Episode 132 Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You’ve got to enjoy the journey as much as you enjoy just building the business and you’ve got to enjoy the moments along the way. Otherwise, business just chews you up and spits you out. And that’s why we do these activities with clients is to enjoy it. Enjoy the moments with who you’re with and what you’re doing and create these memories because life’s not just about money, it’s about creating memories. And that’s so important to remember that. 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 you been?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good to be back. Thank you, Rob. Yeah, really good. Settling in after what we’re going to talk about today, a big event for us. So yeah, getting back into it, adjusting from being far North Queensland into cold, but yeah, really good. How about you?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, doing really well. I’m really looking forward to today. Today’s going to be a really great opportunity to really talk through our 2026 Pravar annual awards and conference event. And this one was a big one for us. It was a real milestone to be able to celebrate the success of our clients, to be able to give out some awards to our award winners and just generally celebrate the collective success of our clients. But also a big one for us. It was so good for the first time for Pravar to be able to get not just our lifestyle clients together, but our legacy clients together as well. Two communities, two powerful communities coming together in the one event, the one room. It was really good to be able to get them together, wasn’t it?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
It was. I think we’d be lying if we said it wasn’t like, how’s this going to go? But at the same time, we were hoping for a really big event. We got that with all the personalities, the business owners, the success and clues in that room was just outrageous. So it was really, really good to see the guys mingling, some of them coming back for a while. It had been a while since they’d been in lifestyle that had gone to legacy. So it was really good to catch up with a few, but just to hear the stories and watch the guys interact across programmes because in lifestyle, you’re right, it hasn’t happened before. So it was really cool.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Now you might be wondering what does this mean? So if you’re a listener that’s tuning in for some of your first few episodes, then there’s a few points of differentiation that we have at Pravar group. Number one is a big difference between us and a lot of other coaches is our emphasis on business and family. Pravar actually means breathe life back into the family. So a big emphasis is us on building businesses and building great family lives. And that’s one point of differentiation. The second thing is we only work with blokes in the trades and construction space and we really narrow down our coaching into that. But the other part is the way that we chop up our coaching journey for our clients because there’s a real journey that a business owner goes on to be able to build their trades business. And there’s a lot of other coaching businesses that have one programme and they put someone in there doing 80 grand months and 800 grand months all in the same programme.
(03:00):
And to be honest, I don’t believe that works. And the way that we get success with clients is coaching them on the right thing at the right time and the right part of their journey. And that’s why we’ve got our leverage programme, we’ve got our lifestyle programme and we’ve got our legacy programme, which really chops up that journey that any trades business owner can go on. So that’s why we were talking about before where we got our lifestyle and our legacy clients together. Our lifestyle guys are the ones that are really working towards building a lifestyle business around three to six million dollars in revenue. And legacy guys are generally building a $10 million plus business that’s greater than themselves. So Dan, hopefully that helps the listener understand a bit of where they’re at in the journey, but it was just so good getting these two communities together, wasn’t it?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
It really was. And just to add to that, every quarter we do an event, this one we like to do a review for all the reasons you’re going to hear now. So yeah, it was great to see them. And where we got together was Port Douglas, as I said, which was amazing. So really good to get to another location, which was warm as I said at the start, but to get to a location like Port Douglas, to be at that resort and really have everyone together for a few days to celebrate the success as you said, but also a theme for the event. And this one, every event does have a theme. And this theme was teams, culture and leadership. So that was the theme that we run every two years. So this had come around and we love that. And that was sort of the scene that we set.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Why do you think for right now with what’s going on in the broader marketplace, the economy, all the craziness that’s going on out there in the world at the moment, why do you think that this theme around leadership teams, culture, high performing teams, why do you think it really mattered right now in the business world?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I think in the business world it comes down to the fact that we live in uncertain times. I think everyone would agree to that. I think market’s screaming for good leadership, people are screaming for good leadership. If anyone’s going to provide for good leadership or need to invest in that to develop, it’s got to be business owners. It’s their primary role at the moment. They are the sort of flag in the sand that everyone’s looking to. This is where we’re heading. That’s our shining star. So how people lead has a material impact, I think, in the results they get in their business. But also it’s just so important that we keep doing this as we’ve spent years and years and years learning these skills and being able to coach people on that. And I think it’s part of just a better in general, like you said, better blokes, better world, better people, the impact we want to have with families.
