Episode 141 Podcast Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00:00):

If I can keep up what I’m doing for the next five to 10 years, my kids will be in their real early teen years, which is a really important time for them and an important time for me as a father and as a parent. Again, I won’t have to come to work because I need to. I’ll only have to come because I will want to, and I can spend those really precious years with my kids and not have to worry about money and I can provide them a bit of a safer future.

Speaker 2 (00:00:34):

G’day everyone. Rob Kropp and Dan Stones here from Pravar Group and welcome back to another episode of The Trade Den. Welcome back, Dan. Really good to have you on.

Speaker 3 (00:00:42):

Hey Rob. Hey everyone. Yes, another client feature. How good is this? I’m looking forward to today. Like you said in the intro, it’s pretty amazing. I think Joe, who we’re going to meet in a second, was already a high achiever when he came into coaching, I think around three years ago now, around 2023. And plenty of people are going to hear this story and sort of think, well, right place, right time, and hear that sort of sense that he got a bit lucky with where he was at, but nothing could be further from the truth. And I want to challenge everyone that listens to this today to go to Joe directly or hear Joe directly because the opportunities that he’s had don’t even tell the story. The three things we want to really get into, as you said, was what drives Joe? Where did this drive come from? It’s pretty amazing to think of what’s been achieved in such a short time. Second thing is what Joe believes about key elements like sales and business in general and wealth creation even. Something that we don’t talk a lot about on the podcast, but things that most owners that we come across don’t. It’s a pretty special case. And then the third question, what happens, and no one warned you about this, what happens when you do hit your targets? And for Joe’s case, what happens when you’ve hit seemingly every target you could possibly have thought of at the time by the time you’re 30? So really interested to get into this. And Joe, big welcome to you today. How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:01:59):

Yeah. Hey Rob. Hey Dan. Really good to be on this one. Keen to get into it. Yeah, all going well so far, so we’ll get stuck into it, I guess.

Speaker 3 (00:02:08):

We will mate. Let’s do it. Let’s start getting to know you a little bit. We’re going to get to know you pretty well by the end of this. If we can get inside your head, we’ll have done well. But let’s start with where you’re based and where’s the business operating now and what is the business?

Speaker 1 (00:02:21):

Yeah, cool. So we operate a electrical and solar contracting company, predominantly mainly renewables now. So we’re not really operating too much in the electrical field much more. We started out in Adelaide in South Australia and then we have since expanded out to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. So we’re operating across two states with two offices and we do operate in other states sometimes. So New South Wales predominantly as well every now and again. But main focus is Adelaide or South Australia as a whole and Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

Speaker 3 (00:03:02):

Nice. You’re still based in SA, right? You’re still in SA. This isn’t a sunny coast plan to jump yet or where are we at with that?

Speaker 1 (00:03:09):

No, I’d love to get up there, but it’s beautiful. But yeah, my foot’s planted in Adelaide, so I won’t be moving from here anytime soon.

Speaker 3 (00:03:18):

Excellent. Very good. Tell us a little bit about family. Who have you got at home? What’s the family situation?

Speaker 1 (00:03:25):

Yeah, so happily married. I married my wife, Holly. We’ve been together for over 10 years. We met in high school and almost two years ago we brought home our twins, Milla and Luca. So happy little family and our little dog, Maple as well. So yeah, as good as you can really get it really.

Speaker 3 (00:03:47):

Excellent. You were part of the twin baby boom we had at one point at Pravar Rob. Remember that? Everyone seemingly had twins, everyone.

Speaker 2 (00:03:54):

Yeah, there was a handful of people that all had twins at the same time and it was crazy. Something was in the water and it was pretty funny.

Speaker 3 (00:04:03):

It was. They kept coming. All right. You say you’re not doing much of electrical at the moment. We’re going to go back a little bit further than this, but just start just by telling us how did you know electrical being what you got into, the field you found yourself in, and also just how quickly after qualifying you went out on your own and actually started your business?

Speaker 1 (00:04:21):

Yeah, so when I was younger, I guess I didn’t really know that I wanted to do electrical. I kind of just fell into this trade. I started in a small country town in South Australia called Murray Bridge. All that happens, I was on school holidays and my sister was an admin girl for a solar company in the Murraylands and I said, “Hey, do you…” She asked me and my brother, “Do either of you just want to give my boss a hand?” And at the time I wasn’t doing anything. I was just sitting around playing PlayStation between my casual job as a cook at Fasta Pasta. And I was like, “Yeah, well look, I’ll get on it. I want some extra cash.” I went out and gave him a hand for a day. He then said, “Hey, do you want to come back again?” Because his apprentice at the time, he was at trade school for the week.

(00:05:15):

So I said, “All right, yeah, I’ll come in. I’ll give you a hand.” It kind of just snowballed from there and I ended up doing a week here and there for him for the next month. And then it’s really weird. He come to me and said, “Hey, do you want to be put on as a trade assistant?” I actually was like, “No. No, man. What a waste of my time. I’m not going to be a trade assistant.” And he goes, “Oh, what about an apprenticeship?” And I said, “Yeah, all right, we’ll get on with it and we’ll make an apprenticeship out of it.” So I actually started then as an apprentice and my boss at the time did specialise in the renewable space. So he was very early on in the piece before any boom, before it was a commodity, I would call it. And I got into it at a really, early time in the industry when feed and tariffs were high and people were starting to jump on it at that point.

(00:06:14):

I then got a couple of years through there and I decided solar, I wasn’t learning anything as an electrician. I decided I don’t even know how to put in a downlight or a PowerPoint and I jumped ship and I moved to another company in Adelaide. Both companies that I worked for through my apprenticeship were small one-man bands that I really got some direct supervision most of the time. And then as most guys, especially early on in the trade, they get just thrown out on their own. There was no supervision, I just was forced to learn. So I was doing then new homes, I was doing maintenance work, I was doing a bit of everything. My boss at the time didn’t have a niche per say. 20 bucks is 20 bucks, whatever he could get money for we would do. So I finished my apprenticeship there.

(00:07:07):

When I finished my apprenticeship, it was more or less a week out of actually finishing and between me and my boss, we couldn’t actually come to an agreement on pay. And so I basically said, look, 30 bucks an hour is what I wanted. And that’s pretty wild to think 30 bucks an hour is what the trade he was asking for, but it was 30 bucks an hour. That’s all I wanted. We went back and forward over the span of a few weeks and he came up to $29.50 and I was like, no, I’m out of here then. And basically between us both, he thought that I wouldn’t jump ship to 50 cents, little did he know I would. So I jumped ship and I pretty much started out on my own a week before I was actually qualified. So straight into it, no mucking around, just straight onto the tools on my own.

Speaker 3 (00:07:57):

What was going through your mind back then? Was it to start a business? As you said before, even with the trade assistant role, you were a faster pastor, trade assistant role or apprenticeship, and then going through what you just said, were you looking to start your own business? Did you have any game plan at all in your mind or was it just literally you just felt that there was something more pulling you to something else?

