Episode 26 Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00:00):
I had to get out of there and I had to experience change and I had to go, I had to open my wings and be like, yeah, I can do this. And it is achievable. And to see it come to life, it’s been amazing.
Speaker 2 (00:00:16):
Hi everyone. Rob Kropp here and welcome back to another episode of The Trade Den, welcome back, Dan, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:00:23):
I’m very good, excited because we’re doing another client interview today. A little bit of a spoiler there, but really excited about it.
Speaker 2 (00:00:30):
Yeah, I love these and we try and mix these up and bring these in every few episodes. Really great opportunity to be able to welcome Zach Hansen from ZMH Metal Roofing today. And we’re really looking forward to sharing your story. We’re getting plenty of feedback from our listeners where they love the stories, they do love our teaching. They love different episodes around different topics that we do, Dan, but being able to bring clients on to be able to share through their stories, their journeys, and almost have a bit of a peep inside what we do here at our listeners are loving them arn’t they?
Speaker 3 (00:01:03):
It is. It’s amazing. I was talking to someone the other day who’s a younger guy and he’s listening to the podcast and even he was sort of saying, these stories are just so, there’s so much information in them, there’s so many gaps that they fill, and I think everybody, their strategies are everywhere, content’s everywhere these days in the information age, but hearing real true stories and getting to sort of know what happens and know these people to a certain extent as you hear some of what they’ve been through is it’s pretty special what we get to do.
Speaker 2 (00:01:32):
Absolutely. And the reason why we do them is because I’m a big believer that if they can do it, then so can I. And if you see someone else’s journey, it just instils that belief in you that it’s absolutely, totally possible for you. So Zach, big warm, welcome to you mate. Really great to have you on today’s episode. Thanks for joining us, mate. Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:01:51):
Thank you. Yeah, it’s been a pleasure. It’s been a wild ride so far. So I’m excited to share my journey and yeah, let you know what I’ve been up to the last 18 months in coaching.
Speaker 2 (00:02:02):
Yeah, mate, we’re stoked to have you on board and mate, you’ve been an amazing client and you’ve achieved some amazing things for a young guy. The work that you do, the caller that you do, the growth that you’ve personally had and in business as well in just 18 months has been incredible, mate, it’s a real testament to you and the hard work you put in. So yeah, we’re really looking forward to unpacking that and sharing your journey over the last 18 months. So Dan, where do we want to start today? How would you like to kick us off?
Speaker 3 (00:02:33):
I think we’ve got to start. Let’s not break the winning pattern. Let’s sort of give people a bit of background. Zach, name and roll call. Just tell us a little bit about your name business, how long you’ve been in business, that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:02:43):
Yeah, my name’s Zach, the director of ZMH Roofing, located in Sydney. We’ve got 10 ground crew at the moment, so pretty big team on the ground. We’ve got operations manager, full-time admin, and a bookkeeper that works for us pretty much full-time too. So yeah, we’re pretty big operations at the moment, so it’s been good.
(00:03:07):
Good stuff. How long have you been in business?
(00:03:09):
Five years.
Speaker 3 (00:03:11):
Perfect. All right. I like it. Very good. Alright, let’s go in. We talked about at the start about getting into your journey from coaching and all that sort of stuff and we’ll get to that for sure, but I know so much more of your story having coached you for a while and being part of seeing you come into coaching. So I want to go back to that start and let’s talk about, I’m going to go all the way back. You’re a young guy so you can probably remember this. Rob can’t do that and I certainly can’t, those days have long gone, but what are three words you’d use to describe yourself as a kid growing up?
Speaker 1 (00:03:42):
I feel like I was lost probably a lot of anger, but I was always curious of why, what happened in life and the way life was thrown to me. I was always curious, I’d always ask the question why a lot, whether it was to myself or someone else.
Speaker 3 (00:04:02):
How did that curiosity show up in your world? What were you doing as a kid?
Speaker 1 (00:04:06):
Yeah, life growing or up? It was good. I had an older sister, she’s one year older than me. Mom and dad were together. We had lived up on the central coast, so on a one acre property, life was really good. So I used to play with my best mates on the street. I wouldn’t take back the childhood I had before. Yeah, probably 11, 12 years old from seven till or from even younger school was great. Always playing sports. Yeah, life was, life was really good.
Speaker 3 (00:04:37):
What sport did you play as a kid growing up?
Speaker 1 (00:04:40):
I played NRL, so I was always in and out of playing footy with my mates and always super active riding bikes, just doing what normal kids, definitely not what the kids do these days. So I was never inside the house, never sitting down, always out in the street. Yeah, I was always very active as a young kid.
Speaker 3 (00:04:58):
Fantastic. Whereabouts on the central coast?
Speaker 1 (00:05:01):
A little town called Summerland Point, so it’s just probably, I know about 40 minutes up from Gosford.
Speaker 3 (00:05:07):
Okay, cool. Very nice, very nice. As a kid growing up, playing sport in school, can you remember anything that you wanted to do at the time? Who did you want to be? What did you want to be when you grew up, that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:05:18):
Not really, I just feel like I was very, I didn’t like school at all. It was never ever for me since day one. I would walk into class and have no idea what the teacher was talking about. I had no interest of what they were talking about. Even at all I wanted to do was in primary school, all I wanted to do was play footy, my mates at lunchtime and every time the bell would ring I would dread going back to class, whether I had to listen to history or listen to anything. It just never, ever since day one, honestly since public school year four or five, it just was not for me. I can’t sit still. I couldn’t sit still and I always had struggles with learning, so I just want to be around my mates and play footy.
Speaker 3 (00:06:02):
Yeah, we might talk about some of those struggles as we go through the coaching journey as we go on. I’m going to ask you a question here because I think your story early on probably splits into two parts is that early side, growing up, central coast, all those sort of things. But I’m interested to ask you the question, when I say being a kid, what would you categorise as how long, what age would you say that being a kid stopped for you?
Speaker 1 (00:06:26):
Well, hard to grow up pretty fast. At 11 years old, I had a massive loss in life. I lost a father, so that was very sudden. So ever since then I had to obviously put the hat on as being one and older brother and two, sort of becoming a father figure to obviously my sister and then obviously to myself, which probably the biggest thing too.
Speaker 3 (00:06:52):
And that changed pretty quickly I think. From memory from your story before that though, your parents split up before that happened.
Speaker 1 (00:06:59):
Correct? Yeah, so they obviously went through a divorce and so it was never, it was always tough from such a young age, you know what I mean? Always constantly having fights and domestic violence and drugs and alcohol, being surrounded by all that type of stuff at such a young age. It was sort of all I knew from day one really from probably 10 to 11, even younger.
Speaker 3 (00:07:29):
And it’s probably no wonder you wanted to get out and play sport and go and be with your mates, just be anywhere than home school where that sort of..
