
crack jimmy eventually and uhand get in.
It took me a little while torelax into the the thing, but
you know like it was really good, like the breathing exercises.
You don't realize how much umyou get out of that, you know.
I think that was important.
The cold stuff's one thing,that's the discipline, but the
breathing exercises, relaxing.
And I think I thought aboutthat earlier Dwayne, when I went
on the trip.

(46:39):
Probably what I learned fromthere was you've got to use your
discipline as well for yourdowntime.
So you've got to be disciplinedenough to let go of work to be
able to sleep at night.
My wife says you shit me.
Fifteen seconds after you're inbed you're asleep and I sleep
like the dead, but when I'mawake, awake, then I'm awake.
So I might get six hours orseven hours, might be three or
four o'clock in the morning.
There's absolutely zero point inme trying to go back to sleep I

(47:01):
just get up and get into it Iget cold shower, exercise,
whatever it is, um, but when I'mready to go to bed, I'm ready
to go to bed and I think yourdiscipline's got to be the same.
We went away on that trip,didn't touch a phone.
Uh, you know we had a greattime.
I'm not sure we really enjoyedevery part of it or every day,
but looking back it seems veryenjoyable now, yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
The bad habit snuck in Bart.
I think it was the fourth daywhen we had a few well Snuck
into town.
We quickly raced back to town,found a bottle of oil and then
snuck some booze back into ourroom.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
I think that was the cuddle puddle.
Not sure that Jim was a massivefan of those ones, but yeah,
that was quite interesting thefirst night with the cuddle
puddle, and it was good becauseyou've got all these people and
you can see how a cult couldwork very easily.
Everybody was struggling to sayno, weren't they?

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Yeah, but it's just good to have a great time, yeah,
and I think that's somethingthat I always, whatever you
organise, whatever we do, it'salways a great time, and it's
not always drinking, no, we'vehad a few occasions where it's
just been dinners with wives andjust family things.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
I used to look at it there.
We went down to Cades Countywhat's it called now?
Wet and Wild.
Remember, we took all the kidsdown and I can remember as a kid
, some of my best memories werejust the one time we went there
with cousins or friends and itwas like, oh, it was great.
So I look back on thatchildhood and go on and
replicate that I want my kids todo that and I think, well, I'm
going to ring six, seven of mymates, get all their kids

(48:33):
together and we're going to gothere and we're going to, we're
going to make a better versionof that and that's what that?
You know, we did that a coupleof times and we had an absolute
it was unreal and look that I'dnever done anything like that.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
like normally, that's the place you go with your
family and stuff, but like to gothere with yes, whatever it was
six, seven, eight mates and ourkids and like the kids can run
amok and then we'll run amok onthe slides and shit as well
You're back like you're 12 yearsold again, you know, and we're
going down the slides racingeach other.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
I mean I'd come home.
I was a bit sore and sorry, butyou really enjoyed it, you know
yeah do you remember, justin?

Speaker 2 (49:04):
We were trying to get on the bloody wave machine.
Justin, ate shit big time.
Remember that.
Yes, yes.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
But you know we did the AFL Grand Final there there
a few years back and got thebucking bull into the front yard
and have the bucking bullcompetition and all the wives
turned up.
They all rode the bull.
You know, my mother-in-law at80 rode the bull, yeah.
So I think if you don't put theeffort in to create those times
, you're not going to have thememories.
You know, and if you want thosememories you've got to put the

(49:30):
effort in you know, and itdoesn't happen.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
It's something that that I've become really focused
on um in the last six to twelvemonths.
Like you've got to createexperiences.
Like you can't just be sofocused on the money or like the
, the car or the property orwhatever it is.
Like you've really got to takethe time to enjoy the
experiences along the way well,I think.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
I think the thing is too is an experience is not
sitting in the qantas club.
An experience is not driving aferr Ferrari, necessarily on
your own with no friends.
That's not an experience.
An experience can be goingcamping with your mates and
setting the bush on fire andthen getting out alive.
That's an experience.
I went jet skiing with MarkRainbow, another mate of ours,
in a cyclone and we nearly bothdrowned.

