April 14, 2025 • 51 mins
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#136 Peter Love from The Good Builder is reshaping the building industry narrative by highlighting quality builders and creating a dedicated media platform for the home building sector. His journey from lawyer to construction advocate demonstrates how fresh perspectives can transform an industry struggling with its public image.
check out The Good Builder here...
thegoodbuilder.com.au
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Live Life Build
livelifebuild.com
D Pearce Constructions
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Duayne (00:00):
Like hats off to you for reaching out, mate, and just
constantly putting good stuffout there.
Peter (00:04):
It should be a much more revered profession.
It really should.
I feel for builders these days.
Duayne (00:09):
I'm going down that path because I sort of like stuff it
like if these, if all theassociations, industry bodies,
government aren't going tolisten, like let's just do it.
Peter (00:17):
There's a lot of experienced builders out there
like let's get them in front ofcameras, let's get them talking,
let's share their knowledgewith the industry.
Duayne (00:34):
G'day guys.
Welcome back to another episodeof Level Up.
We are back for anothercracking episode today.
It's actually been a big day.
This is our third podcast fortoday and our third cracking
guest.
So something a bit differenttoday.
Not a tradie, not a builder,but a media company.
How are you, mate?
Peter (00:48):
Yeah, good, dwayne, I'm very, very thankful to be here
in the shed, yeah, no, I love it.
Duayne (00:53):
So for those of you that well, I should have introduced
you first, but today we've gotPete from the Good Builder.
That's it, mate, and I thinkit's awesome.
We hardly know know each other,but we are getting on quite
well.
Pete reached out to me was itbefore chris?
And ask chris a few months ago,yeah, a few months ago, um, and
(01:15):
told me what he was doing.
And yeah, just, we had a chatand since then we've we've
caught up a few times.
We've had multipleconversations on the phone.
Uh, you've published a fewarticles with my opinions in
them.
But I wanted to get Pete ontoday because the guys are going
to be at my Level Up Experienceevent and they're going to have
a little I guess what do youcall it studio set up and be
(01:38):
going for it.
So we'll get into more aboutwhat they're about.
But before we do that, if youhaven't seen yet yet, you must
be hiding under a rock, becausewe have the greatest event
coming up in the buildingindustry the level up experience
.
It's on the 30th of may, friday,the 30th of may.
It's here in brisbane.
Doesn't matter where you areacross australia, new zealand,
anywhere, you must get to thisevent.
(01:59):
If you're in the constructionindustry, this is a day where
you can put the tools to theside.
You can sit down, take a stepback and come to something that
is going to excel you to thenext level.
We're going to be talking aboutall things business development
, personal development.
We've got the world's numberone building science expert,
matt Reisinger, coming out fromthe States first time ever.
We also have PaulaBaker-Laporte, who has been the
(02:23):
world's leading healthy homeexpert for the last 30 to 40
years, plus a whole other hostof world-class guest speakers.
And then, on top of that, anincredible trade show over 60 of
Australia's biggest and bestsuppliers coming along.
But I'm going all out.
I'm making this event all aboutwhat builders and tradies need.
So it's not just going to betools and materials.
(02:45):
We've got full drive equipmentcompanies coming along.
We've got full drive canopycompanies coming along, full
drive accessory companies coming.
We've got machinery excavators,anything that you can think of
that you possibly need, not onlyin your business, but to go
fishing on the weekends, toenjoy your life once you start
running a great business.
(03:05):
So make sure you lock in friday, the 30th of may, to come to
the level up experience, and notonly will you get to see all
that incredible stuff, you'llalso get the opportunity to win
over 50 000 worth of lucky doorprizes.
And talk to these guys I can'twait, mate.
Peter (03:21):
What an event.
Good on you for, yeah, goingthis big for your first event.
Duayne (03:25):
Well, mate, it's make or break.
I've put it all on the line.
It's costing us a bucket loadof money to do this.
And look a massive shout out toBrett's Hardware, brett's Trade
, for getting behind me as well.
If it wasn't for them, thisevent wouldn't be possible.
They're supplying the venue andthey've got a lot of contacts
with the trades and things.
But, um, this industry has tochange and it's why I really
(03:50):
love what you guys are doing.
So, pete, like the good builder, it's uh, if you haven't heard
of it, it's, it's, it'severywhere.
It's on linkedin, it's oninstagram, you have a website,
yeah, um, yeah, and you'reactually spreading good media,
good publicity, yeah, the goodstories, none of this shit about
(04:11):
insolvencies and all therubbish that you hear about
constantly.
So it's a big move, mate, to dothat.
Peter (04:18):
It is, it has been and it came out of, I think the last
few years the industry has justbeen battling with its
reputation, particularly in thepublic eye.
People just stopped wanting tobuild because they were too
afraid of the process.
And I had a business which washelping people build homes and
people were just saying, look,we're too scared to do this.
(04:40):
Builders are going bankruptleft, right and centre.
But then you come to 2024.
Know, 2024, conditions havestabilized people.
You know we can build good homesand good time frames and
builders aren't.
Who are managing their businessright, they're not going, you
know they're not going to gobroke.
So we said there's a lot ofgood builders out there, but no
one's focusing on them.
No one's talking about the goodbuilders.
(05:00):
So let's, let's start abusiness that does that.
And, uh, we saw a bit of a gapin the industry and in that
there's not a media platformthat focuses on the home
building industry.
There's some for development,there's some for real estate,
but nothing for home buildersyeah and so we thought, hey,
let's, let's give this a go.
Duayne (05:15):
And yeah, so like to give everybody a bit of
background.
You've got a business partneryes, yeah.
So aaron, aaron and myselfkicked it off, yeah so these
guys have basically puteverything on the line to get
out of that.
Like you sold your oldbusinesses, yes, yeah, and
basically jumped in the deep end.
(05:36):
Like there's a lot of passionthere, there's a lot of risk,
yeah, um.
But man, you're going hard andso far from what I've seen, like
what you're putting out thereis quality.
Oh, thanks, mate.
Peter (05:47):
Yeah, and it's all stuff that needs to be talked about
yeah, oh, it's um, like thewhole point of it is to
interview.
We're not good builders, I'mnot a builder.
Yeah, you don't want the homethat I would build, but it's
bringing and they're honest yeah, and that's the last thing you
want to be, you know.
But there's a lot of goodbuilders out there and that's
(06:07):
why I've loved your content andfollowed you for quite a long
time.
And there's a lot ofexperienced builders out there
like let's get them in front ofcameras, let's get them talking,
let's share their knowledgewith the industry, uh and and
hopefully by focusing on thosekind of guys and raising the bar
, you know, across the board andand women and there's a lot of
great women out there too thatwe've been profiling and um,
(06:28):
yeah, mate, so it's prettyexciting.
We're really enjoying it.
It's a fun business.
It's like we've got a goodpurpose behind it.
Financially, it's going to takesome time, I think, to make
good money, but that's that'sanother thing, but that's all
right let's.
Duayne (06:40):
I want to go back a bit before we go further.
What's your background?
Because I know one of themwhich you'll get to, and I find
it hard to go from that one towhere you are now.
Peter (06:50):
Yeah, sure, mate.
So I'm a lawyer by trade,dwayne, mate, and, very briefly,
I finished my qualifications.
Then I looked at the careerahead of me and just thought, no
, I don't think this is for me.
I didn't love the work and I'mto be honest, lawyers have to be
very organized and I'm not thatorganized and uh, but, mate, so
(07:11):
I, uh, I quit.
So why did you go into that tostart with?
Like, just, I'm not sure.
To be honest, I love to write,I love, um, communicating, but I
just my next door neighborowned a law firm and I remember
going out in the grass when Iwas in about grade 11.
I was like, what should I dowith my life, glenn?
And he was like become a lawyer, mate, and I loved the
(07:32):
intellectual side of law.
But you go into law thinkingyou're going to save the world
and it's justice and it's rights, and you realize that it's and
I've seen it more and more inbusiness Lawyers will always win
, but you're not.
I don't feel in what we weredoing.
We're adding a whole lot tosociety and I love lawyers, like
there's a lot of great lawyersout there and if you love it,
(07:53):
you love it.
But yeah, I didn't see thepurpose behind it for what we
were doing, so I quit that job.
I went to Indonesia for a month, grew a beard, bought a big
book on finance, on securityanalysis or something, and was
like, all right, I'm going tomove to Sydney and become a
stockbroker or jump into thefinance game.
And then I came back from Indo,I went to the Malulaba Surf
(08:17):
Club and it was a Friday nightand there was a few beers in.
And then I ran into Greg GregGardner, who founded GJ Gardner
Hose, and I think he was a fewbeers in too.
He was like oh, what are youdoing with yourself?
I went to school with his son.
What are you doing withyourself these days?
I was like, oh, I'm just aboutto go to Sydney and try my luck
at investment banking orsomething, and he goes.
(08:39):
I want you to come talk to myCEO.
I was like what do you mean?
He's like we need a generalmanager.
I was like Greg, I don't knowanything about construction.
He's like no, no, no, we needsomeone to come shake things up
a little bit and provide thisand that.
Anyway, next thing, that wasFriday.
On the Monday, I met with theCEO and we did another three or
(09:01):
four interviews with themanagement team.
We did another three or fourinterviews with the management
team.
Duayne (09:08):
And next, thing, I know I was starting as a general
manager for GJ Gardner Homesacross Australia and New.
Peter (09:11):
Zealand.
I was only 24.
Holy shit.
So yeah and yeah, so that was,it was wild.
He took a massive punt on meand I was very, very green and
look, the first.
I remember sitting down acrossfrom one of the builders, uh,
and within the first week hejust looked me in the eye and
(09:31):
said how many homes have youbuilt?
It's just like, oh.
And my old man had electricalcontracting business and I'll
lean on that a bit because I diddo a quick, you know month or
two of an apprenticeship withhim, which which was, you know,
scraping concrete offwheelbarrows, but yeah, it was.
I just kept my mouth shut forabout three months and just
started to learn the industry.
(09:52):
Gj Garden is a franchisenetwork and there was 50 offices
in Australia at that time andthere was a lot of low-hanging
fruit because it was like aMcDonald's but a different color
in each state, and I hope theydon't mind me saying this, they
probably do, but you know likethe brand was.
It was always being red, butanother state was moving to like
an orange, and then there wasjust some real basic things
(10:14):
which I had to get in and sortout, uh, and then after that I
just learned what the goodpeople were doing and then tried
to roll that out across thegroup more broadly.
And then, yes, I was there forsix years.
Duayne (10:26):
That sort of shit doesn't just happen by a fluke.
Like you, obviously you'veeither got the gift of the gab
or uh, or you, you know yourshit like that, that's uh,
that's a big yeah company.
Yeah, they're not going to takethe risk on just anyone.
So you're probablyunderestimating yourself a bit
there, I think.
Peter (10:47):
It was objectively, no matter who I am, it was a
massive risk for them to take,but I feel like I learned the
respect of the key people overtime and then we started to have
some really good success and Ithink we're doing about 1,000
builds a year across Australia.
When I started, when wefinished finished, we were up to
two thousand and we had anotherabout almost three thousand
(11:09):
sales in the books and themarket had done well in that
time as well.
I timed the market cycle reallywell, but.
But there was a lot that Ilearned then about what makes a
good builder, how to do it rightand and that in that sort of
volume building space, but yeah,yeah, and also a few things
about the industry, which was,you know, kind of a bit of a
(11:30):
shock as well, and a lot of itis, at that level, a sales and
marketing game and it's anumbers game you know, but yeah,
so yeah, it's good mate, that'sa wild start.
