Episode 131 Podcast Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

You got to remember that your business will never outgrow your identity. Your current identity might be your current ceiling, and maybe that’s the shift that you need to make to make it the new floor so that you can grow it to the next level. G’day everyone. Rob Kropp and Dan Stones here from Pravar Group, and welcome back to another episode of The Trade Den. Good to have you back, Dan. How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:27):

Good to be back. Thank you, Rob. Really good. I love Mindset Matters episodes and the tradie identity. This is right in the jam for what we love to talk about. So really looking forward today to break something open that I think is underrated in a lot of ways. People think, yeah, yeah, yeah. But if you really understand what we’re going to be talking about today, you can really make some big strides in your journey to building the business you want. I think this is a lot of where it all begins, if I’m being really honest.

Speaker 1 (00:55):

Yeah, it is. It’s one of those things that hopefully you can walk away from today’s episode with a new perspective, a different way to look at yourself, a different way of thinking and believing who you are. And it might hopefully help you understand why you make some of the decisions that you do or why you take some of the actions that you do. And a lot of it comes back to this thing called identity. So it’s a big topic. We could probably sit here for days and talk about this thing, but really we’re talking a bit about who you believe you are at your core and which influences so much. So yeah, it’s going to be a big topic today.

Speaker 2 (01:29):

It really will. The thing is, the way you describe yourself, they say it’s like a window into your identity, which it’s fair, but I think it’s more like the gaping wide front door, if you like. And it really indicates and it shapes. The way you describe yourself, that thing that you said before, I am. Whatever you put after that really does shape your decisions, the defaults that you adopt, where you spend your time, what you think you should be doing. All of that happens without you often realising it just because your identity is reinforced that so often. So in a trade sense, in a business owner sense, it’s not the pride in your craft or the history of what you’ve built up. The problem is that when your identity’s been built on running jobs, when you start applying that same identity to running a business, that’s where you start to run into trouble.

(02:17):

The thing we like to talk about is the fact that identity can either be a ceiling and a floor. And what we really want to do as we make this transition or as business owners and our clients make this transition, their ceiling is that trady identity as they try and grow a business. When they adopt the new mindset, the identity of a business owner, that then becomes the floor. It becomes the starting point. And until you make that decision, like I said before, so much of what you do, the way you think, the decisions you make, all of it’s just going to come from that initial I am statement that you’ve made probably thousands of times over your life since you became an apprentice.

Speaker 1 (02:55):

Yeah, it is. And your identity really influences the way that you see the world, the way that you experience the world, the thoughts that you have, the decisions that you make, the actions that you take. A lot of what we do as human beings is so much on the unconscious level and we unconsciously do things. And a lot of those things unconsciously are being driven by our identity. And that’s why this topic is so important is because unless we look to not just let our identity change, but actually somewhat consciously make the choice where we’re going to be someone differently, then that’s when the results will start to shift. There’s a lot of people want the external factors to change, the results to change, the outcomes to be different, but they’re not willing to do the inner work to change the identity to create the outer world results in their world.

Speaker 2 (03:58):

Yeah. And where we’re going to start here is we’re going to start with what we call the mirror moment. And this idea of where the actual trap is set, I think. For a lot of people, the excuses, the idea that, well, you don’t understand. I love it. This is a Rob, you don’t understand moment, but you don’t understand. The people have hired. I made just a bad decision. There’s nothing really inherently wrong. But the belief that’s driving those decisions, the reason why you have poor hires, the reason why you just didn’t know your numbers, whatever it might be for you can be tied back to this idea that what I do is who I am. And for a long time, I think this is where the trap gets really set is because for so long it works until it doesn’t.

Speaker 1 (04:39):

What do you mean by that saying, what I do is who I am?