(50:12):
But to this day we talk abouthow good we were and how big the
waves were and all that.
But I was telling my daughterwhen she goes jet skiing for the
first time today you know, Iwas good once, you know, but hey
, I did nearly drown.
I did see a person with abroken leg and an arm and you've
had those experiences, you know.
And if you don't have thatexperience not all of them are
good, right, because that'scharacter building.
When you have a tough time,yeah, you come out the other

(50:34):
side of it and you look back onthem more fondly than you do
sometimes, than the.
You know it's an experience.
Go to the chronoscope.
It's great, it's good, tick boxdone but, it's not something
that's been created.
Like you know, we came here andwe did a burnout in your shed.
You know you wanted to show mehow the car worked and then we
touched it on the wall.
You know, like things like thatgo on and but it's all part of
the night, it's all part of thestory and, uh, you've got to

(50:57):
enjoy yourself.
If you don't enjoy it, there'sno point.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
It creates memories that you'll talk about, for,
like the trips we've been on,those stories are going to
continue to get better everytime they're told.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Yeah well, you know we've been to birdsville and
stuff and we ran into you on theway out there and you know you
blow tires, you get bogged, youyou know.
But the kids got out on theirbikes and there was no rules and
you run around, do whatever youwant to do burn, make a fire,
you know?
Yeah, we went to the cape.
You know a lot of guys there 10fathers, 10, 10 dads, 10, uh,

(51:27):
10 sons and two granddads and wehad an absolute ball.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
Um, well, I think that's another thing I've
learned off you like you like westarted doing those um easter
camping trips like we haven'tdone them for well since covert,
but like um, a lot of peoplethat started to come on those
trips like were completely outof their comfort zone like I
remember the first one we did,everyone was like, oh, I haven't

(51:51):
been camping, what do I need,what do I get?
Like, and like there's beenpeople on those trips that
started in swags and then wentto tents and now they've, now
they've got caravans and campertrails and all sorts of things
like, but again, it's just thatum like probably my best memory
of those trips, that um, thatfirst one we did, and like I
designed the, the well, I umwhat not design?

(52:13):
But I put together.
And the first afternoon was atParadise Dam at Bigot, like just
past Bigot in there, and Meganand Ant's son I've gone blank.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
Yeah, what's his name .
You've done it to me now Elliot.
No, not Elliot.
Elliot's their last name.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Max, max, like he'd never been canoeing or
paddleboarding.
We had the canoes andpaddleboards on the track and
everyone was literally sittingaround watching Max have an
absolute ball and out of hisnormal comfort zone.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
And we turned up and I can remember going there and
we had this awning that came offmy ute and we zipped the tent
to it.
We got it down at King's $149.
And my wife's going, going, mygod, they've all got caravans
and everything.
And I said, yeah, it doesn'treally matter, I don't care, I
just want to be here with myfriends.
I bought a deck chair and I'llbe over the end of the fire and,
uh, you know, we'll make a feedand we'll have a few drinks.
And the kids are going to getabsolutely filthy and I don't

(53:10):
care whether they have a showeror swim in the dam, whatever, it
doesn't matter, it's just aboutbeing there and you don't have
to have the biggest you, youdon't have to have the flash as
tense.
You know, and I I probablypurposely go the other way
sometimes just to try and provethat point.
That doesn't really matter.
I've never been bothered to goand buy a rolex watch or do
anything like that, because Idon't need one you know I've

(53:30):
still got the watch on that Iwore to everest.
I bought it for a purpose,because it told me how far I'd
walked and how my heartbeat andeverything was going, and it
told me the altitude.
And you know, since then I went.
You know what?
It's still going and the nextwatch that goes on there will be
after that one breaks, so Idon't really need anything else,
you know.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
But again it's creating those experiences and
those memories.
Again, that trip, that Easter.
We ended up staying in a bigfour for the last few days and
our group just created this bigcircle.
Everyone else in the caravanpark is doing their own thing
and we just had an absolute ball.
We had downhill races.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
We get egg and spoon races.
We had egg catchingcompetitions and this sort of
stuff that you heard about whenmy parents were young and did
things, and I think when we wentout to birds we took a rope and
we had tug of war.
Like when we went out to birdswe took a rope and we had tug of
war, right, and we had mumsversus the kids and the kids
upended the mums.
It was hilarious because themums just thought, oh, we'll be
nice, we don't want to hurt thechildren.
Kids wanted to win.
And I think you go back andprobably, if you ask my kids and

(54:27):
I expect they've got memoriesof all of that, it's not a
computer game.
We went into town, we found capguns.
Yeah, my kids never seen a capgun.
They didn't know what it was sowe went back to the farm and
went into the shearer shed andhad a shootout.
Yeah right, it's fantastic fun,like here we are 45 years old,
running around and you canimagine, oh, jimmy and mark a
few very competitive people.
You know they're gonna win it.

