Episode 49 Podcast Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00:00):

I’m excited again for business. I wrapped out the year last year, literally pumped and again, excited about it being a tool to help me and our family. My wife, Demi, and our kids have the life that I’m starting to vision again moving forward.

Speaker 2 (00:00:18):

Hi everyone. Rob Kropp and Dan Stones from Pravar Group and welcome back to another episode of The Trade Den, great to have you back, Dan. Yeah, good to be here, Rob. Hey everyone, really looking forward to today’s episode. We’ve got another client feature, don’t we Dan?

Speaker 3 (00:00:32):

We do. Today we are talking to Adrian Kowal, which is going to be an absolute ripping episode for us. Really looking forward to this. It’s a hell of a story and strap yourselves in and get ready to go on the ride.

Speaker 2 (00:00:46):

Yeah, big warm, welcome to you Adrian. Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:00:49):

Thank you. Thanks fellas. Very good. How’s the weather up in Castlemain today?

Speaker 1 (00:00:53):

Wonderful as always. Blue skies link 30. So yeah, looking out the window now, wishing I was outside.

Speaker 3 (00:01:01):

Excellent. Not with us having the podcast, is that what you’re saying?

Speaker 1 (00:01:05):

Might do it from outside yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:01:08):

Excellent. Now mate, we’re pumped to have you on, obviously to tell your story. You’ve been in coaching for a little while now, so being able to get you to record this with us today is a real treat and we’re really wrapped that you said yes to this. So thanks very much in advance, mate. We really appreciate it. No, thanks. Good to be here. All right, cool. So Adrian, you would’ve listened to the podcast or hopefully you haven’t already the drill, the first few questions you want to give us, just a bit of background about who you are, what you do, how long you’ve been in business, things like that. That’d be great

Speaker 1 (00:01:35):

Yeah, so Adrian Kowal, business owner of kowalec. We’re a boutique electrical contracting business and we’re based in Central Vic. We specialise in custom built architectural homes. We also service industrial and some government sectors in sort of light power and connection of equipment, EV chargers, those sorts of things. I started a business somewhere back in 2012, 2013, thereabouts, and obviously based in Castlemain. It’s a small town population of about 11,000 people. I’m pretty sure we’ll talk a bit about that later on, but yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:02:12):

Yeah, for sure. Sounds good mate. And you are born and bred Castlemain guy, aren’t you?

Speaker 1 (00:02:18):

Born and bred? Well, born in Victoria. Did a bit of travelling around and yeah, grew up I suppose the middle part of my life was Central Vic around the area where we are now. Travelled a bit when I spread the wings a little bit early on and came back to the nest.

Speaker 3 (00:02:33):

Very nice. Excellent. All right, let’s start in the beginning. As I said, this is a great story. We’re going to tell this sort of in three parts. It’s a classic sort of three act story if you like, how we’ve got this set up today, but let’s start all the way back in the beginning just before we get into even act one I suppose. How did you come into coaching?

Speaker 1 (00:02:54):

I was obviously in business. I was feeling like I needed some help and I was starting to explore things on the web and didn’t really know what that meant. I thought you could watch a couple of things on YouTube and get some tips and off your pop and you’d be right. So I remember having a chat to a guy, a Bendigo guy, we work on the same site and still do. He was in coaching and still is I think. And yeah, he basically spoke about Rob and I think I initially brushed the conversation off that whatever, it doesn’t really sound like something I want to do. I could probably learn all that on YouTube and Google a few things. But yeah, I think a couple of months later I remember ringing him up saying, Hey, give me that guy’s number again. I want to give him a buzz.

Speaker 3 (00:03:39):

Nice. And what did life look like back then? What were you dealing with? Any challenges were there? I think your week one of you went into leverage was like July, 2020, so we’re right on the cusp of in COVID and all that sort of stuff, aren’t we?

Speaker 1 (00:03:52):

Yeah. Were there any challenges mate? I think the whole life was a challenge, but even pre COVID mate,

Speaker 3 (00:03:59):

I mean specific to you, not worldwide challenges.

Speaker 1 (00:04:02):

Yeah, yeah, no, but even for me, yeah, life was just a challenge. I think seven days a week, it’s the same story I think you hear from a lot of tradies, but seven days a week, massive hours. I was even doing, I remember every Friday night, so I’d work Fridays, Friday night, I’d go up, go home, have a quick dinner, have a shower, and then I’d go do a night shift at the factory, then wake up whenever I woke up Saturday and get back into it at some stage Saturday morning. And that was just ongoing when I wasn’t working I was drinking pretty heavily, just riding a real rollercoaster of hard work and not really getting anywhere.

Speaker 2 (00:04:39):

At that time. It’s not like you had a young family, but family was on its way for you, wasn’t it? So there was some big impeding, impending changes along the way, wasn’t there?

Speaker 1 (00:04:49):

Yeah, that’s a big thing too, mate. I think one of the main drivers why I came into coaching, we had a little baby on the way, a little boy and Ollie, he’s now four. But yeah, at the time I didn’t know how much that was affecting me, the fear, I knew it was coming, I didn’t know what to expect every new dad. But yeah, that was affecting me a lot and there was some scary stuff there that I didn’t know what to do.

Speaker 2 (00:05:14):

Yeah, it’s not uncommon. We see that a lot with coaching where guys come into coaching whether they’ve got a family on the way or they’ve got a young family because they realise that time’s precious, they got responsibility and they thought they had all the time in the world, but now they’ve got young families and they’re realising that they’re not showing up as the dad or the husband or the partner that they want to be. And obviously for you, what I like about you is you had the ability to look in the future to be able to go, I’ve got to make change now before baby comes along, but it’s good to hear that that was a big driver for you to get on the front foot yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:05:48):

Yeah and I didn’t want to be a bit corny, but I didn’t want to be the cat Stevens dad. I missed that period of their life, work, work, work and yeah, I could see that was definitely going to be the case and yeah, it was a bit of a fear.

Speaker 3 (00:06:01):

Definitely. Let’s try and wrap that up then. In terms of three words you’d use to describe yourself at that time, what would they be?

Speaker 1 (00:06:11):

Lost, burning out. I was on the cusp of burning out and I think a bit of fear.

Speaker 3 (00:06:18):

Yeah, fearful. Yeah, for sure. Which is not uncommon when guys do come to us like Rob said, and I think it has changed. Rob, just to that point you were talking about with kids back in the day when you first started the age group and the demographic and what people were looking for out of coaching has definitely changed.

