Why This Australian Builder’s Journey Will Change How You See Success

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (01:28):
G'day guys, welcome back to another episode of Level
Up.
We are back in the shed thisafternoon for another cracking
episode.
I'm really pumped about this onethis afternoon.
Been wanting to get this guy onfor a little while.
He is another Alevate member, sohe's part of my Live Life Bill
business.
He has done incredible things inthe last couple of years.
And uh a big warm welcome toJacob from Kingfisher Homes that

(01:49):
has come all the way down fromRocky.
How are you, mate?

SPEAKER_00 (01:51):
Good, thank you, Dwayne, and thanks for having
us.

SPEAKER_03 (01:53):
Mate, I'm excited.
You're uh up, you're down fromcattle country.
That's it.
The beef capital of Australia,they call it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:59):
Yeah.
And uh it's a good place to be.
Like I keep telling people, welive in the best nation in the
world.
It's got to be Australia, right?
And I think Queensland's thebest state in the nation.
And I think Rockhampton and theCapricorn Coast has got to be
one of the best places in thewhole state.
So I live in the best place inthe world.

unknown (02:16):
That's it.

SPEAKER_03 (02:18):
It's definitely awesome up there.
But we're um we've had a fewguests that have come down from
up north, but a lot of ourguests have come from down
south.
So it's really good to haveanother Queenslander on the uh
on the podcast telling us how itis.
How's business up in Rocky,mate?

SPEAKER_00 (02:32):
Yeah, look, Rocky is it's going hot, like there's
plenty going.
Like all of Australia, we weneed more houses.
Like Australia needs more homes,nothing, nothing to it.
Um big thing is just thedevelopers is just drip feeding
the market with land.
And um, but it's coming on, andthere's there's there's builders
up there, and we're doing ourbit, and um, but there's plenty

(02:53):
of opportunity there, a lot ofinvestment's been in.
Um, you know, I'm seeingarticles in like realestate.com,
you know, national media oftalking about Rockhampton as a
property place.
Um, also, you know, you poon theCapricorn Coast again, national
media talking, could this be thenext buyer and bay and things
like that?
So a lot of yeah, a lot ofmovement, obviously, a lot of

(03:15):
movement's been since COVID, butit continues to coming, you
know, people coming to the area.
Um, there's a lot of thingsthere, like$1.8 billion they're
spending on a ring road at themoment.
They just spent or are spendinga billion dollars on there's
Army Country up there, so everyyear they do uh joint training
exercises with uh SingaporeArmy, plus every three years

(03:36):
they do joint training um withthe US Army, and so they just
spend a billion dollars onrenovating and upgrading
facilities there.
So billions of dollars beingspent in the area.
Um, and it's like everyone, weall need more people, uh, like
as far as tradies and and peopleto build.
So but no, it's going great.

SPEAKER_03 (03:54):
Mate, Queensland has some incredible coastline.
It's it's definitely um like Ilike rocking, and especially out
around your poon, and that'sbloody beautiful on that that
coastline up there.
And you're correct if I'm wrong,but you're far enough north, you
don't get the stingers, do you?

SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
No, no, you can swim in the beach there.

SPEAKER_03 (04:11):
No crocs.
Well, the crocs in the river,you don't swim in the river, but
you can swim in the beach.
Um well mate, let's go back abit.
Um you're obvious you're abuilder.
Yes.
Um, I think your story is prettyinteresting, but how you get it?
It's a bit of a different one,not the average builder's story.
So, yeah.
Well, let's get into it.
Where didn't where did it start?
Go back to right.

SPEAKER_00 (04:32):
Go right back.
Back in my day, 19 the year was1996.
Uh, believe it.
Um, actually, I uh I finishedschool the year at the end of
year 10, and I remember um mymother having conversation with
friends saying, like, Jacob's mybuilder, you know, he's gonna be
my builder.
And uh, this is from when I wasa kid.
But at the end of year 10, Iactually finished school and

(04:56):
went and did a year's TAFEcourse, uh certificate one in
construction.
So it was a 12-month course.
They sort of did carpentry andbricklaying and and different
parts of all those aspects.

SPEAKER_03 (05:07):
So, where was this?
Where were you living back then?

SPEAKER_00 (05:08):
That was in Bunderburg.
Yeah, so born in Mulaney, butgrew up in Bunderburg, and so
that was Bunderburg Tafe.
And um, so I did that yearcourse, and that took six months
off an apprenticeship.
Um, at the start of the nextyear, so 1996, I got a uh
carpentry apprenticeship withQ-Build, who is you know the

(05:29):
Queensland government buildingarm, and so I got a carpentry
apprenticeship with Q-Build.
I was 16 years old, and um, so Idid two years of that, and um,
and then my father got atransfer.
So he moved uh or took a job inSydney, and so at that point I'd
just turned 18.
I decided to move with thefamily to Sydney, and so I'm 18.

(05:52):
Um, I was actually the firstyear, I think 1996 was the first
year of what they call thecompetency-based system.
So it was coming out of the youknow, four years that's an
apprenticeship, um, moving intoyou know what it is now to say,
well, you could do it faster orslower depending on your
competency.
And so they gave us all when wesigned up by logbook, and your
job was to get all that signedoff.

(06:13):
And so actually, QBill hadactually in those first two
years, they'd sent me toRockhampton to do TAFE.
That's where I met my first ummy first wife, and that's how we
end up back in Rockhampton yearslater.
Um, so they'd sent me, and I'dactually done all of my TAFE, so
all of all of my uh practicalwas completed.
Um, so it was all signed off inthe book, but you know, this was

(06:36):
the first year in the tradies,and and you're you're a kid, you
don't know what's going on, andso I think I had about three
signatures in that book.
And so, you know, you're 18 andinsecure, and you wonder what
else the big wide world's got tooffer.
And so we moved to Sydney andand uh so I didn't pursue um
carpentry there.
I worked in retail um in Sydney.

(06:58):
I lived there for three and ahalf years.
Uh in that time um I gotmarried.
We end up moving back toRockhampton.

SPEAKER_03 (07:06):
And um so you got married young, mate?

SPEAKER_00 (07:08):
I did, yeah.
I was married at uh 20.
Yeah, um, yeah, married at 20.
And my first child just before23.
Um, so I'm a granddad now.
Um I've got four kids and threegrandkids just had holy dolly,
mate.
Yeah, so look, this is whatclean living and good genes do.

SPEAKER_03 (07:28):
Something like that.
Um well at least you're likeyou're I I think that's awesome,
mate, because you're youngenough, you're gonna be able to
enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 (07:35):
Like that's it, yeah, yeah.
So I'm 40, you know, 45 now, 46this year, and uh although um
yeah, so I had two older girlsand they're 23 and 21, and some
eldest is married with kids.
Uh and then we had a big break,and uh I actually lost my first
wife to um cancer, and so I hada remarried, and then so I got a

(07:56):
six-year-old and a four-year-oldnow.
So we've gone my seconddaughter, just finished uh year
12, and then the next year myson started Kindy, so right back
through again.

SPEAKER_03 (08:07):
So geez, mate, you've been through a bit.
Like, sorry to hear about yourfirst wife.

SPEAKER_00 (08:11):
Yeah, look, that's I mean, it's it's life, and uh
life will throw at you whateverit will.
Uh I always say um it's like tome, if life had a job
description, if this was the jobdescription of life, it seems to
me that life's job descriptionis to make you hard.
It will do everything it can tomake you hard of heart.

(08:33):
Our job description is to staysoft.
What can I've got to stay soft?
I'll be forgiving, gracious, andand how do I, you know, not come
into that temptation that lifewill throw at me to say be hard?

SPEAKER_03 (08:45):
And so life That's a good that's a good analogy.

SPEAKER_00 (08:47):
Yeah, none of us are exempt.
We've all got something.
You know, it will do whatever itcan in you know, financial
health or relationships orwhatever else.

SPEAKER_03 (08:56):
So do you live your life along those sayings like
life is hard?
Like it is.
Yeah, well it is that that's thetruth.
It is hard.

SPEAKER_00 (09:04):
I said I got I got married in 20, in 2000, I was
married, first married at 20.

(10:08):
And that year, um, you know,you've seen the movie Four
Weddings and a Funeral.
For my family, um, 2000 was twoweddings and a funeral.
I got married, and then my youthink married at 20 was young.
My little sister got married twoweeks after us, she was 18.
And um, so we had two weddingsat the start of the year, and
then at the end of the year, mysister, who was her 23rd

(10:30):
birthday, she fell off a cliffon her birthday and died.
So I remember that phone call.
I was just coming out of bandpractice, locking up, uh just
leaving with the guys, and dadcalled and said, uh, there's
been an accident, car is dead.
And you know, you feel just yourbody drain.

SPEAKER_03 (10:49):
Holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 (10:50):
And uh so she was 23 and she loved, she was a wild,
and we always say she packed 10lives into that one.
And uh, but she loved the we'reliving in Sydney, she loved the
Blue Mountains, she decided togo climbing up there, you know,
just bushwalking for the day.
And uh, you know, took a tripoff the path and decided I'm

(11:10):
gonna and yeah, didn't comehome.
And uh and that's life, youknow, like and so I've known
sorrow.
We all have, like I said, noone's exempt from that, but I've
known comfort and I've known,you know, I've I've I've known
the support of friends andfamily and and that too.
So yeah, we all get that.

SPEAKER_03 (11:30):
Yeah, oh mate, that just tells me so much about your
character, and um and I wouldn'thave picked it, like you and I
have caught up a few times.
Um, last year when I was on thatcharity rally, we called in, we
had dinner with you.
That was on your way up to thecharity rally.

SPEAKER_00 (11:43):
This one, I'm here at your place.