Speaker 1 (00:08:20):

I think my whole family is very business orientated, so that’s sort of where that comes from. I didn’t know that I wanted to start my own business, but my whole life, all I knew was business ownership and leadership as well. So I guess no, I didn’t know that I wanted to start my own business, but I knew that I was worth more than what was on market at the time, and I knew I could probably achieve more out of my own. And when I decided to go out on my own, I actually had nothing to lose. I was living with my parents. I had a paid off ute. I had all my tools, not a lot of experience, but I gave it a crack anyway. So I had nothing to lose. So the mindset that I had was if I go out of my own, it doesn’t work.

(00:09:10):

I’m still a qualified tradesperson. I can go work for someone else. Nothing to lose here, but a lot to gain. And that was my mindset at the time when jumping out of my own.

Speaker 3 (00:09:18):

Awesome. I want to go back to what you said there, coming out of a family that was into business. Your dad, he built a pretty successful earth moving business. Do you want to just describe that quickly and what you saw growing up? What was the environment in your household like with a family that was in their own business, running their own business and what that was like for you growing up?

Speaker 1 (00:09:41):

Yeah, so I actually grew up on a farm. My extended family owned a dairy farm and my dad and my uncle had run that as kids, and that’s where we all grew up with some cousins as well. From there, I think he went out on his own and decided he didn’t want to be a farmer, so he started earth moving. So that’s why I grew up around that whole business mindset, my grandparents, my uncle, my dad. What it was was, I guess the kicker was I didn’t really see a lot of my dad at the time. I’d see him get up, leave for work, and then not get home till dinner time. I also seen a lot of stress, but in saying that I did have a comfortable upbringing at home. We had a roof over our head, we had food on the table. There was always conversations about money.

(00:10:34):

There was always seeing employees come and go from the house, all that kind of jazz. So it was kind of the norm to me though. I didn’t really know any different. So that’s why I am the way I am now about business, is that’s all I really know.

Speaker 3 (00:10:50):

I grew up in the same sort of household of business as well. Was it a stressful sort of vibe? There’s a vibe that you get because it’s business conversations nearly all the time and the focus is always on it. Was it a stressful sort of environment? Was it a successful sort of environment? What was the underlying threat or belief you believe that you took about business watching that growing up so closely?

Speaker 1 (00:11:10):

I don’t really have words to put into how it was around in terms of stress or success or anything like that. But looking back on it now, I kind of feel like there was a lot of bickering with my dad and my mom all the time. There’s not a lot of, I guess, love in a deeper sense because dad was never home. He would never come on holidays. My mom was left to carry my brothers and my sisters on her own as well for a lot of the time. So I didn’t really know at the time that that wasn’t a great environment. It wasn’t bad, but it could definitely have been better. But all I’d known is I had known that my dad at the time was very successful in what he did. He was a large employer in that Murraylands as well, so we were very well known.

(00:12:04):

And in my head, that was normal and it was a successful environment, but looking back on it now, it probably wasn’t the best.

Speaker 3 (00:12:15):

Yeah, you can see the costs and the accumulation of it in hindsight. I think it’s a lot similar to your story, Rob, and how you grew up as well.

Speaker 2 (00:12:22):

Yeah, they often say that our greatest pain reveals its greatest sense of purpose, and I can totally relate to that because that’s the reason why Pravar exists. We exist to be able to help good men become great businessmen who can go on and build wealth through their vehicle, which is the business. But more importantly, that they do it in a way where they get to spend quality time with their family and be present because I was the same with Joe as arguments at home. My parents split and had a massive impact on me as a young fellow, but they always say that your greatest pain often reveals itself as your greatest sense of purpose in life. And that’s why this story of Joe’s is going to be so powerful today.

Speaker 3 (00:13:05):

So what happened, Joe, from there, the business and growing up, did it kick on? Did that resolve itself? How did it play itself out in the earth moving business or in the scope of that business in your family?

Speaker 1 (00:13:16):

Yeah, so my dad was always starting different businesses throughout as it expanded. I think when I was getting into my later childhood days, I was probably somewhere between 10 years old, 12 years old, he had moved into town with a big warehouse and started his own earth moving mechanical side of things. He started in a hydraulic side of things, and my uncle and my dad, very entrepreneurial guys. The dairy industry at the time wasn’t doing so well, so they decided to open a dairy factory where they would produce milk, yoghourts, cheese, all that kind of jazz. So he had a lot going on. He was a very busy guy. We moved into town, into the Murrayland sort of town. And then probably when I was about 14 or 13, 14, he’d gotten into a contract with a large mine, which would really skyrocket the business to pretty much where it got to, which was the mine went broke, I guess, and some mismanagement between other people in his company unfortunately made it so that it would otherwise dissolve.

(00:14:34):

It basically went broke, which then had a massive impact, I guess, on myself and my brothers and sisters as young teenagers, especially as a large employer in that Murraylands. And it gave me a bit of a shock. At that point, as a young kid, I was always just like, “Yeah, I’m just going to work for dad.” I was arguably a bit lazy in that sense where I’m like, “I don’t really need to go to school. I don’t need to think. I don’t need to try hard because it’s kind of going to get handed to me.” And at that point, it was a bit of a shock and I really needed to pull my head in and have a bit of a plan B, which I didn’t have at the time.

Speaker 2 (00:15:19):

You were 14 there, that’s a pretty vulnerable age for all this to happen.You said there it did have a big impact on you. Below the surface level of, “Oh, I’ve got to have a plan B,” what deeper impact do you think it had on you as a person? And looking back, how do you think that massive life event shaped you to somewhat help you become who you are today, do you think?

Speaker 1 (00:15:42):

I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel sad or I didn’t feel depressed or anything like that, but there was a small sense of, I guess, embarrassment around the town, which sort of played on me a little bit because at the end of the day, as a young kid with a successful family, you’re just like, “Oh yeah, cool. You known as that.” And then when it folds over, especially young kids in high school, they don’t know the full picture. And so it became a little bit embarrassing going to school and having to have conversations like that. I don’t think it made me have a deeper sense of purpose, like I need to prove anything or anything like that. I don’t think at a deeper level, but it did make me change my mindset. At that point, I really applied myself at school. I was a bit of a little shit at school up until that sort of age, mind the language, and I really pulled myself in, started getting good grades, turned up on time.

(00:16:46):

I really applied myself well. I really concentrated hard because like I said, I had to have that plan B was what I was going to do. And really, when I finished school, I didn’t even have an idea yet. I was just like, “I’ve just got to at least get the scores that I need to give myself a bit of extra opportunity.”

Speaker 3 (00:17:11):

I generally don’t know, but did the family stay together? Did your mom and dad stay together through this or how did that play out?