Speaker 2 (00:06:34):

Because I was that example of the Cats and the Cradle song. My dad was not around when I was a young fella and I think when I first got into coaching, we’ve always been about building businesses and reconnecting families and I think when I first got into coaching we had a bit of between forties and fifties was more of our client base and that’s because I think a lot of our client, I resonated more from the child’s perspective rather than being a dad was at the time I wasn’t a dad. And then as I got my own family and had young kids the story, I started telling my own story rather than my dad’s story and so our client base changed. There’s been an evolution, an iteration at Pravar, the message is still the same and the outcome’s been the same, but there’s been a shift in the story, so it’s from my own perspective rather than telling it from a child’s perspective. So you’re right Dan, it’s been a definite evolution over time.

Speaker 3 (00:07:29):

Yeah, it’s really interesting when you get into that. But Adrian, let’s come back to you mate. You’ve come into coaching. Let’s get into this act one piece as we’re calling it, sort of learning to fly expectations coming in. What were you hoping for? Can you remember if there was one thing that you were looking for at the time when you first walked through the doors, so to speak?

Speaker 1 (00:07:46):

Yeah, I think it was time was probably the one thing. I had no idea what that meant, so I didn’t really know what I wanted and I didn’t really know what to expect. I thought this guy Rob was going to give me a quick playbook and it would be fixed and that’s kind of what I wanted.

Speaker 3 (00:08:01):

Right, okay. Wow. And now what? I’ll four years on and still loving coaching. It’s great. I love it. You haven’t got that playbook yet. He drags it out. I’ll tell you.

Speaker 1 (00:08:13):

Slow learner maybe mate.

Speaker 3 (00:08:16):

Mate the other thing I want to touch on as we set this up is the identity and being in a regional town and what was going on in that backdrop of COVID and things like that. How much was that a factor in your world I suppose in terms of the business you had, the place you were operating from and what you saw as a future?

Speaker 1 (00:08:34):

Yeah, I didn’t realise how much it affected us and probably only did more recently. I think this has been a ceiling of breakthrough in the last probably 12 months, but we laughed about this only yesterday that we’d built a moat around our town. It was like we can’t make it outside that line. So yeah, it did really impact me or impacted the business and it’s only very recently that I think we’ve started to really break through that.

Speaker 2 (00:09:03):

Why do you think that impact was there mate? What was the limitation, do you think?

Speaker 1 (00:09:08):

It was me. It was thinking that we didn’t want to do travel, it was too competitive in other markets. I made up this story in my head that it was too hard to do it. Probably a comfort zone thing I think mate being in Castlemaine that I knew everyone. I knew the builders, I knew our client base there and I was comfortable I think and going outside of those areas, having to cold call a new builder that I hadn’t had a beer with down the pub or hadn’t done work with previously. That was probably the fear of going out of town.

Speaker 3 (00:09:41):

Which is strange when you think about it because as you said at the top you’d travelled, you’d been out. It wasn’t like you’d grown up in that one spot that I’m two blocks from where I was born sort of thing. You’d been and travelled and done some pretty cool stuff.

Speaker 1 (00:09:55):

I had, but I think when it came to business, I think that was my safe zone that I did know people and I’d worked in the town for an employer prior to starting my own business and I think you’d make a lot of connections there and a lot of guys and maybe I curled back up into a little comfy little blanket where I felt business was an easier place to do.

Speaker 3 (00:10:18):

Yeah. What did you remember then of those early days coming in and the levers that you started to pull? What’s the first couple that sort of stick in your mind where you thought, shit, I’m going to give this a shot, you had a crack at something and you got a result?

Speaker 1 (00:10:31):

Once I’d started coaching or before? Yeah. Well, I’d put staff on before I was in coaching and I had no plan or any structure around that and I didn’t have any understanding of what that meant. I just put staff on. I remember Rob saying to me one day I was saying it was hard to get staff around here. He goes, it doesn’t appear to be, I think I had four admin staff at the time. So I think the big lever in the coaching was basically having an understanding of what that looked like for our business. Having that structure, which ironically seems to be the same for all of the businesses that go through pr even though you think your business is so different. And to actually understand that breaking out those bottlenecks of myself and I had an estimator slash project manager that I was also dipping in those roles as well. So it was getting really granular on those roles, laying them out clearly, which meant actually rehiring some of those positions that we just didn’t have the right people in there and clearing up the foundations for the business so that we could move ahead.

Speaker 3 (00:11:37):

I love it. The foundations for the business we structure. Rob, do you want to jump in there and just explain that from your perspective because you do this over and over even on the discovery calls that we’re talking about on the podcast?

Speaker 2 (00:11:46):

Yeah, I think structure is one of the most important things you can get when you get established. Once you get to roughly around that million dollar mark, it’s a whole structure phase. You’ve got to go on from about one to two-ish million dollars where it’s about getting your ground crew, getting your admin crew, your bookkeeping, then moving into your operational structure. So once you hit that million dollar mark, it’s all about structure and people and resources and leverage and all those types of things. And Adrian, that’s what you’re talking about there. You were at that phase in business, you’d already had some level of success, but you almost hit a bit of a glass ceiling, you couldn’t get bigger because your structure wasn’t optimised to be able to get to the next level, wasn’t it?

Speaker 1 (00:12:28):

Yeah and like I said, I had staff on, it wasn’t that I wasn’t looking to release some of the work off my plate, it was just understanding or that you needed the right people and they needed structure around that as well.

Speaker 3 (00:12:40):

Were you chasing time in terms of putting people on and having staff at that point or was it just business growth that you were sort of chasing?

Speaker 1 (00:12:48):

I think the two sort of came hand in hand because you want that time so you put someone on and then it’s almost, that can promote a bit of growth as well within the business, having people on and then yeah, naturally if you’ve got more staff you can keep more people busy so they kind of go hand in hand. But yeah, I think initially I was personally chasing the time.

Speaker 3 (00:13:09):

What sort of manager were you at that time do you think? And can you remember that?

Speaker 1 (00:13:14):

I wouldn’t even say manager mate. I was just the guy that I think hit go on the pay roll mate. Yeah, I had no skills as a manager. I was more of that mate trying to be that mate to everyone, didn’t like the uncomfortable conversations, wouldn’t have ’em, was really relying on the fact that I thought I had a good honest team that would just do the right thing and yeah, manager is not the right word.

Speaker 3 (00:13:41):

Right. I’m just, I’m picturing you with four admins, admins running around, people going everywhere. Where were you working out of at that time?

Speaker 1 (00:13:49):

Yeah, when I first started, I think I was still in Donga, like a site donga, which Rob’s got some photos of somewhere on a block and then we moved into an old weatherboard house on a site that we’re currently on. We’ve subdivided that and developed that to our new office. But yeah, it was pretty bad. I think the Donga version was on a property with no toilet door, so once you bring some female admin staff in, that’s a challenge. No lunchroom, nowhere to have a cup of tea. So yeah, it was pretty brutal.