(05:42):
It demands leadership. So I think that’s why it’s always important. And I hold it really, really personal and passionate to heart that that’s something that we get to work with guys on. I just love that.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah. I think when you look across all fields, whether it’s business, whether it’s sport or whatever it is, winning teams and winning organisations like a football team is an organisation, a business is an organisation. The success of that organisation comes down to the strength of the leadership. And we’re in a world right now where there’s plenty of stuff going on in politics. There’s a lot of argument to be able to said, we’re going how strong is that leadership in politics? And so it doesn’t matter if it’s political, doesn’t matter if it’s sport, doesn’t matter if it’s business, whatever field it is, leadership is so critical. It requires leadership to be able to win. And I think with all the shit going on out there in the marketplace and the economy and the broader environment right now, the place is just screaming for someone to step up and lead well.
(06:45):
And no difference in your business is the marketplace and your team are looking to you for leadership. Your role as a business owner is to step up and actually lead. That’s your job. It’s not about being a better plumber, a better sparky, a better chippy or better whatever. It’s your ability to move from a great tradie to a great leader. And that leadership determines ultimately, Dan, it determines the success of the business, doesn’t it?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
It really does. And beyond that, Rob, even as you said, political, economic, your business, even community and community down to your own family, that sort of thing. So everywhere we look, this idea of being able to develop leadership and develop better leaders and help people step into that role, the guys we’ve got in our groups are naturally in that position. So to help them get where they need to be is just critically important for a whole number of reasons.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah. I think the other reason why I think this topic really mattered right now is the phase that these clients are on. When you look at the guys in these two programmes in particular, our lifestyle clients and our legacy clients, they’re in that phase where the success of the business is determined by the success of the team and the success of the team is determined by the quality of the leadership at the top. And so for a lifestyle business that’s doing between three and $5 million or a legacy business that’s doing $10 million plus, the success of those business is determined by the quality of the leadership within that business. So in coaching, the two things that we heavily coach on, especially at Pravar Group is the financial acumen or the financial understanding of the business and then the leadership side of things. We believe that these are the two greatest skills that every business owner has to master.
(08:37):
You can hire in great marketing people, you can hire in great sales and estimation support, you can hire in great ground crew, you can hire in great admin and bookkeeping, but you can’t abdicate that responsibility around leadership and your ability to make good decisions around the numbers and the profitability of your business. So that’s why I think that leadership is so critical for this stage of business. It’s one of those skills that is a hard skill and a hard craft to master, but it’s a journey that they’ve got to go on, isn’t it?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah. Numbers and people, if you boiled down to two words in my mind, so absolutely. Should we take people inside? Now we’ve sort of set that scene. Let’s take people inside the room and in the event a bit and let’s go back to Port Douglas and just not dwell on it too long, but let’s go through what we did in the classroom. We have this element where we actually come together and do work. We talked about the nice location and the resort and all that sort of stuff, but as you like to say, it’s never a holiday. There’s work to be done and we certainly did plenty of that while we were away. But let’s start off with day one in your mind, highlights what we did. Where do you want to kick off?
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, I really love just kicking off in day one of the conference to be able to start with our wins. Now we always do that with every one of our events. We always start with celebrating the wins. For the lifestyle guys, we celebrated the quarter that was. For the legacy guys, they celebrated the financial year. And it was just really good to be able to get guys in their round tables talking about just the good things that are happening in their world, the wins, the celebration, the progress that they’re making, the numbers that they’re hitting. And it’s just so good because everywhere you listen right now, it’s doom and gloom, isn’t it? So it’s almost like, well, what’s happening out there versus what’s happening in here? It’s chalk and cheese, isn’t it?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah. It’s like shaking the rust off. It’s like, all right, let’s shake off all the muck and gunk that we live amongst at the moment in terms of noise. But there’s a real reason to it. I mean, when you set this up, it has been like this for so long we come and do this. It’s not in good times, ordinary times, we always start here. What’s the thinking in your mind behind that? Why is it important that we do start there? We know that there’s value in thinking positively, but it’s way more than just a pump up session.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
It is because it comes down to culture for me where I think when you share your wins, it’s not about being egotistical or gloating around what you’ve done. I think what it does is when you share a win, A, it reinforces back to yourself around what you’ve been able to do because you’ve been able to verbalise it because very few people actually have people close to them in a safe environment where they can talk about the good things that are happening. Where we had a guy recently come into Lifestyle and he’s like, “I did a million dollar quarter.” He’s told no one around that because he can’t tell his team, he can’t tell his friends, he can’t tell his family. And so for him to be able to verbalise that and say how much profit he made and what he was able to achieve, that reinforces to him, but it also gives permission to other people around him to be able to show them what’s possible. And I think that’s the key.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
It really is. I love it how we do it every time and guys love it, right? Everyone in the room’s like, “That’s so good.” And we go, “Well, wouldn’t it be good if we could do that all the time and not to go off on a tangent, but it’s like every week we do this. This is part of the culture that’s baked in. It is a reminder that this is an important part of what we do in our programmes and in your development. You’ve got to build this in.” The second part of this then we move to after we celebrate is a commitment to improvement. So we do the first bit, that’s the morning, then we share all of that, which is amazing. Then we start to move into the work, the commitment and what comes next because we don’t want to sit on our hands.