SPEAKER_03 (11:45):
We just got home.
You just got home, but um, yeah,I wouldn't have I definitely
wouldn't have picked that you'vebeen through all that.
So that's um it's well, I guessit's what's made you who you
are.
It does, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (11:55):
You're very resilient, and that's why I say
like life will throw whatever itcan at you, but you just gotta
say, no, I'm not gonna come intothat.
Because people are still good atthe heart of it.
Yes, there's there's people whowill hurt you, there was all
sorts of things will happen, butat the core, you've got to be
you've got to be gracious,you've got to be forgiving,
you've got to keep walking thatpath.
You can't give up on it.

(12:16):
Yeah um because yeah, lifesucks, and in the end you die.
But but I want to walk and knowat the end of the day, like some
people, their greatest fear ispublic speaking.
To me, happy, not a worry.
My biggest fear is Which Iwouldn't have picked.

SPEAKER_03 (12:33):
I actually would have picked it as a very um
yeah, it's like corner of theroom guy, not putting yourself
out there.

SPEAKER_00 (12:41):
I I'm very much an introvert.

SPEAKER_03 (12:43):
Until you walked in before and started screaming,
hot pies.
What was it?
Hot pies and hot pies and colddrinks.
So tell where did that comefrom?
That's coming up, is it?
That was part of being inSydney, wasn't it?
Um The Hot Pies?

SPEAKER_00 (13:02):
Uh yeah, no, no, that was when that was later on.
Okay, yeah.
So we're telling a story how Ibecome a builder.
Um so I moved to Sydney, um, andthat happened when we were
there.
Um later on after we'd marriedfor a year.
Um my wife's family, they wereall in Rockhampton.
And so she was missing family,so we moved back up there, said

(13:23):
goodbye to Sydney.
I said to my mates, uh, I said,if I'm not back in two years,
come get me.
Well, no one came, so I'm stillliving in Rockhampton.
Honestly, I wouldn't go back toSydney.
I love uh I love regional life.
Um but so yeah, so moved thereand I worked for you know the
bank for nine months.
I sold health insurance and uh Iwas young and um and then ended

(13:48):
up getting into real estateselling real estate.
24 I started selling realestate.
I sold for six and a half years,commission only real estate, and
that will, you know, that provesyou're alive.
Um, you know, no backing up,it's just you had to sell if you
want to survive.
And so, you know, we had goodyears.
I started in 2004, and you know,Rocky was booming then.

(14:09):
We had some great booms.
20 2007, um, you know, I'm aslow start.
And um, so after three years, Ifinally started to get the hang
of this, you know, Hot Piesactually had a voice that people
could understand, and um notmumbling all the time.
Um and so, you know, it's 2007,Rocky Real Estate was going

(14:32):
fantastic, and so I went toChristmas um in 2007 going,
that's it, I finally did it.
You know, this is the year I'mgonna make you know six figures,
I'm on my way to a hundredgrand.
And and um, and so that wasChristmas 2007.
I came back in 2008, right?

(14:52):
Who's ready to buy a property?
And it was like somebody, it waslike crickets, like it just
2008, you know, they they turnedthat finances off and everyone
felt it.
And I went through a period, Ididn't sell getting commissioned
to real estate, I didn't sellsomething for six months in one
one portion of that.
And um, but it kept pushing,kept pushing, and um until 2010.

(15:19):
And in 2010, middle of 2010, Iwas like, what am I doing?
You're like, why am I stilldoing this?
And I'm a stubborn man,obviously.
Um, that's how you know I thinkthat's why you're good at
business, right?
Just keep going, keep going.
And um and so 2010, I thought,why am I doing it?
Why am I still trying to dothis?

(15:40):
Like it's not working, why am Istill here?
And I thought about it and Ithought, why did I go into real
estate in the first place?
Because, you know, 99, 2000,around then, um, my family was
introduced to Rich Dad, Poor Dadbooks and cash flow contraint.
I'd I'd read those books, youknow, got into Robert Kiyosaki
and investing.
And so I actually I thoughtabout, I thought, actually, you

(16:01):
know, the reason I got into realestate was to learn about how to
invest in real estate.
And I thought about, I thought,one of the first lessons that I
actually learned when I became areal estate agent was you don't
need to be a real estate agentto invest in real estate.
In fact, it's probably better tonot be because the banks don't
like commission-onlysalespeople.

(16:21):
If you've got a job with a wage,they actually will fund you
better.
Um, so I realized, okay, so Igot into real estate to learn
about real estate investing.
I think this last six and a halfyears has taught me that.
Yeah.
So I felt free, okay, I don'thave to be a real estate agent.
I let that go.
And when I made that decision,uh a friend of mine, he had an

(16:45):
electrical contracting business.
And he we'd spoken previously,and he like I went away and I'd
come back, it was Mondaymorning, I'd made that decision
on the weekend.
And lo and behold, I get thiscall from me, mate on Monday
saying, hey, he had anelectrical contracting business,
and and 2010, obviously, all thesolar grants and stuff, so you

(17:06):
know, solar power systems wereall going.
So he'd started a solar powerbusiness selling sales in um PV
systems and hot water systems.
And he called me Monday andsaid, Hey, my salesman's just
given notice two weeks.
Would you like to come over andhave a meeting?
Would you be interested?
So I sat down with him and Ijust made that decision.
He made the call.

(17:26):
So I went over and worked forhim selling solar hot um, you
know, solar power systems.
And so I did that for a coupleof years, and um, and so I was a
very autonomous, like he hadelectrical contracting business,
he was busy running that.
His partner was sort of startedthe PV, and so she did the
administration and I did thesales.

(17:47):
And and I was faithful to anybusiness I worked for.
You know, you give it your best,you do everything for it, you
treat it like your own.
And um, and so I was a veryautonomous salesman.
I'd come and go as I pleased.
They knew that I was doing thebest by them.
And so I was just this one manband just out there selling
solar.
And next thing, one day I walkedin and they sat me down and they

(18:10):
said, What do you think?
I said, What do you think aboutwhat?
He said, On the desk here,there's a new organizational
chart.
And Jacob is the uh operationsmanager of the electrical
contracting business.
I said, Well, that sounds likefun.
It was a promotion and more pay,so I did it.
And so I went from this one-man,very autonomous salesman to

(18:31):
running, you know, 10 or 12electricians, labourers, you
know, apprentices.
And my job was just to keep themmoving and always have something
to do.
Um, and so I uh I so all of asudden was just right in the
midst of it.

SPEAKER_03 (18:46):
Like up until this point, have you have you had any
training in sales or marketingor just learning on the fly?

SPEAKER_00 (18:52):
Yeah, you keep learning on the fly.
I you know, I learned and andobviously like personal
development, all that sort ofstuff in the real estate, you
had all that, and so you'relearning as you go.
And you know, I was investing inthat, and and uh, you know, Jim
Rohn and John Maxwell and ZigZig.
I love, you know, like these arethe classics, like, and there's
some great stuff, and so you'dhear that, and the real estate

(19:15):
salesman's like you know, thatwas back when McGrath, you know,
John McGrath had just thislittle office, and uh he was
doing uh real estate trainingand stuff like this, send the
CDs to salesmen all overAustralia.
This is back in the olden days,right?
Yeah um, and so you're doing allthis.

SPEAKER_03 (19:33):
We're calling it the olden days because it had CDs,
Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 (19:40):
Uh mate, times have changed.
Um yeah, I love that joke on themenu.
I'm gonna have to buy the whitealbum again.

SPEAKER_03 (19:50):
Um I've got boxes of CDs, mate, and the only time I
can play them is when I comedown the shed and crack them on
the old CD player.
Don't even have a CD player inmy car anymore.

SPEAKER_00 (19:58):
No, no, I bought a new youth, there's not one in
there.
I was like, oh well.
And so yeah, I've got this, likeI've got this program from
tapes.
Um Peter Daniels, he's fromSouth Australia, and he was he
was a millionaire, and then hesold a business and he he
created this program, go all ofAustralia and and you know, talk

(20:19):
and then sell this program.
And it was on tapes, and Ilistened to those tapes, like
you know, they're in my head,you can hear them.
I listened to them so manytimes.
I got still got the tape fromthat, and I want to I I want to
convert this to digital so I canstill listen to it.
Like it was about the dream anda vision and you know,
perseverance and all these sortof things there.
So all of that, you know, that'syeah, that was all part of you

(20:41):
know development.
And so um, yeah, that's all.
I mean, I remember my fathergave me uh as a teenager, Zig
Zigla book, see at the top,youth edition, you know, sort of
thing.
So it's you know, go Zig.
Um so all of that's just lifeyou learn and and life
compounds, and so what you do ina little step today, you know,

(21:04):
you keep going and you keepgoing and and life compounds,
and here you are.
I was just talking to a youngfellow on my team yesterday and
saying, just like you know, he's21, he started with us as a
school-based apprentice at 15,you know, so he's done his time,
he's you know, qualified chippy,he's just looking at build, you

(21:27):
know, buying his first home.
Like, mate, you don't have torush it.
Like you're doing, you're doinggood, you're taking the steps.
As long as you stay faithful intaking that next step, life
compounds and you're sittingreally good.
And it's easy to look at yourfather, like every generation
looks at your father and says,Oh, but there's so much, you
know, um, you know, young peopleon the on the Reddits and stuff

(21:47):
like that.
Oh, you know, the you know, theolder generation hogging all the
property, and how are we gonnaown it?
Like it's just faithful in thelittle things.
It's easy to look at people whoare 50 and 60 years old and say,
Oh, well, why have they got ahome?

SPEAKER_03 (22:00):
And their parents would have thought the same
things when they bought theirhome, mate, that we're never
gonna afford it, it's tooexpensive.

SPEAKER_00 (22:05):
Like I saw a news article from the 1960s, like
literally, how are our kidsgonna afford homes?
Like, it's they've been sayingthe same thing in the media.
Yeah, in fact, a couple of yearsago, I stayed at this little um
when my my daughter was married,she lived in Kabulcha for a
while.
Um and look, this is just toprove, like, I mean, when she

(22:27):
got married and her husband umhad an apprenticeship, he was
working for a mob working on therail lines um as an apprentice,
electrician.
And um literally he's I mean,they lived in a duplex in
Kabulcha, lived modestly.
He was on apprentices' wages,she got pregnant, had their

(22:48):
first child.
Um she kept, you know, he keptworking, she was at home, uh,
and they kept saving for, youknow, all through his
apprenticeship.
He he finished his time, heworked another year for him, and
and um in the last year they'vemoved back to Rockhampton and
bought built their first home orbought their first home.
You know, um 22, 23.

