Transcript episode 3

we’ve had a good relationship for the past few years

and I think we we met originally at a

like a business um

event that where we were talking about um

our mastery program and there was

you know

people that were already in the program and people that wanted to join

and you were sort of brought up as someone who was up and coming

and you remember

sort of where your business was at back in 2022

when you sort of first met

I guess we were a carpentry based business

supplying labour hire and quoted carpentry works

I’d also recently got my builder’s license

I probably had it for two years

so we’re doing you know

quoted carpentry works for other builders that we’ve created

relationships with for you know

five or 10 years before that

and then just doing my own minor building works

like a small extension Reno

you know

alfresco’s and decks and stuff like that

so we were

we were a small company we probably had like

you know two or three employees

but yeah it was a humble beginning

I guess just kept ticking over and ticking over

make sure we always had the schedule full

and yeah

the builders loved having us work with them

cause yeah we just got it done right

and was it was it always sort of something you wanted to do

you wanted to be a builder and you sort of wanted to get into this

you know this line of work

oh not really

I think early on in my apprenticeship I was

you know

set to be an employee just building up into a company and and

and doing it that way

and then as time went on I I just slowly slowly

you know moved away from being an employee

started subcontracting as a carpenter

then I built a team from from there as a sole trader

and then I don’t know the

the last just grow grew from there

I guess

became more relevant to me in the later period of if my career where

of my apprenticeship and my subcontracting career and then yeah

just decided to just buy the bullet studied for six to eight months

I think it was

I did my surf 4 when I was in fourth year

I think so that was already ticked off

got a couple of tutoring sessions

and just studied at home for six to eight months straight

didn’t drink didn’t do anything I was zoned in pretty hard

do you think that’s important when you sort of starting out to

to sort of up your focus

is to try and focus on your health a little bit as well

and you know what do you reckon that was a key

a key aspect of sort of

why you’ve been able to grow to sort of where you

are today yeah

I think it’s a massive pivotal point

there’s a period in my life or personal life where I wasn’t drinking

I wasn’t going to the pub with the boys

I was concentrating on this is what I really wanted

it was set set in my brain that this is what I wanted

I wanted to achieve it

and like I was one of the first people around me to get it

got it you know

when I was 27 so relatively young yeah

but there was yes

II gave up drinking for

you know probably nine months

and yeah that was definitely

definitely a really big pivotal moment in my life because it set me up

and it was that one decision to just do it yes

and now it’s just become a much larger beast

you know

we’ve got 13 guys on the team and running five to six jobs at once

all building building work

ranging from you know

1.6 mil down to 450 in job cost just

just running a good team of us

if you could give yourself your

a younger self some tradie advice

what’s one piece of advice that you’d give

hire qualified carpenter before an apprentice

and why is that freeze up your time

apprentice wages is you know

really good if they’re good carpentry skills

but you have to be at work every day

it’s probably one little thing I probably look back on and go

maybe I should have hired someone earlier

I had you know

two 2 apprentices under me before I hired a qualified tradesman

and then I realised well

qualified tradesman actually cost me more

but allows me to get out meet new people gets me out quoting

I’ll have time to quote yeah

I think that’s the one tip I would

I would give is just buy someone

a skill that allows you to get your time back

they may cost you more money wise

but gain that value back in your time

have you ever had any job that just went completely sideways and like

how did you how did you handle it or like what was

what was the end result

I wouldn’t say we’ve had a job that’s gone completely sideways

I’d just say you know

every job has its has its times where it’s things go wrong

I’d just say just trying to keep your composure

I’m like I’m still working on this consistently daily

like things tick me off

but the sooner you get used to them ticking you off

the quicker you can get over and solve the problem

that’s really what you’re trying to get to as well as the

you want the problem solved

it’s not no it’s not keep yeah

you can scream about things all you want

no you can

but it won’t solve

I don’t know I just feel that the more problems you have

the better you are at dealing with them

and then the less problems you have

because they’re not a problem anymore yeah

cause you’ve dealt with it before

it’s an easy fix or yeah

no worries or you put a process in place to avoid it next time

so every time we make a mistake or someone makes a mistake

we we sit down and we hear her up