(12:26):
So the next thing is commit to improvement. Again, why is that built in as the very next thing we do?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
The main reason we do this is because at Pravar, we don’t just coach the business, we coach the man behind the business. And this improvement that we do on a quarterly basis is one of the biggest things that creates the biggest personal transformation amongst our clients within our coaching communities. And it’s responsible for some huge personal transformations where guys have lost weight, been reconnected with their families, they’ve got healthier, they’ve got fitter, they’ve transformed their relationship with alcohol. They’ve done plenty of things off the back of these quarterly improvement sessions where they’ve chosen one thing or one habit or one real focus for the quarter of where they’re going to make fundamental change in their life. And this is what really supports the coaching and works alongside the coaching that we do with the clients is that they get business coaching and somewhat life coaching as well.
(13:33):
And that’s why I love it so much because it’s so responsible for so many personal transformations that no doubt the listeners have heard in our client feature stories.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah, for sure. For me, it’s a nod to our second principle at Pravar which is never settle. For me it’s like that’s how we’re reminded to never settle. There’s always celebrate, but then there’s work to be done. Let’s roll our sleeves up and how can we improve?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah. I think we’ve got to remember that our business, we say it all the time is your business will never outgrow you as a leader. So as a leader, if you’re not growing and evolving and changing and transforming, then you won’t expect the business to do that. So I think that’s why it’s so important that these personal transformations happen, isn’t it? Because it really sets the tone for the business transformation in the end of the day.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah. It’s always a step forward, a step forward. There’s always got to be, if you leave anything behind, you’re going to get dragged back. So to be able to step forward into the person you need to become to have the business, to have the life you want, to do that, there’s always this growth element that you can’t ignore. If you do, you might get a good result for a moment, but you’re never going to be able to sustain that and have sustainable success. So that was our commitment to improvement. Everyone’s now feeling really good in the room. We then walked into the client feature I think was next with Sam Friend. We get a client up and wasn’t it awesome to hear from Sam a legacy client in front of the predominantly the bigger group is the lifestyle group, but having a legacy client talk through their journey, which has just got those few extra chapters.
(15:00):
I loved hearing what happened. It’s almost like a what happens after story that we heard, which was pretty amazing considering he’d already done one when he was in lifestyle many years ago.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah. He was actually our transformation award winner in 2019 in Port Douglas. Crazy. We’ve been running these awards events since 2018. No, sorry, 2017. And it was so good to be able to hear from Sam as he won the personal transformation award back then in Port Douglas in 2019. And it was just so good to be able to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s not just about telling all the rosy stories. It was all just the journey that he’s gone on to be able to build the Stag Electrical and Solar, the epic business that he’s got today. He’s a real market player running a solar business across multiple states, multiple locations, and just the man he’s become, the leader he’s become, the epic business that he’s built. It was just so good to hear that story and him inspire so many other guys in the room, wasn’t it?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It was really cool. It was really cool. And to hear Gav who coaches him, interview him and go through all of that, it was just a really awesome session. I loved it. The last thing that we did on day one, it’s important to cover this one off, and I know you’re going to love this, you can talk about this, but setting standards. And it was a session that you ran just to sort of, it sort of wraps the whole theme up, I think. We could do it every single event and I think we’d love to do that, but we can’t. But it was time to shine a light on setting standards and having you walk through what that means and how guys need to think about that was, I think it really did set up the rest of the event.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, it did. It’s one of those sessions that you’re right, we could run every time because I think the life that we build and the business that we have is a reflection of the standards that we hold for within ourselves. And the whole session was around raising our standards. And we spoke around what happens when you’ve got low standards and what that creates and then what happens as you raise your standards and what that works towards. And it wasn’t necessarily around standards of expectations around other people. It was more around the personal standards that we hold for ourselves. Whereas as a leader, it’s so critical that we’re constantly looking to expand and build and grow out those standards over a period of time and raise them because it’s the raising of the standards which lifts our performance and then in turn lifts the performance and the results that we get around us.