(23:12):
Yeah.
And it proves you can do it.

SPEAKER_03 (23:15):
Anyone can do it, mate.
It's just people want to, butpeople have too high
expectations.

SPEAKER_00 (23:19):
But when I went down to Kabulcher to meet our first
granddaughter, and we stayed inthis little Airbnb, it was a 19
you know, 50s cottage, and andso the owner, I I would assume
she might have inherited it frommum or something, decided to
give it a little bit of a touchup, but kept it of vintage and
Airbnb it.
And we went down there and andobviously they must have pulled

(23:41):
up some lighter or somethingbecause they had these old
newspaper in a um in a glassframe in the back of the house
with all these newspaperclippings from 1956 or
something, whenever it was.
And I looked at it and I waslooking at all the articles, and
like every one of those articleswas like, oh, there was, and you
know, this was a couple of yearsago, there was talk about they

(24:03):
didn't want to raise the priceof milk, you know, more than a
dollar a litre, and you know,and there was this article from
1956 talking about oh the priceof milk, and and at that time,
you know, there was um blowingup in the Middle East, you know,
Israel was looked like they weregoing to go to war again, and
here it is in 1956.
This article about Israel'sgoing to war again.
And uh, you know, the NDIS isout there, and they had this

(24:26):
article, and not to bederogative, but this was the
headline of the article waslike, you know, um college for
subbies, you know, for umspecial education college sort
of thing.
So the NDIS scheme was stillthere in 1996, like there's
nothing new under the sun.

SPEAKER_03 (24:41):
Yeah, we're just recycling.
Everything just gets recycledand re it's all part of the
agenda, mate.
They've got to keep the thecycle going.

SPEAKER_00 (24:48):
That's it.
Yeah, hey, I listened to you.
Um you said you suggested thisbook, um, The Creature from
Jekyll Island, and you just youjust and so after this we're
gonna have to get commissionfrom that book.

SPEAKER_01 (24:59):
Everyone's getting on board with it.
It's 24-hour listen.
It's a big one on audio books.
I'm halfway through it.
Oh, it's it well, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (25:07):
I've banged on about a lot, mate.
It it really changed my view onmoney and value, yeah.
And I definitely think sincereading it and understanding the
the value of money better, mywealth has exceeded because I'd
I'd treat it very differently.

SPEAKER_00 (25:23):
Yeah.
No, if it wasn't so grim, thetale that's actually telling,
like, it's actually the mostentertainingly read.

SPEAKER_01 (25:30):
Like, as far as the way you read it, it's just a
very long, drawn-out book.
Yeah, but you can see all thepath he goes through, but yeah,
interesting.

SPEAKER_03 (25:38):
But alright, get us get us back to how you become a
builder.

SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
So, anyway, I was um yeah, I was running all of a
sudden found myself running thiselectrical contracting business.
I'd done that for a year, andthen um my first wife got sick.
And so from May was like notreally 100% going to the doctor
to find out what's wrong toburied in the ground in

(26:04):
September.
Oh.
Four months, that was it.
Bang, bang, bang.
And so in that time was, youknow, trip to Brisbane and come
home and start chemotherapy, inin hospital, out of hospital, in
hospital, you know, and I wasmanaging this man's business,
you know what I mean.
And so every time somethinghappened, you know, he was
fantastic.
I mean, stepped right back intothat seat and he'd take over and

(26:25):
keep running for it.
And then I come back, okay,she's alright, she's home again.
And so I get in and startrunning again and run the
business.
Next thing she's back inhospital, well, he'd just take
over and just let me go and bethere.
And um, after this time, itended up the last time she was
in hospital.
We we jointly said, like, heknew I knew, like, I couldn't,

(26:47):
it just wasn't working, so Iknew I had to be there with her.
So we parted ways, and he waslike, he was great about it.
And I understood the position.
We both agreed, like, he justhad to do what he did.
But he was always like, youknow, as soon as you've got
something, there's a positionhere.
I don't know what it'll be, butthere'll be something for you.
But anyway, yeah, so my wifepassed away from cancer, and um,

(27:08):
and so suddenly I was a solodad, two two girls, um, you
know, eight and ten.
And um, that's and uh yeah, soI've you know been there, been
the solo dad, and um, and sodone that.
And so, yeah, so I just wentafter that.
Um, my dad actually is a pastorand he was running a church.

(27:30):
He he said, Why don't you comework for me?
Um, called me the churchmanager.
I did the administration andstuff, the back end there, and
just work school hours.
So I'd take the girls to school,um, drop them off, I'd go do
administration stuff there, andthen pick them up from school,
and then we do there.
So it worked well.
I did school hours, and um, andso life kept going.

(27:50):
And but I uh yeah uh you know,it's a lonely life, and so I I
found a new wife and you knowmarried Marie and she came in
and loved those girls and dideverything she could, but she
was never married and no kids,and so it was always part of the
agreement that you know shealways wanted children of her

(28:11):
own.
And so yeah, so I um I'd beenworking for dad in that
position, and after we gotmarried, as I said, I continued
working school hours, and thenat the end of the year it was
like I knew the position justwasn't going where it wanted to
be, and I knew it wasn't gonnalast, and I thought it's it's

(28:32):
not right.
And so I was back and forth inmy head, what am I gonna do?
Where do I want to, you know,what is it, and what am I gonna
do?
And and I had a conversationwith a mate, like he's like,
You've started to apprenticebecause when I was doing the
electrical contracting, the bosshad said, You're gonna be
managing electricians, I'd likeyou to have your trade.
So, as well as being themanager, I actually had signed

(28:53):
up as an apprentice as well, andso I was an apprentice and the
manager, um, with the intentionof, you know, over time you'd
get your trade and do that.
Obviously, that didn't work out.
So when my wife had passed awayand I quit that job, um, also
quit that apprenticeship.
And so he's like, you've startedtwo trades, you haven't finished
anything, you've got to finishsomething, right?

(29:13):
And so I'm thinking about lifeand what am I gonna do?
And so working for my dad, andwe used to have this meeting
Wednesday mornings, we'd have ayou know, catch up, what's going
on, you know, all the whatevermatters of business.
And so this had been going on myhead, and I hadn't made a
decision, and I could see likeI've got to do something.
So anyway, I went to thatmeeting, I said, Dad, like it's

(29:36):
not gonna work.
I'm gonna move on.
I don't know what I'm gonna do,but I'm gonna finish up Friday.
Don't worry about me, I'm gonnabe okay.
And I knew I had to do that formyself because if I didn't cut
that tie, if I didn't, it wouldjust keep dragging out, and the
position would just, it wasn'tthe best thing for anyone.
And so I made the decision.
Oh well, I'm gonna finish thisjob Friday, don't worry, I'll

(29:59):
find something.
If I've got a deadline, I'llmake a decision.
And so between then and Friday,or next Monday at least, when I
started, I started as ahandyman.
I decided um with a wife and twochildren, um, going back and
doing apprenticeship was goingto be probably not financially

(30:19):
viable.
So I'd come up with this planthat I was going to be a
handyman.
I could run a business formyself, charge, you know, um a
reasonable rate doing that, andI was going to um RPL, you know,
any sort of carpentry jobs.
And I did that the right thing.
Like, I mean, I started Mondaymorning, was like, right, I'm a
handyman now, this is my job.
And no jobs, you know, noclients, nothing, but this is

(30:42):
what I'm gonna do.
What I did have was a house thatI had a tenant in, and the
tenant had overstayed a welcome,not paid rent for three months,
and made a mess of the house.
And so I had something to do,right?
I had work, and so I decided,right, I put myself out there
and called a couple of realestates and things like that.
In the meantime, I was justgoing to um start working on

(31:07):
cleaning up my house.
Um, and so I did that and Istarted, you know, talk to real
estate.
My dad had a friend um who was abuilder, and he just finished
renovating this house, but itneeded painting.
So for$3,300, I painted thishouse.
That's amazing.
And I was right, like in thathandy man.
I had plenty of opportunities asit grew to do jobs over$3,300.

(31:30):
I always said no, it's notright, I'm not licensed.
It's fine.
So I started out with these tinylittle jobs, and that was the
biggest job I had.
Like mostly after that, I hadreal estate jobs,$200, and$300
and$500.
And it was hand to mouth, andit's like, well, you they're
knocking on the real estate.
Please, uh, when am I gonna getpaid for that$300 job?

(31:50):
And um, and so but you just wentand you did it, and um, and so
and then I had another mate whohe said, Oh look, I had a quote,
they had this greenhouse in thebackyard, and it was built like
a bomb shelter.
Like the frame was thisbeautiful hardwood timber, and
the the concrete nib wall thatwas buried in the ground

(32:13):
underneath, like took a wholeday of the dingo to pull out the
excavator.
Like it was just built foryears.
And years, but he said, 'I'veI'd had this quote to have it
taken down.' He says, 'I wasgoing to pay them this price,
I'll just pay you to do it.' Youknow, you start a business, I'll
give it to you.
So, you know, one by one thesejobs happened, and and so you
start growing a business thatway, and and um eventually, you

(32:36):
know, you get busy, and so I haduh my first father-in-law.
I said, 'Oh, I need this, youknow, just every couple of days
I need just two-hand jobs, youknow what I mean.
You you're building a handrail,and so it's helpful to have
someone at the top while you'llsay he started working for me
just sporadically helping out ontwo-man jobs and things like
that.

