Work-life balance: myth or achievable nirvana? We’re tearing down the facade and taking you on a journey through the unfiltered reality of juggling professional ambition with personal fulfilment. Prepare to shift your perspective as we share candid tales from holiday work marathons to setting unapologetic boundaries with clients. Embrace the grind and the glory as we reveal that harmonising your hustle with heart isn't about strict schedules but aligning with your priorities for success.
Ever felt trapped in the tension between the relentless push for career growth and the need to recharge? We've been there, and in this episode, we're getting personal about finding the sweet spot. From solo camping trips to the high-octane world of podcasting, we unpack our own experiences with recharging our batteries without losing momentum. Let's navigate the nuanced art of when to power through and when to power down, all while keeping your eye on the prize.
And what about those moments when professional and personal worlds collide head-on? You'll hear firsthand how we've stood our ground against the stormy seas of unprofessionalism and disrespect in the workplace. These stories aren't just anecdotes; they're battle-tested strategies for drawing your line in the sand. So, if you're craving a playbook for thriving amidst chaos and carving out success on your own terms, tune in and transform your approach to work and life.
Work-life balance: myth or achievable nirvana? We’re tearing down the facade and taking you on a journey through the unfiltered reality of juggling professional ambition with personal fulfilment. Prepare to shift your perspective as we share candid tales from holiday work marathons to setting unapologetic boundaries with clients. Embrace the grind and the glory as we reveal that harmonising your hustle with heart isn't about strict schedules but aligning with your priorities for success.
Ever felt trapped in the tension between the relentless push for career growth and the need to recharge? We've been there, and in this episode, we're getting personal about finding the sweet spot. From solo camping trips to the high-octane world of podcasting, we unpack our own experiences with recharging our batteries without losing momentum. Let's navigate the nuanced art of when to power through and when to power down, all while keeping your eye on the prize.
And what about those moments when professional and personal worlds collide head-on? You'll hear firsthand how we've stood our ground against the stormy seas of unprofessionalism and disrespect in the workplace. These stories aren't just anecdotes; they're battle-tested strategies for drawing your line in the sand. So, if you're craving a playbook for thriving amidst chaos and carving out success on your own terms, tune in and transform your approach to work and life.
It's the fine work life balance.
George:And the thing with that is, if you're trying to achieve the balance, then you're not really living either of them to their full potential. Something that I go on and teach and strongly believe is not work life balance, it's work life priority.
Robby:Working out how far you can push yourself like what you're comfortable with. It doesn't mean you have to go work 90 hour days.
George:Yeah, that's right. That's right. You've got to know your limits too.
Robby:Yeah.
George:Because you're burning the candle at both ends.
Robby:No, it doesn't work.
George:You'll fuck yourself up in business, but then how do you expect to prioritize your life when you've completely drained?
Robby:And then you just become a shit person.
George:Yeah, work life balance doesn't exist. It does exist. It's fake. Do whatever you want, I don't care, as long as you feel balanced, as long as you feel like you're accomplishing the things that you want to accomplish and that you're doing it in a way that makes you mentally, physically, spiritually happy.
Robby:Yeah, and you live in a life that you desire.
George:That's right A life that you've created for yourself.
Robby:Yeah.
George/Robby:That's what it means.
Robby:All right, welcome back to another episode of Million Dollar Days. Thanks for joining us everybody. I thought you could introduce yourself again.
George:I wasn't, I wasn't, I learned from the last episode, from the show notes in the suggestion box that you told me not to introduce myself.
Robby:Well done Also. Hr called you. They did. They called me. Well, at least they're doing their job. Someone has to, Someone has to. It's not going to be me.
George:So today we want to talk about work life balance. Is it a thing? It's fucking bullshit, it doesn't exist. For all you fucking plebs out there that are thinking work life balance oh, I need to have a break, not you guys, not you guys, listening, of course. No, everyone that doesn't listen to this podcast. There was an indirect insult to those people who are not.
Robby:To the people that you know.
George:To the people that you know yeah, that's right who have bought into the propaganda of you need to have work life balance. Okay, so you don't buy into it.
Robby:Not in the slightest. Why.
George:Because it's I think it's been put there for people to give up or just to follow the norm and saying and justify their shitty life, be it in business or in life, yeah.
Robby:That's why I don't believe in it.
George:And I don't think it necessarily works. Why are you trying to balance something that doesn't need? That cannot be balanced? They're two very different things Work and life.
Robby:Let's start here, please. Let's define work life balance, okay.
George:So I suppose the concept of it is if you are working too hard or too much, then your life is being suffered. If you are lifeing too much or too hard. Living too much, just lifeing.
George/Robby:I'm lifeing. Okay, if you are lifeing too hard, then your work will suffer.
George:So you need to have a balance between the two. You need to do 50, 50 of each. You need to be balanced. That's what it is.
Robby:A balance is when you're not sleeping, obviously.
George:Yes, that's right. So you need to have a balance between all those things in your life, and the thing with that is, if you're trying to achieve the balance, then you're not really living either of them to their full potential. That's my issue with it, and something that I go on and teach and strongly believe is not work life balance, it's work life priority, priority, priority and also blend Would you like me to elaborate Because I know you know where I'm going with this Sure For our lovely viewers.
George:So there's going to be time in your life that you're not going to be able to do the things that you want to do. You're going to have to do the things that you have to do, so you're going to need to prioritize your work. This is a business owner or as an employee, whatever role you're in at the moment.
Robby:You're not saying I love about that. What's that? Don't do what you want. No, don't do your best. Do what's required, yeah.
George/Robby:Absolutely.
Robby:Absolutely. You're best not going to have to do what's required.
George:Yeah, you've got to do what you need to do, carry on, thank you.
George:Thank you for that Interruption, Just so. You need to prioritize. You need to prioritize your work. You're going to get cool For the next six months. I need to go and work like an animal. I need to work 120 hour weeks. I need to work weekends. I need to work late. I need to put the kids to the bed, then get up and work again Like you've got to do what you have to do if you want these amazing things to happen in your business. What if you don't? What do you mean? What if you don't? You don't want those things? Yeah Well, what do you want?
Robby:To have balance, yeah.
George:And you've bought into the propaganda. You're going to live that mediocre, bullshit life.
Robby:So you want extraordinary things, or you don't mean, I definitely do.
George:I know you do, but I'm just saying as a rhetorical question to people do you want extraordinary shit or do you just want to be an average Joe? It'll be an average Joe. Yeah, work life balance, bro, Go for it.
George/Robby:Enjoy, enjoy, see you. Stop at five o'clock.
George:That's it. That's it. Like the clock stops at five.
George/Robby:No, it keeps going.
George:Exactly, and you've said it as well. It's like the concept of a weekend is less than 100 years old. Who said we have to stop working on weekend? God rested on the seventh day. Motherfucker, he created the world. He had a day off. What have you done? Yeah, you can have a day off.
Robby:Well, do you reckon he had days off before that? Exactly, yeah, you reckon he was fucking around. No, I do. I do love the concept of like why do we have to work Monday? Like, why do we live this?
George:No one questions that we have this conversation. We had a few podcasts back. We were talking about 100% because we were talking about employees and working hours and shit like that.
Robby:Yeah. So why do we feel okay? So why do people feel like they need to follow this work life?
George:balance. I just think at the moment oh sorry, the work, life balancing, yeah, because it's put out there as a way to probably protect mental health.
Robby:Five days on, two days off. That's right, you know, and then you just want to go on your four weeks holiday. Yeah, make sure you don't work weekends here you know what I mean. You won't work weekends, like. Why not Like? Why can't you work Saturday and have Monday off? Or why can't you work Saturday and Friday off, or like you?
George:know, I'm sure you know. If you went to an employer, I'm sure most of them might say that's okay. Yeah, depending on what you're doing as a, as a role, if it didn't actually need you there during the week when the rest of the business world is open. But, coming back to what I was talking about, you got to prioritize important things at the right moment. So sometimes, if you're growing your business, if you're wanting to win this multi-million dollar contract, if you're wanting to get that pay rise, that bonus, that promotion, you have to put in the effort, you have to prioritize your work. You have to go. Okay, I need to do this. The risk that most entrepreneurs find themselves in is that six months, that 12 months, becomes 10 years and then they neglect their life. They neglect that other element of their existence.