(54:48):
Yeah, you know, we did things,I remember, with flynn.
He had it was his uh, I think itwas his 12th birthday and I
said let's have a water fight.
He said what everybody's got tobring a water pistol.
I'm going to get a thousandwater bombs, I'm going to get
every hose in the yard and we'regoing to fight it out, you know
, and we had like two hours ofof just absolute fun, you know.
So I think if you don't createthose and you just go, I'll get

(55:08):
a cake and we'll have the 12thbirthday party and dad and mom
will just get on the piss.
That's not a memory for the kid.
But I didn't miss out onanything because I had the best
day running around there being12 again.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Just while you're talking, I'm just thinking about
the.
I think it was something to do.
When we got back from Everest.
We had the catch-up at yourplace and one of the boys jumped
on the kid's flying flight.
Rusty, yeah, ended up half inthe bloody, had a massive bail
and ended up in the fish pond.
I think he ended up in hospitallater that night didn't he?

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Half in the fish pond, half onthe path, oh dear, it was pretty
wild.
But again, there's no limits.
Have some fun.
You don't want to hurt anyone,but if you want to have a go on
the flying fox, I'm like, knockyourself out mate, what do you
like your staff are like.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
I know you have the same issues that a lot of people
have, but overall your staffare really good, like your truck
drivers that deliver your tiles.
Like there's no other truckdrivers like them.
Like we get a lot of deliverieson job sites and your guys are
the most helpful.
They can put the tiles whereyou want them.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
I think, because there's no pressure on them to
be anywhere.
At a certain pressure they'renot like the truck driver point
of view, but they've also got totake ownership.
So if you employ that person,as I said, they've got to be
self-motivated.
So the guy I've currently gotand we generally have a truck
driver for 10 or 12 years andthen they retire and then the
next one comes along and Troy'sa similar sort of thing.
He was an ex-rugby leagueplayer, he was a professional

(56:32):
and he'd do kickboxing andthings like that.
So he's a very self-motivatedsort of a person.
He also just wants to do thehours he needs to do and then
get back onto his life, you know, and so he doesn't want to be
under a stressful situation.
He wants to be involved in ateam where he enjoys coming to
work each day and he likes tostart early.
And I said well, no problem,what do you mean?

(56:53):
I said let's pick the GoldCoast being the furthest point.
You're allowed to be there onsite 630.
What's it take you to go fromhere?
So you leave at 5, mate, andthen you can knock off early.
Customers don't care thatthey're getting a delivery at 5
in the afternoon If you're happyto leave at 5 in the morning or
4 and drive up further north orwhatever, and work your way
back.
let's do it so individually onhow their life wants to work.

(57:14):
I suppose you know his name'son the truck right?
So you know I got the new truckrecently and re-wrapped it all
and signed to the signer and Iput his name here because it's
his truck.
It's not my truck, it's histruck.
It's his place.
Every day that he's got to be,where he has his lunch every day
and he's got to be happy everyday that's brilliant, that's
really.
And he looks after it.
You know he does a lovely jobof looking after that truck and

(57:35):
then he enjoys.
Then that comes to when he getsto site.
He's happy You're not going towreck his day right, he's got a
good place, he's happy in thereand then he does a good job.
And we call it the uptilesexperience.
And the experience starts fromthe moment you walk into the
shop and that's a smiling youngperson on the front counter
greeting you and asking you whatare we tiling, what are you

(57:56):
doing?
Not a pressure sales.
We don't employ anybody insales.
Everybody's a qualifiedinterior designer in the shop.
We're not there to take aninterior designer's job.
We're just tile experts withknowledge and what we do is we
go through and understand aperson's project and thing and
they get enjoyment out ofcreating that design for you.
So if they're just there'reselling a product and it's the