(32:56):
Yeah.
And so eventually then he cameand I ended up sending him to
jobs,' and he went, you know,was working for me and and bits
and pieces, and so you startgrowing this little business,
right?
And in the meantime, anythingthat was carpentry-based, I'd
take photos of it, and I set up,you know, Jacob's Carpentry RPL
at Gmail or whatever it was, andyou'd take photos and you'd send

(33:18):
it to there, and you keeprecords of all the things that
were relevant.
And like I said, I knew back in1996, I'd done all the
practical, you know, all thetech side of it there.
It was, but I thought, well, Ididn't really know the pathword
of what was required, but I justthought you just start and do
something you can.
I've still got a star picket inmy office, and I built this

(33:42):
business on do what you can withwhat you got.
I've got a star picket.
One of the first jobs I got froma real estate was at the start
of 2015, which was when Istarted the business, Cyclone um
had come through Rocky.
And um, and there was this realestate had sent me this job for
the fence on the house, hadobviously a lot of water, a lot

(34:04):
of wind, and and the clay soil,you know, the the fences had
blown over.
So it all dried out, and thefences had all stayed like this.
And so they sent me, can youquote on straightening up the
fences?
And so I'd um give them a price,and and then it was Friday
morning, and I remember and Igot this email through on the

(34:26):
phone, oh, your quote's beenapproved from the real estate.
Oh, you beauty.
So here I was, and I was I wasworking on the house fixing it
up, and I got this through maybenine o'clock Friday morning.
I said, Right, here we go.
I'm gonna go do this job.
I drop everything here, go outthere, and I've got, you know,
nothing.
And um, you know, the the ideawas to dig around one side of

(34:48):
the the post holes, push it up,and concrete in the other side
to straighten this fence up.
And so I had a crowbar, and I'dtaped masking tape around it,
and just was digging this thingout just to try and dig it out.
And my good old father, he uh,oh what you up to?
And he sent me, I sent him, hebought me some gloves from Bunny

(35:11):
Sport and come down with somegloves.
Yeah, Jacob, have some gloves,right?
Be smart.
And so that was my crowbar.
I didn't have a crowbar, but Ihad a star picket.
The star picket was yourcrowbar.
The star picket was my crowbar.
I just wrapped, you know, ducttape around it just to try and
help my hands and just went anddo what I can.
And I've still got that starpicket in my office because it's

(35:33):
just a reminder to me.
That's a motivator if I've everheard one.
Just do what you can with whatyou've got.
You don't have to haveeverything, but you can do
something now.
And like I said, I was ahandyman doing$300 jobs, but I
could do something.
I didn't know the full pathway,but I just know that I wanted to
I wanted to somehow finish mycarpentry apprenticeship.

(35:57):
And so I did that for a fewyears, and um, you know, had
someone working for me and triedto hire another guy too.
And and uh we're just doing allsorts of bits and pieces, what
you could, and like I said,there was opportunities to do
bigger jobs there, but I alwayssaid no, I can't do over 3,000
three.
That's the rules.
And so I kept that and was didthe right thing.

(36:17):
Yeah.
Um, but you you can do all sortsof jobs for that sort of price,
and again, this was 10 yearsago, so I was charging$50 or$60,
you know, an hour, so it's notrates we're getting now.
Um, so you could build a set ofstaircases, you know, you could
build a staircase for that, um,and do all these songs, and it
was a fair price at the time.

(36:38):
You can't build a staircase for$3,000 now, but at the time you
could.
Um, and so I kept photos and allthat, and then I started, after
a couple of years, I startedcalling around training
organizations and just startedcalling.
Hey, I want an RPL, what have Igot to do?
And they oh no, no, you gottawork for it, you gotta work, you
gotta do some work framing for abuilder and stuff like that if

(36:59):
you want to get signed off, youknow.
And so I made a few calls andokay, the time's not right.
Uh, and then I probably anotheryear later I started making
phone calls again.
Well, anyway, I just called thisbloke and he says, Oh, mate, oh,
and I remember talking to you,which I don't think he did, but
um I remember talking to you.

(37:19):
He says, Oh, no, if you want toRPL on your carpentry, we can do
that, no worries, he says.
In fact, we've got a we've got atrainer in Mackay tomorrow
night, right?
This was Wednesday, I think justWednesday through the day.
He says, tomorrow night we'veactually got a trainer in
Mackay.
If you can get Mackay, andthey'd hide out the Leech Club

(37:41):
there or something like that,he's actually doing a course.
If you can get up there and seehim, you get there before the
before the training, and he'llrun through with a bit of RPL
stuff and we can go through somepaperwork.
He said, Have you sign all thispaperwork?
He says, We can take care ofthat, no worries.
$3,000 or whatever it was forthe yeah.
He says, and by the way, we'vejust got some government

(38:02):
funding, right?
For an extra$8, you couldactually get your cert four in
you know in construction aswell.
I'm like, that soundsinteresting.
So yeah, anyway, I thought,well, look, it's government
funded, it's cert four,beautiful.
I get up there.
So next day, I'm in the van,drive to Mackay, and um they'd

(38:25):
set it up.
Anyway, it turns out these guyswere, let's be honest, Dodge.
They were Dodge.
Um, they were a RTO registeredtraining organization who was
all about the money, honey.
And they would do whatever.
So they would get, you know,your CSQ, whatever, funding to
do courses.

(38:45):
And literally, what they haddone in this, like, someone's up
in Mackay tomorrow night.
They had literally sent atrainer, okay, a salesman, to
Mackay and Proserpine.
He'd spent a week or twobeforehand just driving around
all the estates and the all thejob sites.
He must have just gone to everyjob site.
Hey guys, we've got this, youknow, government funding for

(39:06):
eight dollars, you can get acert for.
In and so they just he must havespent a week or two driving
around selling that thing.
And if you can be at Mackay, youknow, Leagues Club on Thursday
night, we'll get you, right?
And literally, I was sittingthere at the front and you could
hear blokes talking, waiting forit.
Oh, can't they just sign us off?
Like, and all the deal was youhad to sit in one classroom and

(39:29):
he was going to talk aboutcontracts.
And if you sat there and didthat, we'll get you a cert for,
right?
And there's blokes and there'sblokes outside who driven from
Prosper Pine saying, Can't theyjust sign me off?
I just want to drive home.
Well, I've got to be here, andsit in the classroom for 40 or
two hours or an hour and a half,whatever it was.
Count you just give it to me.
I mean, that was dodge, and I'mthinking like, and that's not

(39:49):
what I signed up for.
I knew that I I knew that I hadthe capacity and the competency
to be a carpenter, and that'swhat I'd gone there for.
And I'd paid for a carpentry,you know, qualification.
And I knew, like, I always joke,like, around Rocky, there's a
lot of carpenters, probablyaround Brisbane and all over
Australia, there's a whole heapof carpenters.

(40:10):
If you can't fix it with a nailgun, don't know how to fix it.
No, I haven't exactly and like Icould build a set of staircases
like hardwood, routed out, andand do all that sort of thing
there.
So I'd done a lot of fine sortof thing.
And so I knew that I knew that Icould call myself a carpenter.
I didn't have the paperwork, butI knew I had the capacity, the

(40:31):
capability to do it.

SPEAKER_03 (40:33):
I don't think it matters, like everyone learns
very differently, mate.
I don't think whether it's atradesman, a doctor, a lawyer,
whoever, like there's justpeople that are good at what
they love doing.

SPEAKER_00 (40:42):
That's it.

SPEAKER_03 (40:43):
There's plenty of people that have gone through
the system correctly, and stilldon't know.

SPEAKER_00 (40:49):
They don't have a clue.
Like I said, unless you can fixit, unless you can do it with a
nail gun, I wouldn't have aclue.
Um, and so so I knew that, andso I went there and sat down in
that thing.
Like I said, I sat down with thetrainer beforehand, we went
through a bit of RPL stuff, andand then sat in on the the
course for the cert four.

(41:10):
And I um I went home, I filledout all the stuff for the
carpentry, and I'd fill that outand you know, drove home that
night, got home midnight, wentto bed, got up the next day and
went to work, and um and he'dgive me some paperwork.
Oh, if you can get a builder tosign this off, right?

(41:31):
Um we'll send you a cert for.
And I was like, I I don't knowthat.
I I can't say that I've earnedthat.
I can't say I know the things.
And I, you know, I had a buildermate, and I didn't want to
approach him and just I didn'teven want to ask, um, because I
didn't think it was right.
It wasn't.
And so I didn't fill out thatpaperwork.

(41:55):
Um I I'd sent did all the stufffor the cert three for my
carpentry.
I'd sent that off to him.
Anyway, sent it off and you keepdoing life.
Anyway, a month or so later, twolater, whatever it was, envelope
comes in the mail.
Open it up.
Here's your cert three incarpentry, right?
And you hadn't signed anything.
No, I had for the cert three.

(42:17):
My cert three, which is thecarpentry, that's what you
that's what your carpentry tradeis at certificate three in
construction.
Yeah.
I had signed all the paperworkfor the cert three.
Yeah.
So I pulled that out.
What's this behind it?
Oh, cert four.
They sent me the cert four,dated the very day after they
dated the cert three.

