Episode 45 Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When you get the right mindset and the right strategy together, anything is possible. So I really love that Ahmad’s story, which was episode number five.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi everyone. Rob Kropp here from Pravar Group and welcome back to another episode of The Trade Den. Welcome back, Dan. Welcome to our last episode of 2024.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I know it feels like a work breakup sort of due today. It’s pretty weird. How are you, Rob? I’m well as usual. And yeah, looking forward to what we’ve got planned for today.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Today’s kind of going to be a little of a bit more of a casual vibe to it, isn’t It?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Is. When we were thinking about how do we sign off for the year, given that we’re right at the pointy end of 2024, we put our heads together and thought we’d have just a general chat about some of our favourite things that have happened this year, our first year of doing the podcast. So maybe if we started off with that, we talked about doing favourite episodes and maybe our favourite client feature and just having a chat about some of those and giving people some pointers in terms of the episode numbers and where they can find those conversations to listen to as they’re sitting on the beach or unwinding having a fish or whatever it is they’re doing over the Christmas break.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, today this episode comes out on Boxing Day, so no doubt you are listening to this and you’re kicking back with your family, enjoying the festive period. And like we did on last week’s episode, that was all about you reflecting on your year, and we like to practise what we preach here at Pravar and that’s why we wanted to reflect on our year of 2024 with The Trade Den podcast. Can’t wait to get it into today. It’s going to be a great little reflective journey, I think.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Sounds good. Sounds really good. So, all right, I’m going to put you on the spot. First up, favourite episode, or I’ll even give you, let’s say up to three. I’ve tried to narrow it down myself, but it was pretty hard to do. But what’s your favourite episodes for you?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Well, thanks for that because I’ve got three kids, so that means me asking you who my favourite is. I’ve got three options for all three kids. So you’ve left the door wide open there, Dan. And I’ve actually, we covered a lot of ground this year. That’s one thing that we did do. And what I really liked about this year, it was a really nice blend of hardnosed, business strategies, good mindset stuff, some good management and good leadership conversations. We actually covered a lot of ground in our podcast episodes this year. If I think around the one episode that I really liked from a hard nosed business side of things would be the pricing series that we did, which was episodes 23, 24, and 25. And probably the reason why I love that is because there is no one greater lever that you can pull in business that influences either positively or negatively if you get it wrong, is your pricing. And I just loved that series around pricing, around the mindset, the cost base, the markup versus margin. It was just a ripping series we did on pricing.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah, it was, I agree with you. I think that was a really good one. I think some of the feedback we got around just explaining markup and margin, it never fails that that light bulb goes on around markup and margin almost every time, and people get that new or newfound or their first time of really thinking about what pricing is in their business and the effect it does have.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, I think for me why it was such a big series that we did is because so many business owners get to a point in business that what got them out of the ground with their pricing strategy is not going to take them to where they need to go with their pricing. And the reason why I love that topic so much and we teach it in our launch programme, we touch on it in leverage, we go to absolute depth on in our lifestyle. And then even further, again, in our legacy programme, in all our phases of coaching, we’re always talking pricing because as your business evolves, you’ve always got to be constantly evolving your pricing strategy to stay ahead of the curve of where you’re going from a growth point of view. And if you get it wrong, it can seriously destroy your business and it can seriously destroy your bottom line. And so that whole conversation we had around it is, you’re right, we got plenty of great feedback from our listeners, didn’t we?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, it was awesome. It was really cool. All right. What’s the number two?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Number two for me would be the conversation we had around mate manager, which would’ve been episode number 30. And I just love that episode because it was just a big conversation around the shift in identity going from being one of the guys on site and a mates to your employees to really taking on that management, that management identity, that new role, learning to love your new position, that whole conversation we had around mate to manager, it’s a real turning point and in our client’s journey when they get it right, and I just love that conversation we did on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah. It’s another one where that light bulb goes off and guys have to really cross the threshold. I like it too. It’s almost the start of their journey is, all right, I’m going to take this step. And we use that visual image of the two legs in all our slides when we teach this in person with the suit leg on one side and the tradie boot on the other. I love that. So no, it was a good episode. Really cool.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, love it. What about you? What’s been your favourite episodes this year?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I like some of the relationship ones. We did like the relationship to time, the relationship about being a dad or what your relationship is with the concept of being a dad versus a parent. So for me, that was episode 37. I really enjoyed that conversation. I think it’s one that you don’t get to have very often, especially to really peel back what or I’ve learned, and I’m sure you’ll remind me of the age I’m at and what the experience I’ve had as a parent at this stage with grownup kids, but to reflect on that and really have a good conversation around it, I really enjoyed having that conversation with you and again, some of the feedback that came back from guys that were listening to that was really positive. So episode 37 for me was a highlight. Really enjoyed getting into the depths and putting a distinction around a parent versus a dad.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