Speaker 1 (00:07:37):
Yeah, there was never a home. There was never dinner at the dinner table. It was never really a happy place. There was never a safe place. There was never a place that I could share my emotions or stuff like that. It was always like mom and dad are always fighting or they’re always hung out, they’re drinking and it was never like, oh, it was tough growing up, but it is what it is. And it sort of shaped me into who I am today.
Speaker 3 (00:08:04):
It always does. Those situations that we find ourselves in, they have a way of moulding us good, better, indifferent, all those sort of things. Out of just timeline. What age were you when your parents split?
Speaker 1 (00:08:18):
I would’ve been seven, yeah, seven years old. So then I was living when divorced and when that sort of stuff happens, they obviously split up and my mom and my sister become really close. And then I just wanted to be around dad, so living with my mom and my sister was always tough when dad obviously wasn’t around when they split up, I had to live with my mom for a bit and that was always hard being around my two sisters, not having my father around. That didn’t last long, not long after that. My dad, I think I was in year four and I was living with my mom at the time. My dad rocked off to school at primary school and he just said, I’m here to pick you up, and that was it. So my dad come and pick me up from school in year four, and I didn’t see my mom for probably two years.
(00:09:10):
It was wild, but I would always be ringing dad saying, come and get me, and it just wasn’t the right time, it wasn’t the right place. So it was sort of, yeah. And then so he come pick me up from school and then that was in year four. So year four to year five, year four to year seven, I lived with my dad and his new partner and that was good. That was probably, I think where I’ve learned the foundations of having respect and saying thank you. And I feel like my father really drilled those rules of life at such a young age. He was very strict and he was very, I respected him a lot. He was my hero. He taught me, I always had to be home when the street lights were on. I’d always have to shake someone a man’s hand and always have to look in someone’s eyes when you talk to him. So I felt like I found that build that he really built that foundation of becoming the man I had to be at such a young age too, so it was good.
Speaker 3 (00:10:06):
For sure. Yeah. So were you living in the same area when that happened?
Speaker 1 (00:10:11):
Yeah, probably about a 20 minute drive. So my mom and my sister were like 20 minutes away and then they eventually moved to Sydney and then I was living with my dad and his new partner about 20 minutes away from my sister.
Speaker 3 (00:10:22):
So still sort of tough times, but probably an improvement when that split happened for a good thing was probably reasonable.
Speaker 1 (00:10:30):
So I had a stepmom, I lived around there and we had a half decent house and there was rules, I had to be home at a certain time. I had to do my homework if I tried to do my homework. But my dad was a very, very strict person and I feel like that sort of shaped me because I can see the thing that it’s had from my sister, obviously not having too many rules were growing up with my mom and the way that she went and the way that I went. I feel like that foundation that was later a young age played a big role.
Speaker 3 (00:10:58):
And what did your dad do for a living?
Speaker 1 (00:11:01):
He wasn’t so much of a work and class. He had a few injuries and stuff like that, so he was never a hard worker, didn’t work much at all.
Speaker 3 (00:11:11):
Alright, so let’s look at it then. In terms of this next change. So we’ve sort of gone through the first to second in terms of the third chapter of this all growing up. By the way, you’re probably about 10 years old here. What was the next thing that ended up happening that led to the absolute time when you say you had to be a man? Pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (00:11:34):
When I lost that at 11 years old. So from going back from memory, there was, I think it was school holidays and I wasn’t really the best kid. I was always a bit cheeky and I’d always push the boundaries with him even though there was rules. And then me and my father had a bit of an argument as a young kid. I wasn’t home before the street lights were on and it was Christmas holidays and I hadn’t seen my mom in about two years. So just out of coincidence, I rang mom up and I was like, can you come and get me? I had a big fight with dad. Dad kicked me up the ass and said, go up to your mom’s joint. So I rang mom and mom was down here in a couple of hours and that was the last time I seen him.
Speaker 3 (00:12:20):
I don’t know how you feel about this, but just what happened mate?
Speaker 1 (00:12:23):
Drugs, overdose. Really?
Speaker 3 (00:12:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:12:27):
And I wasn’t, I didn’t get told that until such an older age too. So that obviously stuck deep when I had found that out. I wasn’t told the truth probably. I mean, I was a young 11 kid, you can’t really go around telling that you lost your father to drugs, but it is what it is and that’s what happened.
Speaker 3 (00:12:49):
Yeah. And did you move back with your mom then at that point? Or did you stay with your stepmom or what happened to you at that point once that happened? Was it back to mom’s or were you out on your own?
Speaker 1 (00:13:01):
I moved straight back into my Nan’s house. Yeah, so that was my dad’s mom, but she tried. But yeah, as I said before, I grew up very, very quick. I was lost, I didn’t know what was going on. My mom obviously turned to alcohol and she was grieving and my sister was grieving, the whole family was grieving and as I said before, I was very lost with nowhere to go at such a young age.
Speaker 3 (00:13:30):
And what happened with, I mean obviously it’s not a great start with school, not liking it, having learning disabilities, challenges with learning that you haven’t probably even known about yet, but what happened with all that sort of side of things, the sport.
Speaker 1 (00:13:42):
When all this happened, it was the break before when you go from year six to year seven. So in the Christmas holidays, that’s when the loss occurred. So I had a bit of time to get a few things together and work out what high school I was going to and whatnot. My nan helped me out a lot with that. So yeah, we started year seven. It was good to be back around my friends after that was the crazy thing was going on. So I was back in school from year seven and I went through the motions with that and then I walked out of there. I think it was halfway through year nine. I just knew it wasn’t for me.
Speaker 3 (00:14:21):
Right. So what was the plan at that point? I mean, you’re walking out of school year nine, did you have an apprenticeship? Did you have any sort of plan at all? Were you just, I’m going to go wherever I want, do whatever I like and see how that plays out?
Speaker 1 (00:14:35):
I’d always surround myself with older men. So when I was in year seven, my mates were in year 11, so I’d always got drawn towards older friends and people that were a little bit older than me. I obviously, I don’t know, I feel like I’ve just always gotten along with older people I speak. I can’t really relate to even kids, men my age now, I feel like I get along and I always have with older guys. So they were starting to leave school and they were starting to do what they were going to do and just by coincidence I was suspended. I wasn’t really a good kid growing up. So I was suspended from school, pretty crazy story. This for where I am at the moment. So I was suspended from school and I was, I’d always go up and visit my dad’s grave and I’d always go up there and try and spend as much time with him and just sit there and I dunno, what do you do? So I was up there one day and I still remember the guy that’s buried behind my father, he was there too. And obviously he was saying it must’ve been his birthday or something like that. And he was like, oh, why are you at school, young fella? And I was like, oh, I’m suspended and I hate school. And he goes, do you want a job? And I was like, yeah, I love a job. And he goes, well meet me on the highway in the morning. So that was it.
Speaker 3 (00:15:43):
Wow. What was the job?
