September 29, 2025 • 51 mins
Why are so many Aussies leaving the trades to chase their dreams? In this episode, we explore the real journey of building a business in Australia—from wild setbacks to launching a sustainable sunglasses brand.
Hear about the challenges of the “laptop lifestyle,” the rise of eco-friendly products, and why supporting local brands matters. Perfect for tradies, entrepreneurs, and anyone who loves a good Aussie success story.
Follow and support Sam's Shade business:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shade__eyewear/
Website: https://www.shadeeyewear.com.au/
#aussiebusiness #sustainability #tradielife
We want as many local farms as possible to be able to sell fresh local meat, to local consumers.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Check out the Duayne Pearce website here...
https://duaynepearce.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So many people spend too much time worrying about and
thinking about what they didwrong instead of treating it
like you are, Like I said, thatwhole gap and gain thing.
You're more focused about it.
You've had that experience,you've learnt from it and now
you're moving on.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I made a lot of questionable choices, did a lot
of bad things and upset myfamily and a lot of people and
stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
But I was raised.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, I was always a good person.
I just got caught up in thewrong scene and I still don't
regret any of it today, and I'mactually grateful that I got
that out of my system in myearly 20s and I couldn't think
of anything worse than doingthat like now.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
But everybody has challenges and failures.
And the difference betweensomeone that ends up being very
successful and someone that'snot is the people that view
those failures and challenges aslearning experiences.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, you can do anything.
These days you can literally doanything and it takes a good
amount of effort and energy anddiscipline, but it doesn't
really take that much time tocompletely change your life.
Like, if you're unhappy withwhere you are or what you're
doing, you can change that insix or 12 months.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
G'day guys.
Welcome back to another episodeof Level Up.
We are back in the shed thisafternoon for another cracking
episode.
I am pumped about this onebecause I literally only met
this guy personally 20 minutesago probably not even that and
I'm really keen to have a chatto him today, hear his story and
where he's come from, becauseit's quite incredible.
(01:29):
But, more importantly, he'sbroken away from the building
industry to create a productthat ultimately, most tradies
and builders wear.
So a big warm welcome.
To Sam from Shade Eyewear howare you, buddy?
Yeah, good, dwayne, thanks forhaving me mate.
To Sam from Shade Eyewear howare you, buddy?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, good, dwayne, thanks for having me mate so
mate, how do you go from being aplumber to being a sunglass
manufacturer?
Well, I'm definitely not amanufacturer.
I mean, we've got our suppliesthat we deal with.
But it's been a long journey,that's for sure.
I think it was a vision yearsago that I just wanted to get
off the tools and get out of thetrade and do something
(02:08):
different with my life andcreate something that was more
meaningful for me and felt morefulfilling for me than being a
plumber, and that's where it allstarted.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Mate, that's unreal because you hear so many people
in the industry that just havelost their passion.
They hate it.
And lots of people have theseideas but they just never follow
through or do anything about it.
So before we get into thesunnies in more detail, can we
go back to the early days?
How you got into the trade, Iguess, and where you come from?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah well, I'm from the Mornington Peninsula in
Victoria, pretty small sort oftown, vibes, sort of town vibes.
Um, in school I sort of onlyfelt like I had a trade to go
into there.
Wasn't there, wasn't reallylike, didn't seem like there was
that many other options.
What?
Why was that, you reckon?
Uh, I think it was just justthe area that we're in, maybe
(02:58):
the upbringing that I had aswell.
Mom was a hard worker, dad wasa boiler maker.
That's's kind of what I knew.
Everyone above me older than me, were in a trade.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Were you good at school?
Were you one of those kids like, oh, I was at gun and shit all
the time and didn't want to bethere?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I was smart, I was good at classes, I behaved
myself and applied myself.
But I also became pretty cheekyand pretty naughty in my later
years as well, got up, startedgetting up to a bit of trouble
and doing some naughty things.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah.
So yeah, what like did you knowwhat trade you wanted to be, or
you just fell into plumbing.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I actually wanted to be a chippy all through school
when I was younger.
I actually I was surfing when Iwas younger and I did some work
experience with a surfboardding repair place and I was
fixing boards for about sixmonths and that was awesome and
I thought I'm just gonna do this.
You know, the guy who wasworking for the boss was coming
in at like 9 30 in the morningafter a surf in the morning and
(03:56):
I thought, oh, this is a greatlifestyle, I want to do this.
And my dad's like, hey, mate,there's not much money in
surfboard repairs, maybe youwant to think about something
else.
Yeah, so I thought I wanted tobe a chippy.
I liked the idea of building ahouse from start to finish and I
did a lot of work experiencefor chippies.
And then there was I would havebeen 17, year 12, and there was
(04:20):
like a school holidays and thebuilder that I've been working
for on and off doing workexperience, for he didn't have
any carpentry work for me, buthe had plumbing work with his
son who was doing like 10 unitsor something like that.
So I went to work for a week ortwo with him and he was you
know, I was 17.
He was probably 30 at the time.
(04:42):
I looked up to him like he was,you know, so much older than me
and so much wiser than me.
But there was VBs in the fridgeevery day after work and we did
, you know, we did a couple ofdrains, we did a couple of rough
ins and we had a bit ofeverything going on because
there was 10 units to build andI think, just that lifestyle
being around somebody who Ithought was really cool and
drinking beers after work, Ithought, oh fuck, maybe I want
(05:04):
to be a plumber instead.
So I literally changed my mindin that couple of weeks and then
, maybe a couple months later, Igot an apprenticeship.
It's unreal.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
What can entice you when you're young?
Hey into working.
Oh yeah, easily influenced yeah, so did you finish your
apprenticeship so did you finishyour apprenticeship?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
yeah, so I started an apprenticeship doing volume
builders and we were just doingum like metric on homes and all
that sort of thing, smashingthem out hard, really hard work,
sort of stuff, um, and I did acouple of years of that but I
was getting a bit naughtier anda bit cheaper as I than I was
when I was towards the end ofschool and then I started to get
into the party scene really,really bad.
(05:50):
So then I spent yeah, I spent acouple of years getting worse
and worse and then I actuallyended up giving up my
apprenticeship, quit my job.
I was like sleeping in all thetime because I was not sleeping
on the weekends and so yeah, Iwas late.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You must have been having a good time, buddy.
Oh, I had a great time.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Don't get me wrong.
Heaps of fun I still you knowthere's lots of.
I still have lots of closefriends from who I met through
that whole scene and stuff likethat.
But I was pretty much going tothe city every weekend in
Melbourne and just partying forlike three days straight and
then coming home and you knowwondering why I'm fighting with
my boss on a Tuesday morning androcking up late.
(06:32):
So he kind of had enough of me.
I started getting a few writtenwarnings for just some dumb shit
and yeah.
So I ended up pretty muchcoming in and just said, oh,
screw you, I don't need to workanyway.
So that was it, threw it in,kept partying for like a year,
sort of had a couple of littlejobs like window cleaning and
stuff that I didn't really holdonto for very long through that
(06:54):
time, and then I sort of finallystarted to pull my shit
together and I went and gotanother apprenticeship and then
I went back to trade school andthat's where it really slapped
me in the face, because all theboys that I was at trade school
with for my first couple ofyears, they were all doing their
journeymans and finishing andabout to get signed off and I
still had a whole other yearahead of me and I thought like
(07:17):
fuck, I really just wasted thattime, you know, partying and
being a feral Look.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
everyone's got to grow up and have have life's all
about experiences, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
100.
Yeah, and I to this day, like Idid.
I made a lot of questionablechoices, did a lot of bad things
and upset my family and a lotof people and stuff like that,
but I still was.
Yeah, I was raised well, I wasalways a good person.
I just got caught up in thewrong scene and I still don't
regret any of it today and I'mactually grateful that I got
that out of my system in myearly 20s, because I see people
(07:48):
now I'm 32 now and I see peoplenow who are going off the rails
in their 30s and, like now I'myou know, I've got my shit back
together and so do most of mymates, because we all did it
when we were younger and Icouldn't think of anything worse
than doing that like now yeahit good outlook, mate, because,
like so many people, spend toomuch time worrying about and
thinking about what they didwrong instead of treating it
(08:10):
like you are and, like I said,whole gap and gain thing like
you're more focused about.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
you've had that experience, you've learnt from
it and now you're moving on.
You've got no regrets.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah yeah, it's a good way to live life.
Yeah, exactly, I mean way tolive life.
Yeah, exactly, I mean you can't, you can't hold on to the past,
can you?
It doesn't get you anywhere.
You got to keep looking forwardand just, I'm not saying
everyone should go out and partyand get on the drugs and the
piss all the time but yeah, likeyou've got to live life, don't
you?
yeah, for sure yeah, yeah, Imean yeah, if I had my time
again, I would still do thingsvery similarly.
(08:41):
I think, um, I probablywouldn't have gone down that
rabbit hole as hard as I did ifI had have known, and I probably
would have spent some more timein my 20s thinking about my
future.
But you know, it is what it isand I'm here now and I'm happy
and I've got a good life and, uh, yeah, so it's made me who I am
today, that's for sure yeah,right, so I assume we're getting
(09:02):
closer to the sunny, so howlike you finished, your finished
your time.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And then when did you move up to Queensland?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I moved up to Queensland at the end of 2019,
right before COVID.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
So that was good timing.
All my friends and family gotlocked down and everything in
Victoria.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So, yeah, I moved up there, but I'd already actually
started the Sunnies a few yearsprior to that, so it was when
Facebook ads and social mediasort of really started kicking
off.
It was all pretty fresh stillthen and you could see, you know
that laptop lifestyle, I guess,being presented everywhere,
(09:44):
everywhere, and you're like, howgood is this?
People are just making moneyfrom their laptop on a piece of
this.
And at the same time I'dalready had a few plumbing
bosses who I didn't look up toat all, like I had a.
I had some bosses that weregreat people and I got along
with them awesome but their lifeand their lifestyle I just
didn't envy at all.
They were, they were coming towork and working longer hours
(10:09):
and harder than any of theiremployees, taking home less
money.
I mean, yeah, the business islike accumulating money, but
they're paying themselves lessthan they were paying, like me
even, um, and then they weregoing home doing book work and
they weren't getting any timewith their family, they couldn't
go on holidays, they werestressed all the time, they had
builders and developers andstuff not paying and it just
(10:29):
didn't look like a lifestylethat I wanted from for myself or
from plumbing, and I thoughtabout it for a while, like
whether or not I want to have aplumbing business.
But try and break free fromthat, because that's all I could
see.
That was literally every bossthat I knew of was stressed,
overworked, not enough time withtheir family, missing kids,
(10:49):
birthdays like it's the mostcommon story in the industry.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Mate, like every, almost every trading builder,
that's what.
That's how they live in theirlife.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, yeah, it is, yeah, and I see people now like
having heart attacks and allsorts of things, super young and
they've got, you know, poordiets and poor life, you know
daily habits and stuff, becausethey're just so stressed and
overworked and they don't haveany time to implement any good
habits, and I thought I justdon't want that for myself at
all.
