Embarking on a heartfelt and transformative journey, we're joined by Janette Salmi, the founder of the Dignified Movement, whose personal caregiving experiences unveiled the stark realities of the aged and disability care industry. Her pivot from a rewarding career in education to a bold entrepreneurial endeavour showcases the essence of building a business with empathy at its core. Janette's tale weaves through the emotional highs and lows of caring for loved ones, the complexities of managing a growing team, and the impact of government programs like My Aged Care and NDIS on her business model. Starting as a solopreneur, she has nurtured her home care business into a beacon of change, supporting a team of 80 and honouring the dignity of every client.
In our discussion, we peel back the layers of what it means to find success and the diverse paths that lead there. Janette bravely addresses the stigmas surrounding wealth and the scrutiny that often accompanies visible signs of prosperity, contrasting societal perceptions with her genuine strive for integrity and hard work. Moreover, she shares personal stories that illuminate the richness of family and the enduring value of a supportive and loving home. This conversation is an affirmation for those who may feel judged for their achievements and a reminder of the joy in witnessing the growth and legacy of one's family.
We also delve into the critical role of education and mentorship in shaping our paths to success. Janette reflects on her transition from teaching to entrepreneurship, the value of diverse learning experiences, and the need for revamping educational systems to nurture different learning styles. As we navigate the debate on public versus private schooling, we unravel the factors that guide parents in making this crucial decision for their children. Whether it's through the guidance of mentors, the wisdom found in books, or the experiences gleaned from varied professional landscapes, Janette's insights affirm that success is not a one-size-fits-all journey but an individual quest enriched by the fulfilment found in learning and helping others.
Embarking on a heartfelt and transformative journey, we're joined by Janette Salmi, the founder of the Dignified Movement, whose personal caregiving experiences unveiled the stark realities of the aged and disability care industry. Her pivot from a rewarding career in education to a bold entrepreneurial endeavour showcases the essence of building a business with empathy at its core. Janette's tale weaves through the emotional highs and lows of caring for loved ones, the complexities of managing a growing team, and the impact of government programs like My Aged Care and NDIS on her business model. Starting as a solopreneur, she has nurtured her home care business into a beacon of change, supporting a team of 80 and honouring the dignity of every client.
In our discussion, we peel back the layers of what it means to find success and the diverse paths that lead there. Janette bravely addresses the stigmas surrounding wealth and the scrutiny that often accompanies visible signs of prosperity, contrasting societal perceptions with her genuine strive for integrity and hard work. Moreover, she shares personal stories that illuminate the richness of family and the enduring value of a supportive and loving home. This conversation is an affirmation for those who may feel judged for their achievements and a reminder of the joy in witnessing the growth and legacy of one's family.
We also delve into the critical role of education and mentorship in shaping our paths to success. Janette reflects on her transition from teaching to entrepreneurship, the value of diverse learning experiences, and the need for revamping educational systems to nurture different learning styles. As we navigate the debate on public versus private schooling, we unravel the factors that guide parents in making this crucial decision for their children. Whether it's through the guidance of mentors, the wisdom found in books, or the experiences gleaned from varied professional landscapes, Janette's insights affirm that success is not a one-size-fits-all journey but an individual quest enriched by the fulfilment found in learning and helping others.
I experienced the good and bad of the industry.
George:Yeah.
Janette:And I got a tad passionate. We can't do it all on our own, nobody can.
George:You want to create that change as soon as possible. There's no point taking, regardless of age or where you're at in your life. You want that change to happen sooner rather than later because it's going to benefit so many people.
Robby:Absolutely.
Janette:Absolutely.
Robby:You would have had going from being working a job to your own thing. You would have had, there would have been some level of doubt, right oh?
Robby:absolutely, absolutely, and so for someone that might be in that position now, that's working a job, that might know they want to go out and do their own thing, or they want to do something different, or they want to do more. But there's that level of doubt. What would you advise that person to do? All right, welcome back to another episode of Million Dollar Days. I hope you're having a million dollar day. Someone told me they love that way to start the podcast.
George:I think it's good too. I think it's good too, because why wouldn't you want to have a million dollar day? That's very true, very true. Well, enough about us. We have a very special guest here today. We do and it's something we want to try and be doing a lot more of and getting influential people in, getting business owners in, because and it's an industry that we have very little to do with both you and me and this is the whole purpose of this podcast is to get a diverse range of people that can shed some light in a certain field but also give a lot of their knowledge that they have and that's something that you have a lot of. So please introduce everyone, if you would like.
Janette:Well, my name is Jeanette Salmi, I'm from the Gold Coast and I have a business called the Dignified Movement, which is a business that supports aged care and disability care. So we have aged care, disability care in home care, which is the main focus, only started a few years back, retired out of education. So what do you do when you retire? Start a?
Robby:new business Becoming an entrepreneur.
Janette:I had actually cared for my elderly aunt and I called for many years. Five of those were their last years and they came and lived with us in our own home and I think through that process I experienced the good and bad of the industry.
George:Yeah.
Janette:And I got a tad passionate and, with some encouragement from quite a few people, I decided to see what I could do to help an industry lift its standard. So the idea of our business is what we're called the Dignified Movement, a lighthouse for change. So we want to build the lighthouse and become really, really good at what we do and then teach others to do the same. So we can't do it all on our own Nobody can and there are amazing people out there that have wonderful little businesses that specialize in a whole number of different areas and, having come out of education, I'd love to build that platform and then we support each other to actually raise the standard of the industry. So that's my goal in the years that I've got left. So I'm on a mission and I'm in a hurry.
George:Yeah, Well, that's good. You want to create that change as soon as possible. There's no point taking it regardless of age or where you're at in your life. You want that change to happen sooner rather than later, because it's going to benefit so many people.
Janette:Absolutely, absolutely. So. It's been a very interesting journey to date. I have learned so many lessons. I think I went in with rose-colored glasses on very naive and very idealistic, and that got knocked out of me very quickly.
Robby:It usually takes a while. It takes a while Usually.
Janette:It does take a while, but everything that has happened along the way has been a rich experience, whether it be good or bad. It's been a rich experience and even recently I had an experience where there was some criticism of our clients, and it was the first time I actually got quite defensive on behalf of our clients because I thought that's what they deal with all the time People who make judgments and are unkind to them and that was another turning point in our journey in how people treat those that are less fortunate than themselves Doesn't make them worth any less, but people do treat people differently and that's pretty sad.
Robby:It is, it really is.
Janette:That's pretty sad.
Robby:What I love about your story, Janet, is you were a school teacher, right? Mm-hmm, For how long?
Janette:Well over 20 years.
Robby:And then you'd retired.
Janette:Absolutely.
Robby:And then you've gone, and how do you go from I've worked this one thing my whole life and it's all I know to then I'm going to go and launch this kick-ass business and make an impact in the world.
George:And you've never owned businesses previously, have you?
Janette:I haven't. My husband has, but I haven't yeah.
George:And just for context how many people do you employ? Because I was blown away when you told me this yesterday.
Janette:Around 80 at the moment.
George:That's amazing. In two years, three years, three years to have 80 people on. Is that on payroll or is that like contractors? How does it work?
Janette:No, no, it's on payroll 80 people.
George:You've got to feed 80 mouths every single week. That is a phenomenal 80 families. So think about the same thing for those at home and you employ or you're stressing about employing one, two, three people, even your very first employment, and you're employing 80 people. Mm-hmm, that's amazing, that change that you can really put out there with everyone.
Janette:I think what I'd like to do, too, is I experienced people who I actually had people in the home looking after my aunt and uncle. We had a provider down in Sydney, a provider on the Gold Coast, so we've had different experiences with different people and we had some amazing carers, mm-hmm. But I also witnessed a lot of things with carers that I felt wasn't fair on them. So my passion is not only to look after our clients, but to really look after our staff. Mm-hmm.