Robby:So how do you, how do you know if you're falling into that trap?
George:You need to prioritize or again come back to either an honest conversation with you or your and your partner if you've got a partner and what you want to achieve in your life, but if it's just you on your own and your number one you don't have anyone else in your life set that time, plan it and go. I need to work hard for 12 months or six months or a year or two years, whatever it's going to be and then say, okay, my reward for that is going to be this I'm going to go away for four weeks, I'm going to go away for two weeks, I'm going to go to Greece, I'm going to go to Paris, I'm going to go Disneyland whatever you want to do but when you're away, you're going to prioritize your life as well. So you're going to say, okay, I now need to prioritize enjoying my life for the next four weeks. Or I'm going to go for a three month holiday, whatever you have to do, because you're going to be working like an animal. Perhaps you're putting a GM in place and that's going to allow you to agro the business as the CEO of your business and then do more recreational things that will help you when you go away. You're then prioritizing your life. You're prioritizing your mental, physical, spiritual health as opposed to being at the office, and that's where people fall over. They go. I need to have an equal amount of business. I need to have an equal amount of fun to justify that I am going to be happy and healthy.
George:Here's where the blend comes in. There's going to be times when you are at work that you need to step away and go and see your kids ballet rehearsal or grand final or be part of the coaching committee for the football team. There's going to be times where you need to blend the work and blend the life. Same goes when you're on holidays. We've got by the time this episode drops. I would have had a three week holiday. Now I know for a fact over the next, over those three weeks, that I'm going to have to do some work I could potentially get. I know some of my team are looking to come back a little bit earlier from holidays and one of our projects we're trying to get started a week early to get a jump on the year.
George:I'm going to get phone calls during that week hey George, what do I do here? I'm not going to throw my phone in the swimming pool and say, fuck off, don't call me. I'm going to tell my wife, say, nicole, I've got to go for an hour, or give me 10, 15 minutes. I need to make a phone call. She's not going to abuse me going, we're on holidays, you don't take business calls. Because she understands hey, we're building some sick shit here and we need to blend what we're doing here.
George:The only reason we're on this holiday and enjoying our time is because I've worked like an animal for six, for 12 months and we're able to afford to go away interstate at a lovely location and enjoy that time with our family. Yeah, we've got to blend the work. Sometimes that is what it means and what it takes to own a business. And even if you're an employee and you want to achieve amazing things and your boss calls you while you're on holidays, yeah you don't have to answer. But again, if you want that promotion, if you want to run the business one day, if you want that extraordinary paycheck, then yeah, it might mean you have to blend your holiday period and your work period. I feel like I'd get bored with what.
Robby:Eight hours off every day. Yeah yeah, I genuinely feel like I get bored.
George:I think as well for you is because you don't. You're single at the moment as well. You have a huge advantage over a lot of people. Yeah, you can work. I work on Facebook. You can work like a fucking animal, Right, and there's. I know at times I'll jump on my computer at night after I put the kids to bed. I didn't know you're working. That's why I send you WhatsApp messages. Hey, if you check this out and you're straight away, yes, I'm doing it now.
Robby:Yeah, I fucking know what's the alternative. Let go watch Brooklyn 99.
George:Do you know? The funny thing is, I reckon over the last I don't know what it's been the last month for myself I put the kids to bed at about eight o'clock, seven thirty eight o'clock and it's still daytime outside. Do you know what I do? I go to bed, you go to bed, I go to bed, but I read, I'll read, for I'll read for an hour, half an hour, whatever. I'm going to read a chapter, let's say. Let's just say I've read a chapter a night of a book, and then I'll just might be on my phone for a bit and then I'm fucking sleeping by nine o'clock.
Robby:How much do you sleep a night?
George:I'm sleeping probably eight hours.
George/Robby:Yeah.
George:I'm up at five thirty, five, five thirty, but I wake up before my alarm every single time, completely refreshed because I'm going to bed so early. The only time I'll now because the reason I'm doing that is because I'm like I'm going to go inside and do what Like watch TV, and I know I just can't be fucked. Like I'm looking at it. There's nothing I actually want to watch that's going to fulfill me enough to sit here and do that, and I'm a type of person that I genuinely like my TV time just to sit.
George/Robby:Yeah, that's my downtime.
George:I actually like it, but for the last month I haven't really been that motivated to sit there on the couch and watch TV. Nothing really is great and fulfilling me. So now I go to bed, I read and I'll do whatever I need to do. I might do some stuff on my phone watching stupid shit, maybe Instagram.
George/Robby:Yeah, yeah.
George:Again, I'm okay to, I'm happy to do that. Even, a lot of the time when I'm watching Instagram shows and reels and stuff like that, I often look for inspiration for things that I could do or talk about or whatever it might be in my own business. I don't always look at it just for the entertainment perspective. But yeah, going back to that, I can either work. I can either get up and work. If I have work, I'll often go okay, cool, I need to do a couple of hours. The other day I had to do a few hours worth of work. Once I put the kids to bed, did it, went to bed. But I prioritise what is important to me at that certain time.
George:Lately I've been prioritising going to bed early so I wake up nice and fresh. Tomorrow I'm at the gym at 6am. I'm going to go to bed early tonight because I know I don't want to wake up and feel like a zombie at six o'clock or sorry, I'm going to be there at six at five. I want to wake up, be refreshed and ready to go and put in a solid hours worth of training. So I want to make sure I'm prioritising that element of my life. And now, again, this episode has been recorded before I'm going on holidays. But I personally, this holidays, I'm checking out, I'm really going to prioritise having some quality time with my wife and kids. Yeah, nice, that is honestly what I'm going to do, and work will happen in between. I will probably turn my computer on every day, but it'll be between six and nine o'clock every morning after that.
George:No, no, I like it. I fucking like where you're mine.
Robby:It'll be between six am and nine to nine pm. That's it, no fuck around In the mornings.
George:I'll do my couple of hours, whatever I need to do, and then I'm going to try and prioritize that element, because I've had a massive year. I've had a really big year with the construction business. I've had an even bigger year with the consulting business, with the things that we've achieved Just wasn't in the realm of possibility in January 2023, thinking how big this would explode and what it would become, and it's just I feel a bit tired. I think mentally I'm a bit tired at the moment and I'm really looking forward to just prioritizing, relaxing, having fun and enjoying my next three weeks.
Robby:Yeah. So I'm big on living life like that, though like pushy limit, and then OK, cool, like now, if I can, I've had enough, like I'm tired or I'm not operating at optimum level, and then working out what do you do now to recharge. You know what I mean.
George:You went overseas this year, wasn't it Me? Yeah, how good was that for you. Yeah, that was a highlight of my year, man.
Robby:Like that was awesome. I spent really we'd done a podcast. That was a highlight. I was talking about the podcast overseas. I bought the. We bought the kit before I left.
George/Robby:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Robby:We bought the kit before I left. Yeah, that I think focusing on for me, this is what works for me. I think you need to work out what works for you. But working out how far you can push yourself like what you're comfortable with Doesn't mean you have to go work 90 hour days.
George:Yeah, that's right. That's right. You've got to know your limits too.
Robby:Yeah.
George:Because you're burning the candle at both ends.
Robby:No, it doesn't work.
George:You'll fuck yourself up in business, but then how do you expect to prioritise your life when you've completely drained?
Robby:Exactly, yeah. And then you just become a shit person. Yeah, but then work out what do you do to recharge, like I'll go away or I'll go on a trip or I'll go camping.
George/Robby:Yeah.
Robby:Or you know, I'll spend time at the beach.
George:Yeah, I like that and I like how you go away for that day, three days, whatever it is.
Robby:Off the grid. Off by yourself. Yeah, off the grid.
George:Off by yourself. A lot of people. If I was to go camping, in all honesty I would probably want to go with people I usually do, yeah.
Robby:But recently on your own, because no one was available and I'm like I'm not, not going.
George/Robby:Yeah.
Robby:Like I mean I'm going, you can't come, okay.
George:Yeah, I'll be there. Yeah, Let me know I'm going. Yeah, can't far be ready. It was sick Because I told you it was so good man.
Robby:It was so good, I went and I just unplugged for three days. There's no reception, you can't check emails, you can't do anything.
George/Robby:Yeah, how good.
Robby:And I just unplugged for three days. Your phone doesn't even matter. Dead, not dead, who cares? Like it makes no difference in the world.