Speaker 1 (00:15:45):
It was roofing roof tiling. So I started doing roof tiling right at the start when I first turned 16 on the central coast. So I was like, what am I going into here? I went back home to Nan, I was living at the time. She packed me a little lunchbox and off I went. I was on the highway and I still remember this day I still, when I drive up the central coast, I still remember that roof that well. The first job I ever went to as a roof tiler, I rocked up there and working with roof tilers. They all smoke and they’re all bit characters, but they rocked up and I had to load all the roof tilers, all the roof tilers from the ground up and put ’em on the elevator. And they said to me, there’s no way you’ll be back tomorrow. And I said, I bet you I am. And I just kept on rocking up and I just kept on showing up From that day forward I was like, and I loved it. And the guys that obviously tradesmen at the time, they used to try to break me and I just took it as like, you will not break me. So I just rocked up every day and worked harder. And I feel like that’s what sort of laid the foundation to get me where I am at the moment.
Speaker 3 (00:16:49):
What did you love about it? Everything you’ve had is school. It didn’t really have that sort of, there was no sort of grounding at all for you wouldn’t even know you’d like you were day two, but you know, love it. What is it, what was it about it that you love so much?
Speaker 1 (00:17:04):
Just being around the boys becoming, as I said before, I had to grow into a manly figure, so I was like, well this is what men do. Men get up and they go to work, they go and provide for themselves, they try and make themselves better. And I just fell in love with the process of being one, being around the boys, being outside with my shirt off and you know what I mean, at seven 30 in the morning doing hard work. I dunno, I just fell in love with it. I honestly did. And we used to have competitions with me and the other apprentices who could carry the most tiles on their shoulder and I always just got dragged towards me to try and be the hardest working in the room.
Speaker 3 (00:17:42):
And how did you feel within yourself at that time? Obviously the emotions that you had, you mentioned loss just a minute ago, whatever else you were feeling, and did you notice any change in those feelings or were they still sort of sitting around with you?
Speaker 1 (00:17:55):
That was sort of around, but I feel like it was an escape. It helped me escape from what was going on in my day-to-day life. I’d go to work and I felt like I had a purpose there. I felt like I was a part of something. It was definitely a safe spot for me to go, to be around the boys, to be around place instead of me sitting being upset and playing the victim.
Speaker 3 (00:18:18):
Yeah, absolutely. What about then were you were subbing, presumably apprentice, subbing?
Speaker 1 (00:18:26):
This was young. Yeah, so I did three, I think it was two years or something like that. So from 16, 17 to eight and then I moved to Sydney. So I made the switch that I couldn’t keep living by myself. I was living in and out of mates houses and I was living out of just like I was all over the shop. I was moving to Nans, I moved into other family friends. I had five or six different houses at, you know what I mean, 15, 16. So I made the decision to move back with mom. She was living in Sydney at the time. I said she moved back to Sydney, so I made the decision to move back. I think it would’ve just turned 16. And then, yeah, so I moved back to here and then mom just tried to get me to go back into school. I was in and out of work and it wasn’t really working out. So mom was like, just give school another crack. I started roofing so young and I was like, all right, I’ll give school a one another crack. So I walked into the Elli high around the corner from here and I walked straight out the next day.
Speaker 3 (00:19:25):
Really? You lasted
Speaker 1 (00:19:26):
One day? Lasted one day, and I didn’t even tell anyone I was leaving. I literally got up out of the class and I walked out and mom’s like, you can’t do that. I’m like, she goes, you need to have a written letter from the government or whatever, not they’re going to come after you. I’m like, mom, I’m not going to school. So then this is when the paper, you’d look in the paper. So mum was like, oh, try finding a job, another roof tiling job. So I ended up working with an older fella from around here for a couple of months, and then I think I was 16 or 17, I found myself with a fake idea at a local pub and I was having a beer with this guy and he was like, what do you do for work? I think I was 16 or 17 or something at this time. And he was like, I’m a metal roofer. And I’m like, oh, I’m sort of just doing roof tiling labour at the moment. He goes, he goes, well, do you want a job? I go, a hundred percent, I want a job. I’m lifting tiles. And his name was Jason that was on Anzac Day at Guymy Pub. I think it was 11 years ago. And then ever since then I’ve stuck at Metal Roofing.
Speaker 3 (00:20:32):
Amazing. Amazing. Did you know at that time it was going to be roofing or was it just anything but school? Were you trying to avoid, I’m trying to understand, were you trying to avoid the situation you were in? You talked about using it to escape from. Were you now having something that you started to have this plan forming in your mind about where you wanted to go?
Speaker 1 (00:20:52):
Yeah, I was like, well, as I said before, I loved working and I love being around the guy. So I was like, well, I was never book savvy. I was never tech savvy. So I always see myself getting dragged towards a trade industry. So I was like, well, why not this? I loved work. I love being on roofs, I love working at heights, and I felt like I was good at it, so it had a purpose for me to pursue it. So it’s just always been roofing since day one. I’ve never done anything else. I probably will never do anything else. And I feel like that’s why I love it so much. It saved me. I honestly think it saved me from being where I could be.
Speaker 3 (00:21:32):
Great. How did that change? You just said something really important, then it saved you, it changed you, it gave you an opportunity. How did it change your relationship, firstly with yourself, and then secondly, the dynamic or the relationship with your mom and presumably your sister?
Speaker 1 (00:21:47):
Yeah, yeah, it didn’t get any better. So my mom was living with her new boyfriend now, my sister. So I’d always tried, as I said before, I’d never been really that close with my mom and my sister. It was never a close friendship or a close, me and my sister, I haven’t seen eye to eye since David was, since we were little kids. So yeah, I wanted, it was a little bit selfish then if I say that, it was more for me to try and escape what was going on. I knew that I seen obviously Jason that I just met at the time that he had a nice car and he had a nice place and he worked hard. So I was like, well, why can’t I do that for myself and create something for myself?
Speaker 3 (00:22:33):
Great. And did you have that? What sort of belief did you have? Was it really a question of why can’t I or was it I can do this?
Speaker 1 (00:22:39):
It was just, I had no other option. That’s all I knew. That was all I knew. And then I felt like I got really good, really quick at it. So I felt like I was roofing and then running crews, I was a little bit, I kept on getting better and better and better each year. And at such a young age, I was pretty far advanced of how I was a tradesman. I think I was a tradesman just turned 19 or something like that. So I had other guys working under me and it just come to me naturally. It really did. And I always used to remember, I used to listen to the conversations that’d be in the car with my old bosses and listen to how they spoke in conversations and listen to how they’d screen the calls for the builders. And it’d always be that curious of I can do this, or I always had the belief that what’s the difference between him and me? There’s nothing.
Speaker 3 (00:23:31):
Yeah, absolutely. I think a lot of people do that. They look for that sort of have I got it rather than how do I get it? And I think that curiosity piece that you spoke about is so important because without knowing, all you can be is curious and keep asking questions, how do I get there? What are they doing different?
