Episode 9 Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:01):
We grew from, I think $2.2mil with a loss to $3.62m with probably a $650,000 net profit turnaround.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hi everyone. Rob Kropp here. Welcome back to the Trade Den podcast. Isn’t it great to be back, Dan?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
It is. Thanks Rob. Yeah, great to be back. Great to be talking to another client today. Looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, absolutely. We brought to you Ahmad Radi from Radi Electrical in a recent episode where he shared his really amazing story and we’ve had some really great feedback from clients, from you as their listeners, from people in the Trade Den ommunity. It’s really great to be able to get that feedback and so we’re going to be pushing ahead with bringing you a lot more of these stories from clients where they’re going to be sharing their journeys, the highs, the lows and everything. And that’s why we’ve decided to bring Anthony Rentzis from high power to you today. So really looking forward to getting stuck in.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, excellent. I think these raw and real stories really hit home and for everyone who’s in the trenches and you listening, this is, it’s a time, like we said last time, these success leaves clues and the idea of you’re not on this journey alone, so being able to hear these steps as they’re being taken is really, really valuable and we’re wrapped to be able to bring this to you guys. Alright, so let’s jump in. I’m absolutely wrapped to introduce the guy who has been around Pravar for a little while. He’s going to tell his story today, obviously incorporating some of that stuff, but it’s a great story. We’re welcoming Anthony Rentzis. So Anthony, welcome to the Trade Den. Thanks for having me guys. Pleasure, pleasure and I mean, it has been a great journey. I’ve been lucky enough to be there for your whole journey and being able to see everything going on. This so many threads to this story, which we’re absolutely going to pull apart today in different chapters and uncover some of these challenges and strategies and some of the transformations you’ve had, which is really exciting and been great to watch. So looking forward to getting into the depths of what you’ve been through over the last couple of years, mate.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Looking forward to recapping it mate.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Alright, so let’s kick off. Let’s go with the basic. Let’s just get a bit of a ground zero and start off with some basic information, a bit of name and roll call. So just give us your name, role in the business, what business you run, and we’ll go from there.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Awesome. So my name’s Anthony Rentzis, as you alluded to. I own and operate both Hypower Electrical and Security and also Absolute Airflow. We’re a electrical contracting and security contractor and also a HVAC contractor based in Melbourne and we service all of Melbourne and Victoria. The businesses, Hypower’s been operating for a little over eight years now and Absolute in just under three years now. So currently we employ 5 in the office and 12 on the ground, so 17 in total and started with Pravar back in February 21.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Brilliant. I love it. I love it. And you’re a high achiever as everyone’s going to learn as they walk through this journey with you. You’ve got not just one but two businesses. So let’s get the big elephant out of the room. How many hours on average are you working? Let’s start with now, what’s your average hours a week look like?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Average hours are around 40 to 45 hours a week.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Brilliant. All right. That’s the first mind blowing thing that I think about with everything that you’ve got going on. To be able to do that mate is a great achievement. So no, it’s good to hear that that is the norm. I know most people would probably thinking he’s going to lobby in 70, 80 or something crazy, but it’s good to hear that things are manageable at that 40 to 45. Sure are mate. Awesome. All right, let’s go into a bit of buildup. I’m going to start with a question about what got you motivated to get into business. So let’s go all the way back to that and you sort of, you’re a young guy already, but even younger and where did you come up with, what was it that motivated you to get into business in the first place?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I think a big motivator for me was the thought around having freedom in life and I saw business as a vehicle to create that freedom to buy back some time to obviously give me more choices, just spend more time with my family, just have more quality of life essentially.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So Anthony, outside of that motivation, give us a little bit of colour and contrast around what business and life was like before you started coaching. What sort of situations were you in and paint that picture for us.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
So I had a bit of a sliding doors moment just before I started the business. I was working for someone, I was overseas travelling and had a bit of a bad accident with myself when I was in Greece. I dove in the water and it was a little bit too shallow and broke my neck and at that point I essentially was nearly quadriplegic and nearly died right there then. So that was a bit of a pivotal sort of sliding doors moment in my life that I really understood that life is definitely short and I want to get to where I want to get to as fast as possible.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Had you always had that sort of feeling about that need to achieve or was the accident something that brought that on and it just was that moment where you thought, I’ve got to change things? What was the problems you felt you needed to solve as a result of coming out of the accident?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So I always felt like I wanted to be in business. My parents owned businesses when they were younger. I just thought that was the natural progression that I was always going to take. But having this accident really gave me perspective on life and made me look at things a lot differently and I really just thought that time is the one thing that we can lose at that point and time is the one thing I really want to have in life. So business was the one vehicle to actually buy me back that time.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Alright, so you’ve had the accident, you came good. So how long were you out of action for a while? You sort of went from working for someone else, went away and had the business where you had the business at the start there?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, so I mean I had finished my A grade and I had always planned on taking sort of a year long trip, got four months into it, the accident happened. I was actually over in Greece for recovering from this. I actually couldn’t get on an aeroplane or anything like that for about two months. Then they flew me back and then from that point I was pretty rock bottom at that point. I had to spend about nine months recovering doing water therapy and everything like that just to get normal mobility back and normal strength back in my body. It was quite a low point in my life because at that point I wasn’t working. I was on Centrelink. That was the lowest of low for me.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Absolutely, and let’s just stress for the listener, you’re fully recovered now. No, I mean obviously you’ve got to manage it, you can’t do certain things but fully recovered and up and about. We’ll get more into your personal journey as we go forward. It’s pretty amazing. But all recovered.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