George:Can't play Solitaire.
Robby:Completely disconnected, had a book. Yeah, that's it.
George/Robby:Had a book, had a journal no I didn't.
Robby:I read a bit, but um yeah, your biggest problem is where's my firewood, your? Food, yeah, in the eski Crossbow, yeah, shooting, shooting the chickens here as an eski, yeah, biggest problem is what am I going to eat and where's what's going to keep me warm? You know what I mean. And it's like cool. And then you just do that and you, it's like always like back to basics, you know there is nothing matters except for that, and you get it up early and then you go like you know, it's just, it's enjoyable.
George:I like it. You prioritized that element of your life, even if it was for three days. It doesn't have to be prioritizing for six months. Your life you can prioritize for three days.
George/Robby:Yeah, because.
Robby:I'll get bored Friday, saturday.
George:Sunday I can prioritize going camping, going fishing, going for a run, Whatever you, whatever makes you happy for three days, that's what I'm going to do, and that is my disconnect Now. Now I'm going to prioritize. That means I can work for three weeks at a time and take three days off.
Robby:So like, have you seen? There's a clip. You know, mr Beast, yeah, yeah, he's like the number one YouTuber in the world. I'd rate him A. What Dude. He's 24 years old. He's he, that young, 24. 24.
George/Robby:Yeah, like absolute beast he's going to be. Yeah, he's going to be. Yeah, I saw it.
Robby:Yeah, he's going to be a billionaire if he isn't already, Literally he will be a billionaire. Yeah, if he isn't already.
George:He got offered a billion dollars for his whole empire and he turned it down.
Robby:Have you heard his thing of how he, how he works?
George:No, oh, maybe, but tell me, and he's like.
Robby:No one has to try this, but this is what works for me. And here's another thing just before I get onto that If you love what you do like, if you genuinely enjoy what you do like, you're not going to get works. Got that draining.
George:How hard is this?
Robby:This yeah Like doing this podcast. I'm going to take the rest of the day off. I'm. This is this. Does this feel like work for a moment? No, like at all. No, it doesn't ever.
George:My favorite part yeah, my favorite part is like when we clap just to sync all the audio to the video and it's just like we clap and it just means let's go Game time, game time.
Robby:How good is it? Yeah, so pumped. This doesn't feel like work. And if we did this, if this was a daily thing, like, hey, we should. So, just on that, we're going to go sideways here bad. Can we do a live episode? Yeah, like, let's do a lot, work out how we're going to stream this thing live.
George:Absolutely On all platforms, and let's just stream Audio live.
Robby:Can we? You can, yeah, I can, we can.
George:Iggy's the man. We got Iggy guys from Legacy Media here just filming us and doing some sick shit.
Robby:I think we can do a live episode, yeah, so we should do that. Yeah, because I think that's super cool.
George:Do you reckon we get we'll do that on our own, or would you have a guest in on a live episode?
Robby:Depends on the guest, I think.
George:Depends. Yeah, let's get GC in on the live episode Done Cool.
Robby:But yeah, this doesn't feel like work, man. Like if we did this every day, right, you wouldn't ever sit there. Like man, I'm tired. Like it's not tired from what?
George:If this was your full-time job as well? Imagine that, because there's people out there that all they do is podcast. Yeah, all they do is podcast, and so I drop three podcasts a week.
George/Robby:Why come a week?
George:So what you? You spend three hours of your week working. Is that what it is? Is that what you just told me, then?
Robby:Why can't we do that? Imagine we had a pod every Monday, wednesday, friday, hmm.
George:Yeah, I mean again, prioritizing, isn't it? A lot of people ask me, even just in my day-to-day life and operations, like, hey man, how do you, how do you fucking do so much in a day? And so you'd be surprised how much you can actually do in a day when you prioritize and when you really focus on what you need to get done in the day.
Robby:And you stop doing dumb shit.
George:Stop doing dumb shit. There is so much wasted time in the day when you really start to stop and think about it. Go into the store to the cafe around the corner and getting your favorite coffee. That'll fucking take you half an hour out of your life. When you get up off your desk, walk down there, order, see someone that you know, say get out for five minutes, walk back, get a phone call and by the time you sit down and concentrate okay, where was I? You've lost half an hour 45 minutes in your day.
Robby:Here's the thing with that though, If you get something out of that that does something for your soul.
George:Yes, yes, yes, yes it nourishes you in some way. You should do it, but we're talking about priority. Yeah, exactly, and that's if that's a priority for you at that time. But if you're just getting up because you feel like a fucking coffee. No, Get one of your employees to do it.
Robby:People like. People like cleaning or cooking, some people like it's therapeutic I love it. Or cleaning, for example, people love cleaning or ironing.
George:I fucking hate ironing yeah you look like the talker with like ironing.
Robby:Yeah, I like that, yeah, I was. I'm not even going to go there. Everyone's told me that before.
George:You can tell that all the time it's a topic. Yeah, they see, they meet you. I got an ironing page I got.
Robby:Yeah, I hate that shit. And there's people that love it though. People that love it. They're like is this therapeutic? You know what I mean? That's to them, that's not work. So, going back to work life balance Do you like what you do? You know not. You I know you do, but do you like what you do If you don't do something about that, instead of trying to constantly finish work and constantly recharge and feel like you need because, dude, honestly, what would you do with eight hours a day? What do you mean? So if you try and balance everything, it's eight to eight to eight.
Robby:Yeah, it's eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and eight hours of life Lifeing lifeing, yeah. What do you do with that? What do you do for eight hours? What do you do? What can you do? I mean, you know, shower 20 minutes, what else? Let's say, you take an hour shower, you have seven hours, what else?
George/Robby:are you?
Robby:doing Eight.
George/Robby:Yeah.
Robby:I'll get two hours for all. You're eating throughout the day. What else?
George:You know, let's say three hours.
Robby:So you still got an extra four hours. What are you doing? You're watching TV for four hours. Maybe, maybe it's a good movie. You watch it twice Every day, every day. Do you know what I mean? I can't. I feel like I get bored Bad, and I don't cook or clean, so I don't waste any time there. So it's like what are you going to do for six, seven hours a day? But if you hate what you're doing, you'd probably rather do nothing.
George:Yeah.
Robby:That's it.
George:Playing video games.
Robby:You've played video games go.
George:Yeah, absolutely I play now. Yeah, haven't for a while. But I would say, if someone says, do you play video games? Yeah, absolutely, I don't mind it from time to time, like I haven't played, geez, probably for a month, it's weird. I'll go through phases where I'm like, yeah, cool, I want to play and I'll play. You know, an hour, a couple of hours a night for like a week. Do you play?
Robby:with your son.
George:Sometimes, yeah, Like I'll play he's.
Robby:I'll play Mario.
George:Kart. Yeah, like he could probably beat me in Mario Kart, I'm not gonna.
Robby:Nintendo 64. Jesus bro, what do you know? What's? What do you think? Mario Kart on on the current one, the switch, I wouldn't have a clue. Come over and change your life.
George:Yeah, it's actually a really good game.
George:Oh, we're gonna take it from him, Because you know he plays now fortnight and stuff like that on the PlayStation and a few of those other games. I think there's one roadblocks like even my daughter starts playing it a bit now and they asked me to play and I'll play sometimes with them just because they like playing with me. But even now I've put just recently, funny enough, I put restrictions on on game time because they are prioritizing that too much and it's very. It's a type of thing that's very easily addictive and you could sit there for six hours playing video games, especially as a kid I used to do that ground up. Yeah, I think I did at times as well. I would have days where I would. This is probably when I'm older, even like teenager, say 15 onwards or whatever, and you can sit there and literally on a weekend and just play video games from 8am 14 hours.
Robby:I was hard worker.
George/Robby:Yeah, put in the rest.
Robby:Yeah putting in the hours Like getting shit done.
George:That's it.
Robby:I used to play.
George:So it's a word degree that does build some level of commitment to be able to sit there and do that. Well, cool If you can apply that to something else you love, because you love playing video games if you're doing it for 14 hours.
Robby:Yeah, so why do you and you don't feel like you need a break from that? That's right, right.
George/Robby:That's right. So why do you have to finish level five? Yeah, exactly.
Robby:But that's not to say go work 97 hours a day, because that's not good either.