(42:38):
I'm like, I did not sign anypaperwork on that.
I'm like, well, what do you dowith that?
I went about, I took the certthree, I went to QBCC, I
registered and did everything, Ieverything proper to get myself
a construct, you know, acarpentry license.
I put the cert four back, put itin the, you know, put it in my
cupboard and left it there.
I didn't, you know, I just went,I I'll come for a cert three, I

(43:00):
wanted a carpentryqualification, I knew I was
competent to do that.
And so I took that, got my QBCClicense, and here we go.
I can call myself a carpenter,start doing bigger jobs over the
3,300 and keep growing thebusiness a bit more.
So the cert four I just put inthe cupboard and kept growing
the business, and so you know,hired guys, and you know, and so

(43:22):
what started out in two andthree and four hundred dollar
jobs was now two and three andfive hundred, five thousand
dollar jobs, and you know, maybea ten thousand dollar job here
and there, and so the jobs justgot a little bit more and a
little bit more.
And so I just was running thecarpentry business, and and but
I had I had that vision that Iwanted to be a builder and I

(43:43):
wanted to get there.
And so um after a few years, itwas like I knew that was sitting
in the cupboard, and I knew Ihadn't done the course.
Um, but also know that I now ifI approached a training
organization, it shows thatyou've done the course.
They can't do I can't pay, Icouldn't even pay someone again

(44:05):
to go do that course.
They wouldn't let me do thetraining because you've already
done it, Mr.
Bain.
Sorry.
You know, so and so that's thedirtiest part about that RTO is,
and I think they got shut down,um, is like they they didn't
just rip off the government byjust handing out free money and
just taking all taking that allfrom self, like you know, they

(44:28):
didn't train anyone, but theyripped me off because they
didn't train me, they got paidto train me and they didn't do
it.
Yeah, and so here I am.
I want that.
I want to know what that coursewas supposed to teach me, and
they didn't teach it to me.
And I can't just go and say, Ithought about do I just go
approach the approach the masterbuilders and say, Hey, I know

(44:50):
you run this course.
Can I just sit in the backcorner and just listen?
I won't answer any questions.
I know you can't give me thequalification.
Can I just sit in the backcorner and listen to what you're
saying?
Like I thought about that.
Um, but I just kept going, andso the time came and I I wanted
to do it, and I thought, well, Istepped out, I found um I was

(45:13):
introduced um a friend of minewho'd worked, he was a plumber,
but he worked for a localbuilder.
And John, I really appreciateJohn um 40 years building in CQ
area.
He'd had a a franchise and youknow, a lot of experience run
business, and and so I didn'tintroduce to him and and he was,

(45:35):
you know, he'd done well.
And then after 2008, when youknow things had gone sour, he
was in a position like 55 orsomething like that.
He was able to shut down thatbusiness and retire, sort of
thing.
And ten years later he was sortof he's just doing some little
project for himself, and and youknow, a man's got to do
something with himself, he can'tdo nothing.
And so he had these littleprojects, and so he didn't see

(45:56):
it as competition or anythinglike that.
And he sort of, you know, sizedme up, and I sort of talked to
him, met him a few times, andsaid, This is what I want you to
do.
I'm looking for a licensee, andit was like, you know, to get
your builder's license, you'vegot to work well as a carpenter
or bricklayer, you've got towork under someone else's
license for two years as asupervisor, and so it was easy

(46:20):
enough to get a supervisor'slicense from the QBCC, but you
had to work under someone else.
In the meantime, I've mean mycarpentry business is thriving,
it's there, I've got guysworking for me.
Um, do you shut that down and gowork for someone else?
Well, no.
Um, so we founded, you know,Bain Builders Proprietary

(46:41):
Limited, and I hired John as anominee.
And um, and so I worked underhim, and um and that way I kept
my carpentry business going.

SPEAKER_03 (46:51):
That's always the solution, eh?
Like, I think it's like it it'sgood that you're going into all
this detail because there's somany people out there that'd be
wondering how they become abuilder or get to a builder, and
they're probably getting hurdlesput in front of them.
Like, you've just kept pushingand pushing and made it happen.

SPEAKER_00 (47:04):
You just gotta go, have a go.
Like, it's just I know there's away.
Just keep going.
I've got a vision, I can dothis, and that's what I
appreciate about being inelevators.
Like, you see guys who've doneit, like you're in a community,
and you see, well, if he can doit, then surely there's a way
that I can do it too, right?
You know, and so like John hadsized me up and he looked at me

(47:27):
and said, You're running abusiness.
Like he he knew, and this is atthe end of the day, I knew I
didn't have well, I had thepiece of paper, but I didn't
have all that all the schooltraining.
But I knew that if I wanted tobe a builder, it was a game of
continual learning.

(47:47):
I couldn't sit in a class thisyear and say, well, I've got a
builder's ticket, I don't needto learn anything more, I'm
fine.
No, I knew to be a builder thatthat code keeps changing, the
rules keep changing, technology,we keep learning.
And so if I want to be abuilder, I've got to keep
learning.
Yeah.
Every year, you don't get awayfrom that.
And so one piece of paper that Imight got five, ten, twenty

(48:09):
years ago is worthless today ifI don't keep learning.
And so, with that, that's whatsort of empowered me to say,
look, even though they didn't dothe job they were supposed to
do, and even got a piece ofpaper that I didn't deserve, I
know that I've got to keeplearning.
And so, like that was a coupleof years ago, whatever they

(48:31):
taught me in that course, orthey should have, probably
there's some things that need tobe upgraded on that today,
anyway.
Yeah, and I know there'sbuilders who's got a license 25
years ago, and they haven't doneany development on that since
then.
And so, and so that's I thinkJohn looked at me, he said,
You've got a business, you'vegot the mindset that understands

(48:53):
running a business.
The fact that I could meet withhim in the middle of the day and
sit down with him for an hourand ask him questions and talk
to him.
He understands if you couldbuild a business to that point,
okay, you understand it's notjust can you nail, put the nail
there.
Yeah, it's can you do you havethe mindset to understand
running and the numbers and theand the So they teach you all

(49:17):
the the structural stuff,foundation, sales?
Yeah, so he's fantastic and allof that.
They're in like, you know, Icould ask him any question, and
like I said, he was doing aproject for himself, so um, so
he was yeah, doing a littletownhouse development.
So my guys are actually workingon that job.
Like he hires his labor forthat.

(49:37):
So we're in there, and I couldask him any question, anything
that we do.
The actual first project that wedid at Bain Builders was
actually raise my house.
I got a double gable, likeQueenslander style, um, and
there, and so I said, Well, I'mgonna do it for myself, right?
I can do it for me, I'll proveto myself that I can do it, and
then I've got the proof to taketo the world to say, this is

(50:00):
what I can do.
Would you like me to do the samefor you?
And so John would come and we'dwalk around site and he'd ask,
What are you gonna do there?
or tell me how you how you'regonna weather proof there, you
know, it's all right where thatexisting deck is, and you've got
a sliding glass door above that,and now you're gonna have wall
underneath there that you don'twant how we gonna fix that
problem and all this sort ofthing.
So he, you know, and at any timeI could call him and ask the

(50:23):
question, and nothing was youknow, that's what I say.
I'm I am uh really f in debtwith him.
I appreciate him all the time.
Because without that I couldn't,you know, I wouldn't have had
it.
And I still could, you know,still can call him and say
what's going on.

SPEAKER_03 (50:38):
And so where did uh Kingfisher Home start?

SPEAKER_00 (50:41):
Well, at the time I'd registered Bain Builders
Proprietary Limited, um but Iwanted something that was um not
just me.
My point in starting businesswas not just to create the Jacob
machine, but I want I want tocreate something that's beyond
me.
I want a place where people cancome to work, be encouraged, be

(51:03):
developed, you know, not youknow, um not held under the
thumb, but that we can, youknow, grow and learn together
and and have a benefit in thatand you know and find our place
in the world.
And so I didn't want just Bane,I wanted something beyond that.
And so Kingfisher Homes.

(51:24):
I don't even know, to be honest,what's like where it sort of
come from.
I do remember when I'd done myum, you know, when I got my
contractor's license atCarpenter, you had to do the um
a course in management, like atwo or three-day course Master
Builders put on.
And uh the master builder'strainer was like, oh, you know,
there's not enough like red dogor cattle dog homes or something

(51:47):
like that.
You know, why does everyone wantjust want bang constructions and
pierce constructions and allthat sort of, you know, like uh
he was like, you know, come on,boys, think outside the box a
little.
And so maybe it was a bit of athrowback to that.
I didn't want red dogconstructions or something like
that, but it was just somethinglike there, and I like, you
know, the Kingfisher is smalland fleet and beautiful, and so
maybe all these things combined,and um, and so I'd registered

(52:10):
the name Kingfisher Homes uhwith the intention that when we
get to the new home sort of sideof things, um, we can use that
as a name.
Yeah, and so that was thedevelopment, and so I worked, I
actually hired John for well,technically I only had to do it
for two two years, but I hiredfor two and a half years of I
worked under his licence, andand then um time came to um and

(52:34):
I'd kept my two businessesseparated, whereas I kept um you
know Rockhampton Carpentry as aseparate entity and just started
Bane Builders, which just workedunder because John was the
licensee and I didn't wantanything, not that I thought
there'd be anything, but just incase there was any trouble, I
wanted that separated from thishere just as in respect to him,

(52:58):
and he didn't ask for that, butyeah, that's just the way I
wanted to set it up.
So um after I got my builder'slicence for myself, I you know
merged, brought all the guysinto the Bone Builders
Proprietary Limited, and and nowwe operate under under that
there.
But um That's awesome, mate.
Yeah, that's that's where wecome.
So like this November will be 10years since I started our one

(53:21):
man handyman through the fewhand tools I had in the back of
the family car for territory andsaid, I'm gonna be a handyman,
here we go.
And last year we built$960,000home.
And so I don't take thatlightly.

SPEAKER_03 (53:35):
Um so that's your dearest contract today.
That's our biggest to date,yeah.
Yeah, and you're um so what whatmade you so how long were you
building for yourself before youdecided to come along to
elevate?

SPEAKER_00 (53:47):
Um, well, I've through the course of my
business career I'd had, youknow, different um business
coaches and stuff.
I knew the importance.
I had the realization many yearsago is um there's only two ways
that you can learn.
One is you go out and makemistakes and you hope to learn

(54:08):
from them.
The trouble with going out andmaking mistakes and learning
from there is what you make whatyou learn from making mistakes
is how not to do it.
And you don't necessarily learnhow to do it.
You might try a different way,but then you might that might be
a mistake too.
Another one, another one.
And so eventually you might getthere, but so that's one way to
learn is go out and makemistakes and learn from that.