I liked it as well. I did like it as well, and I liked it because we were probably able to be able to have the conversation from both their perspectives where you’ve got older kids, I’ve got younger kids, and we kind of tackled the conversation from both angles and I really love that conversation. That was, you’re right, it was our ability to be able to talk from the heart around what being a dad meant to us and the journey that we’ve been on and we were able to tackle it from different conversations. So it was a ripping conversation, wasn’t it?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah, really enjoyed it, really enjoyed it. And then I think if I was going to get a second go at it, probably more mindset, but definitely blends into business would’ve been the split from work and home and how to make that divide where we talked about leaving your boots at the door. I really enjoyed breaking that down and putting in place some strategies that guys can use. And we’ve seen and just reliving some of the client stories about guys that were able to successfully learn the skills and practise making that shift from going from mode to home mode and being absolutely present when they’re at home and likewise, being absolutely present when they’re at work, not having things cross over and just washing out over the course of days.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
What I love about these four episodes, well the four favourite ones that we’ve spoken around, it’s what we’re really great at here in Pravar is obviously the pricing. One is the profitability and the money thing that a lot of clients like to obviously make profit from being in business, but it’s also the other episodes around the development of their leadership skills. It’s the extra time with their family and it’s just time in general that they want. And whenever we hear client wins more than anything, they talk about how they’ve made this extra money or grown their revenue, but the ones that stand out the most from clients and what they’re the most proud of is their personal and family wins, isn’t it? And so it’s so good to be able to combine really that just encapsulates who we are and what we stand for at Pravar Group is the whole business and family and lifestyle journey that our clients go on. It really encapsulates their stories, doesn’t it?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
It does. And when I look back, even be it podcast feedback, live events, when we’ve got clients on breaks that come up and tell us things, money’s secondary. You’ve absolutely got to have those skills and the ability to price or the ability to fill a pipeline, but the stories and the reasons for it come back every time to family or what they’ve been able to achieve personally in terms of their own personal growth. So yeah, I love those stories when they come out and I love having the ability to share that with people. And in case you’re wondering that ability to do the work and life balance type one was episode 34 that I’m talking about with the leave the boots at the door example that we really walked through in detail.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I love it. It’s so good. They’re the goosebumps type of moments where clients have gone from 80 hours down to 40 or they get to no longer work nights and weekends, or they just completely transform their relationship with their wife and their kids because they’re not a slave to their business anymore. It’s all those learnings along the way and the transformations that they’ve had and the growth that they’ve achieved in their business and within themselves, which have all contributed to those results, hasn’t it?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah, totally agree with you. They’re the best ones. The relationships, the relationship with their spouses better than ever. They’ve reconnected with their kids. It’s the brand promise that we have reconnecting families. It’s a big half of what we do, so I really love that. What about favourite client episodes? We had some awesome conversations with clients past, present, and I really enjoyed doing those episodes and the conversations and the depth we get to go into in terms of reliving client journeys and stories. What were some of your favourite ones? And maybe if I can pressure you to, it’s hard to do, but would you dare put your neck on the line and say what was your favourite client combo?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
I’ve got two, and there’s probably two sides of it. There were so many that we did do, and I love being able to step clients through their journeys. I think from a pure, someone who’s built a genuine lifestyle business and the journey that this guy’s gone on to achieve what he’s achieved is Nathan Wilson from Rescue U Plumbing to be able to build his lifestyle business over the last seven years. And he was our excellence award winner for our lifestyle awards this year. Cracking job. That was probably one of my favourites from a pure business growth journey, which was episode 13. And then one episode that I really love from a client feature was Ahmad Radi, which was number five. And I just love Ahmad’s story around the adversity, the growth that he’s had to go on as a leader and the way that he spoke around having to overcome fear and upper limiting behaviour to be able to achieve what he’s ultimately got today. That whole mindset conversation we had around what he had to overcome mentally to become who he was and the leader that showed up every single day to achieve the results, probably because I just love mindset more than anything. I just love that episode to be able to show what’s possible when you get the right mindset and the right strategy together, anything is possible. So I really love that Ahed story, which was episode number five.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Yeah, I like that too. I think there’s so much to see that the chat we talk about the challenges show up when you are ready for them. The more you develop, the more you grow, the bigger the challenges and you’ve got to keep stepping up. And I think that’s probably common to Ahmad’s story. Every time he’s been challenged, he keeps stepping up and he doesn’t shy away from those challenges. And to see him get better and better at that and to be able to hear that story again was so powerful. I really liked that too. I thought it was great.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yeah, love it. What about yourself? What was one of your favourites from this year?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Again, I’ve probably got two as well, and they’re probably at opposite ends of the spectrum. I am going to say Zach, Zac Hansen’s episode, I think it was 26 that we did the conversation with Zach having sort of coached him and him being at the start of that journey. You look at this guy who’s put himself out there and demanded so much of himself in terms of upping his standards. I think it’s just been so inspirational to see and the energy he brings to coaching without having to have all the answers. Just having that ability to go, you know what? I’m going to give it the absolute best I’ve got, and I’ll see where that takes me. But holding himself to that highest standard possible is just inspirational. So I really enjoy talking to Zach no matter when it is, just to hear what he’s up to and how he’s pushing himself.