Speaker 1 (00:17:18):

Yeah, my parents had actually, they stayed together. There wasn’t any massive family breakup like that, which is surprising. I know that when this happens, it’s a very common sort of thing. However, look, what I will say is throughout my whole entire, I guess, childhood, me, my brother and my sisters, sorry, we’d always thought that our parents probably shouldn’t have been together. There was so much arguing and so much bickering back and forth about stuff that ultimately they shouldn’t have been together. And up until maybe a year and a half-ish ago, they were together, and at that point they had split. So during that harsh time, credit where credit’s due, they did stay together and the family as a whole was together.

Speaker 3 (00:18:13):

Yeah, interesting. So piecing this together with this context and now coming into business, how much do you think came out? There’s obviously a sense of ambition, I’ve got to step up. There’s a sense of, I suppose, fear. I don’t know if you’ve had that. You don’t see it today, but was there fear at the time? Was there proving something as you started to make your own way a bit more? What sort of came into the mix there? Was a sense of, “I need more security for myself?” What were those sort of feelings as you’re coming out and how much of those are in the mix that you can see that you dragged out of that situation?

Speaker 1 (00:18:46):

I don’t think there was any fear with going out on my own and having a plan B, it was more of a, “I’ve just got to do something. I can’t sit still. I’ve got to make something for myself really.” Not really a fear thing, but just a backend knowing I’ve got to do something for myself. And like I said earlier, I know that I was sort of destined for a bit more than the standard. No fear around it though.

Speaker 3 (00:19:10):

Yeah. Okay. What about ambition? I know you said I’ve got to do something, I can do something more. You saw potential in yourself. Did you have ambition or a vision or a goal of what that was going to look like or was it literally just, I’m going to put myself out there as best as I can and see what comes?

Speaker 1 (00:19:28):

I think probably it was an underlying thing was I’m always… And up until probably a year or maybe a year, maybe two years ago, probably I’d say almost two years ago, it was this underlying thing like, oh, I’ve got to feel like I’ve got to make my dad proud for some reason. I don’t know why that is. I’ve got to make my family proud as a whole. I’ve got no idea why. That was probably the underlying feeling. And I guess the big thing is as a kid who’s very money-driven family in success, money was what I would… It was basically drew into us that money was what gave you success up until now. I don’t believe that anymore, but that was the driver early days. So make as much money as possible, that’s what will show everyone that you’re successful. Make my dad proud was the underlying sort of feeling.

(00:20:26):

I think make my family proud was the underlying feeling. I think that’s kind of why I kicked off and done everything for myself at that point.

Speaker 2 (00:20:35):

There’s a big part in here that, as you’re listening here today, that what you’re seeing here is that Joe grew up in an environment that the conversation around success, exposure to entrepreneurship, the conversation around money was just the norm, being in an environment of a business of a hundred plus employees like that. That’s a certain environment that you’re in. And Joe, as a young fellow, you would’ve been exposed to that day in, day out, maybe not consciously, but absolutely subconsciously. And Dan, from a psychology point of view, psychology tells us that there is nothing more of a greater dictator of success than your environment. And what’s exposing itself very early on in this conversation is that a lot of what Joe’s achieved today, which we’ll talk more about, is absolutely contributed, is a contribution from the environment that Joe was exposed to from a very, very early age, wasn’t it?

Speaker 3 (00:21:39):

Yeah. I think from listening to Joe tell the story firsthand today, the idea of you were representing more than just yourself, but you wanted to represent yourself well, you wanted to represent your family well, you wanted to, if not right the ship or tell the story, you took the reins for whatever it was, and you said, “I’m going to run this the way I want to.” There’s a representation that you had in mind without knowing it was going to be in the solar game eventually, without knowing the chapters. There was definitely a sense of, I think, standards for you. And did your standards materially change, Joe, at that time, going from being a bit lazy? Did you consciously set out to change the way you approach things, or were you pretty much just rolling through with what you knew you had to do or what you felt you had to do?

Speaker 1 (00:22:23):

I didn’t have a sense of my standards needed to improve. It was a case of shit, I’ve got to do something now and I’ve actually got to try because my easy way out, or not easy, my though of, oh yeah, life is going to be cream and easy, it just wasn’t a thing anymore. And I knew I had to do it on my own because no one’s coming to saviour.

Speaker 3 (00:22:51):

Correct.

Speaker 2 (00:22:53):

I think this is the thing that when it comes to your environment, that it’s when you grow up in that environment and a conversation around money or business or entrepreneurship is not the norm of the environment that you’ve grown up in, then that environment can become the limitation in your own success because you just have not seen what’s possible. If you look at families who have generational wealth, this is the reason why the wealthier get wealthier and the poorer stay poorer because it’s the environment those people live in, which conditions their mindset to be… Having a big business of a hundred people is just the norm in your family, and the conversation around money and success is just the norm. So if you are listening here today to be able to go, “Well, I didn’t grow up in that environment within myself,” that’s okay. It just means that you’ve got a bit of work to do to put yourself in that environment to creat that level of the new norm. And Joe, no doubt that it would’ve been a devastating part for your family when everything imploded within the earth moving business. But I can absolutely guarantee it’s probably the best thing that personally ever happened to you because it made you step out of probably your dad’s shadow, which was also the thing of why you wanted to prove something, but it made you really, looking back, it probably made you step up and become the man you are today because you’re like, “Hang on a second, I can’t ride off the coattails of what’s happening over here. I’ve got to go do something on my own and forge my own path and get out of the shadows and leverage the mindset that’s been instilled in me, but how can I go and create it for myself?” So it’s probably the worst thing for the family, but for you at a young age, it’s probably the best thing for you, to be honest.

Speaker 1 (00:24:58):

Yeah. Well, I mean, my dad started again, so years later, he actually had started that business again, and to this day, it is still going, not as strong as it was, but it is still going, and it could have been a real easy thing for me to just step in and ride that wave and help him grow that. But at that point, I decided, no, I’m just going to do my own thing and forget my own future. It’s a completely different field, one that he has no idea what goes on in this field. It’s a really tough field as well that I’m in now as well. So yeah, I forged my own way and I’ve built something for myself without having to ride it, and I could have easily just jumped back on it and just started that business with him or continued on with that business with him because at the end of the day, he started again and he was able to get contacts that he used to have and work with and all the rest of it because he was a great operator at the same time.

(00:25:57):

It was just one unfortunate event that sunk the ship, I guess. So I could have done that and I didn’t, and now I’m where I’m at through my own way of doing things.

Speaker 3 (00:26:09):

Awesome. So now let’s match this up. We’ve got the origin, the background, the environment. We’ve got a little bit of the story in starting the business. Let’s bring this all together. As you start your own business, you start to go through this journey not so long ago, but as you do, you’ve got to go from being, I’m presuming you are a good tradie and you did well, but then going to becoming a genuine businessman. Did you have that sort of journey in mind going good tradie to genuine businessman? I mean, in 2023, still the only qualified person on the team to sign off on stuff. It blows my mind when we tell these stories, but were you a tradie trying to get out or were you always the businessman trying to build the business that you needed to get to where you wanted to go to?