Speaker 2 (04:43):

Well, I think the idea becomes, well, what I do, but my job, that thing I’ve spent so much time on, like I said before, if you’re an apprentice, you’re striving to be a plumber, a sparky. You’re not yet. So you work your ass off for so many years, four years before you even get to that point of being able to say, I’m a qualified plumber. And then it becomes about your craft and how good you can become. So what you do then is so ingrained into you because you’ve invested so much into it. It becomes who you are in terms of the programming, the idea, what you should wear, the way you should look, the way you should talk, what you’re meant to be good at, the things that you’re not good at. We could sit here and say, all right, what is a tradie really good at and what are they not good at?

(05:28):

And I guarantee you the same sort of answer would come back every time.

Speaker 1 (05:32):

Yeah, you’ve heard us say it a little bit on the podcast is just because you’re a good tradie doesn’t mean you’re going to be a great businessman. And that saying rings true is that for those who do see themselves as a tradie, even though you have a business, and this is what we meant before where when someone says, “What do you do?” If you meet someone at a barbecue or at a pub or whatever it is, or a social event, you’ll shake their hand and you’ll then get talking and then go, “Oh, what do you do?” It’s like, “Oh yeah, I’m a tradie.” But are you a tradie or are you a businessman that runs a trades business? And most tradies, it’s their comfort zone. It’s where they’ve got their confidence. It’s where they’ve built their reputation. It’s their security blanket of being the guy on the tools.

(06:14):

And that’s because for five, 10, 15, 20 years, that’s been who you are. And that’s who you are. It really then dictates how you dress, how you show up, the way that you talk, what you think, the decisions you make, the actions you take. And just because you run a business, if you still think like a tradie, that’s potentially what’s holding you back from running a great businessman because you haven’t made the shift yet to shift your identity to be a great businessman and see yourself as a great businessman rather than being a great tradie.

Speaker 2 (06:47):

Yeah. I want to come back to what you said there before. Why is it so sticky? Why is it so powerful? But you said those words before, and let’s go through them. Things like confidence, respect, livelihood even, results, reputation, all of those things are tied up in what you’ve been able to do to this point. So these are big things. And that’s, I think, why it is so sticky when you have an identity of I am a tradie, because there’s so much value, so much history built into that. It’s a lot to let go of. And every time you either let go, you start to feel like a fish out of water, or every time you pick it back up again, if you get sucked on the tools, you feel like, “I feel so much better every time I do this.” And you never make that transition.

(07:35):

It’s a real problem with what I do as who I am.

Speaker 1 (07:37):

Correct. And that’s what we mean by the ceiling or the floor is because if you’re a great tradie, that will become your ceiling. The moment you make the shift to become a great businessman, that’s going to be your floor, which means you’re going to suck. And if you are feeling like a fish out of water, like that slide we have in all our coaching slides there where it’s a goldfish sitting at a desk and there’s that goldfish bowl sitting on the desk where it’s like I’m feeling like a fish out of water, you are naturally going to suck when you start to try and run a business compared to be a great tradie. Because all of a sudden it’s not about being great on the tools. It’s not about running jobs. It’s not about communicating necessarily around customers. It’s not about picking up that hammer and building this or fixing that.

(08:20):

It’s now all about pricing, dealing with people, delegation, accountability, performance management, growth, business development. That work that that person there does as a businessman is completely different to what a tradie does. And so when you first go on this journey of business ownership, you’re going to suck at it. And that’s why so many guys have the throwaway lines where it’s like, “Oh, it’s just easier if I just do it myself and I just love being on the tools.” No, that’s just because your identity is still wrapped up in being a tradesman and that’s where you feel comfortable. And to be able to succeed in business, you’ve got to be able to go on that journey to be uncomfortable enough to go on that journey to be in business and be willing to suck at it to begin with.

Speaker 2 (09:04):

Yeah. Let’s look if we can sort of break it down a little bit further even. I think in terms of things like the problem is the decisions you make are different. So if we talked about those decisions, a tradie decision versus a business owner decision, when I think of on the jobs, it’s almost like, well, I’m going to spend an extra two hours on this to really put the finish on. A business owner’s like, “That’s out of scope. Now we’ve got a profitability issue or we’ve got a margin issue.” It’s that sort of decision making in that moment that changes. And it’s so real that people don’t even know they’re doing it.