Janette:I don't know that we've mastered that totally yet, if I'm very honest, but we're working on it, we try. We've started now having staff come in and give them the platform to say how can we do this better? You're feeling supported, but I want my staff to know that we care about them, that we value what they do and that they can grow within our business.
George:Because I wouldn't imagine it's an easy job. That is not easy.
George:When you're looking after the elderly who may have a whole range of health issues or just frail in the fact that they're so old. But then you get the other side of the things with the disability services as well, and they I'm correct me if I'm wrong I'm assuming there are some pretty severe disabilities with those people as well that need some really specific help Absolutely, and it can probably even often put your employees in a difficult situation potentially with what those people are doing, and that would also be very difficult for you to manage. And do you have a high turnaround actually with, or a high turnover with, your staff, with your employees?
Janette:We've got some amazing staff that have been with us for quite a long time. But yes, we do. I think that's the nature of the business. You employ people and they come in with an idea of what it's going to be like and say, oh yes, I can manage that. But the reality is when they go in it's not so easy. And understanding if a client is verbal offensively that it's not them. You know they're on medication.
Janette:None of us can sit in their bodies and understand what it's like to be, you know, as challenged as they are. We've got men who've, you know, had prominent positions in life and, due to either a heart attack or an accident, whatever it may be, all of a sudden they have to be looked after. They need somebody to take them to the shower and do all of their personal care. That's humiliating. That's humiliating and embarrassing. And so they get a little. You know, they can be a little rude at times, but it's not them personally, and it's being able to have the strength to allow those words just to drop off you. But it's not easy.
George:No, not at all.
Janette:That is not easy. I don't think it's a job that I could do.
George:It isn't for everybody. Then I say that honestly I mean, if I had to do it, if it was for touch wood, I loved one. You know it's no sweat, but yeah, to do it as a job, to willingly go out there and do it, I think it takes someone that's special, you know, that has that real high level of empathy.
Janette:Absolutely, and we've got some beautiful people that work for us Absolutely beautiful.
George:What's one of the most challenging things in your business, Because I could imagine it never ends but what's something that you get really frustrated with in your line of work?
Janette:Well, things come out of lift wing all the time. So Christmas night a tornado went through and one of our houses in particular was all the electricity went off. Lessons we learned from that. We had a staff member leave, literally quit on the spot due to frustration. Nobody could use the washing machine, all the fridges went off, so all the food went off. The gentlemen who were in beds that needed, you know, the air in their mattresses needed to be on, so we needed to have a generator there. There was no generator, so they were lying on just a bed, without a mattress, basically.
Robby:So you house people.
Janette:We've got some people who live in SDA accommodation, which has supported disability accommodation. There's still homes, which has supported independent living. So there's a whole heap of different avenues of where people can receive care. Most of our clients are in home. They're in their own home, but we do have those that live in supported accommodation. So they have bathrooms that are catered for disability, and everything in the house is built to accommodate them, like handrails and special towels.
Robby:All of those hoists and everything, so this particular house.
Janette:Everything just went. And one of my managers who was enjoying Christmas particularly he'd become a dad last year, so it was his first Christmas with his little girl he had to run in and do a shift and that's challenging. Those sorts of things are challenging and everybody's nervous about oh what if something happens? Or you stay calm and you deal with the situation, but it's stressful. So that's an example. Or you might have examples where a client knows exactly what they want, but what they want might be really bad for them. But they have choice and control. So how do we manage choice and control so it doesn't hurt them?
Janette:So there are clients that go but this is how I want to be lifted up. But we know that if they're lifted up in a certain way, it can hurt our staff and hurt their backs, so we have to protect them. But at the same time you've got to do what the client wants. So they're the challenges we have to work around so that it becomes a win-win. How do you manage that? How do you do those things? A lot of education attached to it, so a lot of red tape. A lot of red tape, urocracy.
George:Absolutely. Do you reckon the government is doing a good job with You're, specifically with your industry?
Janette:I think there are people out there working their absolute pushes off to do the best that they can do. But unless you're out in the field and you understand it all, they can't know everything. So it's our responsibility, I think, to go and let people know what's going on and let's all work together. I think there are amazing people out there doing a lot of very hard work. I was at conference last year and some of the people that spoke I really respected and they've traipsed this field a lot longer than I have and they're still trying to work it out. But if there's a lot of people out there trying to make it work, so that's what we want to do. We want to.
Janette:If I can, build the education platform the way I look at it, as you know, in teaching I've got a degree. I have a master's bits of paper that say you have permission to do this, but most of my education were all of the professional developments that I did over a long period of time. So I've got folders of certificates. That's where the real learning happened and I was able to apply what I learned. Go back to the classroom, apply it. Go back to my office, apply it.
Janette:So why don't we do that in this industry, so allow the, the TAFE and all of the RTOs to do the certificates and whatever is needed for those who are working in the industry. But what can we put in place, apart from online? We've got lots of online learning. There's brilliant stuff online, but it's not hands on and what's missing? There is things that are missing, so let's provide those. So that's what we're going to try and work on and and build the system that way and help people or equip people to be able to do their jobs at a much higher level.
Robby:So do you feel like the industry lacks training?
Janette:It doesn't lack training. I think there's a lot of in depth training that we could add. There's lots of training out there, lots and lots of it. We have an online platform where people can go online, and but if you're doing, for instance, some online training on I don't know how to lift a client out of the chair and how to protect your back, you can read about it, but isn't it better to do it in person?
Robby:Once you've actually done it, yeah.
Janette:Where you can watch somebody or even feel like it's like what it's like yourself, I think, to get in a hoist and feel what that feels like.
George:And then to teach someone. That's how you can really master it too. We teach that even at our training events that we do, and it's like you're going to watch someone. It's like giving a needle You'll get shown how to be administer a needle, then you will do it, and then you will teach someone how to do it.
All:And that's how you're going to master that whole process and just by doing an online course on lifting.
George:It's like me doing an online course on bricklaying.
George:Yes, do you know what I mean. Until I actually lay bricks, I'm not going to know exactly how much do I need to tap it to get it perfectly. Yeah, that's right. All the little things that you're going to need to know. You didn't start off with 80 people, so tell us about when you first started your organization to now and the structure of how you got it, because I imagine you would have managers beneath you running the show, running people. You're not there directing 80 people, are you? Do you have GMs in place, or however your structure is. But talk us through, say the beginning. When you first started, was it yourself, was it you and 10 people? How did you then build it to 80? Because that's as I said, it's a huge business. Now it's a really big machine.
Janette:Okay, so I started. I retired in 2016, 2017.
Janette:My husband- had lung cancer, which was pretty frightening. My very precious uncle passed away in the middle of the year. That was challenging, and my aunt's dementia absolutely took her further down in her journey. By the end of 2017, I was starting to get quite passionate about the industry and in 2018, I registered the business, but I didn't do much with it. I just thought my aunt had got to the point where we couldn't manage her pain levels quite the same. We needed to get some nurses in. Things needed to change.
Janette:So I thought, all right, well, why don't we try and do it? So I hired some folk that came in and looked after my aunt, and I think we got two other clients of friends who came in and said would you look after my sister or would you look after my mum? And we took those on and that's all we did. Through that time I did a lot of learning, studying, started to get help in learning how to be an entrepreneur because I didn't have a clue how to do that either and I then hired I'm just trying to think who I hired first. I think I hired a lady to come in like a girl Friday, someone who would do a little bit of everything in the office and give me a hand, and we just managed that. I got a bookkeeper in to help me with the books. I did it all on my own initially, I think I started with five Most business.
George:I think everyone that starts a business always starts off as a solopreneur. Yeah.
Janette:Is that what?
George:it's called Solopreneur.
Janette:Solopreneur yeah, they do everything themselves.
George:It's effectively you still just have a job.