(54:30):
The other one is you needsomeone to teach you.
Um the trouble with havingsomeone teach you is you don't
know what you don't know, andtherefore you don't know what
you need to learn.
Um, and so what you need if youwant to be taught from someone
is someone who's been there anddone it.
And I'd had different businesscoaches, in general coaches, not
necessarily constructioncoaches, you know, that I'd been

(54:52):
under different programs, andthat was good.
And that I I wouldn't be here,my business wouldn't be here
like if it wasn't for that.
As I said, I'm an introvert, andone of my biggest challenges
that even sometimes stillplagues me is just to go back
and just be that one man bandand just like blow it all, and I
could do it perfect, and Icould, you know, have the

(55:13):
sweetest jobs, and I know I'dnever want for work, and I'd
look after my family fine.
But I want something bigger thanjust me, and that's fine.
And that's and I think thebiggest thing for trade is is
just knowing what you're herefor.
Like, what is your goal?
What do you want?
Like, it's not everyone doesn'thave to have a 50-person
business.
Like, if you are a one-man band,then do that and do that well.

(55:38):
If you have, you know, you and acouple of apprentices, then
that's okay.
You don't have to have 10 staff,and that's all right.

SPEAKER_03 (55:46):
Success is very different to everyone, though.

SPEAKER_00 (55:49):
Do you and do it well, like that's okay.
Like, that can having a$50million business for you might
not be success, it might justblow you apart.

SPEAKER_03 (55:59):
Yeah, and that's all right.
The do-it-well part's reallyimportant, but because a lot of
people aren't doing it well atone man ban or ten million or
fifteen million.
If you're not, and reality is ifyou're not doing it well at one
man ban, it's not gonna get anybetter when you've got ten.

SPEAKER_01 (56:11):
It doesn't, it doesn't, no.

SPEAKER_03 (56:13):
But everyone, that should be their minimum goal is
whatever they're doing, do it tothe best of their ability.

SPEAKER_00 (56:18):
That's it.
And that's what I always did.
Like, I am a perfectionist atheart sort of thing there.
And um, you know, I rememberlike building a staircase and
something went wrong, like, oh,the post got cut, it was a bit
short, and you and you think,oh, I could, you know, just
check that out and put a bit ontop and glue it up and both, you
know, and it'll be fine.
And you know, you work foranother half a day and just it

(56:40):
just plagued me.
And no, pull it apart, do itproper, and you know, that was
and you just do it proper, andthen like everything.
I just want to know that we walkaway saying, We did the best,
I'm proud to be part of that.
Yeah, and um, if you do that,but anyway, coming back to
business coaches, like um, yeah,there's only way to one way to
learn that someone's someone'sgot to show you, and that

(57:02):
someone better be someone who'sbeen there and done it
themselves.

SPEAKER_03 (57:05):
Every every single person, doesn't matter what
level you're at.
I firmly believe now, should belearning from someone that is
where they want to be.
Yeah, like it's the only way,like at all at every level, and
that's with everything.
That's with business, propertyinvestment, wealth, like
everything.
Like the um, I feel like socialmedia, like there's just so many
people on there now that make itlook like they're killing it,

(57:29):
but behind the scenes they'reprobably living in a bloody
one-bedroom apartment in debt tothe eyeballs.
Like, it's very easy now to looklike.
By the Mustang, mate, lookgreat.
But um, like where so where'sKingfisher homes now, mate?
Like you you're kicking goals,you like you're just telling me
before, you've done three homesthis year, you've just signed
another one.

SPEAKER_00 (57:49):
Signed another contract, and um, yeah.
So now we uh yeah, I feel thetraction like it takes time.
Get yourself a name out therefor to be recognized.
I think um yeah, I feel qualityin the leads that we're getting,
that sort of thing, there wherepeople are coming in, and it's a
different questions they'reasking and different sorts of um

(58:12):
so there's a bit of and I likeall the first number of houses
that we built were all in like acul-de-sac or a little
out-of-the-way street orsomething like that.
It wasn't over in the new estatewhere everyone can see, and
yeah, and Rocky's a littleplace, and and um, but nothing
was sort of in the way, and sowe built some beautiful homes,
but they just weren't on a busystreet where everyone can see

(58:34):
your sign and see what you'vedone, you know.
And so, how do you get that outthere?
And you know, we've kept goingwith marketing and just keep on
being faithful with what we'vegot and keep doing that and
finding ways to you know to dowhat you do as well as you can,
and and just again, lifecompounds, just keep doing what
you do, and it compounds for thebetter or for the worse.

SPEAKER_03 (58:56):
Yeah, um, but life does compound and so the one you
were working on when we calledin to see you last year up in
Rocky, that was a prettychallenging project, multiple
levels, like split levels andthree levels.

SPEAKER_00 (59:09):
Um, there was uh roof directions, there's about
nine different roof slopes inthe design.
Um, so yeah, there was I learneda lot in that.

SPEAKER_03 (59:19):
Yeah, no, it's really good.
Like to hear your full story andwhere you've come from, what
you've been through, and howhard you've pushed to get to
where you are, like it's it's itit's pretty inspiring.
Thank you.
But there's no excuses, isthere?
Like these people that makeexcuses about what they've got
or what they where they want tobe or the type of business they
want to have, or what likewhatever it is, like that there
is no excuses.

(59:40):
There's always a solution.
You've just got to keep pushing.

SPEAKER_00 (59:42):
You have a go.
And you know, like I said, it'sokay to start small, it's okay
to start with what you've got,but I guarantee you've got
something you can start with.
Like I said, I had a few handtools and the family car.
And well, that's what I got, sostart with that.
I had a star picket, so I'llstart with that, right?

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:02):
I've keen for you to send me this picture of that
star picket when you get out.
That's that's pretty inspiring,that story.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:07):
But you do you can do something, you've got
something.
Yeah, and it wasn't great.
And um, but it was a start.
And like I said, I'm I've neverlike it's actually, yeah, kind
of uh it is vulnerable for me tosay this like to tell my story,
like I said, to say thatpublicly, like to get out there

(01:00:28):
and say, I found my builder'slicense in a in a cereal box,
um, you know, um, is somethingthat's just like, well, I don't
know, it's not the best way.
I'm not saying this is the wayto do it.
I'm just saying this is this ishow it worked out for me.
Yeah.
I kept going.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:42):
And so you put in from what I've seen and from
what I know you over the last umlike what do you mean with
Elevate now?
Two years?

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:49):
Yeah, 80 months, start of 2024, I joined with
Elevate.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:52):
Look, you um like there is definitely people out
there that are just looking forthe simplest, easiest way to get
a license, and they their workshows that they're they're
unskilled, they're untrained,they don't know the codes.
Like it it's it stands out likedogs walls.
But like I've seen your work,and you've you've obviously put
in the training, you've got theknowledge to be able to turn out

(01:01:14):
beautiful homes.
So it takes time.
Yeah, it takes time.
There's there's lots ofdifferent types of people in
this world, and you're you'renot one that's taking advantage
of the system.
You you've done the hard yards,you've you've learned what you
need to learn.
Yeah.
Um, but so what what's been someof the learnings?
Like, what was uh I guess uhwhat made you besides learning
and looking up to me, like whathave what made you come to live

(01:01:37):
life build?

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:38):
Well, like I said, after I'd had a general business
coach and I said, Oh, I actuallyjoined another Australian
business company uh specificallyconstruction, and I did that
program for a while, a couple ofyears, and I thought, oh, and
again, it's what you put intoit, and probably not that it's
not a bad, you know, it'sprobably not a terrible system.

(01:02:01):
I just hadn't put the trainingand things in there.
And so I was looking forsomething else.
And before I'd even joined thatone, I was actually searching
around, and there's anotherbuilding coach, specifically
building coach.
Um, I won't name any names, butliterally when I was picking
between this company or thatone, I you know, on their
website.

(01:02:21):
Website that had testimonials.
Oh, you know, ABC constructionsand you know, GYG constructions
and all this.
And I literally Googledsearched, oh, okay, ABC
constructions.
Google searched this.
Uh Builder goes broke.
Oh, okay.
We'll try this one.
GYG constructions.
Uh GYG construction goes under.

(01:02:41):
And like literally, these werethe buildings, their
testimonials on their website,and I searched, and I'm not
talking that it was one or two,there was a few.
And I get to the point, like,okay, I'm not using them, right?
If all their I don't know why,but if they just teach them,
okay, market, you know, turnoverbusiness.
Put your heads out there, guys.
Yeah, get your turnover up andgrow your business until it

(01:03:03):
crashes because you burnyourself out.
I don't know.
I'm like, okay, I'm not gonnause those ones.
Okay, someone else.
And so I ended up with anothercompany, and then after that was
okay, they were all right.
But I'd seen you on the socialsand I thought, like, this guy's
actually a builder, he's thereactually doing it.
And um, and so that's whatattracted me to it there.

(01:03:27):
It was just like because it'snot just teaching you, and which
is important, and which buildersdo need to know their numbers,
they do need to know how tosystemise, they do need to know
how to market, and you know, allthese things.
And like I said, my background,the reason I tell you all those
things is I did retailinsurance, I did banking, you
know, I did, you know, realestate sales and all this, all

(01:03:48):
of that there has come together,and all those bits and pieces,
all that knowledge has come, andI use all those things now.
It all helps me to run thatbusiness.
It to knows because I knowpeople, I've I've learned, you
know, how to get on with thedifferent people, how to look
things up.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:05):
You've come a long way in the last 18 months, but
like you've oh yeah, yeah, look.
I've had some pretty big uhwins.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:10):
Yeah, yeah.
And I was just again, we wasjust part of this thing and
building, and you know it can bedone, and and being part of that
community, and you can as Isaid, you can see it's done.
If he did it, then why can't I?
Like somebody else has done itso it's possible, yeah, right?
Is it is it the best thing forme to do?
I suppose that's what you've gotto learn and say, is this the
right thing for our business?