Speaker 1 (09:35):

Correct. It’s a great distinction because the tradies are like, “Oh, let’s just finish that.” And the business owner still wants to finish it, but they’re starting to think about margin and where are we moving our guys to next? And what are we doing around productivity and variation management and all those types of things? Complete different set of decisions, isn’t it?

Speaker 2 (09:51):

It really is. The next one I see is in management style. The fact is that we see guys, and you can guarantee it’s a little bit of an old identity kicking up when they fail to delegate. It’s always, I’m going to be the one that’ll come in and fix it. I’m going to be the one that needs to solve it. I’m the one that is involved in the end solution of all of this because I get to have my identity back and get to prove that I’m still that person. That’s a massive one.

Speaker 1 (10:18):

Yeah. It’s the old adage of no one’s as good as me and it saves me time and energy and money if I just do it myself. Well it’s like, mate, that’s you just thinking like a tradie, not as a businessman who loves to leverage and delegate and hold people accountable.

Speaker 2 (10:33):

Yeah. And the last one that I think is this idea of losing yourself. And I think this is bigger than what people will ever admit. It’s a hard one to get across in a podcast episode, but the idea of stepping back or stepping away from the tools or stepping back from your trade or being on site, it carries a lot of emotional baggage for a lot of people. And it feels like you’re really, you lose yourself in that moment. But I think you’ve got to be aware of that because that’s exactly what’s happening. And it’s got to be a choice that you make openly and honestly, because unless you do and you realise that, you’re just going to be in some sort of internal tug of war. So I think it’s really important that people understand that that’s normal and expected.

Speaker 1 (11:11):

It’s not also about losing yourself. I see it as where you get your satisfaction from. I experienced this a lot in coaching when I was doing a lot of one-on-one coaching. I used to get the fulfilment and satisfaction around getting in there and coaching clients and having the breakthroughs and being almost in the trenches with the clients. And you felt like you were in there alongside of them. But all of a sudden I started hiring a team and my identity shifted from Rob the coach to Rob, the manager of coaches. And now I feel like I’m Rob the leader of a coaching business. But my fuel source and satisfaction had to come from different areas where all of a sudden it wasn’t Rob creating the transformation and the results with clients. It was Rob helping the team to help the clients. And my fulfilment had to come from the satisfaction of growing the business and helping more people and seeing our clients grow and expand and seeing the coaches win.

(12:06):

And so unless my identity changed through that process, I would still be Rob, the one man band doing one-on-one coaching all day long. So that’s why guys get stuck on the tools and never get past being one or two man bands, for example, is because they don’t go on that journey to shift from moving past a tool belt business, just like I had to make the shift from moving past Rob being the tool belt business coach.

Speaker 2 (12:34):

Yeah, exactly the same thing. It was going off the trade in your sense of coaching into business ownership and it’s a different world. Let’s look at some signals there. Let’s really do a bit of a gut check. And this is a good one because you’ll know the answers to these. What we’ve talked about is pretty intense sort of mindset stuff at the moment. Identity, it’s hard to grasp, but let’s talk about are you still stuck in the trap? And most guys don’t know they’re in the trap until we hold these up, but there’s three real clear ones. These are our go-tos every time. And we nail guys on this all the time when they come into coaching. So be honest with yourself as we go through these. Signal one is high vision work boots.

Speaker 1 (13:13):

It’s a big one. It’s really looking at what you’re wearing right now. Now I appreciate that sometimes you’ve got to be able to go to job sites and you’ve got to be able to wear high vis. But there’s a clear distinction of our clients who’ve made the identity change from being a tradie when they first get into coaching in the earlier stages to someone who’s running a lifestyle business. You put them side by side. One is wearing nice boots, a pair of pants and a polo shirt with their logo on it. The other guy’s wearing work boots, shorts, high-Vs, and they dress completely different. So the way that they carry themselves, the way that they dress, the way that they talk is completely chalk and cheese. Now someone might go, “Well, he runs a bigger business. He should dress that way.” Well, the only reason he got that bigger business is because he started dressing that way.