(58:17):
cheapest product on the market,there's no interest.
We're selling the best qualityavailable product from italy.
I've just come back from italy.
We've bought all the new, thelatest and greatest.
We sat an ipad on the frontcounter and the moment I took a
photo in italy it instantlysynced with the with there.
So every morning the team wouldcome in and see what I'd taken
photos of and then they'd sendme feedback, right, because then

(58:39):
they're helping select what arewe getting.
They're involved in the product.
They like the product.
They're then showing to clientsinstantly, saying this is from
italy this morning, yeah, um,and I think, because they're
involved in the whole business,they're not just I bought all
this.
That's on display there, it isin the prices, that's the code.
You sell it.
Yeah, they're going, trent, getme that pink one.
I want the pink one.
Okay, and we name it after themor we do things like that with

(59:01):
them.
You know, um, and if they don'twant to be there, don't be.
That's what I always say.
You don't, you're not forced tobe here yeah right, this is a
democracy.
I'm in charge.
Yes, I can't go anywhere, I'mstuck right, but the rest of you
can come and go as you like.
If you don't want to be here,don't be.
Don't come to me and say Idon't like working weekends.
30 years I've been doing sevendays a week.
If I'm not car racing or I'mnot at the AFL or climbing

(59:24):
mountains with you or whatever,I'm at work.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
You do have a very good life balance part.
You do what you've got to dowith the family and Callie and
the kids, if the kids have got apiano thing on, I'll be there.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Right and it's not under any stress.
I just make sure I'm there andI enjoy that.
I go there and I watch them doit Right.
If it's important to them, I'llbe there.
If Kelly says I'd want you tohave tomorrow off, I'll just
have tomorrow off.
It's the thing I think it's.

(59:57):
You know, as I said, I'm goingto the V8s for the next three
days.
Why am I going there?
Well, I mean, just a mate rangup and said haven't been to the
V8s in 10 years.
I'd really like to go with afew mates.
What do you think?
So, you know, I say to myselfI've got to say yes, I time
since I've been, and go downthere.
You know, out of that there'llbe something that I learn too.
I love watching the V8 teams,how they manage the cars, they

(01:00:20):
manage the teams.
You watch every guy in thatteam or girl in that team.
They want to be there, right,and that's what we want our team
to be like.
We want our team running aroundstanding in frames like they're
putting wheels on a V8 supercar, you know?
And if they're not, aren't they?
So I'll often say to peoplemaybe it's not the job for you,
yeah, if you don't want to behere, don't be you know, and
that's a, that's a really goodanalogy for to look at it.

(01:00:41):
Well, they always think I'mcrazy because you know, I do the
sales meeting and I'll talkabout things like football.
So you're the forward on theback, right, you're going to
kick all the goals, so you'regoing to look fantastic, I'm
going to warm them all up at thefront door and introduce them
to you and you're going to closeall the sales today.
But as part of the team, wework together and you know, and,
and we go through differentthings, so they always they're
always laughing at me, becauseI'm not talking about take the

(01:01:04):
tile and sell it like this.
It's always got something elseto do with it, whether it's a v8
team, whether it's a, whetherit's playing football on there,
whether it's kung fu fighting orwhatever it is.
Yeah, um, there's a way to win,and and you and you've got to
do it correctly, because if youcheat, I suppose it comes back
to the heart.
It's easy, you do it the easyway.
You'll get a couple of sales,yeah, but you won't get the

(01:01:25):
return.
So if we don't give them thefull experience, you know, like
we bake cookies in the morning,they're hot.
You make we make fresh coffeeevery day as people come in on
the machine.
We cook meatballs on ourinduction cooktop, our hidden
induction cooktop in the shopevery day, there when people
come in at lunchtime, becauseit's part of the flavor, the
smell, the experience, and thenyou sit down with a qualified

(01:01:46):
person that gives you goodadvice.
You go home that night and youtell many people and the
business continues to grow.
You know, don't gonna be wrong,do I not?
And I say to the staff I'munhappy with two, threes and
four stars.
I'm happy with five stars andI'm happy with one stars.
They said one stars.
I said, well, one stars on us.
They hated us.
Right, we did something wrong,we stuffed it up or they're a