how big is the mistake first of all

like is it minor or is it just you know

everyone makes mistakes every day

so is it big is it major

how do we stop this happening next time

and we just

me and my project manager just have a chat on the phone every night

and just discuss what went right

what went wrong at the end of the week

we chat about it

and I just consistently think of ideas on how to improve

so you know we we write processes

we write questionnaires we write

you know daily team huddles that we call or he calls

my project manager calls the guys 10:00 and 2:00

sees what’s going on how they’re going

what’s happened yep

is there any problems

need materials

and we’ve developed like a 10 questionnaire

that just allows Todd to just get to the point

it’s not a chit chat let’s go

what do we need when do we need it

that’s what’s happened

we get all the information we need and relay it back to me now

I’m gotta sort this out what’s happened or we use a site diary

which is just an app that boys are allowed to post photos side update

everything

just like just trying to continuously brand not brand bender wheel

but build build those little minor things to help

and is it so it doesn’t like

compile and sort of snowball into bigger problems as well

like if you’ve got all these sort of little things in place

and you’ve got you know

your site diary and you’ve got these questionnaires that you’re doing

all of these other ways that you can sort of fine tune how your

you know your company operates

and sort of how your boys operate on site as well

that’s sort of how

you’re able to sort of limit the mistakes that are happening

and sort of limit the defects that you

because that’s obviously another thing that comes into it is

I do get phone calls all the time of blokes

some will you know

they come back to me with this big defect list

and I thought that it was

you know I didn’t think there was that many defects

and have you

have you had dramas in the past where maybe sometimes there’s

there’s a little bit too much on the defect list or they’ve

I guess they probably put some Mayo on it

and they’ve put on there that these things need to be fixed

and they’re probably up to code as well

have you had any dramas with that in the past

yes I I have yes

there definitely is

it’s just all about communication like just gotta communicate to them

look

realistically if it’s on the defect list now for us we fix it yeah

there’s no questions if they’re not happy with it

we fix it

and that’s just we don’t argue about it

we just say oh yeah

that’s no worries what will you know

it’s like a paint defect or something that’s minute minuscule minor

no worries we’ll get it fixed

we haven’t really had any major defects other than just

you know

you miscellaneous painting or tiling or grouting or just caulking

just little ones which will fix

no worries but if that person’s not happy to work

there’s there’s a deeper problem there

I feel yeah

there’s something going on in your systems and processes that

you’ve missed that and there’s a massive defect list well

I think you

don’t need to blame the person that’s provided you the defect list

I think you need to go back and look at what’s going on in your

have a look at the mirror yeah

yeah and go

how are we gonna avoid this next time

and I would just fix all the defects and keep your relationship strong

What you think separates

a good builder from a great one’cause

there’s probably plenty of good builders out there

but not many great ones it’s communication

you need to communicate with your clients

and communicate with your architects

you need to be readily available to answer questions

and you need to be looking at the documents

and picking up any discrepancies

learning that now that

that’s a major thing that I need to account for

is making sure that the plans are correct

you know making sure communication is high on

if something changes on the plans

it’s get involved very action if it’s a plus or minus

it needs to be documented

you need to take photos of everything you do document that and just

you know set up site meetings with your clients and architects

get them involved get them out there

cause that also helps with the defect list you’re talking about

like you could build something and get your client back at the end

and I don’t like that

I wish I had the opportunity to to look at this one

it was like frame stage or when you were just about to tile or

you know cause that’s multiple hours help with this

like it’s not just cause you’re the builder or you pick up everything

yeah no

it’s not you gotta swallow the ego and let

let other people view your work and if they don’t

you know like it well

we’ll just discuss how to fix it and get it sorted

it’s just all communication reliability and trust

I feel you need to be able to trust your builder and look

you know we get emails every day

every afternoon about a couple of things

the act exchange or wants us to look at in further depth

and we go and do so and we report back to them

change tiles back

or they want to tile this room instead of floorboards

like little minuscule changes that like

may or may not affect the contract price

but involves us issuing some sort of change order yeah

that takes your time and it needs to be done quickly