(13:35):
So really loved that episode. And then I think at the other end of the scale was probably Simon Parker, which was episode 36. I loved hearing Simon’s. Journey is another one, but it’s all around teams and leadership and that’s my jam. I love that sort of stuff. So to be able to get into depth and see how Simon was able to pull together the business that he has and where he’s come from in such a short period of time. Again, he was someone that had to raise his standards to do that. Every part of the journey was a mindset shift, and then there was a bit more of a challenge, and then there was the next climb up. So those sort of stories and to hear how Simon has now built the team he’s got and he’s now comfortable in his own skin as a leader, I think that was really cool. And to have that conversation and go into depth with him on that was pretty special as well.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, they were two cool episodes, and you’re right, there were almost two guys at either end of the spectrum. You’ve got Zach, who’s very, very early in his journey, even though he runs a decent sized business in terms of his skill and his experience and his maturity as a leader. It’s not that he’s immature, it’s just that he just hasn’t done the reps yet because he’s so young in business and a young guy and so young in business, which I admire him for by the way. But then you’ve got Simon, who is an absolute mastery level. And so we ultimately heard two ends of the spectrum from those stories, but they were such powerful stories weren’t they?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
They were. And I think there’s lessons in terms of we talk about trying to learn from others to avoid making the mistakes they did, and I think Simon did that when he was going on his journey. But now it’s his lessons that he’s giving that are helping guys Zach out that it’s not so much trying to fix what Zach’s doing, it’s trying to get him into a position that he can go on his journey and do it in a way and avoid the mistakes that others have made before him. So I really blending those two conversations together and it’d be awesome to actually do an episode with the two of them in a room and have them both give their answers to similar sort of questions at different ends. That’d be pretty cool as well.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, when you think around what our legacy program’s all about, it’s about collaboration and co-creation and contribution. And that’s when you think about that, that’s where Simon Park is at. He’s all there about collaborating and co-creating with his management team, and he’s at that contribution phase within himself, his ability to give back and develop people underneath him and around him. So it’s too inspiring story. So yeah, I love hearing both of them as well.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Awesome. I love it. Any other episodes we want to call out? Any other highlights? I’ve probably got, the only other one that I really enjoyed that I didn’t get to call out was probably our relationship with alcohol. That was a huge one that I think has had such a ripple effect. We’ll talk more about that later, but I thought that was a really cool conversation to have and just sort of normalise the conversation. It wasn’t about saying anything was bad or good or anything like that, but just our relationship to alcohol and really being conscious about it for once was a pretty cool combo.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, it’s actually funny you say that we’re in the process of organising our activity for Hamilton Island next year for our awards event for Mastermind. And I’m speaking to the boat company who we dealt with in Gold Coast, and she knew that we were a bunch of 65 odd trades business owners, and we were talking about packages and food packages and drink packages, and she made the comment going, I was very surprised around how little your group drank. And I actually had a really positive conversation with her around our loud shirts, which is all about raising awareness for men’s mental health and how well behaved our clients are, which comes back to the maturity and how so many of our clients have changed and transformed their relationship with alcohol. And some guys have given it up for good, others have significantly reduced and actually had a really positive conversation with her and she just loved who we were and what we stand for and the way that our clients behaved and showed up compared to most other corporate events that she deals with. And I think that’s just a testament to what we do in coaching, but it’s a testament to our client base in terms of how they just want to be the best versions of themselves and alcohol plays a big part in not being the best version of yourself. So yeah, I thought I’d throw that in because I literally just had it and it was such a proud moment of being able to have that conversation with her. It was really cool.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
That’s awesome. I love it. And I think you’re right. It comes back to the idea that guys that are authentically themselves and comfortable in their own skin and around a like-minded group of guys that feel that way, these sort of what we call shields or weapons that we use to try and protect ourselves at different times. Alcohol can be one of those, but I think when that gets dropped and we’ve got that at Pravar in our culture, that it just doesn’t play the same role and that relationship’s very different. It continues to change as we go, which is exciting. It’s awesome.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, absolutely. Just a testament to our culture, testament to our client base, just a testament to our clients just wanting to be the best that they can be and recognising that their habits and their mindset and the way that they show off from a health and wellness point of view or contribute to holistically achieving great things in business and as a family man as well. So yeah, hats off to you boys. It’s inspiring guys. Never forget that.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Yeah, absolutely. A hundred percent it is. Alright, well should we round out this episode? We said we weren’t going to go too long. It’s almost, it’s break time, it’s time for people to enjoy their time with their family. So in terms of rounding out, where do you want to sort of finish up? I’ve got a couple of key things that I’d love to share with people as a bit of a sneak peek for next year, but anything you want to add before we go?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I wouldn’t mind just talking a bit about the highlights from this year, probably outside of our episodes and probably a celebration for the podcast that we’ve got The Trade Den podcast. And one thing that, and hats off to you mate, I always knew we were going to do a podcast, but you really spearheaded this at the start and I remember our early conversations, it was like, alright, let’s do it. And I was in, but I was never a hundred percent in was I?
