Episode 2 Podcast Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00:00):

Building businesses and reconnecting families is just what I love hands down and I just love transforming the lives of our clients and seeing them so happy and connected and just turning into being the best husband and father that they can be. Hi, my name is Rob Kropp and welcome back to another episode, and Dan, I bet you are absolutely looking forward to today.

Speaker 2 (00:00:25):

I cannot wait for today Rob, and do you want to tell everyone why I can’t wait?

Speaker 1 (00:00:30):

You’re going to drill me with a thousand questions and for those of you who don’t know, I’m quite a private person and I don’t love talking a bit about myself and my story, and today’s going to be sharing a little bit about my journey and my family and my background and a bit about who we are and what we do here at Pravar Group and the impact we have with our clients. And Dan, you’re going to ask me a million questions, aren’t you?

Speaker 2 (00:00:54):

I am. We talk about this all the time on the show. We talk about being able to pull the curtain back a little bit. This is more like ripping the bandaid off for Rob. Everyone this is rare territory and it’s going to be pretty privileged to hear all of this, but we’ve managed to tie Rob down. He’s not going anywhere and we’re going to be able to go through a bit of the true life adventures of Rob Kropp and more importantly the story of Pravar. We thought that’d be a great sort of thing to share with you guys and give you that sort of sense and a bit of background about where this has all come from and where we’re going as well towards the end.

Speaker 1 (00:01:28):

Let’s do it.

Speaker 2 (00:01:29):

All right. All right. We’re going to start at the beginning. I’m going to take you all the way back, Rob, to early years and just what can you tell us about those early years? Where did you grow up? Where does the story start for you and give us a bit of a scene and location.

Speaker 1 (00:01:43):

Yeah, I’m a Central Queensland boy myself, a self-confessed bogan from Central Queensland Country Boy at heart. Grew up in Gladstone, which is Central Queensland, and my dad was operator at the power station there at NRG, and so we lived there for a number of years and I went there till about year six I think it was, and then we made the move to Rockhampton when I moved there with my mum and my sister and lived in Rocky for a number of years. So yeah, Central Queensland and that’s where I grew up.

Speaker 2 (00:02:18):

I love it. I love it. All right. What sort of kid were you? This is going to be interesting. What sort of kid were you? What did you like to do for fun? What did little Rob run around doing and what sort of kid was he?

Speaker 1 (00:02:29):

Yeah, I was a bit of a sporty kid actually. Early in my time I played every sport under the sun. I was actually a pretty handy soccer player and very early in my time and I was very, very good at soccer. I played my cricket. I was a batsman and a wicket keeper in my time and I love my cricket. I really enjoyed that. Played a bit of touch footy when I gave up, hung up the soccer boots. I moved into rugby league. I played a fair amount of rugby league all the way through high school, played a year of rugby union and that’s not because I love union. That was because there was a carnival in Gold Coast that I really wanted to go with my mates, so I signed up for union for one year and had a bit of fun there and went to that carnival.

(00:03:15):

I was pretty good at football and I enjoyed my footy. Didn’t pursue that after high school because I really wanted to get into my career and I didn’t want to get hurt if I’m honest. And so I kind of hung up the boots the moment I finished high school and off I went, but I was pretty sporty kid. I was actually pretty good at school. I was a smart kid, but I was a bit of a lazy kid and I wasn’t great at science or anything like that. I was very much a numbers guy. I loved my maths and my accounting studies and all those types of things. I think I just went there, but I think I was pretty smart. I graduated with a pretty good OP at the time, so yeah, was pretty sporty, but pretty smart at the same time.

Speaker 2 (00:03:59):

Cool. All right, so now I know where all the sledging comes from and all the quick wits. You being a wicket keeper, I can absolutely see, I can absolutely see that happening for sure. Let’s see, let’s test this. Can you remember what your high score was as a batsman?

Speaker 1 (00:04:17):

No, I can’t. I didn’t play it into senior and it was when every person had to face a certain amount of overs in their time. So I was a bit young in the cricket days, but I never pursued that into senior, but I was a pretty good batsman. But I did get bowled out a few times.

Speaker 2 (00:04:36):

And a hell of a wicket keeper. I’m sure. It’s interesting when you talk about cricket knowing that we’ve got what we call the Bevan named after a famous cricketer. It’s a story you guys will hear no doubt on the show at some point. I’m not going to ruin it for you now, but I know that cricket and sports a big part of your world, so it’s great to hear all that sort of stuff. What about, I’m interested to know as a kid, did you have any jobs as a kid, like any paper round or anything like that?

Speaker 1 (00:04:59):

Not as a kid. The moment that I was old enough, I went out and absolutely went and got a job and that’s when I was living in Rocky or Rockhampton. I think it got bred into me pretty early on. All my family have come from the farm, and so I think a high work ethic was bred into me very, very early on. My dad was a very, very hard worker and all my family from the farm and on Sunshine Coast and everything. So I think getting into the workforce was big for me, A, because I think I had that work ethic, but B, I wanted to be able to get out there and make my own way and make my own money. So actually my first job was in Red Rooster and for those of you who know Rocky, I was in Red Rooster on the main highway on the south side of Rocky.

(00:05:47):

That was my first job and I worked in Red Rooster in Yon when I lived in Yupoong. I did a bit of work on the north side of Rocky there. Also did work in pubs in the bottle shops and at the bar for a little bit as well. I really enjoyed my time at bottle shops and customer service and interacting with customers and all those types of things. I really enjoyed that. So yeah, I got into the workforce pretty early and even when I left school I didn’t have any gap years. I didn’t go to full-time uni or anything like that straight up. I went straight into the workforce because I just knew that I was going to be a career person and get straight into the workforce. That was my jam at the time.

Speaker 2 (00:06:25):

Nice, nice. I like it. I’m just thinking if Rob’s mum’s listening and she’s got any photos of first day of work at Red Rooster, please send them through. They go on The Trade Den for sure. I’d love to see that. We’ll see what we get. Very good. Okay, let’s talk a little bit then. Let’s go into a bit more about school. I’m interested to know what sort of student you were, how did you go with that? What sort of subjects did you like and did you enjoy school?