Speaker 2 (14:06):

Yeah. And this is one of those ones, and it amazes me how much pushback we get. I had at the start of this year with a client who joined us and it was like, “Are you serious? I’m going to wear a shirt. You reckon that’s going to really change things for me.” But it never fails at the end of the day when they actually do that and you hang up the high vis and you come to a call with other business owners dressed as like a business owner. The persona changes almost immediately. And although it’s uncomfortable and there’s discomfort in wearing it all because it’s all new and feels weird, there’s a definite shift in identity to be able to do it. And that’s what we’re talking about here. Not using your, “I’m ready to go with the uniform on at any moment to jump back.” You’ve actually made a conscious decision to move forward.

Speaker 1 (14:51):

I remember Jack from Flowright in one of our coaching calls.

Speaker 2 (14:54):

He was one.

Speaker 1 (14:55):

In leverage. And it’s funny, he was in his home office and he had his doors of his cupboards open and you could see all the high vis lined up on. Obviously he didn’t do his washing. Danni his wife did. They’re all lined up. And I’m like, “Mate, next group call, I don’t want to see you wearing high vis and you’ve got to get rid of that high vis out of your cupboard and start dressing like a real businessman.” And it’s funny, you turn up to the next group call, he’s like, “Boys, I did it. I’m wearing something different.” He got a polo shirt and just the way that he looked and operated and felt within himself, he just started thinking and acting and operating. And just that slight distinction around just changing what he wore really started shifting his mindset to how he showed up. And his customers perceived him differently.

(15:42):

His team did. All of a sudden over the coming months, he’s turning up to job sites and meeting with builders and everything. He’s wearing a nice polo and nice pants. People just started interacting with him completely different. So yeah, what you wear is a clear sign of your identity for sure.

Speaker 2 (16:01):

Yeah. Love it. It’s a huge one. The next thing which goes with this is the tool bag, the ability. And this is a check for everyone. Have you got your tool bag in the car at all times? Not because you need it, but just in case you might need it. That’s a big little get out of jail free card for guys that are holding onto that identity.

Speaker 1 (16:20):

Yeah, it is. The moment that we see clients obviously not just rip themselves off the tools, they’ve got to transition off the tools. That’s important. But the moment where you’ve transitioned yourself off the tools and you’ve got a really good ground crew, the moment that you hang up the work boots and take your tools and your materials and the ladder off the truck or out of the van is a huge step forward for you sending yourself the message that I’m now running this business, not a worker inside the business. And yet it’s a simple thing of taking the tools out of the truck. You can no longer bill yourself out, but it’s a huge, huge message to your identity. We’re changing, something’s changing here, isn’t it?

Speaker 2 (17:02):

Exactly. Exactly. And I like what you said there about, you don’t just do this overnight. You plan for it, you work on it, you do it consciously. You make it a real ritual of doing this is really important. While we’re on tools of the trade, this is signal two, tools in general. And if I said to you, “Well, what are your tools of the trade? What do you use every day?” If you are still talking about, “Well, we use drills, we use trails, we use whatever it is on the site.” If you are still saying it’s that, then your identity hasn’t shifted because really the tools of the trade for a business owner are very different.

Speaker 1 (17:34):

Yeah. It’s your profit and loss. It’s your accounting package. It’s your job management system. It’s your calendar. It’s your task management system. It’s your CRM. It’s your laptop. That’s the tools of a trade, of what it takes to run a successful trades business. And that’s why in coaching, we call them the new tools of your trade, because as you’re getting off the tools, you’ve got to completely learn a new set of tools. So if you are saying that it’s, I’ve got my tools over here and that’s what I do, which is my craft, then potentially you’re stuck in that old identity of who you are or where you’ve come from.