(17:35):
So many people expect others to change or want the external factors to change, but they’re not prepared to do the work on themselves to be that person to create those results. So that’s why this session was so important. And we saw this two years ago, didn’t we, that when guys really put that stake in the ground and made some personal commitments to change and the commitment to change, the recommitment to change, the results that they went on to achieve over the next 12 to 24 months. So it’s one of those things, it’s a really critical thing that every leader has to keep raising their standards over a period of time.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah. For me, it sounds like when we talk about culture in business, and we did that day two, which we’ll talk about quickly in a sec, but culture and business is that sort of thing that runs the business that has such a big important factor on it. For me, standards is almost like your own personal culture. That’s what it is. So it was really good to set that up with the person first before you start moving into everyone else, like you said, and you start talking standards for the team and all that sort of stuff. It’s like, “Hey, have a look in the mirror and let’s really explore where your standards are at personally.”
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Yeah. Then we moved into day two, which is you ran these sessions and the first thing we really tackled on day two in the conference room is all around really building a team that works. And that was really unpacking, it’s almost unlearning what a lot of people have learned around teams and rebuilding what high performing teams actually mean, isn’t it?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah. Teams is a really interesting one in terms of everyone’s experienced it at some point. You’ve worked in a group before, you’ve been told you’re part of a team. We learned teamwork as kids in the playground, all that sort of stuff. But what we’ve learned never really gets explored and it never gets broken down as in let’s learn this. Let’s really break it down. And when you do, every time we do it, the room gets tripped up on this idea of shit, it’s not what I though it was. It’s sort of a bit different to that. I’ve got to think about this differently if I’m going to take my team to that next level. It doesn’t just happen. So how do you create conditions for your team as a group and individuals to thrive just beyond like, well, I’m going to work on my team.
(19:40):
Let’s do some team building and get everyone together. So much of that artificial harmony and we all get along is what team building was based on. How do you get beyond that and actually do things that move the needle was a real big part of that. So I think guys loved that session and there was a lot we talked about in terms of how do you actually go about filling up the tank of the people that are in your team? How do you do that at an individual level so they can come to the team ready to contribute at the highest possible level? So it’s pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Yeah, I love that one. And then we moved into the whole cultural audit and our definition here is culture is people like us do this around here and that’s really what culture is. And I really love that exercise that you did around how you got the guys to write down what they hoped their culture would be and then got them to really face the facts around what it really was. It’s a really great exercise we got the guys to do to really almost face the facts around their culture, wasn’t it?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah. When we sit down and we do that, the exercise you’re talking about was we start with, well, write down the things you love that you saw in your business, the things that people were doing, how good is it? And get everyone excited about that. Yeah, yeah, that’s my culture. That’s what we want. We want more of that. And that’s sort of the limit of everyone’s thinking. And it’s like, yep, pat on the back, all good. Turn the corner and you say, well, what else have you seen that you don’t like? And people think that’s the stuff we’ve got to fix. And it’s not about what’s good and what do we need to fix. It’s the realisation that your culture is all of that. It’s the good, it’s the bad. You draw a line under all of it or put a ring around all of it, that is your culture.
(21:08):
So you’ve got to accept the fact that what people do, good, bad, indifferent, that is the culture. So I think that sort of sets everyone up to go, oh, okay, now I know what I need to really work on. It’s not just this thing that I want. It’s not like an aspirational, where do I want my culture to land? It’s different to that.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
And culture’s one of those things. It’s sometimes hard to define because it is the invisible thing. It’s culture’s behaviour. Every business has a culture, whether you’ve created it or it’s just created itself. And so that’s why that topic was so important because it really got guys to really, I suppose, look objectively at their business around, well, what is our culture and have we engineered this or have we just let this culture form? And for a lot of business owners, the culture is created over a period of time and it’s not created. It’s manifested itself within the business. And then it’s not until you actually take a step back and go, actually, this isn’t the culture that I want and I kind of want this. And then you’ve got to go on that journey to really redefine, recreate and work on it over a period of time.