Duayne (11:42):
Yeah, like a uni lawyer indo running a thousand house
business.
Peter (11:48):
It was.
And we had our first kid a fewyears into that.
And then it got tricky becauseI was traveling almost every
week, every second week, aroundthe country to the different
franchises.
And then we had our second kidafter my sixth year and my wife
(12:09):
just said to me look, I love,love you, but I don't think
we're gonna last if you keepthis up.
And but she was great, she'slike I'll support you, whatever.
But this is really straining.
And I was like, yeah, no, it'stime to start my own thing.
So I kind of thought, look,I'll take what I've learned here
and then start a businesslocally.
And so, yeah, started, hellohome property.
(12:29):
After that, um, I mean, that waslike a buyer builder's advocacy
for first home buyers, becausethere was a lot of support for
investment, people buildinginvestment properties out there.
Yeah, um, but I was like thefirst home buyers are the ones
that need it.
You know they come in so sogreen, so clueless as to even
what sort of block of land theyshould be looking for, because
(12:50):
there's so many grants.
It's like if you're afirst-time buyer, you get your
first-time owner fifteenthousand dollars.
You get all this money thrownat you from the government.
So they think, all right, we'llgo and build new.
But they don't have the firstclue how to do it right, and
they quite often get takenadvantage of.
And so we came in and we'd helpthem understand their finance
and then say, all right, you can, you've got a seven hundred
thousand dollar budget.
(13:11):
Let's have a look at what youcan buy, so you can buy land
here, here and here.
And then we'd go and help themfind the block and we're like,
don't, they'd find something ina great area, but it's just, you
know, down the side of a cliff.
Okay, they go, look at, this ischeap, we'll just grab this one
.
Yep, it'll cost you a millionplus to build on it.
And so we'd advise them aroundthat.
And then we'd sit with them andtry and sign up a house plan.
(13:32):
And then we got a.
We were working with a customhome builder and we learned to
use their architectural AutoCADsoftware, and so we'd sit with
the clients and try and designthe homes with them, which was a
terrible idea, because it'sYou're not a designer.
Yeah, well, they did, butthey'd just come up with the
most stupid ideas and wewouldn't stop anything Like not
(13:53):
stupid, but you know they'rejust their dream home and
they're sketching it away.
We'd do it up, we'd try and getthe orientation right, get all
the basics right, and then we'dsend it off to a draftee and
then we'd go and talk tobuilders and work with builders
(14:14):
to see it through to completionand handover.
Yeah, um, so we did that andthen, probably by 2020, I had
there's only two of us and thencovid hit and then, uh, the
industry sort of shut down, asyou all know, and it was a
pretty scary time.
Um phone stopped ringing.
I think I had about 10 peoplecall up cancel contracts and I
said to tim it was my first time.
I said, mate, this might be us,you know we might be out.
And then we heard from thegovernment that they're going to
(14:36):
do a big stimulus package and afew weeks later they announced
they were going to do the homebuilder grant, which was,000 for
anyone to build a new home, andwe got 50 leads overnight.
Yeah, that's just the two of us.
And then, within a year, we hadsigned off, we had about 80
contracts, we had a team ofeight and then, yeah, 2021, we
(14:58):
signed 120 contracts and it wasjust madness.
So you were basically just a,you just guided them through the
process, guided them throughthe process and very quickly you
could see we started looking ata lot of the bigger builders to
partner with and just theprocess wasn't there.
(15:19):
So we'd find good localbuilders.
I mean, half the challenge, Ithink, if you're building a home
, is just finding a builder youcan trust.
And once you find them, they'lltake you through the process
and they should have all theirprocess and it's fine.
So a lot of our thing was donedue diligence with builders.
We met with dozens and dozensof builders and said, all right,
well, how do you deal with this, this, this, and and I was
(15:40):
learning a lot as well becauseI'd come from the general
manager at a very high level,you know, sitting in the pearly
tower or whatever it is you knowlike, but I wasn't on the
ground doing it, yeah, and so Iwas learning a lot as well.
But we eventually partneredwith some great builders, uh,
and we just say like here's theplans, and then you get an idea
of what they can build it for,take them through the
(16:00):
contracting process and just ifthings weren't right, we'd
negotiate.
And then, uh, yeah, just holdthe hand.
Our biggest thing wascommunication.
So every single week.
I said without fail doesn'tmatter what happens, you call
the client every week and in thevolume building space it wasn't
super common.
You know the supervisors get in, smash them out and they're
just oh, we'll update them whenwe've got up to a new stage.
(16:22):
Yeah and we'll no.
No, so we would do all thecommunication with the client.
We'd we?
They wouldn't even really talkto the builder, so we try and
take the stress away from them.
If something popped up on site,we try and deal with it
separately.
Um, and then, yeah, just takethem all the way through until
handover, and then so you'relike an agent.
Duayne (16:39):
So on on the building contract, were you?
You were the agent that thebuilder liaised with.
Peter (16:42):
Were you well, effectively, yeah, yeah, yeah,
um, we were, yeah, we were kindof the client, yeah, that way,
and so I think, probably, likemany, we just took on more than
we could chew in 2021.
I mean, and the builder that wehad we had 80 contracts with
one builder and a really goodbuilder, but he went from 150
(17:03):
homes the year before to 450homes.
Yeah, that's a big jump andit's just it was too much, too
much for his team.
We were waiting, you know, fromwaiting two weeks for a set of
drafted plans, it was 16 weeksjust to get a contract in place.
It was taking, yeah, like sixmonths and then we would get to
site and slabs.
(17:25):
It would be a 12-week wait.
Everything was just blowing outin that time and we were on the
phones just keeping the clientsevery week updated.
So, yeah, mate, it was prettycrazy.
Sorry, I'm talking a lot.
Duayne (17:37):
No, mate, it's good Like we're telling your story,
because people need to get toknow you a bit so they get the
backstory of it.
So how did you go from there towhere you are now?
Peter (17:46):
Yeah.
So we saw that.
We saw everyone in.
We got everyone in through thattime.
The biggest challenge was landwould take a long time to get to
site and then, once it gotthere, the builder couldn't
build for that price becausethey'd signed a fixed price
contract.
So we had to call about 80customers and say, hey, I know
your finance is approved andyou're ready to go, but the
builders just told us they won'tbuild it.
They want another 50 grand tomake it sustainable.
(18:08):
And so we did that.
But for the whole team, it wasjust every day was tears, every
day was emotion, uh, and itburned us all out, to be honest.
So I think 2022 was one of thehardest years kovat was just
like the government did.
Duayne (18:23):
What the government does made it.
It made rash decisions withoutinvestigating everything and it
put like, yes, that grant wasgood and it stimulated
everything and it got a lot.
Like the industry, it was toomuch, got through it, but it was
too much.
It burned a lot of people out.
Peter (18:39):
It made a lot of businesses go bankrupt yeah, oh,
it completely overstimulatedbecause interest rates are
already very low and land wasreally cheap, it didn't need
much of a push.
You know, yeah, yeah, and togive people 25 grand plus the
first time buyers were gettinganother 15, so they were getting
$40,000.
And for a lot of them they'dcome in with five grand and we
could get them a home.
Yeah, but anyway, yeah.
(19:00):
So it just cooked the industryand I felt for all the builders.
We accepted all the priceincreases, didn't push back
because they had to survive,they because they had to survive
, they all had to survive.
But thankfully everyone wasmaking enough money on their
overall purchase that peoplecould make it work and got.
Everyone in the team was cooked.
I was pretty cooked and I justthought, look, this is a good
(19:21):
business model.
It was very rewarding once youhand over the homes.
But I don't want to be doingthis forever, and so we scaled
it down a little bit and then Ifound someone to sell it to
which was last year, and nowyou've put it all on the line.
Duayne (19:37):
mate, to start the good builder.
Peter (19:38):
That's right, mate.
Yeah, so my business partner,aaron he was when I was at GJ
Gardner.
He came on board as a nationalmarketing manager and so him and
I ran some great campaignstogether and then he left to
start his own marketing agencyfocused on the construction
industry, and so I work with alot of builders around the place
and a lot of suppliers, uh, buthe was a bit sick of agency
(19:59):
life as well, and so he um, hewrapped up his business and,
yeah, this time probablyliterally three and a half, four
months ago we really launchedinto these to the good builder
yeah, so what?
Duayne (20:12):
what is the goal of the good builder?
Like, besides just being ableto promote um?
Like from what I've seen so far?
Like you promote a lot ofgovernment incentives.
You, you're definitelypromoting good people in the
industry.
Like I see you must be goingthrough my podcast list because
I see all these guests comingout that we've had on.
So that's, that's good.
I look up to that.
The um, I take it as acompliment.
(20:34):
But um you've got some reallygood people coming on there, and
I just think that the industryneeds more of it like that's.
That's a big reason why we dothis podcast.
Like you, we have to sharestories of people that are doing
the right thing in the industryyeah, yeah, 100%, and so we've
we've got a lot more to come out.
Peter (20:52):
We've probably got another six interviews with
builders that we've done um overthe past few weeks to come out,
which would be great, and justwant to do more of that.
There's four pieces to it, sowe're going to have the site, um
, and then we've got the podcast.
So we've just we've launchedthat and um and that'll be the
same thing just interviewingbuilders, uh.
(21:12):
And then events.
So with our events, we justjust builders, or tradies,
builders, suppliers, um, anyonewho's, yeah, doing a good job in
the industry, and tradies, yeah, it's um, absolutely so, but
probably more focused towardsbuilders, yeah, um.
And then events yeah, so eventsare coming up and for events
like we just there's a lot ofevents out there and I love, I
(21:35):
love what you're doing, dwayne,with the upcoming one mate, but
events like that, where it'sbuilders talking to builders and
a lot of the events from theindustry organizations and all
that, which are great, uh, anddefinitely have their place, but
it's people just talking to youhow to build us, just telling
them this is what's what, thisis what's new, this is how you
should run your business, but alot of them aren't actually
builders, you know, and aren'tin the trenches.
Duayne (21:58):
I don't see education in our industry.
No, like you go to industryevents with associations and
even industry bodies and it's,as you just sort of said, like
it's not educational.
It's them just you just sort ofsaid like it's not educational,
it's them just telling you,yeah, like this is what we
expect, this is what we'retrying to do, yeah, and I just
(22:22):
think it's all broken andbackwards and it needs to be
done differently.
Like you see the associationsbanging all the time how they're
trying to help this and helpthat and they're working with
the government to stop this, butthey don't, like there's not
enough conversation with thepeople that are actually in it?
Peter (22:40):
oh exactly.
Well, that's the thing, and Idon't know if you've seen this
there's a national constructionindustry forum which has just
released a blueprint blueprintfor the construction industry
and it's meant to solve all theissues and it's a 20 page
document with what the future ofthe industry looks like.
Not one person on that forum isa builder or owns a building
(23:00):
company or runs a buildingcompany, so that's just like how
will that ever solve ourproblems?
it's never going to solve theproblems.
It's so detached from realityand that's that's where yeah,
like that's where we're lookingto.
All right, let's try and getbuilders talking to builders,
have forums where we can alltalk about the issues, and then
so how do you?
Duayne (23:18):
I haven't seen that.
How do people in the industryactually get a hold of that
document?
Peter (23:24):
If you search it, yeah, the National Construction
Industry Forum Blueprint it's.
Yeah, you'll see it there.
Duayne (23:33):
So that's a blueprint for our industry.
Peter (23:34):
Why is not every builder and tradie and architect
designer like made aware of it.
It's actually reallyinteresting.