Speaker 3 (00:14:28):

Yeah, amazing to think back to that and not that long ago, when you really do break it down, it’s incredible. You’re going through our leverage programme at the time, so we’re sort of in that phase at the minute. What else do you remember of that programme and what else were some of the things that you took out of that or you developed or brought through as a result of going through that programme?

Speaker 1 (00:14:51):

Well obviously it was COVID, so there was so much going on and I think even for Rob running that programme back then, that was so many unknowns. So I can only imagine how Rob’s trying to keep the light shining when he didn’t know what was going to happen. But yeah, I really enjoyed it. It was the first coaching I’d done, it was the first time I’d had somebody helping me with structure. It was like having a business partner almost to bounce things off. It’s a pretty lonely road when you’re out there on your own and just having someone that you could ring those weekly calls and the learnings were fantastic and for me, I thrived on it and Rob didn’t have to do his sales pitch to me for the next stage. I was ready to sign up before the last one and I actually missed the visioneering day. Was it called back then Rob? Yeah, our son was born on that weekend, so I was ready to rock and roll into the next phase.

Speaker 3 (00:15:47):

Nice. And what was going on personally at the time? Obviously there’s the business stuff, we’ve talked about structure, we’ve talked about your relationship with time, what was going on in your personal world as you were going through leverage and just to sort of bring us up to speed, probably around to that end of leverage period and we’ll move into the next phase.

Speaker 1 (00:16:02):

Well obviously Ollie was on his way, so massive change in the family and me personally thinking about becoming a dad, thinking we were pretty newly married I think a couple of years there as a couple. So obviously a lot of changes and I think seeing what the coaching was doing for my business, even though it was very early days for me personally, I think there was a bit of excitement that I could improve the situation I was in. And yeah, things were settling too. I think COVID was starting to understand what it meant a bit around, there was still lockdowns and all that crazy stuff going on, but I think I still remember sitting on the back lawn one day in COVID talking to maybe Rob or maybe my accountant or something, having a beer going. It was literally they were shutting us down and there was so much fear there. Whereas later into that leverage programme it was a bit more stable, although there was still ups and downs. So there was a bit of a pathway out of it.

Speaker 3 (00:16:59):

Rob, as we come to the end of that sort of leverage going into lifestyle period, you obviously worked pretty close with Adrian, as you said he missed the day. I think there was a couple of things that went on that you’d like to add to that story maybe that Adrian’s glossing over that we probably don’t want to.

Speaker 2 (00:17:15):

With leverage. It’s really the leverage program’s all about getting your structure right. Launch is about foundations, leverage is about structure and we do things a little bit different where the end of the leverage programme is when we do visionary and get your vision set. I think school of thought is you’ve got to know where you’re going before you make change, but we do things backwards. We always do it at the end because it’s important to get structure right before you vision to go to the next level. And Adrian missed that. Ollie was born, he missed out. And I remember catching up Adrian at that time to get his vision set. And for you mate, I think that was a real game changer for you. You’ve got your time under control, your structure set to unlock the growth, but that vision for you, Adrian was the one thing that really almost lit a bit of a fire in you didn’t, it kind of woke something up inside.

Speaker 1 (00:18:05):

I think at that point the times now I’ve had the little boy that you’ve got that nine months of preparation and fear and all those things happening and then it’s here, it’s now. So that vision, although I look back at it now and it was probably very basic as opposed to what I do now with a vision. But yeah, it was great. I knew at that time obviously the grog wasn’t serving me whatsoever and that was a big part of me that I was the first real personal change I’d have to make to improve myself so that the business could get better, but B, more importantly, I could be a better dad and focus on that next journey that I was really just about to start on.

Speaker 2 (00:18:46):

And that vision was important for you. I remember stepping you through it at the time, and for you it was planning out your landscaping at home, the finalisation of the renovations and how you see your business evolving, how you wanted to shi as a great husband to Demi and a great dad to Ollie and the personal changes you wanted to make that vision is the structure unlocked the capacity in your mind, but the vision was instrumental to really, really take yourself and the business to another level, wasn’t it?

Speaker 1 (00:19:17):

And I was really clear on especially the personal stuff, like you say, the home stuff, whether it be family or yard and those sorts of things. I was crisp. It was like watching a movie with those things. And I think also too, connecting the fact that my business was the tool to allow me to do that as well was really important.

Speaker 2 (00:19:38):

You made a comment there around at that moment was your decision point around the grog. Talk us through that because that’s a huge thing we see at Pravar where traditionally in the trades and construction industry, alcohol, mental health, these are big topics, big issues within the industry. For you, you said there around giving up the grog and changing your relationship with it was also a huge turning point through it. Talk us through that moment in time for you.

Speaker 1 (00:20:10):

Massive and I think reflecting on it, it’s probably the biggest thing personally I’ve done that’s given me the biggest amount of growth as on all avenues. Father, business owner, husband, everything. Even just a mate. There’s so many changes that that’s caused or impacted. I knew I had a problem with grog a couple of years earlier. I’d given it up for a year, which I was bloody impressed with and I thought that had changed my relationship with it. And I mean COVID was bloody hard. What else was there to do other than grab a six pack and go sit on the grass and have a beer? So that sort of brought it all back and yeah, I knew I had to change it. I had massive issues there around basically if I wasn’t at work, like I said before, I was drinking beer and then it did lead to other things, late nights, recreational drugs, partying, coming home till all hours of the morning. But then the worst bit was you have to front up the next day and try and run a business. And anyone that gets anxiety like I do, it’s like your phone rings and you like, I don’t want to fucking answer that. You need to. And I used to say, give me all week, I’ll try and impress you as a customer and give me 10 minutes at the pub and I’ll fuck it up. So I was not a good drinker or I was a really good drinker, however you want to look at it.

Speaker 3 (00:21:28):

Yeah, I think two things you’ve said there that you guys are just listening to your talk was one, you had crystal clear clarity on what your vision was, which is obviously super important. But the other thing is not to say that just because you have the vision and the clarity doesn’t mean it wasn’t like it was a small step, it wasn’t a small jump as you said, dealing with your relationship with alcohol. It wasn’t like you were just picking out something to work on or just a little habit fix or something you thought would be interesting and something that would sound good to put on a bit of paper. It was a big deal to do this. These were big things that you were tackling, even the design of the yard, the house, what was going to become the office that you were going to work out of where you are now. I mean all of that stuff was crystal clear, but it wasn’t a small step, was it?

Speaker 1 (00:22:12):

Oh, huge. And looking back now without that vision, it would never have happened or some bits of it would’ve happened over a five or 10 year period. And I think for me, we’re having that clear vision and doing the visioneering process, whether or not I’m going too far ahead here, but the collapses and quarterly action plans, those things, that’s when it becomes real. I think without it, it’s a dream. I can’t remember that saying. There’s a saying about where I’m going, Dan, but without that stuff it’s just a dream and the vision was a dream at that point. But using all the tools and with everything we’ve learned along the way, it makes it real.