Speaker 1 (00:23:48):
And then I was like, the wage in that we’re on wasn’t the best. I think I was probably making, you know what I mean, 800 bucks, 900 bucks a week. But then I’d hear a conversation of some guy I was getting, you know what I mean, $2,000 a week as a subbie or something like that. I was oblivious that you could even make this much money in roofing. And I was like one of the tradesmen that I was working with at the time. Somehow I found out that you can make, I dunno, over 1500 bucks a week, you can make a half decent quid. Having a roofing business or being subcontractor pulled that lever straight away and said, I want to be a subbie. I want to make as much money as I can, as quick as I can. So I threw myself, I left that company that I was at then, and then I found myself subcontracting full-time for another roofer from the area, and I just threw myself in as deep as you could go.
(00:24:39):
I backed my hard work and skills, but I found I was running a massive project with two guys and he sent me to a job to run and I was like, how the hell am I going to do this? But I just made it work. I just made it work and I found myself in those uncomfortable situations going through as a subcontractor, getting to a job thinking, how the hell am I going to get this done? And just working through it, you know what I mean? Sitting down there and by a lot of mistakes too, I should say. Getting a lot of things wrong, ordering a lot of things wrong, and then realising that it’s all okay and it’s just a part of what happens.
Speaker 3 (00:25:18):
There had to be an amount of fear in those early days. Even just thinking back to you going, I’m going to be a subcontractor. Most guys start a business. It’s scary stuff. Was it scary for you?
Speaker 1 (00:25:29):
Oh yeah, yeah. This is scariest thing. That’s probably the biggest thing is fear. It’s what holds you back from making any decision in anything personally, especially in starting a business and wanted to start to be a contractor and fearing of not knowing how to do it or the fearing of not knowing anything really. When I first started as a subcontractor, I YouTubed or Googled how to send an invoice. I had no one to ask or I had no one to, I didn’t know how to do anything. So it was always, I backed my hands of like I knew I could lay a roof shit. I knew I could cut a flashing in and I knew the rest would just sort itself out by Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:26:13):
So again, that curiosity just took over. I’ll find a way, I’ll be curious and I’ll find the answer.
Speaker 1 (00:26:17):
Exactly right. No, there was never a plan B. There was never anything else. It was always just, this is my only option and I didn’t really look into what else I could be doing, or is this for me? Or I didn’t really think, oh, can I go do that as another job or can I go? It was all in from day one.
Speaker 3 (00:26:33):
Right. How did you process the thing about, one of the big things in business we talk about is you’ve got to trust people, work with people they know and trust, and that goes for the people that become your customers, the people that you manage, all of that sort of stuff. Trust is a big part of that. How did you reconcile maybe if it was even there, all the issues that would come up in trust in a personal sense of what you went through as a kid, I imagine versus now I’m in business. How do you keep open and vulnerable enough to have those experiences and what sort of role did trust play in all that?
Speaker 1 (00:27:07):
Yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard to trust anyone in that aspect, but I feel like you have to trust, there’s no way around it. Have a business and not trust anyone. So it was just another, I had to do it. I had to overcome that fear of trusting someone and letting my walls down and letting people to help me. I’d never thought that I, I’d always have problems. Is this guy going to pay me or is this going to happen? I would always have fear of that. I was going to get ripped off all the time. But yeah, you soon to overcome that. Once you get paid a few times, you’re like, oh, not everyone’s out to hurt you. Not everyone’s on this crazy journey to do wrong by you.
Speaker 3 (00:27:54):
And there’s two sides to the trust and that’s the trust in others, which is amazing in itself. How much trust did you have in yourself when you went on this amazing path of going, all right, I’m subbing, I’m going to have my own business effectively. How much trust was there in yourself that you were going to be able to do that?
Speaker 1 (00:28:13):
I don’t, don’t know really how to answer that question. It was like I did trust myself and I knew that I would just make it work. How I had no idea how is just why, I don’t know. It’s an unknown feeling of how feel the way I feel now.
Speaker 3 (00:28:33):
And I think this is the amazing thing. I’m going to lift a lid and go back a bit here, but to have the resourcefulness, the curiosity that you’ve got bring into contrast or bring into the conversation what were the challenges you were dealing with for you to be curious and look up Google or read a document or find out an answer that way. Not easy for you. Do you want to just talk a little bit about what we haven’t talked about yet, but what were some of those challenges to being creative, resourceful, curious for you?
Speaker 1 (00:29:03):
Exactly right. Yeah, I wasn’t a natural learner at all, but I learned by just repetition of doing it again and again and again and copy and pasting things and looking online and doing those sort of things and so much, I had so much self-doubt that I would wake up every day and be like, I don’t know how I’m going to get through this. But I just kept on going.
Speaker 3 (00:29:27):
So in terms of being curious, in terms of learning all this as it goes and having to get answers really quick and basically educate yourself, that’s not as easy as it sounds like you say, I just looked up Google, but for you, there were challenges that were in play that we haven’t even talked about yet.
Speaker 1 (00:29:44):
Yeah. Well, as I said before, I left school super young, so I didn’t have the time. I didn’t learn how to read, how to write, how to spell. I struggled with those things on a day-to-day basis. I still to this day struggle so much with my English and with how I spell and how I pronounce words and those sort of things. So that was always there and that’s still one of the biggest struggles that I face on a day-to-day basis.
Speaker 3 (00:30:16):
So that then leads to the question of you couldn’t do this quick because it wasn’t like, I’ll just pick this up and do it. So what sort of hours were you putting into this? What sort of effort did it take to learn this as you went, given the challenges you had?
Speaker 1 (00:30:31):
Took everything. It took literally every single, that’s what I said before, I had to be all in. I had to overcome this mindset of that I can read and that I will go on this journey to read and I will learn how to read and I’ll learn how you can learn anything. You just have to want to learn. I was stuck in this mind frame of that. I couldn’t do these things because I didn’t know howdy, but I was doing it all for the wrong reasons.
Speaker 3 (00:30:59):
What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (00:31:01):
Well, I would look in other people’s businesses and I’d be like for them to have what they have, you have to be a good reader. You have to be a good listener, you have to be a good speaker. But really you can become those things and you have to become those things. And the only way to become those things is by doing those things now before I used to read because everyone else would read and because I felt like that’s what you have to do to own a business. You have to be a good reader. But now I read because I want to read and I want to learn how to read. That’s got to been the difference.
Speaker 3 (00:31:34):
Yeah, for sure. That’s amazing. I love that mindset, that ability to, you’re leading yourself now. You’re not just following a pack, you’re not just trying to imitate or mimic someone. You’re becoming the Zach that you want to be, the Zach that can do all these things, which is probably a great way to jump. Things are presumably going well at this point. Just before we’re going to get into coaching, sort of that part of your journey in a second, but before we get into that, what were you able to achieve without really, I mean there was support, but without any support of no coaching, no, nothing like that. But what did you get to achieve in that period leading up to coaching? Where were you at?