(22:20):
So that’s why I love that session. And that’s why it links back to the leadership sessions we put in the afternoon because that’s high performing teams and culture and then leadership, which you did over two sessions was they all tie together, don’t they?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah, it was a big day. But yeah, the leadership sessions that we did, it sort of puts the cap on it then. How do I lead better in building or changing that culture? And how do I lead better with my team and show up? So the leadership sessions we talked about in terms of. I think everyone, like we said at the start, everyone knows that there’s uncertainty. Everyone knows we live in a world of scepticism. Everyone knows the result is we need better leadership, but what does that mean? And that was really what we explored over the two sessions. How do we go from we need better leadership, do better as just that’s what it is, to something that they could actually work on. And we talked about, without going into too much detail, we talked about those things like uncertainty and scepticism or distrust amongst people, the lack of leadership that’s around, the absence of day-to-day leadership, what’s required?
(23:23):
What does that demand of a leader? So things like decisiveness, things like being present and showing up, things like being vulnerable and being able to say, “Hey, this is me for real. I’m not trying to pull the wool over your eyes or somehow pull a magic trick.” So it was a really powerful session in that we went beyond just, “Yes, we need better leadership. You must do better as leadership.” And it was something that we really got stuck into. So to hear guys really have that idea of that’s what I need to do in my leadership, it was really exciting to see in the room as we went through it.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, love it. Love it.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So that was the day. If you are a bit exhausted listening to what was over the course of what we call our classroom sessions, then you’re getting a sense of how much work we actually do at the events. This one though, we turned the corner and I think it was the Friday night, we ended up putting on our suits and ties for a very rare occurrence, but we all went off to a very, very special awards dinner to celebrate our winners. But also I think Rob come together in a really special setting. We’ve got to say that. It was pretty amazing where we went and did the dinner for starters.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yeah. I want you to picture being in Port Douglas and being right on the reef, but your ability to be able to head out of Port Douglas, be on a bus, pull up into the middle of the rainforest and to be able to get off the bus. And there’s flames, there’s big hundreds of years old trees. There’s lights lit up. You’re in the middle of the rainforest and you’re in this beautiful location at Flames of the Forest where you’re in this setting where there’s a permanent marquee and you’re in the open, you’re under the canopy of these trees. There’s lights shining into the trees. There’s flames. There’s sounds of an indigenous man playing in the background with his didgeridoo and his clapping sticks and everything like that. It was just the most beautiful location that I think we could have had. We always choose amazing locations like this, whether it’s Port Douglas this year, we’ve done Fiji, we’ve done Hamilton Island, we’ve done Gold Coast.
(25:29):
We always choose special locations just as an opportunity to get out of the day-to-day life and busyness of life and clients bring their partners and it’s an opportunity just to celebrate business and life and just to be in a beautiful location at Flames of the Forest. It was just so beautiful, wasn’t it?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, it really was. It was sort of surreal. I’m glad we got the time at the start to do drinks out in the forest and really take it all in, really soak it up and get ready for what was a pretty amazing night as we went into our awards and our winners. We’ll get into those people in a moment. I think just a nod to the community award to begin with, which was our first one. We did that different this year, didn’t we? We sort of took a different bead rather than sort of giving one person a trophy for a community award. We talked about it as a group, which I thought was amazing.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, I’d agree because in the past we’ve done this awards night purely for the lifestyle clients, but because we brought legacy and lifestyle together, community is a big part of our leverage and lifestyle and legacy. And we really spoke around the power of community across our communities at Pravar Group. And we spoke around what the community meant to the guys and how that’s really supported them in their journey and what it’s like being part of a group of men with shared vision, shared values, shared highs, shared lows that we spoke around what that support really means to them. We heard from some of the partners who shared around how they saw that their husband or partner really became a better man because of being part of this community. And we gave a good nod to Ben, good nod to Leigh, a good nod to other guys within the community who just.