Janette:Absolutely. So I did that, I did yes, I did the wages, I did the rostering, I did it all and then my aunt died in February 2020. So four years next month, and that's when we really took off. So that's when we turned the unit into an office where my aunt was living and I hired a lady to come in and do, basically, the girl Friday work. I had a bookkeeper. Then I hired another young lady that was doing a lot of the rostering for me and we just grew from there. Then I put on my first support manager. So one of the things, there was a lady with the company we had in Sydney who looked after us while I still lived on the Gold Coast. But my aunt and uncle were in Melbourne and her name was Victoria and if she ever hears this, I want her to know how wonderful we thought she was.
George:Of course she's going to hear this.
Janette:I was in a role as a your father, we're.
George:No doubt she's found us.
Janette:So I was a dean of students, so I had a busy job, but she kept me in the loop all the time. I knew exactly what was happening when, how, why, if a new carer went in, if they'd had a bad day. I tried to get to Sydney as often as I could, particularly on school holidays, long weekends, the odd weekend. If I needed to get down there, I'd fly down. She would always come and meet me. Every time I was in Sydney she would come and meet me. She was gold. That didn't happen when we came to the Gold Coast. It was a different setup.
Janette:So I always appreciated what that felt like as the client and having somebody that I knew was caring for my loved ones. So I decided to put on a support manager and their role was to oversee the clients but also to look after the staff and be mindful of what they're doing and taking on their needs. And I in my thought it would be the care levels that we could give would come from those support managers. So we slowly built that up to two support managers, three support managers and I now have a senior support manager who oversees that. So we've got the service team now and that will grow as we put on more clients. If we need them, we'll put on another support manager, just making sure that they don't burn out.
Janette:I'm very, very mindful of how busy their jobs are and very mindful of burnout, which is easy to happen if we're not careful. I've now got a development manager, one in aged care and one in disability care, so two ladies work in the office, and then another lady who takes care of complying and all of the other jobs that need to be done, and that's our office staff. Seven of us, yes and no, no. And I've got an accountant. She works off campus. I was going to say off campus, see, the old school thing coming in.
Janette:She works from home, but she's wonderful. She is a great help to us. So that's our team as it stands today and we just grew our clientele from there. But it's been quite a journey and there's been ups and downs. I've been yeah, we've financially struggled. At times you lose a client and that can make a massive difference. We've had a couple of clients pass away, which is really sad, but it happens.
George:Not to sound insensitive, but that also would affect cashflow, I'm assuming, of course it does. Yeah, because then it's a fit like you're thinking out like let's think purely business right now, and so that person passes away. Then that income immediately stops. And is it government? Can you explain the government funding in this space as well, because you don't receive the funding from government per se, or do you get government funding at all for your actual business?
Janette:Okay, so my aged care provide funding for those who are aged. Ndis provide funding for those with disability.
George:And what's NDIS for those who don't know the National?
Janette:Insurance Disability Scheme. So if somebody has a disability, then they can find themselves or certainly find someone to help them. Find a support coordinator. The support coordinator then sets up a plan. What do they need, what do they want? They have an OT, an occupational therapist. Come in and just talk with them and look, assess them, write a report that will go to NDIS and then the NDIS will work out what sort of funding they need. From there they work out all right, so you've got this much funding for in-home care.
Janette:So they can then find a provider, which we are, and then we provide the care. It might be eight hours a week, it might be 10 hours a week, it might be 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's everything and anything in between. So we then provide that. We then send an account either to the NDIS and they will pay us directly, or it goes through an NDIS planner. They support the client, so it just depends, and the same with my aged care. They have their funding. We also operate with self-funded retirees. We just charge exactly the same money. We don't. We're not in this for the money. You need the money.
Janette:You need the money to make the business operate, but we're not in it to make money for ourselves. We're in this to lift an industry. So for me, the money will go to education, and my big dream is to build two hospices as a charity. That's what I really want to do, one for adults and one for children and have a lovely big garden on the acreage there in between the two hospices that has fruit and veggies and beautiful flowers, run by people with disability so we can provide work for them. And then eventually, I'd love to build our own offices. For what we pay in rent, we might as well be paying a bank loan.
Janette:That's the way I look at it. But we could purposely build an area where the bottom floor could have a coffee shop up one end where people could come in and enjoy company with one another, but run by people with disability. We can be running our program up the other end of our kitchen rules, which we're already running and it's very successful, where our clients come in, choose a menu, go and shop for it, come back and cook, present it, learn how to set the table, all those sorts of things, present it and then clean up. So we'd love to have better premises to do that, for them to be able to learn at a high level there. And then all other activities you know art and craft, reading, all sorts.
Janette:There's all sorts of things the mind boggles we already do. We take them out into the community. They go to lunch at the RSL, they go bowling 10-pin bowling and lawn bowling. There's a squeal in things people do and we're just going to continue to build it. We run a sausage sizzle in the park every two weeks. We like to invite anybody who wants to come. We don't care if they are with other providers. We're not interested in taking clients from anybody else, but we are interested in building community and building that those who have a disability can be mixing with people like themselves, so they understand each other on a different level.
George:Yeah, and those are amazing aspirations to be working towards, and the thing is, you're going to need money to do all those things, as well, so a lot of people in you know might even look at it and go, oh, you're getting paid all this money from government, getting hands out, getting this, getting that, and it's that perception that you're using the money to become rich and wealthy off the back of other people. But it's not at all the case, and what people need to understand is, in order to create positive change in this world, you need money, absolutely. It is as simple as that. You're a business at the end of the day, and there's nothing wrong with making a lot of money. You should, I hope and pray that you become the wealthiest person in this space, because I know exactly what you're going to do when you get that wealth. You're going to then reinvest it into other things that will benefit the community, that will benefit people, that will benefit your business and yourself.
George:You know you were saying, I think, yesterday it's like if I was ever seen driving a $200,000 car, that's a bad image for you. And then to me I was like that. You know that's very upsetting. You know what I mean, because you deserve to drive that amazing car and wear nice clothes and buy nice things. You work hard for it. You sacrifice probably more than most of the other people do. And yet you're now getting penalized because of that sincerity on how you're going about things, because you've made a bit of money on the side.
Robby:Is that frowned upon in the industry?
Janette:I think so. I think you need to be very, very careful. I don't think there's anything wrong with taking a regular wage, whatever that is, and if you save your own money and you do what everybody else does, why should you be penalized for that? I agree with that. However, somebody once said to me money's only greedy If I took all the money and put it all in my own pocket. That's when it's greed. So it's having that balance. It is having that balance, but I've been accused of spending other people's money to become a millionaire. But they don't know the internet, so it's water off the duck's back.
George:That's what it has to be.
Janette:Oh, absolutely.
George:I know someone and I'm going to be really vague because I don't want this to get back to anyone or it's for anyone to figure it out but they're in a similar space with you and they had gone out and bought. They'd made a lot of money in that space, but again creating a lot of positive change. They didn't just do it off the back, on taking advantage of people, but they made a lot of money in that space and went out and bought a Ferrari and actually had a whole range of supercars in all honesty, like millions of dollars worth of vehicles. And then there was an article written I think it was in one of those, in one of the mainstream papers about oh, look at this person flashing around in his government, bought cars and all this sort of stuff, and he's like hang on.
George:What did you remember? Those sleepless nights when I didn't have the car and I was riding a bike to work because I was trying to get this thing off the ground and look at all those buildings that I've built and look at all those things that I've accomplished and changed? But you're focused, because I've now rewarded myself, after 40 years of work, with a vehicle of my dreams, with any vehicle that I want to have of my dreams, and it's unfortunate that we're one of the only countries that have that mentality, which is the tall poppy syndrome, and we're now known for it. It's become that famous that people know about tall poppy syndrome. Do you reckon that's changing? By the way, no.
George:Yeah, I don't either.
Robby:I don't think it's changing. I think as soon as someone yeah, maybe us. Yeah, for sure.