Speaker 2 (18:06):

Yeah. And just as you wouldn’t imagine doing your job without your tools as a tradie, there’s guys that think they can somehow muscle their way through this and not learn their new tools of the trade. And they struggle for a long, long time. Guys that won’t, “I can’t even work a mouse. I can’t work a computer. I’m not that guy.” That’s all speak for, “I’m not a business owner. This is not who I am and not what I do.” So that’s a really good indicator of the trap. How comfortable are you with these new tools of the trade? It’s really important.

Speaker 1 (18:36):

It is. And you’ve got to resist the temptation to go back to what’s comfortable. Yes. And you’ve got to persist with what is uncomfortable to learn that new tool of the trade. So there’s resisting and persisting. You’ve got to work through those things. And especially when you’re shifting identities within yourself. And you notice here we haven’t spoken around strategy because none of this is strategy. This is all around who you are and how you see yourself. And this is what I mean by the resisting and the persisting is internally you’re going to get that feeling where it’s like, oh, it’s just easier if I go back to the tools and, oh, it’s comfortable back there. And I enjoyed hanging out with the boys and gee, I loved getting out there and fixing this and fixing that. You got to resist that temptation and persist with what’s uncomfortable and persist with the newness of being a fish out of the water in the office.

(19:23):

You got to resist, persist. And if you can do that long enough and retrain your brain and rewire it to think and act and operate and show up on a daily basis like a businessman, then over time your identity will shift. It’s not going to happen like that overnight, but it takes time, but you’ve got to persist with it to become that person who is a businessman.

Speaker 2 (19:46):

Yeah. And then the third thing, and this all dovetails into that, it’s what you’re doing consistently in terms of the room you’re putting yourself in, who you’re associating with, the conversations you’re regularly having. If you’re still stuck talking sites and all that sort of stuff every day with the same crew, then chances are you’re probably still stuck in that identity. So it’s a big signal, this room you’re in. And we did a whole episode about that.

Speaker 1 (20:12):

Yeah, we did. It was episode 123 if you haven’t gone back and listened and we spoke about the room you’re in. But yeah, the people you hang around, the conversations you have, the shoulders you rub up against. And then when you’re going on that identity change, you’re going to probably feel like a small fish in a big pond kind of thing. You’re going to feel a little bit awkward and you’re going to play that comparison game around, or look what he’s doing and look what they’re doing. And you’re probably going to minimise yourself. But that just comes with time and confidence in your ability to be able to feel comfortable in your own skin and willingness to go on that journey and talk about business and investing and growth and expansion and leadership and management and delegation and wealth creation. Having those conversations is completely different to wearing your hives, tools in truck, talking around the job that you got on for the next day.

(21:00):

It’s nothing wrong with that, but different identity, different conversations, different circles you’re going to be able to swim in. And you’ve got to have the courage sometimes to pick yourself up out of that environment and put yourself in a different room, which we spoke a lot about in 123 if you haven’t listened to it.

Speaker 2 (21:17):

Yeah. And I think that’s a big difference without going into sort of prou of ourselves mode. The idea that we’re not here to teach you to become a better plumber or a better sparky, we’re here to teach you to become a better business owner, a better manager. There’s a real delineation on what we actually coach on to get the results. And it’s not more doubling down on your trade. That’s never the focus of our coaching.

Speaker 1 (21:39):

Yeah, correct. We saw that in Grant Hateley’s from Hatley Constructs. His scenario, we’ve used this example a number of times on the podcast. It was his mirror moment and he was decision point where he’s like, “You know what? This is my time.” He’d had up and down results for a couple of years, good year, bad year, good year, bad year. And he was just not showing up as the businessman, the leader, the husband or the father that he knew that he was capable of being. And it wasn’t until that he just had the mirror moment, made the decision, “I’m going to be grant the businessman here.” And the moment that he made that decision is the moment that he started pricing different, the way that he started leading his team different, the way that he started showing up at home better, the way that he started running his jobs completely different.