(27:07):
It was just a really special moment to talk around the power of the community we’ve got at Pravar and how we’re helping really transform these clients’ businesses and reconnect families. It was a real special moment.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Yeah, I loved it. It was really, really cool. First award though that went to someone, this was another memorable one, but it’s our Bevan Award, Bevan being our habits. We talk about this on the podcast all the time every time we mention the Bevan Award or Bevan. Talking about someone’s habits, their consistency in your language, hitting ones and twos, what’s your take on this year’s award winner and what did you think?
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, so we got Jake Moore from Power Mate and he just runs a cracking business and he’s just such a great guy and he was not expecting the award, but the way over the last 12 months he’s really been able to integrate his business and life from a business point of view. He’s achieved some amazing results in the last 12 months in Southeast Queensland, the way that he’s really shown up as a husband and as a father, the way that he’s really dialled in his health habits with what started his walking, then focused into running and then his kids came along that running journey and he really helped them with their athletics and everything. The way that he’s worked on his personal wealth, he’s setting up his premises, his stuff on the home front. He was the worthy award when he wasn’t expecting it, but he’s just such a great guy and deserving of just the success he’s getting in his business and life at the moment.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, it was so cool. Two things for me on that one. One was afterwards, the week after we just got back, but the Monday morning momentum he’s just done around, he got the cards from the kids when he got home. He told them obviously and they made these congratulations cards. I was reading that the other day and I was like tears. I’m goosebumps and almost tears when you look at it and go, geez, that’s so cool that they can celebrate as a family that award. That was awesome to see. I really love that. And secondly, was Jake unable to speak about his own award, but then as we went through every other award for the night, proceeded to have his take on the award winners as we went through the night. But he literally wouldn’t say two words about himself, but the room spoke for him, which was really, really cool. Yeah.
(29:17):
All right, let’s move on. Transformation award, this one was another crowd favourite. I think everyone was really pumped up about this one when we announced it. Everyone’s been able to see this so starkly amongst the group and amongst our community over a number of years this took place. But Danny Hipwell, transformation winner, it was a really cool moment to be able to give him that award as well.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Yeah, Danny from Bendigo Building Repairs, he’s been a client for a long period of time now, more than five years, and the transformation award goes to that person who’s had a real notable personal transformation in their life over the procedure 12 to 24 months. And we saw this within Danny. He had limitations in his own mind around what was possible, what was achievable, what he could do, what he couldn’t do within himself. And there was a real breakthrough moment in his world through coaching the end of last year where he made the decision that enough’s enough and there is no limitation and I can go on and achieve whatever I put my mind to. And there was a real distinct moment in there. We often call him D2 Danny, which is door two Danny because he made the conscious choice not to keep going back to door one, which is the negative limitation of the thinking in his mind and really step into D2, which is door two Danny.
(30:39):
And the communities have seen it. We’ve seen it as a coaching group. Just the change and transformation in that man has been inspiring. And hats off to you Danny, you’ve done an incredible job, mate. And yeah, it was worthy of the transformation award, that’s for sure.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yeah, it was so cool. Good job. Interlude, we’ve got two more awards to get through which we’ll go through really quick. We did have an interlude, I can’t not mention it. The cultural dance from the local indigenous performers, what are they called? The clapping sticks, I think you said that’s what they’re called. But it was pretty cool. It was a really entertaining performance they gave, but they weren’t the only ones that ended up performing, were they?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
No, they weren’t. It was really special that when we were in Fiji a couple of years ago, we had the local Fijians do fire dancing. This time we couldn’t not have the local indigenous community come and share some of their tradition being in Port Douglas on the reef, in the rainforest, having the local indigenous being able to share some of their stories, some of the locals to have some of their song and dance and tell some of their historical song and dance and stories of their time. So it was really, really special. And then at the end they had a bit of fun of obviously they always call people out of the crowd. And you just know when you’re the CEO of a business, you know you’re going to get called up on stage. It just always happens. And so I was up there, Gav was up there.
(32:07):
I know you were up there. There’s a few clients up there. I think there’s a handful of us up there and some loved it more than others, but they made us do song and dance and clapping and traditional dance. So it was a bit of a spectacle, wasn’t it?
Speaker 2 (32:23):
It was. I don’t think any of us would class ourselves as dancers. Maybe Leigh.