Speaker 3 (00:22:52):

That’s where the work commenced. The real work starts when you make that commitment to yourself. You have that decision point as Rob said, which means now I’m on the hook for this and I need to make shit happen in improv aspect.

Speaker 1 (00:23:04):

Well otherwise your dreams are still just dreams they don’t happen.

Speaker 3 (00:23:07):

Yeah,

Speaker 1 (00:23:08):

Correct. Yeah, absolutely. The impact of what was become in the next 12 months as a result of locking this vision in and your habits through the Bevan. Rob, jump in if you want to talk about that or remind people what the Bevan is. But in terms of what that was, could you have foreseen what was coming in those next couple of years? We’re talking 22, 23 year, did you have any sense of what was coming or confidence in what was coming or were you just going through the process focused on what you would step by step each day?

(00:23:43):

I didn’t know what was coming. Like I say I dreamt of it. I didn’t realise when you actually put these things into place and do the Bevan and chip away at these things on bit by bit, what could actually happen and the impact that that has over that year. If you were doing things on a weekly daily basis, they add up to big things over a year and two years and three years.

Speaker 3 (00:24:09):

They sure do. I mean, I dunno if you remember Rob, I’m sure you do, but it turned into a monster year for Adrian.

Speaker 2 (00:24:15):

Yeah, it was one of his best years yet. And this was during one of the hardest times we had in Victoria for you mate. It was a real breakthrough year and yeah, it was epic to watch from a coaching point of view, but it just came down to clarity, vision. You knew what you wanted, why you wanted it, and you were just relentless in your execution and yeah, it was impressive to watch.

Speaker 3 (00:24:38):

Do you remember what came up for you or what some of those highlights were, Adrian from that year?

Speaker 1 (00:24:43):

Not off the top of the head the numbers, but yeah, I know personally I had some big growth. I focused a lot on myself. Robert showed me that to be selfish because without me I was really struggling with that bit as a dad where I’ve got to go to work and your kid give you that look and you just feel like shit going to work. And I was really struggling with that, but Rob helped me connect the fact that for me to go to work is obviously to help my family and to provide and that’s that plan that we’d had with Dem and myself. She’s a stay at home mom and still is. And I think for me it was a big turning point when Rob said if I’m not dialled in then the rest of it falls apart. So at the time I was riding pushy and that meant to say to them, Hey, I’m going out for a ride for an hour and a half and two hours and not feel guilty for it because that was for me to be in the best shape I could be to make sure all this stuff happened because without that it would all fall apart.

Speaker 3 (00:25:41):

Yeah, definitely. It’s a big part of it. I think you’ve got to have that level. We can label it whatever we like, but that self-care, looking after yourself and giving yourself the oxygen, thinking through that sort of plane analogy, putting your own oxygen on first allows you to help everyone so much better. You can’t do it when you are struggling and you don’t see the light of day for solving everyone else’s problems or looking after everyone else.

Speaker 1 (00:26:03):

I think it’s hard to join those dots. I think in your head you just feel guilty all the time because you don’t want to miss out on things. You’ve got this ideal father relationship in your head and sometimes that doesn’t mean going to work. Sometimes that doesn’t mean doing things that you need to do. So I think to connect those dots is a challenge. Definitely one that I face.

Speaker 2 (00:26:24):

Yeah, I remember one of our clients said that the results of my business is a reflection around how I feel about myself and from a health wellness, a mental health side of things. And this client’s pretty open around his challenges around his journey that he’s been on from a mental health point of view. And I think that’s why we are big advocates at Pravar are around leadership development and self-development because the way we show up as a husband, as a father, as a businessman, as a leader, ultimately determines the results we get. Now some people will label that as selfish and self-centered and only thinking about number one, but the reality is your business and your life’s not going to thrive if you don’t play some priority on your own self. And I know that goes against traditional and teachings in society and people look at you a little bit differently, but you’ve got to be a little bit self-centered sometimes to be able to look after number one, to be able to take care of everything and everyone else. So it’s so important as a leader and a family man.

Speaker 3 (00:27:32):

Yeah, it definitely is. We’ll do numerous episodes on this over our journey and we’ve started that conversation, but it is such a big topic, so the more we talk about it, the better. Adrian, I’m going to bring us back to that year because I can remember, I can remember I’ve done the research I should say, in terms of what you did achieve. Let’s roll through this because it is super impressive, but just based on everything you’ve said leading up to this and what you put in place from a vision and habits perspective, how those little steps, as you said, chipping away what it turns into and for you, that year turned into 27% up on your rev cracked a revenue target of just over three mil, which included two of the biggest months the business had ever seen. You got your project manager in Q4 2022, that was operational structure done, which included estimator ops, admin, finance manager, project manager and marketing.

(00:28:22):

So you got all that in place and dialled in. You became or moved into that selling GM position better yet you had a nine day fortnight to spend more quality time with Demi and Ollie. You pushed hard in the commercial developments. You built that new office that you had and the business was going to move into at the time the year after. So it was all on track with that engagement was through the roof. When we measured it, it was 99.5 on the engagement scorecard, which is 194 out of 195 if anyone’s trying to work that out over 12 months of possible markers. It was an incredible example of what the disciplined approach of sticking to your habits, the Bevan and doing what you say you’re going to do and making shit happen over the course of a year. It was incredible. Rob,

Speaker 2 (00:29:07):

How did you feel you performed in that period, mate? How do you feel? What did that period mean to you?

Speaker 1 (00:29:14):

Firstly, just for the record, I still dispute that 0.5% too. I reckon I was on holidays and you give me on that point. Yeah, I don’t know. I like structure, I think, and hearing that staff, I mean that’s all amazing, but it didn’t feel like it was a massive effort, if that makes sense. And one thing that I’ve found with doing the vision process and then implementing the structure around achieving that is that it’s almost underwhelming. Whereas if you were to say to me at the start of the year five years ago, Hey, we’re going to do this this year, man, you’d sit there and your head would want to explode. So I think doing all those things properly takes a lot of that stress and anxiety out of it for me was I wouldn’t say it was easy, but by no means was it easy and I’m really proud of how I performed in so many aspects there. But by following the process, you get to the end of it and you’re like, fuck, look at what I’ve achieved.