cause otherwise it just gets missed

what about are there any great builders that you look up to

anyone that comes to mind and you know

what do you what do you admire about them

I can’t really pinpoint one

but there there definitely is a few that I look up to

but I guess there’s a few

few guys that are in the same position as me at the moment

we we chat and we discuss problems

and also help out a few guys that are just coming through the ropes

and learning as well they reach out for some help and yeah

I just I just let him pick my brains about a few things

and make sure they get the info they need

out of me only takes 10 minutes

it just gives you that good feeling of being able to help

someone else as well

let’s talk about a little bit of the team culture stuff as well

what do you think makes a good team

and helps them sort of stick together

I just think being approachable boss

look

there’s a fine line being an approachable boss and

and someone that’s just trying to be really friendly with their

with their team I feel there’s gotta be that split

so you gotta have that boss role and you’ve gotta be approachable

and the boys can talk to you about things

and the boys if they’re not happy

they can come talk

but when you rock up to site and maybe one of them’s like

he’s not around they all

you know bows on so I gotta get back to work like that’s

that’s the kind of environment that we have yeah

at bow made I respect all my team members that are on my team listen

you’ve got some heart

like I’ve seen your boys work on multiple jobs that we’ve done

the community work that we’ve done together

and they don’t stuff around

they really they don’t get stuck into it and I’ve yeah

developed a team that wanna be at work yeah

enjoy kind of work like it has its days

we have our days where you know as we said before

there’s some mistakes or problems

but we’ve just learnt to just deal with them fix them

and the boys openly communicate them to me

we just talk through the problems and how we can fix it

what’s the solution

how did it happen why did it happen

just ask all the fundamental questions

that you might think are really minor

and what’s the point it’s a mistake anyway

but just how you get your brain ticking on how to fix these things

cause I’m sure it’s happening to every

building and construction company around Australia

around the world how you deal with it

how you adapt to those things happening

and then just making sure your boys are learning

so they’re not just coming to work and being a carpenter

or being an apprentice they’re developing their skills

they’ve got a plan in place to develop their skills

and where they should be in three to six

nine months yep three

six nine

12 I guess

can you do a bit of goal setting with them as well

yeah

we do development plans every six months where we set the boys up with

yeah three

six nine or three

six 12 goals

so I want you to be here in 12 months

I want you to be doing this in three

this in six so you get these tracks of where they’re at

and they’re setting them up themselves as well

yeah

we review it every second week of every month in our team meetings

we just let the boys go around in a zoom call and I’ll just ask

I answer ask them to answer three questions

the question is how have you progressed this month

what have you progressed with and what still needs working on

and they openly say what they think

and then I’ll chime in and let them know if that’s correct

or we need to work on this

or it’s in front of everyone

so I don’t know it’s just like another skill that the boys learn

of talking in front of people and discussing

what’s going on in their career

cause it’s different to the guys sitting next to them yeah

they’re at different stages

every single one of them is at different stages of the career

I’ve got guys from

one guy’s is around 40 and then I’ve got the guys down to 21 so

you know they’re just different stages of career

and different stages of development

I did want to talk about was the other day

we had a chat on the phone and we needed to sort out some

some tool insurance so what was the experience there and sort of

we’ve obviously got our fantastic sponsor AIMA Insurance

who has been kind enough to

we’ve been looking after our members for probably

I think it’s about four or five years now

we’ve been in partnership with Alma and yeah

so what what was the situation there

for

for your boys

I think I had a conversation with them about tool insurance and

and the financial use of it yeah

I think Riley called me and said

oh I need to get some tool insurance

do you know anyone

and I said oh

just let me

speak to Matty and I’m pretty sure they’ll have someone for us

I sent you an email

I called you I think I called you first

and then yeah

you sorted it out in like eight minutes

sent a shot off an email

and then I think I might reach out to all the boys the next day

which was awesome yeah

and they’re all super stoked because yeah

a few of them were struggling to find someone that would hmm

cause I know

you know tool theft is massive at the moment

so it’s huge yeah

I think a few guys are finding it hard

and just running the risk without any

to be honest

a few of the boys drive company cars

so they lucky cause it would come under my insurance