Speaker 1 (00:32:13):
Well, yeah, obviously I got out of subcontracting and started RMH Roofing, so I would just work 20. I worked seven days a week for, I think I worked every single day. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I would work. That’s all I would do. I would come home and I would try and figure out a way when I first started learning how to quote a job or something like that, I’d go down there and I’d say, Hey, to my suppliers, or How much do people instal this for a square metre rate or something like that. And just get a rough ballpark of how to quote a job and just put up a, I got a quoting system from, I got a quoting template from the guy that I used to work for and I used to just copy and paste a few things under there and just go and do it. Not knowing how much money I’m going to make, not knowing how much I’m going to do this, but it sort of just worked out just by literally winging it. There was no other if spots, so I had no idea what was going on, if I’m being completely honest.
Speaker 3 (00:33:10):
So going, okay, let’s just break this down. Team you had at the time, how many people did you have working for you at this time when things were just starting to go, okay,
Speaker 1 (00:33:20):
I think I had two tradesmen and two apprentices, three tradesmen and two apprentices. Two apprentices or something like that.
Speaker 3 (00:33:27):
Right. Average size of a job around that time. What was the average size of a project?
Speaker 1 (00:33:31):
Well, we do probably just mainly duplexes and stuff like that. And there wasn’t anything big, probably like 20, 30 grand.
Speaker 3 (00:33:42):
Nice. And grew the business to roughly what sort of turnover?
Speaker 1 (00:33:46):
I think we turn over about 1.2.
Speaker 3 (00:33:48):
It’s not bad for going. Okay, Rob.
Speaker 2 (00:33:50):
At that time it was pure just grit and determination, wasn’t it? It was just hard work, lots of hours working your ass off just to make it happen. But it only got you so far, didn’t it?
Speaker 1 (00:34:02):
Yeah, correct. And that’s where I felt like there’s got to be an easy way to doing this. There has to be an easier way. And I was like, yeah, it’s gone great at the moment, but how good can it go? How good can I make this if it’s going this good now with me having absolutely no idea what the hell I’m doing, how good can I make it? So once again, I go on this crazy journey to surround myself with better people and people that have done it before me and to ask the right questions to the right people. And then I feel like that’s where I found you guys.
Speaker 3 (00:34:36):
How did you come across coaching? How did you come across us and what led you to go, well, coaching’s the next step?
Speaker 1 (00:34:42):
Yeah, so a local guy in my area, Peter Knowles, he owns a mechanical company and I was just at his factory one day getting one of my car service. And I walked up to his office and he knew how much I love working and how much I love business. And he’d always ask me like, oh, how are you doing? What’s your margins or stuff? I dunno, I don’t know what my numbers are. He goes, oh, how much do you make this year? I’m like, I don’t know, no idea. And I walked into his office and he had three screens of all these different graphs and how much money he was making, all these numbers and stuff like that. I’m like, what is this? I didn’t even know that part of business existed. It was like I just unlocked open a door to another, oh, this is how you do it. He goes, mate, you need to do this stuff. This is what it takes to run a successful business. And I looked at the business that he at the time and looked at the business that I had at the time. I’m like, that was the aha moment. That was the like, to get that, you need to know this.
Speaker 3 (00:35:42):
Amazing. And then, so when you think coaching, when you’re first going into it, this is a learning experience. This is going to be like for all intents and purposes, an element of this that’s going to feel like school. Did you immediately take to it or were you like, I’m not sure about this, that first conversation with Rob, how did that go?
Speaker 1 (00:36:01):
Yeah, I was a little bit, oh, I dunno if this is for me or I’m not too sure. Is it going to take me back to school or do I have to sit there and listen? But yeah, wasn’t I wrong?
Speaker 3 (00:36:11):
Did the fears kick in then at that point, could I do this? Was there ever any doubt that you could learn it or by this stage you’d grooved and done so much that that belief was already.
Speaker 1 (00:36:20):
It was always, yeah, I feel like I had that in me. It was always like, I’m going to go and just do whatever it takes to make it work.
Speaker 2 (00:36:27):
And we saw this a lot in you, Zach, when you first got into coaching. And even at this point, I didn’t even know your complete backstory when we first met, but what did impress us when you first got into launch was you just went boots and all into coaching and you just did whatever it took. And I think this is where we see it a little bit. We Dan, where some guys get into coaching going, is this for me? Is it going to work? They know they need the help. They know they want a better life, but Dan, they almost dip their toes in waiting for proof that it’s going to work. And that’s one of the biggest dangers when a lot of guys get into coaching.
Speaker 3 (00:37:04):
It really is. I mean that idea of, I’ll see if this is for me or I’ll see how this goes, really doesn’t work in coaching at all. You decide you’re going to be coach, you have to take action in that moment. If you wait, then nothing happens. The coach isn’t going to do it for you. You have to meet these challenges head on. The coach will be there to help you go through the journey and be your guide on the journey, but they’re not going to actually take the steps for you because those steps have to be your steps, which is probably what you found Zach in those first few weeks.
Speaker 1 (00:37:34):
Yeah, for sure. You’re the only person that controls the coaches can say, you need to do this. The biggest thing that I struggled with right at the start of coaching had nothing to do with the business. It was all myself. I was the problem there. Not so much the business, it was more so me. So I to, we’d have these calls where you would have to create a habit and stick to that and you’d have to change. You have to change your identity. So yeah, I went on this crazy journey to one change myself before I could change the business. I knew, as I said before, the business will not outgrow you. So yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:38:21):
So Zach, early days of coaching, you come in, you presumably dunno what you’re doing, but things are going okay. We just covered, can you remember what some of the earliest things you did in coaching, either from the conversation you had with Rob on the discovery call or following into the launch programme once you got in there?
Speaker 1 (00:38:41):
So the first call I had with Rob, I said to him, he was like, what do you want to get out of coaching? And I said, Rob, if you can save me from waking up at five in the morning and then to the supply yards and strapping down all the materials and taking ’em to site, I’ll be the happiest guy in the world. So I was just stuck in this crazy mindset that no one could do it but me. The apprentices, all the flashes were going to fall for you. No one, no one could do anything. I had to do it all. So that was all I wanted. I just wanted to not go to the suppliers in the mornings at five o’clock in the morning. And that’s what I thought. If I could get that out of coaching, that’s all I wanted.
Speaker 3 (00:39:24):
Keep that in mind. What were the levers that you pulled to do that? Those early ones? What was the first couple of steps that you took in doing that?