I mean, the hia and mbapresidents are on it, but
they're the only ones that arerelated to home building, uh,
but they're not even talkingabout it.
So I don't think anyone, to behonest, is too proud about it.
It's not, yeah.
Duayne (23:52):
Someone's probably spent millions of dollars.
Oh, absolutely yeah.
Peter (23:55):
Yeah, I mean it's.
Half of the forum are unionbosses, so a lot of it is more
around like labor rights.
Duayne (24:04):
It's all just about lining someone's pockets, yeah.
Peter (24:09):
It adds a lot more regulation and red tape.
I've read a quick read throughit.
I'm like this is just going tomake it more difficult Talking
to builders now and we'retalking to builders every day,
just like you, mate.
But compliance is a major issue.
Just keeping up with all thecompliance I feel for builders
these days.
Duayne (24:25):
Well, a builder, look, we run a good business.
But I'll put my hand up, wedon't comply with everything.
Like, if we, like they whingeabout the cost of housing.
And reality was, if we were tobuild a job, start to finish and
comply with every singlerequirement, like I don't know,
without exaggerating, it wouldadd at least probably 20 to 40%
(24:49):
to our jobs.
Really, yeah, well, you're noteven supposed to have a concrete
truck on site without trafficcontrol.
You're not supposed to have aconcrete pump on site without
traffic controller.
Every day you get trafficcontrol to a site.
That's eighteen hundred two anda half thousand dollars.
Yeah, then it's not only that.
Then you, if you have trafficcontrol, you're supposed to have
a traffic permit.
Then you've got to apply tocouncil.
So then there's going to be allthese times on jobs where
(25:12):
there's nothing, nothinghappening because you're waiting
for permits.
Yeah, because, like at themoment with this rain, like what
, what would happen if I hadthree jobs with concrete pours
and then they all got pushed forthe rain?
Then I've got to reapply forall those permits and I've got
to rebook all my traffic control.
Yeah, yeah, but then that'sjust one example.
Like, then you've got all thescaffolding requirements and the
(25:32):
guard rails and like, and thenall the signing into sites,
signing out of sites.
So if seriously, if a builderwas to run a site to to these
legislations, it would add tensof thousands of dollars, if not
hundreds of thousands of dollarsit's ballistic.
Peter (25:49):
You know I was thinking about it.
You know, coming from alawyer's perspective.
A lawyer specializes in onearea and you've just got to know
that area.
Well, a builder has to beacross so many different
elements of building, everyelement of building a home, and
how it is done well, and thenthe compliance with all the
manufacturer warranties, andthen you've got all the
government regulation andcompliance.
It's just, it's outrageous.
Duayne (26:09):
It's unbelievable.
And then people try andquestion what we make.
Peter (26:12):
Yeah, I know it should be a much more revered profession.
It really should.
You know.
And um, and that's something wewant to like, I'd love to run a
campaign in schools and justreally raise the reputation and
status of what a trade career isand and what being a builder is
.
And yeah, either or you knowwe've um, we tried that.
Duayne (26:31):
Like we reached out, we've we've done a um.
Like shane, I've been and uh,we've been to a couple of trade
colleges.
We, we went to a state schoollocally.
Like I like if anyone'slistening in southeast
queensland, like that, that'ssomething that I'm really
passionate about.
Like I will, I will give up mytime and go and visit um.
I really want to get in frontof year 10 students.
Yeah, I think if we can get infront of year 10 students.
Yeah, I think if we can get infront of year well, even nine,
(26:53):
year nine and 10 students, andwe can, because I always talk
about it all the time.
Like I definitely believe.
So for me, I grew up aroundtradies and a lot of my family
and friends and things and Ijust thought a tradie was
throwing a nail bag on and goingto site, like I.
(27:15):
I didn't understand that to bea tradie you've got to run a
business, and to run a business,you, you need to have some sort
of english skills, math skills,computer skills, like man, like
it takes me four hours to typean email, it takes my wife
fucking two seconds, um, sothat's, I want to go.
I want to get in front of kidsat years nine or ten and say to
(27:38):
them look, be a tradie, it'sawesome, but don't be like me.
Like, put the time into.
Like, if you want to be atradie, that's awesome, you
don't need geography and allthat other shit, but you do need
to do well in this, this andthis.
Yeah, and I don't know if I Ithink I would have paid more
attention and done better if Ihad had someone, because I think
, like everything, my big thingin life now is, if you want to
(28:00):
achieve something, you need tolook up someone that's done it.
And if I feel, for me, if I hada successful builder in in a
room telling me, hey, if youwant to be a builder, you need
to do this, you need to do that,you need to do that, I honestly
believe I would have put moreeffort in yeah, sure, yeah, you
would be more motivated and seena pathway.
Yeah, because I just and andlook.
(28:23):
The other thing is that I,where I really think the world
falls over is like schoolschooling, I believe.
My personal opinion is it's gotan agenda.
Um, like we should be taught.
Like business should be asubject that is compulsory.
Like it shouldn't be somethingyou have to select.
Like it should be compulsoryand you should learn about taxes
(28:44):
, you should learn aboutinvesting, you should learn
about gst.
Like oh, like yeah, because asa business owner, this is all
you deal with on a day-to-daydaybasis and at some point most
people have an abn and dosomething.
Peter (28:56):
You know like it's, it's yeah, yeah, like cash flow
bloody profit margins markuplike it's.
Duayne (29:02):
There's just why we aren't taught about it blows my
mind and it's.
Peter (29:08):
It's kind of sad that the own pretty much the best
education and the only educationin a lot of these topics for
builders now is through peoplelike yourself and all these
organizations that are poppingup trying to educate builders.
Yeah, but because it's notthere, you know, in the system
well, mate, I don't know.
Duayne (29:25):
To be honest, I'm not not sure what exactly is the
requirements now, but, like forme, once I've done my, finished
all my builders licensing,passed everything, got all my
certificates, um, proved all myexperience, it was literally
going to a three-day businesscourse which taught you jack
shit and I got my license, like,and then you can literally go
(29:46):
out the next day, sign a milliondollar contract and go broke.
Yeah, yeah, like it's insane,but like hats off to you for
reaching out mate and gettingthe just constantly putting good
stuff out there.
Peter (30:01):
Yeah, that's the aim and it's hard, I mean there's also
there are builders that aren'tgreat out there, you know, and
the tempting thing is to allright, should we poor performers
is what not to do.
And you know, we've decidedagainst it because you know, and
there is some frustratingthings, you know, particularly
around you know, thesustainability side and builders
(30:22):
everyone claiming certainthings which is just plainly not
true, and I saw a lot of it inmy previous business.
But no, we want to be positive,we want to, you know, just,
let's focus on the good builders, show what they're doing and
hopefully the industry can raisethe bar a little bit that way
and yeah, yeah, and get you knowmessages like the ones that
you're putting out and out therefurther and yeah so what do you
(30:44):
need, mate, to um to make thegood builder like I assume the
good builder you want to spreadaustralia wide.
Duayne (30:50):
Yeah, that's not just for queensland.
Peter (30:51):
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, so we're heading down tosydney next month and melbourne
to start building networks andtrying to start pushing out
there.
I don't know what an interest.
So we're just building a team.
We need a good team, really.
Um, so if there's anyone outthere who wants to write about
construction and talk about itand you know can do that, reach
out, we'd love to.
And sponsorship, yeah,sponsorship.
(31:14):
So we're talking to suppliersand suppliers have said hey, if
you can build this and get anaudience, we'll get behind you.
So we're still waiting for them, but they'll be coming, we're
sure.
Yeah, mate.
Duayne (31:30):
Well, it's not like oh mate, I know where you're at
because I put a downer on itlike we've been doing this
podcast for two and a half yearsand it's only just starting to
make money.
It's a long road and you've gotto put a lot on the line, but I
don't know.
Peter (31:46):
I think when you believe in something and you push hard,
it definitely pays off in theend now we can see a path for it
to work out financially,because it's got to support us
and our wives are certainlyinterested in seeing us getting
paid a salary soon.
But no, aaron and I are havingthe most fun and enjoying
(32:06):
ourselves more than we ever have, really and learning a lot, and
there's just some great peoplein this industry, so it's been
great just interviewing them andbringing their stories out and,
yeah, I think it's just how canwe it's what issues do we latch
onto and then make a part oftrying to make a bit of change
as well at the same time, yeah,and also getting.
(32:27):
What I've seen and as you talkabout as well, is there's a big
divide in the industry and we'vegot the volume space divide in
the industry and we've got thevolume space, the project home
builders, which is an area Iknow really well, uh, but then
we've got, you know, I guess,builders who are smaller custom,
you know, architectural homesand yeah, um, you know so it's
and they're they're kind oflooking for different things,
it's got to be separated, mate.
Duayne (32:49):
Yeah, absolutely 100.
It's got to be separated, likewe.
And again, it ties back to allthe legislation stuff we've
mentioned before.
Like you can't expect, but the,the government expects that
small operators can have, canrun by the same legislation as
what the big guys do, and it,just it, just it.
Well, it doesn't need to happenand it can't happen.
(33:11):
And, like I've touched onbefore, like if seriously, like
if they think the cost ofhousing is expensive, now, like
man, if they, if they really puttheir foot down and push things
, like it will go through theroof.
Peter (33:22):
Yeah.
Duayne (33:23):
Cause there's just so much like.
If we were to do every singlething we're supposed to, I can
tell you right now we wouldprobably have to employ at least
another uh, definitely adedicated administration person
to deal with it all, and andpossibly another construction
manager or someone that actuallyunderstood it so they could
(33:44):
work with the admin person tomake sure that everything on
site was correct.
Yeah, it's wild, so you'readding another two hundred
thousand dollars a year to likemy business salaries.
Yeah, yeah, um, yeah.
And then that doesn't even takeinto account all the additional
shit that's actually requiredon site, like all the permits,
all the hiring, all the staff,like it's insane.
Peter (34:07):
But yeah, it's yeah, there's no, there's no answers,
Like one thing that we've.
You know, the currentgovernment is actually the
Queensland government has beenlistening to a lot of things,
and I'm talking to people in theindustry who are on these
advisory boards with thegovernment and they're actually
listening, which I think therewill be a bit of change coming
up.
Yeah, but there's a long way togo, I think, but the messages
(34:30):
need to get out there and we canalways say, oh, you know, know,
they're not listening to thepeople, to the builders on the
ground.
I'm like, well, how do we justget a collective voice and
saying, all right, these are thekey things, and industry bodies
, I guess, are meant to be doingthat.
Duayne (34:43):
But yeah, it's got to come from, you know, from the
mouths of builders, in a sensethere's too many people mate
with their that are sitting onboards that are only focused on
lining their back pockets.
Yeah it, it's true.
As much as they say they don'twant to like so many of our
associations, they're all thepeople on the boards.
Aren't the small mum and dadbusinesses, the builders that
(35:05):
got the nail bag on every day.
They're CEOs or generalmanagers of volume building
companies, tier one companies.
Again, that's why we need toseparate like why?
Yeah, just yeah, seriously, itmakes my blood boil.
But, um, how do you see itworking.
Peter (35:25):
How, how would?
How would they?
Duayne (35:27):
just different sort of regulation for each part of the
industry, or I just say it needsto be two completely different
setups like licensing everything.
Peter (35:37):
Yeah, okay.
Duayne (35:39):
You're either a volume builder gets a volume building
license, a tier one builder getslike.
So at the moment there's onlylike in Queensland, there's only
low-rise, medium-rise and open.
I think that whole backwardssystem needs to be broken.
A small builder that doescustom work needs to be.
(36:01):
All of us need to be down hereon our own.