Speaker 1 (00:26:53):

Yeah, I argue I was a pretty good tradie and I came out of my time, but I’m saying –

Speaker 3 (00:26:59):

No one’s ever answered that question any differently, I think, Rob. Every tradie we have, I was like, “No, I was good.” I was good. Sorry, go on.

Speaker 1 (00:27:07):

Yeah, no, look, I think I was a good tradie. And in the back of my head, I thought I was a bloody good business owner too, right? But a few years down the track, I think maybe it was four or five years in before I decided enough’s enough. And I came to realisation that, fuck, I’m not a good business guy. I thought I was, but I’m not. There wasn’t an idea. Everyone’s idea is, yeah, I’m going to go out, I’m going to start a business, I’m going to make buckets of cash, and then I’m going to chill out and relax, and all these workers are going to work for me. No, it’s not the case. I was probably four or five years in, and I had gone through the same motions time and time again. I’d put someone on, I’d put an apprentice on, they would leave, I would fire them, management was poor, I was chasing money.

(00:28:00):

It was just a nightmare. And at that point, I really came to terms that I wasn’t a good business operator, and what I was doing wasn’t working anymore, and arguably, I was ready to pack it in.

Speaker 3 (00:28:13):

So how did it look? What did a week look like? Paint that for us in terms of just what you did, but also how you were feeling at that time, probably just before you came across and started talking to Rob.

Speaker 1 (00:28:24):

Yeah, it was really slow growth. I’d get up early, I would go to the wholesaler to grab our material, and we were predominantly, at the time, I was just contracting to larger retailers. We were just installing their systems for them. So I was a glorified business owner or glorified tradie, I guess, by owning my own business. I’d get up, I would go and pack this kit, and then I’d go instal. And then after that, if I wanted to try and sell my own solar systems, I was going to clients’ houses at six o’clock at nighttime, having conversation till eight o’clock, and then I would get back at home and I would sit at my kitchen table and I was just doing the paperwork, the compliance certificates, the ordering the stock for the next day, sending messages to my team at ludicrous hours of the night saying, “Yeah, meet me here at this time.” That cycle happened so often, and I could never hold employees because they knew it was a shit business.

(00:29:23):

It was not good, and they didn’t have a future then either. So I was always cycling and always trying to find new talent, and it just kept happening. I think it happened about three or four times until the last time it happened when I had a tradie, and he had left. It all happened at Christmas time. It was the busiest time of the year. I had one tradie, two apprentices, and all three employees left at the exact same time, and I was quite literally back to just myself, back to just the starting point, and that’s when I was ready to pack it in, and it was a nightmare.

Speaker 3 (00:29:59):

How would you describe yourself? And if that’s hard to do, because sometimes it is, how do you think staff would’ve described you as an operator back then?

Speaker 1 (00:30:06):

An absolute jerk, man. A jerk, terrible business owner. I’m really honest with myself because I’m very self-aware now about how I do things and how it’s reflected. I wasn’t at the time. I was a terrible leader. I was a terrible business operator and I was a real jerk. I would just be asking a lot from employees, which you can’t really do. And I don’t actually know how I got away with it at the time.

Speaker 3 (00:30:36):

So you come into coaching then and you figure out that this can’t go on, you’ve had enough, your staff’s had enough. I’m presuming Holly and the family at that time, that had all sort of started to wear a bit thin too?

Speaker 1 (00:30:49):

Well, I’m very, very fortunate because at the time I’m still quite young. You still are, by the way. Yeah, I was very young, very young at that point. And Holly, we didn’t have a family. We didn’t have our young kids at that time. So we were all just going through the motions as early adults. And I don’t think it was very serious at that point. She didn’t really know what was going on in the business. She never really took any massive notice because at the same time, it felt like a little electrical contracting business, nothing too serious, so whatever kind of thing. So it didn’t really affect Holly, but it was a case of I just felt like I was just always getting nowhere. And that’s when, like I said, I decided I needed to jump in and do something different.

Speaker 3 (00:31:39):

I don’t know which one of you two want to answer this, but I want to ask the question. How did you remember coming into coaching, either Rob with Joe or Joe, you coming into contact with Rob? And what was that sort of first conversation like? Who gets in first here?

Speaker 1 (00:31:53):

I reckon it was a LinkedIn message, I feel.

Speaker 2 (00:31:57):

It was. And you knew a client of ours, Sam Friend, who’s in the solar space as well. I think you guys had been following each other on socials, and I think you may have seen something through Sam and then I think you guys may have had a conversation and then you reached out through LinkedIn from memory.

Speaker 1 (00:32:18):

Well, I actually think Rob had sent me a message. I actually think you had sent me a message randomly, Rob, and it was just weird because I think maybe I was looking into coaching and I think you had maybe popped up a few times and then I think I’ve seen maybe a client feature with Sam and then honestly, I reckon you sent me a message and I said, “That’s so weird that you sent me a message because I was going to reach out.”

Speaker 2 (00:32:45):

It’s almost like the stars aligned, isn’t it?

Speaker 3 (00:32:47):

There we go. What did you think then when you first get into coaching? This is fascinating to me to hear this backstory because I know what happens afterwards, but what did you think when you first came into coaching and you started getting in there? You’ve already had the realisation, “Hey, I’m a shit leader. I’ve got a business that needs work. I’ve got all this sort of stuff.” What did you notice when you first came into coaching?

Speaker 1 (00:33:07):

I probably noticed just what I was missing. What was cool with coming into coaching straight away was seeing some of the other guys and where they’re at. As we all know, there’s multiple layers to coaching and different groups and what was actually possible. That was probably what I took away from it straight away, but also what I was missing. What was the business missing? Why was I going around and spinning these plates all the time? What could I be doing better? And I realised at that point how shit of a business it probably really was. It was just really good timing because at the time when all three of those employees left and then Rob had messaged me, it was a point of I’m either going to go all in and completely change this and I’m not going to get into the contracting space anymore as in contracting for others because I also had realised at that point we weren’t making money and it was either we’re going to do that and to do that I needed to jump in and get some help or I was going to shut up shop and I’m going to give it another try.

(00:34:15):

And so at that point I’d rehired two apprentices and jumped into coaching and I had realised what is actually possible and what the business was missing. So it was almost like perfect timing to do this massive reset. Again, going back to my way of thinking earlier, I had nothing to lose because at that point it was already almost game over for me.

Speaker 3 (00:34:39):

What do you think then as you get that team together, you’re reloading, it’s nothing to lose time again, it’s here we go. Did you start to think differently around things like your role in the business? Did you change effectively your role to being more, for instance, sales driven? Did you become more invested in the numbers? What was it for you that shifted your approach then to do something different? Because let’s face it, most guys say, “I’m going to do something different. We’re going to go again.” And they do exactly the same thing they did. So how did you approach it differently within yourself as the owner?