(22:26):

The way that he started selling his services was completely different. And that wasn’t through learning new strategy. He already knew what to do. He just had to become that different person, become that man, become the husband, become the father, become the leader that inside he always knew he was capable of, but he had to start being that man rather than trying to look for the next strategy or tactic to get into the next level.

Speaker 2 (22:51):

So what you’re saying there is he really had to make a choice. So it’s a choice that needs to be made at this point in time. It’s not, “I’ll learn it. I’ll sort of feel my way through it.” You can’t really have a foot in both camps. When you make this choice, everything switches. And it’s not that you won’t need to go back on the tools sometimes as you said early days, but where you get to this point, you can’t half and half do it. You’ve got to be one or the other at that point and make your choice. And then every decision and all those filters we spoke about start to look completely different.

Speaker 1 (23:23):

Yeah, you do. And that’s why when people feel uncomfortable around who they are and what’s going on, they’re probably going through an identity crisis. They’re moving away from being a tradesman and moving towards being a businessman. And you’ve got to resist the temptation to go back and you’ve got to persist with what’s uncomfortable. And so you’re going to have that feeling of uncomfort in the middle. But what’s actually going on there is there’s a bit of an identity change that’s happening and there’s going to be a bit of a crisis there. And you got to be willing to not have one foot in either side of the camp. You got to make a decision, am I going to go here? And if you are, you’ve got to go all in and push in that direction and know you’re going to suck. There’s going to be times where you make mistakes and all those types of things.

(24:07):

You’ve got to be willing to go on that journey.

Speaker 2 (24:09):

Yeah. And eventually you end up, the bridge falls away behind you. We talk about burning the bridge a lot, but that’s when Grant made that declaration. It didn’t mean that I burnt the bridge now and this is what it is, but it was inevitable that he was going to make that transition and see it through. That’s what the choice does. It’s not like some magic click the fingers and it’s a wish that it’s all going to change. It’s the declaration, the choice that it’s inevitable that I am going in this direction. And I think that’s the commitment and the little difference that happens when you make it a choice.

Speaker 1 (24:40):

Yeah, correct. And you look at Grant now, he’s building award-winning homes. He’s got a great team around him. He’s making a tonne of margin on his jobs, the way he’s managing his jobs, the way his profitability of his business. His business is chalk and cheese to where it was. And that’s because he is chalk and cheese to where he was. And you’re right, he had to make the decision, make the commitment, take the step and burn the bridge behind him and not look back no matter how uncomfortable it was.

Speaker 2 (25:11):

Yeah. And he wouldn’t give that up for anything now. You ask him now. It’s like this is exactly where I need to be. And that confidence he’s got was a 180 from where he was when he first made the choice.

Speaker 1 (25:22):

Another great example I like around this is Luke from Boltech. And I remember having this conversation in leverage where we spoke around this around burning the bridge because Luke was really grappling with, “Oh, I’m a really great sparky and this is who I am and I suck at management and I don’t really enjoy managing with people.” And Luke’s probably a bit of an introverted type of guy. And he’s got a business partner in Mark who is more of the sales guy and a bit more extroverted. But you get Luke in a room and he fully opens up. He’s so talkative. He actually has got an extroverted side to him, but he didn’t feel like he could be a great businessman. He always associated with him being a great tradesman and he really grappled. He grappled with it for a long time going, “Is this what I want to do?

(26:05):

And do I want to go on this journey?” But he really grappled with that identity change, didn’t he?

Speaker 2 (26:10):

Oh, it did. It’s lasted. And I’d say he’s still going through it, if I’m really being honest. I mean, he’s made huge steps and I think that commitment, he’s made that decision point. The bridge is burnt for him not to go back, but it took a long time and we went through the whole lot. There was the high vis, there was the tools. There was, “Hey, I can’t give up this role.” There was, “I’m needed on site.” There was all of that stuff going on and it just showed how ingrained it is. And that idea, if you ask Luke, it would always be, “I’m a tradie. By trade, that’s what I am, that’s what I do.” But now it’s starting to shift. And he’ll say, “I might not be a business owner yet, but there’s always that element of I’m moving towards the business owner that was once a tradie as opposed to the other way around.”