And then the guys that do allthe multi-rares and maybe
shopping centres or commercialbuildings and things, they need
to be their own group.
And then the guys that do allthe big high rise and all those
types of things, they're theirown group, because we're
(36:24):
completely different businessmodels.
Yeah, like, absolutely like.
Could not be any more different.
Peter (36:30):
It's so true.
It's so true and that'sactually this industry blueprint
, because the eight people fromthe industry which are on there,
who aren't from unions, they'reall from different industry
organizations but they've allgot completely different agendas
.
You know, some of them are forthe big infrastructure projects,
but how can you compare that to?
You know, building anarchitectural home?
Duayne (36:50):
yeah, it's just wild.
Yeah, um, like, I think themost clear separation would
literally just be homes, like ifyou're, if you're a home
builder, you're in this groupand then the only separation
would be a volume builder andwho knows, maybe volume builders
would be in there.
But actually it's probably thatsimple, now that we're actually
(37:11):
talking about it, it probablyis that simple.
Like, literally, homes havetheir own division.
Now that we're actually talkingabout like it probably is that
simple.
Like, literally, homes havetheir own division.
Um, because it's complete, it'sdifferent construction, it's
different locations, it'sdifferent requirements, like
it's it's different budgets,like it just makes so much sense
to separate it.
Yeah, for sure.
Um, and again, that's that ispart of this mission that I'm on
(37:33):
.
Like, I want, I want to get infront of government people and I
want them to understand howdifferent our industry is, so
that we can start to have thatseparation.
I don't think it would.
Well, I always think things aresimpler than what they really
are, but I think it's somethingwe need to work towards.
Peter (37:53):
It doesn't have to be complicated.
But you're right, you know,yeah, once it gets down to the
people in a room, there's alwaysagendas and things and why are
we different?
Duayne (38:02):
like, why is every state different?
Yeah, like now it's not onlylicensing different.
Like now, with all these lastum changes in the building code.
Like now you've got statespushing back on changes in the
building code, so now we like wedon't even have an
australia-wide building codewith the ncc in some states,
just like nah.
We won't bother with that for awhile yeah, like it's just
(38:24):
insane how this industryoperates.
And look, I think, look, ifanything that's um, this mission
that I'm on to create a newbuilding industry, like that.
I'm going down that pathbecause I sort of like stuff it
Like if these, if all theassociation, industry bodies,
government, aren't going tolisten, like let's just do it.
(38:44):
And it's growing Like we'redefinitely gaining momentum,
we're getting a lot of peoplebehind us.
This event.
I'm I'm very nervous to see ifthis event works Like.
I hope everyone gets behind me,I hope everyone shows up
because, like one thing I canguarantee is, whoever comes, I
will be making sure that theyleave there a different person
(39:06):
believing in themselves,believing in their business,
believing in this.
Peter (39:09):
We are creating a new industry yeah, just looking at
the lineup and what you've gotthere, it's going to be a great
event.
I've put together quite a fewwith GJ's and we'd have 500 or
so people along to internationalconferences and, yeah, we would
try and bring in speakers fromall over the place, but that's
just one of the best I've everseen the line up you've got
(39:31):
coming is awesome.
Duayne (39:32):
It's going to be great cheers.
I appreciate that.
Oh look, it's my wife's nervousbecause there's a lot on the
line.
We've got to get bums on seats.
I'm pretty confident we will.
I think the industry it's timefor change.
I think a lot of people arerealizing that there's better
(39:52):
ways to do things.
I think the other big thingthat is happening is builders
are the industry is realizingthat we need to talk, um, we all
need to work together.
There's no bloody I don't knowwhat's the word where everyone's
uh like price fixing and shitwhat's our collusion, collusion.
Peter (40:11):
There's no collusion but, yeah it's just getting builders
to work together, talk togetherit's got to happen and they
don't talk enough, and that's,and yeah, that's what we found
as well.
You know, if you're not a partof a community like live, life,
build or a franchise group orwhatever, you know, builders
aren't talking to each other atall.
Yeah, and there's, there's alot of issues and look that they
(40:32):
should be talking about.
Yeah, well, and there's no reallike I guess there's a master
bills and that they should betalking about.
Duayne (40:35):
Well, and there's no real.
I guess there's the masterbuilders and things, but you get
the electricians they do itreally well.
They've got their body thatreally supports them.
Plumbers have an association aswell, but I'm not sure on the
others plasterers and concretersand bits and pieces, carpenters
but if those trades can do it,why can't builders do it?
(40:58):
And not only that if there isassociations for the different
trades and groups, we all needto talk together, because that's
the only way this industry isgoing to change.
If it's everyone sort ofcollaborating and talking to
each other, and actually, at theend of the day, the number one
thing should be that we're allon a mission to give the clients
(41:20):
what they deserve.
Yeah, like because we none ofus have jobs without clients.
Yeah, and let's face it,there's a shitload of houses
that need to be built.
Yeah, 100.
Peter (41:29):
No, it's interesting around that builder trade
relationship because aftertalking to builders reason,
they're saying that covet erafractured a lot of those
relationships.
You know, you know trades.
I thought they had loyalty fromall of a sudden just took up
and left and took a higherdollar, uh, supplies run out of
material and then they couldn'tsupply and then all of a sudden
the relationships in theindustry just broke down and
(41:52):
it's taking time to kind ofrebuild and yeah, yeah.
So we're keen to run someevents, even with suppliers and
builders on a panel and say, hey, what do you expect of me, what
do you expect of me?
And just get it out and have itout on stage.
And, yeah, try to have raisethose conversations because it's
yeah, it's critical, I think,just to just have the frank
conversation.
Duayne (42:13):
Yeah, so, mate, what are you going to be doing at my
event?
What's?
What are you doing?
Peter (42:20):
there we're tossing a few ideas around, yeah, and it
might be, um, but ultimately wewant to get builders, we want to
hear their thoughts on whatmakes a good builder, uh, what
they think the expectationsshould be on builders, and we'll
throw in a few maybecontroversial questions around
the industry and uh, yeah, what,what?
Um, so we're going to do thatget suppliers and do the same
(42:40):
thing and same with trades,right, so we just want to raise
conversations with everyone, uh,and then also, I don't know,
we'll try and bring in maybe agolf simulator or something.
Mate, we'll try and bring insomething, add a bit of
excitement, yeah, a bit ofcompetition, but no, yeah, we
just want to get there and juststart to build some conversation
and build some community.
So the whole idea of the GoodBuilder is just to build a
(43:02):
community of builders, and yeah,that's what it is.
There's a lot of different ones, but this has just been more
general, broad industrycommunity of builders who want
to see things done better.
Duayne (43:13):
Yeah, I, industry community of builders who want
to see things done better, andyeah, I think it's fantastic.
So we're giving the guys somespace at the event where, uh,
they're going to set up a littlebit of booth, going to have a
bit of fun.
So if you come along to theevent, make sure you go and find
the guys.
Um, you'll, I'm assuming you'regoing to have a bit of a crew
there doing some filming andstuff.
Yeah, yeah, so um make sure yougo, and find the guys and, yeah,
give them some feedback, go andhave a chat.
Yeah, please do.
(43:34):
Please do the um.
I'm pretty keen to see thestories that come out of it.
I'm like we're gonna.
There's actually, um, I don'tknow if I should have should be
allowing it or not, because it'smy event, but, um, there is so
many people that are bringingtheir own film crews really, so,
um, I'm like this is now thatI'm now that it's like ended up
so many.
(43:54):
I'm like yeah well, maybe shouldwe, maybe we shouldn't allow
that it's ended up so many.
I'm like maybe we shouldn'thave allowed that.
It's all our content.
Peter (43:57):
It's going to be huge.
It's going to be everywhere.
Duayne (43:59):
Yeah, and that's the way I think of it.
The more people that come, themore people that film the day,
the more people that put it outthere.
It's just adding to thecreating the new industry.
Good on you.
I'm really keen to see and it'sall different, different people
like we've got some suppliersthat are, um, that don't
normally take their marketingteam to an event.
They're bringing their team.
We've got builders that do alot of social media that would
(44:22):
normally go to an event on theirown are bringing their team.
So, um, yeah, look, hopefullythat doesn't scare people off.
It's not going to be a daywhere you're just going to have
cameras in your face everywhere,but I guess for me, it's very
exciting to know that people arethat interested that they want
to capture it.
Peter (44:38):
Yeah, that's it, that's it and yeah, that's here what
builders have to say yeah, yeah,for us it's just if you've got
a piece you want to share, ifthere's something you're
passionate about, yeah, let'sshare it.
We'll put it out in conjunctionwith the day and just get a
whole yeah with the day and justget a whole.
Duayne (44:54):
Yeah, We'll have to work on Matt Rising mate, We'll have
to get him sitting in yourchair.
Oh, that'd be good mate, Seewhat he's got to say.
Peter (45:00):
No it's great.
Yeah, we're really keen tosupport it, dwayne, and yeah,
mate, I'm looking forward to it.
Get it out there, yeah.
Duayne (45:08):
No, mate, look, we'll wrap it up.
I really appreciate your andsharing your story.
I think that says a lot aboutthe type of person you are and
definitely what you're trying todo for the industry.
So look, guys and girls, getbehind the guys at Good Builder,
go and check them out.
What Instagram, what website.
Peter (45:27):
Thegoodbuildercomau.
Duayne (45:29):
Yeah, and LinkedIn.
I see you smashing LinkedIn,yeah.
Peter (45:34):
If anyone's on LinkedIn, we're all over it, probably too
much.
Duayne (45:40):
It can never be too much .
Go and check them out, getbehind them, because they are
honestly.
I'm not just pulling your toe,mate, but the articles you're
putting out are articles thatthe industry needs.
Yeah thanks mate, we shouldn'tjust be getting articles with
just garbage and insolvenciesand and builders that do the
(46:01):
wrong thing, traders doing thewrong thing, like it's good to
see some good quality I guessproduct out there.
That's actually um spreadingthe word about how good the
industry actually is if you pushall that other shit to the side
yeah it 100.
Peter (46:14):
Yeah, and one thing as well like we're always looking
for builders to talk to, uh, ifyou have an opinion on something
, let us know, get in touch.
And uh, we want to hear frombuilders and get builders voices
out there more.
That's the whole point of it.
Yeah, unreal mate.
Duayne (46:27):
Well, look, keep up the good work.
Um, look, guys, reach out.
If you, uh, if you've got anyquestions about anything or
you've got a topic that you wantus to talk about on the podcast
, we'd love to hear it.
Make sure you do the like,comment, share, all those types
of things.
But before I wrap up, make sureyou get to the event, the Level
Up event on the 30th of May2025.
(46:48):
Look, if you are a tradie, ifyou're interesting in building
work, healthy homes, buildingscience, if you're interesting
in building work, healthy homes,building science, if you've
never heard the words buildingscience and healthy homes, it is
well worth get online, get onGoogle, do some homework, look
into it, because this will beyour opportunity to come to an
event with the world leaders inthese things.
And, like I said, we're alsogoing to be covering business
(47:11):
development, personaldevelopment.
You will leave this day adifferent person, believe me.
If you implement what you learnon this day, not only will it
change your business, it willchange your life.
I promise you that.
So look forward to seeing youthere Friday, the 30th of May,
here in Brisbane.
Go to my website,duanepiercecom.
Grab your tickets now, becausethey are selling out fast.
(47:31):
I'll see you there.
Peter (47:39):
Are you ready to build smarter, live better and enjoy
life?
Then head over tolivelikebuildcom forward slash
elevate.