(32:27):
He was pretty happy with himself doing it. He was straight in there. But I think for most of us it was out of comfort zone or out of the usual. So if the footage does surface and exist, then that’s a rare sign, especially at least for me, I think you too, that you’d see us dancing in that sense. But it was pretty cool. We loved it. So it was an awesome little entertainment break. And then it was down to business. The two awards, Breakthrough and Excellence. We started with Breakthrough. Talk us through it. These are the big awards that we do at the end of the night.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah. Breakthrough went to Matt Ryan from MTR Electrical. If you haven’t heard his episode, it was episode number 73 of his epic story. What he’s been able to go on and achieve since even recording that episode has been amazing. He’s gone from doing million dollar years to the million dollar quarters and he’s just built an epic business, full operational structure around him. Over the last 12 months, he’s taken two full week holidays within his business to be able to be with his family, be present, showing up as a husband and father, always dreamed of going four wheel driving up to the Cape. For him to be able to build the business and the life that he’s got, it’s just the breakthrough that he’s been able to achieve in his leadership, in his structure, in his teams, in his business and what has been a pretty depressed market in Victoria for him to really carve out that place where he sits as in the marketplace has been pretty inspiring.
(33:57):
So yeah, it was well deserved for Matt. He’s such a good guy, such a good leader and runs an epic business. So yeah, hats off to you, Matt. Well done.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah. Great job, Matt. All right. And then we had one more to go. Excellence. What an award this was.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah. Excellence is one of our core values here at Pravar. And the Excellence Award is to acknowledge that man who just lives and breathes excellence in his life. And that went to Dave Willcox from Common Ground. So good to be able to give him that award. Where he’s come from many years ago was him and half a dozen people to be able to build the business that he’s got, which is a national company. He’s got 60 to 70 plus employees all around Australia. Again, he was episode number 107 that we did, but just the business that he’s built, the leadership that he has, the executive team that he’s got. He’s a prominent player in trails and pump tracks in Australia that he builds. The business that he’s built, the life that he’s got, the wealth that he’s creating, the purpose that he’s got behind all of this.
(35:10):
He just exudes excellence, doesn’t he?
Speaker 2 (35:13):
He does. Reflecting on it now, just the themes that we ran, team, culture, leadership standards, tick of the box on every single one of those. And it’s not that he’s had those in spades all along. He’s really struggled with those, but worked on them and grooved them and really has taken to heart the lessons in coaching that he’s learned. But for someone to win that award and be part of this theme for it, it’s almost like he would be the absolute poster for it. And it was so good to just hear his story and how he reflects on it. He doesn’t take anything for granted, Dave. He knows exactly what goes into it. He knows how important things are. And I think his ability to share that award with so many people as well. It wasn’t just about him being excellent. It was a recognition for a lot of people around him.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah. It was really special for him to be able to get his wife up on stage as well, for Jasmine. It was really great to be able to get her up on stage because I think he acknowledged that he couldn’t have done it without her and together they’re a team and the way that they’ve been able to build it together and it wasn’t just his award, it was their award. It was really special. Dave’s such a great guy. He’s such a great leader. And make sure you go back to listen to his story on episode 107, because it is a really inspiring story of what it takes to build a great business. And a lot of business owners just get into business just to be able to do it for themselves, to be able to make money for themselves and their families. But if you look at the businesses who go on and achieve great things, there’s a purpose more than just making money.
(36:44):
And money’s an element out of it, but it’s not the sole driver. And Dave’s got that in spades. He’s purpose around wanting to get people outdoors and into nature and what it’s done for him and his head space and created him to be the man he is. And that’s what his purpose is. And sure, the money follows that, but the sole driver’s purpose. So it’s really good just to celebrate that with Dave and all the great things that he’s done in business over the last number of years with Pravar.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, it was really cool. So that was our event night.That was pretty cool. I love going back and thinking about that, but that was our event. Last thing we did, we got one more day to go, but let’s talk through what was our activity day. So activity day is the final day of the Pravar event at the awards. We went on a nice little boat ride. We did some snorkelling on the barrier reef. It was a pretty cool day, wasn’t it? It was just a nice day on a boat and off we went.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yeah, not going to lie. It was pretty hairy getting out there.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Hairy. It was crazy. It was absolutely mental. It all started, didn’t it? When they did the safety briefing, it was like, they’re really getting into this safety briefing. Usually it’s like, yep, do this, do this. That’s what you do. Let’s have fun. They were giving us literally just make sure you’re taking notes almost.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah. And you know that this is not an uncommon occurrence when they’ve got vomit bags plastered on the wall and they’ve got dedicated blue bins for the vomit bags. You’re like, fuck, this is going to get serious. Obviously this is a normal thing. So one thing we can’t control is the weather. And at every Pravar event, it always rains. And even when we were out there in 2019, it was choppy as hell. But anyway, we spent an hour and a half getting out to the reef. And once we got out there, it was amazing, but the ride out there, there was a few seasick boys. And anyway, we got there, we survived. But once we got out there, we went to two locations. We got out there and did some snorkelling. And I said to the guys when we got out there, don’t take this for granted.