George:And not possible, yeah, in a day For you.
Robby:Yeah.
George/Robby:For you.
Robby:That's it. But, yeah, I agree with you, I think, prioritising the things that matter to you. It's all about awareness. Yeah, if you think about it, most things come back to awareness. Yeah, it's all about do you know what you like? Do you know what you're doing? Yeah, do. Why do you do what you do?
George:Yeah, I know people that have done things like, even in construction. I had a mate many years ago. That family friend did construction management. He was a year younger than me, so saw that I got into that and just saw it as a way to make heaps of money Construction.
Robby:Yeah, yeah, like as you, I'm trying to do it.
George:One point, oh yeah, yeah, so, but he looked at it from a management, like getting a construction management degree and working for a big tier one company. He went into that role on that purpose, to make money and he got into it and he fucking despised it with all his heart. He just got. He worked at a company. It was a good company, but he was just working like a dog Saturdays, sundays. It wasn't dead-end job Like he had the potential and he was doing well but he just grew to fucking resent working. He would wake up in the morning and he'd just tell me because fuck, I hate working man.
Robby:And I wasn't the company.
George:I remember feeling like that yeah, it wasn't a company, though it was what he was actually doing, like he couldn't be fucking dealing with people, with the trades, with all the shit he had to do. He just wasn't enjoying it at all. And do you know what he ended up doing? Like three years in, he quit and he worked in an aquarium for two years because he loved fish. He loved fish, he loved aquariums. He's always been a massive fisher, like. He loved going fishing, he loved the outdoors, boating, and he just worked at an aquarium. He just knew everything about fishes and temperatures and water, fucking balances and pH levels and he just did that the two whole years worked at this aquarium in the area.
Robby:Was he happy.
George:He fucking loved it. And then he came back to construction. He worked for a different company but he was like better, like he felt I think he just found like he needed that break from what he was doing and he just realized, okay, cool, it's not all about the money, I just needed to find the right company to work for. And then he was actually. He's still working in construction now.
Robby:That's a big lesson Doing very well. There was a lesson for him.
George:Yeah, he just got into it for the wrong reason and ended up hating what he's doing. And then I think a lot of people do that as well. They they get into it because their parents are doctors, their parents are teachers or dentists or whatever they've grown up to be, and that was what they had to do as well. Or they just don't commit, they don't, they don't find their purpose, they don't go to uni, they don't get a trade and they end up working a dead end job at a cafe that they genuinely fucking hate.
George:Yeah, that's the way Like it that's, or an office job, you know, and they hate it and they just, but they just go through the motions and it's Groundhog Day for them and they're the people that that end up suffering mentally because they just don't feel like there's anything in her app? Yeah, and they don't have that. They, they buy into that work life balance and go, and they're looking at the calendar Whilst they're at work. Going, okay, I can't wait three weeks until holidays. Oh, I can't wait till I book in my Easter trip.
George:That's gonna take six weeks off. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna. So it's gonna be the best. I need a break from this shit hole, and that's when you fucked up.
George/Robby:That's when you're losing it.
George:When you're like that in your job and if you're listening to this and that's you do something, you're losing you're losing at the game You're. You're behind. You are the last player on the board. You're losing. What the fuck are you going to change to get in front?
Robby:Dude, I remember feeling like that I remember that feeling I remember hating that and did you?
George:did it motivate you to get out of that?
Robby:Yeah, I would like to think that I'm always being someone to take some level of action.
George/Robby:Yeah.
Robby:When there's something I'm unhappy with. And yeah, I remember so I was an apprentice. Yeah, so for me there was like the four year as mechanic yeah. It was a four year commitment. I was working in Mercedes Benz. I was like this, is it Like there is no Moving?
George:from was a good apprenticeship, working in Mercedes.
George/Robby:Yeah.
George:From learning about engines and cars and shit like that.
George/Robby:Yeah, man.
Robby:Yeah, yeah, I think it was really cool.
George:Yeah, they give you a really good, like the program itself. I'm specific. I'm just out of curiosity asking Could you live or your apprenticeship and go out and build any other cars from the shit you learned as a princess there I could. Or did you learn Mercedes? You know how they operate.
Robby:Yeah, that's a good question. I could, but I did previously before.
George:like you, were into cars long.
Robby:Yeah, I also used to spend all my weekends working in the garage yeah. To own backyards yeah, I could make more on a weekend than I would. And your apprenticeship yeah, and I spent my whole weekend doing that and I learned a lot through that. Does everyone know some people it's job and they switch off at four o'clock. We finished at four o' six.
George:Yes, I used to have mates that were getting like in high school or when we finished high school Sorry, they got apprenticeships in construction, electrical plumbers. They would work Monday to Friday, below their whole wage on Saturday. Yeah, lots of people do the whole wage like fucking, like they didn't have petrol money, their whole fucking way.
George:Paycheck to paycheck, yeah, saturday week, because we'd go out to the pub or wherever it was that we were going, and they would just go fucking boom, boom, boom, drink, string string shots, drinks food and just go mental and that you're rounding your sorrows. That has fucking 50 bucks to get them through till the next week Drowning your sorrows.
Robby:Every time I see someone doing that I like if it's someone I know I look at him and I'm like what are you drowning? I tell him what are you drowning, dude? Like that bad. Like all right, go have a drink, but like that many drinks, what are you drowning? What are you unhappy with in your life?
George:I mean at 18, 19 years old. I think a lot of those you're still a kid, yeah just the hype up of going out and getting drunk and having fun with your mates picking up whatever the fuck they're doing, and that's all you know. Yeah, that's right. And so I can safely say I never got into that space. No me as in. I'd go out and have nights out where I was drinking, but I got shitty. If I blew my fucking wage on a weekend, I would be pissed off Like it would annoy me.
Robby:I'm like well waste.
George:I mean how much fun the night was. I was just like fuck.
Robby:Especially if you're working hard for it.
George:Yeah, that's what I mean.
Robby:I always did I was worked hard for my money.
George:I was like fuck, we're going to blow. And I was because I was studying, I was pretty much working part time, so I didn't necessarily. I probably made just as much as an apprentice anyway over the week.
George/Robby:Just bring your offender.
George:Yeah, it's on carpentry and laboring and fencing. You don't carpentry as well. Oh, like, not Like. I never did an apprenticeship. Yeah, I worked with carpenters, and then they taught me the ropes.
Robby:You can slap two pieces all together. I can slap them together. Yeah, will they be. That's what carpenters do.
George:That's it. They slap it, I just slap all together.
Robby:I almost clapped. I might be anchored to clapping after you. I almost went. Oh, how funny, how funny. Yeah, where were you?
George:Yeah bad people hating what they were doing. And then we talked about your mechanic.
Robby:Yeah, so I was saying I was committed for years. It wasn't until after that period when I finished my apprenticeship, and then I was like just going to sales after Did you see it, I became a service advisor. What's that? The person you speak to when you drop off the car?
George:Yeah, yeah. So you do that, so you've got your apprenticeship. You know how to fix it, and then you will come in and say yeah, and I'd tell you it's like you need a new flux capacitor and then like how much that can cost you a $43,000 cash. Yeah.
Robby:It'd go 42 if you give them. If you pay me direct, pay me direct. Yeah, you do have to pay to buy a bank account. Yeah, that's how it works here. I make the rules. Yeah, I don't make this up. Ping is a game, yeah.
Robby:And then when I did that and I was like, is this it? I didn't want to do this, man, you know what I mean and I felt like it was dude. I remember driving into work and just venting the whole time Like just how much I hate it, how much I don't want to do this to yourself. I used to be a carful me and a guy oh yeah, yeah. And we said it's talking about the whole trip. 45 minute drive into work, yeah, we're both just bent. In which Mercedes was it About South Melbourne? South Melbourne, yeah, venting about how much we hate it, yeah, the whole time. And then I left, did the whole real estate stint and I was like I don't want to do this anymore, got off at a job in Mercedes, went back third day in, realized, no, realized what the fuck am I doing here?
Robby:Why do I come back? You know when things happen have you ever had that? I don't know if you've ever had that, but that was the first time for me when something happens and you look and you think, oh my god, I completely forgot about this, I had completely forgotten that this shit happens here, like I was so far past it that, only until I came back and realized, oh my god, this is why I left it's kind of like a toxic relationship, then, isn't it? Yeah.