Speaker 2 (00:30:13):

Yeah, Jocko, Jocko makes the statement that discipline equals freedom. And it’s so right that most people get into business because they want to do what they want when they want, however they like, but they forget to realise that a structure, habits and consistency, which creates the freedom. And I know that me personally, I’m such a regimented routine. We all are as people, but I think it is those things that we do over and over and over again, which creates the results, hence why we call it our Bevan system. But you’re so right mate. It’s that it’s what you did on a daily basis, which created such an epic year for you. It’s something you’d probably dreamed of doing in five years, but you’re able to do it in one year as such a huge result, wasn’t it?

Speaker 1 (00:31:01):

Yeah, and I think, like I say, if you told me that at the start of the year, even though I’d planned to do it, I still didn’t really believe it until we started to get through that year and six months in, you’re chipping away all these vision ideas that you have. Yeah, it’s amazing what you can achieve.

Speaker 3 (00:31:20):

What would be the three words you’d use to describe yourself at this time? I asked you that at the start. How had that changed? Maybe just in those three words, what did it move on to?

Speaker 1 (00:31:29):

Driven. I was extremely driven, I was clear and I was really focused.

Speaker 3 (00:31:36):

Love it. Not much more to add to that. I think you’re absolutely right. You’d have to be to do that and I think that’s the secret. Really good insights into that period. So mate, we’re now sort of coming into more recent times and about to get into our next act, but towards the back half of 20, 23, things are seemingly flying along. The family’s growing, you are performing, the business is humming, the vision’s come true. You felt like you were pretty much ready to move on from coaching at that time. You had this thing sorted, it was the business you’d always wanted. It’s time to just live the rest of my life, right?

Speaker 1 (00:32:10):

Yeah, I felt like I’d come to an end of a journey and I thought the runway was I was running out with coaching and I think I was ready to try and take it on my own. I felt like I had the structure there. I now realised things I thought I had dialled in weren’t as good as what I’d hoped or intended them to be. So yeah, but I felt ready. I felt ready to spread my wings.

Speaker 3 (00:32:40):

Yeah, for sure. And it’s interesting you use wings as the word I think rather than spreading those wings. This second act that we’re going to talk about here is you sort of lost them. What changed between I’ve got this dialled in and when did you first start to feel things changing for you as a result of that?

Speaker 1 (00:33:00):

It happened so quick, mate. I think I took my foot off the pedal a bit. I became complacent. And because of that successful year, if we call it that around everything that I’d achieved, I feel I took my foot off the pedal and became complacent. I lost a bit of that drive. I lost a bit of that vision or a lot of that vision. And yeah, like I said, it just happened so quick.

Speaker 3 (00:33:28):

Was it a sense of ego coming into it? Did you sort of feel invincible as a result of the year you had, I’ve got this so nailed, I can do pretty much anything and this is just going to keep rolling or was that sort of the foot coming off the gas or?

Speaker 1 (00:33:41):

Yeah, Rob talks about it a lot around once you get that structure in place, you’re buying back time. And I did that and instead of using that time for future growth or progression, I just didn’t have that direction of where I was going to go. I didn’t have that pathway that excited me, that vision that was making me want to get up every morning.

Speaker 2 (00:34:04):

We see that a lot in coaching where when you do get the structure, as you said, you get the time back and especially when you set your vision and you’d achieve that so quick. I think in the absence of a future vision and when you’ve got time, we say it about it all the time in coaching, is that when in the absence of a vision and having structure and time on your hands, you’re destined to plateau all go backwards. And that’s exactly what happened at this time. We call it the complacency trap. You got absolutely complacent and it’s almost your success blunt you to some degree, didn’t it?

Speaker 1 (00:34:39):

Yeah. I think you touched on before, running out of that vision, running out of that runway, things that I thought were going to take years and things that I actually may not have even believed were going to take place once you finish, there’s no real drive. And yeah, it did it bluntly, there was no excitement, nothing that really gave me that inspiration to do things like I had done for the past 12 months.

Speaker 3 (00:35:03):

I think it’s like climbing a mountain and you climb all the way to the top of the mountain, you’ve been head down, ass up, getting this thing sorted. You’ve climbed all the way to the top and before you know it, you’re standing on the edge of a cliff and without you either got the choice of going back down the mountain, which you clearly didn’t want to do, you still had drive, you still had what you’d built up. There was something behind you, but for you it literally was standing on the precipice of a cliff and looking over the edge. It sort of went from that to falling off the top though, didn’t it?

Speaker 1 (00:35:35):

Yeah, and I think with a few other events that happened at that time, I definitely lost my way around where even if there was some vision there, a few events took place that really sort of dragged me down.

Speaker 3 (00:35:51):

When you talk about dragging you down, we’re talking really, let’s be clear about this, mental health was a big one and that sort of started to suffer along with things. Do you want to just paint a picture in as much or as little detail as you want to explain it mate, but just paint the picture for people of the experience as you remember that going through this sort of little phase.

Speaker 1 (00:36:10):

It’s one of them things. I think I described it to Steve, my coach the other day. If you haven’t dealt with it, you don’t know. And I don’t mean that in a way. I was a guy that always used to look at mental health. I was supportive and I’d help people, but if you’ve never experienced it, it’s something you can’t really explain. And I had no idea what I was dealing with. And I’ll be honest, I fell into a massive hole and it was bad and there was no way out. It was a really shit time. Yeah, happy to go into as deep as you want. But yeah, it was really bad. And it’s something that people listening, I think if they’ve been there, if they’ve had these experiences, they know they get it. But for those otherwise, I think it’s something you can’t explain and it’s difficult to understand.

Speaker 2 (00:37:04):

It’s becoming a lot more spoken around, especially in the industry at the moment. And as you said, for those who’ve been in it, they know what it’s like. But for a lot of people they know that mental health error is but they don’t understand how to grasp. But how would you explain it from your perspective, from someone who has been through it, but for someone who hasn’t experienced so they can get a better understanding of themselves,

Speaker 1 (00:37:28):

It’s dark. You can’t see positive things. And at the time on reflection now, I had so much good stuff going on in my life. None of it is a positive. It’s everything about anything that’s good in your life seems negative. You don’t want to do anything. You don’t want to get up. You don’t want to listen to people that’ll tell you that it’ll be okay. You don’t want to listen to their advice, their support. It’s bloody hard and emotional. I reckon. I was on the phone to Dan, I think I cried every time, Dan, I was on the phone. And I don’t like to think myself as a tough guy, but just cry about everything. It’s so hard to explain. You just feel, I remember I did my client feature in, was it Brisbane, Rob I think, and Gold Coast. And I could barely even talk about positive things in my life. I was just sad I didn’t want to, tears would just make me well up. I’d get sad because I’d get home and talk to my kid and I’d think something about work and that’d make me just want to cry that I was a failure. Everything was, yeah, it was just so dark.