Duayne (47:48):
To get started, everything discussed during the
Level Up podcast with me, dwaynePearce, is based solely on my
own personal experiences andthose experiences 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.
(48:08):
We recommend that you obtainyour own professional advice in
respect to the topics discussedduring this podcast.
Like hats off to you for reaching out, mate, and just
constantly putting good stuffout there.
Peter (00:04):
It should be a much more revered profession.
It really should.
I feel for builders these days.
Duayne (00:09):
I'm going down that path because I sort of like stuff it
like if these, if all theassociations, industry bodies,
government aren't going tolisten, like let's just do it.
Peter (00:17):
There's a lot of experienced builders out there
like let's get them in front ofcameras, let's get them talking,
let's share their knowledgewith the industry.
Duayne (00:34):
G'day guys.
Welcome back to another episodeof Level Up.
We are back for anothercracking episode today.
It's actually been a big day.
This is our third podcast fortoday and our third cracking
guest.
So something a bit differenttoday.
Not a tradie, not a builder,but a media company.
How are you, mate?
Peter (00:48):
Yeah, good, dwayne, I'm very, very thankful to be here
in the shed, yeah, no, I love it.
Duayne (00:53):
So for those of you that well, I should have introduced
you first, but today we've gotPete from the Good Builder.
That's it, mate, and I thinkit's awesome.
We hardly know know each other,but we are getting on quite
well.
Pete reached out to me was itbefore chris?
And ask chris a few months ago,yeah, a few months ago, um, and
(01:15):
told me what he was doing.
And yeah, just, we had a chatand since then we've we've
caught up a few times.
We've had multipleconversations on the phone.
Uh, you've published a fewarticles with my opinions in
them.
But I wanted to get Pete ontoday because the guys are going
to be at my Level Up Experienceevent and they're going to have
a little I guess what do youcall it studio set up and be
(01:38):
going for it.
So we'll get into more aboutwhat they're about.
But before we do that, if youhaven't seen yet yet, you must
be hiding under a rock, becausewe have the greatest event
coming up in the buildingindustry the level up experience
.
It's on the 30th of may, friday,the 30th of may.
It's here in brisbane.
Doesn't matter where you areacross australia, new zealand,
anywhere, you must get to thisevent.
(01:59):
If you're in the constructionindustry, this is a day where
you can put the tools to theside.
You can sit down, take a stepback and come to something that
is going to excel you to thenext level.
We're going to be talking aboutall things business development
, personal development.
We've got the world's numberone building science expert,
matt Reisinger, coming out fromthe States first time ever.
We also have PaulaBaker-Laporte, who has been the
(02:23):
world's leading healthy homeexpert for the last 30 to 40
years, plus a whole other hostof world-class guest speakers.
And then, on top of that, anincredible trade show over 60 of
Australia's biggest and bestsuppliers coming along.
But I'm going all out.
I'm making this event all aboutwhat builders and tradies need.
So it's not just going to betools and materials.
(02:45):
We've got full drive equipmentcompanies coming along.
We've got full drive canopycompanies coming along, full
drive accessory companies coming.
We've got machinery excavators,anything that you can think of
that you possibly need, not onlyin your business, but to go
fishing on the weekends, toenjoy your life once you start
running a great business.
(03:05):
So make sure you lock in friday, the 30th of may, to come to
the level up experience, and notonly will you get to see all
that incredible stuff, you'llalso get the opportunity to win
over 50 000 worth of lucky doorprizes.
And talk to these guys I can'twait, mate.
Peter (03:21):
What an event.
Good on you for, yeah, goingthis big for your first event.
Duayne (03:25):
Well, mate, it's make or break.
I've put it all on the line.
It's costing us a bucket loadof money to do this.
And look a massive shout out toBrett's Hardware, brett's Trade
, for getting behind me as well.
If it wasn't for them, thisevent wouldn't be possible.
They're supplying the venue andthey've got a lot of contacts
with the trades and things.
But, um, this industry has tochange and it's why I really
(03:50):
love what you guys are doing.
So, pete, like the good builder, it's uh, if you haven't heard
of it, it's, it's, it'severywhere.
It's on linkedin, it's oninstagram, you have a website,
yeah, um, yeah, and you'reactually spreading good media,
good publicity, yeah, the goodstories, none of this shit about
(04:11):
insolvencies and all therubbish that you hear about
constantly.
So it's a big move, mate, to dothat.
Peter (04:18):
It is, it has been and it came out of, I think the last
few years the industry has justbeen battling with its
reputation, particularly in thepublic eye.
People just stopped wanting tobuild because they were too
afraid of the process.
And I had a business which washelping people build homes and
people were just saying, look,we're too scared to do this.
(04:40):
Builders are going bankruptleft, right and centre.
But then you come to 2024.
Know, 2024, conditions havestabilized people.
You know we can build good homesand good time frames and
builders aren't.
Who are managing their businessright, they're not going, you
know they're not going to gobroke.
So we said there's a lot ofgood builders out there, but no
one's focusing on them.
No one's talking about the goodbuilders.
(05:00):
So let's, let's start abusiness that does that.
And, uh, we saw a bit of a gapin the industry and in that
there's not a media platformthat focuses on the home
building industry.
There's some for development,there's some for real estate,
but nothing for home buildersyeah and so we thought, hey,
let's, let's give this a go.
Duayne (05:15):
And yeah, so like to give everybody a bit of
background.
You've got a business partneryes, yeah.
So aaron, aaron and myselfkicked it off, yeah so these
guys have basically puteverything on the line to get
out of that.
Like you sold your oldbusinesses, yes, yeah, and
basically jumped in the deep end.
(05:36):
Like there's a lot of passionthere, there's a lot of risk,
yeah, um.
But man, you're going hard andso far from what I've seen, like
what you're putting out thereis quality.
Oh, thanks, mate.
Peter (05:47):
Yeah, and it's all stuff that needs to be talked about
yeah, oh, it's um, like thewhole point of it is to
interview.
We're not good builders, I'mnot a builder.
Yeah, you don't want the homethat I would build, but it's
bringing and they're honest yeah, and that's the last thing you
want to be, you know.
But there's a lot of goodbuilders out there and that's
(06:07):
why I've loved your content andfollowed you for quite a long
time.
And there's a lot ofexperienced builders out there
like let's get them in front ofcameras, let's get them talking,
let's share their knowledgewith the industry, uh and and
hopefully by focusing on thosekind of guys and raising the bar
, you know, across the board andand women and there's a lot of
great women out there too thatwe've been profiling and um,
(06:28):
yeah, mate, so it's prettyexciting.
We're really enjoying it.
It's a fun business.
It's like we've got a goodpurpose behind it.
Financially, it's going to takesome time, I think, to make
good money, but that's that'sanother thing, but that's all
right let's.
Duayne (06:40):
I want to go back a bit before we go further.
What's your background?
Because I know one of themwhich you'll get to, and I find
it hard to go from that one towhere you are now.
Peter (06:50):
Yeah, sure, mate.
So I'm a lawyer by trade,dwayne, mate, and, very briefly,
I finished my qualifications.
Then I looked at the careerahead of me and just thought, no
, I don't think this is for me.
I didn't love the work and I'mto be honest, lawyers have to be
very organized and I'm not thatorganized and uh, but, mate, so
(07:11):
I, uh, I quit.
So why did you go into that tostart with?
Like, just, I'm not sure.
To be honest, I love to write,I love, um, communicating, but I
just my next door neighborowned a law firm and I remember
going out in the grass when Iwas in about grade 11.
I was like, what should I dowith my life, glenn?
And he was like become a lawyer, mate, and I loved the
(07:32):
intellectual side of law.
But you go into law thinkingyou're going to save the world
and it's justice and it's rights, and you realize that it's and
I've seen it more and more inbusiness Lawyers will always win
, but you're not.
I don't feel in what we weredoing.
We're adding a whole lot tosociety and I love lawyers, like
there's a lot of great lawyersout there and if you love it,
(07:53):
you love it.
But yeah, I didn't see thepurpose behind it for what we
were doing, so I quit that job.
I went to Indonesia for a month, grew a beard, bought a big
book on finance, on securityanalysis or something, and was
like, all right, I'm going tomove to Sydney and become a
stockbroker or jump into thefinance game.
And then I came back from Indo,I went to the Malulaba Surf
(08:17):
Club and it was a Friday nightand there was a few beers in.
And then I ran into Greg GregGardner, who founded GJ Gardner
Hose, and I think he was a fewbeers in too.
He was like oh, what are youdoing with yourself?
I went to school with his son.
What are you doing withyourself these days?
I was like, oh, I'm just aboutto go to Sydney and try my luck
at investment banking orsomething, and he goes.
(08:39):
I want you to come talk to myCEO.
I was like what do you mean?
He's like we need a generalmanager.
I was like Greg, I don't knowanything about construction.
He's like no, no, no, we needsomeone to come shake things up
a little bit and provide thisand that.
Anyway, next thing, that wasFriday.
On the Monday, I met with theCEO and we did another three or
(09:01):
four interviews with themanagement team.
We did another three or fourinterviews with the management
team.
Duayne (09:08):
And next, thing, I know I was starting as a general
manager for GJ Gardner Homesacross Australia and New.
Peter (09:11):
Zealand.
I was only 24.
Holy shit.
So yeah and yeah, so that was,it was wild.
He took a massive punt on meand I was very, very green and
look, the first.
I remember sitting down acrossfrom one of the builders, uh,
and within the first week hejust looked me in the eye and
(09:31):
said how many homes have youbuilt?
It's just like, oh.
And my old man had electricalcontracting business and I'll
lean on that a bit because I diddo a quick, you know month or
two of an apprenticeship withhim, which which was, you know,
scraping concrete offwheelbarrows, but yeah, it was.
I just kept my mouth shut forabout three months and just
started to learn the industry.
(09:52):
Gj Garden is a franchisenetwork and there was 50 offices
in Australia at that time andthere was a lot of low-hanging
fruit because it was like aMcDonald's but a different color
in each state, and I hope theydon't mind me saying this, they
probably do, but you know likethe brand was.
It was always being red, butanother state was moving to like
an orange, and then there wasjust some real basic things
(10:14):
which I had to get in and sortout, uh, and then after that I
just learned what the goodpeople were doing and then tried
to roll that out across thegroup more broadly.
And then, yes, I was there forsix years.
Duayne (10:26):
That sort of shit doesn't just happen by a fluke.
Like you, obviously you'veeither got the gift of the gab
or uh, or you, you know yourshit like that, that's uh,
that's a big yeah company.
Yeah, they're not going to takethe risk on just anyone.
So you're probablyunderestimating yourself a bit
there, I think.
Peter (10:47):
It was objectively, no matter who I am, it was a
massive risk for them to take,but I feel like I learned the
respect of the key people overtime and then we started to have
some really good success and Ithink we're doing about 1,000
builds a year across Australia.
When I started, when wefinished finished, we were up to
two thousand and we had anotherabout almost three thousand
(11:09):
sales in the books and themarket had done well in that
time as well.
I timed the market cycle reallywell, but.
But there was a lot that Ilearned then about what makes a
good builder, how to do it rightand and that in that sort of
volume building space, but yeah,yeah, and also a few things
about the industry, which was,you know, kind of a bit of a
(11:30):
shock as well, and a lot of itis, at that level, a sales and
marketing game and it's anumbers game you know, but yeah,
so yeah, it's good mate, that'sa wild start.
Duayne (11:42):
Yeah, like a uni lawyer indo running a thousand house
business.
Peter (11:48):
It was.
And we had our first kid a fewyears into that.
And then it got tricky becauseI was traveling almost every
week, every second week, aroundthe country to the different
franchises.