Speaker 1 (26:57):

Yeah. Shout out to you, Luke. You’re doing a bloody amazing job, mate. And you’re doing better than you than you really give yourself credit to.

Speaker 2 (27:04):

He really is. He really is. It’s just that last mile. If we can get through that, it’s going to be an amazing, amazing outcome.

Speaker 1 (27:12):

And hey, Mark, fins up. So Luke, doing a cracking job. And so for you listening here today, this might sound a little bit woo-woo. It might sound a little bit like, hang on a second. What’s this whole mindset kind of, this whole identity conversation you’re talking about here is? It’s so critical. It’s so understated. And a lot of guys in business look for the next strategy, the next tactic, the next hack, the next thing that’s going to move them to the next level. But it’s not that. It’s who they need to become to feel worthy and have the belief that they can actually build it. Because then the strategy and the decisions, they’ll appear, they’ll take care of themselves, but you’ve first got to become the man who’s worthy and capable of it before you try and deploy that strategy. And I think that’s where a lot of guys go wrong.

(28:03):

They want the strategy before they need to become the man.

Speaker 2 (28:06):

Yeah. And I think they read into things that they see. If you ask anyone that has made the transition, it’s crystal clear. It’s not a half and half. Even though they can hang around in the same groups, they can talk to their mates, they can do all that. It just means they’re well-rounded. But if you ask them what their identity was, every single time you’d be left with no hesitation that they are business owners. They are people that see themselves with that identity now. It’s something different to where they’ve come from. They don’t have any shame in being a tradie or anything like that. It’s not like they ran away from it. It’s just that they’ve fully made the shift into being a business owner, which is what had to happen in order for the rest of their story to unfold.

Speaker 1 (28:46):

Yeah. Yeah. Really good. Really good. I love it. What a great episode. And I think if you’re listening to here today and this is resonating with you and you’re kind of feeling like, “Hey, I feel like I’m doing all the right things in business, but it’s just not growing the way that I really want to be able to grow it.” It may not be a strategy problem. It might be an identity problem. It might be something that you’ve got to overcome within yourself to be able to take your business and life to the next level. And you got to remember that your business will never outgrow your identity. Your current identity might be your current ceiling, and maybe that’s the shift that you need to make to make it the new floor so that you can grow it to the next level. So part of that requires an honest conversation with yourself.

(29:32):

And sometimes it needs an outside perspective to be able to help you see the situation for what it really is. Because as I said before, all this whole stuff that’s going on is at the unconscious level, not at the conscious level of thinking. So if you are in that position where you’re like, “You know what? Something’s got to change and you are ready to make that shift from being a great trade to become a great businessman of a trades business, then jump across to strategysession.com.au, fill out the application form, book in a time that suits. And let’s have a really good conversation around where you’re at, where you’re trying to go. Let’s just not talk strategy. Let’s talk a bit about who you need to become to make that vision a reality. So jump in, book in that time, and I really look forward to talking to you soon.

Speaker 2 (30:15):

There’s obviously a hell of a lot that we’ve crammed in there, Rob. I think 30 minutes to try and do mindset and identity shifts is a big task for anyone. But yeah, I agree 100%. If we can crack that egg and you can start to feel the discomfort means that you’re exactly where you need to be, then this episode has done its purpose. But the next conversation you have can be really critical in cementing some of that as your decision point.

Speaker 1 (30:39):

Yeah, what a great episode. Hopefully it’s given you a fresh perspective, a new way of thinking, and an opportunity to reflect and evolve who you are and become the man that you know you’re capable of being. Hope you’ve enjoyed it and looking forward to coming back to you soon with another episode here on The Trade Den. Until then, take care.

Speaker 2 (30:56):

See you soon.