Speaker 1 (00:39:32):
Obviously you had to grow the ground crew. So getting the right people in the right positions, A lot of fear come into that. Every time I had to employ someone I would be like, how am I going to afford this or am I going to manage this or how is this going to play out? But once again, you’ve got to stick to the process and do the right things and put the right people in the right positions, I feel like. Yeah, growing the ground crew out and just driving sales through that first period of coaching and then, yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:40:09):
What happened with the business when you did that? And by the way, what you’re talking about is execution. You learn to execute versus just and execute strategically I think is the big thing rather than just work hard and muscle your way through, which is so much a strength, but that’s when Rob talks about what got you to this point isn’t going to get you to the next point. You have to be able to come up with a different way of doing things. You can see the writing on the wall, but what was the outcome of those early days? What did you end up with in terms of ground crew changes, in terms of the bd, the sales work that you did?
Speaker 1 (00:40:43):
You just end up with more time to work on more important things in the business. So every key person that I employed just give me a little bit more time back to work on the more important things where we had the rocks and we had our quarterly action plan. So I’d go in there and I’d read through, all right, sweet, this is what I have to do and it’ll give you more time to work on those things where you can’t work. You need to get a little bit of time back and the only way by getting time back is by employing people to take the hat off.
Speaker 2 (00:41:17):
I love it. Around that time, the early strategy you did, I’ve never seen anyone do this, but we see this a lot in coaching where guys they spend, the owner is one of the most expensive often delivery drivers, which you were, I think we worked out, you were doing 10 or 15 hours of pickups, drop offs and everything. And I remember the time that your way of not doing this was you had to get someone to get a truck licence in your team, but you started riding your bike to job sites and that was your way where you couldn’t be a delivery driver. And wasn’t that the best strategy that you came up with?
Speaker 1 (00:41:51):
I know, yeah. I was like, well, if I don’t have the car, I can’t deliver anything. So yeah, and that’s just me. I’ll just always find a way not to do it. So I feel like that’s what you have to do. So that’s probably what it takes. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:42:07):
Wasn’t it interesting though that the thing that got you into your business was hard work and for the love for roofing, how did you reconcile it in your mind during this time where you were now going on this journey of growing your business and getting off the tools, which is the very thing that you love to do? How did that scenario play out in your world?
Speaker 1 (00:42:30):
It’s probably one of the hardest things that you can go through. It was trying to put trust in the other guys to do, I feel like there was a stage in the jobs where I feel like that they wanted me to do the owners of the building companies wanted Zach to do the work and they wanted me to rock up out and get out of the truck and speak to them in person, but they didn’t care about that. They just wanted the job done and they didn’t care how it got done. So when I realised, realised that they didn’t want me personally to do the job, they just wanted the job done correctly at a good matter.
Speaker 3 (00:43:09):
In terms of the team, you obviously talked about ground crew, what else did you get through launch in terms of shifting the team around you? It’s been Zach all the way so far and that’s all you’ve had for so long. Who else did you bring into your team at the time and what did you notice?
Speaker 1 (00:43:24):
So we got admin straight away. That was probably the biggest lever that I pulled when I first interviewed admin. I was like, I don’t know what you’re going to be doing, but I feel like there’s going to be a little bit of work for you. I had no job role, but we ended up working that out and that was a massive change. So obviously get one, getting admin and then that brought me back, stopped doing the low value tasks and doing things that weren’t really so important that I was just bogged down on hours and hours of doing low value tasks. So it was good that I could push that off to there and that could get done.
Speaker 3 (00:43:55):
How did you feel about having to manage someone that was doing stuff that presumably you weren’t as good as them at? If you are managing ground crew, you know this thing back the front, you can do it with your eyes shut and you’ve been good at it since you were born. How do you reconcile? How do you approach the fact now that you’ve employed someone and you have to manage someone that’s probably better at the job than what you are?
Speaker 1 (00:44:19):
Yeah, that’s probably one of the hardest things that I’ve struggled with at the moment. Managing an admin person and managing a guy on site is two completely different things. So the way you speak, the way you ask questions, the way you communicate with them is completely different. And I’m being stuck in such a mind frame of speaking to guys on site. So I have to look at myself in the mirror and be like, yeah, have to learn how to communicate to a lady.
Speaker 3 (00:44:54):
Excellent. And this is big personal change right now, so it’s gone. The initial leave is of right sizing the business as we call it, getting the right crew in place, getting the support around you with admin, you can all do that, but you have to go on this personal journey at the same time. So talk us through those early days and then we’ll turn the corner into a bit more where you are now, but what happened personally for you in that space? What do you feel you had to change? What did you work on? You spoke about habits, so what were some of those personal levers that you pulled at that time?
Speaker 1 (00:45:25):
Well, the biggest thing, yeah, I had to change myself. I was partying every weekend out on the drink, not sticking to my word. I felt like I would make little promises to myself that I was going to just the day-to-day things that I was doing on a day-to-day basis that I wasn’t sticking to. I was going to eat good this week and I wouldn’t do it. I was going to train this week and I just wouldn’t do it. So when I first dialled into that space of sticking to my word and then waking up every day and sticking to my Bevan and doing the right things that that’s what made the difference. I had to change personally. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:46:07):
So you raised your standards?
Speaker 1 (00:46:09):
Yeah, raised my standards for sure.
Speaker 3 (00:46:11):
Amazing. Can you think of any achievements at that time that you were absolutely massively proud of?
Speaker 1 (00:46:18):
Yeah, well, I finished a couple of triathlons that were pretty big for me, so that taught me grit and determination. There’s a lot of things that you get out of those doing those hard events you can really pull into the business side of things. So yeah, those sort of things I was very proud of.
Speaker 3 (00:46:40):
How long did it take you to go from saying, I’m going to do a triathlon to actually doing your first triathlon just out of..
Speaker 1 (00:46:45):
Oh, two years and I’d let myself down all the time. And that little person in the back of your head, oh, you said you were going to do one this year and I wouldn’t do it. And that comes a time in life where you just got to strap up and do the right thing and say what you’re going to do then do what you’re going to do.
Speaker 2 (00:47:03):
During this time as well. Mate, I really love the journey you on. You changed your relationship with alcohol, you cut the partying, you started training a lot, you lost a heap of weight, you became the fittest you’ve ever been during that six to 12 month period that were in launch. You changed a lot personally, didn’t you?
Speaker 1 (00:47:24):
Yeah, I did. I wouldn’t be sitting in this chair right now if I didn’t change myself. There’s no way. If you want to achieve great things, you have to change yourself. And if you are out drinking every weekend and you’re out doing those things, it’s not going to happen. And as you say a lot, Rob successfully clues and all the successful people that I idolise and that I look up to, they’re not doing those things. I was so it was a massive self-reflection of like if I want to live that life, I have to do those things.
Speaker 2 (00:47:56):
I remember the turning point for you in coaching was when we first met, you’re like, Rob, if I can just not do deliveries, I’ll be the happiest man in the world. But I think it was about nine months into coaching, not even you went overseas for about three weeks. You went to Europe and had a cracking time in the sun and lived it up. And I feel that that was your turning point in business because looking back from a coaching journey, that’s a pretty amazing effort to be able to do that in that coaching journey in a short amount of time. But what it really proved to us is your willingness to let go, relinquish control, trust, and for you to be able to come back and have a business that ran just as good as from when you went away that from us, from a coaching point of view, we saw that as a massive turning point for you. Talk us through that turning point and what confidence that gave you to be able to able to take steps and grow this business into what you deep down knew you were probably capable of being able to do.