So that's where I sort ofstarted getting attracted to
(11:19):
that laptop lifestyle and I cantell you right now that having
an e-commerce business isabsolutely nothing like having
this glorious laptop lifestyle.
There's still so much workinvolved, but it's completely
different obviously that's all.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
You see.
That's why I reached out to you, because I stumbled across you
or someone might have eventagged um, sent you to me or
something I can't remember.
But as soon as I saw it andthen I found out your story,
that you're a plumber, and thenwhen we had that conversation
and you're still doing a bit ofplumbing on the side to fill the
gaps and things I just thinkit's an incredible story.
You see all that bullshit onsocial media these days and all
(11:55):
these people trying to sell hey,look at me, I'm travelling
Australia from making money onmy laptop.
There is a lot more work behindthe scenes.
It's no different to any otherbusiness.
You still have to have theproduct, find the product, sell
the product Like it's still abusiness.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
But like, how did you take that step?
Like, how did you learn to dowhat you're doing?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I did a course initially which taught me all
about online businesses, all thedifferent types of business
models, that that run online.
Um, you know, affiliatebusinesses that make money from
other businesses using yourplatform for ads.
Um, e-commerce, obviously,service-based businesses, all
(12:38):
sorts of stuff and I did acourse learning all about those
and it was about how to mostlyevaluate a business to buy
rather than a start-up, becausestart-ups are just so hard to
get going, especially in, youknow, online spaces getting more
and more saturated every day.
So, yeah, I did this course,learned all about it.
(13:00):
There was a business for sale atthe time Shade Supply Store,
and it was like festival.
It was dropshipping festivalsunnies straight from China.
I held no stock, so I ended upbuying that business, massively
overpaid for it, thought Ivalued it well, had no idea what
I was doing.
Um, you know, like the, the adaccount I didn't even get the ad
(13:25):
account with the business, butthe ad accounts where it stores
all the data from your customersand everything like that, like
didn't even realize that thatwas like a bad thing at the time
.
So that was where all the valuewas that was where all the value
was yeah, this whole businessthat I bought relied on ads and
I didn't even get the ad accountwith it, like so naive.
And then, anyway, I I watched aheap of youtube videos hours
(13:47):
and hours and hours and learnedhow to run facebook ads and um
from youtube.
And then for the first threemonths that business actually
did pretty well.
I got one of the styles backand figured some things out,
started sending a few emails andwe actually made like 12 grand
profit in the first three monthsof business.
(14:07):
And that was from having noexperience whatever, still
plumbing full time.
And then I was like, oh, howeasy is this?
You know I can do it, this iseasy.
I'm going to get an agency.
Imagine what they can do.
And so I hired an agency fromMelbourne, spent all this money
getting models and videos doneand all of this stuff and pretty
(14:29):
much lost that $12,000 in thefirst six weeks of having this
agency.
It was a big lesson for me andthat pretty much just shut
everything down.
I sort of felt defeated afterthat and I just let it sit there
for like a couple of yearsafter that not doing anything.
(14:49):
And then, but I was stillplumbing full time and I still
wanted to have that.
Something like in the back ofmy mind just said, like keep it.
You still want to give it acrack one day.
You just don't know what that'sgoing to look like yet.
So I was still paying like themonthly fees to keep the website
live and all just the minimumexpenses that I could, but I
(15:10):
wasn't doing anything with it.
And then I moved to the GoldCoast and then we brought out a
wood pair of sunnies, becauseover that time my values had
changed.
I'd started getting a lot morepassionate about the environment
you know caring about plasticwaste and you know I wanted to
be able to contribute to thesolution, not be a part of the
(15:31):
problem.
I started being more consciouswith, like my own personal
consumption of plastic andthings like that so is that what
you mentioned before when westarted?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
that you wanted something that was more in line
with your values and yeah,purpose in life.
But um, just back to your story.
Like with the business side, Ithink, because it's something.
It doesn't matter what guests Ihave on the podcast, it's the
same story.
But everybody has challenges andfailures and the difference
between someone that ends upbeing very successful and
someone that's not is the peoplethat view those failures and
(16:03):
challenges as learningexperiences yeah, for sure if
you dwell on them and and focuson those, and how much money
you've lost and how much timeyou've wasted and all those
types of things you're notallowing yourself to grow and
for the business to succeed.
Yeah, so I think it's awesome,mate, that you've pushed through
and you've kept going yeah,cheers.
The lessons you've learntalready, even though you took a
(16:28):
couple of years off.
That's what's made you get towhere you are now.
Yeah, that's right, I shouldhave mentioned to people that
we've actually got a few of yoursunnies sitting on the table
here.
They're bloody awesome sunnies,and Camille and I just tried
them on.
I'm not cool enough for themyet.
I'm going to have to wait untilI get cooler before I can wear
them.
They're bloody awesome, sunnies.
(16:48):
They feel solid as they're, andI'm glad you're getting onto
that now, because I was reallykeen to know more about what
they're made of, because Ihaven't heard of any plant-based
sunglasses before.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, well, yeah, the sunnies are.
They're made from a plant-basedmaterial, cellulose acetate, so
it derives from wood pulpinstead of petroleum-based
plastic, so it's a much moreenvironmentally friendly option.
You know, everything's got themanufacturing process and
everything behind it, sonothing's perfect.
But because I'm so passionateabout it, we do lots of things
(17:18):
to try and offset the impactthat we do make.
So we've got like we offset allof our shipping carbon
emissions.
We support Sea ShepherdAustralia, so we contribute
monthly part of their directaction crew team and we
contribute to them every monthto support marine conservation.
And then we've also implementeda zero waste recycling program
(17:40):
with TerraCycle as well.
So now our customers can sendtheir old sunnies back to us and
we recycle them with ourrecycling partner and they
pretty much break down thematerials hinges, frames, lenses
, everything like that back totheir material and then
repurpose those.
And then other businesses buythose materials off them for
(18:01):
different things as well so itkeeps them out of landfill as
well.
So that's pretty cool, um.
But yeah, I was, like you know,young guy partying heaps,
snapping my sunnies all the time.
So I wanted a good pair ofsunnies.
But that's where we were up tobefore was my values wanting to
bring that sustainabilityapproach and aspect to the
(18:23):
business, and I thought if I'mgoing to stick with this
business then it needs to alignwith my values, because
otherwise I'm not going to bepassionate about it, I'm not
going to stick with it.
So we got all these wood onesin sort of relaunched the
business and they all kept onbreaking.
So they had this glue joint inthe timber right above one of
the lenses and pretty much everypair snapped and I I felt so
(18:44):
bad that it happened so soon forpeople.
I refunded them all their moneyand just wore the loss and that
was it.
And then it was back to thedrawing board again and that's
where we ended up coming up withthe plant-based frame.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
So yeah, like there's all of that like um, can you
break them like?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
oh yeah, you can you can I mean I've chucked them off
a second story balcony onto theconcrete to see what would
happen and there was literallynot a scratch on them.
I haven't broken a pair yet andI've broken a lot of sunnies
like I'll scratch an impactresistant lenses.
So you can sort of drop them,toss, toss them around, chuck
them in your bag or whatever.
If they're in your pocketrubbing up against keys or
something, they're pretty solid.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah, I was saying to you the other day, like a
bloody scratch mine up on theweekend at the farm.
I don't even know how they gotscratched, but like, literally
in the centre of one side it'sgot this big scratch and now I
put them on.
I'm like focused on that,scratch, it's trying to be nuts,
yeah, yeah, and your boxes, allyour boxes.
Your packaging is all bamboo.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We got the bamboo slide-outcases, which are cool.
They've actually got a littlemagnet in the bottom of the
drawer, which I didn't even knowwas part of the thing until I
got them, so the drawer doesn'teven slide out of the bottom.
I'm like, oh, they've thoughtof everything in here.
But yeah, we use alleco-friendly packaging.
We use heaps of good packagingthat's compostable for our
mailers and yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
That's awesome, mate, awesome.
So what's the plan now?
So you're obviously stuck intoit again.
You've got some new like at themoment.
What have you got?
Three different types.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
We've got seven styles on the website.
We've got four of them sold outat the moment, so we've got
three in stock.
Yeah, we've just been really.
These two here are our two bestsellers.
So we've really been focusingon those last year, just trying
to prove ourselves in the market, build a brand, build a
(20:33):
presence and, yeah, justestablish ourselves as someone
in the industry.
You know people can trust andthey can buy from us and they
know they're going to get a goodproduct.
And now that we've sort ofgotten our space in the market,
we're really going to focus onexpanding our range coming into
the end of this year and throughnext year as well.
So that's going to be massive.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, I know you can't talk about it, but you've
got a range coming out that'sgoing to suit the construction
industry.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Yes, we do, yeah, yeah, very excited about that.
It'll be australia's first ofits type.
Um, perfect for theconstruction industry being a
plumber as well.
Like just kind of went hand inhand and, yeah, I'm looking
forward to that yeah, no,definitely I'll.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Uh, I'll be mentioning it to the list and
stuff like let us know when,when you're ready to release
that and we can help you outthere.
But sunglasses, I know, evenjust looking at my own team mate
, it's like every time you go tosite, every fortnight or so,
they've got different pairs ofsunnies on.
Nothing lasts on a job site.
So having a good, hard-wearingpair of sunglasses but, as you
(21:35):
say, next year having theprotection and that on them as
well, that's just going to benext level, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I mean, we've had heaps of heaps of like
compliments and heaps of reallygood feedback about the
durability of our sunnies, andit was through that feedback
that we started promoting themas a durable pair of sunnies.
Like, I didn't go into it withthat approach initially, and it
was everyone's first reactionwas like, far out, these things
(22:01):
feel really solid, and thenthey'd wear them for ages and
they wouldn't.
They'd be fine, they wouldn'tbe broken, they wouldn't be
scratched up and they'd becovered in dust and everything,
but they'd still be good.
Um, and that was when Irealized like, oh shit, these
actually are really strongsunnies.
That's, that's sort of our newmarketing angle.
And then, yeah, so I startedadvertising them like for
tradies as well.
(22:21):
But you get a bit of backlashon that on, you know, as you do
on social media, regardless,there's people commenting all
sorts of shit on there, but, um,the more haters mate, it means,
the better you do it.
Yeah that's right, yeah, but soa bit of backlash not being
safety certified.
Um, you know you can't sellthese to tradies if they're not
safety certified.
And yeah, I just said, well,they're not and we've clearly
(22:42):
said that they're not.
But I don't wear safeties onsite and I know lots of people
who don't wear safeties on site.
They'd prefer to just have apair of sunnies.
Who am I to tell them whatsunnies to wear If they want to
buy mine've worn mine at worksince I've had the business and
absolutely smashed them like onthe quick cut, getting covered
in concrete splatters and, youknow, dust and all sorts of
(23:04):
stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
So yeah, they are good, but we don't condone
wearing sunnies where you'resupposed to be wearing sunnies.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
No, that's right.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Again, like you've obviously taken that into
consideration, because that'swhat you're working towards
Exactly yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, we're going to move into a safety range.