George:I don't think I have either but, it's also I can see, I can understand it where you're in a relationship that has good times, but the majority of it is shit but all you remember is the good yeah. And then you come back and you're like no, no, you get back, you go, okay, yeah, I do.
George/Robby:She did have some good times.
George:Yeah, she did have some good times and then it's like, oh no, now I remember why we weren't here in the first place. So I never really had that with my working career, never really had that time where, like there was days where I couldn't be fucked going into work but never.
Robby:yeah, you're going to have that Do you know, funny enough, funny enough, just on this topic.
George:Yesterday I couldn't be fucked. I don't know what it was I must have had. I was tired over the weekend. What did I do yesterday?
Robby:when I felt like that. So when you have those days, I was sitting on my computer.
George:I remember this. I was sitting on my computer and I just like it's we're at the end of the year, so there's not huge, like I've always got heaps to do. There's always like 10,000 things I couldn't be doing. And I was sitting there. I was like nothing was a real priority, nothing was pressing, nothing had to be done. I was sitting there. I'm like this is silly. I don't know what am I doing. Maybe we'll just go home if I'm just going to sit here.
George:Then I turned over to my board and where I've got a whole bunch of tasks that I need to do. I just stood up. I looked at it Cool, I'm going to grab that. I took it off my board, that post it note. I said I'm going to do that, Sat down and we did it. And I went back to it and grabbed another one.
George:I did that and I just fucking disciplined. That's what it came down to and I actually ended up having relatively productive day. But at the start of the day I was just like man, I'm tired. I don't know why I was tired. I had plenty of sleep the night before. I was tired yesterday, that the previous day, the afternoon, I don't know. We just been run down and I went over to my board and I grabbed my task and I completed that task and then I went on to the next one and went into the next one and then I started thinking about, okay, cool, what am I going to do next year? And I just got into the rhythm and I ended up having a decent day's work.
Robby:If I have those days, I usually I'll kill the day off.
George:Yeah, interesting. That's a good idea too.
Robby:I like that, if it's 3pm and I know that I'm just going to fuck around here for the next three hours. I'll just I'll stop now. Stop now, call it like you don't mean. Go do whatever you want, relax, get it out of your system, recharge, come back tomorrow and then I'll be back at it next day first thing in the morning. Boom, it's so cool.
George:I like that a lot and I've very rarely had that Like. I honestly cannot remember the last time I've ever felt like that, where I just couldn't be fucked working that day. But I could have very easily done what you just said. I just don't think.
Robby:I'm out for the day. Nothing worse than working like a 12 hour day and you don't want to be there. You've done it at 30% and it's like why'd you do that? That's such a waste of your time.
George:And it's what we're talking about. We're going to prioritize. You just then said cool work isn't working for me, right?
Robby:this second.
George:I'm going to prioritize, just leaving because I'm not going to be productive. I'm going to go for a walk, Go for a run, go to the gym get something going that's going to get you back in.
Robby:How often would you say you completely unplug?
George:Every 12 months. Once a year when you completely yeah, because I'm fortunate, because the construction industry shuts down for two to three weeks over the Christmas break.
Robby:Did you say you're fortunate or unfortunate? No, fortunate.
George:In the sense that, because the whole industry shuts down, there's not huge amount for me to do anyway, other than working on myself, on my business, which is forever game. But it's a time when I can genuinely turn off. I actually enjoy this period of time because I know I'm not going to get 200 phone calls, it's just not happening Whereas at work my phone rings all the time. That's the yeah, there's better days than others, and now I've sort of I train people that are calling me to call others. If they call me about a project-related item, I'll say, yeah, cool, have you spoken to Simon? Have you spoken to Mike? No, okay, we'll speak to them. Don't call me about this stuff. So all the subbies and trades, all the subcontractors, generally know not to call me because even though I know the answer, I generally don't give it to them. To the question I'd say no, call Mike because he's on site and don't reinforce bad behavior.
George:Yeah, absolutely. We had that conversation with you the other day. You mentioned that and you didn't want to reinforce that particular behavior that someone was doing by giving them the response that they were after.
Robby:Yeah, and that's a good way to put it. Good way of saying it without saying it.
George:Yeah and yeah. So the people and it's also as well like I don't know what Mike's thinking on site, so I don't want to then tell him the answer. And then it contradicts what Michael was trying to fix on the job. And then he goes off and does that, and then Mike's like why'd you do that? Oh, george told me.
Robby:Yeah, and then you stepped on his toes.
George:Yeah, so now I let the guys run their own race and then, if it's a matter of something that needs my attention, they will call me Fuck around. I don't fuck around. I'm at work Like. I'm here at six in the morning pretty much every day, pretty much every day, and I love it. Come in, I do an hour and a half before anyone's in the office. Don't get phone calls.
George/Robby:Yeah.
George:And I'll actually work really productively during that time and but even after it, like I don't count the hours, I don't look at my clock, and I can have the two more hours until lunch, until lunch or until I go home or whatever it is. It's like this is what I have to do during this time and I've got my list of things. I've got everything pinned there, so I know the actions and everything I have to take and I'm always looking to to do more and how I do more. It's like I called you. No, when was it yesterday? You sent me a video. Oh, you sent me something on WhatsApp and I was walking the dog and I left my AirPods at home and it was funny. You sent me these. Okay, what was the video about?
Robby:You talking about the, your mate with the phone? Oh yeah, yeah, that's right.
George:My, I'll post the video today anyway, but the so far time.
Robby:you had this, yes, about seven weeks ago. That's how far advanced we are with our podcast.
George:You guys are seven weeks behind. We've already had this conversation.
George/Robby:Yeah.
George:So it was funny. It was about a video about you know success and giving up on your dreams and and having certain things and mindset and all that stuff.
George:And I left my AirPods at home. Normally I'll listen to a podcast this one, obviously when I'm walking the dog, and I left my AirPods at home as I ah, fuck it, I couldn't be bothered turning around, so I just kept walking. But it left me alone with my own thoughts. And I was walking and I was thinking and I'm like, okay, coming off that video which was talking about my mate that had given up on driving a Ferrari and never owning one, and I was wasn't necessarily thinking about the Ferrari or the supercar, I was just thinking, okay, what, like, what needs to happen now? What do I have to think about? What has to happen for us to get that car, to get that house to get?
George:And I'm walking past um, I live in a beachside suburb and I'm walking past all these homes and looking at that one's nice, that one's nice, I could have that one. I want to buy that one. Why not buy multiple? Why have you just one? By the street, yeah, by the street, yeah. And I'm thinking, I'm like, okay, what do I need to do? What has to change in order for me to get these things? It's funny, it's like we always talk about, you know, vibrating on the same wavelength, and you had sent me that video as I'm thinking about all these things and what we needed to do and what needed to change and how we're going to get there and when we get there, what's that look like?
George:And another thing that popped into my head was a person just last week won 15 million in the powerball, the lottery, and then I was like, okay, what would happen if I won that? All right, if I won 15 million dollars right now, what would happen? What would change? And it got me thinking okay, cool, well, I wouldn't stop working. First of all, I definitely keep working, and I would keep working as if I didn't win 15 million dollars either. Okay, well, what would change in my business? How would I go about things differently? Okay, well, I've definitely put on a GM from my construction business.
George:Yeah, you scale way faster yeah but I think I know what you're about.
George/Robby:I kind of think you're on the same wavelength anyway, but I'll say what I'm going to say every day.
George:Yeah, just cast every day. But it kind of got to that I was like okay, so I'll put a GM on. Okay, well then, what would that mean? My day would look like I said okay, I'm going to focus more on the, on building a loot and doing the consulting stuff, okay, okay, cool Then. Okay, we could do more podcasts, all right, could focus more on on creating content, could focus on being strategic with the types of projects and the direction I'm going in and everything there. And then I stopped to think again I don't need $15 million to do that, you can do all that now. You can do all that now. That's sick. How sick is that? Yeah, and all it took was for me not to have my AirPods and walk the dog and think about that sort of shit and think massively and the and the realm of possibility. Yet I'm stuck here as the let's call it the GM of my business running the show, when I could do all of that now and just go to that next level.
Robby:Stopping yourself. You know I am. I think clarity is power and sometimes I let's give it a drive. I drive like I can go long distance drives like 45 minutes an hour and have nothing playing and just sit there in silence in my car Just with my thoughts. I genuinely like that.