(01:02:07):
dickhead.
There's only two options okayand there's a few dickheads.
So there's a fewheads on thereand there's a few times we've
just completely stuffed it up.
Yeah, and we own the stuff up.
And I'll write to them sorry,know what happened?
We delivered you broken boxesand da-da-da and we told you now
you can't have a credit orwhatever.
Sorry about that.
You know, we'll learn from itand we do was out of our control

(01:02:30):
.
We go sorry, we couldn't helpyou, but if you've got twos,
threes and fours, you've not gotit right.
Do you know what I mean.
It should be a five, and ifit's not that, then it should be
a one, and then a one issomething we should learn from.
As I said, I'm disciplined tothe point of doing it at 100%,
so that's five, and when you getit wrong, it's won.
Yeah, you know, it shouldn't bein between, never just good.

(01:02:53):
Yeah, there's no average orokay Participation award.
Not real good with those, youknow my kids always say.
You said to my kids, they'reoff to tennis.
What would Dad say?
If you're not first, you'relast.
Yeah, right, and that's justhow it is Simple.
Find somewhere else to staytonight and I'm joking, I'm

(01:03:14):
mucking around, but it's life.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
Oh mate, I got in huge trouble at the Netball
Grand Final this year.
I was pretty annoyed at the endof the game and I've been
pulled up a fair bit at Netball.
I don't yell out or any of thatsort of stuff, I just tell it
how it is sometimes.
And yeah, after the NetballGrand Final they lost and I just
said to them girls, look, nextyear you've got to go 100%,

(01:03:39):
you've got to be all in.
And they're like, yeah, no, wedid, we did.
I was like you didn't, you lostthat game before it even
started.
When we turned up here todayyou were already talking of the
other parents there.
I was like that's the truth.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
It is what it is.
Well, you know you didn't getthe building contract so you
didn't feed your family.
That's just the world, that'slife.
Right?
If you don't get it right, youdon't earn, yeah, and just half
doing it and then coming up withan excuse why you didn't get it
and your business failed, isexactly that right.
If your business is failing,change something, have a go,

(01:04:19):
don't blame right, there's noblame, I just go.
Well, I got it wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
I've not got it right .
I need to change something.
You've got to take ownership ofeverything in your life,
everything you do, and no oneelse can make things better.
You're the only one that canchange things.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
Well, I say that.
You know I get depressed, I getdown on myself, right.
It happens I get and say I'vegot to make a change.
I have to front myself.
You know I went away withmassive determination for this
last trip that it was about mywife, right, and I love her to
death.
You're getting me emotional now, but she is the backbone.
She cops the good, the bad, theugly, the, the sad, the happy,

(01:04:55):
the, the crazy person, the,everything right and never
judgmental, never gives me ahard time about anything, just
accepts the whole lot.
You know, um, and this trip wasall about her and again it gave
me massive enjoyment.
Every single thing that Isurprised her with, she, she had
a lot of enjoyment but I gotprobably more out of it because
I'd spent a lot of time thinkingabout it, planning it and

(01:05:16):
thinking about somebody else andputting an effort in for others
will give you the mostenjoyment out of it.
So even employing people,teaching people how to work for
you and enjoying the role shouldgive you enjoyment.
If you're just driving them forthe reason of a return income,
get out of business, shouldn'tbe there.
I did that.
I tried really hard, bustingpeople's asses and yelling at

(01:05:39):
them and jumping up and down andbeing an angry ant.
All I did was make myselfunhappy.
And then I'm unhappy and got anokay result.
Got a three.
You know to get fives.
I think you've got to.
You've got to make people happy.
You've got to got to thinkthrough their eyes and things
and create an environment wherethey're enjoying themselves,
because then you'll getenjoyment while they're doing it

(01:05:59):
.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
And there's nothing better than sitting back and
seeing a team that's happy andthe wheels are turning and
everything.
It's not going to be like thatall the time, but ultimately you
want to build that team.
That you're not the only onecoming up with solutions like
your team is something.
If the wheel's broken, then thewhole team's getting involved
and wanting to improve thingsand make it better and trying to

(01:06:21):
figure out what's wrong and ifthey don't feel their opinion is
important, they're not going togive it right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
So if, if you don't take on some of their feedback
or get them involved, it's hard.
You can sit there and throw anidea on the table and they all
go yes, yes, yes.
I hate it.
I really don't like thatbecause I think, oh my God, this
is the only option I've got.
I don't want to be one of thedriving the bus.
The biggest rule we run by isthat don't bottleneck.
Make a decision.
If the decision's incorrect.