(01:04:30):
Um, but yeah, it's just puttingin the training, you know,
getting involved.
It is getting involved.
Like you'd see it more than me.
Like that you see, the peoplewho actually get involved, they
get on, you know, get on there,do the Facebook post, you know.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:44):
You've got to get involved, mate.
That's the biggest like you'vegot to be consistent, you've got
to get involved, but you'veyou've got to implement what you
learn, and and actually sit downand watch the stuff because
every day, you know, every monththat money is taken out.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:57):
Uh, what what are you gonna do with it?
You've got to get there andwatch those videos and think.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:02):
It works.
It does.
Um I'm not I can't remember umif it was you or not, but did
you have a like you had a bit ofa funny mindset like you were
holding yourself back becauseyou didn't think you were you
called you said I was themountain.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:16):
I was saying I was getting up there, and what what
I meant by that was that you canknow as you're building a
business, you know there's astep by step by step, and if you
keep putting that step upon stepon step, you get critical mass.
You you push, you push like it'slike train on the track, like
shh, you feel the wheelspinning, but soon enough those

(01:05:38):
tires are gonna grip, and thenyou actually get some traction
and go.
And I could feel you know, Iknow I was talking to people, I
had some good customers, we werein design, you know, home design
and stuff like that.
You could just see it, but it Ididn't have any contracts, or
you know, or we had things thatwe're doing, not that we weren't
doing it, but I knew there wasmore, and you could see we're

(01:05:58):
working with these customers andand the design on these homes
and the pricing on it's gettingclose.
And um, but you just that's justto keep pushing.
And so many times I said 10years in business, like the
amount of times that I wouldhave quit, um, and said it's not
like year after year, it's likeevery end of the eight of years,
like, oh, why am I doing this?

(01:06:20):
Like, it's not profitable.
If it's not profitable by nextyear, that's it.
I can quit that's it, I'mshutting this thing down.
End of next year, if it's notprofitable next year, but it
says I'm a stubborn man, and uh,and I know it, and so does my
wife.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:34):
But there, but you there was definitely some
mindset stuff there, wasn'tthere?
Like you were you were putting alot of things in place, but you
had some mindset things thatwere ultimately holding you back
from achieving your goals.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:45):
You can definitely shut yourself down, like and you
whether you realise it or not,can be fooling your own
opportunities.
And there's definitely thatthere, and sometimes you know,
and again, sometimes thatthing's like, Well, do I know
enough?
And you know, I didn't, youknow, I haven't done this for 20
years, like all the otherbuilders, and you know, so am I

(01:07:05):
really good enough?

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:06):
And I think you look, I know when we first met
you had some big issues aroundthat because we we've had some
we had some conversations, andyou you would say to me, I don't
I'm not good enough.
Like I I haven't been I haven't,yeah.
Like I think one of our firstconversations on the phone, like
you were basically saying Ishouldn't be doing what I'm
doing because I haven't been onthe tools for 10-15 years.
Like that's um you've but youcan be a painter and be a

(01:07:29):
builder.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:30):
I've got a good mate who built like hundreds and
hundreds of homes inRockhampton, and he was a
drafty, yeah, you know, but hebuilt hundreds of homes, he
never swung the hammer himself.
Yeah, and even my mate John, whowas a qualified carpenter and
worked his way up, my friend whoworked for me uh for him, who
before he introduced me, hesaid, John built hundreds of
homes, but he didn't swing thehammer, he didn't think.

(01:07:53):
Now you've got to know is hedoing it right?
Is that tie-down proper?
You know, and that's the thing.
You when you take that leap frombeing a chippy or whatever your
trade is to being a builder, buta chippy, you've got to know
your rules.
You've got to know how manynails to put in that strap and
you know, the spacing on thatplywood.
All of a sudden, you you have toknow everybody's rules,

(01:08:14):
everything's everybody's rulebooks, you've got to know them
all, right?
And that's why I knew like ifI'm gonna be a builder, I just
gotta keep learning, keeplearning, keep learning.
Um, and that's you know, that'swhy I do appreciate about live
life build is it's not justabout how to run your business.
We do talk about how to buildwell too.
And um, and so that yeah, that'swhat I appreciate there.

SPEAKER_03 (01:08:37):
But you you um like you took off once you broke that
mindset and you broke throughthose barriers, you've you've
like the last 12 months you'vehad big success.
Yeah.
The um and it was good to seeyou set some goals too, and you
like you were able to tick themoff and achieve them, which uh
which is huge.
Like, yeah, yeah.
Um so what what's next forKingfisher Homes?
Like what's on the what's on theplans for the future?

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:59):
Um my goal this year is I wanted um six starts, six
slabs on the ground.
Um we've got three so far, I'vejust signed number four.
So I've got two more if I wantto hit my goal for this year.
Um that's 2025.
That's yeah, this calendar year.
Yeah, yeah.
So I've got a couple more, anduh it's possible.

SPEAKER_03 (01:09:19):
Definitely, mate.
It's possible.
So, what are you what are youdoing to make that happen?

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:23):
Um, well, tomorrow when I get back to town, there's
some people with pre-approvaland they know the plan they
want, and I'm going out to seetheir block of land.
And so we keep marketing, keepputting ourselves out there.
Um, and um, you know, justpractical things like the back
end, like setting up in the CRMlike email trail, like writing

(01:09:46):
emails, just well, because Iwould get phone calls, yeah,
yeah, have a good chat, noworries.
Yeah, that'd be great.
And never talk, I'm thinking,why am I spending money on
marketing or anything else ifI'm not even following these
people through?
At least like get some email andput them in a lineup to say,
okay, we'll send you an email,an email, at least just sort of
might try and keep them warm,um, and things like that.

(01:10:07):
So, yeah, so just puttingourselves out there.
Um talking, I've actually we'vesigned options on two blocks in
probably Rocky's favorite state.
Um, a big thing is land at themoment, and getting land is a
big part for us.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:23):
Because you do your couple of your own developments
as well, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:25):
Oh, look, we sold a house and land yeah, the start
of this year, so I bought boughta block of land and went
developed that, and so it's it'ssold, it's still under
construction, but we've got it,we've got a buy for that.
Yeah.
Uh yeah, and that's that's awhole nother conversation about
funding on those things, um,which is a trick.
But yeah, so now yeah, learninga trick of like we can sign an

(01:10:47):
option with the development, wecan come up with a plan, market
that, sell it, and we don't haveto fund it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:54):
Um, and you agree on a certain time period.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:57):
That's right, yeah.
And you know, but I think thebiggest thing a lot of our
customers were um is like thethe biggest question I think
they want to answer in the firstis is like how much, like, can I
afford it?
How much is it actually gonnacost me?
Can I afford to do what I wantto do?
Of course, everyone's budget'shere and what they can afford.
But can you build a house withthat much money?
Well, the answer is generally ifthey come to me with 400, can

(01:11:20):
you build a home for 400,000?
Yes, you can.
Is it the home you want?
No, it's not.
Is that big enough to fit in theestates?
Covenants, probably not, too.
But in the general sense, mostpeople, I just try to align it.
Can you build a home?
Is their budget reasonable?
Is that a good starting point?
Can we work with that?
Yes, you can.
And like you've seen that one wedid, which was a nice big one.

(01:11:41):
But mostly I think Kingfisherhomes is just trying to find
that happy medium between likethe project builders and bang,
bang, bang, and get it outthere, and not necessarily this
big, beautiful custom homes.
So what's find a happy medium inthere?
Yeah, um at the moment, thethree we've got on one's about
500, 600, and 700,000.

(01:12:01):
For the they low set, high set,low set, brick, yeah, or not
brick, but low set slab onground.
Um uh they're actually allcladded like weatherboard style.
Um, not that that's all we do,but that's just that these three
turned out to be.
Um, yeah, so as I said, we didthat split level.
Would I do that again?
Yes, I can.
Again, as long as people got thebudget.

(01:12:23):
But generally, like value formoney is like I said, generally
where we target is that um thatmid-range with trying to give
someone a custom experience tobe able to customize and make it
their home.
Um without just being a numberfor a project builder, without

(01:12:44):
feeling you've got to build ayou know, million, two million
dollar home to to get thatexperience, and know that you
can have something that's wellcrafted, like thought about.
We're putting in the bestefforts that we can um inside
that budget.
Obviously it's all inside of abudget, but you know that the

(01:13:04):
guys are thinking about that.
We are doing the best practiceas far as flashing and thinking
about the paper we're putting onand all these sorts of things.
There is a difference, um, eventhough that difference is not
seen most of the time after it'sbeen painted, yeah.
It definitely is, and that's whybeing that handyman and starting
at that, and that's why I saidto the young fellows who work

(01:13:25):
for me, like being a handyman,doing this will make you a
better builder, and that's whatI like about my guys have done
maintenance and that.
Now we're just trying to pushinto just doing the new homes
and and not doing themaintenance.
But the fact you guys haveworked for me have done the
maintenance, I say that makesyou a better builder because you
see what goes wrong.

(01:13:45):
You go back in five or ten orfifteen years, you see what if
he had a prime the end of thatbalustrade, we wouldn't be here
replacing it.
If he had to use some hardwoodinstead of pink pine, we
wouldn't be here replacing thistoday.
Yeah, and so you see that you'veyou know that whole progression
of where I've come from.
So I've seen what goes wrong, solet's think about how we can do

(01:14:07):
it a bit better.

SPEAKER_03 (01:14:08):
Well, and that's where a lot of time needs to be
spent, I think, doesn't it, withyour team?
Like you've got to explain, likethey've got to know why they're
doing what they're doing, yeah.
Because if they don't, they justthey don't understand why you're
so such a perfectionist and whyyou want something prime before
it goes up against somethingelse, or yeah, yeah.
And that's that's um likeultimately that's a that is a a

(01:14:31):
true sustainable home is a homethat's not gonna have to be
being repaired bloody every yeah10, 12 years.
Yeah.
Like doing things properly thefirst time, using the right
materials, doing installing thematerials the correct way, like
that's a massive.

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:43):
Even just that, yeah, that's right.
You can put the same, you couldhave two houses built of exactly
the same materials, but howthey're put together can make a
big difference of how long thatthing's gonna last.

SPEAKER_03 (01:14:55):
So, mate, how like you personally, what what do you
get up to to maintain yourself?
Because uh everyone knows I Ibang on about if you're not
right, nothing around you can beright.