Yeah, we're really excitedabout it, so that'll be cool.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Mate, I'm keen to see them because I don't know if
anyone else knows.
But out there, I don't know ofany good-looking safety glasses.
Yeah, they're all shit.
Yeah, most of them are.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I mean, there are lots of other brands that sort
of do have a bit of a safetyrange now.
But you know, the way I see itis that, like I'm not coming in
to try and take over the market,I like to think that there's
enough people for everybody whowants to give it a crack.
You know, there's not going tobe 100,000 different Sonny's
brands all going to give it a goat the same time.
(23:55):
There's enough and there'senough people in here to satisfy
everybody and for everybody tohave a successful business.
I think so.
Yeah, obviously we want to growand and be the best business
that we can, but, um, so do allthe other sunny's businesses and
there's enough people foreverybody to do that, I think so
what's the biggest?
Speaker 1 (24:15):
just back to what they're made out of, like what's
?
I'm all for sustainability.
I think, um, I do thinksustainability is a word that's
thrown around these days likeridiculously like yeah, yeah um,
like what are not.
What's a normal pair of sunniesmade of is just all plastics
yes, it's all virgin plastic.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, petroleum-based plastic.
So these are plant-basedplastic, which is what makes
them different to thepetroleum-based plastics and
better for the environment.
But then for us, like we arevery cautious about that too.
We went pretty heavy on thesustainability, eco-friendly
side of things initially as well, because it was something that
I was so passionate about and Iwanted I was loud and proud
about it.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Um, so where's the where's that passion come from?
Like is that just?
Been like hanging around thebeach and stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
It's evolved, but yeah, I think mostly because
I've lived near the beach mywhole life.
I've pretty much been inwalking distance to the beach
since I was a kid, always sortof surfed and loved that and
then as I've gotten older, I'veactually got a lot into like
meditation and self-awarenessand mindfulness practices and
(25:20):
that's sort of where it allevolved.
You know healthy daily habitsand diet and things like that.
You'll never catch me buying asmoko lunch from the server or
anything like that.
Everything's always made thenight before and just those
little disciplines.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
You're fitting in well on this podcast.
I am my big.
One of my big sayings is likeif you're not right, nothing
around you can be right yeah,yeah, um but it's like everyone
talks about it like it's woo-wooshit, but like when you get in
that zone where you're moreconnected with yourself, that's
where you're going to find yourpurpose, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
yeah, absolutely yeah , and you do like you do get
this self-awareness that youwouldn't have otherwise got and
you almost like, yeah, you can't.
It makes you feel good.
It makes you feel good, itmakes you see things through a
different lens and it makes youappreciate more and be grateful
for more.
And you know, I've lived on theGold Coast for since 2019.
(26:18):
So, going on six years and andI still walk down to the beach
and, and you know, my partnerand I look at each other when
we're walking on the beach andwe go how lucky are we to live
here, like this is so beautifuland there's too many people out
there that just walk straightpast, they don't even look, they
don't even think.
Think about that, and it's justthose little things that, like
(26:39):
makes me feel better.
And, yeah, that's where my, my,the evolution and my passion
for, you know, environmentalhealth and well-being has sort
of stemmed from good gratitude ahundred percent yeah the um
geez, we could take this wholepodcast off.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Another tangent like yeah, but like again, it just
ties in with what you're doing.
Like you, you're tying that inwith your business being more
sustainable, like coming up witha product that um fulfills you
yeah, so many people in life andthat look.
To be honest, that's the mainreason I wanted to get you on
the podcast, because to see yougo from a tradie and to hear
your story, um, getting into thedrugs and the alcohol and the
(27:15):
party and stuff and then to comeout the other side and put time
, effort, money into this, likemake those losses and then still
keep pushing yeah, like it saysa lot about you, but for me
it's really inspiring and I'msure for a lot of people
listening and watching thepodcast it'll be inspiring as
well.
Like, what would you say topeople out there that are just
dragging their feet every day,not sure what they're doing is
(27:38):
right for them?
Like any advice you've got forthose sort of people?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, you know there's, the world is you can do
anything.
These days you can literally doanything and it only takes a
good amount of effort and energyand discipline.
But it doesn't really take thatmuch time to completely change
your life.
Like if you're unhappy withwhere you are or what you're
(28:04):
doing, you can change that insix or twelve months.
These days we've got everythingat our fingertips.
We've got youtube, the biggesteducation platform on the planet
.
You can learn whatever you wanton there so I think, um, you
know, just committing to it,going for it, backing yourself,
that's the biggest one.
I mean, you mentioned somethingearlier about failures not
(28:27):
stopping you but learning fromthem and moving forward.
And I read a book last year Idon't read many books, but I try
to and I read, read, think andGrow Rich.
And in that book he says youknow, failure, a failure is not
a failure until you quit.
It's temporary defeat and thathas.
That's probably the biggestthing that I've taken away from
(28:48):
that book and that has gotten methrough so many challenges with
this business, because that,you know, it's been an absolute
rollercoaster and an emotionalrollercoaster and some days and
weeks and months are sostressful and you lose money,
you're not getting the sales andyou're pumping all this money
into ads and you're showing upevery day on social media and
you're not getting the tractionthat you think you should be
(29:10):
getting.
And then having that mindset tojust look, instead of like
dwelling on it, learning from it, trying to find why it didn't
work and then what did work andthen, like you know, reiterating
on what did work to try and getbetter for the next time and
the next time and the next timeand using those setbacks as
(29:30):
temporary to feed, learning fromthem and moving forward is the
biggest thing.
And that's going to come witheverything in your life.
You're going to experience that.
So, for somebody who wants toget out of the trade or do
something new with their life,or even stay in the trade maybe
they want to start their ownbusiness they're too scared, or
something like that like you'regoing to come up against a lot
of challenges and a lot ofsetbacks, but you've just got to
look at what failed, whatworked, and you know, do less of
(29:54):
what didn't work.
Do less of what didn't work.
Do more of what did work.
And it sounds easy, but it takestime, it's just practice.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
So look, so many people hold themselves back
because they keepsecond-guessing everything Like
oh, I don't know how to run abusiness, I don't have enough
cash, like I'm sure you've beenthrough all those thoughts.
Oh yeah, you've pushed on andlike I'm guessing it's like any
other business you've got tomake outlays before you get
(30:21):
money back in the door like yeah, for sure you've got to take
risks to get reward, don't you?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
absolutely yeah, I mean only only a few months ago
we had the credit card up to 40grand because we wanted to buy
heaps of stock in anticipationfor, you know, growth and I
didn't have the cash flow comingin to buy all the stock that we
needed.
So I got the Amex credit cardand sent it to the roof.
(30:45):
And my partner is a lot moreconservative than me and she's
freaking out and I'm kind offreaking out too but I'm like.
I think I know what I'm doing.
Like we need the stock,otherwise we're not going to
have a business business.
So I don't really see anotherway around this.
Like we just got to spend itand get it and yeah, you know
you do have to take thosechances.
100%, you're not going to getanywhere if you don't take risks
(31:07):
100%.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
What you put out to the universe, the universe
generally gives you back.
Yeah, exactly I think itrewards?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
I like to think that the universe rewards people who
are courageous and take bigswings and and big action.
Um, yeah, you know, if you'vegot a, if you've got a vision,
and you know your why, deep down, you know why you're doing it,
um, and you have that beliefthat it's possible and you can
do it, and then you take bigaction to get it done, then
(31:34):
things, things fall into placefor you and it's not a
coincidence.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Mate, you need to use some of this shit on your
socials.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah.
Stop talking about the sunniesand talk about oh mate, it's
actually good to have thisconversation because I am very
like spiritual and I do believea lot in that sort of stuff and
the universe and you know thepower that it has and the power
of your mind and all of thatsort of stuff and the universe
and you know the power that ithas and the power of your mind
and all of that sort of stuff,and it's nice to be able to talk
(32:03):
to somebody about it, becausenot many people do have that
same awareness.
And you know when things aretough.
That's been one of my biggestthings lately is getting back
into meditation as well.
I used to do it a lot when Iwas like a few years ago, when I
was still living in Melbourne,I was meditating a lot.
When I was like a few years ago, when I was still living in
Melbourne, I was meditating alot.
That's where I got into it.
And then, you know, trying tohave a gym routine in the
morning, up at four o'clock forgym in the morning.
(32:24):
You know I don't really want toget up any earlier so I can
meditate.
So you know, a few things yougot to try and prioritize, but
now I probably only meditatemaybe a couple of times a week,
but they're good, they're deepand they could last 20 minutes
or 30 minutes or something likethat, and that's been enough to
keep me level-headed andgrounded enough for the
(32:45):
turbulence of running your ownbusiness to not let that affect
you so much and you can justsort of You've got to find your
own thing, don't you Like I'mnot?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
well, I shouldn't say I'm not because I've never
really done meditation, but forme it's like routines massive.
You've got to have a structuredroutine.
If I don't have a routine, Ijust fall off the rails.
Mate.
Within a couple of days I canbe back doing shitty old habits.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
But I guess my meditation like I'm up early
with my dog and like walking outin the bush here up and down
the hills and like it's just onmy own, listening to the birds
seeing the sun come up.
Everybody needs to find that onething that just chills them out
, yeah, 100, yeah, if you're nottaking that bit of time out for
yourself and that's where allmy ideas come from like I can be
(33:30):
having this, I can have theshittiest things going on in my
life, but finding that time outto do that with my best buddy,
my dog, and just chilling outlike I come home and the same as
you, like I don't do that everyday, yeah, like I try to get in
three, sometimes four, a week,um, but you come back from them
and you just feel like you'rerecharged like right, oh, what's
(33:51):
next?
let's go like yeah, you cansolve all the world's problems
yeah but if you're not takingthat time out for yourself and
you just head down, bum up everyday and just stuck in the grind
and every day is going to justkeep compounding and getting
worse and worse and worse untileventually, you've lost your
passion, you've lost your bloodylove for life, and all you're
(34:11):
doing is whinging and bickeringabout everything.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, exactly right.
Yeah, and it's massive for mebecause, you know, having a
business, an online business I'mon when I'm not plumbing.
I'm still plumbing a couple ofdays a week at the moment,
subcontracting.
So I'm in a bit of a transitionperiod getting getting off the
tools completely, learning howto pay myself from the business
rather than putting everythingback in and stuff like that.
But having a business that isheavily on the laptop and on my
(34:35):
phone, on instagram and dmingpeople and just being as present
as I can in growing thatbusiness, you really have to
learn to put it down and turn itoff.
Put it on, do not disturb and,you know, spend time with
yourself and spend time with mypartner and leave it at home, go
for a beach walk and do allthose things because they do
really bring you back to who youare and it just clears your
(34:58):
mind so much.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
You just feel way less busy.
Yeah, so, mate, what's next?
You're going to continue withthe lines you've got now.
You're working on this safetyone coming in the future.
Is it just going to be sunnies,or is there other things you'd
like to venture into?
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Look, it's funny that you ask I've got an idea.
I've got a really really coolidea in the in the surf industry
.