Speaker 2 (00:38:35):

Like you said before, you had all these good things. At this point the business was the best. It was around the home was the best relationship at home with Demi and Ollie was the best was ever was it almost if you were the healthiest you were, if looking back now, if you think about your life, everything was inverted perfect. Everything was exactly how you dreamt of it being yet everything was perfect on the outside, but inside just felt dark and empty, didn’t it?

Speaker 1 (00:39:10):

Yeah you said that spot on everything was what I wanted. There was a few triggers, baby number two was obviously on the way and I also had that fear that I had. I was freaking out that same one when I had the first that, I dunno if that changes, Rob, you’ve had through, but we had a major position. So our accounts lady, she left with two weeks notice. We just moved into our shared, I had a sparky leave and at the time workload fell off a cliff basically, which I think the whole industry experience. We also had, we had a miscarriage scare Dem and I it was pretty late. I think it was like 26 something weeks. And we’d had a fair few miscarriages before we were pregnant with our little girl Aubry. And I remember driving the car up to the hospital thinking if we lose this baby, I’m fucked as far as the business, as far as being a supportive husband, as far as being a good dad to Ollie and everything was dark. But yet I look back and I mean with the exception of obviously Dems Health and the miscarriage, everything else, there was simple stuff to deal with. It was stuff that I wanted to have in my life.

Speaker 2 (00:40:23):

And this is why we do talk a bit about, you got to look after number one because this is what we’re talking around here is the power of the mind. Our mind can be our greatest asset or it can be our greatest enemy despite what’s going on around us. And in your world, Adrian, you had everything going for you yet your mind was playing tricks on you and was working against you. And so this is why when we spoke around at the start of this episode, we spoke around how you’ve got to look after number one and that’s your mental health, your physical health, your emotional health, all these types of things you’ve got to look after number one. Because when then if you don’t get that under control, everything else starts falling down around you and then it becomes a bit of a multiplier effect. And that’s where you started to go, wasn’t it Adrian, where things got a little bit crazy and then all of a sudden you started to second guess where you’re at, what you were doing and what you really wanted in your world yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:41:24):

Yeah, I think it was Dan said to me, you just try and make the pain stop. And funnily enough, just to reflect on that, I remember having a convo with Steve. Obviously you make a lot of this stuff up. I had my biggest month in business ever in that time. And I remember having a call with Steve, my coach, and being negative about it and making excuses as to why it was a big month because oh, we’d carried some rev from the previous month and blah, blah, blah. And Greeny pulled me up, Steve, my coach, saying I can only go off the numbers. He wasn’t in my head and he wasn’t feeling the negative thoughts that I was. And he’s looking at the numbers going, mate, things are good. Why are you being negative about all this stuff? But definitely you just can’t get out of that space.

Speaker 3 (00:42:11):

Yeah, I think for me, obviously talking to a fair bit over the time through this, I think the three things for me that hit me, one was the speed, the time we’re talking about here wasn’t that this crept up over months and months and it was sort of a slow build. This was literally off a cliff in a couple of months wasn’t it?

Speaker 1 (00:42:28):

It was referred to it as like catching a cold. One minute, you feel great. I was fine. We talk about the big dog and I was kicking ass. And then the next minute I was literally, I went home to Demi and I just said, I’m fucked. Something’s not right. And then the next day I remember just not sleeping that night, being up on the couch, literally shivering, not wanting to go and mow my grass. But it literally happened so quick.

Speaker 2 (00:42:53):

And it was because those results that we read out were you being runner up in the Bevan award by the way, in 2023 in Fiji. We’ll come back to that. But your client feature was in October, 2023. So it was literally from August, September, October. It was a three month period where everything literally imploded for you. It did happen so fast. And this is the thing about our mindset is we can shift our mindset very quickly, but it can shift very, very quickly if we don’t stay on top of it as a person.

Speaker 3 (00:43:33):

Yeah, absolutely Rob. I think the second thing as well to add to that is that your ability to recognise what was going on and not as much as you didn’t want it to happen, you didn’t run away from it. You didn’t try and sugarcoat it. You asked for help, which is a big thing. This wasn’t you self-sabotaging. And I think that can be an easy thing to blame it away on or explain it away. I self-sabotage as you listen to this story, if you listening along, it’s not that Adrian was self-sabotaging was absolutely a real thing that was going on in his world. This was a mental health thing. It wasn’t, wasn’t the fact that your ego had gotten out of control and the things all blew up. It was something way bigger than that. And I think that was something for us as a coaching team working with Steve, yourself, Rob, all talking through this and how we were doing it. It was very critical that we didn’t try and just coach your way through it. That getting the right help from the right people, the qualified support and team you put in place to help work through this was super important for you and still is to this day, by the way.

Speaker 1 (00:44:36):

I think it’s very different nowadays and obviously it’s been a lot of work with medical practitioners and that the industry, it’s actually talked about because although I was in a really dark space, I didn’t have any of that, I’m trying to think of the right word, where I didn’t have any of that fear or embarrassment to talk about it to people. So whether or not that’s just me or I feel it’s a bit of the industry now, I wouldn’t have liked to have gone through what I went through now in the eighties or nineties, you know what I mean? I think the support’s not there. And B well shut up mate, toughen up. I felt like I could talk to people. I felt like the support was there, although it was a big road ahead. Yeah, it’s definitely something that I think I’m proud to be part of that industry now where it is openly spoken about. There’s still room I think for it to improve, but definitely proud to be in an industry where you can talk about it and people don’t turn away and go, this guy’s a bit of a leper. Don’t talk to him.

Speaker 2 (00:45:34):

How much did the community around you support you in that time? And hopefully I’m not jumping ahead too much Dan, but how much did the community around, I know that at the time Adrian, you were spearheading a lot of the shift and the change going on in our community around people changing their relationship with alcohol. You drove a lot of that and then within our communities we are big supporters of TIACS and mental health and supporting that part that supports our industry. How much did the community around you help you during that time, even though they weren’t professionals, just as a support mechanism for you?

Speaker 1 (00:46:15):

I think there was two sections of my life. When we say community, there was my immediate family, obviously Demi. I had my mom and stepdad and sister and brother-in-law who was in coaching at the time and some close friends. But then I also had my coaching group and I say there’s some really good friends in there and obviously you guys, you two were amazing, but there’s definitely two guys in the group that literally one guy had to have an argument on the phone with him. He was getting on a flight from Sydney to come down and stay with me and just, he was ready to do whatever it meant. And the other guy was literally throwing cash at me to help fix my problem. He offered me a large sum of money to, and that stuff, that community to me means the world. And I’ll never forget that because that stuff, some of my best mates and I say that with inverted comm wouldn’t even offer or do at the time. So it was massive from both sides, both the family and also the guys in the private group.