but a few of them yeah need

you need to get your tools insured

why do you think tool insurance is important for

for young chippies

like apprentices you know

young qualified cause so many people just forego and they say look

you know I forgo

I forego it and I got my car stolen and yeah

lost about 25 grand at the tools when I was 21

so I think it happens to everyone

at least once so if it hasn’t happened to you yet

it will and it’s not even that expensive

it’s tax deductible yeah

I just feel it just saves you so much heartache

trying to build that collection back up

because like oh yeah

they stole all the big ticket items

but you forget all the little things you bought like

you know tin snips

screwdrivers and then it takes you out outside trying to

trying to do something and then

you know oh

they stole that too oh

you know like they stole everything out of my car

like pencils jackets

like the whole thing is cleared out

yeah and I was like oh

wasn’t too much in the back

and then once I got a new car and

you know bought some tools

I was like I’m cool

I’m set back up but there was probably like

six to 12 months there where I kept having to go and buy things

like either during the day or after work or before work

well we’re look

we’re not even immune to it as well

like we had the

the Jeep the Jeep’s trailer

if the carpentry

Australia got got broken into in 2021

I believe sort of around covid times

and we lost about $12,000 worth of Milwaukee tools and paslow guns

and all of that stuff out of our trailer

and they were so and this was locked up behind gates

behind like

three different sort of points of entry and they still found a way to

to get into it and knock everything off and

but luckily we were yeah

we were covered by Imar and we obviously been with them since

since their inception with us

and yeah I think within the week we had a quote up for all of the

all the tools that were needed and the ones that were knocked off

and they were all replaced yeah

it was within two weeks we had everything

so I think they can do it quicker

we obviously weren’t out on site that week but yeah

they yeah

they replaced everything pretty much straight away so perfect yeah

your boy well

hopefully your boys never have to deal with that and you know

go through the the dramas of it but yeah

I think that’s obviously

I was speaking to a member the other day

and he was just telling me that he’s not too concerned about it

because the tools are paid for

because I’ve already earned that money back

and if they get stolen

they get stolen it’s a very blasé way to think about it but yeah

it’s better to be protected

what do you think keeps you motivated after all these years

cause you’ve been in the game for a little while

I think just the consistent drive to just run a successful business

and the freedom it can provide to myself

and also some of my team for the future

I’m really keen on taking the team that’s with me at the moment with

on the ride with Beaumade so

there’s a couple of individuals in the team that are very close

and have worked for me for a while

just know our ins and outs like the back of the hand

they do very well for their age

and also are starting to show signs of leadership and management

and not just doing the carpentry side

making sure that subcontractors are doing their job properly yeah

making sure they’re set up ready to go

making sure we’ve got everything sorted

so just yeah I

I guess just been out running a successful business

that doesn’t involve me in the day to day

where I can not be involved in operations

which I’m pretty close to at the moment

I would say yeah

there’s days where I’m as far away as I could possibly be

but you know the the average is pretty close yeah

it’s getting better yeah

it’s slowly moving the doll on that

but my main focus is just to be able to work from the office

the boys have got the operation sorted

I’ll deal with the issues we were speaking about when they arise

there’s always gonna be something and yeah

just be able to just work from the office you know

work on developing the business

work on growing the business work on processes

work on quoting and just providing that good service

I feel that there’s been a little bit of an uplift on that

for the last couple years

just making sure we’re providing a good service

do you teach that to your team as well

that like to how to interact with the clients and stuff

the boys are just trying they’re awesome

they’re always polite you know

I always get good feedback from the clients

like we’ve got one in build at the moment

with the clients living in the house

and it’s a bit of you know

interruption to them but the boys are all over it

they’re communicating with them saying hey

we might be in here for the next couple of days

and that doesn’t mean I have to communicate

they’ve already done it for me yeah

where you know five years ago I’d be sending an email where you know

the boys who were on that side are all over it

cleaning up after themselves and just yeah

we we

we normally do get good feedback from our clients for the

for the team

Our guys I’m QLD

love the boys

and do they go that little bit above and beyond for them as well

I teach them to you know