Speaker 1 (00:35:12):

The biggest drive for me was we are no longer doing subcontracting work. It’s not happening. And so it was a case of what do I need to do to… This is exactly my mindset. I listened to a lot of Alex very sales driven guy. I actually turned into a full sales powerhouse, I would argue at the time, “What do we need to do?” And I was like, “We need inquiry. How do we get inquiry?” And I just went down this path of how do we drive sales? How do I make sales? How do I get work for my guys? That’s my own work. We went down that path and it wasn’t till later. I still see myself as a tradie, but I was a tradie that needed to generate its sales and we’re going to move to a sales company, not a sales company, but we’re going to be more of a sales driven company for our own kind of work.

(00:36:04):

That was the biggest mindset shift because I’m refusing to go back to subcontracting because there’s no money in it and I’m just a glorified employee at that point.

Speaker 3 (00:36:15):

Yeah. So much in there, Rob. I think there’s the idea, as you hear Joe talk about these early days, what you’re famous for saying that a job wrapped in an ABN, but then also the sales focus. I think we see the big turn coming from that to begin with.

Speaker 2 (00:36:29):

Yeah, definitely. I recall when Joe came on board in coaching, he had a couple of apprentices and Joe was the only guy who could sign off on solid jobs. And so the biggest turning point was getting his ground crew dialled in, so get optimised in terms of his ground crew in terms of the right blend between tradesmen and apprentices and guys to actually be able to get in there and sign off. And what that did is gave you the time to be able to go and sell. I remember one of our early conversations, you’re like, “Oh, maybe I need to go hire a sales guy.” I’m like, “No, mate, that’s you. Just let’s get you off the tools. You are that guy.” And that was a turning point for you because as you got off the tools, you just took ownership of sales and looking back in coaching, that’s what’s contributed to your success probably more than anything and why you’ve grown the way you have compared to why so many trades businesses don’t is because your mindset is we’re a sales organisation.

(00:37:36):

It just so happens that we do solar and electrical back then, whereas most people identify themselves as their trade. We’re a plumbing business who does sales or we’re an electrical business who does sales or we’re a carpentry business who does sales. And they treat marketing and sales as an afterthought, not the primary thing that drives that business forward. And that’s a big clue for your success of what’s made you a great businessman, but also build a great business because your attitude towards marketing and sales is completely different towards most, but that’s why you’ve got a business that’s completely different and better than most, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (00:38:20):

Yeah, 100%. No, I remember that conversation about needing a salesman and I did do sales, but it wasn’t long after that that I still got a salesman because it became our marketing, we were driving marketing so hard that inquiry was outweighing my time. And again, I speak about, I listen to a lot of Alex Vomozi and it’s like just do volume. Volume at this point, we just need volume of inquiry. And when you’ve got enough volume, you can charge appropriately because if you lose four deals at a low because you’re competing with just a low margin company, well it doesn’t matter because you got another 10 deals out of those deals, you’re going to have someone that’s going to pay the price that you need. So it’s just drive as much inquiry as we can. Let’s just bang sales and get deals across the line.

(00:39:12):

Obviously profitably, profitably, get them across the line. But in that point I was like, I just need to get my time back. I need to put my focus elsewhere for sure.

Speaker 3 (00:39:26):

As you do this, Joe, people that do this and turn into a sales-based organisation, we need more leads, we need more whatever it is, we need to get better conversion. They struggle when they start. They have a bit of success and then it’s what’s next, what’s next, what’s next? What I saw in your journey as you did this though, was a consistency to it.You weren’t jumping from one month to the next to the next thing. You pretty much stuck with I’m doing it this way, that’s our channel, I’m going to get good at doing it this Instagram, TikTok, socials, whatever it was for you at the time. It never sort of went, well, I’m doing this, but now next quarter I’m going to jump into some absolute different channel. Was that conscious for you to do? Was it easy to do? Were you just so busy and it was working so well?

(00:40:07):

Why were you able to be consistent in your sales approach when so many guys aren’t?

Speaker 1 (00:40:13):

There’s two conversations or two drivers that it just sticks with me. And if I get another trade business owner message me, I see the same problem time and time again. And you guys speak about it quite heavily on the early days for new guys coming in. It’s the win, work, do work cycle. You’ve got to bin that, stop. You just got to keep winning work. Find others to do the work, just keep winning work because you’re never going to have consistency like that. And the other thing is I see a lot of guys, they do marketing for a little bit and then they get in the win work, do work cycle. So it’s a case of if you can just do things consistently at the same thing and you just drive that all the time, you don’t worry about the ups and downs. If you’re going to get engagement, you don’t get engagement, you just keep doing it.

(00:41:06):

It’s kind of like running a podcast, you just keep doing it even early days. If you’re not getting engagement, it doesn’t matter, just keep doing it and it’ll eventually come because consistency beats everything.

Speaker 3 (00:41:18):

Do you think then that the approach that you took, because there’s consistency of doing that and I get it, that’s the habit, that’s just being persistent. This is part of grit, right? But you have the persistence, but then you also have the ability to not have what we call shiny lights in your approach. It’s not, I’m going to jump off and do a completely different marketing channel. So did you have those little temptations or experiments or were you absolutely dialled in from the get-go?

Speaker 1 (00:41:45):

Good sales in my mindset around this is people can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist, so be everywhere. If you are everywhere and you’re in people’s face all the time, they’ve got no… At some point they’ll inquire. If you are on Facebook, if you’re on TikTok, if you’re on Instagram, if you’re on YouTube, if they even click on a solar ad and you’re everywhere, you’ll keep showing up on every page, on Google, everywhere. So at that point, they’ll eventually be forced to inquire with you. So it was a case of, I don’t think we jumped between different platforms as an example. It was just a case of being everywhere all at the same time.

Speaker 2 (00:42:33):

I think that you might be listening going, “Yeah, well, of course Joe has to do that because he’s in the solar game and it’s a one-off transaction and it’s a very transactional based business in the business to consumer market. He has to market and sell.” But these principles apply regardless if you’re in the B2C game, the business to consumer game or the B2B game as well. If you’re a Sparky and you’re dealing with builders, it’s your ability to be a sales-led organisation and constantly driving new builders, account managing the builders you’ve got. It reminds me of an episode we did with Anthony Rentzis all the way back at episode number nine. The turning point for him was when he transitioned off the tools and became a sales-led leader in his electrical business. And he was in the B2B game at that time, but all he did was put his time and energy and effort into business development for new builders, account management of existing relationships.

(00:43:29):

So it doesn’t matter if you’re in the B2C game or in the B2B game, it doesn’t matter your ability to, like what you said, break that cycle of the win work, do work cycle is the consistency of driving new leads and getting quotes out the door, following up those quotes, and putting more of an emphasis on sales, especially in today’s economic times where you’ve got to drive your business forward through sales activity. It doesn’t matter what game you’re in. There’s that famous quote that says, “Sales cures all.” But you’ve really embraced that, didn’t you, Joe? It was just a mindset that you had where it’s like, “I’m just going to push it forward with sales no matter what.”