Speaker 3 (20:09):
No, the only thing that you hated more than the idea of doing a podcast was doing another round of direct to camera marketing videos. That was about the only hook that I had to work with.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And one thing that I’m just the most proud of from this podcast is here we are at the end of 2024, we’ve recorded now 45 episodes, which is amazing. And I don’t know if many people understand that when you record more than 21 episodes, you’re in the top 1% of podcasters in the world. And whenever we do things here at Pravar, we do it and we do it to the best of our abilities. And what I’m most proud of this year is we have absolutely done that. We’ve been so consistent, we’ve focused on showing up and delivering the best episodes that we could. We’ve, we’ve had about 15,000 downloads of episodes over this 12 months, which to me is just huge. That means we’ve positively impacted that many peoples, people’s ears. We’ve been in that many people’s ears all that time. It’s, I’m just proud of that. It’s one of those things that it’s just been a cracking year and I knew we were going to do well, but it’s just been a really positive year on the podcast and that it’s been great to see, hasn’t it?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, it has. And thanks to you as well mate, for getting the opportunity to share the journey with you on this show and to really step back and again, just take stock of doing what we preach and really getting into it. And even just putting this podcast together has been a practise for us in terms of discipline and mindset and showing up when we need to, even when we don’t feel like it. I mean it always turns out well in terms of it, it’s great you never regret doing podcast work, but it does take a lot of effort. It does take a lot of discipline to keep putting episodes out there and I’m really looking forward to what we can do next year. And again, it’s mind blowing to think if you said you were going to get 15,000 anything in one spot, it’s pretty mind blowing to think so yeah, it’s grateful for the opportunity and grateful for everyone getting on board so far it’s been awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Couple of big things that when we first started the podcast, we put our heads together and went, well, what are we trying to achieve with this podcast? And two of those things was growth and contribution. What I love the most about this podcast is the growth that we’ve not only seen from people who we’ve never met before, but also in our client base, the client base of been listening and learning over and above what they’re doing in coaching. So we’ve seen growth in them, but it’s even just getting messages. Like the other day, I’ve got a message from someone and he is like, Rob, thanks so much for what you and Dan do with the podcast. You’ve made me realise that I’ve been trying to grow my business at the expense of my family and I know that I now need to make change and you’ve given me the tools to make change and that there just gives me goosebumps. And that’s the growth that we’re seeing in our listeners even though we’ve never met them. And it leans on the contribution element that we get to give back. We are successful guys and we run a great business and this is our ability to give back to the coaching space, but also the industry that we do work Insider, which is the construction space to be able to make it better as well. And that’s the rewarding part of this podcast is the growth we’re seeing in people and the contribution we get to make. And that’s what I love the most, have loved the most so far out of where we’ve been so far in this podcast journey.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah, well said. It’s always surprising when we have clients, and this is part of what I’m excited about for next year really, is this idea of seeing guys that are coming through from the podcast into our programmes and getting to meet, meeting you in person on calls, doing kickstart calls with guys that are on the pod that have listened to the podcast as we’ve gone through it. And it always surprises me, it we have to introduce ourselves on those calls, but I’m having guys on those calls going, no, I already know. You don’t need to introduce yourself, just carry on. I feel like I know you already. So it’s good that we are coming across that way and I think those ripples, we know what we do in terms of the businesses of clients that we’ve got, but to be able to now break that barrier and go beyond even clients that we deal with every week, every day, it’s pretty special to have that through a podcast when you really sit down and think about it.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah, I love making where we’re at, where I’m personally out of my journey in businesses, this whole contribution phase and giving back. And it especially important at Pravar because we have a cap on how many clients we can deal with. We don’t have an open-ended book of clients. And it’s one thing that does separate us in the marketplace is we don’t just keep taking on more and more clients for the sake of it. We have a limited number of businesses that we deal with and this podcast is our platform to be able to make broaden that group of people and business owners in the trades and construction space, whether they become a client one day or not. But it’s our ability to really make a contribution to a lot more people that we can just touch in coaching. And we know that sometimes they will become a client, sometimes they don’t. But it’s just our platform to be able to make a positive contribution to people’s lives, isn’t it?