All recovered now. Yeah, really healthy and apart from a nice big scar on my neck and a titanium plate fastened to three vertebrae, I’m as good as gold.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Wow, wow, I’m glad to hear it. So in those days, and you start the business, obviously you come out of this and you think, right, I’m going to make up for lost time. I’m going to really make every poster a winner. You start getting into business and then you start to realise that things move on. So what were those pains and stresses, emotions and how did that play out when you started to run and you said, right, let’s have a real crack at this. How did those first few steps feel?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
They were challenging because you don’t have all the answers and I mean no one can really prepare you for business. Yes, we’re tradesmen, but we don’t have all the answers to actually run a successful business and that’s where I felt I was becoming unstuck. Some of the hours that I was working were ginormous at that time in my life with just starting the business.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And those hours coupled with I think you had a young family at the time and you sort of got to that point where it was like, I need some help here. So what was that sort of, can you remember the trigger point or where you got to in terms of that journey where you thought this going it alone and as fast as I can is probably not going to be the most sustainable strategy I could come up with?
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, it definitely wasn’t. I mean, I had a baby coming in five months. I think it was February, 2021 I started and I had a baby coming in June. I felt like at that time I really just didn’t have any time to breathe, let alone have time for my partner or be the best dad or leader that I can for my family. Family at that time.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
And you’ve done all this work to recover, so the business is starting to demand more of you. You’ve got young family on the way. Health I think from memory was starting to suffer as well. So things were starting to pile up on you, weren’t they?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, they were. I mean to give you context, I was working 70 hours a week. I was on the tools full time at that point we were doing about$750k to $1mil in Rev. My relationship with my partner Paige was nowhere near where it should have been at that point. We had no admin or office support at that time and I was using alcohol as an outlet for stress and that was a real big thing that really was bad for me.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
So across the board, the warning signs were starting to go off. So Anthony, as you start taking these sort of tentative steps, you’re starting to run the business, the families coming, you can sort of sense that there’s pressures building from what you’ve told us already, albeit you’re making good progress, but I’m interested to know what was it about coaching that you’re attracted to or what did you see as coaching being able to provide you when it was going to be something more that you had to do?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, I think I’ve always been one that I’m not a know-it-all essentially, and I always seek help around me from people that know better or can teach me something better. So when I saw Rob’s Facebook post pop up, it resonated with me because it wasn’t just a specific, let’s just build our business at any cost. It doesn’t matter about family or anything that comes across those lines. It was more of a holistic approach around coaching and that’s what really resonated with me.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
I can see that now knowing you as a person, I can see how that would’ve been so important for you too because anything that would’ve been that sort of flash in the pan or that let’s just do this and blow this out of the water and scale it as much as you were trying to achieve certain things, it was really important for you to have that balance across all those facets of your life.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I remember our first call, Anthony, it’s so long ago now, but what I was really impressed about you mate is you’re a young guy, you’re ambitious and I can see that you had real drive and we’ve seen that so much in the last say two and a half years since you started. It’s been a pretty incredible journey for you to be able to achieve what you’ve been able to do in such a short amount of time. It’s been a wild old ride.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
It has definitely. Yeah, it’s definitely had its ups and downs, but there’s been that steady progression the whole way through.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And I think what I like about a big part of your early journey as well mate, is that not only did you love the business side of things, but you’ve also got a real passion for property as well. You love your developments and everything. Talk us through a little bit about that as well before we get too much into things. More to be able to give some context around how that’s been a big part of your journey and how you’ve also really wanted to use business in your early days as a drive for that too.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah, I think wealth creation for me is a massive part of things and what coaching has obviously taught me and certain things that it’s helped me establish is it’s put more structure back in my business. That structure has really just allowed me to buy time back that I can focus on wealth creation and obviously the property side of things, which I do really, really enjoy and love.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
That sense of wealth creation. Anthony, where did that come from for you? Was it something that you carried all the way through business or did it grow over time when you realised what the opportunities of business could bring or was it something innately in you that you thought wealth creation’s going to be something that I really want to want to play this game?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I think the whole wealth creation side of things is the freedom that it gives you and the actual opportunity that it gives you. Whether if I can get to a certain point in my life quicker, it actually allows me to decide what type of life I can live in, what type of life I want to have for both myself and for my family.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I love that. I really do. I think that’s great. I think people underestimate that it’s not wealth creation for the purposes of let’s see what sort of empire I can build, but what does it allow me to do be or have as a result of building up this wealth? How can I contribute to others? Those sort of things are really important to you.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Yeah, choices mate, definitely.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Excellent. Alright, so if we look then at the coaching that you have had, I want to get into this and probably some of those key achievements that you were able to achieve. So can you remember, if you look back on this journey so far, we’ll jump ahead and go into what were the achievements as a result of coaching at Pravar? What do you think you’re able to achieve in that time?