And then we had our second kidafter my sixth year and my wife
(12:09):
just said to me look, I love,love you, but I don't think
we're gonna last if you keepthis up.
And but she was great, she'slike I'll support you, whatever.
But this is really straining.
And I was like, yeah, no, it'stime to start my own thing.
So I kind of thought, look,I'll take what I've learned here
and then start a businesslocally.
And so, yeah, started, hellohome property.
(12:29):
After that, um, I mean, that waslike a buyer builder's advocacy
for first home buyers, becausethere was a lot of support for
investment, people buildinginvestment properties out there.
Yeah, um, but I was like thefirst home buyers are the ones
that need it.
You know they come in so sogreen, so clueless as to even
what sort of block of land theyshould be looking for, because
(12:50):
there's so many grants.
It's like if you're afirst-time buyer, you get your
first-time owner fifteenthousand dollars.
You get all this money thrownat you from the government.
So they think, all right, we'llgo and build new.
But they don't have the firstclue how to do it right, and
they quite often get takenadvantage of.
And so we came in and we'd helpthem understand their finance
and then say, all right, you can, you've got a seven hundred
thousand dollar budget.
(13:11):
Let's have a look at what youcan buy, so you can buy land
here, here and here.
And then we'd go and help themfind the block and we're like,
don't, they'd find something ina great area, but it's just, you
know, down the side of a cliff.
Okay, they go, look at, this ischeap, we'll just grab this one
.
Yep, it'll cost you a millionplus to build on it.
And so we'd advise them aroundthat.
And then we'd sit with them andtry and sign up a house plan.
(13:32):
And then we got a.
We were working with a customhome builder and we learned to
use their architectural AutoCADsoftware, and so we'd sit with
the clients and try and designthe homes with them, which was a
terrible idea, because it'sYou're not a designer.
Yeah, well, they did, butthey'd just come up with the
most stupid ideas and wewouldn't stop anything Like not
(13:53):
stupid, but you know they'rejust their dream home and
they're sketching it away.
We'd do it up, we'd try and getthe orientation right, get all
the basics right, and then we'dsend it off to a draftee and
then we'd go and talk tobuilders and work with builders
(14:14):
to see it through to completionand handover.
Yeah, um, so we did that andthen, probably by 2020, I had
there's only two of us and thencovid hit and then, uh, the
industry sort of shut down, asyou all know, and it was a
pretty scary time.
Um phone stopped ringing.
I think I had about 10 peoplecall up cancel contracts and I
said to tim it was my first time.
I said, mate, this might be us,you know we might be out.
And then we heard from thegovernment that they're going to
(14:36):
do a big stimulus package and afew weeks later they announced
they were going to do the homebuilder grant, which was,000 for
anyone to build a new home, andwe got 50 leads overnight.
Yeah, that's just the two of us.
And then, within a year, we hadsigned off, we had about 80
contracts, we had a team ofeight and then, yeah, 2021, we
(14:58):
signed 120 contracts and it wasjust madness.
So you were basically just a,you just guided them through the
process, guided them throughthe process and very quickly you
could see we started looking ata lot of the bigger builders to
partner with and just theprocess wasn't there.
(15:19):
So we'd find good localbuilders.
I mean, half the challenge, Ithink, if you're building a home
, is just finding a builder youcan trust.
And once you find them, they'lltake you through the process
and they should have all theirprocess and it's fine.
So a lot of our thing was donedue diligence with builders.
We met with dozens and dozensof builders and said, all right,
well, how do you deal with this, this, this, and and I was
(15:40):
learning a lot as well becauseI'd come from the general
manager at a very high level,you know, sitting in the pearly
tower or whatever it is you knowlike, but I wasn't on the
ground doing it, yeah, and so Iwas learning a lot as well.
But we eventually partneredwith some great builders, uh,
and we just say like here's theplans, and then you get an idea
of what they can build it for,take them through the
(16:00):
contracting process and just ifthings weren't right, we'd
negotiate.
And then, uh, yeah, just holdthe hand.
Our biggest thing wascommunication.
So every single week.
I said without fail doesn'tmatter what happens, you call
the client every week and in thevolume building space it wasn't
super common.
You know the supervisors get in, smash them out and they're
just oh, we'll update them whenwe've got up to a new stage.
(16:22):
Yeah and we'll no.
No, so we would do all thecommunication with the client.
We'd we?
They wouldn't even really talkto the builder, so we try and
take the stress away from them.
If something popped up on site,we try and deal with it
separately.
Um, and then, yeah, just takethem all the way through until
handover, and then so you'relike an agent.
Duayne (16:39):
So on on the building contract, were you?
You were the agent that thebuilder liaised with.
Peter (16:42):
Were you well, effectively, yeah, yeah, yeah,
um, we were, yeah, we were kindof the client, yeah, that way,
and so I think, probably, likemany, we just took on more than
we could chew in 2021.
I mean, and the builder that wehad we had 80 contracts with
one builder and a really goodbuilder, but he went from 150
(17:03):
homes the year before to 450homes.
Yeah, that's a big jump andit's just it was too much, too
much for his team.
We were waiting, you know, fromwaiting two weeks for a set of
drafted plans, it was 16 weeksjust to get a contract in place.
It was taking, yeah, like sixmonths and then we would get to
site and slabs.
(17:25):
It would be a 12-week wait.
Everything was just blowing outin that time and we were on the
phones just keeping the clientsevery week updated.
So, yeah, mate, it was prettycrazy.
Sorry, I'm talking a lot.
Duayne (17:37):
No, mate, it's good Like we're telling your story,
because people need to get toknow you a bit so they get the
backstory of it.
So how did you go from there towhere you are now?
Peter (17:46):
Yeah.
So we saw that.
We saw everyone in.
We got everyone in through thattime.
The biggest challenge was landwould take a long time to get to
site and then, once it gotthere, the builder couldn't
build for that price becausethey'd signed a fixed price
contract.
So we had to call about 80customers and say, hey, I know
your finance is approved andyou're ready to go, but the
builders just told us they won'tbuild it.
They want another 50 grand tomake it sustainable.
(18:08):
And so we did that.
But for the whole team, it wasjust every day was tears, every
day was emotion, uh, and itburned us all out, to be honest.
So I think 2022 was one of thehardest years kovat was just
like the government did.
Duayne (18:23):
What the government does made it.
It made rash decisions withoutinvestigating everything and it
put like, yes, that grant wasgood and it stimulated
everything and it got a lot.
Like the industry, it was toomuch, got through it, but it was
too much.
It burned a lot of people out.
Peter (18:39):
It made a lot of businesses go bankrupt yeah, oh,
it completely overstimulatedbecause interest rates are
already very low and land wasreally cheap, it didn't need
much of a push.
You know, yeah, yeah, and togive people 25 grand plus the
first time buyers were gettinganother 15, so they were getting
$40,000.
And for a lot of them they'dcome in with five grand and we
could get them a home.
Yeah, but anyway, yeah.
(19:00):
So it just cooked the industryand I felt for all the builders.
We accepted all the priceincreases, didn't push back
because they had to survive,they because they had to survive
, they all had to survive.
But thankfully everyone wasmaking enough money on their
overall purchase that peoplecould make it work and got.
Everyone in the team was cooked.
I was pretty cooked and I justthought, look, this is a good
(19:21):
business model.
It was very rewarding once youhand over the homes.
But I don't want to be doingthis forever, and so we scaled
it down a little bit and then Ifound someone to sell it to
which was last year, and nowyou've put it all on the line.
Duayne (19:37):
mate, to start the good builder.
Peter (19:38):
That's right, mate.
Yeah, so my business partner,aaron he was when I was at GJ
Gardner.
He came on board as a nationalmarketing manager and so him and
I ran some great campaignstogether and then he left to
start his own marketing agencyfocused on the construction
industry, and so I work with alot of builders around the place
and a lot of suppliers, uh, buthe was a bit sick of agency
(19:59):
life as well, and so he um, hewrapped up his business and,
yeah, this time probablyliterally three and a half, four
months ago we really launchedinto these to the good builder
yeah, so what?
Duayne (20:12):
what is the goal of the good builder?
Like, besides just being ableto promote um?
Like from what I've seen so far?
Like you promote a lot ofgovernment incentives.
You, you're definitelypromoting good people in the
industry.
Like I see you must be goingthrough my podcast list because
I see all these guests comingout that we've had on.
So that's, that's good.
I look up to that.
The um, I take it as acompliment.
(20:34):
But um you've got some reallygood people coming on there, and
I just think that the industryneeds more of it like that's.
That's a big reason why we dothis podcast.
Like you, we have to sharestories of people that are doing
the right thing in the industryyeah, yeah, 100%, and so we've
we've got a lot more to come out.
Peter (20:52):
We've probably got another six interviews with
builders that we've done um overthe past few weeks to come out,
which would be great, and justwant to do more of that.
There's four pieces to it, sowe're going to have the site, um
, and then we've got the podcast.
So we've just we've launchedthat and um and that'll be the
same thing just interviewingbuilders, uh.
(21:12):
And then events.
So with our events, we justjust builders, or tradies,
builders, suppliers, um, anyonewho's, yeah, doing a good job in
the industry, and tradies, yeah, it's um, absolutely so, but
probably more focused towardsbuilders, yeah, um.
And then events yeah, so eventsare coming up and for events
like we just there's a lot ofevents out there and I love, I
(21:35):
love what you're doing, dwayne,with the upcoming one mate, but
events like that, where it'sbuilders talking to builders and
a lot of the events from theindustry organizations and all
that, which are great, uh, anddefinitely have their place, but
it's people just talking to youhow to build us, just telling
them this is what's what, thisis what's new, this is how you
should run your business, but alot of them aren't actually
builders, you know, and aren'tin the trenches.
Duayne (21:58):
I don't see education in our industry.
No, like you go to industryevents with associations and
even industry bodies and it's,as you just sort of said, like
it's not educational.
It's them just you just sort ofsaid like it's not educational,
it's them just telling you,yeah, like this is what we
expect, this is what we'retrying to do, yeah, and I just
(22:22):
think it's all broken andbackwards and it needs to be
done differently.
Like you see the associationsbanging all the time how they're
trying to help this and helpthat and they're working with
the government to stop this, butthey don't, like there's not
enough conversation with thepeople that are actually in it?
Peter (22:40):
oh exactly.
Well, that's the thing, and Idon't know if you've seen this
there's a national constructionindustry forum which has just
released a blueprint blueprintfor the construction industry
and it's meant to solve all theissues and it's a 20 page
document with what the future ofthe industry looks like.
Not one person on that forum isa builder or owns a building
(23:00):
company or runs a buildingcompany, so that's just like how
will that ever solve ourproblems?
it's never going to solve theproblems.
It's so detached from realityand that's that's where yeah,
like that's where we're lookingto.
All right, let's try and getbuilders talking to builders,
have forums where we can alltalk about the issues, and then
so how do you?
Duayne (23:18):
I haven't seen that.
How do people in the industryactually get a hold of that
document?
Peter (23:24):
If you search it, yeah, the National Construction
Industry Forum Blueprint it's.
Yeah, you'll see it there.
Duayne (23:33):
So that's a blueprint for our industry.
Peter (23:34):
Why is not every builder and tradie and architect
designer like made aware of it.
It's actually reallyinteresting.
I mean, the hia and mbapresidents are on it, but
they're the only ones that arerelated to home building, uh,
but they're not even talkingabout it.
So I don't think anyone, to behonest, is too proud about it.
It's not, yeah.
Duayne (23:52):
Someone's probably spent millions of dollars.