George:I've never felt that way, though, even before I had any sort of wealth or success or anything like that. I never felt, never saw someone and go oh, you know daddy's money, or. Or oh, drug dealer, or he's.
Robby:Oh, really, so you were never. I never thought about people like that I saw someone with like a young age and a lot of money and you thought he's either been given that money or he's on something illegal.
George:I don't think I did. Yeah, I can, yeah, I did. That was a sort of truth.
Robby:I don't honestly believe I saw the area I grew up in could be something, or the schools, or went to a place I grew up hanging around. But yeah, growing up, if I saw someone to the extent where I used to work in Mercedes Benz, and if I would get a nice car to drive home that night and I'd have peas up like pea plates, yeah, and I would drive around thinking people are looking at me saying daddy's money. Yeah.
Robby:And I'm like my dad's broke. You know, this is not even my car Like, but that was how much that was ingrained in me that I thought other people would think about me when I was driving a nice car.
George:But it probably would be. Probably, people were probably thinking that too. Yeah, yeah, do you know what I mean? That's what I'm saying. A lot of that is there, and that's because they've almost given up on their, their ability to ever own a vehicle like that, and they're 40 years old.
Robby:So you reckon they're justifying Probably.
George:Oh, I think so. They're just they're giving into their own shitty existence as far as what they have given up on making a reason as to why they got that Right.
Robby:That's right.
George:So whenever I see anyone saying, oh, it must be nice or you're lucky, but why so?
Robby:why do we do that Like yeah, what is like? Why do we do that Like I?
George:because I've been in America. They celebrate successes like that. I mean, I haven't I haven't seen it firsthand, but I have from what I've seen online. When they see someone successful, that's like, oh wow, how did you do it, that's amazing, whereas here it's like, oh, you know better not to speak to him because he'll he's bike, he makes a whack me. You know what I mean, or whatever it's going to be, yeah it's very.
Janette:I think I've learned in life that you need to focus on having a lot of integrity and doing in life what it is you want to do, and as long as you're not hurting anybody or taking advantage of anybody and you have and you've worked hard for what you've got, then you deserve what you get.
George:Absolutely, and you shouldn't worry about what.
Janette:you shouldn't be worried about what anybody and, as somebody we all know often says, when you step forward, someone's going to criticise you. Back, they'll criticise you. To the left and right They'll criticise you, and if you stand still, they'll criticise you, and that is the absolute truth.
George:And something else I've learned You'll never get criticised by someone doing more than you. No, it's always people doing less than you that are going to criticise.
Janette:That's true, that's, that's very true. But I think, just keep in your integrity, and you know you will get criticised, but do what's right by you. Become the best version of who you are, grow into the person you were meant to be and leave this life, having left a wonderful influence.
George:Yeah, that's that's how I think we should all focus, and yesterday when we were chatting as well, we were talking about business, funny enough, and you've made a comment, but I actually didn't even focus on the business stuff you'd said and it was like about Christmas and how you had over the last 10, 15 years, whatever it's been, you've always had the family, everyone extended family, it's always been at your house and you said I had nine and a half people that had come from me and that was like that in my definition of it.
George:I think that's the meaning of life and really the ultimate success in life is when you can sit back and once I hope to get to your age and beyond I can sit back and say the same thing, or my wife or my family, we can all sit there and have the generations there. And Patrick Bette, David says this too like and this comes back to the money my dad, he goes. I wanted to make so much money that when Christmas time comes, the it's never a conversation of where Christmas is. This year it's always at my house, it is always there.
George:Selfishly, he said that because I always want to spend it with my kids. If that means I need a big enough house that I have to then fly the in-law in-laws of my children to my home and they sleep at my home for that whole two week period and I have the whole family. That's what I'm going to do. That's how big I want to get, because that's what I want in my life. He had a huge want and desire to have his family near him and by him, and then you know again, similar to you, how you had your family during Christmas, and many of us do but to sit back and go. You know, everyone has come from. You know from myself, from my husband, from my parents and so on and so forth, and you have all those generations under the one roof. That, to me, is a very special thing.
Janette:It was special, it was very special. So, having had four children and I had my children, their partners and the nine and a half grandchildren, so we're going to be blessed with another little girl in May, which is lovely, very exciting. Yes, and it was. I just sat there and I looked at and I went, oh my gosh, it's all come from us.
Robby:Every everyone in this room has come from us.
Janette:Yeah, it was very special, very, very special.
Robby:Did you always have it in you to want to be a business owner? No, you never.
George:Never. And guys like how is that for an example? You know what I mean. Like you can. It's never too late to start.
Janette:It's never too late.
George:You're the prime example of that now as well.
Janette:Well, even I went into teaching. I was middle aged, so I worked in international hotels as a young woman. Yeah right.
Janette:Then I travelled and had my children, got married, had my children. I was a stay at home mum for a little while because I had. I had one and then four years later I had three under three Didn't pay me to go to work, put three kids into into after school care or not, after school care, just kindy or whatever you put them into these days. So I stayed at home for a little while and then I went into education and that was again people pushing me on the back, going you should be teaching, you should be teaching. And it's amazing. There was one lady who really encouraged me and she saw something in me I didn't see in me and she saw something in me.
Janette:I don't think I anyone else had that faith that it was there and I've said to her and I will say it continually she changed the trajectory of my life with her faith in what I do and it was amazing. So I went into teaching and then worked my way up there and then retired to look after the family. Because that's what happened, you know, once my husband had cancer and everything. It was like I had to be home and then this came along. Who would have thought? Who would have thought?
Robby:Did you find it difficult to jump back into the workforce after having some time? No, I loved it. I love what I do, I really do.
Janette:It energises me and I love it. I'm not saying that there aren't challenging times. There are very challenging times, but I just love it.
George:Do you wish you did it sooner?
Janette:I wish I knew way back what I know now. Yes, but then I wouldn't have traded my years as a teacher either. I loved, I loved being a teacher. Yeah, well, had you not done that, you wouldn't be in the position you're in today, right?
Robby:No, and I believe things happen in life when they're meant to happen. Yeah.
Janette:For whatever reason. So yeah, I used to say to my aunt it's your fault, I can't retire it's, and she'd just laugh Always good.
Robby:What would you say to yourself back then? Now, knowing what you know, what would I say to myself? Yeah, if you have to share one message with yourself and knowing everything you know now because you said I wish I knew a lot of this earlier.
Janette:I think I would say to myself have more faith in yourself, Don't listen to the put me down. Don't listen to the put me down and go for it. That's awesome I think that's what I would.
George:I think a lot of people can resonate with that message as well. Even now, yeah. You know you might be in a position where you're doubting yourself. Or you don't think you can do it, or you don't think you're going to achieve certain things.
Robby:But you can, you would have had going from working a job to your own thing, there would have been some level of doubt, right?
Janette:Absolutely, absolutely.
Robby:And to anyone listening who may be in a similar position, because I, for myself, I always wanted to do my own thing for a long time and there was that doubt. So for someone that might be in that position now that's working a job, that might know they want to go out and do their own thing or they want to do something different or they want to do more, but there's that level of doubt what would you advise that person to do? What should they say to themselves? What should they do? How should they? What can they go and take action with that's going to allow them to take that next step forward?
Janette:Okay, I'm going to use an analogy of a good angel and a bad angel. So you get these two voices in your head. One says, ah, you can't do it, and the other one says, yes, you can Go for it. Or this one might say or the bad angel might say you deserve it, just go and do this, this, this, but it's actually really bad for you. It might be something that makes you sick. Go and have that extra drink. Or, you know, eat that bit of fatty food. It's okay, you deserve it.
Janette:The good angel saying you want to keep your health, let's eat some healthier food instead of that. The bad angel will be saying to you you can't go into entrepreneurship, you can't do that. It's too big a job. What if it fails? The good angel saying have a crack, just take one step at a time. Learn every lesson along the way. When there's a challenge, learn from it. People think challenges are terrible. Challenges are actually gifts that teach you things. You know, if you're going to learn patience, you need to be put in positions where you need patience, because you have to learn it.