Um don't.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Don't give it away.
We're working on somethingthere at the moment.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
But yeah, that's a.
That's a long way ahead, but atthe moment it's just sunnies.
All my focus is on the sunnies.
We're just.
I want to be able to expandthese businesses until I can get
off the tools completely.
Uh, my partner's all into itnow as well.
She loves it.
She's my biggest supporter.
It's turned into her dream aswell, so we would both love to
(35:50):
be able to run the brand fulltime.
You know, end up with awarehouse one day, and you know
the whole.
Thing big business.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Everyone knows us, Everyone listening and watching
this podcast.
Make sure you reach out to Shshade it's shade.
Underscore.
Underscore iwear yeah, yeah,that's the instagram handle
we'll put your links and stuffand um website and that on the
podcast and that as well.
But yeah, cool make sure youreach out to sam and support him
because, like one thing Ireally hate about australia is
like we all talk people up andwant it and say, like people
(36:23):
want them to do well, but thenwhen they start doing well,
everyone's first to bag out orwant you to fail.
I'm the opposite, mate.
Like I think we all should getbehind people.
Like I hope all the listenersand the people watching reach
out to you and make contact.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
They may not buy straight away but hopefully in
the future they'll grabsomething off you because, like,
we need to support people thatare taking risk and putting
themselves out there and havinga fucking go like yeah,
absolutely, that's what that'swhat's exciting like we live in
a country that gives us so manyopportunities like support
people that have a crack yeah,absolutely, and it's the people,
it's those people that areputting themselves out there
(36:58):
that need, need the most support, because they're you know,
they're shitting themselves.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Really, they might look confident in front of the
camera, but you they're shittingthemselves.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
really.
They might look confident infront of the camera but they're
shitting bricks.
They're doing stuff they'venever done before, hoping for
the best and hoping that theycan get support from people they
don't know.
And that's been the best thingfor me putting myself in front
of the camera, sort of buildingit as a personal brand, like.
We get so much feedback frompeople in our emails and in our
Instagram messages and peoplejust straight up saying hey Sam,
(37:25):
hey Sammy like calling me by myfirst name in the messages,
people I've never met Love thesunnies, love what you're doing.
You know, keep it up.
All this sort of encouragementand all this positive feedback
and yeah, you know, it's enoughto keep me going it feels
amazing when I get a messagelike that.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I love it.
Don't get embarrassed by this.
Like when we started recording,before I looked over, and like
your hand was shaking on thechair.
Like you're genuine.
You're genuine mate.
Like I think that says a lotabout you, but you were saying
before we started recording.
Like you've only been puttingyourself out there on camera for
a bit over 12 months yeah yeah,I.
(38:00):
I was similar like Like I usedto get pestered by a marketing
lady and my wife for a long timeto put myself on socials and I
just wouldn't, I didn't want tobar of it.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
But, now.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Social media is such an incredibly powerful tool for
all of my businesses and Iencourage it more than anything
Like.
It's a free tool and for meit's all about that personal
connection by you and I andother people putting ourselves
out there and doing videos, likepeople get to know you before
they even reach out.
Like you said, they're callingyou by your first name by
(38:33):
listening to your voice, they'vebuilt a relationship with you
without you even knowing it.
Um, but what?
What made you take the leap toto start putting yourself out
there?
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Uh, it was a.
It was a setback, it was atemporary defeat.
I hired a guy to do some videoads for me, cost me thousands,
two months worth of content, andI borrowed money for it
borrowed money from my mom,borrowed money from my partner
and the ads were.
They were epic.
The content was awesome, butthey just didn't convert.
(39:06):
You know, they didn't directlyrelate to sales in the ad
account and I was.
I was shitting myself, Ipanicked.
I'm like, fuck, what am I gonnado now?
Um, you know, got no money, owepeople money.
Sales are slow.
These ads aren't doing what Ithought they were going to do.
I'm going to sit on the balcony.
My girlfriend's a hairdresser,so she's got a tripod for her
(39:29):
work when she films afters andwhatever.
And so, yeah, I set the tripodup out on the balcony, had my
sunnies like you know, I'm samshade, I wear these are our
sunnies.
It's the most awkward,embarrassing video of myself
I've ever seen.
It was the first one I did andthat ad just started getting
sales straight away.
And then, oh well, you knowwhat do you do?
(39:51):
I've got to keep making morevideos like this.
I guess this is what's working.
And then, yeah, after a fewmonths you just get a bit more
confident and then you starttelling a bit more of your story
, not just like directly tryingto sell your products.
Then you can start sort oftrying to be a bit more
relatable and build thatcommunity and you know, show who
you really are and be authentic.
And yeah, it just expands fromthere.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Mate, it's incredibly powerful stuff.
Like you're what I tell peopleall the time.
Like you're connecting with thepeople you want to sell to like
the people you want buying yourproduct whether it's a house, a
sunnies, a course, it doesn'tmatter.
But it shits me.
All the time you hear so manypeople spending a lot of money
(40:33):
because those companies thatcome in and do those campaigns
they don't miss you, but theydon't get that authenticity.
They don't get that real youbut they don't get that
authenticity.
They don't get that real you.
And I think the one danger toit is that it becomes very hard
to sell a business when you'rethe face of it.
But these days it's all aboutpersonal business.
(40:58):
I think they're saying now Idon't know the exact stats, but
personal brands are quickly.
I think they're saying in thenext couple of know the exact
stats, but like personal brandsare quickly, like I think
they're saying in the nextcouple of years will be the
biggest businesses in the world100%.
yeah, Because people get thatpersonal connection yeah exactly
, and you see it.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
You see it everywhere .
Like you know, I don't know whoyou follow on Instagram or
whatever, but you know there'ssome big names.
It even starts from like theTony Robbins and the Alex
Ramoses and Gary Vee and stufflike that.
They're the sort of people thatI watch online and see big, big
personal brands.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Well, alex Ramoses is a perfect example, mate.
Like only a couple of weeks ago, he broke the world record for
the amount of sales in 10 hours.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
It's wild, isn't it Like?
Speaker 1 (41:37):
150 million US, so like 260 million australian or
something yeah, it's crazy like,but that's all built on the
back of a personal brand.
It's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yeah, and now you see , you see all sorts of people
blowing up for all sorts ofreasons on social media and it
doesn't have to be anythingcrazy or new, but it's just
putting yourself out there beingconsistent if you've got, if
you've got a niche or if you'vegot something that you want to
do, and you start puttingyourself out there being
consistent If you've got a nicheor if you've got something that
you want to do, and you startputting yourself out there and
it kicks off like it couldchange your life in a matter of
(42:09):
months, like it happens so quick.
Social media is just reachingso many people on a level that
no one's ever seen before andthat's the most powerful thing
is like you really can reach theworld with your content but
that that personal connection isthe perfect client.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Like it doesn't matter whether you're a builder
building two or three homes, aplumber doing 50 jobs a year, or
someone like yourself that'strying to sell hundreds of
thousands of pairs of sunglasses.
Like as soon as you make thatpersonal connection, like
they're buying, like there'senough.
Like you said, there's enoughpeople in the world to buy
enough sunglasses of everysunglass company.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
But if they're buying off you because they're
personally connected there, theyvalue your story.
But that is the perfect client,because as long as the
product's good, the support'sgood, all that type of stuff,
they will keep coming back.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, what else doyou want?
Yeah, yeah, it's good.
I'm, I'm very, very, very proudof myself for like moving into
that direction and and andcreating like a personable brand
, because it's opened up so manyopportunities like this as well
.
You know, if I was a facelesssunny's brand and no one knew
(43:21):
who the founder was, I wouldn'tbe here right now.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
So it really opens a lot of doors for you yeah, I
only reached out to you becauseyou're a plumber yeah as soon as
I found out you're a plumber,I'm like sweet, like he's a
tradie, like let's have a chatyeah yeah, but, um, I just think
it's unreal, mate.
But this I just want to go back, because you just uh talked
about it like your growth comefrom a failure.
Yeah, like having that companythat didn't work, like you could
(43:47):
easily throw your hands in theair, going fuck it, like I'm out
, like I can't afford to doanything, or you obviously made
the right decision and you justput yourself out there.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yeah, exactly yeah.
It's just another temporarydefeat, isn't it?
It's just another lesson If youwant it bad enough, you'll make
it work, and if you don't makeit work, it means you've quit
and you didn't want it badenough or as bad as what you
thought you did.
So unless you really putyourself into the hole here, max
that credit card out to 100grand, you can't get out of it.
Obviously, everything, all therisks you've got to take, you've
(44:18):
got to take, you've got to becalculated at the same time.
But yeah, you've got to takebig swings and you've got to.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
you've got to keep moving forward when things get
tough and when challenges comeup yep, well, look, I really
genuinely appreciate you um,like you've driven up from the
gold this afternoon.
I appreciate your time.
Appreciate you um bringing up afew pairs of sunglasses.
I'll, um, I'll definitelycamille's gonna get them on.
I going to have to get ahaircut or change my hat or
something I'm keen to startsupporting them, mate, and I'll
(44:46):
tag you in my posts and things,but look guys really get behind
Sam and Shade Sonny.
He's a great business, as you'veheard today, great story, great
young guy, and we need tosupport local Aussie businesses
and especially ones that aredoing great things for the
environment and coming up withnew ideas and stuff, and not
only that, like they're afucking good-looking pair of
(45:07):
sunnies.
So like and strong, Like thatwas the first thing.
When I got them out of the box,mate, I was like holy shit.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Actually one thing I haven't even asked you or
checked with you yet.
Do you do polarized?
Speaker 2 (45:21):
They're all polarized , yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
And so like I guess to go back a little bit, I buy
really good quality polarizedsunnies because when we go up
our farm and we got a creek inthat and we go fishing for
mangrove jack and that it makesa massive difference just having
good sunnies that can see inthe water especially like when
you're throwing cast nets andthings so um, I'll be checking
I'll be taking.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
We're going to the farm tomorrow, mate, so I'll be
testing them out but um, butI've always found those.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
I don't know why.
They just seem to get damaged,like when you're on the tinny or
you throw them in your tacklebox, or you're in the like on
the quad bike at the farm orwhatever, and you take them off
and you throw them in the glovebox.
I don't know.
They're obviously not goodquality because they get
scratched.
So easily.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Well, give them a run and let me know how they go,
Chuck them in the glove box andsmash them around on the farm
and give us an update in acouple of months and see how
they're holding up.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Definitely will.
I definitely will.
But, mate, before we get out ofof here, any last words for
people that listen anything youwant to put out there um, I just
want to say thanks for havingme here and, yeah, it's been an
awesome experience coming onfirst podcast.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Hand was shaking, my heart was beating out of my
chest, I was shitting myselfwhen I got here, but uh, yeah,
I've really enjoyed it, reallyenjoyed telling my story.
And, yeah, to anybody listeningor watching um shade eyewear,
check us out on instagram, sendme a message.
I'll reply to everyone.
And, um, yeah, thank you noworries, mate.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Well, look guys as usual.
Uh, stay tuned.