Speaker 1 (00:06:51):

I did enjoy school. I enjoyed my school. I love my accounting studies. I like my maths. I probably wasn’t great at English and all those types of things. I wasn’t very much into science. There was a few times where I spent a bit of time in detention from mucking around in science and all those types of things, so I was a bit of a rat bag. I went through a bit of a challenging time in my high school where I moved town. I went through a real upheaval in my own world after my parents got divorced and that was part of the big reason of why we moved from Gladstone to Rockhampton because I moved there with my sister and my mom. So moving to a new town, I really took that separation of my parents really, really bad and I think I was a disruptive kid.

(00:07:41):

I was a bit of a pain in the ass in the classroom. I was a bit of the class clown, but I think that was probably because I was just going through just a real shit time for me. I remember one of my footy coaches at senior school, he really pulled me to line. There was plenty of times where I spent time up on the top of the oval during footy training because I was just a bit of a shit of a kid. As I was going through those personal challenges from those times, I did enjoy school, but yeah, I was a bit of a rat bag and a bit of a shit back then. I didn’t do anything bad, but I think I was just a bit of a pest at school if I’m honest.

Speaker 2 (00:08:20):

Yeah. Wow, I can’t imagine that I had you pegged as someone who probably was school captain or something like that. Were you school captain at one point or was am I imagining that?

Speaker 1 (00:08:30):

Wasn’t School captain, I was House Captain in my senior year and that’s with schools, you got your school captains and then, you break up into houses. I was a house captain. I love that. And so I think that I had natural leadership ability all the way through. I was House Captain at the time I went for School Captain. I didn’t get it. I was a senior part of the football team. I got the MVP award at senior year. I was pretty handy. I was always playing a leadership role in sports and I just knew, I think even back then looking back, I was always destined to be a leader. I felt like I had that in me and I’m sure, I’m sure most people in business always came from that, whether it’s from sports or from school or whatever it is. Sometimes you got to develop those leadership skills or sometimes it’s just natural with inside of you. So I think during those times I think I just had that natural ability to lead and influence people and I definitely had it on the sporting field and had it in high school as well, which was good.

Speaker 2 (00:09:32):

Yeah, I agree. I think there’s that element at school you get the opportunity to try on so many different coats if you like, and everyone has that opportunity to try on the leadership one and I think everyone’s got to be developed as a leader, but that experience of it and how you take to it I think tells a lot when you go into that first round of it, you sort of shy away from it or you sort of lean into it and I can see you absolutely leaning into that and it sounds like it was something that you sort of embraced and went with from there.

Speaker 1 (00:09:59):

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (00:10:01):

Cool. Alright, I think I know the answer. What sort of social clique were you in at school? What was it? Were you a jock? Were you a bit of everything?

Speaker 1 (00:10:10):

I was actually a bit of a floater. I actually didn’t find my groove in high school. I actually floated between groups and I think I was mates with my footy boys and I was mates with other guys and I kind of floated amongst crews. When I look at some people, they just had their distinct group and they were their mates and they’ve carried their friendship groups all the way post high school. I probably don’t have that and a lot of the people that I hang around with now don’t have anything to do with obviously from school, but I kind of floated around groups. I never found my groove, I never found my group. I was mates with people and I did have some good mates, but I kind of did jump between groups as well I think.

Speaker 2 (00:11:00):

Yeah, for sure, for sure. That’s good. I was very similar in that sense. I think I didn’t float around as much but definitely got along with everyone was probably pigeonholed into the jock category if anyone cares, but yeah, it’s sort of weird how that all goes. What about when we get to the end of high school? What was running through your mind then and did you have any idea about what you wanted to do? Was it I’m going to go to uni? Where did you land coming out of high school and into that sort of next phase?

Speaker 1 (00:11:29):

Yeah, I think I had a pretty big influence from, my dad was a very hard worker. He worked a lot and they’re my earliest memories of my dad is working, working, working. So I think I had that decision in me to go straight into the workforce. Some of my mates were going straight into full-time uni. Other times we’ve taking gap years to be able to work at what they wanted to do. I knew early on that I loved business and I loved property and I wanted to build wealth. I knew that very early on in my journey. I think that’s the influence of my dad and my mom and my stepdad. They were three huge influences in my time and so very early on, one of the greatest gifts that I got from my parents across the board was the introduction into personal development and property and investing and savings.

(00:12:29):

Remember the old CommBank savings and all those types of things that was big in our world, not that we spoke a lot about it around the kitchen table, but I got exposed a lot to property. As soon as I could afford it I bought my first property at an early days, so for me, I knew I loved accounting, I was good at numbers, I was great at math, so I was very good at the accounting side of things in school and I still remember clearly one day, I remember part of our assessment in year 12 was we had to pull apart a profit loss, these company financials read what was going on, understand, pick apart what was happening and then give some advice. We were almost giving someone advice and I remember I nailed that assignment and there was someone in my class who was sitting there listening to because I was had to do it one-on-one with the teacher and I nailed it and I remember her saying to me, how do you know that stuff?

(00:13:21):

And that was like a penny drop moment for me where I’m like, this is the path I’ve got to go down. So for me, very early on I went straight into a traineeship in accounting. I worked in an accounting firm, did a bit of work with the Catholic Education Office in Rockhampton and just went straight into full-time employment while I studied at the same time in accounting. But I knew early on that I was going to be in business, in accounting, in finance or financial planning at some point I knew that that was going to be my journey early on.

Speaker 2 (00:13:51):

Yeah, it’s amazing, isn’t it, when you get people one little bit of a conversation and it hangs with you. I remember I was doing something one day on the first job I had and someone said, oh, you’d be great at designing databases and stuff like that. I don’t even know what one was, but sure enough, fast forward five years, you end up helping to design software never would’ve occurred to me that sort of same thing, having someone just say, Hey, how do you know that one question? It’s like, well, I’m good at it, I know it, and it sort of leads from there. It’s just funny how those little snippets that you think would mean nothing. They stick with you and they become those pivotal moments

Speaker 1 (00:14:28):

And that’s probably why I went straight into accounting straight after school because I was a big believer that, and I still believe it to this point is that numbers is the language of business. I’m a big believer of that and I wasn’t a creative by any means. Earlier in my days I won a music award, I was in musicals and all those types of things. I did all the theatre stuff when I think I was pretty good at it when I was earlier, but as I developed through high school, I became very good at numbers and analytics and that side of things and I just knew I wanted to be in business. I just knew from a very early age that that was my calling and I was just great at it and I didn’t know where I wanted to go in business or what that looked like, but I just know that the influence probably from my mom and my stepdad was Hey, get into accounting.