George:So at what point did you so? When you got into business, you obviously didn't know much about business. Is that fair to say? I knew nothing about business. So at what point were you there going okay, there's things I don't know that I should know. And did you have to go out and seek people that had that information? Absolutely.
George:I did Like what was your mindset and process towards that? Did you actually do that or was someone? Did someone mention it to you? Like, how did you get into the space then of learning what you needed to know in business and connecting with the right people to teach you?
Janette:Okay, so I did a 12 month course with a business entrepreneur and that came to an end. That was fine. And then I went to just a one day entrepreneur summit. Yeah.
Janette:And from there I actually joined I don't know if you've heard of him, aaron Sansone. I joined his group and got into his inner circle and then joined his boardroom, of which I'm still a member, and I have grown through his mentorship and all of his events that he puts on. I now go and crew at those events because I still learn and I'm still growing and people will say to me why do you still go? And I go because I'm still learning and I'm too old to let that go.
George:But it's also an opportunity to give back as well.
Janette:Of course it is Absolutely, and you would have connected over those years with other businesses.
George:Am I right in saying so? Absolutely yeah, so you can also benefit from the knowledge and the connection and everything that you've experienced with those people too.
George:Absolutely and then all the other circles and trainings that that opens you up to as well. Absolutely, because it's not just that one thing. No, arguably. That's why we're sitting here today as well, through connections of those platforms. Absolutely, having built a relationship over the last year or so, whatever it's been, and you get to see well, we all get to see each other's journeys as far as where it started to where it's been and where it's going. So that's very exciting too. Do you think, had you done it on your own Because I think a lot of business owners would do that on their own Do you reckon you'd be where you are?
Janette:No, Absolutely not, absolutely not, and you need mentors. I have a gentleman on my advisory board who has been the CEO of lots of companies around Australia. He's retired now and whatever I learn in one space, I can run it by him in another space and he just massages it to suit the industry I'm in, because sometimes what works in the building trade might not work in the disability aged care space.
George:Yeah, absolutely. And then even with your mentors, and it's great that he's had that whole range of experience. But too many people think as a mentor is someone that has to be that business focus or that guide. But you can have a mentor as a parent, you can have a mentor as a friend, you could even have a mentor as your PT Absolutely Someone. It's effectively someone that has knowledge that you don't, that can help you get from.
George:A to B quicker Because they've gone from A, B, C, D and they have that level of experience and then you can leverage off that time. Absolutely.
George:We talk about. Even with reading books, there's a million dollars in a book, in every book that you read, and you're leveraging someone's experience who has probably lived 30 years to write that book. I've been doing construction for 22 years. I reckon if I wrote a book, it'd be pretty fucking good Because I've got that experience now of that time where I can go OK, this is what I've learned over the last 20 years, this is what's working today, this is what's great, absolutely. And you can put that in a book and someone could pick that thing up, read it and go wow, I never thought about things that way.
George:And then even just by doing that, it might catapult them in a different direction, absolutely In their own organization. Maybe they open up a different arm of their business, or maybe they go. You know what? I need to sort this person out and speak to me or speak to someone in that space, because it could be overseas, could be someone going. Ok, well, I need to go and find a guy that's really good at building and learn from him. Or I need to go and find someone that's really good at business and learn from him. Or you know what? I need to look after my own health and seeking those people out.
Janette:I think it's selfish not to there are lots of books written to that, although written very differently, connect. So you could read this book and you could read this book, and they've got the same message but they're presented differently. But it gives you a higher level of understanding. So there's lots of readings out there that are all very similar.
George:Yeah, I mean, just because you read one marketing book doesn't mean that's it for the genre. No, you know what I mean. You could read probably three, four, five, ten.
Janette:Absolutely.
George:And then go yeah, I can pick one from that. I can utilize that. I can utilize that. Yeah, you end up creating your own way and you also find things that you're like no, that's bullshit, yeah, that's like rubbish, I'm not ever going to do that, but at least you can go and look at that and go. That's never going to work. So guess what you're not going to do? You're not going to spend money trying to make See if that's going to work Absolutely. You still learn.
Robby:The only other way to learn that would be to do it. That's it. Right. Yeah. Did you have to coming from? Because you were in a primary school, high school, both, both. Which book? What year did you teach?
Janette:I'm curious, ok so I started teaching as a year six teacher. Yeah, and the school that I was in introduced middle school, so I moved across to that. No, it was six, seven, eight, nine. What? Six, seven, eight, nine.
Robby:You're based in Queensland. In Queensland, just for a little bit around this thing.
Janette:So we go to the other camp. They built it on the other campus, so we had two campuses. There was the primary campus and the senior campus. They moved middle school across. I moved across and from there, yeah, I became a deputy. I was deputy of the middle school and then they sort of the middle school changed a little and they had a senior team that did both middle and high school. So I became the dean of students six to 12. Yeah so, and then, even though I was a dean, I still taught maybe three or four periods a week Across.
George:What was your favorite year?
Janette:level Six I liked six, six, I did like six.
Robby:Who was your?
George:favorite student, what was your, what was their name right?
Janette:now Lots of them.
Robby:What was your favourite?
Janette:big one. What did you teach Well year?
Robby:six you taught everything. Oh, so you have to do everything, yeah. Primary school Primary school curriculum.
Janette:And I had some amazing kids.
George:Yeah, but we want to know which one's the favourite. There's not a lot. They could be listening they are listening.
Robby:You got to tell them. I don't have favourites.
All:I don't have favourites, that's cool I had one, there's got to be one stand out there's got to be.
George:Just just give us a first name, Not a second.
Robby:There is that person. You just thought of them. I can't do that, jessica. It's you, jessica.
Janette:There were lots of kids that you know. I could tell you a thousand stories, but I loved my role as a dean of students. I always called the loveable rogues, lived in my office and I loved them all. They were awesome. Like sometimes people give up on people too quickly and they're kids.
George:Oh yeah, kids, you can't.
Janette:Get to know them, dig deep and find out what's making them tick, and often some of the children. The behaviour was because of things that were happening at home and they were things some of us have never experienced, and they're trying to deal with an adult situation as a child and then people are bagging them and getting angry with them and really yeah, well that probably leads into a lot of why you're doing what you're doing now.
George:To have that ability to see that back then it probably was a natural progression for you to step into the role that you're doing now. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Robby:We, three of us we're deeply involved in personal development. We've done a lot of things like that, and we do have to convince yourself from traditional education school. Do you have to convince yourself to go and try something that was, I guess, a little less off conventional conventional, I was gonna ask this exact same question.
George:I'm gonna steal it. My question was a little bit more direct, sorry. You ask your. You try answer that first, if you know what to say.
Janette:I had no problems at all.
Robby:Okay, and what would you say? Because there are people who are like why would I go do that $5,000 program? I'd rather go to uni.
George:But that's my next quote. That's leads into my question is do you think the school system as it is is broken now? Do you still do you think it's? Would you advise your grandkids to go do uni?
Janette:Well, what I said to my children is university is a path to get where you need to go. So if you need to be a doctor, you have to have a university. Absolutely you want to be a teacher, you have to go to university. But you don't have to go to university for the status of saying I went to university.
George:Or to be successful, or to be successful. My wife still like that she's, she's like our kids are going to uni.
Janette:I don't have to.
George:I did uni, I went, I did my four years. I did everything that.
Robby:I had to do what you do and you've obviously done.
George:you need to be teacher, absolutely yeah, so I mean, but I could have become a builder without going to uni yes arguably I might have gotten there quicker who knows? I don't regret my path or anything that I did. I think it was the best thing for me and I enjoyed that experience. But I think it's more so today, in today's age and I think we've spoken about this in a previous podcast. Actually, maybe we haven't.