Speaker 1 (00:44:12):

Yeah, it’s just constant all the time. And even to this day, and you said it right now, even in tougher economic times, we’ve been through a couple economic downturns already that we’ve never had a major drop off where it was battle stations because when… And I guess the other key is when it’s going good, you don’t just slack off, you don’t take your foot off the pedal. When it’s going good, we drive harder and we just keep that consistency of just driving. Even right now, you just said it, the economic time is a bit tougher. Our sales haven’t really dipped. We’ve just pushed even harder than what we needed to. We’ve done outreach onto existing clients, marketing emails, reengaged old leads, all that jazz, just to keep driving the volume that we expect from our guys.

Speaker 3 (00:45:01):

Is that a mindset there? And I hear that and it’s great to hear that. Is your mindset, and again, trying to dive deeper, are you trying to build the business at that time or are you trying to ride a boom or survive a dip? Because for most people at the moment, it’s how do I survive this or how do I capitalise on that in the moment? Or there’s an approach that says, I’m going to build an organisation that can, no matter what the conditions, my boat, the organisation, the ship I’m sailing is going to be strong. And I think for you, if I’m reading it right, you focus on building the right organisation now versus just being one of those guys. People will go, “Well, you’re in solar, you’re so lucky. What a boom. Who wouldn’t have made money then?” All these sort of things you hear people talk about.

(00:45:45):

Very different though in your approach, I think. Am I reading that right or how do you feel about that?

Speaker 1 (00:45:49):

Yeah, we don’t worry too much about boom cycles right because at the core, your team needs to be right and your systems need to be right. We actually won an award last year for most solar installed. And I had a manager from another company congratulate us because everyone was just pushing batteries, that’s all they were doing. But we were at the top of the leaderboard for most new solar installed through the year when everyone was just installing batteries. So we didn’t shy away from just doing solar because we just concentrate on we need to keep doing what works and we’re not going to… And you said it before, shiny lights. Batteries are shiny lights. We need to keep looking after our clients that have been loyal to us as well because at the end of the day, those people are what’s going to help you ride those dips too.

(00:46:41):

And if you just push into the door to chase a bigger shiny light, then you’re kind of up shit creek, right?

Speaker 2 (00:46:48):

Especially in the solar game, there’s always a different rebate coming out. The whole battery rebate finished in May, and then in New South Wales, for example, there’s the interest rate rates and a brand new rebate that turned around in the next month. So in your game, there’s always a new rebate or a new deal. You’ve just got to not be attached to the next opportunity. You’ve just got to keep building, keep pulling blocks in after a block in after block.

Speaker 1 (00:47:17):

The key is just the systems, the systems and the team to deliver the work at a good quality finish. If you chase the shiny lights and you change up your systems to suit a new rebate or a new shiny light, then what you’ve done in the past was all for nothing.

Speaker 3 (00:47:34):

I agree with that. I’m keen to hear from you then what did change in terms of pick which one you want to pick first, the team or the systems. Give an example of how you approached that. Like we said, sales driven, absolutely categorically priority one for you. Still, you’ve developed the team, still you’ve developed as a leader. What were you doing in the background to make sure that that business was growing that way?

Speaker 1 (00:47:56):

Well, we didn’t just put all our focus into let’s just keep going here with just battery sales. I think that’s sort of when we decided, okay, well, I mean, we didn’t decide it, but we kind of branched out to a different location because we had got our systems pretty dialled and it was so dialled that we could just literally pick it up and move it to a completely different demographic and state, and then it just worked. So there was that and maintaining our people as well was wildly important and upskilling them and getting the team right, trying to get the right tradie to apprentice combo. Solar’s very hard. It’s in the way that there’s extra tickets that tradies need. They can’t just come out of their time as an electrician and just start installing. So there’s a long-winded process there and the key is for us was to move away from a contractor model.

(00:48:54):

We’ve never really used a contractor model and we’ve always been driven on let’s just have our own instal guys, which is a big one for us. I see a lot of solar companies using predominantly only contractors, and I truly believe it’s unsustainable long-term because you’ve got no control. So systems and people both combine into one absolute weapon of a business, I guess.

Speaker 2 (00:49:16):

It’s somewhat been your competitive advantage where it’s a selling value proposition for you, isn’t it? It’s like we use all internal guys, this is our culture, these are our people. It’s a big part of your value proposition and a sales point of view from a differentiator from where a lot of solar companies are going. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:49:37):

Well, I think the end customer, they’re clicking onto that as that was a problem early days in solar. So they really lean towards using a company that has their own in-house guys. So it is a selling point and it’s becoming more important as time goes on.

Speaker 3 (00:49:53):

So how did you do that though? Because you’re the guy who had poor leadership not so long ago. You’re the guy that couldn’t hold staff. All of a sudden now you’re the place of, you’re a destination company for guys to come to. They want to be part of this culture. How did you change as a leader in that? What can you put that down to in yourself?

Speaker 1 (00:50:12):

I think just the way I approach things is just vastly different. I think when we scale right back, it was very money driven early days, and if our guys made a mistake and it cost me money, I’d just blow my lid and I’d be like, “What the hell is going on here?” Whereas now really just changed, “Okay, well, what have we learned from it? How can we do better next time?” Give a bit of grace. But also, I guess when I look at employees, I look at them as investments now. I’m investing in them and I want them to grow. I’ve changed it now, so I want the best for our team and I want them to succeed, and I want this company as a whole to provide more than just a job for them. I think that’s how our team has been able to stick around.

(00:51:02):

Our retention’s really good. And I’ve, like you said, made it a destination company, especially in South Australia, where our guys can see a bit of a vision for themselves and they can level up here. They’re not just going to be a tradie, they’re not just going to be a salesman, they’re not just going to be whoever in a business. They can actually level up into higher roles and gain some valuable long-term skills here rather than just being one-off. So the leadership thing, I just changed my mindset around the way I think about employees. It’s hard to put into words, right?

Speaker 3 (00:51:37):

What would they say about you now, those employees? You’ve told us what they said before. What would they say now?

Speaker 1 (00:51:42):

I’d like to think they look at me as a good leader. I think they do think that there was a real… We did have a brief period of time where there was a gap in the respect level at one point, and that was from having… We brought some wrong employees on. So it all sounds like roses at the moment, but there were some minor fix-up things that we needed to do and have the right team on board and get them all into the right way of thinking with the same shared vision. I would think they’d say, “I’m a good leader and I run a good show.” And they do like working here. I definitely know that. I know they love working here.

Speaker 3 (00:52:27):

All right. So let’s now bring this all together once again and summarise if you can, Joe, the business. Let’s talk some numbers for a minute. Coming into coaching, and this again is probably over the three-year period. You came in, I think, doing around the one, one and a half mark into Pravar. That was at the time you swung from the contractor model and made that big shift in your own mind. You then jumped, I think again. Just talk us through those jumps once you went from contractor over, what it looked like in the early days of coaching, and then tell us now where the business is positioned in your own words, size of turnover, team, however you want to talk about it.