(00:15:17):

It’s the language of business, go and master accounting. Not that I wanted to be an accountant, but I wanted to understand financials and so that’s the path. I went very, very early on. So working full-time was a blessing for me because in my first five to six years of work, I studied part-time or threequarter load at the time and I was applying everything that I was learning around financial analysis, business improvement management, accounting, all those types of things. I was applying and I was learning. And so when I finished my uni and finished my traineeships and everything, I was so far ahead of the curve from everyone else, even though I was young and I still am young, I shaved years off my journey because of my ambition and my drive to master all those things.

Speaker 2 (00:16:00):

Yeah, it’s amazing, isn’t it, that ability to implement what you’re learning on the spot almost. It’s almost like on the job training, I’m training but I’m working. The way you look at that can be so influential and the way the meaning you put on that sort of, I’m working really hard, but taking that experience you do. You get to shorten time massively. So I love that. And you talked about there Rob, that journey that you went on and you didn’t know exactly where it was, but it was business, it was this, it was that. Jumping forward a little bit, I mean you went from and talking about not really knowing but sticking with it. You’ve got accounting, I know you ended up in the mines at some point and then there ended up a piece of HR. Talk about that little transition then after you’ve gone through that initial phase, how did that sort of come about and how did you land yourself in the mines and then how did you end up doing HR and just tell us a little bit about the of steps in that journey.

Speaker 1 (00:16:56):

Yeah, I got exposure to when I was in working as a traineeship in the accounting firm, I got exposure to financial planning because very early on, building wealth was going to be something that I knew I was destined to do. And so part of me was like, well, I’ve got to learn this whole thing around financial planning and accounting and I dipped my toe into financial planning. I studied financial planning, I did a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in accounting and financial planning, went on further to do a master’s degree in HR. But when I dipped my toe into financial planning, I realised at the time that all that was was just product pushing. There was no strategy, there was no advice. I felt that accounting was always looking backwards. I wanted to get into financial planning. It was all about looking forward. But then when I got the curtains pulled back on the whole industry at the time it was almost like, Hey, here’s the product rather than here’s the strategy to actually build wealth.

(00:17:51):

And so when I realised that all this was happening at the same time where my mom was a business coach and later a little bit down the line, my stepdad Rob joined mom and they built a very, very successful coaching business in their own right in Queensland. They had coaches all the way from Cairns to Brisbane and that was my actual exposure to business coaching and I absolutely loved it. Where they were changing lives, the impact they were having on businesses, the work they were doing was amazing. And that was then when the penny dropped for me, whereas personal development, accounting studies and all those types of things, so the move to the mining industry not was because I wanted to go down that path. It was actually a stepping stone to get me into coaching. It was an absolute strategic move where I left my traineeship at the diocese in Rockhampton at cath ed.

(00:18:55):

I went to Moranbah to begin with, I spent a bit of time there in onsite as a trainee accountant and that was to get as much experience as I can. So I went straight into the finance team, I got exposure to business improvement, I got stuck into as much as I can and I just had this thirst for knowledge. So that move into the mining industry, not was because it was to make money to buy more property, but the other part was a stepping stone to be able to get there. I spent a bit of time then moving to the Brisbane head office and that was just to get more exposure. A was a bit of a lifestyle change because I didn’t love out in the mining industry living out there, I kind of enjoyed it for the time, but I wanted a bit of a sea change to move to the city.

(00:19:43):

But again, it was purely just to advance my career. And then the move into HR, I actually finished my graduate programme in accounting and then I through Anglo Coal at the time, I actually joined a HR graduate programme. So through Anglo, I actually moved through their graduate programmes, not because I wanted to be in HR with Anglo, but it was a pure move to get as much experience as I can. I got all my studies done at the time when I was with Anglo, so part of Anglo, I nailed a degree, two majors and a master’s degree all through that big block of time. So I was a young guy, but it was a pure strategic move to be able to get into coaching at an early age.

Speaker 2 (00:20:29):

Yeah, wow. We talk about this all the time and that sort of idea that people are called to coach, there’s that element of you that it’s like almost a mosquito buzzing at you. It keeps coming back through journeys and strategic plays and all of that sort of stuff. So did that calling, was that before you went on this of journey of acquiring these skills and the experiences and all that sort of stuff? Or was it coming afterwards and just talk a little bit about that calling to coach for you and what was that message over and above having the skills? What was that sort of profound calling that you sort of felt to get into coaching?

Speaker 1 (00:21:08):

I think at the time I saw the impact my parents were having and I just went, I’m doing it. And I think it was more an idea that I wanted to jump onto because I knew I loved business and I had a real moment where a coach had a massive impact on my life, unpacking all the knots that I’d caught myself up due to all the pain and resentment and anger that I had towards my dad. And everything from when my parents split, I had some real key people in my time, coach me through some real personal issues that I had. And so I think all of that just led me to be able to go, you know what? I’ve experienced this. I want to go and do this myself. And that was probably my calling. And when you talk to any coach, it’s because they’ve gone through something and now they want to share that same message.

Speaker 2 (00:22:00):

Yeah, no, I can totally resonate with that whole idea and even I think I admire this. I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but I admire so much about you. I’m a bit older than you don’t have to say how much and get into that. This is your interview, not mine, so you can just be quiet for a sec. But I am older than you and know my journey was the same. And I think that’s the challenge. You go into business coaching and you know want to do it when you are young, but you haven’t got that experience. So where does it come from? And I think for you to have that foresight to go, I’m going to go off and learn this stuff and keep working and do it is just huge because it did. It shaved years off. I mean, I knew I wanted to coach back in

(00:22:36):

I did my first one-on-one, I worked through this the other day was in 1998. It was the first one-on-one coaching session I did, and it was great and exhilarating, but I had no idea what I was doing. I’d just done this one course and done it. And then that realisation of, hang on, if I want to do this for real, and I did, then there’s got to be that gathering of experience. You can’t just sit there and tell someone, Hey, do this. It’s just your opinion at that point, but where’s the experience? Where’s the credibility coming from? And for me, that journey took because I went through a career path to get that and doing general management and all those sort of things to get the same exposure in those various business units or functions of business. So HR through finance, through all that sort of stuff.