Oh, absolutely yeah.
Peter (23:55):
Yeah, I mean it's.
Half of the forum are unionbosses, so a lot of it is more
around like labor rights.
Duayne (24:04):
It's all just about lining someone's pockets, yeah.
Peter (24:09):
It adds a lot more regulation and red tape.
I've read a quick read throughit.
I'm like this is just going tomake it more difficult Talking
to builders now and we'retalking to builders every day,
just like you, mate.
But compliance is a major issue.
Just keeping up with all thecompliance I feel for builders
these days.
Duayne (24:25):
Well, a builder, look, we run a good business.
But I'll put my hand up, wedon't comply with everything.
Like, if we, like they whingeabout the cost of housing.
And reality was, if we were tobuild a job, start to finish and
comply with every singlerequirement, like I don't know,
without exaggerating, it wouldadd at least probably 20 to 40%
(24:49):
to our jobs.
Really, yeah, well, you're noteven supposed to have a concrete
truck on site without trafficcontrol.
You're not supposed to have aconcrete pump on site without
traffic controller.
Every day you get trafficcontrol to a site.
That's eighteen hundred two anda half thousand dollars.
Yeah, then it's not only that.
Then you, if you have trafficcontrol, you're supposed to have
a traffic permit.
Then you've got to apply tocouncil.
So then there's going to be allthese times on jobs where
(25:12):
there's nothing, nothinghappening because you're waiting
for permits.
Yeah, because, like at themoment with this rain, like what
, what would happen if I hadthree jobs with concrete pours
and then they all got pushed forthe rain?
Then I've got to reapply forall those permits and I've got
to rebook all my traffic control.
Yeah, yeah, but then that'sjust one example.
Like, then you've got all thescaffolding requirements and the
(25:32):
guard rails and like, and thenall the signing into sites,
signing out of sites.
So if seriously, if a builderwas to run a site to to these
legislations, it would add tensof thousands of dollars, if not
hundreds of thousands of dollarsit's ballistic.
Peter (25:49):
You know I was thinking about it.
You know, coming from alawyer's perspective.
A lawyer specializes in onearea and you've just got to know
that area.
Well, a builder has to beacross so many different
elements of building, everyelement of building a home, and
how it is done well, and thenthe compliance with all the
manufacturer warranties, andthen you've got all the
government regulation andcompliance.
It's just, it's outrageous.
Duayne (26:09):
It's unbelievable.
And then people try andquestion what we make.
Peter (26:12):
Yeah, I know it should be a much more revered profession.
It really should.
You know.
And um, and that's something wewant to like, I'd love to run a
campaign in schools and justreally raise the reputation and
status of what a trade career isand and what being a builder is
.
And yeah, either or you knowwe've um, we tried that.
Duayne (26:31):
Like we reached out, we've we've done a um.
Like shane, I've been and uh,we've been to a couple of trade
colleges.
We, we went to a state schoollocally.
Like I like if anyone'slistening in southeast
queensland, like that, that'ssomething that I'm really
passionate about.
Like I will, I will give up mytime and go and visit um.
I really want to get in frontof year 10 students.
Yeah, I think if we can get infront of year 10 students.
Yeah, I think if we can get infront of year well, even nine,
(26:53):
year nine and 10 students, andwe can, because I always talk
about it all the time.
Like I definitely believe.
So for me, I grew up aroundtradies and a lot of my family
and friends and things and Ijust thought a tradie was
throwing a nail bag on and goingto site, like I.
(27:15):
I didn't understand that to bea tradie you've got to run a
business, and to run a business,you, you need to have some sort
of english skills, math skills,computer skills, like man, like
it takes me four hours to typean email, it takes my wife
fucking two seconds, um, sothat's, I want to go.
I want to get in front of kidsat years nine or ten and say to
(27:38):
them look, be a tradie, it'sawesome, but don't be like me.
Like, put the time into.
Like, if you want to be atradie, that's awesome, you
don't need geography and allthat other shit, but you do need
to do well in this, this andthis.
Yeah, and I don't know if I Ithink I would have paid more
attention and done better if Ihad had someone, because I think
, like everything, my big thingin life now is, if you want to
(28:00):
achieve something, you need tolook up someone that's done it.
And if I feel, for me, if I hada successful builder in in a
room telling me, hey, if youwant to be a builder, you need
to do this, you need to do that,you need to do that, I honestly
believe I would have put moreeffort in yeah, sure, yeah, you
would be more motivated and seena pathway.
Yeah, because I just and andlook.
(28:23):
The other thing is that I,where I really think the world
falls over is like schoolschooling, I believe.
My personal opinion is it's gotan agenda.
Um, like we should be taught.
Like business should be asubject that is compulsory.
Like it shouldn't be somethingyou have to select.
Like it should be compulsoryand you should learn about taxes
(28:44):
, you should learn aboutinvesting, you should learn
about gst.
Like oh, like yeah, because asa business owner, this is all
you deal with on a day-to-daydaybasis and at some point most
people have an abn and dosomething.
Peter (28:56):
You know like it's, it's yeah, yeah, like cash flow
bloody profit margins markuplike it's.
Duayne (29:02):
There's just why we aren't taught about it blows my
mind and it's.
Peter (29:08):
It's kind of sad that the own pretty much the best
education and the only educationin a lot of these topics for
builders now is through peoplelike yourself and all these
organizations that are poppingup trying to educate builders.
Yeah, but because it's notthere, you know, in the system
well, mate, I don't know.
Duayne (29:25):
To be honest, I'm not not sure what exactly is the
requirements now, but, like forme, once I've done my, finished
all my builders licensing,passed everything, got all my
certificates, um, proved all myexperience, it was literally
going to a three-day businesscourse which taught you jack
shit and I got my license, like,and then you can literally go
(29:46):
out the next day, sign a milliondollar contract and go broke.
Yeah, yeah, like it's insane,but like hats off to you for
reaching out mate and gettingthe just constantly putting good
stuff out there.
Peter (30:01):
Yeah, that's the aim and it's hard, I mean there's also
there are builders that aren'tgreat out there, you know, and
the tempting thing is to allright, should we poor performers
is what not to do.
And you know, we've decidedagainst it because you know, and
there is some frustratingthings, you know, particularly
around you know, thesustainability side and builders
(30:22):
everyone claiming certainthings which is just plainly not
true, and I saw a lot of it inmy previous business.
But no, we want to be positive,we want to, you know, just,
let's focus on the good builders, show what they're doing and
hopefully the industry can raisethe bar a little bit that way
and yeah, yeah, and get you knowmessages like the ones that
you're putting out and out therefurther and yeah so what do you
(30:44):
need, mate, to um to make thegood builder like I assume the
good builder you want to spreadaustralia wide.
Duayne (30:50):
Yeah, that's not just for queensland.
Peter (30:51):
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, so we're heading down tosydney next month and melbourne
to start building networks andtrying to start pushing out
there.
I don't know what an interest.
So we're just building a team.
We need a good team, really.
Um, so if there's anyone outthere who wants to write about
construction and talk about itand you know can do that, reach
out, we'd love to.
And sponsorship, yeah,sponsorship.
(31:14):
So we're talking to suppliersand suppliers have said hey, if
you can build this and get anaudience, we'll get behind you.
So we're still waiting for them, but they'll be coming, we're
sure.
Yeah, mate.
Duayne (31:30):
Well, it's not like oh mate, I know where you're at
because I put a downer on itlike we've been doing this
podcast for two and a half yearsand it's only just starting to
make money.
It's a long road and you've gotto put a lot on the line, but I
don't know.
Peter (31:46):
I think when you believe in something and you push hard,
it definitely pays off in theend now we can see a path for it
to work out financially,because it's got to support us
and our wives are certainlyinterested in seeing us getting
paid a salary soon.
But no, aaron and I are havingthe most fun and enjoying
(32:06):
ourselves more than we ever have, really and learning a lot, and
there's just some great peoplein this industry, so it's been
great just interviewing them andbringing their stories out and,
yeah, I think it's just how canwe it's what issues do we latch
onto and then make a part oftrying to make a bit of change
as well at the same time, yeah,and also getting.
(32:27):
What I've seen and as you talkabout as well, is there's a big
divide in the industry and we'vegot the volume space divide in
the industry and we've got thevolume space, the project home
builders, which is an area Iknow really well, uh, but then
we've got, you know, I guess,builders who are smaller custom,
you know, architectural homesand yeah, um, you know so it's
and they're they're kind oflooking for different things,
it's got to be separated, mate.
Duayne (32:49):
Yeah, absolutely 100.
It's got to be separated, likewe.
And again, it ties back to allthe legislation stuff we've
mentioned before.
Like you can't expect, but the,the government expects that
small operators can have, canrun by the same legislation as
what the big guys do, and it,just it, just it.
Well, it doesn't need to happenand it can't happen.
(33:11):
And, like I've touched onbefore, like if seriously, like
if they think the cost ofhousing is expensive, now, like
man, if they, if they really puttheir foot down and push things
, like it will go through theroof.
Peter (33:22):
Yeah.
Duayne (33:23):
Cause there's just so much like.
If we were to do every singlething we're supposed to, I can
tell you right now we wouldprobably have to employ at least
another uh, definitely adedicated administration person
to deal with it all, and andpossibly another construction
manager or someone that actuallyunderstood it so they could
(33:44):
work with the admin person tomake sure that everything on
site was correct.
Yeah, it's wild, so you'readding another two hundred
thousand dollars a year to likemy business salaries.
Yeah, yeah, um, yeah.
And then that doesn't even takeinto account all the additional
shit that's actually requiredon site, like all the permits,
all the hiring, all the staff,like it's insane.
Peter (34:07):
But yeah, it's yeah, there's no, there's no answers,
Like one thing that we've.
You know, the currentgovernment is actually the
Queensland government has beenlistening to a lot of things,
and I'm talking to people in theindustry who are on these
advisory boards with thegovernment and they're actually
listening, which I think therewill be a bit of change coming
up.
Yeah, but there's a long way togo, I think, but the messages
(34:30):
need to get out there and we canalways say, oh, you know, know,
they're not listening to thepeople, to the builders on the
ground.
I'm like, well, how do we justget a collective voice and
saying, all right, these are thekey things, and industry bodies
, I guess, are meant to be doingthat.
Duayne (34:43):
But yeah, it's got to come from, you know, from the
mouths of builders, in a sensethere's too many people mate
with their that are sitting onboards that are only focused on
lining their back pockets.
Yeah it, it's true.
As much as they say they don'twant to like so many of our
associations, they're all thepeople on the boards.
Aren't the small mum and dadbusinesses, the builders that
(35:05):
got the nail bag on every day.
They're CEOs or generalmanagers of volume building
companies, tier one companies.
Again, that's why we need toseparate like why?
Yeah, just yeah, seriously, itmakes my blood boil.
But, um, how do you see itworking.
Peter (35:25):
How, how would?
How would they?
Duayne (35:27):
just different sort of regulation for each part of the
industry, or I just say it needsto be two completely different
setups like licensing everything.
Peter (35:37):
Yeah, okay.
Duayne (35:39):
You're either a volume builder gets a volume building
license, a tier one builder getslike.
So at the moment there's onlylike in Queensland, there's only
low-rise, medium-rise and open.
I think that whole backwardssystem needs to be broken.
A small builder that doescustom work needs to be.
(36:01):
All of us need to be down hereon our own.
And then the guys that do allthe multi-rares and maybe
shopping centres or commercialbuildings and things, they need
to be their own group.
And then the guys that do allthe big high rise and all those
types of things, they're theirown group, because we're
(36:24):
completely different businessmodels.