Robby:You need no.
George:No, I think we've ever spoken about it sick Because I enter a trick. Yeah, you don't need a university degree anymore to make money or to be successful. It's as simple as that. You can be at home in your underwear, open up an online store that sells paddle pop sticks and make fifty thousand dollars a month. And then your what are you deemed successful because you've done that? You're selling paddle pop sticks. Where is that person that goes out and gets a law degree and then goes and works as a what's? What are they called Lawyer? Yeah, but when the first job like a paralegal, whatever it is, like the assistant of a lawyer.
George:And they're earning fifty, sixty grand and working an eighty hour work week, slaving away until they get that position as a Head lawyer or whatever. I haven't watched suits in a while, sorry guys, so I'm not up with all the lingo, but do you know what I mean? Yeah, they'll get a well paid job by the time they're thirty, but they've sacrificed a lot of blood so it tears to get there. They're often stressed to the eyeballs. They're not enjoying their role or their life or anything like that, because they've been consumed by that. They've been sold from a young age. Go to school, get a university degree, go and work to your, to your sixty, five years old, buy a house, retire, die. And what I think by not doing that is I'm not following that trajectory and going down that path if you don't want to is that you can open up and explore the world of business or anything else that you really want to do and get successful. So I think at the moment it's still the school, and how long have you been out of the school system?
Janette:2016 so.
George:I guess a little while, but even then it probably hasn't changed. Do you think it's changed?
Janette:I think it's changed. Talking to people now who I know are still there, it's changed.
George:Yeah, but it's still okay. Do you still do tests? Yeah, that's what I mean. So you're.
Janette:I think it's changed.
George:It changed while I was there, I know is in the curriculum what they're teaching, but how they're delivering it. It's like I've seen this great picture online before and it's a whole range of animals lined up. I don't know if you've ever seen it before. So there's a teacher at the front of the, at the front of the picture or the front of the class, and then there's an elephant, a pig, a snake, a goldfish and a crocodile and it says right, everyone, today we've got a test and we're gonna. And a monkey important. Okay, today we got a test. We are gonna judge whether you're smart or successful on your ability to climb a tree. Okay, and now the snake looks at him, goes. You know, worries, monkeys, like this best day ever. The goldfish is looking around, going with the fuck. And that's effectively what the school system is like. And you're. It's like what you said before you don't know what that kids going through.
George:But not all kids learn the same, not all kids are gonna be fantastic at tests. And it's like remember, learn this, learn this, learn this, learn the first prime minister, learn who. Just like, remember a bunch of stuff, remember a whole bunch of stupid things that you don't need to learn about, aboriginal culture, and all this stuff like why would? Why the fuck do I need to learn that? Why do you know what the and you know what the other game changer is this thing? Yeah, because I can go. Who's the first is a person? Okay, let you know who the first prime minister of Australia was. Give me 30 seconds. Why do I need to sit there and memorize that and then be tested on that? Because everything is here and so our phones are making you dumb. No, they're not. Information availability is at the, at our fingertips. I don't need to sit there in class and learn all these things. I bet you they're still learning Pythagoras theorem at school.
George:I guarantee they're still learning it. No doubt I don't know. No doubt they are.
Robby:Do you regret learning time tables? You're gonna teach us saying.
George:I don't, I got use time table like.
Robby:I think that's some practical experience you're gonna teach us saying you're not gonna have a calculator in your pocket.
George:I know I don't remember that, but you know it's actually, I bet you. They did say that you walk it off around, I think what's important in education is you go to school.
Janette:You need to learn how to read. Yeah you need to learn how to do.
Janette:But I think it needs to be done in a practical way where you're learning skill sets. There's so much information in the world these days, you can't teach that school, so you teach them the skills to learn. We had. We had a curriculum at one stage that was there was no A, b, c, d's, it was you are working towards something. You're at the level you needed to be, or you are above it, but the idea was that you started here and you finished here and you just went on your journey. Now some kids would go and they'd move really quickly. Other kids move a little bit more slowly.
Janette:Yeah and you think about a year level at the beginning of the year, when you start, someone has Between two kids. There could be a year in age.
George:That's right. Right, you get bottom age and top age.
Janette:And a year in year one or year two, or year three or year four. The difference in the age is going to make a massive difference in their learning.
George:It's so true. My daughter's bottom age and I noticed that with her at school. She was, it wasn't bad, but I could see there was a gap between her, especially in those early years. Exactly, the other kids were just that nine months older and you could tell there was this.
Robby:She was the younger in the school. Yeah, I was the younger. I was 16 in year 12. Really, yeah.
George:How'd you manage that?
Robby:I don't know Shit. I started prep when I was four, did you? Yeah?
George:See, I started when I was five.
Robby:Yeah, so I was the younger.
George:I was almost 17.
Robby:I turned 17 almost halfway through the year.
George:Yeah, I started the year after I started. I was at school.
Robby:Yeah, I managed to driving and I was like I was 16 and one of my mates had his license.
George:Yeah, we're in the same year level, so you didn't get it till after high school.
Robby:My license? Yeah, I turned 17 halfway through year 12.
Janette:Yeah, so that makes a difference in where you're at. So people are saying, well, they're not so smart, they're only a B or they're only a C or they're an E.
George:That's it. And then you get judged on that, when you leave, and you get judged on it.
Janette:That's it. And then what do you take with that emotionally in the future? That's right. That's right when it's not true. When it's not true, I'm not good.
George:I'm not good at these things. I look at some of my high school friends now but I don't really speak to any of them. But you look at, I remember you know some of the people there. They got those amazing grades. They had really smart things. I guarantee you are making a lot more money than them and I've had the higher levels of success than them Just because they were book smart and able to memorize things to put on a piece of paper doesn't translate to success. Doesn't translate to happiness.
Janette:No, not at all. I remember a lady. She was in one of our classes when I was at university and she asked the question one day because she said I am so focused on getting the top grade, I need to get honors, I need to be right at the top, whereas her friend was quite happy to sit at a credit but spend her time getting the experience to understand and work with what she's got. And she said what worries me? She's going to be a better teacher than me, because I'm worried about the grade, she's worried about the talent of teaching. And I sat there and I thought well, good on you for recognizing that, because it's not whether you get the best grade. Anybody can study hard to get the best grade, but do you have that depth of understanding that you're going to take into the future? That's what counts.
George:Yeah, I completely agree with that.
Janette:That is what counts.
George:I was a C grade student, I reckon, depending on what topic it was. But yeah, let's just say I was a C grade student and I'm still. I would say I'm a C grade student today, but I employ A grade people I employ. It's like Elon says that and we've said this before in the podcast.
Robby:You can say it because I know you all love it. Okay, good to accept.
George:It's like I never went to Harvard because the people that employ that I employ go to Harvard or went to Harvard. But that in itself should be that little light bulb moment in your head going. You don't need to be that person that gets 99.99 on your end to score. Is that what it's called? Yeah, I don't even know. But, whatever it is, you don't need to do that to translate to success or happiness or achievement or fulfillment.
Janette:What you need to do is respect. We all learn differently, we're all gifted in different areas and, as I've said to my staff, we're going to take your strengths and build them to be a lot stronger, and the areas that you're not good in will hire someone else to do that, and then we'll build their strengths. So, if you build a business with everybody working at their peak and build it up, that's when you, that's when you win. But we, the old adage is oh, you've got to work on your weaknesses and bring them up.
Robby:Well then, you just become average. You're just average so let's respect everybody's strengths.
Janette:Don't be envious of somebody who can do something better than you. Go, let's work together. Let's join.