George:I actually like driving.
Robby:It's only weird when someone gets in the car and says You're not listening to anything and you're like when you're not in the car and you don't talk to them for 45 minutes. Shut the fuck up. They're talking and you're not responding. No, you just don't. You're like I've got a sign. I've got a sign on the dash.
George:No talk, if this light is on, do not touch me, I'm driving.
Robby:Um no, but it's. It's genuinely something I do, and you know, sometimes I don't even mean to do it. I'll just jump in the car and I'll have a million things on my mind and I'll just put my phone on the like. Sometimes I'll just throw my phone on the passenger seat or put it in the pocket with a cigarette light. I'll just drive and then I'll be like 20 minutes in and I'll be like should play up to play some songs like famous, some music, or play an audio book or something or a podcast.
George:This podcast.
Robby:Yeah, and I just keep, I do that and I do, um, but I feel like that lets you recharge, like that allows you, like that is your moment of I'm going to take 20 minutes here and just catch up with my thoughts. You know, another thing I do is I sit down and I write.
George:So I don't do that too much, I think.
Robby:I want to get through it.
George:I can see that over the next, over my break.
Robby:Just free right.
George:Yeah, what do you write?
Robby:about Ask yourself a question.
George:No shit.
Robby:Yeah.
George:Any question what do you want? Just put down what do you want.
Robby:What do you want? What do I want? I think I want this. Why do you want that? Well, I think I want this because I feel like it's going to give me that. But why do you think that? What is it that makes you believe that? Do you know what I mean? And you do. You just end up going like down this massive rabbit hole and then you come out of it and you're like, oh yeah, I don't want that. Or hey, you know, I'm guaranteed I do want that. Like I know for a fact, like I've just broken it down and it's just real, it's revitalizing.
George:Powerful stuff, sick to stuff.
Robby:Sick, and then maybe that's, it's those little things as well that allow you to have that clarity and that awareness, what you do not have a, you don't need the balance. Eight hours yeah, it's exactly it.
George:You don't need the balance. Or maybe those things, you have a greater purpose, you have a greater level of awareness and understanding.
Robby:Wait, hold on, maybe it is balanced. So maybe it is. You can work 14 hours and do a 20 minute thing and that balances.
George:Who's to say? Yeah, who's to say how can you tell me what?
Robby:balance is yeah, that's right, that's right, so I do believe in work life balance, just to come, come full circle on that. But yeah, I think, yeah.
George:So that could be your balance and again, you're still prioritizing one a little bit more than the other, and I think there's always based on what time, like how much time you spend on it Is that? Effort Could be effort as well.
Robby:Yeah, time, effort, what else it's those two things, really isn't it.
George:Resources, potentially I don't know Money. I've got a question, yeah.
Robby:Do you think uncontrolled work works you out Uncontrolled work? Do we think uncontrolled work?
George:So just things that pop up, things that pop up in the day.
Robby:I think that's depends on the personality type. Some people need massive structure and some people can walk into a room and put out fires all day and sit there. It comes down.
George:It comes back to the level of your training.
Robby:Yeah.
George:To a degree, and how you react to things that are different and being able to adapt to that change.
Robby:Yeah, I also think you get better at lacking structure. When structure is good, really good for people who like the more structures, great, don't get me wrong. Structure is a really really good thing, and wherever you can have it in any part of your life, you should. But I also feel like lacking, not having structure, and being able to move forward is something you get better at as time passes.
George:Yeah, and then that way, when something does come up, you're just, it's not as far, it doesn't phase you as much. Yeah, you just get there and you're okay. Cool.
George/Robby:I've seen this before. Yeah, you've seen this before.
George:Is that all? It's Tuesday, it comes exactly, so that's how it is. That's exactly how I would do it now. And you look back and you said about looking back, I don't know if it was today or previous episode you look back at where you were and how you used to handle something like that five years ago. And then you come across that now today and you're like, ah, it used to be so stressed out when this happened.
Robby:Yeah. Now it's like I'm kind of excited.
George:Yeah, it's actually true. How weird is that? It's like I've been burnt by quite a few clients over the years, and particularly actually not over the years let's just call it the COVID years, because they're all fucked. People weren't stupid during that time and I've dealt with the worst of the worst clients. I've dealt with the best clients too, and now it's not like I'm fearful of having a bad client anymore and it's like I really go out of my way to make sure that they understand their boundaries and their obligations to me and how we operate as a company. So much so that when an issue does arise, I can pull them up on it. But even if it does, I'm prepared.
George:Now I've got those runs on the board where I've been able to handle that difficult situation. I can turn to them and say listen, we discussed this pre-contract signing. We've discussed this during the job. You can't act this way, you can't be this way. You can't do these things. There's consequences if you do that, and the consequences are you're in breach of contract. Here are your notices. Here is this. Here is this. The ultimate consequence is we terminate the contract, but really putting them in their place and making sure they understand the boundaries. Now, five, six years ago, I would be so fucking nervous to even call up a client or email them to say that because I was like I don't want to upset them. The customer's always right. You know, I want to make sure my reputation is really good. I want to deliver exceptional service. But the thing I've learned is it's like the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
Robby:You can't really tolerate, that's right.
George:That's right. And I was tolerating that poor behavior and rewarding, like you said, like I said before, that poor behavior when they were dealing with me and I was like no, no, no. Now I've got a clear line in the sand. I said, listen, when you cross that line, I won't accept it. I've had even stuff like just recently a client called up the guys and was speaking to my employee in a disrespectful way and condescending way. I called them up, the client.
George/Robby:You did.
George:Yeah, I said listen. I need to make something exceedingly clear to you. You do not have permission to talk to my teammates, to my team members, like that. Okay, if you do that again, there'll be serious consequences. I'll start to get involved and I go. You don't want me to involved in this? I won't tolerate it. Speak with everyone with respect. We're not your employees, we're not your child, we're not your therapist. Let me build up, understand the boundaries, because if you cross them again, there's going to be serious consequences. Oh, I'm sorry George has had a bad day, that's fine. I'm not attacking, I'm just saying be respectful. They don't come to work to listen to that shit, Okay, and I'm not going to tolerate it. I'm not going to talk to me like that. I'll fuck you up.
Robby:You know, I told you the story about what happened at Mercedes. Did I ever tell you I had a manager who was Greek, named George? Holy shit At.
George:Mercedes, was he a legend of a bloke or was he a fucking? It's going to go one way or the other, we'll make it to start.
Robby:I did punch. Yeah, we ended up punching at the beginning.
George:We're mates. Now I'll tell you Give it a couple more weeks and start throwing fists. Interesting episode that one Stay tuned. Thanks for the cameras.
Robby:Same sort of thing. I had a lady abusing me at Mercedes and a lady abusing me and I was. I was like the star of the team. I was running me to everyone and lady like ripping through, like to the extent where everyone stopped and turned because she was yelling her head off.
George:Karen, karen, no she's what kind of she?
Robby:had. She had C class.
George:What she was C180.
Robby:I can't remember.
George:It wasn't like a C66. It was like a 203. It was a poverty pack, that's what I was going to say she was ripping through me.
Robby:Yeah, like absolutely ripping through me, and I'm sitting there like and you can't do anything. And I'm just there and I'm looking at her like trying to calm her down.
George:Yeah.
Robby:Trying to be professional, and then my manager comes in from the side, george. He comes in and he's like excuse me, I'm the manager here, both of you in my office.
George:Both of you. Yeah, I'm happy you fucked us up.
Robby:We had a dude who was like that was super weird, are we good? And I said, do you want to happen? He said no, are we good? Oh no, he said are we good here or we fucked.
George/Robby:Yeah.
Robby:And I said no, we're good, and he's like all right, and he goes into the office ripped through, Absolutely ripped. She left crying.
George:And then at the end I go do you want to know what happened? It's not even. It's not even being that aggressive, that's good.
Robby:It's just I'm saying from the perspective of Dude he I was it could not have lived the way he was talking to it.
George:So I wouldn't do that, necessarily. I wouldn't, I wouldn't. I would still try and maintain professional, like almost have that stoic approach that you Not all George's are the same. Not all of them are the same, but have that stoic approach where you're not letting your emotions get the best of you.