SPEAKER_00 (01:15:04):
Um, yeah, to me it's it's work and family in church,
that's my life.
Like I said, um I go from sevento six every day at work, um, so
Monday to Friday, and so that'sall work after that.
I love my family, and uminvolved I play guitar and sing
with my church too Sundaymorning, so I love doing that,

(01:15:27):
and that's that's my thingthere.
So again, good community aroundyou, that sort of thing.
And that's where like I said,when when life throws you um you
it's too late to buildpartnerships when you need it,
and that's that's a cruciallesson I've learned in life.
Like when things go wrong, it'stoo late to build a partnership.

(01:15:49):
Oh, I need help, I need afriend.
Like sorry, man, you gotta bebuilding that when life's good,
and then when something happens,you've got those relationships,
you've got that support, and um,so that's it there.
Yeah, pretty much just hangingout with the fam.

SPEAKER_03 (01:16:05):
And and uh you'd be a busy boy, mate, with the
family, do I sound like that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:09):
Like I said, you got little kids.
I mean, 20 2020, 2021, that'swhen I I started the building
business, decided to rent amajor renovation on my home.
My eldest daughter left highschool and got married, and um
we had our youngest daughter.
So one of those things by itselfis a major event.

(01:16:32):
We decided to throw all four inat the same time.
And uh but it's fun, it's justit's life, it's enjoyable.
I love it, I love what I do.
Yeah, um, to me, anyone who getsup and whinges about oh, I don't
like my job, it's Mondaymorning.
Um, I don't even like hump dayWednesday.
Like every day's the same.

(01:16:52):
If you don't love what you do,guarantee there's something out
there.
There's there's people all overAustralia who's looking for
employee with whatever job thatyou could possibly want.
If you set yourself a goal andwork towards it, okay, maybe you
can't be a doctor tomorrow, butyou can start the process to be
a doctor or whatever it's gonnabe.
If you don't like being whatyou're doing now, go find

(01:17:14):
something that you can like,yeah, but enjoy your life.

SPEAKER_03 (01:17:17):
Like life's too short to muck around, isn't it?
Like you've got it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:17:20):
Yeah, you're gonna have hard days, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:17:22):
But like, how much better is life if every day is
happy and exciting?
Yeah, like it doesn't take muchto get that.
Like, just yeah, you're 100%,mate.
Like, you just gotta find doingsomething you like.
That's it.
And it and whether it'ssomething you're doing in your
life, or maybe the person thatyou're doing it with isn't the
right person to be teaching you.
Like, well, leave, go and findsomeone that you do get on with

(01:17:44):
and you can work with.
That's it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:17:46):
You find a mission, like to me, it's a mission.
Like, um, like the BlueBrothers, mate.
I'm on a mission from God.
Like, to me, that's what kept megoing, even though I wanted to
quit before things like now,okay.
I got money in the bank, we gotprojects, you know, like but and
but you still got to have likethat thing, what gets me out of
bed in the morning?

(01:18:06):
Every morning that alarm goesoff at 5 30.
I get up right.
Here we go.
Sometimes you're like, I don'twant to get up.
You know what?
I'm doing it because I gotsomething to do, and I want to
get to the end of my life andsay, I did what I could, I did
what I could with the time Ihad.
Yeah.
I made some sort of impact.
What impact did I make on thisworld?

SPEAKER_03 (01:18:25):
And you're always putting your hardest.

SPEAKER_00 (01:18:27):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:18:27):
No well, mate.
Look, really appreciate youcoming on today.
Before we wrap it up, um, forpeople out there that are making
excuses and telling themselvesthat the world's too hard and
they're never going to achievetheir job, what advice do you
got for them?

SPEAKER_01 (01:18:39):
Suck it up, princess.

SPEAKER_00 (01:18:43):
No, look, just have a go.
You you don't have to be, youdon't have to start at the top.
You can't start at the top, buthave a go.
Do what you can with what you'vegot.
Um, take a step in the rightdirection.
You might have to keep like whenI got my carpentry license, I
made the mistake of going,right, I'm a carpenter now.
I'm not one of these dodgylittle handymans, right?

(01:19:05):
I don't need that.
I went around to all the realestates and said, We're just
taking carpentry work.
I don't want that handymanstuff, right?
Don't send me that anymore.
Uh that worked for the firstmonth because we had work banked
up, and then all of a sudden Iwas like, I got nothing to do.
And cap in hand went back to thereels.
Actually, we are gonna take somehandyman work now.
Um, if you don't mind, sorry.
Um just like okay, we wemaintained that business.

(01:19:29):
It kept on going, we kept ondoing those little bits and
pieces, and and started doingbigger ones on top of that.
And same when we transitionedinto the bigger building
business, we still keptmaintaining those smaller bits
and pieces there until theseones here, and like we've still
kept on doing the renovationsand the smaller bits.

(01:19:51):
Now I'm at the point now whereI'm saying, okay, now we just
want to do new homes.
That's the goal I've beenworking to all these years, and
so this is this is what we'regonna do.
Um, but we worked up to aposition that now we can
confidently say I've got amarket, we know that people know
who we are, we know we've gotsome rungs on the board to be

(01:20:13):
able to do that, but it tookstep by step by step.
But make a start, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:20:18):
The journey is as important as a goal that you've
got to take on everything youcan along the way to make it
happen.

SPEAKER_00 (01:20:23):
Yeah, just keep going with what you can do, but
make steps, but it it's having adecision, it's the direction
where you go.
If you read Napoleon Hill's UmYou know, Think and Grow Rich,
in the in the in the preface atthe start, the introduction of
the book, he says, inside ofthis, in every chapter, hundreds
of times, there's a secret.

(01:20:45):
He says, and the first time Iread that whole book through
never picked what the secretwas.
And then the second time I read,I just read there's a secret,
and I knew what it was.
And the secret in that book isjust know what you want.

SPEAKER_03 (01:20:58):
Know what you want, and so just don't it's it well,
it's know what you want, butdon't chase what others want.

SPEAKER_00 (01:21:04):
Yeah, even better.

SPEAKER_03 (01:21:05):
But that's that's what he's what he says through
that old book, basically.
Yeah, like you've got to figureout what's important to you and
and chase your goals.
Don't worry, don't try to liveother people's lives.

SPEAKER_00 (01:21:15):
No, what is it for you?
What do you want?
What's your calling?
What's your goal?
Know what that is, make thatdecision.
And and I know, like I said, youwe're talking about you know
what's been your breakthroughand things.
When I've made a clear decisionto say, that's what I want,
that's what we're going for.
Always you get a breakthrough.
Always you get a next thing.

(01:21:36):
Like I said, it doesn't meanthat tomorrow you're doing that
thing, but there's there's alittle opportunity, or you see a
step, or there's a pathway if Ijust do this, you at least see
the next step that's going toget you towards it.
Yeah, and so make the decisionon what you actually want, and
it doesn't have to be whatsomeone else is, it doesn't have
to be a f 50 million dollarbusiness, it could be you and

(01:21:58):
two apprentices just doing whatyou like to do, and that's
great.
If that's your that's your job,you do that, you do it well.
Yeah, but make a step in thatdirection.

SPEAKER_03 (01:22:09):
Yeah, no, mate.
Thanks for coming down fromRocky.
Uh, I'll definitely be callingin next time I'm up there again.
Um, I'd love to come up to thebloody big cattle sales I have
up there.
It's it's uh or cattle week,isn't it?
They have a whole week.
We have beef week, yeah.
Beef week, that's it.
Every three years, beef week.
Make sure you get youraccommodation book well in
advance.
I'll definitely uh be making thetrip up there for that at once
some stage and we'll catch up.

(01:22:30):
But mate, appreciate your timeand love your story.
I think it's uh going to inspirea lot of people.
So um, yeah, who knows?
We might have to get you backfor round two in a in a little
while.
But um look, guys, thanks for uhlistening and watching.
Um make sure you like, subscribeso we can continue to make this
Australia's number oneconstruction podcast.
Make sure you go to theDuanePece.com website to grab

(01:22:51):
your level up merchandise, andwe'll see you on the next one.
Alright, guys, I want tointroduce you to a really
exciting new product that Ibelieve is going to play a
massive role in Australiabuilding healthier homes.
As you all know, I am extremelypassionate about healthy homes
and I'm doing a lot of researchand putting a lot of time and
effort into making sure myconstruction business is leading

(01:23:14):
the way when it comes tobuilding healthy homes here in
Australia.
We've teamed up with the guysfrom Highwood Timber.
Highwood Timber are pioneeringcondensation management with
their high flow ventilated LVLbaton system.
High flow battons give buildersa stronger, straighter, and
smarter way to create aventilated cavity behind

(01:23:35):
cladding and underneath roofswithout compromising on
structural performance.
While tackling condensation toimprove building health and ease
of insulation, highwood battonsare built to perform.
When it comes to dealing withcondensation and ventilation,
high flow battons will help youcreate continuous ventilated
cavities behind all yourcladding and underneath your

(01:23:57):
roof sheeting.
They reduce condensation riskand support healthier, longer
lasting buildings.
Highwood timber battons are alsoin alignment with the proposed
NCC condensation managementrequirements as well as passive
house ventilation requirements.
Being an engineered LVL product,they are stronger, straighter,
and more dimensionally stablethan a solid material such as

(01:24:19):
pine.
This helps resist warping,twisting, and shrinkage,
ensuring more consistentinstalls less prone to splitting
than solid timber.
Howard timber battens areprecisely manufactured, meaning
that your installation will befaster and easier than other
products on the market.
The part that I like the mostabout these battons are they are
H3 treated for long-termprotection against decay and

(01:24:41):
turmoiles.
They use a waterborne H3treatment which reduces
reactivity with membranes andadhesives when compared to LOSP.
These are the exact battens thatyou want to be using on your
homes and your builds if you areconsidering building healthier
homes or passive homes.
Check them out.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Crime Junkie

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Why This Australian Builder’s Journey Will Change How You See Success

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Crime Junkie

All Episodes

Why This Australian Builder’s Journey Will Change How You See Success

Stuff You Should Know