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So I mean when I was having a little think about this, I’ve broken it down into a couple of different areas and there’s parts of it that I’ll start with. It’s obviously the revenue and the profit growth standpoint. So for me as a business, we’ve gone from $1 million of thereabouts revenue to about $3.6m across two businesses in the last two and a half years. It’s obviously enabled me to build structures and leverage my time and basically both businesses are close to being under management now.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
It’s a pretty awesome achievement in such a short amount of time. We always talk a lot about sustainable growth over a period of time, but it’s been quite the achievement for you to be able to do that. Looking back over just over two and a half years to be able to go from $1m to about $3.5 million dollars over two and a half years, it’s been a pretty incredible journey, hasn’t it man?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
It really has. And what happens then? This always astounds me when I start to talk to guys around this and the guys that go on this journey like yourself. What was the next one? I suppose it always comes down to, I’m sure you’ve got something to say about it, but that relationship with time or what happened when you went from that size from $1m to $3.6m, 2 businesses. Now again we sort of know where you’ve ended up, but what was that journey with your relationship to time along the way?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, so I was working 70 hours a week, I’ve dropped that down to 40, which was huge all while growing my business. The time side of things is obviously huge. I’ve now got a nine day fortnight rolling day off that I have. I don’t work weekends, which is another big thing for both my family and for time for myself as well. For example, earlier this year I took a month off. I came back to essentially no problems in the business at all. Things were still functioning, admin was still rolling, operations were still going, well basically sales were still coming through the door. So that was a real pivotal moment to see earlier this year how far the business and obviously myself had come.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
What a great achievement mate and a lot of business owners think that the more growth that I’m going to have, the more I have to work. But you’ve absolutely debunked that myth where by through good growth and good structures, you’ve been able to reduce your hours. And you said before that you’ve got pretty much both businesses under management.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
What would you feel if we look at these key achievements, which ones would you feel comfortable? You’ve told us about revenue and profit growth, which is awesome.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
The time is honestly one of the biggest things for me. Having good structure in the businesses has just allowed that to come to fruition. You really understand when certain things happen in your life that time is the one thing that you can’t get back. So obviously with my accident that happened, that was the one thing that it was that sliding doors moment that I saw and that pivotal light bulb moment that went off in my head that I really realised at that point that time is the one thing you can’t get back. And I think you take things for granted just going through life, going through the motions until something happens. And a lot of the time it is when a loved one dies later in life or you have an accident or something along those lines occurs that you realise that hey, I should have spent more time with that person or hey, time was the one thing that I wanted back.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
And in terms of what you’ve been able to do with that time that either you’ve created or got back, I mean for someone who’s so passionate about wealth creation and business listener might be sitting there going, well this guy’s absolutely driven, there must be nothing else in his life, but how do you choose to reconcile that now that you’ve been able to achieve this stuff with time, how do you now choose to spend your time and what do you look forward to doing with your time?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, so obviously the wealth creation side is a big thing. So I leverage obviously my time to start that second business, which was Absolute Airflow and that’s been running for just under three years now and obviously it’s bought back time for me to focus on some of my property development work.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
With the other part of time. I know that Paige and Logan, two very important ladies in your life is huge for your family, super important to you knowing really well. What’s that time afforded for you? I know you love your fishing, your family, talk us through what you’ve been able to get back in terms of nights, weekends and just general family life in general.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, so I mean at the start my phone was going off until 10 o’clock at night and I allowed that to happen and that was huge. The fact that now I come home and I get no phone calls past 5:00 PM and I don’t allow that to happen. I protect that time, I know how valuable that is. I don’t take phone calls, I don’t work weekends and I’ve got time to go fishing and switch off. I’ve got time to go. This past weekend that went past, I went to Red Hill with the girls and there was no distractions from work, had half a day off on Friday, no distractions from work and enjoyed the whole weekend altogether.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, I love it. And you’re a mad fisherman as well, you may as well throw that in. You love catching a big hole.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I do mate, I do. You’re not wrong there. Having the time to do the things you love as well is just as important as having that time with your family and doing things outside of work. So yeah, love to get on my boat and go fishing and having good structure in places has freed me up to do that.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