(01:06:46):
I'm not going to come back andsay, if I did that, if you did
it again.
This is how I'd like you tohandle it.
Great that you made thedecision.
Maybe we spent like one, notthis time, but the last time I
went away.
I came back and my truck hadevery tire replaced.
It needed a new tire.
I agree, not 15, you know.
So I spent quite a lot of moneyon tires and I said to the, to

(01:07:08):
the warehouse man, it's reallynice if we can just spread that
out a little bit.
You know it's called cash flowand it's great, he said, and
otherwise those two would needit next month and those two the
following month and now thetruck's got all brand new tires
on it.
Um, but you know it neverhappened again.
And then you know this timewhat happened.
We had a forklift company comethe other day changed four tires
on the forklift, which they didneed to be done.
He gets the bill and he looksat and he goes how can they

(01:07:29):
charge that much labor?
That guy was only here 20minutes.
He goes and gets the camerafootage, he downloads it, he
sends it to the forklift peopleand says not on, not on my
authority, on his.
But that was a lesson that he'dlearned previously from the
truck tire situation.
And now he's managing mybusiness for me to help me keep
people accountable for whatthey're doing you know so and
you reward.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
You reward your staff like you do some pretty good
things for your staff yeah, wedo some crazy parties.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
Um, I am concerned these days.
You know like it's getting moredifficult.
You know we had no rules like Imean roger, my father, 75 years
old.
He's in a trolley on saturdaynight racing down warwick right
taking on, taking on one of thecampbell boys in the trolley
doing a trolley race.
You know I'm going.
Oh my god, if he comes out ofthe trolley he's going to end up
with more than a couple offractures in his back, you know
yeah but that's, that's how, howwe roll and we've always played

(01:08:15):
like that and you play, youwork hard, you play hard, and I
say to the staff that I do hopethat we don't get too woke in
that situation.
There's too much of this onmonday now, where people come in
and go such and such did thisor such and such said that you
know you need to almost have asign-off to say you're going to
the party and we're going to theparty, we're having shots of

(01:08:37):
Sam Booker, and so be it.
We all have to turn up the nextday, it's just how it is.
It is a concern, we like to doit that way and I like to be
that way as much as I can.
You've got to probably show abit more caution these days with
some of that stuff.
Mate, we've talked a lot ofpersonal stuff and business
stuff and, like I was, uh, whatcan we talk about tiles, like

(01:08:59):
you're the tile man, so well,look, I think, uh, in tiles,
things that have changed isobviously got the large format
tiles now, so you can go fromfloor to ceiling with one single
tile.
Um, no grout joint, obviouslywith a digital image.
Now we can create anything fromnatural stone to concrete to
timber.
We can make it to a bench top,we can make it into a driveway

(01:09:19):
cobble, you know.
So there's nothing that can'tbe done with a tile.
The newest technology, I suppose, is something they call reel up
now, where when they put theglaze on the surface and the
design during the process ofheating it, it actually changes
every tile.
So no longer do you have areplication.
So in the old days you hadnatural stone and then your tile

(01:09:39):
might have five or sixdifferent faces.
Now they have the ability thatevery tile has a different face
or a different texture.
So I suppose we're getting to apoint where the product now is
a good replacement for lots ofnatural items, and the thing
with that is that the majoritywell, every tile we sell now is
a good replacement for lots ofnatural items.
Uh, and the thing with that isis that you know the majority.
Well, every tile we sell now is45 recycled up to 98 recycled um

(01:10:00):
yep, so we again b corporation,which is the biggest green
sustainable certificate you canachieve in the world.
Intraganedia is the second onlytile factory in the world to
have that and we've been withthem for 44 years.
So family business like ours, afather and daughter, and
they've spent a huge amount ofmoney.
Look, even they capture theheat from the kiln and reheat