Make sure you like subscribeall those types of things.
Go and check out shade eyewear.
Make sure you um startfollowing them as well.
Check those guys out.
But, um, if you haven't seen ityet which I'm sure you have you
need to get over thedwaynepeircecom website.
Check out our line of merch.
It's all there.
So get behind the level upmovement and we'll see you on
(47:09):
the next podcast.
So many people spend too much time worrying about and
thinking about what they didwrong instead of treating it
like you are, Like I said, thatwhole gap and gain thing.
You're more focused about it.
You've had that experience,you've learnt from it and now
you're moving on.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I made a lot of questionable choices, did a lot
of bad things and upset myfamily and a lot of people and
stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
But I was raised.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, I was always a good person.
I just got caught up in thewrong scene and I still don't
regret any of it today, and I'mactually grateful that I got
that out of my system in myearly 20s and I couldn't think
of anything worse than doingthat like now.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
But everybody has challenges and failures.
And the difference betweensomeone that ends up being very
successful and someone that'snot is the people that view
those failures and challenges aslearning experiences.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, you can do anything.
These days you can literally doanything and it takes a good
amount of effort and energy anddiscipline, but it doesn't
really take that much time tocompletely change your life.
Like, if you're unhappy withwhere you are or what you're
doing, you can change that insix or 12 months.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
G'day guys.
Welcome back to another episodeof Level Up.
We are back in the shed thisafternoon for another cracking
episode.
I am pumped about this onebecause I literally only met
this guy personally 20 minutesago probably not even that and
I'm really keen to have a chatto him today, hear his story and
where he's come from, becauseit's quite incredible.
(01:29):
But, more importantly, he'sbroken away from the building
industry to create a productthat ultimately, most tradies
and builders wear.
So a big warm welcome.
To Sam from Shade Eyewear howare you, buddy?
Yeah, good, dwayne, thanks forhaving me mate.
To Sam from Shade Eyewear howare you, buddy?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, good, dwayne, thanks for having me mate so
mate, how do you go from being aplumber to being a sunglass
manufacturer?
Well, I'm definitely not amanufacturer.
I mean, we've got our suppliesthat we deal with.
But it's been a long journey,that's for sure.
I think it was a vision yearsago that I just wanted to get
off the tools and get out of thetrade and do something
(02:08):
different with my life andcreate something that was more
meaningful for me and felt morefulfilling for me than being a
plumber, and that's where it allstarted.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Mate, that's unreal because you hear so many people
in the industry that just havelost their passion.
They hate it.
And lots of people have theseideas but they just never follow
through or do anything about it.
So before we get into thesunnies in more detail, can we
go back to the early days?
How you got into the trade, Iguess, and where you come from?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah well, I'm from the Mornington Peninsula in
Victoria, pretty small sort oftown, vibes, sort of town vibes.
Um, in school I sort of onlyfelt like I had a trade to go
into there.
Wasn't there, wasn't reallylike, didn't seem like there was
that many other options.
What?
Why was that, you reckon?
Uh, I think it was just justthe area that we're in, maybe
(02:58):
the upbringing that I had aswell.
Mom was a hard worker, dad wasa boiler maker.
That's's kind of what I knew.
Everyone above me older than me, were in a trade.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Were you good at school?
Were you one of those kids like, oh, I was at gun and shit all
the time and didn't want to bethere?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I was smart, I was good at classes, I behaved
myself and applied myself.
But I also became pretty cheekyand pretty naughty in my later
years as well, got up, startedgetting up to a bit of trouble
and doing some naughty things.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah.
So yeah, what like did you knowwhat trade you wanted to be, or
you just fell into plumbing.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I actually wanted to be a chippy all through school
when I was younger.
I actually I was surfing when Iwas younger and I did some work
experience with a surfboardding repair place and I was
fixing boards for about sixmonths and that was awesome and
I thought I'm just gonna do this.
You know, the guy who wasworking for the boss was coming
in at like 9 30 in the morningafter a surf in the morning and
(03:56):
I thought, oh, this is a greatlifestyle, I want to do this.
And my dad's like, hey, mate,there's not much money in
surfboard repairs, maybe youwant to think about something
else.
Yeah, so I thought I wanted tobe a chippy.
I liked the idea of building ahouse from start to finish and I
did a lot of work experiencefor chippies.
And then there was I would havebeen 17, year 12, and there was
(04:20):
like a school holidays and thebuilder that I've been working
for on and off doing workexperience, for he didn't have
any carpentry work for me, buthe had plumbing work with his
son who was doing like 10 unitsor something like that.
So I went to work for a week ortwo with him and he was you
know, I was 17.
He was probably 30 at the time.
(04:42):
I looked up to him like he was,you know, so much older than me
and so much wiser than me.
But there was VBs in the fridgeevery day after work and we did
, you know, we did a couple ofdrains, we did a couple of rough
ins and we had a bit ofeverything going on because
there was 10 units to build andI think, just that lifestyle
being around somebody who Ithought was really cool and
drinking beers after work, Ithought, oh fuck, maybe I want
(05:04):
to be a plumber instead.
So I literally changed my mindin that couple of weeks and then
, maybe a couple months later, Igot an apprenticeship.
It's unreal.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
What can entice you when you're young?
Hey into working.
Oh yeah, easily influenced yeah, so did you finish your
apprenticeship so did you finishyour apprenticeship?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
yeah, so I started an apprenticeship doing volume
builders and we were just doingum like metric on homes and all
that sort of thing, smashingthem out hard, really hard work,
sort of stuff, um, and I did acouple of years of that but I
was getting a bit naughtier anda bit cheaper as I than I was
when I was towards the end ofschool and then I started to get
into the party scene really,really bad.
(05:50):
So then I spent yeah, I spent acouple of years getting worse
and worse and then I actuallyended up giving up my
apprenticeship, quit my job.
I was like sleeping in all thetime because I was not sleeping
on the weekends and so yeah, Iwas late.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You must have been having a good time, buddy.
Oh, I had a great time.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Don't get me wrong.
Heaps of fun I still you knowthere's lots of.
I still have lots of closefriends from who I met through
that whole scene and stuff likethat.
But I was pretty much going tothe city every weekend in
Melbourne and just partying forlike three days straight and
then coming home and you knowwondering why I'm fighting with
my boss on a Tuesday morning androcking up late.
(06:32):
So he kind of had enough of me.
I started getting a few writtenwarnings for just some dumb shit
and yeah.
So I ended up pretty muchcoming in and just said, oh,
screw you, I don't need to workanyway.
So that was it, threw it in,kept partying for like a year,
sort of had a couple of littlejobs like window cleaning and
stuff that I didn't really holdonto for very long through that
(06:54):
time, and then I sort of finallystarted to pull my shit
together and I went and gotanother apprenticeship and then
I went back to trade school andthat's where it really slapped
me in the face, because all theboys that I was at trade school
with for my first couple ofyears, they were all doing their
journeymans and finishing andabout to get signed off and I
still had a whole other yearahead of me and I thought like
(07:17):
fuck, I really just wasted thattime, you know, partying and
being a feral Look.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
everyone's got to grow up and have have life's all
about experiences, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
100.
Yeah, and I to this day, like Idid.
I made a lot of questionablechoices, did a lot of bad things
and upset my family and a lotof people and stuff like that,
but I still was.
Yeah, I was raised well, I wasalways a good person.
I just got caught up in thewrong scene and I still don't
regret any of it today and I'mactually grateful that I got
that out of my system in myearly 20s, because I see people
(07:48):
now I'm 32 now and I see peoplenow who are going off the rails
in their 30s and, like now I'myou know, I've got my shit back
together and so do most of mymates, because we all did it
when we were younger and Icouldn't think of anything worse
than doing that like now yeahit good outlook, mate, because,
like so many people, spend toomuch time worrying about and
thinking about what they didwrong instead of treating it
(08:10):
like you are and, like I said,whole gap and gain thing like
you're more focused about.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
you've had that experience, you've learnt from
it and now you're moving on.
You've got no regrets.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah yeah, it's a good way to live life.
Yeah, exactly, I mean way tolive life.
Yeah, exactly, I mean you can't, you can't hold on to the past,
can you?
It doesn't get you anywhere.
You got to keep looking forwardand just, I'm not saying
everyone should go out and partyand get on the drugs and the
piss all the time but yeah, likeyou've got to live life, don't
you?
yeah, for sure yeah, yeah, Imean yeah, if I had my time
again, I would still do thingsvery similarly.
(08:41):
I think, um, I probablywouldn't have gone down that
rabbit hole as hard as I did ifI had have known, and I probably
would have spent some more timein my 20s thinking about my
future.
But you know, it is what it isand I'm here now and I'm happy
and I've got a good life and, uh, yeah, so it's made me who I am
today, that's for sure yeah,right, so I assume we're getting
(09:02):
closer to the sunny, so howlike you finished, your finished
your time.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And then when did you move up to Queensland?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I moved up to Queensland at the end of 2019,
right before COVID.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
So that was good timing.
All my friends and family gotlocked down and everything in
Victoria.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So, yeah, I moved up there, but I'd already actually
started the Sunnies a few yearsprior to that, so it was when
Facebook ads and social mediasort of really started kicking
off.
It was all pretty fresh stillthen and you could see, you know
that laptop lifestyle, I guess,being presented everywhere,
(09:44):
everywhere, and you're like, howgood is this?
People are just making moneyfrom their laptop on a piece of
this.
And at the same time I'dalready had a few plumbing
bosses who I didn't look up toat all, like I had a.
I had some bosses that weregreat people and I got along
with them awesome but their lifeand their lifestyle I just
didn't envy at all.
They were, they were coming towork and working longer hours
(10:09):
and harder than any of theiremployees, taking home less
money.
I mean, yeah, the business islike accumulating money, but
they're paying themselves lessthan they were paying, like me
even, um, and then they weregoing home doing book work and
they weren't getting any timewith their family, they couldn't
go on holidays, they werestressed all the time, they had
builders and developers andstuff not paying and it just
(10:29):
didn't look like a lifestylethat I wanted from for myself or
from plumbing, and I thoughtabout it for a while, like
whether or not I want to have aplumbing business.
But try and break free fromthat, because that's all I could
see.
That was literally every bossthat I knew of was stressed,
overworked, not enough time withtheir family, missing kids,
(10:49):
birthdays like it's the mostcommon story in the industry.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Mate, like every, almost every trading builder,
that's what.
That's how they live in theirlife.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, yeah, it is, yeah, and I see people now like
having heart attacks and allsorts of things, super young and
they've got, you know, poordiets and poor life, you know
daily habits and stuff, becausethey're just so stressed and
overworked and they don't haveany time to implement any good
habits, and I thought I justdon't want that for myself at
all.
So that's where I sort ofstarted getting attracted to
(11:19):
that laptop lifestyle and I cantell you right now that having
an e-commerce business isabsolutely nothing like having
this glorious laptop lifestyle.
There's still so much workinvolved, but it's completely
different obviously that's all.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
You see.
That's why I reached out to you, because I stumbled across you
or someone might have eventagged um, sent you to me or
something I can't remember.