And I think it adds to a bit of a personal transformation you’ve been able to achieve as well. And I know you’ve had some pretty big things happen with relationships through family, whether you want to talk about it or not, but with your father making you the sort of and informing and allowing you to become that family man and leader that you are today.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, so I mean personal transformation over the past two and a half years has probably been the biggest thing personally for me. And one thing we do talk about in coaching is facing the facts and facts were that there were a lot of things in my life that needed fixing one of those being my relationship with my dad wasn’t great. I had to face the facts around that and really dig deep and do what I needed to do to get on top of that. The second fact was that alcohol was not serving me to where it should have been. It was an outlet for stress and that I needed to get on top of that, which transforming those things and getting those things right has helped me grow my business. It’s helped with my life creation, it’s helped with buying back my time. That was the catalyst that I really needed to be aware of to actually fix.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Yeah, and I remember I was having a conversation, I think it was in Hamilton Island at your first mastermind weekend and you were asking about the relationship to alcohol and this idea of how do you change it and what do you do? And I think for people that are listening to you now, just take us back to what or who Anthony was at that time in that moment when you really made that choice, you hadn’t done it, you’re not two and a half years down the track, you’re literally in that moment thinking, can I make this shift? So what sort of guy were you back in those days of just changing that relationship with alcohol?
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, so I mean obviously I wasn’t dealing with stress. Well we had a new baby, my daughter Logan that was here and wasn’t the partner that I should have been for Paige because I was dealing with stress by using alcohol and that was stress related to having a new child dealing with all these things around business and that was just making things worse. So I think I actually had a conversation with one of the other guys in lifestyle in the toilet and I distinctly remember him saying, which sticks out in my head. And he was saying as Adrian a fellow guy lifestyle was actually he let me know that in the toilet that he hasn’t had an argument since stopping alcohol with his partner. And just that one conversation that one little nugget in my head stood out so much and it wasn’t for about a couple of months until I stopped, but that was just kept ringing and kept ringing and I knew that I just had to take that bad habit out of my life.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
So how did you go about that? What did you actually do and talk us through that little phase of your journey.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
So it was actually one of the challenges in my roundtable group in Pravar and that was mine to stop drinking and I knew I had to change it, but it wasn’t until I got a couple of months down the track that I saw the benefits of what it was doing to everything in my life that, yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
What were some of the early changes you noticed as soon as you did that? What was sort of some of the things that you maybe didn’t expect that came about?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Relationship was so much better with my partner, my connection and my presence with my daughter was miles better. Just my memory came back, which was great. I always thought I had a terrible memory and that was the one thing that came back that I thought, no, it was definitely the alcohol. So yeah, there was so many positives that came out of it. My health and fitness, it benefited immensely. I was able to lose about 10 kilos. It’s the fittest I’ve ever been to date now. So yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I really love that story. And mate, thank you very much for sharing it and it’s amazing that you can have one, this is the power of community and the power of being surrounded by people who lift you up and encourage you and inspire you to make different changes. But isn’t it amazing that one really powerful conversation with Adrian’s had another big trajectory change in your life? It’s amazing that one conversation wasn’t it?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, it was. And if, I don’t think if I was in coaching right now, if I wasn’t in coaching and not have had those conversations and not face the facts, there’s no way I don’t think I’d be in a relationship. My family would be broken and I’d be stressed and dealing with all sorts of problems because I didn’t face the facts around one thing. And having that good community around you and that support was huge. It was immense. I remember Adrian reaching out to me every couple of weeks just to see how I was tracking with it and doing that’s something you get from a friend of 40 years that’s just incredible.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
And isn’t it amazing that we’ve got a completely different culture amongst our communities at the moment where that whole culture, especially in the trades and construction industry, it’s a real thing where substance abuse around alcohol, drugs and all those types of things, rife is rife through the industry not only because of the industry but the stress associated with running a business in that industry. But mate, you’ve been a big part of changing the culture not only within our communities but really inspiring other people to transform their relationship with alcohol. Not everyone’s given up, but a lot of people have significantly reduced their alcohol intake and changed that relationship haven’t they, did you want to talk a little bit about what you’ve seen amongst our communities at different people’s relationships with alcohol?