George:It's so funny. We were out last night and I actually made that comment and pretty much saying look at everyone in this room and you go. You're really good at this, you're really good at this, you're really good at this, I go altogether. If we started a business right now, you're talking billion dollar company right now. Absolutely. You know one person saying I struggle with personal brand, I can't pick up my phone. I'm like, fuck, that's the easiest thing you could possibly ever do. That's how I was thinking about it. And then you've got another guy's going oh, I've got my GM in place. I've got this and I'm sitting there. How the fuck am I ever going to put a GM in place? So it's amazing how you know. As you said, if you can, everyone can work to their strengths and learn from that. Absolutely.
George:And I think that to school's defense or teachers' defense. I think that's very hard If you've got a classroom of 30 people or 30 kids and you have to tailor your teachings to every individual kid very difficult it is very, very difficult.
Robby:No, no, no, you don't think so. No, it's not why, it's not the purpose that we go to. It is purpose. It's all about understanding that people learn through VAK, like understanding visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Yeah Right, some people are feelers, some people are listeners.
George:Some people are visual, yeah, so how would you then? Okay, that's cool. How would you tailor that training then, for your kids or for the teaching to your kids, and most people don't notice this.
Robby:When you learn and we've all done this actually when you do this program at the highest level and you learn how to teach, you learn that it matters what you say and when you touch on something, you need to touch on it on all levels.
George:Okay, so then I would bring that back to saying the teachers aren't educated enough, then, to deliver the content the way it needs to be, yeah.
Robby:So what's the problem? The education system. Yeah, there you go, but then that's. But if you could fix that, get the blind, then the blind Teachers not. With all due respect I say this, but some teachers are not great.
George:Yeah, yeah, I probably agree with that, yeah.
Robby:Some teachers are really you can say that.
Janette:Yeah, I know Brilliant teachers out there.
Robby:Oh, there would be some brilliant teachers.
Janette:Absolutely, I have no doubts yeah.
Robby:But I think it's one of those things where they're also not remunerated very well.
George:Really Teachers? I would have thought teachers got a pretty good packet.
Robby:Well, because they have 12 weeks off.
George:Yeah, well, that you got to take that into consideration. Paid yeah, I'm assuming. I don't know, I'm sure, I'm pretty sure it's paid.
Janette:I'm smiling, so you know. Somebody used to say to me oh you only work nine to three and I go that's like a third of the job. Yeah, when do you write your programs? When do you do all your?
George:marketing. It's after it, it's not. It'll be seven to five or eight weeks off a year.
Janette:That is it the rest of the time you if, unless you're doing it till two and three o'clock in the morning through the term, you spend the holidays preparing for the next term. So good, teachers work we used to call it. We used to just say it was non-contact time. So he was contact time and he was non-contact time and you need the break from having 30 kids sitting in front of you or 25 kids sitting in front of you. You need that break emotionally. But really teachers only get the four weeks a year off.
George:Yeah. Well then I mean they should definitely, yeah, they should definitely be doing that sort of training them, without a doubt. Without a doubt. Like if they could do those courses and where they can teach how to deliver the content with the. That's just one, that's just the first thing, that's just the first thing that I've mentioned.
Robby:Yeah, so what is format? Why, what, how, what if and how some people are, why people. Some people are what people. You know what I mean. Yeah, some people are how people, understanding that whole concept and how to deliver it in the best aspect. But there's also another thing you can argue. So that's one thing about delivery, the other one's about what they actually teach you Like. You can be the best teacher in the world and understand exactly how to deliver it, but if you have to teach a particular curriculum and it doesn't, why don't they teach us about? Why does no one teach us about money in school? Why, that is one of the most important things in life. Why does no one teach you about it? They don't really teach you like, I teach you a little bit about hell, but they don't really teach you about hell. Yeah.
Robby:You know you don't leave school and implement anything. I don't. I can say that I don't use anything that I learned in school, or use very few things that I learned in school today. Why don't they teach us practical things that we can actually use today? What do you reckon? The answer to that is I kind of have an answer, but I'm curious You're like trying to control society, that's? What's great.
George:Yeah, you're like leaving them dumbfounded. No, no, no it's. It's creating a factory worker. Like the vast majority of people, they want to go into the workforce. So by me teaching you wealth creation and going out and doing things that we need you to do, like what everyone. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur. Not everyone can be a business owner. You're going to need people to pick up bricks. You're going to need people to work at the news agency.
Robby:Exactly.
George:You're going to need people to work at Coles, like you need that aspect. But also, yeah, to a degree it's also a level of control, because if you have a PAYG job and you work at a bakery like, you're relatively under control because, okay, maybe you're the best baker there, you might own six figures maybe, or you might wear 80,000. It's very easy to control a person like that. Upgo interest rates, down go interest rates. I can make you spend, I can make you save. I can give you a kickback, I can give you a thousand bucks Next quarter. I can take some tax concessions or I can raise taxes. I can sell you that dream. Go buy a car, buy a nice car so you can work and pay taxes. Go and buy a house so you're locked in for the next 60 years and do that. So I think to a degree, yeah, it is focused to service the government in that regard. That's what I'm not being conspiracy theorist or anything like that, but that's what I reckon they're trying to do. And they'll say, oh, land of opportunity, you can do whatever you want. You know people can go out there and make great money. That's fine. But I reckon the ones that do go out and like what you said before, and seek that knowledge from other people, that further education and we've said this before I never did that in my life.
George:I thought, once I got my construction management degree, I was going to work at the construction company. I was an arrogant, I didn't think I needed to learn anything else. I was just going to be the best builder and work really hard at construction. I don't need to learn leadership or money management or this or you know how to communicate with people. I'm a builder, that's it. I know how that works and how that works. I put it together, it's Lego and Way we Go Painting. So. And it wasn't until I then sought out additional education from other people is when I saw huge growth. Huge growth because I learned what I didn't know.
Janette:I think traditional education certainly the education I had growing up it was all chalk and talk, you listen to the teacher, and that wasn't how I learned. As I said before, when we had outcomes based education, we had opportunity to teach about money. We had opportunity to do so many things in the classroom. We'd do a lot of group work. A lot of you know one of the activities. There were lots of them, but one I remember in maths we used to teach budgeting for a birthday party. So we'd ask the kids to gather all the brochures that they would get in their letterbox, bring them in and we'd teach about percentages, fractions, decimals, but we taught them all together. So a tenth, what's that in percentage, what's that in decimal? And we aligned them and then we'd say now look at the brochures that you get in your letterbox. So then we'd apply that to real life and at the end of the day they had $100 and they had to budget for their birthday party.
Janette:Some kids would have one friend and spend it all on the two of them. Others would have 10 friends and they'd have a different birthday party, but the excitement of knowing they were having a birthday party at the end. They were focused because all of a sudden what they were learning was related to real life and they were learning about money. So those were possible. But then, interestingly, a lot of the parents wanted to see the ABCD, because that's how they were taught.
Janette:Because that's how they were taught. Rather than well, here we go, we're just going to progress you through at your level. But parents wanted to see I want my child to be the A student and I want them at the top of the class, but didn't really make any difference and that disappeared, sadly, and we went back to traditional ways and I think that damaged education. To be perfectly honest, I think outcomes for education was brilliant.
George:Did you send your kids to private school?
Janette:My kids went to a Christian school.
George:yes, so do you recommend that, if you can afford it, public over private? Do you? Think there's a difference between the two? Do you think there's an advantage between the two? I think, your kids have kids now, yep, would you tell them. Or if they came to you say, hey, should I you reckon I should send them to a public school or a private, what would you say?
Janette:I would say find the school with the best head School is as good as their head, and it's the luck of the draw. Seriously, I don't care you can go with the best.
Janette:You know the best school in the world and if you're in the wrong grade level where the kids don't get on, they'll have a terrible time. You could go to the worst school in the world and they're with this great cohort of kids where they all get on, they'll have the best experience. So it's horses for courses, so go where you. I wanted my kids to have a Christian grounding, which is why I chose the school I went to and it was fine. Thank you for watching mind. I also learned over the years of being because I taught in that school as well. Over the years you had cohorts where, and then there were other cohorts that probably all catch up today and are still really good friends. So it's the luck of the draw, so you need to.