But as soon as I saw it andthen I found out your story,
that you're a plumber, and thenwhen we had that conversation
and you're still doing a bit ofplumbing on the side to fill the
gaps and things I just thinkit's an incredible story.
You see all that bullshit onsocial media these days and all
(11:55):
these people trying to sell hey,look at me, I'm travelling
Australia from making money onmy laptop.
There is a lot more work behindthe scenes.
It's no different to any otherbusiness.
You still have to have theproduct, find the product, sell
the product Like it's still abusiness.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
But like, how did you take that step?
Like, how did you learn to dowhat you're doing?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I did a course initially which taught me all
about online businesses, all thedifferent types of business
models, that that run online.
Um, you know, affiliatebusinesses that make money from
other businesses using yourplatform for ads.
Um, e-commerce, obviously,service-based businesses, all
(12:38):
sorts of stuff and I did acourse learning all about those
and it was about how to mostlyevaluate a business to buy
rather than a start-up, becausestart-ups are just so hard to
get going, especially in, youknow, online spaces getting more
and more saturated every day.
So, yeah, I did this course,learned all about it.
(13:00):
There was a business for sale atthe time Shade Supply Store,
and it was like festival.
It was dropshipping festivalsunnies straight from China.
I held no stock, so I ended upbuying that business, massively
overpaid for it, thought Ivalued it well, had no idea what
I was doing.
Um, you know, like the, the adaccount I didn't even get the ad
(13:25):
account with the business, butthe ad accounts where it stores
all the data from your customersand everything like that, like
didn't even realize that thatwas like a bad thing at the time
.
So that was where all the valuewas that was where all the value
was yeah, this whole businessthat I bought relied on ads and
I didn't even get the ad accountwith it, like so naive.
And then, anyway, I I watched aheap of youtube videos hours
(13:47):
and hours and hours and learnedhow to run facebook ads and um
from youtube.
And then for the first threemonths that business actually
did pretty well.
I got one of the styles backand figured some things out,
started sending a few emails andwe actually made like 12 grand
profit in the first three monthsof business.
(14:07):
And that was from having noexperience whatever, still
plumbing full time.
And then I was like, oh, howeasy is this?
You know I can do it, this iseasy.
I'm going to get an agency.
Imagine what they can do.
And so I hired an agency fromMelbourne, spent all this money
getting models and videos doneand all of this stuff and pretty
(14:29):
much lost that $12,000 in thefirst six weeks of having this
agency.
It was a big lesson for me andthat pretty much just shut
everything down.
I sort of felt defeated afterthat and I just let it sit there
for like a couple of yearsafter that not doing anything.
(14:49):
And then, but I was stillplumbing full time and I still
wanted to have that.
Something like in the back ofmy mind just said, like keep it.
You still want to give it acrack one day.
You just don't know what that'sgoing to look like yet.
So I was still paying like themonthly fees to keep the website
live and all just the minimumexpenses that I could, but I
(15:10):
wasn't doing anything with it.
And then I moved to the GoldCoast and then we brought out a
wood pair of sunnies, becauseover that time my values had
changed.
I'd started getting a lot morepassionate about the environment
you know caring about plasticwaste and you know I wanted to
be able to contribute to thesolution, not be a part of the
(15:31):
problem.
I started being more consciouswith, like my own personal
consumption of plastic andthings like that so is that what
you mentioned before when westarted?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
that you wanted something that was more in line
with your values and yeah,purpose in life.
But um, just back to your story.
Like with the business side, Ithink, because it's something.
It doesn't matter what guests Ihave on the podcast, it's the
same story.
But everybody has challenges andfailures and the difference
between someone that ends upbeing very successful and
someone that's not is the peoplethat view those failures and
(16:03):
challenges as learningexperiences yeah, for sure if
you dwell on them and and focuson those, and how much money
you've lost and how much timeyou've wasted and all those
types of things you're notallowing yourself to grow and
for the business to succeed.
Yeah, so I think it's awesome,mate, that you've pushed through
and you've kept going yeah,cheers.
The lessons you've learntalready, even though you took a
(16:28):
couple of years off.
That's what's made you get towhere you are now.
Yeah, that's right, I shouldhave mentioned to people that
we've actually got a few of yoursunnies sitting on the table
here.
They're bloody awesome sunnies,and Camille and I just tried
them on.
I'm not cool enough for themyet.
I'm going to have to wait untilI get cooler before I can wear
them.
They're bloody awesome, sunnies.
(16:48):
They feel solid as they're, andI'm glad you're getting onto
that now, because I was reallykeen to know more about what
they're made of, because Ihaven't heard of any plant-based
sunglasses before.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, well, yeah, the sunnies are.
They're made from a plant-basedmaterial, cellulose acetate, so
it derives from wood pulpinstead of petroleum-based
plastic, so it's a much moreenvironmentally friendly option.
You know, everything's got themanufacturing process and
everything behind it, sonothing's perfect.
But because I'm so passionateabout it, we do lots of things
(17:18):
to try and offset the impactthat we do make.
So we've got like we offset allof our shipping carbon
emissions.
We support Sea ShepherdAustralia, so we contribute
monthly part of their directaction crew team and we
contribute to them every monthto support marine conservation.
And then we've also implementeda zero waste recycling program
(17:40):
with TerraCycle as well.
So now our customers can sendtheir old sunnies back to us and
we recycle them with ourrecycling partner and they
pretty much break down thematerials hinges, frames, lenses
, everything like that back totheir material and then
repurpose those.
And then other businesses buythose materials off them for
(18:01):
different things as well so itkeeps them out of landfill as
well.
So that's pretty cool, um.
But yeah, I was, like you know,young guy partying heaps,
snapping my sunnies all the time.
So I wanted a good pair ofsunnies.
But that's where we were up tobefore was my values wanting to
bring that sustainabilityapproach and aspect to the
(18:23):
business, and I thought if I'mgoing to stick with this
business then it needs to alignwith my values, because
otherwise I'm not going to bepassionate about it, I'm not
going to stick with it.
So we got all these wood onesin sort of relaunched the
business and they all kept onbreaking.
So they had this glue joint inthe timber right above one of
the lenses and pretty much everypair snapped and I I felt so
(18:44):
bad that it happened so soon forpeople.
I refunded them all their moneyand just wore the loss and that
was it.
And then it was back to thedrawing board again and that's
where we ended up coming up withthe plant-based frame.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
So yeah, like there's all of that like um, can you
break them like?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
oh yeah, you can you can I mean I've chucked them off
a second story balcony onto theconcrete to see what would
happen and there was literallynot a scratch on them.
I haven't broken a pair yet andI've broken a lot of sunnies
like I'll scratch an impactresistant lenses.
So you can sort of drop them,toss, toss them around, chuck
them in your bag or whatever.
If they're in your pocketrubbing up against keys or
something, they're pretty solid.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yeah, I was saying to you the other day, like a
bloody scratch mine up on theweekend at the farm.
I don't even know how they gotscratched, but like, literally
in the centre of one side it'sgot this big scratch and now I
put them on.
I'm like focused on that,scratch, it's trying to be nuts,
yeah, yeah, and your boxes, allyour boxes.
Your packaging is all bamboo.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We got the bamboo slide-outcases, which are cool.
They've actually got a littlemagnet in the bottom of the
drawer, which I didn't even knowwas part of the thing until I
got them, so the drawer doesn'teven slide out of the bottom.
I'm like, oh, they've thoughtof everything in here.
But yeah, we use alleco-friendly packaging.
We use heaps of good packagingthat's compostable for our
mailers and yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
That's awesome, mate, awesome.
So what's the plan now?
So you're obviously stuck intoit again.
You've got some new like at themoment.
What have you got?
Three different types.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
We've got seven styles on the website.
We've got four of them sold outat the moment, so we've got
three in stock.
Yeah, we've just been really.
These two here are our two bestsellers.
So we've really been focusingon those last year, just trying
to prove ourselves in the market, build a brand, build a
(20:33):
presence and, yeah, justestablish ourselves as someone
in the industry.
You know people can trust andthey can buy from us and they
know they're going to get a goodproduct.
And now that we've sort ofgotten our space in the market,
we're really going to focus onexpanding our range coming into
the end of this year and throughnext year as well.
So that's going to be massive.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, I know you can't talk about it, but you've
got a range coming out that'sgoing to suit the construction
industry.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Yes, we do, yeah, yeah, very excited about that.
It'll be australia's first ofits type.
Um, perfect for theconstruction industry being a
plumber as well.
Like just kind of went hand inhand and, yeah, I'm looking
forward to that yeah, no,definitely I'll.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Uh, I'll be mentioning it to the list and
stuff like let us know when,when you're ready to release
that and we can help you outthere.
But sunglasses, I know, evenjust looking at my own team mate
, it's like every time you go tosite, every fortnight or so,
they've got different pairs ofsunnies on.
Nothing lasts on a job site.
So having a good, hard-wearingpair of sunglasses but, as you
(21:35):
say, next year having theprotection and that on them as
well, that's just going to benext level, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I mean, we've had heaps of heaps of like
compliments and heaps of reallygood feedback about the
durability of our sunnies, andit was through that feedback
that we started promoting themas a durable pair of sunnies.
Like, I didn't go into it withthat approach initially, and it
was everyone's first reactionwas like, far out, these things
(22:01):
feel really solid, and thenthey'd wear them for ages and
they wouldn't.
They'd be fine, they wouldn'tbe broken, they wouldn't be
scratched up and they'd becovered in dust and everything,
but they'd still be good.
Um, and that was when Irealized like, oh shit, these
actually are really strongsunnies.
That's, that's sort of our newmarketing angle.
And then, yeah, so I startedadvertising them like for
tradies as well.
(22:21):
But you get a bit of backlashon that on, you know, as you do
on social media, regardless,there's people commenting all
sorts of shit on there, but, um,the more haters mate, it means,
the better you do it.
Yeah that's right, yeah, but soa bit of backlash not being
safety certified.
Um, you know you can't sellthese to tradies if they're not
safety certified.
And yeah, I just said, well,they're not and we've clearly
(22:42):
said that they're not.
But I don't wear safeties onsite and I know lots of people
who don't wear safeties on site.
They'd prefer to just have apair of sunnies.
Who am I to tell them whatsunnies to wear If they want to
buy mine've worn mine at worksince I've had the business and
absolutely smashed them like onthe quick cut, getting covered
in concrete splatters and, youknow, dust and all sorts of
(23:04):
stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
So yeah, they are good, but we don't condone
wearing sunnies where you'resupposed to be wearing sunnies.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
No, that's right.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Again, like you've obviously taken that into
consideration, because that'swhat you're working towards
Exactly yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, we're going to move into a safety range.
Yeah, we're really excitedabout it, so that'll be cool.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Mate, I'm keen to see them because I don't know if
anyone else knows.
But out there, I don't know ofany good-looking safety glasses.
Yeah, they're all shit.
Yeah, most of them are.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I mean, there are lots of other brands that sort
of do have a bit of a safetyrange now.