(00:23:18):

And you’ve got to go through that. But for me, that journey took 1998. I can go fast forward to about 2015 if you really want to get into it when it became a serious thing. It’s a huge amount of body of work and experience that goes into it. If you’re going to become a business coach of repute or a real career business coach that hangs their hat on, this is what I coach on versus all the other stuff you can coach on these days, and I think you had that early, you followed that through, but to shorten that timeframe, mate, hats off to you. That’s massive.

Speaker 1 (00:23:49):

Yeah, thanks mate. I think it’s because one of the biggest things that my parents instilled with me was belief I, and I think I had the courage early on to work through. We’ve all got issues and we’ve all got ’em, and at some point we’ve got to unlock that stuff within us to be able to unlock that potential. And I think I just went on a massive journey probably earlier than most people go on on their journey to unlock that stuff. And I was 25 when I started coaching and I look back then and I go, gee, how did I make it? And I think that’s because I’ve just been ambitious. I’ve got strong drive, I’ve got the ability to endure pain and just never give up attitude and I’ve just backed myself the whole way and I’ve just had that resolute mindset that it’s going to happen. I think I’ve just carried that forward through all these years, which has been pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (00:24:49):

And that’s going to be a big part of this show as we go forward, isn’t it? We’re going to talk about all those things that were required for that because to become a successful business owner, these are the things you have to be able to develop and that’s the things that we help coach people on. I think the other point worth making, mate, I know we’re getting off the track, we’ll come back to our story in a minute, but that idea of then I’ve got the experience, I’ve got what it is, it’s not from a position. I want you to tell us about how you react to this. I’ve got my own thoughts, but I’m really keen to hear yours. The idea of a coach having to be perfect, and I think from the perspective of a coach starting out, and then for a client to hear this as well, when we start out, I dunno about you, but it was sort of like that idea, I’ve got to have all my shit together.

(00:25:31):

It’s got to be almost, I’ve got to be the shiny example who’s got everything in place. But as you go through it, you learn and you become more mature and you go, well, no one’s perfect, there never has been a perfect individual. I’m not going to be the first. And once you accept that, I think that allows you to become an even better coach. And what you are saying there about how you dealt with your shit and all that sort of stuff, it doesn’t mean that you are perfect. It is not that you’re ever perfect.

Speaker 1 (00:25:54):

Yeah, I think what that made definitely when I was very early on I had the whole imposter syndrome, who are you to be doing business coaching? But one thing I did do very well when I started coaching is I absolutely stuck to my lane. I knew that accounting, finance and HR, my absolute sweet spots. So when I started coaching, I didn’t try and be someone, I wasn’t want to go down the whole marketing, sales, sales line. I wasn’t a systems guy or anything like that. Just very early on I just stuck to my strengths and that’s what got me started and that’s what got me going. And that’s where we are today. When we are at Pravar Group, what are we very good at is financial management systems, mindset and people leadership and structures. That’s very much our sweet spots now. And so even though I’ve been coaching and now run a very successful coaching business, I’ve just stayed true to who I was, what our strengths are and what we’re very good at.

(00:26:52):

And that’s made me probably endure all the challenges and made it last and turn the business that it is in today compared to a lot of coaches who put dip their toe and then they’d never make it because they try and be all things to all people. So yeah, when I first got started, absolutely there was a lot of imposter syndrome, who am I? Who am I to be this person? But I was just resolute that I was going to make it work. And I think that just comes back to belief and just knowing that it was going to happen.

Speaker 2 (00:27:23):

Yeah, that’s great. And I think you’ve sort of jumped into where I wanted to go next, which is that idea of then becoming a business owner, becoming a coach is one thing and that’s, we know that as coaches and what that journey looks like, but for the people listening, becoming a business owner for the first time, a lot of those feelings will be the same and that’s why we’re going to talk about these so much on the podcast. But in terms of, I mean knowing the story a little bit, I know it started off as Rob Kropp Coaching and you went into your own sort of business to start with in that sort of sense, which freaks me out because I just can’t imagine you putting your own name on something and letting that sit out there as the sign on the door. It’s weird, but how did you feel about that? And if it’s the same sort of feelings, talk just a little bit about being a business owner, those same sort of feelings and how they came up and just what that sort of felt like for you when you first went into that space of I’m I’m going to own a business.

Speaker 1 (00:28:15):

Yeah. I think to begin with, at the start, I first got into coaching, I contracted into my parents’ business, but I was fully responsible for sourcing my own clients, sourcing and selling and coaching clients at the time. And at that time I was just focused on developing my craft as a very good coach. And I spent the first number of years just coaching, coaching, coaching, coaching, coaching and developing the skillset, the craft, the mindset and just what it took to become a great business coach. But even at that time I didn’t feel like I was still running a business. I wasn’t running a coaching business because I didn’t have any employees. I didn’t have any people. It’s almost like when a plumber goes out on their own and they become a contractor and then they start hiring one or two people, they still feel like a tradesman, their identity as a tradesman.

(00:29:12):

And my identity at the time is I was just a very good business coach and if anyone asked me, Rob, what do you do? I’m a business coach, but I became very good at it because I practised and I knew I had a flare for sales. I knew I had a flare for coaching and my willingness to become a great coach was just off the back of my willingness to ask myself the hard questions. But that kind of only lasted a period of time where my parents’ business was moving in a different direction. I didn’t want to go down that path. This is what I was living in Brisbane in this time. I went out and started something with one of my good mates at the time, Tim, and we were coaches and there’s more stories, I’m sure you’re asking around that. But even at that point there, I was still a coach and later down my journey, I made the decision I’m going to start turning this into a coaching business.