Speaker 1 (00:49:01):
Yeah, it was a massive thing. I went away and I had so much fear that it was all going to fall to shit, but it was the complete opposite because I put the right people in the right places and had the admin support and I had the quality tradesmen when I looked for a tradesman, I didn’t just look for any Joe Blow that didn’t have a job. I made sure I went out there and I got the best tradesmen in the market. And I feel like that’s the most important thing that you can do is not just get anyone, but just get the right person. You need to find the right person. And when you find yourself with a company, with people that on the same level and that can do the same things, it takes a lot of stress off yourself that like, hey, this guy’s capable of doing it. You learn lot more to trust, got the right people and yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:49:46):
Also you mentioned there that you went out and find the very best the people. What I love about your business is the quality of workmanship is second to none. You guys do an amazing job and what you’ve done a very good job at in business is demonstrating capability of that through your social media and your marketing. And one thing that there’s a lot of guys, especially in the roofing space, is you can’t find good guys who are reliable and going to turn up. But gee, you’ve done an amazing job of not only being able to attract good builders to be able to work for, but you attract good people who want to come and work for you, don’t you?
Speaker 1 (00:50:24):
Correct, yeah. And that’s made my life so much easier. Obviously I get messages now, I don’t really have to. I’ve built a company where people want to come and work and they want to be a part of what we’re growing now, and they want to be a part of the amazing projects that we get our hands on.
Speaker 3 (00:50:44):
This journey, these early steps that you’ve taken as big as they are and what they’ve delivered for you in terms of time, the ability to hand off LVTs, low value tasks, all of that stuff is great. It’s almost like you put in place the foundations or stumped the business that you created from back when you were 17. You move from that phase and so many guys do this on the coaching journey. When they’re with Pravar, they go from that sort of the stuff I need to fix, the stuff I need to address. And they do that and they do it well. Then it comes time to build. And when you go to build, we start looking at the next phase, the next level, which is in our leverage programme. So you went through the leverage programme, keen to hear what you found and how did you approach that and what were the initial feelings about going to what was presumably a whole nother level again?
Speaker 1 (00:51:33):
Yeah, so the end of launching into leverage, I felt like I was definitely ready for that change. But we had a call right at the start of leverage and it was called the Barking Dog. And we went through the motions and I got asked to write a question, what was the biggest thing holding you back? And from obviously going to the next level, we were comfortable at that moment. I was working out of my spare room at home. We were making a nice profit in the business, but the back I knew I had more in me. So I answered that question as honestly that I couldn’t. It was myself. I was the only person that was holding me back and I was just stuck in this mind frame that I couldn’t go out and achieve. I couldn’t go out and have a factory. I couldn’t do that just because I still had that such belief that I couldn’t spell and I didn’t have great all those little things that I thought the business person needed.
(00:52:36):
So then when we dove into that and we had an hour visionary, call me and you Rob, and honestly that was the turning point for what I think is the rest of my life. That hour call, we touched on who am I and what do I want to be and making myself proud and what do I really want to achieve? Who am I and what do I want to achieve? And not long after that, we’ve pulled a few big leaders and yeah, it was great to see that you can overcome the doubts that you have by just having a conversation and writing a few things down in a piece of paper and saying, I am capable of doing this and I can do this.
Speaker 3 (00:53:20):
I remember that conversation. Can you remember because you were doing so much and you talk about belief and either not having it or what it was, it wasn’t so much what you desperately believed, but it was what you were telling yourself at the time. And can you remember the pattern that we uncovered that sort of revealed how often you were conflicting with yourself in terms of I believe in myself, but what was the thing that you were doing at the time that was really obvious?
Speaker 1 (00:53:50):
Oh, it was like saying I don’t know anything. And I just didn’t believe, I didn’t believe that I had what it took to go out and achieve greatness. But that was a massive fear and it was so much fear. There was so much fear that I would run out of work and I couldn’t afford the overheads and I couldn’t do this and I couldn’t do that. I’d run all these crazy scenarios inside my head, but really I just sat down and said, well, why not? Why I do this? What’s the difference between them and me? There’s nothing. So yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:54:24):
It’s amazing those patterns of behaviour and how much subconsciously those patterns of language we do use often hold us back. And for you, Zach, you didn’t realise it was a lack of belief, but what it was doing and what it was uncovered in coaching is that subconsciously you don’t even know you’re saying it, but it’s not until someone picks you up on your language that you makes you realise of that pattern of conversation and that conversation is what drives the belief or the lack of belief. And so for you, I don’t know. And so every time you kept saying that is, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know what it was doing is reinforcing that belief within you that you don’t know. You don’t know. And I saw this a lot actually. It was a bit of a sideline comment. I saw this in the Master Chef finale.
(00:55:18):
I actually watched Master Chef and Appeza, the guy who came second, he said it three times in the finale. He said, I’m always second. That’s just how I live my life. Guess where that guy came in the finale? It’s second. And some people call that a little bit woo or whatever it is, but that’s obviously a belief that guy’s got that he’s always second field to everything and everyone. And guess where he ended up in the finale? And you noticed in that finale that the moment he took a hit, he was a confident player, but the moment he took a hit in round one, he’s confidence dip. And that negative self-talk dropped in. And so for coming back to you Zach, it’s amazing that that self-talk was what was, and that drove the limiting belief. And that limiting belief was what prevented you from moving forward. And it wasn’t until you uncovered that in the Howling Dog exercise that we went through in the start of leverage programme, that’s what unlocked your next phase of growth, wasn’t it?
Speaker 1 (00:56:21):
Yeah, it was. I’d never experienced any the power of a vision. I never understood any of it, but now it’s the most powerful thing that I’ve ever come across ever. And it’s so important. The things that you tell yourself every day have to be positive. And I don’t know it’s how can or how will I, and you start asking yourself different questions along the way. Yeah, that really help you move forward.
Speaker 2 (00:56:47):
This is really important for someone who’s never experienced coaching. Coaching isn’t just learning new skills and tactics. The power of coaching is through is being picked up on language, the use of language, what you think, what you say, how you behave and how you operate. That’s the power of a coach because what the coach can do is objectively see through their lens what you are saying and what you are doing and what patterns you’re demonstrating. And the moment that that coach can identify that and help you course correct through that, when applied with the right skills, that’s what changes trajectory. And Dan, that’s what we saw in Zach wasn’t at the moment, he had that vision. He had realised what was holding him back. The language and the lack of belief, the moment that got unpacked and course correct. That was just the huge step forward for Zach in leverage, wasn’t it?