But you know, the way I see itis that, like I'm not coming in
to try and take over the market,I like to think that there's
enough people for everybody whowants to give it a crack.
You know, there's not going tobe 100,000 different Sonny's
brands all going to give it a goat the same time.
(23:55):
There's enough and there'senough people in here to satisfy
everybody and for everybody tohave a successful business.
I think so.
Yeah, obviously we want to growand and be the best business
that we can, but, um, so do allthe other sunny's businesses and
there's enough people foreverybody to do that, I think so
what's the biggest?
Speaker 1 (24:15):
just back to what they're made out of, like what's
?
I'm all for sustainability.
I think, um, I do thinksustainability is a word that's
thrown around these days likeridiculously like yeah, yeah um,
like what are not.
What's a normal pair of sunniesmade of is just all plastics
yes, it's all virgin plastic.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, petroleum-based plastic.
So these are plant-basedplastic, which is what makes
them different to thepetroleum-based plastics and
better for the environment.
But then for us, like we arevery cautious about that too.
We went pretty heavy on thesustainability, eco-friendly
side of things initially as well, because it was something that
I was so passionate about and Iwanted I was loud and proud
about it.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Um, so where's the where's that passion come from?
Like is that just?
Been like hanging around thebeach and stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
It's evolved, but yeah, I think mostly because
I've lived near the beach mywhole life.
I've pretty much been inwalking distance to the beach
since I was a kid, always sortof surfed and loved that and
then as I've gotten older, I'veactually got a lot into like
meditation and self-awarenessand mindfulness practices and
(25:20):
that's sort of where it allevolved.
You know healthy daily habitsand diet and things like that.
You'll never catch me buying asmoko lunch from the server or
anything like that.
Everything's always made thenight before and just those
little disciplines.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
You're fitting in well on this podcast.
I am my big.
One of my big sayings is likeif you're not right, nothing
around you can be right yeah,yeah, um but it's like everyone
talks about it like it's woo-wooshit, but like when you get in
that zone where you're moreconnected with yourself, that's
where you're going to find yourpurpose, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
yeah, absolutely yeah , and you do like you do get
this self-awareness that youwouldn't have otherwise got and
you almost like, yeah, you can't.
It makes you feel good.
It makes you feel good, itmakes you see things through a
different lens and it makes youappreciate more and be grateful
for more.
And you know, I've lived on theGold Coast for since 2019.
(26:18):
So, going on six years and andI still walk down to the beach
and, and you know, my partnerand I look at each other when
we're walking on the beach andwe go how lucky are we to live
here, like this is so beautifuland there's too many people out
there that just walk straightpast, they don't even look, they
don't even think.
Think about that, and it's justthose little things that, like
(26:39):
makes me feel better.
And, yeah, that's where my, my,the evolution and my passion
for, you know, environmentalhealth and well-being has sort
of stemmed from good gratitude ahundred percent yeah the um
geez, we could take this wholepodcast off.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Another tangent like yeah, but like again, it just
ties in with what you're doing.
Like you, you're tying that inwith your business being more
sustainable, like coming up witha product that um fulfills you
yeah, so many people in life andthat look.
To be honest, that's the mainreason I wanted to get you on
the podcast, because to see yougo from a tradie and to hear
your story, um, getting into thedrugs and the alcohol and the
(27:15):
party and stuff and then to comeout the other side and put time
, effort, money into this, likemake those losses and then still
keep pushing yeah, like it saysa lot about you, but for me
it's really inspiring and I'msure for a lot of people
listening and watching thepodcast it'll be inspiring as
well.
Like, what would you say topeople out there that are just
dragging their feet every day,not sure what they're doing is
(27:38):
right for them?
Like any advice you've got forthose sort of people?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, you know there's, the world is you can do
anything.
These days you can literally doanything and it only takes a
good amount of effort and energyand discipline.
But it doesn't really take thatmuch time to completely change
your life.
Like if you're unhappy withwhere you are or what you're
(28:04):
doing, you can change that insix or twelve months.
These days we've got everythingat our fingertips.
We've got youtube, the biggesteducation platform on the planet
.
You can learn whatever you wanton there so I think, um, you
know, just committing to it,going for it, backing yourself,
that's the biggest one.
I mean, you mentioned somethingearlier about failures not
(28:27):
stopping you but learning fromthem and moving forward.
And I read a book last year Idon't read many books, but I try
to and I read, read, think andGrow Rich.
And in that book he says youknow, failure, a failure is not
a failure until you quit.
It's temporary defeat and thathas.
That's probably the biggestthing that I've taken away from
(28:48):
that book and that has gotten methrough so many challenges with
this business, because that,you know, it's been an absolute
rollercoaster and an emotionalrollercoaster and some days and
weeks and months are sostressful and you lose money,
you're not getting the sales andyou're pumping all this money
into ads and you're showing upevery day on social media and
you're not getting the tractionthat you think you should be
(29:10):
getting.
And then having that mindset tojust look, instead of like
dwelling on it, learning from it, trying to find why it didn't
work and then what did work andthen, like you know, reiterating
on what did work to try and getbetter for the next time and
the next time and the next timeand using those setbacks as
(29:30):
temporary to feed, learning fromthem and moving forward is the
biggest thing.
And that's going to come witheverything in your life.
You're going to experience that.
So, for somebody who wants toget out of the trade or do
something new with their life,or even stay in the trade maybe
they want to start their ownbusiness they're too scared, or
something like that like you'regoing to come up against a lot
of challenges and a lot ofsetbacks, but you've just got to
look at what failed, whatworked, and you know, do less of
(29:54):
what didn't work.
Do less of what didn't work.
Do more of what did work.
And it sounds easy, but it takestime, it's just practice.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
So look, so many people hold themselves back
because they keepsecond-guessing everything Like
oh, I don't know how to run abusiness, I don't have enough
cash, like I'm sure you've beenthrough all those thoughts.
Oh yeah, you've pushed on andlike I'm guessing it's like any
other business you've got tomake outlays before you get
(30:21):
money back in the door like yeah, for sure you've got to take
risks to get reward, don't you?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
absolutely yeah, I mean only only a few months ago
we had the credit card up to 40grand because we wanted to buy
heaps of stock in anticipationfor, you know, growth and I
didn't have the cash flow comingin to buy all the stock that we
needed.
So I got the Amex credit cardand sent it to the roof.
(30:45):
And my partner is a lot moreconservative than me and she's
freaking out and I'm kind offreaking out too but I'm like.
I think I know what I'm doing.
Like we need the stock,otherwise we're not going to
have a business business.
So I don't really see anotherway around this.
Like we just got to spend itand get it and yeah, you know
you do have to take thosechances.
100%, you're not going to getanywhere if you don't take risks
(31:07):
100%.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
What you put out to the universe, the universe
generally gives you back.
Yeah, exactly I think itrewards?
Speaker 2 (31:13):
I like to think that the universe rewards people who
are courageous and take bigswings and and big action.
Um, yeah, you know, if you'vegot a, if you've got a vision,
and you know your why, deep down, you know why you're doing it,
um, and you have that beliefthat it's possible and you can
do it, and then you take bigaction to get it done, then
(31:34):
things, things fall into placefor you and it's not a
coincidence.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Mate, you need to use some of this shit on your
socials.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah.
Stop talking about the sunniesand talk about oh mate, it's
actually good to have thisconversation because I am very
like spiritual and I do believea lot in that sort of stuff and
the universe and you know thepower that it has and the power
of your mind and all of thatsort of stuff and the universe
and you know the power that ithas and the power of your mind
and all of that sort of stuff,and it's nice to be able to talk
(32:03):
to somebody about it, becausenot many people do have that
same awareness.
And you know when things aretough.
That's been one of my biggestthings lately is getting back
into meditation as well.
I used to do it a lot when Iwas like a few years ago, when I
was still living in Melbourne,I was meditating a lot.
When I was like a few years ago, when I was still living in
Melbourne, I was meditating alot.
That's where I got into it.
And then, you know, trying tohave a gym routine in the
morning, up at four o'clock forgym in the morning.
(32:24):
You know I don't really want toget up any earlier so I can
meditate.
So you know, a few things yougot to try and prioritize, but
now I probably only meditatemaybe a couple of times a week,
but they're good, they're deepand they could last 20 minutes
or 30 minutes or something likethat, and that's been enough to
keep me level-headed andgrounded enough for the
(32:45):
turbulence of running your ownbusiness to not let that affect
you so much and you can justsort of You've got to find your
own thing, don't you Like I'mnot?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
well, I shouldn't say I'm not because I've never
really done meditation, but forme it's like routines massive.
You've got to have a structuredroutine.
If I don't have a routine, Ijust fall off the rails.
Mate.
Within a couple of days I canbe back doing shitty old habits.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
But I guess my meditation like I'm up early
with my dog and like walking outin the bush here up and down
the hills and like it's just onmy own, listening to the birds
seeing the sun come up.
Everybody needs to find that onething that just chills them out
, yeah, 100, yeah, if you're nottaking that bit of time out for
yourself and that's where allmy ideas come from like I can be
(33:30):
having this, I can have theshittiest things going on in my
life, but finding that time outto do that with my best buddy,
my dog, and just chilling outlike I come home and the same as
you, like I don't do that everyday, yeah, like I try to get in
three, sometimes four, a week,um, but you come back from them
and you just feel like you'rerecharged like right, oh, what's
(33:51):
next?
let's go like yeah, you cansolve all the world's problems
yeah but if you're not takingthat time out for yourself and
you just head down, bum up everyday and just stuck in the grind
and every day is going to justkeep compounding and getting
worse and worse and worse untileventually, you've lost your
passion, you've lost your bloodylove for life, and all you're
(34:11):
doing is whinging and bickeringabout everything.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, exactly right.
Yeah, and it's massive for mebecause, you know, having a
business, an online business I'mon when I'm not plumbing.
I'm still plumbing a couple ofdays a week at the moment,
subcontracting.
So I'm in a bit of a transitionperiod getting getting off the
tools completely, learning howto pay myself from the business
rather than putting everythingback in and stuff like that.
But having a business that isheavily on the laptop and on my
(34:35):
phone, on instagram and dmingpeople and just being as present
as I can in growing thatbusiness, you really have to
learn to put it down and turn itoff.
Put it on, do not disturb and,you know, spend time with
yourself and spend time with mypartner and leave it at home, go
for a beach walk and do allthose things because they do
really bring you back to who youare and it just clears your
(34:58):
mind so much.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
You just feel way less busy.
Yeah, so, mate, what's next?
You're going to continue withthe lines you've got now.
You're working on this safetyone coming in the future.
Is it just going to be sunnies,or is there other things you'd
like to venture into?
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Look, it's funny that you ask I've got an idea.
I've got a really really coolidea in the in the surf industry
.
Um don't.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Don't give it away.
We're working on somethingthere at the moment.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
But yeah, that's a.
That's a long way ahead, but atthe moment it's just sunnies.
All my focus is on the sunnies.
We're just.
I want to be able to expandthese businesses until I can get
off the tools completely.
Uh, my partner's all into itnow as well.
She loves it.