(00:30:10):

Because there was a point in my journey where I’m like, I just don’t want to be a business coach anymore. I really want to run a very successful coaching business. And that was a big step for me to take because it was no longer about me being a great coach, but me running a great coaching business. So huge parts over a number of years to go through that journey. But yeah, very early on in the journey, it was just about me becoming a master of my craft and I just put my head down and focus very hard on doing that for sure.

Speaker 2 (00:30:40):

Yeah, and that journey, it’s no small feat. I mean, we’ve talked about your ability to lead going back to your school days, and I think that big thing of becoming a business owner is making that move. And I know we’re going to be talking about this at length over the podcast, but that move from being the tradesman if you like, into being the leader of the business is a huge, huge step to take, isn’t it? And there’s so much that comes up even though you dealt with stuff before, you’re accomplished in what you were doing at the time, learning your craft and becoming a master of your craft, it probably doesn’t prepare anyone for that journey of what it takes to become a successful business owner.

Speaker 1 (00:31:21):

Yeah, it’s a different mindset. It’s a different skillset. You’ve almost got to unlearn everything and rebirth yourself and become something new. It’s no longer about how you good are at your craft. It’s all about people management and self-management. And so it’s leadership and very few people build a business greater than themselves, and that’s because of people’s inability to develop and go through the pain of everything, of becoming a great leader. And I just felt called at some part of my journey where I’m like, I don’t want to just be a coach. There’s something bigger inside of me. I’ve got something bigger and better inside of me. I knew as a one man band coach, I had my peak, I had 20 clients, I’d done some great stuff, and I just knew that there was a bigger impact that I could have working with just those 20 people and that was part of my calling. I knew that there was a bigger game to play and I felt compelled to go and take that path.

Speaker 2 (00:32:22):

Yeah, great. I’m so glad you did. Let’s talk about then the move. I want to get into Pravar Group now. We’re going to turn this sort of corner. Before we do though, we’re just checking in on our timeline, are we still in Brisbane at this time? And there’s another move coming. I know. So before we get into pava group and what it is and how you came up with that, just talk us through, I know you made a move. Where did you move to and where are we at in the timeline and the story of Rob?

Speaker 1 (00:32:49):

Yeah, so I was in Brisbane for the first couple of years of my coaching journey, and I made the move, actually made the move to Melbourne, and this was a way out of character thing for me, and that’s because as I said before, I was in partnership with a guy called Tim. He was pursuing a lady down in Melbourne and he’s like, I’m moving to Melbourne. I’m like, well, I don’t want to. He’s like, well, I’m moving to Melbourne. I’m like, all right, I’m single. And I just came to Melbourne. We came down for Melbourne Cup and we enjoyed our time and I think I got to experience what Melbourne was in its best time. I’m like, cool, I’m moving here.

(00:33:37):

And here we are. And I haven’t looked back. Now I’m no longer in that partnership with Tim. We got to Melbourne and the wheels kind of fell off, and here I was stuck in a city of not knowing hardly any people and everything, but it was one of the best moves that I made because A it put me out of my comfort zone. B, it was my ability to forge my own path. And whilst it was a very challenging moment of my time because I’d moved to Melbourne and business partnership and everything fell over, it was very, very challenging. I almost had to start again, which I did, but looking back, it was one of the biggest blessings that I had. So yeah, still called Melbourne home today and love being here, but yeah, that was the reason of the move to Melbourne.

Speaker 2 (00:34:24):

Yeah, great, great. And I know you still feel like the country boy, the Queenslander that lives in Melbourne in the Big Smoke, it’s funny to see sometimes the Queenslander still comes out, even though you do call Melbourne home, which I love.

Speaker 1 (00:34:36):

I know my wife has had to bash my wife Jacqui, she’s had to bash. She’s a Brighton girl, she’s had to bash all the Queensland slang out of me over time and the yeah, butts and the haze and all those types of things and they hang shit on me. I call it pool and cool and all those and ports and all those types of things. So Queensland language is very different to Victorian language, I believe.

Speaker 2 (00:35:01):

Never gets old. We could almost do a whole episode on your Queensland slang. I love it. That’d be hilarious. Okay, let’s talk then. Let’s keep the conversation moving. Let’s get in. You’re in Melbourne. I want to talk about the idea for Pravar Group and just talk about how you feel about it today and what it means to you. So start with, I suppose a really good place to start is the name and where does that come from, because I think that opens that doorway into what we’re doing now and all those sort of things that I’m sure people want to know. So tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 1 (00:35:35):

Yeah, a big part of it for me is when I was in move to Melbourne, I obviously was operating under Rob Kropp Coaching. I hired Steve Greene as my first coach. Gav came on board and I felt called within to do something different. I just didn’t want to be Rob Kropp Coaching. I felt like I wanted to build a business, I wanted to build a brand and I wanted to build something outside of my name. And so a number of years ago now, we went down that whole path of engaged someone to be able to help me with the brand and the message because I got to that point in time where I was like, who am I? What’s my message? And what do we really stand for in the marketplace? I was very much a generalist business coaching business, and this was back in 2015.

(00:36:30):

We kind of had a bit of a broad range of client base, and I was probably just a bit confused in my time. I didn’t really know who we were, what we stood for, who our real client base was, and I just went on this massive journey to piece it all together. And so it was huge because when I went through that whole process around developing what we operate now under is Pravar Group, it really helped me go back and define, really pull all my elements of my past together. And part of my story and the reason why we coach who we do and why we do what we do today is because my dad was that typical trades guy. He was an operator at the power station in Gladstone. He had a fencing and gardening business crops, fencing and gardening, and he just worked his absolute ass off. He saw it in his dad and all his family, all my family have come from the land. They were cane farmers, they were dairy farmers. And my dad was just of that generation where he worked and worked and worked and worked and worked.

(00:37:45):

And I remember my dad saying it all the time, I’m doing it for the family, I’m doing it for the family. And pretty much my dad missed out on so much because he was always working. He could come to footy games and sporting matches when I was in high school. But it just got to the point when I was nine or 10, my sister was 11 or 12 and my parents split. Obviously they had their own challenges in their marriage and everything, but yeah, they split and that took a massive toll on me and it was a massive impacting point in my life because I felt like my dad was never around. I never got to story him. He wasn’t present and evolved with what I was doing. And so Pravar Group, the name Pravar, it’s a combination of two words, which is Pranar and Vagar.