Robby:You're, you're firm, but without, without going Absolutely ripped through At the end she leaves crying and I'm like I'm like 23 years old, yeah, I'm still like young. And I'm like, do you want to know what happened? And he's like, nah, and I'm like he's like I trust you. I'm like, oh, what's it? I mean, he told this to me what happened. I can't tell you. Oh shit, you can tell one, george, at least there was. I'll tell him yeah, no.
George/Robby:But yeah, it was. You're not friends with him anymore.
Robby:We're not, but that's okay, he did too.
George:He's stuck yeah. That was your fault wasn't it. No, I wasn't.
Robby:Yeah, it was long, long story. I'll explain it to you. Explain the next podcast? Yeah, the next podcast, but he's stuck up for his team the same way he did.
George:And how much did you respect him after that?
Robby:Yeah, he was like he went from George to God for a while.
George:Yeah, but that's imagine how powerful that is as an employee, to know that your boss has.
Robby:Yeah, it was like yeah, he's got my back yeah.
George:Yeah, absolutely, and that's advice to everyone. That's a business owner Protect your own, look after them. Okay, back them up If they've done the right thing. Now, if your employees went out there and did something malicious and then you back them up, well, then you're doing the wrong thing. Yeah, get the facts straight, trust them, understand the position and what happened. If the client is reacting to something that your employee did that was really bad and detrimental to the project, that was malicious, not accidental. If it was an accident, again, right, people make mistakes. Oh, you put my wall in the wrong spot. Build a fucking bridge, get over it and I'll rebuild this wall where it needs to be built.
Robby:Build a bridge over the wall.
George:Build a bridge over the wall, we'll fix it, but you don't need to react in that way. It was a mistake. Relax, shit happens, but backing your employees massive thing, massive thing.
Robby:Ripped through it Like I've never seen anyone. You know in all honesty Too much was too much.
George:But this is another thing. Some people need to be told to get fucked. Let's be serious. There are people in this world that need a solid fuck you. There are, and sometimes that's the only way they learn. That's the only way when you shut them down so fucking hard that they realize that, oh holy shit, I'm actually a fuckhead. Sometimes they need that and maybe they're better for it thereafter and they go. You know what I'm not going to turn away. They're making the world a better place With one fuck you at a time.
Robby:One George at a time.
George:My wife today. I was speaking to her just before actually, and she called me up. I was on the phone to her while she was in the car and she was driving home from Coles and all of a sudden I hear her she presses the horn.
George:She's like go fuck yourself and I'm just laughing. She's like, fuck, it's sick of all these fucking idiots. Like she's abusing something on the horn, Like windows went down or anything like that. She's just in the car and she's like, oh, sorry about that, Because I'm listening to this on the phone. I was just laughing. You go, what on earth happened? She goes, oh, she just cut me off and then rolls here and then he rolls his eyes and she's like people are fucked. I said first of all, you just laugh when that happens. You know what I mean. It's just funny. I find it funny when people do stupid shit or yell at me or stick their finger up at me. Just laugh First of all.
Robby:Do you? Are you heavy on the horn?
George:Oh, I have been in the past. I'm not so much now. Now I genuinely laugh when someone does like, sticks their finger up me or tells me you're a fuck you, I just laugh. It doesn't. I don't let it affect me, because I said to her okay, in six months time, you know I'm going to remember this moment. That's why I get upset. Now You're upset. He's just rolled his eyes and driven off. Do you think he's thinking about you now, right now? Okay, even if I call my wife now, I get you still upset about that guy who rolled his eyes. She went in. She's like what are you talking about? What guy Exactly? It's so insignificant that you said, yet you let yourself get so worked up over it over something that someone else does. You can't control what people do. I tell that to my kids too. Why are you getting upset over something that you cannot control? You can't control what other people do. They're going to do and say things that don't make you happy. That upset you Don't let it.
George:Don't let it be in control of the situation. That's why I try now and even when I have a difficult conversation or something I need to do or talk with someone, I try and be as calm as possible but, demanding the respect through my tonality.
Robby:Isn't that just emotional maturity?
George:Yeah, I think you've got it.
Robby:It's stability. It is your ability to sit down and say look at it logically.
George:For many years I haven't had that. I think you've got to get through that shit bit.
Robby:You do seem quite zen to me More times than not Today.
George:Yeah, today I'm chill. I'm chill today, but more times than not, yeah for sure. It's very rare where I'll have I'll lose my shit. The last time I remember, in all honesty, I had a tradie go to one of my jobs and I haven't worked with this guy since. He was my client, was on site, she was a lady and he laid all these tiles, these pavers and all the grout. All the grout had cracked because he didn't do it properly. I said listen, I'm not paying you until you fix this. I'm going to pay you. I've paid everyone, your money's safe, but you need to do the right thing. I'm going to pay you in full. He's like no, you pay me in full before I fix it. I said, no, it doesn't work like that. You need to give me the product and then I'll pay you because I don't know you're coming back or whatever it might be.
George:Anyway, he gets on site and then he starts, you know, carrying on like a pork chop and he started abusing my client and cause she didn't let him in into the house. The house was finished and she didn't let him in and he starts like you fucking, let me in or I'll rip up everything, I'll pull down your fence and all this sort of shit. And she calls me. She's like really upset. She goes oh, he's calling me doing this thing. And I call him up.
George:I said, listen here, you fucking piece of shit. I tore shreds off him. He goes I'm going to rip this up. I go if you fucking touch a single tile on there, I'm going to come down there myself. I'm going to fucking fix you up. And you really think you're going to get paid? Then I just gave it to him. I go who the fuck do you think you are? A woman that's living on her own in a house and you're coming in, beating your chest up, saying, let me in, or I'm going to pull your fence down. Who the fuck do you think you are? That time I felt that I had to really give it to him. Some people need that, though. Yeah, and do you know what the funny thing is? You change his tune straight away.
George:As soon as Tom on told him to shut the fuck up. I'm sorry, I was just trying to hear you to do the job If there was a blow. I don't give a fuck.
Robby:If there was a bloke there, he probably would have acted them. Yeah, that's right, that's his cowards. People like that Tough guy, a fucking agonist.
George:And he, and because then he started beating you know again, he didn't start off like that. I had to put him down. He goes oh, fucking, come to your office. Go, motherfucker. You wait where you are. I'm coming to you. Okay, you want to come to the office? You can come here, but I'm coming to you right fucking now. You think you're going to talk to me. You want to talk to someone like that? You talk to me like that, I'll fucking fix you up. And it's not that I was going to punch on with him like physically, but I put him in his place to say listen, this is not an acceptable level of communication with someone yeah.
George:You can't do that. You can't talk to people like that, especially a woman that was on her own in the house and you're threatening to pull down the fence so you can come fix your fucking, your fuck up at the end of the day. So I mean, people do exist, but this is another thing, and I actually heard Andrew Tate say this Top G, top G. Second time I want to say I'm going to be top G.
Robby:You are very G, very G Very.
George:George, top George, top George. That's going to stick. Can I absolutely, top George, say welcome to Million Dollar.
Robby:Days Robbie and Top George.
George:Holy shit, that is so good. I'm going to change my Instagram profile Top George Andrew Tate. What did he say? Some people are willing to go to fucking jail. You know what I mean?
George:Yeah, some people are stupid, like some people don't give a fuck to the level that they will kill someone and go to jail. And he says he genuinely says as much as he plays that role and macho and alpha male and all that sort of shit he goes. He will do everything in his power to avoid conflict as far as practicable. If someone gets up in his face, he'll drop them. But to argue with someone, to get in a fight with someone, to do all those things, he goes. He'll avoid it as far as practicable and I think that's such a smart move. Why am I going to yell at this person and toot my horn at him? Because he's rolled his eyes and what does he get to have?
Robby:Shoot you.
George:What is it Exactly?
George:Yeah, because there's people in the world that will fuck you up. And the example he used he goes. He went out one night and he was with a girl and they were lining up at a KFC to get some food and there was a huge line. And then these blokes get out of the car, they walk all the way like big guys. They walk all the way to the front of the line and they start ordering. They push in front of everyone and then he the chick he was with went to go off and mouth and mouth off at these guys. He grabs her, he goes, shut the fuck up. Did not say a word, all right. And then she sat down and she didn't say anything. They just stood in the line and there was another girl that in front of them that mouthed off. Who the fuck do you think you are? We've been waiting for 20 minutes. Get the fuck at the back of the line, you stupid fuckers. Whatever, just abusing a. Give it to him.