Speaker 1 (00:53:06):

Yeah. I think when we came into coaching, like you said, it was around that one, one and a half mark. I think we finished on after the first… We finished up the financial year, I think around the three and a half million dollar mark when I first jumped into coaching. I think we then went to, I think it was somewhere between four and five to six-ish, I believe, in I think the 2025 year. And we just finished our financial year, our last financial year with over 10 in South Australia. Queensland that we had just recently opened as well, so it had about six months worth of trading and about three months of sales and completed instals. That did around just shy of the $2 million mark as well. So we’ve had a massive, massive jump in sales and revenue numbers from when we started.

Speaker 3 (00:54:11):

How do you feel about that when you just rattle those numbers off so quickly? How do you feel when you think about that and does it register for you as a… Is it an achievement? What is it? How does it feel?

Speaker 1 (00:54:23):

Yeah, it’s definitely an achievement for sure. I guess remember when I first got into business, it was a big thing for me hitting a million dollars. And then I came into coaching and I remember having a conversation in the launch programme with Rob and I said, “Oh, I really want it to get to five and sanity checked me these. It’s a big number, Joe.” I said, “I’ll do it. Don’t worry.” And so now to be hitting over that $10 million mark, it’s a massive achievement, but I guess the takeaway is revenue’s vanity, profit is sanity, right? Big numbers don’t mean anything without profit at the end of it, and that’s what we’re here for because the profit is what drives your life really and your success. We could do $10 million and make nothing.

Speaker 3 (00:55:16):

I know, I know.

Speaker 1 (00:55:16):

So what’s the point of big numbers? But yeah, it is a big achievement. I’m very proud of our team, not just myself, but our team for actually delivering that because it’s a combined effort.

Speaker 3 (00:55:28):

Yeah, absolutely. And suffice to say, it is profitable. You’re not absolutely scraping by on 12 mil on profit, so we won’t need to go into that. I am keen though to turn into, what does that mean for… You’ve talked about the staff and how the team reacts to all of this sort of growth and everything. What about at home and your ability then to use this to come back full circle with the family side of things to give your family a life, to make them proud, all those things we talked about that were driving you early on, how have you been able to do that? I know you’re big into property. Tell us a little bit about how the business has created the engine for the wealth to grow outside of business for you.

Speaker 1 (00:56:07):

Yeah, so I think for me, I stopped worrying so much about making anyone proud as it’s gotten on. And as you become a leader, you realise I’m not really out to prove anything to anyone anymore. I feel like I’ve done that. So now for me, it’s more about creating a life for my family and also using this business as a driver to create wealth is a big one. So I am very big into property and I’ve got quite a few investments circa $10 million mark as well, which is quite good. And it’s a bit of a strategy because the business is an asset as well, but really I’m driving towards a bit of a future where if I come to work, it’s because I choose to come to work, not because I have to. And so that’s what I’ve been building in the background because when I was going back to my younger days, and I sort of thought this really, my dad didn’t really do any of that outside of the business.

(00:57:16):

So I’ve sort of used that as a bit of protection for my family as well, because at any given point, anything could happen. You don’t know. No one’s got a crystal ball, so I need to come up with a way in my head where I’ve built something outside of it. And that’s where I think people say, “Oh, large business owners have multiple streams of income, and I like having the asset around property to back me up as well.” And I’ve used our business to drive that forward, not using business money.

Speaker 3 (00:57:49):

Yeah, genuine vehicle.

Speaker 1 (00:57:51):

Yeah, 100%. We were able to operate out of a nice premise that it’s been bought, and that’s an asset to have as well, just as an example.

Speaker 3 (00:58:03):

Excellent. I think, Rob, that’s another clue. I think this is a true business owner’s mindset in action that we’re hearing, which we don’t hear a lot. And even on the podcast, there’s not many guys that we’ve talked to that can make that link, but Joe’s certainly done that, and it’s a good thing to remind everyone.

Speaker 2 (00:58:21):

It is. Unfortunately, a lot of people are in business and they get into business because they want more time, more money, more freedom, more choice. You ask any business owner, “What do you want?” They’ll rattle off those four things. But the problem is, so many business owners actually don’t look at their business as an asset, and when they buy Commonwealth Bank shares or BHP shares or whatever it is, what do they expect? They expect capital returns and they expect dividends. That’s what they want. They want a return on investment from their assets. But unfortunately, most business owners get to the end of their time and majority of people shut it down because they don’t actually genuinely treat it like an asset to build wealth. And most people spend 40, 50, 60 hours a week turning up and just turn up to their business rather than build their business.

(00:59:11):

Joe’s one of those guys who sees his business as a genuine vehicle to build wealth and create a life for his family. It’s a different mindset. Joe, when you’ve got that mindset, how do you think you look at your business differently compared to just a place to turn up, do you think?

Speaker 1 (00:59:32):

I think I look at it, like you said, it’s a driver. One thing that sticks with me, Rob, is when you talk about love isn’t so L-O-V, it’s T-I-M-E. That’s a big thing for me now, hey, spending time with my kids now, especially the last probably six months has really flipped it for me. Having assets that produce an income and produce equity and then can build something bigger. I look at it, I had this conversation with a family member the other night. If I can keep up what I’m doing for the next five to 10 years, my kids will be in their real early teen years, which is a really important time for them and important time for me as a father and as a parent. And again, I won’t have to come to work. I won’t have to because I need to. I’ll only have to come because I will want to and I can spend those really precious years with my kids and not have to worry about money and I can provide them a bit of a safer future as well where they don’t have to…I guess they’ll still work and I’ll drive it into them, but they don’t have to worry about that money side of things too because we’ll be able to spend that time together and make those memories. Because like I said earlier, earlier on in the podcast, my dad wasn’t around when I was younger. He wasn’t around to come on family holidays with us. It was just me and my mom, my brother and my sisters. And that’s really sad for me. So I don’t really want that for my kids and I want to be there. I want to go on holidays with them and I want to spend that time with them because as an adult now, I’m still struggling with that connection with my dad as well.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):

What do you think your dad would say to you or what does your dad say to you these days?

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):

Well, we have a better connection now, but it’s still not sort of where it should be. I see a lot of other families together and their relationship that they’ve had with their dad and their mom and it’s just not the same. I definitely think he’s aware enough where, especially in his later years, I think that’s when it really hits you. From what I’ve seen from grandparents and older people, it really hits them when they’re older because I just can’t rattle off any really good memories that are outside of a work thing, like going to work with him or vice versa. I can’t remember kicking a footy with my old man or going down to the beach with him. I can’t remember any of that. So I think he would say that there’s a little bit of regret there as well, and I don’t really want that for myself and for my family.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):

Yeah, it’s an interesting one that kids don’t care about the money. They care about the moments and the memories. And this is the battle that so many businessmen have because they feel torn. They want to make the money because they want to provide for their family, but then they feel guilty because they’re not creating the memories in the moments with their kids. And this is the internal battle that so many businessmen battle with and some get it really wrong, other guys get it right. And Joe, you are a guy who’s getting it and got it right. And that’s because you’ve built the business correctly.