just if they want you to do something just get it done yeah

go that extra mile yeah

just provide that little bit more

what’s one myth that you’d like to bust within the

within the building industry

what’s something everyone believes

but it’s just it’s a myth

I just feel that you know

majority of people in schools and stuff

sometimes are giving the wrong perception of which way to go

and I feel the schools don’t teach it enough

I was lucky enough to go to a private school

and it’s never any talk about trade or trade options

is to get into uni get a high a score

go to uni but like yeah

I didn’t really do too well at school

well look

that’s that’s motivational to to know that

you know you sort of come from those sort of humble beginnings

and you weren’t necessarily the best scholar

but you’ve become a master at something else

you know it’s just funny how the world backflips like

you know you got all the kids that used to go work

guys used to go to work school with all really smart and all really

you know really well educated and go down

you know you go down and catch up with them

and then some of them were just not doing what they wanted to do

when they left school or just doing something completely different

and they’re like the smartest kids or well

they’re way smarter than me

so so much better at school than me

and it’s like it’s just the path you take

I just feel just take a chance on a trade sometimes

if you feel that you’re good with working

with your hands and you know

there’s that opportunity of just being an employee as well

as well as running having the

you know the risk of running your own company

you can go to all two ways

there’s a lot of opportunity for that

like just I feel there’s just a lot more opportunity in trade based

yeah one thing I’m really interested to hear is sort of

there was a time before we

before we knew each other

and before we were sort of involved with Beaumade

what what do you think’s changed since sort of coming on board with CA

becoming a champion and being a member and

you know sort of getting more heavily involved with us

what do you think’s changed in the past few years

I’ve had some bad days

and I’ll call Nate or I’ll call you just to discuss about it

you know just tell you what’s going on Nate

Nate loves to hear about bad

bad days yeah

and we just talk through it and they just

you guys support me through that maybe 20 minute incident

you know having a meltdown

yeah

and we get through it and then we move on

and you know

I think they said to me last time I called him

he’s like oh

you know just get up

go to work tomorrow see what happens

and then tomorrow is just like so much better than what it was

you know that day

I had a meltdown

so I guess it’s just good to have another couple of brain’s about to

you know

issues that are going on and just get the issues out of my head

and just you know lean in on you know

also just with the relationship we’ve had with Glencoe as well

you know they do all our steel trusses and you know timber

timber stuff pretty fab yep

great relationship there with a few of the guys there now too

which is cool and just yeah

just supporting others doing the helping hand days

like never would have ever like five

six years ago think of doing anything like that

like it’s just and you did it so well

try to yeah but yeah

just helping other people out and jumping out of my skin to do that

now where

you know

I remember you asking me the first couple times and I was like

oh yeah I’ll do it

but now it’s like when’s the next one

let’s do it again like

and been able to provide that opportunity to the boys

for them to go there and you know

not have to worry about anything

just go and help these people out that need help yeah

use your skills let’s let’s get started

you know

and that’s just something that we want to be a part of for the future

just the relationships created from CA

the opportunities you guys provide us

and just the people that we’ve been able to make friendships with

that are involved in CA too

like a couple of other trades businesses

good mates with Michael from 93 group now who

Great work yeah just I’ll put him through a few things and you know

we have a chat every now and then

and he comes in the office and we work through things

and then yeah

just a few of the other guys that are involved as well

we love what you do and it’s been

it’s been a pleasure to watch the past couple of years

and I know we’ll obviously keep it up

but whereabouts can like if anyone out there’s watching listening

where can people find you and sort of yeah

what’s the best way to contact you

probably

the best way is either through our website or through Instagram

we’ve got a pretty heavily managed social media at the moment

so you can direct messages through that

or just send us an email from the email on the Instagram or website

or the direct message form on our website

and we’ll put it up I think it’s at Beaumade builds

is it just one word at Beaumade builds the website yeah

the website’s Beaumadebuilds.com.au

mm hmm yep

and then the Insta is the Instagram handle I think is yeah

Beaumade.builds okay

yeah that’s it

I can’t remember that’s all

thanks for coming in man

no worries always been a part of it

it’s a pleasure thank you

it’s a pleasure