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, there’s been a huge shift around it. I think as Australians there’s a massive culture around drinking and substance abuse and in our community especially, I mean we’ve seen because such a close knit vulnerable community, I think when they’ve seen such positive results out of one person and that it’s doable, I think that’s really just flowed the whole way through, which it is from when I started to where it is now, the amount of people either giving up or really reducing the alcohol or substance intake is just immense.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
So we’re out in the journey now Anthony, there’s obviously a lot going on. You mentioned wanting a holistic coaching experience. I think you’ve absolutely pulled that out for yourself through the coaching you’ve had. If we come back to the strategic side of coaching, the things that allowed you to do that. I think for you probably Rob and I have both coached you, I think there’s sort of three phases to this journey. The first one is really about you in phase one, getting off the tools and sort of getting that support and structure you spoke about. Can you remember what those early days were trying to get off the tools? Were you a guy that just walked off the tools and said never again or was it sort of a challenge and you were the guy buzzing around site? How was that like for you?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
No, I think the whole transition took about 12 months to fully get off the tools. But I did find myself at certain times when I was trying to be out in the field and then trying to do admin work. So I had my laptop on site trying to get out quiets, trying to speak to customers. I just completely, in an eight hour, 10 hour day, I’d get probably 25 minutes of work done. It was half as work as well. So I just knew at that point that I’m not as productive was where I should be and that’s not the position that I needed to be in for the business.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
And I bet the teams love that too. When you’re trying to be on a laptop, they want questions answered. Your admins looking for stuff, they would’ve loved you at that point in time I bet.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
It was hard going.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Yeah, for sure. Can you remember what it was like trying to build that team up then? You’re trying to get off the tools, you know need team, you’ve still got to keep the business running, but that first time you had admin, I remember you going through the process of interviewing for admin. How did you feel walking into a place, we’ll get into moving out of home shortly, but getting into a position where you had admin and support and people you could actually get to do things for you. These low value tasks as we call.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, I remember when admin came on board it was just like a breath of fresh air. It’s just so many things that I could just offload that I did not have to worry about day to day and I could just focus on the main things and the main things that were going to drive the business forward.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
And I think that’s where it comes into that thing where you talked about before becoming sales driven and sales focused. The ability to do that then sharpens up once you get the support around you. It’s amazing how quickly what becomes important for you to be doing shows up when you get the support in and around you
Speaker 1 (28:46):
100%. And I just felt like when I was out on the field, I was just half asing little bits and pieces when I didn’t have all that support. I was just half-assing every single little thing in the business. So I was doing admin but I was doing admin 15 hours worth of admin, but I was trying to do 40 hours worth of it and it just wasn’t done how it should be. So it just offloading those low value tasks to everyone else could just mean that I could focus on what I need to do really well.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
And I think the other big lever in this first phase was getting out of home and into the office. I mean for guys that are going through that journey, I’ve seen it so many times where guys have been pushing and pushing and pushing. They finally make that break where they get all the stuff off their porch and out of their lounge room and they start to have an office. Can you remember what those early days were like when you made that transition?
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah, it gave me a sense of this is a real business now. It went from being in the living room with distractions and all the rest to hey, this is real now. It gave me a sense of belonging as a business owner, which was really cool at the time.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
I love that. That’s that validation for I belong here and I want to be doing this. It’s not a fear, it’s not out of the guys that do this really well, I find, I dunno about you Rob, but guys that do this move well, they’re excited for it, they’re enthusiastic about it and they take it as a step up and a responsibility rather than that fearful of how am I going to afford rent, what does it mean now? And oh geez, I can’t go back anymore. All those sort of things come up.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, I’ve never heard a lot of the fear for a lot of business owners when they first move out of home is how am I going to afford this and what is this going to mean for me? And I’ve never heard a client say, gee, I’m glad I stayed at home for the last five years. As soon as they move into a property, it creates this. I really love what you said there, Anthony. It creates a sense of, oh shit, I’m actually really running a business here and I’ve got something that I can put something on my front door and there’s somewhere to turn up. Anthony, what did that do for separation between business life and family life? How would those early stages enable you to create that separation? To be able to be there in business and be a good family man by creating that separation.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
So obviously you can basically compartmentalise your life to a degree. You can leave work at work and have home time at home time and you’re not crossing those boundaries because it’s very easy if you’ve got your office at home to just quickly walk into the office or walk into the living room, rip your laptop out, keep going with work and whatnot. Yeah, great.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
What did that do for your relationship then with Paige and Logan? How was that a real turning point for not only set you up for growth on the business side of things, but how did that really then help strengthen your relationship on the family front and take that to another level?