(01:10:23):
the offices.
All the places run on solarpower.
All the water that goes throughthe toilets goes through and
cools the kilns and the tiles.
Even the cardboard packaging isrecycled.
The pallets are made fromrecycled timber through and
cools the kilns and the tiles.
Um, even the the cardboardpackaging is recycled.
The pallets are made fromrecycled timber.
Um, not just then taking uhbuilding materials, re-crushing
them and making the base of thetile that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
I I didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
I wasn't aware of that yes, well, our glass tiles
that we make for the swimmingpools are 98% recycled.
So we take window and bottleglass and recycle it into the
pool, um, and then, like whatwe've done, there is, we put the
digital image on the top and wewent to space with satellites
and took photos from around theworld of all the different reefs
and created the colors of fiji,bahamas, hawaii, just to be

(01:11:05):
something unique and different,you know.
So I suppose if I'm going to beinvolved in the tiles, I've got
to be interested.
I'm not selling rectified whitetiles for $9, right, it's not
happening.
So I've got to have some fun.
And if you don't have a storyor a character to the tile, why
do it?

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
The technology is insane.
Some of the tiles you have atyour store, like when you hear
you say like they look likeconcrete, they look like timber,
they look like stone, but I'msurprised at the depth.
Like when you look at them now.
Like you look at a timber-looktile and it looks like it has a
knot in it, like you want to goand touch it because it's like

(01:11:45):
you're wanting your finger to gointo that knot.
But it's yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
Part of the reel-up now is that you actually can
feel the texture.
So some up now is that youactually can feel the texture.
So some of the new stones andthe marbles we have like, if you
took the natural marble and youclosed your eyes, from the
white across the gold vein youcan actually feel the change in
the surface because it is adifferent characteristic in the
natural stone.
So they've even gone to thelength now within the porcelain
that they digitally image thatin, so you can close your eyes
and you can feel the differentcolors on the stone.

(01:12:09):
It changes from the thing.
It even gets the coolness ofthe stones and things.
The advantage is we're notdigging up uh, these natural
stones a lot of the health andsafety issues around those sort
of products as well too, becausethey're mined in countries that
aren't necessarily safe, um.
So we're running in a procedurewhere we're able to control the
environment.
We're able to reduce productwith recycled material.

(01:12:32):
The product has got like 50year warranties, so it's
expected to last a lifetime andyou don't have to replace it.
So only fashion is generallywhat kills off a tile is that a
quality tile.
We don't run any sealers orchemicals or anything in the
surface of the tiles.
So we stay with products thatare good for the environment in
that aspect and good for yourhealth at home.

(01:12:53):
And once you've invested inthem, you don't have to go.
You know Dad always says buy.
Well, buy once.
That's his saying.
He loves that.
You know, if you invest in itcorrectly, go and buy the cheap
one, you'll be back down buyingit and you'll be wasting your
time right.
Time's valuable.
Yeah, put it in correctly.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
A hundred percent.
100%, like you've got to.
Like people think thatbathrooms and kitchens and
things are things that they canjust renovate over time.
But like you shouldn't be thatwasteful, you should be putting
the time and the effort and themoney into doing it correctly
the first time.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Well, I mean in Australia.
I suppose our biggest issue istrade, you know.
So a tile is hard to.
Why would you save a fewdollars on the finishings?
I say this to people Would yougo out and buy a car and then
get the spray cans from Bunningsand paint it yourself?
Right, the tile's, the finishright, so you can get the most
fantastic-looking designed carand then start hand-spraying it.

(01:13:43):
It's going to look terrible,right?
So your finishing product,which is generally the tile on
there, you might as well investthe money there, because you've
already put all the money intothe trades to make the room
structure and everything elsework.
Um, you put it into thefinishings in the room.
Um, now you know, if a tap orsomething else, it's changeable
quite easily.
Tiles are not.
Yeah, that's a rebuild of thewhole room.

(01:14:04):
So, and then in a flooringsituation, same thing carpet
roll it up, put new carpet down,tile jackhammer job, weeks
worth of work, that sort ofthing.
So if you're going to do itproperly, do it properly once.
Um, and you should never touchthem again.
You don't have to.
You know you can drive on them,you can roller skate on them,
you can do whatever you want soum for people listening.

Speaker 2 (01:14:23):
Like we've got a lot of listeners um in queensland
but a lot of our listeners aresydney, melbourne.
That as well.
Like, how do they go aboutgetting tiles from you?