George:The guy turned around. One of the guys turned around, walked up to the work, up to the chick, and dropped her, dropped her. He goes. I've never seen it before. He goes. He fucking knocked her out. He laughed, went back to an ordered KFC, got in the car and left. There are people out there in this world that will go to jail why? And you just got knocked the fuck out because you wanted you had to wait. Three massive blokes have just gone and pushed in front of you in KFC.
Robby:Because you lacked emotional stability.
George:And the awareness of the situation. But that can happen in so many situations in your life where you're gonna do or say something, you go, oh fuck, I probably shouldn't have done that.
Robby:Imagine this customer drop-off manager.
George:Exactly, but that would have been a great YouTube video.
Robby:That would have been amazing Now that would have been how? How did I know what he's like?
George:There, so I thought that was really interesting and definitely a good way to approach conflict and just realize that it's not worth your time to argue with someone that's an idiot.
Robby:Like why argue with an idiot? Yeah, there's a saying about that. When you're arguing with an idiot, someone from a distance can't tell who the idiot is.
George:Yeah, cool.
George/Robby:I like that.
Robby:I like that. It just looks like two idiot arguing.
George:It's like don't save yourself the time that's it in the trouble and the thing is like you walking away, it's like it won't affect you in any way.
Robby:It won't matter.
George/Robby:It won't matter.
Robby:In three days, three months, three years, that's it 30 years 300 years.
George:Cool. So work-life balance doesn't exist? It does exist. It's fake. Do whatever you want, I don't care. You feel balanced. So you feel like you're accomplishing the things that you want to accomplish and that you're doing it in a way that makes you mentally, physically, spiritually happy.
Robby:Yeah, and you live in a life that you desire.
George:That's right, that's life that you've created for yourself yeah, that's what that means by your own means Not fucking working eight hours a day in a job you hate 40 hour weeks, having the weekends off because society told you that that's what you need to do to have balance, to be happy to make X amount of dollars before you're going to be a level of success that is acceptable. It's all propaganda, shit that you've been sold into that your parents, your grandparents, yourself, your kids are all being sold into because that's what is deemed as successful in society. But it's not. You could be highly successful selling paddle pop sticks, making 50 grand a month at home in your pajamas, on TikTok, on TikTok. That's what I'm gonna do Put paddle pop sticks in your pajamas.
George/Robby:Yeah.
Robby:I like it. That's the goal, that's the end game. 50k a month, that's a good weekend.
George:Yeah, but the thing is, it's as silly as that sounds, people are doing it.
Robby:Silly as it sounds.
George:There's someone selling paddle pop sticks making a lot of fucking money right now.
Robby:Yeah well, someone's gonna supply the world with paddle pop sticks.
George:Mr Paddle Pop needs them.
George/Robby:What's it gonna use?
George:All right easy. Awesome, I'm, I'm, I like it, I love it, I love what we're doing.
Robby:Yeah, I think it's cool man. I think we're providing a good value. I don't think so. You get to. I've said this. I put up a post about this. I said, if you're thinking of starting a podcast, just fucking do it. Like seriously this, how much, how much are you thinking? Are you able to process your thoughts? Just talking about it here, especially the episodes where you don't have time to think about it and it's like boom, we're done with this.
George:That's it. They're the best. They're like how fun are they too?
Robby:Yeah, and then you gotta talk. And then you're like, okay, cool, yeah, do I think that I don't? And then it's like you walk away from it. You're like, yeah, I got value out of that.
George/Robby:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
George:And I feel that you know it also shows our level of training ability, skill set to be able to have that conversation off the cuff. Like we know we know what the fuck we're talking about. It's at that level now. It's not like, oh, let's just do this for entertainment and to get the likes on the gram, like we know our shit. That's why I don't mind saying dropping a topic on you, because I know you're going to be able to provide some significant value to the end listener.
Robby:Until we don't huh.
George/Robby:Until we don't, until we don't, we're going to talk about cakes.
George:We go sideways very quickly. What's your favorite? Do you like cake Cake? Yeah.
Robby:I like cake.
George/Robby:Do you like it?
Robby:though. Yeah, like a what's like favorite cake. Would be like a cheesecake though.
George:One of the best cheesecakes I've ever had was in Hawaii. It's the cheesecake factory, I think it was called. I got one of those.
Robby:It was like one of those big ones?
George:No, it was like one of those big American brand ones.
Robby:And it was in a New York cheesecake factory here.
George:No, maybe it's not factory. Fuck, can't remember what it's called. Anyway, it was cool shop.
Robby:Oh, is it the one from Cheesecake Shop? Yeah, no, that's here.
George:It was something cheesecake, the cheesecake something.
Robby:Cheesecake factories overseas? Yeah, it might be that one.
George:Yeah, so are you all right? And we just had amazing cheesecake there and we went there it was actually for our honeymoon with my wife and we went and we had this thing in New York cheesecake. It was the best cheesecake I've ever had in my life. Cheesecake stick no massive servings, too Massive servings, but it's an answer question Cheesecake Do you like cake?
Robby:I do like cake, love you like a fat kid loves cake.
George:That's it. I like all sweets. I'm a big fan of sweets. Yeah, I love getting dessert.
Robby:I love getting dessert. I'm not gonna skip dessert. My whole Mozi fan. That's it Never skip dessert.
George:Never skip it.
Robby:Recently I have been yeah, I haven't Some training, but I'll just train harder. That's it. Don't fuck around or eat more. I'm just working out later All right.
George:Thanks guys for listening. Appreciate it. This is Top George signing off Top George.
Robby:Top George, make sure to like and subscribe to Top George.
George:To Top George she's put it in the show notes. It's gonna change it too. Hashtag Top.
Robby:George, the Top George show.
George:Featurement. Come and put a comment on any of my social medias. Top George.
Robby:And I'll know that you've listened to this episode. Put it on all of your social medias All of the social medias. At the same time, comment somewhere.
George:The first person that comments. Top George, I'm gonna send you a gift.
Robby:I'm gonna do it now.
George:What I'm gonna do. It now it's the disclaimer is no friends and family.
Robby:Aye, this competition. What do you mean?
George:What are friends and listening my friends or family. Aye, all right, you heard the man so comment Top George anywhere on either mine or Robbie's or this Don't comment, top George Please. If you comment, top George on some of Robbie's.
Robby:I blocked it, or block you in a heartbeat. You won't get the gift Because I'll just George won't find out about it. Top.
George:George might know. Top George knows fucking everything. Don't fuck around. Yeah, thanks for joining us today. Guys, hit that subscribe button because it helps us reach more people. Yeah, and share. Share the shit.
Robby:Share everywhere, tell them Everywhere. No, you do Post it on Instagram right now and tag us in your story. Oh fuck, do that. How is that for a fucking?
George:Maybe you should do like a giveaway or something, Now I don't know Just to motivate people to take action. Sometimes people need a bit of motivation to actually go. You know what? This was a sick episode. What are you? This was cool. This was valuable. I really like this. I'm gonna send you a fucking hat. I'm gonna send you a hat Free of charge. No, I won't even charge you postage what?
Robby:If they posted on their story, if you post it on.
George:First, how many people? If someone posts this, the first person, first person gets rewards. I'm not fucking around, you're second, you're fucking lost. You didn't win. This is a game, what's?
Robby:wrong with you? Yeah, participation trophy.
George:Yeah, oh, fuck, mate. We could do a whole topic on that shit. We will. We will Stay tuned. Next episode First person who listens to this episode hosts it on their socials and tags myself, robbie, million dollar days, whoever Someone needs to see it. One of either me or Robbie need to see this, and then we're gonna. You have to do hashtag top George and you have to tag me, robbie or million dollar days in your post and I will send you a hat. That hat is called. It's the 1% club. It's a builder elite hat. It's a hat I can see, cat, you can. I'm gonna send it to you. All right, the first person, don't be the second. Don't be the runner up.
Robby:Be the first one If you're still listening and you haven't started posting, get your shit together. Get your shit together, get one and a half by now.
George:Yeah, guys, I hope you have a million dollar day.
Robby:Awesome. Thanks guys, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks Thanks.