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Yeah, I could be present. I could be present when I got home. That was one of the biggest things, things, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yeah, I love that and that takes me to phase two for you is you went on this real journey of growth, then you’d set the foundations in place, you’d got off the tools, got some admin in place and some sales support. Also know from memory then you also put some job management in there to be able to cut some time back and make things a lot more efficient. But that really then set your phase two with your growth phase. Talk us through a little bit about the early part of that part of growth phase. I know for you you’re a natural sales guy and that’s purely down to your relationships, but by getting that time back, where were you able to invest that time to be able to then really focus on growth?
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Yeah, I became really sales driven at that point. I realised that to grow the business sales were the main thing that was going to unlock all the capacity in the business for me.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, great. What were some of the avenues that you were able to open up by focusing on the sales focus? What other avenues in your business were you able to expand into?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
It obviously allowed me to really focus on different avenues in the business, so I opened up a second sort of business inside Hypower, which was the security side of things, which probably equates for about 60% to 70% of our business now. It’s a real big thing, it’s high profit work and that enabled me early days to really focus on building the business in that level.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yeah, great. I love that. You’ve spoken a lot so far around talking a lot about Hypower, but you said at the start of this episode that you were talking a bit about Absolute as well. Talk us through that journey where you made the decision to be able to then open up a second business by obviously getting time back, it gave you the space to be able to think outside the box. What was the move for HVAC for you?
Speaker 1 (33:55):
So I saw it as an avenue that could obviously create a little bit of work for high power as well because Hypower is an electrical contracting business. There is an element of electrical that ties in with the HVAC, but obviously buying that time back, I was able to venture into something else and the big thing for that was I made a lot of the mistakes in my business, early days in Hypower. So I was able to actually get that business from $0 to $1 million within a first year and then $1 million to $2.2m within just under two years. So I was able to implement a lot of the same things that I did for Hypower. I made all those mistakes early days in that and I was able to implement it with very minimal mistakes, minimum mistakes in the second business. Basically just rinse and repeat, copy and paste basically the business design if you will. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
How did you feel that you’d shifted because obviously doing that second business, you’re going through the same growth momentum, that same attitude. I want to keep going, it’s going to be fast, I want to do it no slower than I need to. How did you feel you’d shifted when you were doing this through absolute versus the original days of Hypower? What do you think were some of the biggest differences you noticed within yourself when you went through that second time?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
I was just confident. I knew exactly what I needed to do. It was all the trial and error was done previously. I’d made those mistakes. I came out of it knowing everything and I was able to get that business up and running within three months, which previously something like that. To get job management systems dialled in to get your marketing dialled in to get everything in place takes a lot longer and there’s a lot more mistakes. I was actually able to just fast track things with that.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
Can you remember the one mistake you said to yourself with absolute, there’s no way I’m going to make this same mistake again. What was that sort of that one thing you can remember if there was one?
Speaker 1 (35:57):
I’m not sure. I think I was pretty, yeah, I think I was. I dialled in with it. I mean it wasn’t too much. I didn’t make a second mistake twice.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
I love it. There you go. There’s that confidence. We know that’s Anthony if you’re listening in, he doesn’t make mistakes twice. That’s such a true statement with you if you commit. I think that commitment shows through all the way through, which is great. The other part of this phase three, if we talk about it, so going through that growth phase, huge amount of success, really onboarding and executing well I think is really that phase two learning to execute is massive and we talk about this all the time in coaching. The ability to execute is what separates people that move forward and guys that sort of spin their wheels or get held up. So that’s really important. Phase three then, and this is another part of the well trod journey, is this idea about knowing your numbers and getting deeper into learning to manage and run a business. And I know for you you really dived all in once you got this in and recognised this, but talk us a little bit through your journey about what you did with the numbers and the information you were starting to understand from what your numbers were telling you.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
The numbers side of things. I knew early days was a bit of a weakness for myself and there was a moment in leverage that one of the coaches was talking numbers and it clicked me. I’m like, I actually dunno nowhere near where I need to. And from that point I made it a pretty conscious effort to really understand my numbers well I knew that no one cares like you care and if you don’t know your numbers, your business is going to fail eventually.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Yeah, and how did you get over that? A lot of guys have this and I really want to hear from you Anthony. How hard was it or how did you get over that hump of having to say, I don’t know, is it something that comes easy to you or is it something that was drummed into you or you’ve picked up over coaching? You have to ask for the help when you need it and how did you come up with that sort of, I don’t know this in front of a group of guys who are my peers? How do I sort of get that help and understanding? What was your approach to getting that?