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Yeah, it is. It’s pretty cool. Hey, what if we take it all the way back, one of our first episodes we spoke about our Pravar principles, never settling, making shit happen and facing the facts. We’ve probably done a bit of that at the end of this year in terms of ourselves. Do you want to take us through a couple of the ideas and things that people can look forward to as we turn the page on 2024 into 2025?
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, we live and breathe these principles and going down the whole never settle thing, we’re looking forward to coming back into 2025 and continually making more changes. We’ve already iterated so many times along the way where we’ve done, we’ve tried to work so hard this year in terms of improving how we show up and our delivery and our content and everything. And hopefully as you’ve been listening on, you’ve seen some of those subtle changes along the way. But I think we’re going to be using this time at the end of this year and at the start of next year to make a big iteration around The Trade Den podcast. There’s going to be a new look, new feel, updated delivery coming in early 2025, and we’re really looking forward to just taking it to another level and just improving the way that we show up and do things here at The Trade Den podcast. So I’m really looking forward to taking it to another level next year for sure.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Definitely. And I think as a face to fact sort of moment, we’ve had a look at it and we will put our hand up to this, but we’re really looking forward to improving it next year. And that’s engagement through The Trade Den.
(27:24):
We really want to step that up. I think things like we’ve got our plans in there to have regular Q&As and do some live things into that, whether it’s streaming or webinar type stuff. We are looking forward to putting some of those things on and bringing those into a regular rhythm, which will be great. And then we’re also looking for more feedback and more dialogue with you guys that are listening to The Trade Den and really starting to have a conversation outside of just us talking, knowing that you’re listening, as great as that is, we’d love to actually have those conversations in The Trade Den community. So to everyone who’s joined over the course of this year, thank you. But look for next year as we start tapping you for more and more engagement and more and more dialogue as we go forward.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Yeah, we’re going to show up better and we’d love you guys to show up better as well. And we do have a community of business owners exclusively in the trades and construction space, in the trade and Facebook community, and it’s probably one of the biggest underutilised assets that some people can belong to and communities that they can belong to. And so yeah, we’d love to see you show up and contribute there more and ask more questions, put your hand up and give us feedback around what you took away and what you’ve been implementing. We’d love to hear more of it and we want to ask that of you, but in return, we’re also going to be stepping up the way that we do things as well. So looking forward to growing together next year and doing things better in 2025.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah, absolutely. Alright, well there’s our highlights. There’s some of what to look forward to. That’s our reflection on the year. Rob, do you want to take us out? Give everyone a big Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, what a year it’s been. And on behalf of Dan and I just want to say thank you very much for allowing us the opportunity to be able to show up and be here, to be able to share some good conversations, some good insights, and the opportunity just to be able to be here on a journey with you in the journey that you’re on in business and life. We’ve been absolutely grateful for the opportunity. Thanks for tuning in week in, week out, and we appreciate you guys showing up and listening and learning and implementing. We’re absolutely grateful for that opportunity. So thank you very much. On behalf of not just Dan, but and I, but all of us here at Pravar Group, we hope you’ve had the most amazing Christmas. We hope you have some great time with your family, just relaxing and enjoying the space with the people that you love the most. We hope you have a very happy new and we are really looking forward to seeing you have an amazing 2025 ahead and we hope that you are setting yourself up for one of the best years you’ve ever had yet. So on behalf of Dan and I, thanks again. We’re really grateful for the opportunity and we can’t wait to come back to you next year with more episodes on The Trade Den podcast. Thanks very much, Merry Christmas and happy New Year from us.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
See you soon.