Speaker 1 (01:14:31):
yeah, no problem.
Obviously we run the websitesand the social media and things.
So we do companies likedominoes, michael hill jewelers
and those.
So we do them in new zealand,canada, australia, um.
So we're working at the momentto go, looking to go to the us
with a couple of the fast foodplaces.
So we've developed tiles thatwe will send here.
We're doing, uh, you know, likeprize homes at the moment in
fiji, um.

(01:14:51):
So again, we did all the designhere in Queensland.
We put concept boards together,we sent them down to Sydney to
be signed off, we loaded thecontainers and sent them to Fiji
for the prize home and stuffover there.
So nothing for us.
We've got to bring the tilefrom Italy right Sydney,
melbourne, perth, down the roadOn the way here I was talking to
a guy in New Zealand who neededa couple of hundred square
metres of tiles and he's likehow do we do it, mate?

(01:15:13):
Just tell me where you want them, which suburb and when, and I
can produce a price.
You know we bring 40 containersa month in.
You know it's about 45,000square metres a month.
So we have the ability to ship200 metres anywhere or 300
metres anywhere, samples, thosesort of things you know and, as

(01:15:39):
I said, the experience is thatwe will give the service.
I say to the staff don't say noright.
You know, I tried hard.
A few years ago.
We had a big architectural dayat the shop and I want to get
all the architects out.
I end up spending eightthousand dollars on limousines.
They went round and roundaround.
We picked all the architectsand designers up in town, we
drove them out there.
I wanted to helicopter them.
I wanted to have I'd organizedto land the helicopter next to
the shop, got approval to dothat.
I just couldn't land ahelicopter in Brisbane.
The day I can land a helicopterin Brisbane I'm going to do it
again Because I think it wouldbe an excellent experience.

(01:16:00):
You'd be out there in 5, 6, 7,8 minutes, landing there, doing
the tour of the showroom and asyou've been down there.
We spent a million bucks onthat showroom when we built it
originally and it's been a neverending renovation.

Speaker 2 (01:16:12):
It's unreal.
The amount of different just avariety of stuff you have in
that showroom is insane.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
I think the difference to us, to everyone
else in Australia, is it'sexclusive to us.
So you can go around many, manyof these corporate-style shops
and see the same thing over and,over and over again.
We go there, we source it andwe've dealt with you know Tau
Ceramic or Intra Graniti Lanka,dealt with you know tau ceramic
or intra granita lanka for for40 years and they're exclusive
to us.
You can't get them elsewhere.
So when you go and see it there, you haven't seen it.

(01:16:39):
Yeah, right.
So that's why, when you come inthere and you haven't seen this
, uh, it gives a freshexperience.
So if you've got a project orsomething, you want something
unique and new for you know,literally I flew back, so did
the samples from the fair.
So the stuff that was displayedand released there two weeks
ago is sitting in the showroomon the floor, and the product
will be here in January.
Yeah, so we're not waiting.

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
Yeah, no, it's unreal mate.
Look, we'll wrap it up.
We could definitely talk forhours, there's a lot more
stories yet.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
Yeah, there's a lot more stories to go.

Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
We might get you back for round two, but um, look for
anyone that's listening.
If you want to um reach out,we'll put um links and tags and
stuff in for uh up tiles.
Um, thanks for coming on, mate.
Like been a long time trying toget you on here.
It's been a really, really goodchat and I think you've
definitely given a lot of peoplea lot of value.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
So, um, I really appreciate your great job and,
like you know, you've beenbusting your backside at this
for years and years and years.
You you've got plenty of shitover it in the beginning and you
know you've stuck at it and youknow that shows discipline.
You know, and and that's whywe're mates because, uh, we're
on that track that you know, dosomething, you're going to do it
well and you're doing a greatjob with this cheers, mate
really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:45):
Look guys, um like subscribe.
Uh, tell your mates, tell yourfamily about this podcast,
because we want to continue tomake this aust's number one
construction podcast.
Look forward to seeing you onthe next one.
Are you ready to build smarter?

Speaker 1 (01:17:56):
live better and enjoy life.
Then head over tolivelikebuildcom forward slash
elevate to get started.

Speaker 2 (01:18:12):
Everything discussed during the level up podcast with
me, duane pierce, is basedsolely on my own personal
experiences and thoseexperiences of my guests.
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

(01:18:35):
respect to the topics discussedduring this podcast.

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