Janette:I remember talking to somebody once his child was having quite a bad time at school and I recommended that they go to another school and they said just made all the difference in the world because the cohort was different. So it's not just about a school, it's the relationships they have. That's critical, absolutely critical. You know they say if a child goes to school, you know they're in prep and they're in a school concert and the family all come and the family are laughing and joking and enjoying their child on the stage and they say, oh, you're wonderful, you are so good. And the child comes home and they're proud and their shoulders are back. And then somebody later the next day says, oh, you look like an idiot on the stage. And all of a sudden they start to you know, have a little bit less confidence and go. I might not do that next year. And then maybe when they're in grade two, the teacher says what's? 11 and 11?
Janette:And they go oh, I know 21. The teacher says no, anybody else. And that child goes oh, I won't put my hand up next time. And so, slowly but surely, their self-confidence gets less and less and less. By the time they're in year nine, they're like this yeah, and that comes again that also comes to the answer that I was saying the training to the teacher, Absolutely absolutely, I could see how you got to that figure.
George:Yeah, I can understand what you did there, but it's not quite the answer I'm looking for. Who else has that Great try? Who else has the answer Exactly exactly and then? So that then makes sure that they don't go. Okay, cool, I can try again next time and I'm not fucked up.
Robby:Yeah, All right, that answers the question. Public or private?
Janette:Honestly, honestly, my kids went to both Yep and they had a Christian primary school and they had a public school high school. It just depends on the school seriously.
Robby:I went. What did you go to Public? Okay, me too. How was it for you? Yes, fine.
George:I had a good experience in high school. I went to a good public high school and primary school. I don't regret it at all. Well, I'm at that age now where I've got my kids in primary school and just the matter of where I position them Whether we go okay, we're gonna go public or private for their high school and like it's a significant amount of money I don't know what it was back then. I'm sure it's all relative at the end of the day, but it's a significant investment that you need to make.
George:And the flip side of this thinking from let's talk business it's who am I gonna be connected with by sending them to a public school and how I'll benefit from that. Being serious, yeah, that's very nice, yeah, but it's a serious thing you gotta think of. Because at the end of the day, I like I'm a builder. And then I meet someone and we're like oh, what do you do with this? I'm a builder. Oh, mate, I'm actually building my house in Brighton, wherever it might be, because generally people that are gonna send their kids to a public sorry, a private school have a level of ability to pay for that and are generally educated in the sense of they'll have a high paying job, enough of a high paying job to be able to afford $40,000 per child to go to school and generally live in a nice enough area. So yeah, most of them, most of them, I'd say the vast majority of kids in private school.
Janette:A lot of people I would say a good half of them are people who work really hard and they choose to prioritize the school for that, because they think that they're giving their kids the best advantage. So you get both.
George:But then, even then, those people could benefit from the connections that they would have at that school.
George:I would arguably say because I might be a doctor, all right, and say, oh, I'll come to my thing, I'll give you a discount, or I'll look after your child. Our kids are friends. Don't worry about this bill or whatever it can be. It could be any profession. Most of the people that are going to private schools you would generally say are professionals of some sort I'd say the vast majority. So the connection there that you could make I could make two, three deals during my kids' time at school and pay for their whole education for the six years.
Robby:That's a great way to look at it, yeah it is too.
George:But it's also, then, the connection that those children make with their kids.
Robby:Exactly.
George:But then you hear all the other shit too. I'm gonna go to private school, oh cool. Your kid's gonna end up a junkie because they're gonna be surrounded with all the Cokehead, mum and dads and all this sort of stuff that are gonna spread to their spoiled silver spoon. They're gonna grow up to be shit people and that's where your comment comes into place is the people, the kids that they're around, maybe the individual school itself. So it is probably a little bit luck of the drawer in that regard too.
Robby:I think there is a level of luck of the drawer, but I think if you did an overall average, I think private schools and I could be wrong. I never went to a private school, into a public school, but I think private schools overall. If you had to average both out, I think private schools would be better off. Would there be some public schools that are better than some private schools? Yes, but I think overall as an average. Yeah, like generally, I think if you're blindly rolling the dice, you've got a better shot at a private school of landing a good school.
George:You might not, but yeah, and here's the other thing too A lot comes into what you do to your child and how you build your child up as well.
Janette:Absolutely.
George:Heaps would come into that and making sure you can help them understand not to be insecure, to be confident enough to say no when they need to say no or yes when they have to say yes. And that's gonna have a huge role to play into, because if you're just sending the kid there, okay, you be successful. Now I've done my part. Like no, they'll be influenced by the wrong things, they'll be led down the wrong path, whatever it's gonna be. So instilling that into your children I think it's gonna be really important too.
Janette:I think a family is a family. There are good families, there are broken families, there are people who struggle, there are people who do have the money. At the end of the day, a lot of the issues are still the same and that's what you deal with at school. So kids will be kids. We had a private school and we had some real challenges. Just because you're a private school doesn't mean there aren't challenges there. There definitely are. So, as I said, I think it's the luck of the draw of the year level they go into, but you get some excellent public schools and you get excellent private schools, but you also get not so great in both sectors. So do your research.
Robby:Do your research.
George:Oh, we've covered quite a range of topics today. I think we'll be going down the school path, so that was definitely fresh.
Janette:I didn't think we were going there either.
George:Yeah, so if people want to get in touch with you, if they want to find you is there anywhere, they can specifically go To your website to your business Website absolutely. Do you have a personal brand or anything like that that they?
Janette:can follow you on. Look, I'm on Facebook Instagram.
George:Yeah, what's your tag?
Janette:Just a lot Dignified movement, a lighthouse for change, yeah, excellent. So, google-ists, we're there absolutely.
George:Fantastic, and it's in Gold Coast.
Janette:On the Gold Coast.
George:yeah, Do you have aspirations to go into state?
Janette:Eventually, I think I would really love to attract smaller businesses and help them grow. And who knows where we're going? We're already in Brisbane, so we're sort of in the southern area of Brisbane as well. So, yeah, we'll grow. I just want to master it first before I look at expanding any further. But to master the lighthouse, that's what I really want to do, and then help others master the lighthouse.
George:Well, I think, from where you've started off to where you are today in such a short amount of time, I think it's phenomenal in itself. So a lot of people could get a lot of inspiration from that and really look to you as a guide, and I'm sure you're going to be that influence in the industry that it probably needs. In all fairness, from what I've heard, it does lack that leader in that space to really take the reins and say no, we need to do better. That's all it is. At the end of the day, we can't just accept that this is the minimum standard and this is what's acceptable. No, why not do better? We can do better, so why not do better? Absolutely.
Robby:So I implore you for doing that and being that that bright lighthouse in the you too, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it was coming in the industry.
George:Thank you, so it's been a pleasure having you on. Thank you. And look forward to having another chat too, absolutely, absolutely.
Robby:That's been the IOP-inning chat.
Janette:That's it, thanks for coming. Welcome. I've enjoyed being here.
George:Thank you, guys. We love the chats, we love the people that we're getting on. In order for us to spread that message and to help more people on their entrepreneurial journey or their life journey, or just want to listen in for a bit of a laugh, click that subscribe button in the top right-hand corner. It's not.
Robby:It is.
George:All right, fine, we'll put it there, thank you. Thank you, share with your friends. Tag us, let us know what your favorite part of the podcast was, because for us it's every part of it is favorite. So we're very biased, very biased there.
Robby:Leave a review as well.
George:That's it. Tell us if you like it, tell us if you hate it, and then we'll find you. Just put five stars, five stars. Thanks guys, speak to you soon Awesome.
Janette:Thank you guys, thank you Bye.
Robby:Don't forget to subscribe to the channel and thanks for watching.