(00:38:36):

And when you combine those two words creates Pravar and Pranar means breathe life into, and Vagar means family. And so the word Pravar actually means breathe life back into the family. And I went on this massive journey to be able to pull all that to pieces to be able to create Pravar that it is today is because I realised how much I missed out on as a young fella because of the way the hours my dad was working, how he was trying to go about making money for the family. And it was a huge point in my life. And that whole song around the cats and the cradle and all those types of things, that’s a reflection of my relationship with dad. And my dad and I have had plenty of conversations, our relationships getting better. We’ve had heaps of conversations. I don’t blame him for what he did, he was just doing the best that he knew at the time.

(00:39:32):

But man, he was going about it backwards. And so Pravar was born, the brand Pravar was born because I wanted to help trades and construction businessmen not make the same mistakes in my dad. And early on my journey, I had some real success with trades businesses because I felt that they were a bit of a reflection of my dad. I some, I still remember the Corie, the Cleaner, Corie Morrad, he was one of the early success stories. I helped him have go from $1 million to $4 milliondoing 80 hours a week down to 30 to 40, absolutely transformed his family life and helped him become who he is today. And from that moment, Pravar was born and we found our group and off we went. And so Pravar in its form today is just a whole culmination of my journey, my backstory, who I’ve served well, my own experiences and Pravar was born just pretty much out of my desire and want and will to transform businesses and reconnect families because I feel like that was a big void early on in my life. For sure.

Speaker 2 (00:40:43):

Yeah, I love that. No matter how often I hear it, that story, it just resonates and it’s so true. It’s so authentic and it comes through in everything we do. And I think even to the point that our coaches have all got a similar or a parallel type story that resonates and it’s sort of like that’s even as a group of coaches, we’ve got that sort of passion for what it is that the brand’s been set up to do. So I think that’s absolutely true in terms of jumping forward. I think giving that early days and that indications greater where it’s come maybe give an indication to the people listening that what’s the business look like now? And sort of fast forward to today, and we’ve gone through a lot of the early journey in the backstory, but bring it up to speed right now and where’s the business at now, the size of it, who we work with, what we’re doing, and just sort of give a little bit of a summary for people to bring ’em up to speed.

Speaker 1 (00:41:35):

I put this really cool post on my socials the other day, and it was one of our early mastermind weekends back in 2015, in October, 2015. And at the time I had six in my mastermind and I had a handful of one-on-one clients. And today we would have about 120 trades and construction businesses, purely trades and construction doing between $1 million. Most of our clients are between one and $10 million. We’ve got a few clients doing much bigger than that, but we very much these days only specialise in the trades and construction industry. Our typical client is male married with young families. And that’s because early on earlier in my journey of Pravar, I had them make the decision going, who are we? What do we stand for and what impact do we want to make? And that was all about families. Now I know there’s plenty of coaches out there who talk lifestyle and families and to be honest, they’re just all marketing spins that they lean on to be able to get clients.

(00:42:40):

But for us, we absolutely transform businesses and reconnect families, and that’s there is no one out there in the marketplace do what we do around reconnection of families in the business side of things. And so early on in that journey of Pravar, I had to turn my back on the whole of every other industry and make the decision that we only worked with trades and construction. And even in that moment, I made the decision against advice of plenty of people around me to only coach males. And the reason why is because I wanted to run a holistic coaching business that not was just about hard-nosed business, but bring all that mindset element into the conversation. But I also wanted to build a community where we can help clients become better husbands, better fathers, just better blokes in general. And I found that the more we narrowed our community and the people we served, the stronger those communities became because people felt like they had the environment to be able to talk a bit about mental health and their marriage problems in their relationship with their kids and alcoholism and drugs and all those issues that people aren’t wanting to talk about with their friends and family.

(00:43:51):

We created an environment early on where people felt comfortable and willing and vulnerable to be able to talk about those elements. So there was some big changes we made early in the day, but that’s what’s made Pravar the business that it is today. So today we have a really great coaching team around us. We’ve got two coaches in our legacy programme. We’ve got four coaches in our lifestyle programme. We’ve got one coach that sits above our launch and leverage programme yourself and head of ops and oversee from a business point of view and oversee our coaching team and do an amazing job there. Jacqui, my wife organises all events. We’ve got Danni in operations and some marketing support there as well. So we run a great team. We run a virtual team all around Australia. We’re probably one of the biggest and most successful coaching businesses in Australia, and I can absolutely hang my hat on with immense pride of the lives we change, the results we get for our clients and the amazing business and culture that we’ve got here at Pravar. It’s very unique and very special and it’s something that I’m most proud of that I’ve been able to built in my time.

Speaker 2 (00:45:05):

For sure, for sure. And I’d add two things to that. One is let’s not forget the point that you are still involved in the business. You lead this business, you’re here every day, you’re coaching with clients. There’s not a client I couldn’t pick out that you wouldn’t know something about them, who their family is, what they’re doing in their business that’s real and that it’s an amazing thing that you can do in that sense. But you are leading every day in this business, which I think is amazing. The second thing I want to come back to is just that number. When you throw that number out there, we’ve got 120 clients or round abouts, I want to stress that that’s not us saying, well, we’ve got 120 and watch us go to 200, 300, 400, we say 120 as there’s a limit to that. And that limit’s drawn by how many people we can work with at the depth we want to work with them to.

(00:45:51):

Because I think you’re right, getting to that number and having the team we’ve got allows us to get to a depth and get the results that we get. And that’s really critical for people that are listening to understand because we don’t need to have, we know what enough is, and quite frankly, this podcast being born out of that idea that we don’t want to grow our client base to 10,000 people and just rake in people as much as we can. We want to have this impact and get to depth. So it’s things that we add to the business like a podcast or a program’s always done with the impact that we want to have and the depth we want to get to with our clients. So I think that’s an important point. Do you want to just add something around that idea of enough and how we’re structured in terms of clients and working off wait lists and referrals, all those sort of things?