(38:41):
They’ll do this and they’ll get out to the reef once in their life. And that will be one of the biggest memories that they’ll have in their life. And that’s what I said to clients. I’m like, guys, don’t take this for granted. We are in one of the natural wonders of the world here celebrating life and all the good things that we work so hard for. So it was a really important reminder for the guys, wasn’t it?
Speaker 2 (39:02):
It really was. And I love those, when we do those sort of things, the ability to share those moments. I know exactly who I’ve done snorkelling on the barrier reef with. I remember those moments of who you did it with, where you were, and that special time. When you have that realisation, some guys have to force it, you’re right. But when you can get that sort of feeling that we get to do this, how amazing is this life? Is this community? Is this business that you’ve built? How good is it that you now get to do this as a result? It always is special, but yeah, there’s few more special places in the barrier reef to be snorkelling to have that sort of pinch yourself moment. It was really, really cool.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
It is because we got to remember, building a business is fucking hard. You are getting smacked around every single day and just your ability to be able to just stop and pause and enjoy the moments. You got to enjoy the journey as much as you enjoy just building the business and you’ve got to enjoy the moments along the way. Otherwise, business just chews you up and spits you out. And that’s why we do these activities with clients is to enjoy it. Enjoy the moments with, as you said, who you’re with and what you’re doing and create these memories because life’s not just about money, it’s about creating memories. And that’s so important to remember that.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Yeah, for sure. It was very, just as you’re saying, the bumps and the things of business, you get those great moments like we said, but then it was back on the boat. We were back in the bumps again. It was back, everyone hang on for dear life. Make sure you’re not drinking any hot drinks when we take off because you’re going to end up wearing them. So we then packed up, went on the boat, went back to the docks. I can’t remember what the pub was called, but we went and had some farewell drinks and that was our event. So all in all, hopefully you’ve enjoyed this walkthrough. And as you listen to this, Rob, I think the idea, if you think, geez, that sounds great and there’s part of you that wants to do this, this is why we share these sort of things.
(40:58):
One, we get to lock in all this sort of stuff for a record, if you like, but also just to say that this is possible. This is something that does happen in real life for people that want to work on it, that have this as part of what their vision is for themselves. This is possible. It does exist and we’re here. That’s sort of another reason why we’ve done this today.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah. I think if you’re going to run a trades business, you’ve got to get the business to a certain point to actually make it worthwhile because otherwise if you don’t get it to a certain size, then all you’ve got is a highly leveraged, highly stressful, highly risky self-employed job where you just hire people and it’s not worth it. You’ve got to get the business to a certain point. And that’s why we call it a lifestyle business at that range. And all these guys who were there at that event, they all started somewhere. They all joined coaching at the million dollar plus mark. They got in, but they had the desire inside of themselves to be able to make more money and have more time and be able to spend quality time with their family and build a business that they actually love turning up to every single day.
(42:04):
And it’s totally possible for you. You just got to have the desire, the dream, the will, the want, and then get the right tools and coaching and skillset to be able to build that business and life that you’ve always dreamed of. So yeah, hopefully you have enjoyed today’s session. And if you have and you’re like, “You know what? I really want to be a part of a community who, a group of men in the trade space who have come together to build this amazing businesses and amazing life and that’s something that is inspiring you, then jump across to strategysession.com.au and fill out the form and book in a time that suits and let’s have a conversation around where you’re at, where you’re trying to go, and let’s see if coaching with Pravar Group can really help you out.” So yeah, it was a great event, Dan, and I’m super grateful that we had the opportunity to bring our two communities together and to share with clients and their partners and really just enjoy the experience.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Yeah, always. Really good. Great job to everyone. It was awesome.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Thanks for tuning in today. Hopefully you enjoyed the recap and looking forward to coming back to you soon with another episode here on The Trade Den. Until then, take care.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
See you soon.