Speaker 3 (00:47:22):

I think that’s a big thing because we talk about this all the time in Pravar. You get to have conversations, relationships, moments in your life and you experience them completely differently. Like you said, you don’t talk to your mates about 90% of what goes on in your business, let alone what’s going through in the inner reaches of your mind in those dark corners. So I think in no small part, it did definitely help. And I think I said there was three things that I really recognised was how dark it was for you. And I remember those conversations at the time and the light that trickled through was very few and far between. I remember having the conversation, we said it was sitting in a dark room and not even be able to see a doorway out. It wasn’t like you could even find it. And for you, the things that we did and talked about and some of the stuff we tried to do to create that light was even turning what would’ve been an unthinkable thing.

(00:48:14):

The only thing you could think of that would get your ass back into gear, so to speak, find that drive, find that light again was either walking away from the business. But to do that you’d have to get into a position where it was going to be sellable and amazing for someone to want to buy. And that was sort of a tactic or a coaching sort of thing we did in order to get the gears at least turning. It was that desperate to try and get you back into a mode where you could find a doorway out. So I think for that period and through coaching and through the support of the professionals that were working with you and family, it’s amazing to think now where you are. So talk us through coming out the other side, what do you think helped you do that? Is there anything that you could pull from lessons before strategies, whatever it might’ve been that sort of got you through it, or was it just sort of riding through this as best you could and holding on until the clouds lifted?

Speaker 1 (00:49:07):

A bit of both mate. I think initially, well you just wanted the pain to stop. Like you said, I’d been to the accountant, we were ready to sell or get out, whatever that meant. What are we going to do to make this stop? And I love how you entertained that idea with me and I think I say that with a smirk now because I now know what you were doing, just entertaining that idea of me getting rid of the business, whatever that meant, which I’m so glad you had that conversation with me and the support there over those couple of months. But I think initially it’s just grit your teeth and just hang on, see what you can do. And then I started to realise that because you don’t believe that it’s going to get fixed at the time. You feel like this is me forever and I am I going to be this person for the rest of my life.

(00:49:57):

And I suppose one of the dark things about it is you fall into this hole where you think there’s nothing ahead of you. So I think once I’d start to deal with that, what I then did was probably the next step where I tried to then go, right, I can actually fix this, but how I’m going to fix it is do 500 different things. I was doing podcasts, I was going for walks, I was doing breath work, I was doing diets, I had a psych got on medication, you name it, whatever somebody said would help. I would literally chuck that in. And what I then learned later on to the journey was that that’s just too much. And I think the next step for me then was to literally drop 90% of that stuff, get back to again the Bevan side of things and the habits and just do those one things until for me, alright, that was good.

(00:50:49):

I feel like that’s helping me. I’m going to do that now, then take on something else. And that’s when I started to see that improvement and not having that anxiety and that overwhelm of, oh, I’m broken, I need to get fixed. So I need to do all these cold plunges into the pools and everything that was going to help me. Alright, cool. This week I’m just going to make sure I read my book before bed every night and that’s what I’m going to do. And once I got that dialled in next week I’m going for a walk every day after work, whatever it was.

Speaker 3 (00:51:18):

Yeah. Incredible. What do you think now that there’s a bit of distance between that period to now? Albeit there’s not a lot, but there is a bit of distance now. What’s the biggest lesson do you think you’ve taken out of it or how do you reflect on it now?

Speaker 1 (00:51:37):

It seems so long ago because Demi and I can talk about it. We just had another Christmas, obviously we were going through probably the thick of this, the prior Christmas, and we remember doing things and going places and just the state I suppose I was in around that. As far as lessons I’ve learned, and I don’t know, it’s going to be different for everyone. It’s going to be different for me. I hope it never happens again. I’ve got a lot of tools this time to try and catch it. I think just leaning into the support was something I’ve done and to catch things early and to what I’m really trying to work on now is that you are going to have bad days and that doesn’t necessarily mean for me that I’m falling back into a hole and to then make sure I’m sticking to those small habits daily to make sure that I think Rob refers to ’em in the group with a few guys as your pillars that if they fall over, everything else is going to come down. So I know now I’ve got to do those and if I’m starting to feel like I’m having a bit of a shitty time or whatever it is, then hey, alright, well maybe I haven’t gone for my work this morning. Maybe I haven’t read my book. Maybe I haven’t drank the water, maybe I haven’t stuck to my diet. Those little things that might all seem not a big deal, but once they all start to fall off the edge, then I think that’s when you start. For me personally, that’s when I’ll start to go down.

Speaker 2 (00:53:03):

The way that you were able to come out of it was a testament to your strength mate. I think 2023 for you was a big change for you in terms of shifting your relationship with alcohol, which gave you the tools to be able to handle that situation. I would’ve hate the thought if you were still drinking during that time, how much that would’ve probably multiplied the feeling you were going through. And I know that that’s inspired a lot of other people to make change. So 2023 was that for you, 2024 was your year to prove to yourself of how strong you actually are and what you’ve got as a man and the way that you are able to achieve the success, get the complacency, fall into the hole, consider bending the business and packing it all in to go and live an easier life in inverted commas. But for you to be able to turn all that around and for you to have the strength to push through and to achieve what you are today, it’s been impressive. It’s been 12 months. This is early January. We’re recording this and it’s been literally 12 months. And so 2024 for you was a year of proving to yourself you’ve got what it takes to play a big game and it’s impressive mate.

Speaker 3 (00:54:24):

Really is. Let’s bring it home with act three. Hey, 2025 still in coaching. Where’s the business now, mate?

Speaker 1 (00:54:34):

We didn’t sell it thankfully. Going to leave.

Speaker 3 (00:54:39):

Trust me. Just let me put that little caveat in there. That was going to be the next conversation when you said you were ready.

Speaker 1 (00:54:44):

Yeah, look, we didn’t sell it and I’m so glad. I think even working through last year and once I started to see improvement and feel improvement, yeah, I think all the staff laid off. My project manager who took me years to get, thankfully he was still around and we’ve got a great crew now and I’m excited again for business. I wrapped out the year last year, literally pumped going into Christmas holidays, so excited for what 2025 and beyond’s got. And again, excited about it being a tool to help me and our family, my wife, Demi, and our kids have the life that I’m starting to vision again moving forward.

Speaker 3 (00:55:29):

Awesome. I love it. Yeah, business is looking really healthy. What about you personally, husband, father, leader, where do you see yourself now?

Speaker 1 (00:55:36):

I’ll do it in reverse mate. Leader. I think it’s a lot I’ve worked on this year. I think the coaching programme this year has had a lot of focus on leadership and also all the things that come with leadership. I’m seeing improvement in that personally a lot along the way and I think as a leader now, I’m proud to say I’m leading my team. I’m managing as a father again. We’ve had a little baby girl, she’s 10 months old now. That’s a road that I don’t think you can say where you see yourself in, but I love it and I’m enjoying every bit of it. It’s got its challenges as everyone I’m aware, but it’s the most rewarding job anyone will tell you has ever taken on. So it’s probably the hardest but the most rewarding. Yeah, and I think as a husband, I’m so grateful for Demi.