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Again, back to facing the facts, the fact was I didn’t know my numbers as well as I should have and I needed to get help, I needed to understand and if the business was to survive, it’s up to me to know them and get them, well get them right, make sure the business runs effectively.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
So what was your strategy to know them? Was it just dive in? Was it talking to a coach? Was it just looking at these reports, an accountant? What was it? All of it.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Yeah, I mean I set monthly meetings with my accountant. That was a big thing. Really, really wanted to work closely with him. So it’s not just every six or 12 months we get to the end of it and I just don’t know why I’ve gotten the tax bill or something specifically happens. Having my finger on the pulse, he’s crucial. It’s like daily, three, four times a day I look through all my accounting software and that is the biggest difference because understanding the numbers tells all the story in your business and you can pick little things up efficiencies where you can be doing things better.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Did you find that, I mean a lot of guys when they guys start diving into their numbers, they don’t know them well and they’re sort of sorry that they ever looked occasionally. Did you ever have that sort of reality check moment where you thought in the time, geez, this is painful to hear this story, but in hindsight you’re glad you did painful
Speaker 1 (39:26):
But it’s exciting, you know, can change things, you know, understand things, you know what you need to do to swing things around.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Did that happen with absolute and Hypower? I’m trying to think from memory. I think you had that moment where I think it might’ve been around the end of 2022, the revenue looked good, the numbers would’ve been telling a story, the bank account or whatever it was was showing certain things, but when you really understood your numbers better, there was that moment where you had a loss.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
So 2022 and we grew. We grew and without diving into my numbers well and understanding my numbers, we grew. And I know that once I turned things around and I started really delving into my numbers and understanding my numbers, well we grew from I think $2.2 mil with a loss to $3.62 with probably a $650,000 net profit turnaround.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Such incredible numbers isn’t it
Speaker 3 (40:30):
Really is. And I think this is where all as you listen to this really take on board those three phases of this, none of this all happened at once. It was a very deliberate, very strategic, very well thought out approach. But again, execution at every level was important. You couldn’t have, even if you knew the numbers, if you hadn’t have done phase one that we’ve spoken about, that wouldn’t have translated into the gains that you got. If you hadn’t have done any one of these sort of steps or any one of these phases, you would’ve been on a very different path again. So Anthony, I really love that. And Rob, I know you were coaching Anthony a lot in, I think you had him for leverage for a big part of that. What did you sort of see across these phases? And I think more importantly, what did, as Anthony put these blocks in and he was busy doing that, what did that strategically allow to happen operationally in the business from you looking in at a distance at this growth that was happening?
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah, it was a pretty incredible 12 month period to be able to go from a loss to a profit in that 12 month period of around that $650k. That’s an incredible turnaround and that’s a testament to Anthony’s level of execution. For those who know Anthony, he just executes like an absolute champion. But it was also his ability not to focus on 101 different strategies. It was really pulling apart the key levers which contributed to those bottom line results. Back in that time it was transitioning away from unprofitable work to a lot more profitable work. That was the first big time Anthony, the next big one would’ve been labour management. We spent a lot of time around really managing labour. Because you were losing a lot of money on unproductive labour, weren’t you? Did you want to talk us through quickly around what that looked like from a labour side of things?
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Yeah, I recognised earlier that there was probably 50% of high power’s business that I was doing specific work that was just not profitable and it wasn’t suitable for our business anymore. And that’s where we made a conscious effort pretty quickly, which it wasn’t probably the smartest thing to do right at the time, but we just couldn’t go on like that. So we made a conscious effort to pretty much pull that work very quickly and pivot into a different area.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
And that was a big, was a scary moment for you because that was a large amount of your top line. Whilst it didn’t contribute to a lot of margin for you that was a pretty scary time for you, wasn’t it moving away and almost saying no to that work going forward, wasn’t it?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
It was, yeah, but the good thing it was that I did have, I had time and for two to three weeks I really focused on my business development work and really hustled to get certain things in the door. I wouldn’t have been able to do that prior. I would’ve had to stick that work out and keep doing it because I wouldn’t have had the time to focus on getting either other builders on board, focusing on different avenues for revenue.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Great, awesome. It was the elimination of unprofitable work, replacing that with profitable work. It was the ability to be able to have the time to do better labour management through your job management system and that job management system was critical for you wasn’t it? To be able to see where your labour was going on, how to improve purchasing labour, labour management, that was a big journey you went on wasn’t it?