(01:03:21):

The business is, you haven’t built your life around the business. You’ve built your business to support the life that you want, to make the money that you want, to build the wealth that you want. Your business has been the vehicle to build the wealth, give you the time, give you the structure, give you the moments. And that’s where so many guys get it wrong is because they get into business to give them those things, but their business consumes their whole life. And that’s probably the difference, mate. And that is the lesson out of this whole episode is you’ve done it correctly and you haven’t seen that business has been a competition between business and family. It’s together. You’ve seen them as the opportunity to build together rather than in competition. And I don’t think you realise how great a job you’ve done for someone who’s in his early 30s to achieve that by 30.

(01:04:17):

And I don’t think you probably appreciate what you’ve really been able to achieve at such a young age.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):

Yeah. Sometimes you get a little bit lost. I think the thing is you’re just so super focused and super driven on your goals that you just don’t even realise where you’re at. And I don’t compete. I don’t feel like I try and compete with anyone. I just stick to my lane. And I think that’s probably why sometimes I may take it for granted a little bit where we’re at.

Speaker 3 (01:04:50):

Can I ask you one question before we sort of wind up? You said in the beginning twice that you had nothing to lose and that was what drove you onto these moments or these chapters of your life that we talked about today. Obviously it depends how you look at it, that’s why I’m asking the question, but has that changed now? Have you got something to lose? Has that changed or that doesn’t enter into your thoughts? But from someone who had nothing to lose, how has that mentality shifted and how have you not lost the driver it changed?

Speaker 1 (01:05:23):

Yeah, so I think I had nothing to lose up until probably two years ago when I had my kids. And I was, I’m not going to say fortunate because I had worked hard enough by that point to build all these engines that work together, a good business, a good structure and a good property portfolio to support it where I’ve shifted now from this growth mentality to a consolidation period where it’s now time to step back, let time do the heavy lifting for me and let the wealth build in the background. So I’m in this consolidation period where I’m not looking to do this hyper massive growth period anymore. We’ll do slow sustainable growth and we’ll let time do the work because you get to a point and I’m at that point now where I’ve got enough and I’m super happy with the amount of money I have and the life I’ve got.

(01:06:32):

And by investing more of it would be too risky for me because I have my kids and my family that I care about and I don’t want to put them out by doing some major risk move because it affects more now than it did two years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):

It’s a completely different risk profile. Back then you were willing to take risks and big swings because you felt like you had nothing to lose, but now your risk profile’s completely changed because you feel like there is something to lose. But you’re right. And this is where so many, you look at successful guys in inverted commas, this is where they then go on and lose it all because they take unnecessary risks when they don’t absolutely need to because they’ve got enough. But for you, most people don’t ever take that step to define their enough, but you’re in that position. It sounds like you’ve got the awareness to be able to go, well, I know I can still achieve more, but I don’t have to be reckless about it these next steps. You’ve somewhat defined your enough and you’re content with that. I’m sensing this undertone of contentness, if that’s the right word.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):

Yeah. I’m definitely 100% content with where I’m at. Like I said, there’s no need to be reckless and take these massive risks. Like I said, I’ve worked hard enough. I live in a very nice spot. I have a beautiful family. I’ve got great kids and we’re fortunate enough where if we want to go out and have a dinner together, we don’t have to worry about it too much. I don’t want to take that for granted, but I also don’t want to lose that by taking an unnecessary risk.

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):

This might take us on a completely different tangent, but how do you wrestle with that as an overachiever? Because you are always going to be an overachiever. How do you reconcile that as a genuine type A personality overachiever to be able to wrestle with that, do you think?

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):

It’s very hard. It’s very hard because I always have ideas popping into my head. What am I going to do next? What’s the next big thing? And I think it’s a case of I have good friends and good family that sometimes can pull me back into line. And at the same time, doing a lot of work in the background with what’s the vision, what do we want? And relating it back to that. Is that going to get me there fast or is it going to destroy it? If it doesn’t work for it, then there’s no point. But it’s a very hard thing to wrestle with because like I said, I always have these ideas to what can I do next and all the rest of it, but I just have to pull myself back into line and just remind myself of what I’ve got and I am content with that.

Speaker 3 (01:09:30):

So as we wrap up, Jay, thank you so much for those insights. And again, trying to get inside your head, even just the consideration to the answers, the awareness you bring to everything. I think that to me is a real big shift. And even just in the short time, relatively short time that I’ve known you through coaching, to see that presence and everything is great. I think there’s a photo that I saw on a Monday morning momentum of you standing on the new house at the property and just sort of celebrating the fact that here I am and this is the future. And the joy of that and what you were investing into still was there. And I think that’s the difference between someone who’s ego driven or not ego driven, but that sense rub of what’s next and I’ve got to keep doing this because this is who I am and all I know is this, to someone who’s branching it out and integrating and consolidating in more than just one area of their life.

(01:10:16):

So Joe, from all of us, thanks for coming on today. Really enjoyed it. Can’t wait to see what next idea bubbles up or where you take it to, but for sharing your story so honestly today and so generously, just want to say thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:31):

No, I appreciate you having me on. It’s been awesome and I really hope that some listeners can get some value out of this one. And yeah, it’s been an awesome journey from myself to you guys as well. So yeah, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):

Thanks for being here, mate. You’ve become an incredible leader in your business. You’ve become an incredible businessman, but we’ve loved watching over the last couple of years watch you become a great husband and a great father. And you’re just proof, mate, that you can have it all. You can have a great business, build great wealth, be a great family man. And from us, mate, we’re really proud of you. And coming from a family of farmers, the farmers often don’t say a lot. And I just know that your old man may not say it much, but he’d be bloody proud of you, mate. And he would be bloody proud of what you’ve built and who you’ve become. And he may not say it, but he’ll be saying it in his own way. So congratulations from all of us, mate. It’s been a real pleasure and we can’t wait to see what’s next for you.

(01:11:40):

You’ve got such a bright future in front of you and yeah, we can’t wait to see what’s next. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed today’s episode. It’s been an absolute belter. And if this story has really inspired you to want to make a choice to really make change in your world, then jump across to strategysession.com.au, fill out the application form, book in a time that suits. Let’s have a conversation around how we can help you go from a great tradie to an even better businessman and how we can help you turn your business into a vehicle to not only build wealth, but also give you the time and the choice to be able to spend it with the people that matter most, which is your family. Thanks for tuning in today and looking forward to coming back to you on another episode here at The Trade Den very shortly.

(01:12:21):

Until then, take care.

Speaker 3 (01:12:23):

See you soon.