Yeah, like, absolutely like.
Could not be any more different.
Peter (36:30):
It's so true.
It's so true and that'sactually this industry blueprint
, because the eight people fromthe industry which are on there,
who aren't from unions, they'reall from different industry
organizations but they've allgot completely different agendas
.
You know, some of them are forthe big infrastructure projects,
but how can you compare that to?
You know, building anarchitectural home?
Duayne (36:50):
yeah, it's just wild.
Yeah, um, like, I think themost clear separation would
literally just be homes, like ifyou're, if you're a home
builder, you're in this groupand then the only separation
would be a volume builder andwho knows, maybe volume builders
would be in there.
But actually it's probably thatsimple, now that we're actually
(37:11):
talking about it, it probablyis that simple.
Like, literally, homes havetheir own division.
Now that we're actually talkingabout like it probably is that
simple.
Like, literally, homes havetheir own division.
Um, because it's complete, it'sdifferent construction, it's
different locations, it'sdifferent requirements, like
it's it's different budgets,like it just makes so much sense
to separate it.
Yeah, for sure.
Um, and again, that's that ispart of this mission that I'm on
(37:33):
.
Like, I want, I want to get infront of government people and I
want them to understand howdifferent our industry is, so
that we can start to have thatseparation.
I don't think it would.
Well, I always think things aresimpler than what they really
are, but I think it's somethingwe need to work towards.
Peter (37:53):
It doesn't have to be complicated.
But you're right, you know,yeah, once it gets down to the
people in a room, there's alwaysagendas and things and why are
we different?
Duayne (38:02):
like, why is every state different?
Yeah, like now it's not onlylicensing different.
Like now, with all these lastum changes in the building code.
Like now you've got statespushing back on changes in the
building code, so now we like wedon't even have an
australia-wide building codewith the ncc in some states,
just like nah.
We won't bother with that for awhile yeah, like it's just
(38:24):
insane how this industryoperates.
And look, I think, look, ifanything that's um, this mission
that I'm on to create a newbuilding industry, like that.
I'm going down that pathbecause I sort of like stuff it
Like if these, if all theassociation, industry bodies,
government, aren't going tolisten, like let's just do it.
(38:44):
And it's growing Like we'redefinitely gaining momentum,
we're getting a lot of peoplebehind us.
This event.
I'm I'm very nervous to see ifthis event works Like.
I hope everyone gets behind me,I hope everyone shows up
because, like one thing I canguarantee is, whoever comes, I
will be making sure that theyleave there a different person
(39:06):
believing in themselves,believing in their business,
believing in this.
Peter (39:09):
We are creating a new industry yeah, just looking at
the lineup and what you've gotthere, it's going to be a great
event.
I've put together quite a fewwith GJ's and we'd have 500 or
so people along to internationalconferences and, yeah, we would
try and bring in speakers fromall over the place, but that's
just one of the best I've everseen the line up you've got
(39:31):
coming is awesome.
Duayne (39:32):
It's going to be great cheers.
I appreciate that.
Oh look, it's my wife's nervousbecause there's a lot on the
line.
We've got to get bums on seats.
I'm pretty confident we will.
I think the industry it's timefor change.
I think a lot of people arerealizing that there's better
(39:52):
ways to do things.
I think the other big thingthat is happening is builders
are the industry is realizingthat we need to talk, um, we all
need to work together.
There's no bloody I don't knowwhat's the word where everyone's
uh like price fixing and shitwhat's our collusion, collusion.
Peter (40:11):
There's no collusion but, yeah it's just getting builders
to work together, talk togetherit's got to happen and they
don't talk enough, and that's,and yeah, that's what we found
as well.
You know, if you're not a partof a community like live, life,
build or a franchise group orwhatever, you know, builders
aren't talking to each other atall.
Yeah, and there's, there's alot of issues and look that they
(40:32):
should be talking about.
Yeah, well, and there's no reallike I guess there's a master
bills and that they should betalking about.
Duayne (40:35):
Well, and there's no real.
I guess there's the masterbuilders and things, but you get
the electricians they do itreally well.
They've got their body thatreally supports them.
Plumbers have an association aswell, but I'm not sure on the
others plasterers and concretersand bits and pieces, carpenters
but if those trades can do it,why can't builders do it?
(40:58):
And not only that if there isassociations for the different
trades and groups, we all needto talk together, because that's
the only way this industry isgoing to change.
If it's everyone sort ofcollaborating and talking to
each other, and actually, at theend of the day, the number one
thing should be that we're allon a mission to give the clients
(41:20):
what they deserve.
Yeah, like because we none ofus have jobs without clients.
Yeah, and let's face it,there's a shitload of houses
that need to be built.
Yeah, 100.
Peter (41:29):
No, it's interesting around that builder trade
relationship because aftertalking to builders reason,
they're saying that covet erafractured a lot of those
relationships.
You know, you know trades.
I thought they had loyalty fromall of a sudden just took up
and left and took a higherdollar, uh, supplies run out of
material and then they couldn'tsupply and then all of a sudden
the relationships in theindustry just broke down and
(41:52):
it's taking time to kind ofrebuild and yeah, yeah.
So we're keen to run someevents, even with suppliers and
builders on a panel and say, hey, what do you expect of me, what
do you expect of me?
And just get it out and have itout on stage.
And, yeah, try to have raisethose conversations because it's
yeah, it's critical, I think,just to just have the frank
conversation.
Duayne (42:13):
Yeah, so, mate, what are you going to be doing at my
event?
What's?
What are you doing?
Peter (42:20):
there we're tossing a few ideas around, yeah, and it
might be, um, but ultimately wewant to get builders, we want to
hear their thoughts on whatmakes a good builder, uh, what
they think the expectationsshould be on builders, and we'll
throw in a few maybecontroversial questions around
the industry and uh, yeah, what,what?
Um, so we're going to do thatget suppliers and do the same
(42:40):
thing and same with trades,right, so we just want to raise
conversations with everyone, uh,and then also, I don't know,
we'll try and bring in maybe agolf simulator or something.
Mate, we'll try and bring insomething, add a bit of
excitement, yeah, a bit ofcompetition, but no, yeah, we
just want to get there and juststart to build some conversation
and build some community.
So the whole idea of the GoodBuilder is just to build a
(43:02):
community of builders, and yeah,that's what it is.
There's a lot of different ones, but this has just been more
general, broad industrycommunity of builders who want
to see things done better.
Duayne (43:13):
Yeah, I, industry community of builders who want
to see things done better, andyeah, I think it's fantastic.
So we're giving the guys somespace at the event where, uh,
they're going to set up a littlebit of booth, going to have a
bit of fun.
So if you come along to theevent, make sure you go and find
the guys.
Um, you'll, I'm assuming you'regoing to have a bit of a crew
there doing some filming andstuff.
Yeah, yeah, so um make sure yougo, and find the guys and, yeah,
give them some feedback, go andhave a chat.
Yeah, please do.
(43:34):
Please do the um.
I'm pretty keen to see thestories that come out of it.
I'm like we're gonna.
There's actually, um, I don'tknow if I should have should be
allowing it or not, because it'smy event, but, um, there is so
many people that are bringingtheir own film crews really, so,
um, I'm like this is now thatI'm now that it's like ended up
so many.
(43:54):
I'm like yeah well, maybe shouldwe, maybe we shouldn't allow
that it's ended up so many.
I'm like maybe we shouldn'thave allowed that.
It's all our content.
Peter (43:57):
It's going to be huge.
It's going to be everywhere.
Duayne (43:59):
Yeah, and that's the way I think of it.
The more people that come, themore people that film the day,
the more people that put it outthere.
It's just adding to thecreating the new industry.
Good on you.
I'm really keen to see and it'sall different, different people
like we've got some suppliersthat are, um, that don't
normally take their marketingteam to an event.
They're bringing their team.
We've got builders that do alot of social media that would
(44:22):
normally go to an event on theirown are bringing their team.
So, um, yeah, look, hopefullythat doesn't scare people off.
It's not going to be a daywhere you're just going to have
cameras in your face everywhere,but I guess for me, it's very
exciting to know that people arethat interested that they want
to capture it.
Peter (44:38):
Yeah, that's it, that's it and yeah, that's here what
builders have to say yeah, yeah,for us it's just if you've got
a piece you want to share, ifthere's something you're
passionate about, yeah, let'sshare it.
We'll put it out in conjunctionwith the day and just get a
whole yeah with the day and justget a whole.
Duayne (44:54):
Yeah, We'll have to work on Matt Rising mate, We'll have
to get him sitting in yourchair.
Oh, that'd be good mate, Seewhat he's got to say.
Peter (45:00):
No it's great.
Yeah, we're really keen tosupport it, dwayne, and yeah,
mate, I'm looking forward to it.
Get it out there, yeah.
Duayne (45:08):
No, mate, look, we'll wrap it up.
I really appreciate your andsharing your story.
I think that says a lot aboutthe type of person you are and
definitely what you're trying todo for the industry.
So look, guys and girls, getbehind the guys at Good Builder,
go and check them out.
What Instagram, what website.
Peter (45:27):
Thegoodbuildercomau.
Duayne (45:29):
Yeah, and LinkedIn.
I see you smashing LinkedIn,yeah.
Peter (45:34):
If anyone's on LinkedIn, we're all over it, probably too
much.
Duayne (45:40):
It can never be too much .
Go and check them out, getbehind them, because they are
honestly.
I'm not just pulling your toe,mate, but the articles you're
putting out are articles thatthe industry needs.
Yeah thanks mate, we shouldn'tjust be getting articles with
just garbage and insolvenciesand and builders that do the
(46:01):
wrong thing, traders doing thewrong thing, like it's good to
see some good quality I guessproduct out there.
That's actually um spreadingthe word about how good the
industry actually is if you pushall that other shit to the side
yeah it 100.
Peter (46:14):
Yeah, and one thing as well like we're always looking
for builders to talk to, uh, ifyou have an opinion on something
, let us know, get in touch.
And uh, we want to hear frombuilders and get builders voices
out there more.
That's the whole point of it.
Yeah, unreal mate.
Duayne (46:27):
Well, look, keep up the good work.
Um, look, guys, reach out.
If you, uh, if you've got anyquestions about anything or
you've got a topic that you wantus to talk about on the podcast
, we'd love to hear it.
Make sure you do the like,comment, share, all those types
of things.
But before I wrap up, make sureyou get to the event, the Level
Up event on the 30th of May2025.
(46:48):
Look, if you are a tradie, ifyou're interesting in building
work, healthy homes, buildingscience, if you're interesting
in building work, healthy homes,building science, if you've
never heard the words buildingscience and healthy homes, it is
well worth get online, get onGoogle, do some homework, look
into it, because this will beyour opportunity to come to an
event with the world leaders inthese things.
And, like I said, we're alsogoing to be covering business
(47:11):
development, personaldevelopment.
You will leave this day adifferent person, believe me.
If you implement what you learnon this day, not only will it
change your business, it willchange your life.
I promise you that.
So look forward to seeing youthere Friday, the 30th of May,
here in Brisbane.
Go to my website,duanepiercecom.
Grab your tickets now, becausethey are selling out fast.
(47:31):
I'll see you there.
Peter (47:39):
Are you ready to build smarter, live better and enjoy
life?
Then head over tolivelikebuildcom forward slash
elevate.
Duayne (47:48):
To get started, everything discussed during the
Level Up podcast with me, dwaynePearce, is based solely on my
own personal experiences andthose experiences 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.
(48:08):
We recommend that you obtainyour own professional advice in
respect to the topics discussedduring this podcast.
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