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Was definitely.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Yeah. Great. Awesome. So when we look at your journey, Anthony, it hasn’t just been you working on absolutely everything at one time and I think that’s one big mistake that a lot of business owners try to make. They try to make sweeping change all at the same period. Whilst it was only in a pretty short amount of time, two and a half years mate, for you’d be able to go from $1 million to $3.6m over that two and a half period time, but that phased approach that you went through, I really love that about how you’ve gone about approaching it phase one, getting off the tools, getting support in around you, getting at a home. That was a big foundational phase for you. Phase two was about getting into the growth phase, opening the second business and really driving the top line whilst it came with a bit of challenge around a bit of unprofitable growth. I really liked that that set you onto your phase three around really knowing your numbers and setting you on that journey to really understand them, know what levers to pull and how to really turn this business around and really drive that bottom line. It’s been quite the journey and it’s such an impressive journey over a shorter period of time. It’s been pretty awesome.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
It really has. I said it at the start of the show today about how many threads we could start pulling on. I think we’ve pulled on most of them, but I think it’s testament to that idea that most people will overestimate what they can do in 12 months, but underestimate what they can do in, I think the saying goes maybe 10 years, but for you it’s probably that three years. I mean if we lined all this up and said this is what’s on your radar for what’s coming. I don’t think you would’ve been able to handle that at the time, but the way you’ve gone through, it’s been huge. So thank you for sharing that with us. I think to round us out, I really do want to get your take on coaching and probably I know how you’ve lent into it and the benefits you’ve got from it, but I’m keen to hear from you sort of your favourite aspect of coaching and especially coaching at Pravar and then yeah, we’ll look to wrap it up.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yeah, so I mean coaching at Pravar has been terrific over the last couple of years. I wouldn’t be in it now if it wasn’t working wonders for both my personal and my professional life. I’ve loved all the different levels of coaching so far. Obviously launch is terrific because you learn a lot of the fundamentals and you learn a lot of the basic habits that it takes to actually run a successful business. Leverage was just that little step up from that and then veering into lifestyle. Lifestyle is just a whole nother beast. And the community that is in lifestyle is just words can’t explain and how that is, I can’t explain that to a lot of people because people just wouldn’t understand how it is. So the vulnerability of the group is just amazing. The support that you get if someone’s gone MIA for a week or so, people don’t hear from ’em. You’ve got half a dozen people calling to see how things are going. It’s a real brotherhood I feel.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
Brilliant. And I think that it’s important to point out as you talk through those programmes, you were the first prototype if you like to come out through launch two leverage programme into lifestyle. So to have you go through that journey and see you come out the other side if you like this journey still going obviously, but to see that it’s been huge for Rob and I. I don’t know if you want to add anything, Rob, in terms of just how that sort of played out, watching Anthony go through those programmes as well.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
When I think about Anthony’s story, it’s been a real story of transformation, a real story of a big story of turnaround that period and those two were hand in hand, you turn around and transformation all happened at the same time and they were all hand in hand in doing that. But it’s been amazing to be able to watch your growth over that period of time, going through those programmes, executing like a champion. It’s been really inspiring mate. And for you to be able to have such a big part in our lifestyle group is huge. And Dan, we see it, Anthony, he is a big personality in the group and he plays such an integral part within our community.
Speaker 3 (48:39):
He Does. He’s a quiet achiever, but he’s a very productive and a high executor I would say with that. And I think Anthony, just as you rounded out as well, mate, to give you the last sort of thing to say that moment for you and what you talked about for facing the facts, is there anything you’d say to anyone who’s listening that you’d sort of say, if they’re thinking about getting into coaching or anything that you’ve said today that resonates in terms of where they might be right now, what would it be that advice you’d give to them If things are happening in your life and if there are pain points, address them. Things just don’t go away. You have to face them head on and face the facts and work through ’em.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Speaker 3 (49:16):
And you’ve definitely done that mate, and for your honesty and going through that and continuing to walk that journey that we talk about. Yeah, all we can say is thank you and we look forward to seeing what this next chapter has and maybe we’ll get you back on in a little while to tell the next chapter, I can’t help but feel it and I know you do too, Rob, that there is probably at least one or two more chapters to the whole Anthony Rentzis story.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
I would agree. So thank you very much for being on tonight today, mate. And if you’ve been listening today and you’ve really enjoyed today’s episode, please make sure you hit that follow button. Leave us a review and give us some feedback in terms of what you’ve taken away the most out of today’s episode. Join us in the Trade Den community. Let’s get the conversation started. What was the biggest thing that you took away from Anthony’s story and what really resonated with you most? And if you know someone who, one of your mates, colleagues or whatever it is in the industry who you know that would benefit from this story the most, please share it with them because it’s stories like this for real, stories of real people who have gone on a really amazing journey. That’s what inspires other people to be able to get off their ass and do something about it. So thanks very much for tuning in today and Dan and I look forward to talking to you again next week.