Speaker 3 (00:57:36):
It is. It’s like taking the lid off or breaking the ceiling that you’re looking at. It just frees you up to do something different. That’s what it does. It creates the opportunity to go in a different direction or a different path. And I think Zach, once you did that, your leverage journey became about executing again, but at a whole nother level. So you’re able to achieve some pretty cool stuff that even you weren’t doing at the time. So take us through maybe quickly through the journey of leverage in terms of what you were able to achieve and what levers you pulled once that lid came off.
Speaker 1 (00:58:09):
So once I discovered the power of, you know what I mean, writing something down and going on to achieve it, I literally went to my whiteboard and said, I want to have a factory. I’m going to have a factory. I’m going to create a space where I’m going to grow this company. And I woke up to that every day. I looked at it in the face and then not long after that I was on the phone to the local real estate agents and got my, and now I’m sitting here. So yeah, it’s crazy.
Speaker 3 (00:58:39):
Where were you working at the beginning and where were you based the whole way through this journey until this point?
Speaker 1 (00:58:44):
Just in my spare bedroom and I looked at myself and I was like, I’ve built the business that I have here in my spare bedroom, but am I going to build what I want to achieve in my spare bedroom? No. And that was just the mindset thing. I was still stuck in that room where I was googling how to send an invoice to now, you know what I mean? I was probably turning over two and a half million dollars in that same room. I had to get out of there and I had to experience change and I had to open my wings and be like, yeah, I can do this. And it is achievable. And to see it come to life, it’s been amazing.
Speaker 3 (00:59:19):
So Zach, the changes, the journey from where we’ve started this conversation alone have been absolutely inspirational and amazing. Where do we find you today? If we started off start with the business, what sort of the structure, the organisational structure look like and where do we find you do you think, as a businessman these days?
Speaker 1 (00:59:41):
So I sit definitely a general manager. All I’m doing is working on sales estimation, new connections with builders and yeah, we’ve got a full-time operations manager. So all the phone calls, all the ground crew work to him. Yeah, so he’s full-time operations manager and full-time admin that works alongside me every day. So yeah, I’m strictly just, I don’t leave the desk anymore. I’m in the office and working on the most important things and that’s driving the business forward.
Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
Fantastic. Do you miss being on site?
Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
I don’t even have a tool bag anymore. I threw it out.
Speaker 3 (01:00:19):
I love it. What about personally in terms of you personally, we started off with the three words to describe you. I’m interested in who you are now. Give us a snapshot. What do you like to do? What are you working on? What’s your personal pathway look like now?
Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
I feel like I’ve just become obsessed with being the best version of myself, and that’s a day-to-day thing. I’ve become obsessed with being a better person, a better son, a better leader, just a completely better person. And that’s going to show in the business, I’m super proud of where I’m at at the moment, but then again, I feel like I’m just getting started.
Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
Mate. The journey’s been amazing, but I think you’ve been amazing on that journey and don’t let that go because what you’ve been able to achieve and go through and what your vision is and your ability to create and execute is, it’s a real standard for people wanting to go on this journey. So today as we wrap up, probably one more question I want to ask you is you’ve been grown up for a long time and it’s probably been a long time since you felt like a little kid, but if you could give any advice to that little boy back in the day, what would be something you’d tell him?
Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
I think I have to say that you don’t have to have it all worked out. Everyone’s on their own path and I feel like not everyone has it all together. I feel like when I was such a young age, I felt like everyone had, it all worked out and I used to try and I put myself in a box that it really stopped me from growing. And you don’t have to have it all worked out and you can work it out along the way and anything’s possible.
Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
Mate. What would you say to someone who’s thinking about getting into coaching, maybe in your situation they’re sort of not just starting out, but they’ve got those challenges, those doubts and what you’ve heard today resonates. What would you say to someone thinking about coaching and what role does it play in your life At the moment.
Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
It plays a massive role. I don’t think I’d be able to operate the business that I have today without having the support from you guys and the team around in the mastermind group at the moment. And you dunno what you dunno. So if you surround yourself with people that do have the answers to your questions, the sky’s the limit.
Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
Where do you think we’ll find you in about five years time? I mean, we haven’t even talked about where your age is now, but if anyone’s doing the maths, I think, where are you at now? 27, 28?
Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Yeah, 27.
Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
27, right. So five years time. Zach’s going to be 32. Where do you think Zach at 32 is going to be? Where do you want to be mainly is what I want to ask you.
Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
I want to have, obviously I want to have a family. That’s probably the next part of my journey. I really want to dive into that part and become a father and you know what I mean, really experienced that other part of life. I feel like I’ve got a lot of love to give and then obviously the business, it scares me, but it really, really excites me where I’m going to take this.
Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
Absolutely, mate. I can’t wait to see that journey. I think you’re going to do everything you’ve done so far, you’re going to do a cracking job at it. It’s been a pleasure and an honour to be part of this journey, these stories and what we tell Rob and I both, and Rob, you can maybe comment on this too. The privilege it is to be able to play a part in that and to be able to have a front row seat at times in terms of those journeys is something that we don’t take lightly. And for you mate and being able to have a part in that journey with you has been pretty special. And thanks for coming on today and sharing so honestly and openly and so eloquently about the journey that you’ve been on.
Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Yeah, thank you. It’s been a wild ride, but I don’t think I’d be able to do it without you guys, if I’m being completely honest. You guys have helped me out more than I could ever imagine. So thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Thanks for the opportunity, mate. We’ve absolutely loved it and this is the reason why we love working with young guys like yourself. Like we said, you’re 27 and you can be set up for life by the time you’re 40. Well and truly set up for life. And we’ve already seen that. You’ve only been in coaching a short amount of time, you’ve executed like a champion, you’ve done some amazing things in a short amount of time. So yeah, you just got to keep putting your head down and putting in the work like you’ve done. And mate, you can make massive changes not only your life, but those people around you for what you do. They keep doing the great work that you do. You do an amazing job at ZMH Roofing. It’s the workmanship, the quality, the great team you’ve got, and the quality of work you do in the area is second to none. So keep doing the great work mate. And yeah, thanks very much for today and looking forward to seeing where you take it over the next couple of years.
Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Thanks mate.
Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
Thanks very much for tuning in today. Hopefully you’ve taken a couple of great golden nuggets. Come and join us in the Trade Den Den Facebook community and let us know what you heard from what you took away from Zach’s story and how it’s inspired you to be able to step up and play a bigger game. If this story has resonated with you and you know that you’ve got more to give, that there’s something inside of you, that you are way more capable than you are playing at the moment, don’t be afraid to jump across to strategysession.com.au. Book a call in just like Zach did at the start. Let’s unpack where you are, where you want to go. Let’s talk a bit about the steps to get there, and really looking forward to going on a journey with you as well to be able to make some amazing changes, not only in business but in life with you as well. Looking forward to coming back to you next week with another great episode here in The Trade Den. Thanks very much for tuning in with us today. Thanks guys.