She's my biggest supporter.
It's turned into her dream aswell, so we would both love to
(35:50):
be able to run the brand fulltime.
You know, end up with awarehouse one day, and you know
the whole.
Thing big business.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Everyone knows us, Everyone listening and watching
this podcast.
Make sure you reach out to Shshade it's shade.
Underscore.
Underscore iwear yeah, yeah,that's the instagram handle
we'll put your links and stuffand um website and that on the
podcast and that as well.
But yeah, cool make sure youreach out to sam and support him
because, like one thing Ireally hate about australia is
like we all talk people up andwant it and say, like people
(36:23):
want them to do well, but thenwhen they start doing well,
everyone's first to bag out orwant you to fail.
I'm the opposite, mate.
Like I think we all should getbehind people.
Like I hope all the listenersand the people watching reach
out to you and make contact.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
They may not buy straight away but hopefully in
the future they'll grabsomething off you because, like,
we need to support people thatare taking risk and putting
themselves out there and havinga fucking go like yeah,
absolutely, that's what that'swhat's exciting like we live in
a country that gives us so manyopportunities like support
people that have a crack yeah,absolutely, and it's the people,
it's those people that areputting themselves out there
(36:58):
that need, need the most support, because they're you know,
they're shitting themselves.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Really, they might look confident in front of the
camera, but you they're shittingthemselves.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
really.
They might look confident infront of the camera but they're
shitting bricks.
They're doing stuff they'venever done before, hoping for
the best and hoping that theycan get support from people they
don't know.
And that's been the best thingfor me putting myself in front
of the camera, sort of buildingit as a personal brand, like.
We get so much feedback frompeople in our emails and in our
Instagram messages and peoplejust straight up saying hey Sam,
(37:25):
hey Sammy like calling me by myfirst name in the messages,
people I've never met Love thesunnies, love what you're doing.
You know, keep it up.
All this sort of encouragementand all this positive feedback
and yeah, you know, it's enoughto keep me going it feels
amazing when I get a messagelike that.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I love it.
Don't get embarrassed by this.
Like when we started recording,before I looked over, and like
your hand was shaking on thechair.
Like you're genuine.
You're genuine mate.
Like I think that says a lotabout you, but you were saying
before we started recording.
Like you've only been puttingyourself out there on camera for
a bit over 12 months yeah yeah,I.
(38:00):
I was similar like Like I usedto get pestered by a marketing
lady and my wife for a long timeto put myself on socials and I
just wouldn't, I didn't want tobar of it.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
But, now.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Social media is such an incredibly powerful tool for
all of my businesses and Iencourage it more than anything
Like.
It's a free tool and for meit's all about that personal
connection by you and I andother people putting ourselves
out there and doing videos, likepeople get to know you before
they even reach out.
Like you said, they're callingyou by your first name by
(38:33):
listening to your voice, they'vebuilt a relationship with you
without you even knowing it.
Um, but what?
What made you take the leap toto start putting yourself out
there?
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Uh, it was a.
It was a setback, it was atemporary defeat.
I hired a guy to do some videoads for me, cost me thousands,
two months worth of content, andI borrowed money for it
borrowed money from my mom,borrowed money from my partner
and the ads were.
They were epic.
The content was awesome, butthey just didn't convert.
(39:06):
You know, they didn't directlyrelate to sales in the ad
account and I was.
I was shitting myself, Ipanicked.
I'm like, fuck, what am I gonnado now?
Um, you know, got no money, owepeople money.
Sales are slow.
These ads aren't doing what Ithought they were going to do.
I'm going to sit on the balcony.
My girlfriend's a hairdresser,so she's got a tripod for her
(39:29):
work when she films afters andwhatever.
And so, yeah, I set the tripodup out on the balcony, had my
sunnies like you know, I'm samshade, I wear these are our
sunnies.
It's the most awkward,embarrassing video of myself
I've ever seen.
It was the first one I did andthat ad just started getting
sales straight away.
And then, oh well, you knowwhat do you do?
(39:51):
I've got to keep making morevideos like this.
I guess this is what's working.
And then, yeah, after a fewmonths you just get a bit more
confident and then you starttelling a bit more of your story
, not just like directly tryingto sell your products.
Then you can start sort oftrying to be a bit more
relatable and build thatcommunity and you know, show who
you really are and be authentic.
And yeah, it just expands fromthere.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Mate, it's incredibly powerful stuff.
Like you're what I tell peopleall the time.
Like you're connecting with thepeople you want to sell to like
the people you want buying yourproduct whether it's a house, a
sunnies, a course, it doesn'tmatter.
But it shits me.
All the time you hear so manypeople spending a lot of money
(40:33):
because those companies thatcome in and do those campaigns
they don't miss you, but theydon't get that authenticity.
They don't get that real youbut they don't get that
authenticity.
They don't get that real you.
And I think the one danger toit is that it becomes very hard
to sell a business when you'rethe face of it.
But these days it's all aboutpersonal business.
(40:58):
I think they're saying now Idon't know the exact stats, but
personal brands are quickly.
I think they're saying in thenext couple of know the exact
stats, but like personal brandsare quickly, like I think
they're saying in the nextcouple of years will be the
biggest businesses in the world100%.
yeah, Because people get thatpersonal connection yeah exactly
, and you see it.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
You see it everywhere .
Like you know, I don't know whoyou follow on Instagram or
whatever, but you know there'ssome big names.
It even starts from like theTony Robbins and the Alex
Ramoses and Gary Vee and stufflike that.
They're the sort of people thatI watch online and see big, big
personal brands.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Well, alex Ramoses is a perfect example, mate.
Like only a couple of weeks ago, he broke the world record for
the amount of sales in 10 hours.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
It's wild, isn't it Like?
Speaker 1 (41:37):
150 million US, so like 260 million australian or
something yeah, it's crazy like,but that's all built on the
back of a personal brand.
It's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yeah, and now you see , you see all sorts of people
blowing up for all sorts ofreasons on social media and it
doesn't have to be anythingcrazy or new, but it's just
putting yourself out there beingconsistent if you've got, if
you've got a niche or if you'vegot something that you want to
do, and you start puttingyourself out there being
consistent If you've got a nicheor if you've got something that
you want to do, and you startputting yourself out there and
it kicks off like it couldchange your life in a matter of
(42:09):
months, like it happens so quick.
Social media is just reachingso many people on a level that
no one's ever seen before andthat's the most powerful thing
is like you really can reach theworld with your content but
that that personal connection isthe perfect client.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Like it doesn't matter whether you're a builder
building two or three homes, aplumber doing 50 jobs a year, or
someone like yourself that'strying to sell hundreds of
thousands of pairs of sunglasses.
Like as soon as you make thatpersonal connection, like
they're buying, like there'senough.
Like you said, there's enoughpeople in the world to buy
enough sunglasses of everysunglass company.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
But if they're buying off you because they're
personally connected there, theyvalue your story.
But that is the perfect client,because as long as the
product's good, the support'sgood, all that type of stuff,
they will keep coming back.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, what else doyou want?
Yeah, yeah, it's good.
I'm, I'm very, very, very proudof myself for like moving into
that direction and and andcreating like a personable brand
, because it's opened up so manyopportunities like this as well
.
You know, if I was a facelesssunny's brand and no one knew
(43:21):
who the founder was, I wouldn'tbe here right now.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
So it really opens a lot of doors for you yeah, I
only reached out to you becauseyou're a plumber yeah as soon as
I found out you're a plumber,I'm like sweet, like he's a
tradie, like let's have a chatyeah yeah, but, um, I just think
it's unreal, mate.
But this I just want to go back, because you just uh talked
about it like your growth comefrom a failure.
Yeah, like having that companythat didn't work, like you could
(43:47):
easily throw your hands in theair, going fuck it, like I'm out
, like I can't afford to doanything, or you obviously made
the right decision and you justput yourself out there.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yeah, exactly yeah.
It's just another temporarydefeat, isn't it?
It's just another lesson If youwant it bad enough, you'll make
it work, and if you don't makeit work, it means you've quit
and you didn't want it badenough or as bad as what you
thought you did.
So unless you really putyourself into the hole here, max
that credit card out to 100grand, you can't get out of it.
Obviously, everything, all therisks you've got to take, you've
(44:18):
got to take, you've got to becalculated at the same time.
But yeah, you've got to takebig swings and you've got to.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
you've got to keep moving forward when things get
tough and when challenges comeup yep, well, look, I really
genuinely appreciate you um,like you've driven up from the
gold this afternoon.
I appreciate your time.
Appreciate you um bringing up afew pairs of sunglasses.
I'll, um, I'll definitelycamille's gonna get them on.
I going to have to get ahaircut or change my hat or
something I'm keen to startsupporting them, mate, and I'll
(44:46):
tag you in my posts and things,but look guys really get behind
Sam and Shade Sonny.
He's a great business, as you'veheard today, great story, great
young guy, and we need tosupport local Aussie businesses
and especially ones that aredoing great things for the
environment and coming up withnew ideas and stuff, and not
only that, like they're afucking good-looking pair of
(45:07):
sunnies.
So like and strong, Like thatwas the first thing.
When I got them out of the box,mate, I was like holy shit.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Actually one thing I haven't even asked you or
checked with you yet.
Do you do polarized?
Speaker 2 (45:21):
They're all polarized , yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
And so like I guess to go back a little bit, I buy
really good quality polarizedsunnies because when we go up
our farm and we got a creek inthat and we go fishing for
mangrove jack and that it makesa massive difference just having
good sunnies that can see inthe water especially like when
you're throwing cast nets andthings so um, I'll be checking
I'll be taking.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
We're going to the farm tomorrow, mate, so I'll be
testing them out but um, butI've always found those.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
I don't know why.
They just seem to get damaged,like when you're on the tinny or
you throw them in your tacklebox, or you're in the like on
the quad bike at the farm orwhatever, and you take them off
and you throw them in the glovebox.
I don't know.
They're obviously not goodquality because they get
scratched.
So easily.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Well, give them a run and let me know how they go,
Chuck them in the glove box andsmash them around on the farm
and give us an update in acouple of months and see how
they're holding up.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Definitely will.
I definitely will.
But, mate, before we get out ofof here, any last words for
people that listen anything youwant to put out there um, I just
want to say thanks for havingme here and, yeah, it's been an
awesome experience coming onfirst podcast.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Hand was shaking, my heart was beating out of my
chest, I was shitting myselfwhen I got here, but uh, yeah,
I've really enjoyed it, reallyenjoyed telling my story.
And, yeah, to anybody listeningor watching um shade eyewear,
check us out on instagram, sendme a message.
I'll reply to everyone.
And, um, yeah, thank you noworries, mate.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Well, look guys as usual.
Uh, stay tuned.
Make sure you like subscribeall those types of things.
Go and check out shade eyewear.
Make sure you um startfollowing them as well.
Check those guys out.
But, um, if you haven't seen ityet which I'm sure you have you
need to get over thedwaynepeircecom website.
Check out our line of merch.
It's all there.
So get behind the level upmovement and we'll see you on
(47:09):
the next podcast.
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