(00:56:30):

I think that’s going through what I went through to realise that I’ve got the support of her and the shit I put her through around we’re doing this today, we’re selling this today. You’ve got to go back to work. The rollercoaster. I took her on my wife’s a beautician previously and had Beauty salon on. She literally opened her books back up and we’re still dealing with a few bookings and makeups that she made for weddings nine months ago. So look, I’m really proud, I think of my family and my wife, how we got through it together and I think now it excites me to be able to be a better husband and a better father now that I know I’ve got them supporting me through whatever it is. And that showed last year.

Speaker 3 (00:57:19):

I love it, mate. You’ve been through a hell of a lot in the time that we’ve covered here, the chronological time we’ve talked about, as Rob said, it’s literally like 18 months from the high point through the low back to where you are now. We talked about three words at the start, the middle. What about at the end? What three words would you use at the end of this or where we are today for yourself?

Speaker 1 (00:57:42):

I’m going to use driven Again. I’m feeling that drive now. I’ve got a vision. So driven, excited, and a bit calm.

Speaker 3 (00:57:54):

A bit calm. Long as Rob, as long as Rob doesn’t rob you from another award come July.

Speaker 1 (00:58:03):

I think we should talk about that. We’ve skimmed over that twice in the call.

Speaker 2 (00:58:08):

Let’s do it. What do you want to talk about?

Speaker 1 (00:58:10):

I just want to point out that I think there’s some flaws in the scorecard that you run, Rob. I think the year prior I was ripped off with the Bevan Award and worse for those who don’t know, it was to my brother-in-law who I’d brought along to the journey after I’d started coaching. So not only did I miss out on award that I deserved that year and I lost it to the guy that probably got the most competitive relationship going along.

Speaker 2 (00:58:37):

Oh, so Daniel Jenkins got you into coaching. You brought Dukes into coaching and Dukes picked you at the post for the award.

Speaker 1 (00:58:46):

Yeah, well, the votes I think were miscounted or they had the wrong name on the envelope, something like that.

Speaker 2 (00:58:51):

Yeah, no, no, Dan, I think there’s a very transparent selection criteria isn’t there?

Speaker 3 (00:58:57):

There is. I can actually remember, I think I watched you just about Adrian. You almost stood up when Rob was about to say who the winner was and you had to sit down again, but that was the shock that was going on that night in Fiji.

Speaker 1 (00:59:08):

I did not. I did not. I did not. I just got ripped off that year because actually Michael Bevan was there himself to present it. So yeah, that was disappointing. But no, and I said this that night, I couldn’t be proud of Dukes and my sister with their business going through Pravar. I think that was the most proud of any of the guys out of the group to get it. I see personally the hard work that goes into it.

Speaker 2 (00:59:31):

But you did win it the second year. You won it the year after, didn’t you, mate? You were a proud recipient.

Speaker 1 (00:59:37):

Proud for the sympathy award. Yeah, I think it was good. But yeah, I did and I’m proud of it yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:59:45):

No, it was a great achievement mate. It really was. I think just coming back to today and the story you’ve told us, there’s so many things that, so many nuggets, so many lessons, so many experiences there that are going to touch people and for sharing what you’ve done today mate, and being so honest and transparent with us as you always are, it’s what makes you a great client, a great bloke, a hell of a father and a great leader these days. And I’m even going to throw in there, mate, yes, you are a good manager, so never forget that you do it well and you’ll keep doing it better. But mate from me, I’ll hand over to Rob now, but from me mate, thank you. And to be part of that journey and to be able to help you and play a small part in it, I’ll be forever grateful and I’m just so glad that you have come through and can’t wait to see what you do next.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):

No thanks mate.

(01:00:34):

Yeah, I think to add to that is never underestimate the power of your presence, mate. It’s the leadership and inspiration you bring to our communities, underestimate the influence you’ve had within their communities. And I think that’s what makes Pravar so special is it’ss like a otherhood shifted guys’ perception around their relationship with alcohol. You’ve inspired other guys within their communities, not just in lifestyle, but your stories you’ve told within other programmes as well to be able to inspire them to make change and shift their relationships with things. And you’re open battle with mental health and the way that you’ve been able to work through that. So don’t underestimate the leadership that you’ve got and the positive impact and influence you have on other people’s lives. And for that, I want to thank you, mate because you’re a huge part of our programme, our community. So thanks so much for what you do.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):

Thank you. And I don’t want to get all soppy, but I honestly want to say on the record, but without obviously Dan and Rob, you two guys, I was done in business and without you guys, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have the business life would be so different. I don’t even want to think about what it would be. And not only you guys obviously a coach, Steve and everybody in the group. It’s a massive part. And I think, like I said, there’s two groups of support that I had. One being the family side, which was amazing, but obviously with you guys understanding the business side of it. Yeah, it was amazing. So thank you for keeping me here.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):

Great pleasure. One thing I do want to add today is before we round this out, is we’ve spoken about two big topics today and that’s alcohol and mental health. And if this has brought anything up for you, like Adrian spoke around earlier in this episode, is that getting the right support at the right time and being willing to put your hand up for help is critical to be able to move through the situation that you’re in. And what Adrian explained is that even though you’ve got all these good things going on in your world, it’s what you feel on the inside for you, which makes your situation where you’re at. And no one can obviously understand that. And that’s why getting professional support is really important. I know at Pravar we’re a big advocate of Tradie Mutt and their loud shirts because they’re bringing awareness to the blue collar industry and also their sister company, which is TIACS, which is, this is a conversation starter, is huge for mental health and opening the conversation around that in the blue collar industry. So if anything in this episode has come up for you where you feel like you need to talk to someone, please don’t let your pride get in the way. Be willing to put your hand up, ask for help, ask for support, because it takes a bigger man to ask for support rather than thinking you have to do it alone. So if you’re in that situation, please, please reach out to the professionals to be able to get the help that you need.

Speaker 3 (01:03:34):

Definitely. Well said, Rob. We got there. Hell of a story. Great episode. Love talking to Adrian. As always, do you want to remind people about the address if they want to talk to us about business challenges, their structures, anything like that?

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):

Yeah, if you’ve enjoyed this episode and you’d love to be able to get some help from us here at Pravar, jump across to strategysession.com.au, get a call booked in and let’s see if we’re the right fit for you to be able to help you take your business and life to the next level. Thanks for tuning in today and looking forward to coming back to you next week with another great episode from The Trade Den.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):

See you soon.