Speaker 1 (00:46:38):

Yeah. I think one of the biggest things that I made a decision early on is that I wanted to create an exclusive and boutique business. And I know 120 sounds big and it is big, but we have a higher level of exclusivity and boutiqueness around how we do things. And we’re at a point now where the business isn’t going to get any bigger, and that’s a conscious choice not to do that. I’ve had plenty of people around me say, Rob, move into overseas, go to America, go to Europe, create online programmes. And I’ve made the conscious choice not to do that because what it’s going to do is dilute who we are and what we’re great at. And we’ve got a very strong no dickhead policy within our group. One of the biggest things that I’m most proud of over the last 12 to 24 months is the depth of community and culture that we’re bringing within our different programmes. And I think it’s the exclusive nature of our programmes and our business, which make us so successful.

(00:47:36):

We work with a certain range of clients, we know what we’re good at, and I still like to know what’s going on in our client’s world. I probably work harder than I have ever done now. And you’re right, part of this podcast is because it was born out of what’s next for Pravar Group, and part of that is let’s bring what we’re very good at in our closed door communities out there into the marketplace, and let’s go on that journey of contribution and giving back. And I want to be able to give, we want to be able to give back to the industry. Let’s create a community and environment where we can have these conversations for people who aren’t clients. Some will become clients down the line, some probably won’t, and that’s okay, but at least if we can bring all our schools of thoughts, our frameworks and principles and give back to the industry, this is our way of growth without blowing the lid on numbers and diluting what we’re very good at.

(00:48:30):

There’s plenty of businesses out there at the moment who are taking one-on-one coaching away and just blowing their membership bases up, and what it’s doing is having a negative experience for their client base, whereas we’re the opposite. We’re bringing in more resources and we’re putting a cap on it so that we can create an exclusive nature and do what we do best. And you just can’t have transformational results and like we do by blowing the lid on programmes. And so I am bloody proud of what we do and I feel like we just change lives and I can just hand ’em a heart, do that, and we’ve got something very special and very unique. The other part of what we’re very good at is we take clients on a journey. We coach them on what they need, when they need it in their journey of what they’ve got at the time.

(00:49:17):

We’ve got four phases of coaching, and I just love that we can just coach clients on what they need at that time. And when clients stay for the journey, they on average stick around for four to five years. They spend a year in launch, six months in leverage, three to four years in lifestyle. And then if they go into legacy, they do that. Otherwise they don’t. But most clients stick around for a long time. Our results and our retention is pretty special in the industry. So yeah, it’s that exclusive and boutique nature of what we’ve created is what creates the results that we get for clients, which I’m most proud of.

Speaker 2 (00:49:51):

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely echo those sentiments. It is a privileged role we get to play as coaches, I think, and to be able to do it in the context that we have and through what you’ve created, I think is massive. So yeah, it’s great. And you’ve got all the gratitude in the world from me for the opportunity to be a part of that. I love it. So let’s talk about the Kropp family. We talk about family all the time. Tell us about yours and where are you at as the Kropp family?

Speaker 1 (00:50:20):

Yeah, good question. Our family has absolutely grown over the last few years. A wife Jacqui, beautiful wife, Jacqui. We’ve been married for a few years now and we’ve got three beautiful kids, and Doug, our dog. So we’ve got Doug, the golden retriever. He was our first fur baby and he was our first born. So Doug the dog and then we had Grace. Grace is four and a half years old at the moment. Then we had Maddie, she’s two and a half. And at the time of this recording, we’ve just had little Benjamin, a little Ben. He’s eight weeks. So we’re in the thick of baby world at the moment. So we’ve got three beautiful kids. Family life for us is great. We live in Hampton. We’re renovating our family home at the moment. Family life is good. We live near the beach. We live very much near Jacqui’s family, about a kilometre and a bit is her sister and a kilometre a bit the other way is her mum.

(00:51:26):

And Jacqui’s got a really close relationship with her family. So I’ve slotted nicely in with her family. I love spending time with them. We are very much settled in Hampton, in Bayside, in Melbourne. We live good life here. I love where we live and we’ve got a great family and Jacqui’s a school teacher. She’s a mum at the moment, but she’s very much done everything she is. I love who she is and I love her for who she is and she’s great. She’s a great mum to our kids and so yeah, big family’s a big part in our world. I love business, I love investing and I love property. I’m very big on property development. I’ve done a number of developments in my time over the last few years and investing in other businesses and building Pravar Group to what it is, so life’s busy between business and family life and drinking good wine and eating good food and having a good coffee. There’s not much time for anything else, but yeah, family’s good and I’m blessed to have a happy and healthy family. I love it, so it’s great.

Speaker 2 (00:52:29):

Yeah. Awesome. No, they’re amazing. They really are. And don’t forget Doug, because Jacqui will kill you if you leave Doug out of the family tree. I know that.

Speaker 1 (00:52:36):

Love hate relationship, my Doug and I,

Speaker 2 (00:52:39):

That doesn’t matter. Jacqui. Jacqui insists. So you’re going to have to keep him in there and stay on the good side. Absolutely, mate, I’m going to do one thing here. I’m going to issue a bit of a surprise. I dunno if you know about this. I’m sure you don’t because I haven’t told you, but how’d you feel? I want to wrap this up. It’s been such a great conversation, but let’s wrap it up with a bit of a lightning round. So anything we haven’t covered, all those little bits and pieces, I know you’ve got to tell the story, which is great and I know it’s not easy for you, but I’m going to make you squirm for one last time if you’re up for it. And how would you feel about a bit of a lightning round? I’m going to ask you about 10 questions and just fire ’em at you and see what these answers come out like.

Speaker 1 (00:53:16):

Let’s do it.

Speaker 2 (00:53:17):

Alright, listen to him. Let’s do it. Between gritted teeth, he loves it being put on the spot too. Two things, Rob loves being put on the spot and talking about himself. Alright, question number one, what’s your favourite colour?

Speaker 1 (00:53:30):

Blue. Blue is straight up.

Speaker 2 (00:53:33):

Nice. Alright, easy. See, this is simple. What’s your favourite food?

Speaker 1 (00:53:36):

Ooh. Does it have to be one?

Speaker 2 (00:53:40):

You just answer the question however you want. You reveal whatever you’d like to.

Speaker 1 (00:53:45):

I love dumplings. I’m a very much dumpling fan, but in saying that when we’re in lockdown in Victorian lockdowns, the first thing our family did is went and had a pot and parmy at the pub when we’re out of lockdown. So I do love dumplings, but I do love Parmas as well. And Parmers or versus Parmys, that’s another conversation from another down the line.

Speaker 2 (00:54:06):

It is. That can go into The Trade Den. We’ll have a bit of a poll probably on this episode about Parmys or Parmers. All good. This will be good. Who is your favourite band or musician?

Speaker 1 (00:54:20):

Oh, I’m not a big muso.

Speaker 2 (00:54:23):

I know, that’s why I asked it. I knew that I you I want to hear what you come out with. This is gold.

Speaker 1 (00:54:30):

I do like the Foo Fighters, but I’m not a big muso. I would say Foo Fighters, but I’m not a big music person actually.

Speaker 2 (00:54:37):

All right.

Speaker 1 (00:54:37):

I like listening to the radio or the wireless. For those older people

Speaker 2 (00:54:43):

You’d be a talk back guy,

Speaker 1 (00:54:47):

ABC.

Speaker 2 (00:54:48):

Exactly. What is the stupidest dare you’ve ever agreed to?

(00:54:53):

I’m a pretty calculated guy, Dan. I’m a calculated guy.

(00:54:57):

The accountant in you.

Speaker 1 (00:54:58):

I will say that I did do skydiving when I was in my younger years and I did bungee jumping. We did a client weekend over in New Zealand. It’s one of our client weekends. I did bungee jumping and no one else did bungee jumping and I just led from the front and I absolutely loved it. I was shitting myself before I jumped, but it was one of the most thrilling things that I’ve done as also around skydiving. I loved them. The adrenaline rush was huge.

Speaker 2 (00:55:31):

Fantastic. Would you do ’em again?

Speaker 1 (00:55:33):

Yes, I reckon I would.

Speaker 2 (00:55:35):

Nice. All right. Well keep that in mind for future client events. It’s not we did it, it’s just let’s watch Rob, do it. Would your 12-year-old self think you were cool?

Speaker 1 (00:55:47):

Depends on your definition of cool. I reckon my 12-year-old self would be proud. He’d be pumped in terms of what I’ve been able to achieve in my time.

Speaker 2 (00:55:55):

Yeah, absolutely. I would hope so. What about, what’s your last impulse buy?

Speaker 1 (00:56:04):

My last impulse buy was a very nice bottle of red wine, but that wasn’t quite impulsive because I do buy a bit of red wine.

Speaker 2 (00:56:14):

Nice. I know everyone’s going to be asking. How much was it? Was it two zeros, three zeros, or four zeros?

Speaker 1 (00:56:21):

It was a hundred dollars.

Speaker 2 (00:56:22):

Okay. There we go.

Speaker 1 (00:56:24):

My mantra is drink less but drink best. And so I’d rather drink a good quality wine than a shit one.

Speaker 2 (00:56:31):

Nice. Have you drunk it yet?

Speaker 1 (00:56:33):

No, it’s going into my wine fridge and I’ll drink it in a few years time.

Speaker 2 (00:56:37):

Nice. Very good. All right. What is your favourite part of this job?

Speaker 1 (00:56:45):

Changing people’s lives hands down. We run our mastermind weekends and it’s the one time where we get our clients to bring their partners along and I just love, I got goosebumps just then. I just love changing lives and I love seeing clients just become who they’re meant to be and just change their lives and their family lives. Like building businesses and reconnecting families is just what I love. Hands down and just little goosebumps in because I just love transforming the lives of their clients and seeing them so happy and connected and just turning into being the best husband and father that they can be.

Speaker 2 (00:57:29):

Yeah, love that too. Absolutely. If you had to distil your life philosophy into a quote, a bumper sticker, maybe a song lyric, what would it be?

Speaker 1 (00:57:41):

Does it have to be one? I feel like I’ve got a million sayings.

Speaker 2 (00:57:45):

That’s all right. I know you, that’s another topic we can go through. Rob’s favourite quotes, we’ll get all our clients to chip in. No, you answer the question however you like. Last question by the way. So you answered it however you want.

Speaker 1 (00:57:57):

There’s three mantras that I live by and that is face the facts, never settle and make shit happen. And they’re the three Pravar principles that I live and breathe by and hence the sign Get shit done in the background for those who can see this video, but face the facts, never settle, make shit happen are the three big overarching ones. But there’ll be no doubt more mottos and principles that I’ll talk about down the line.

Speaker 2 (00:58:29):

For sure, for sure. I think that’s the perfect spot to end. I think what we’ve got coming up is a really deep dive on each of those principles. So I think look out for those episodes, make sure you catch ’em because they are absolutely cornerstone principles for what we do at Pravar and we live and breathe them ourselves and we love to talk about them. So I think that’d be great. Rob, I’m happy to say you have made it through the grilling. Hopefully it wasn’t too bad, but thank you for being so open and for sharing and really pulling that curtain back for us. I’m sure everyone that’s been listening has enjoyed it. If you guys have got comments, please share them with us. We’d love to hear how you felt about hearing that story, what resonated out of that conversation, what would you like to hear in terms of future episodes? Jump into The Trade Den and tell us all about it. And Rob, I suppose it’s a good point to end on is how can people keep in contact and what’s the sort of community around the podcast we’re trying to build?

Speaker 1 (00:59:26):

Yeah, for sure. I think the best thing that people can do is subscribe to the podcast, share it with their mates, and come and join the conversation in The Trade Den Facebook Group. It’s exclusive for trades and construction business owners only, and you’ve got to apply to get in, answer a few questions. And if we feel like you’re a fit, then we’ll let you in because we want to make sure we keep that group exclusive and boutique. But come and join us there in the Facebook Group, that’s our community around this podcast, and we’re going to have the podcast in that community working side by side. The podcast is a great way for us to have conversations and the community is the ability to continue those conversations. So subscribe, share it with your mates, your colleagues, all your boys in the industry, and let’s get the good word out there and then come and join us in the conversation down the line as well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):

Absolutely. Alright, I think there’s only one thing left to do and that’s say goodbye to everyone and we’ll catch you on the next one.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):

Thanks everyone. Talk to you soon.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):

See you guys.