Million Dollar Days
Welcome to Million Dollar Days with Robby Choucair & George Passas. Your go-to podcast for a deep dive into the world of Life and Business Mastery.
Join hosts Robby Choucair and George Passas, a dynamic marketer and a seasoned Entrepreneur, as they navigate through an array of intriguing topics ranging from the everyday to the extraordinary.
Robby brings his marketing expertise to the table, offering insights into the latest strategies and trends. George, with his extensive experience in business, provides a grounded, practical perspective. Together, they explore everything from the feasibility of alien existence to effective goal setting, and even the nuances of religion.
Million Dollar Days is not just about business acumen; it's an exploration of life's many facets, wrapped up in conversations that are as enlightening as they are entertaining.
Tune in and be part of our journey, where every day is a million-dollar day, filled with learning, laughter, and the pursuit of mastery.
Million Dollar Days
The Power of a Smile
What happens when you combine leadership insights, the power of kindness, and the tricky dance of social media boundaries? Join us as we unpack the art of guiding teams to greatness while fostering personal growth and balancing profitability. Discover the nuanced decision-making process behind a digital creator's choice to step back from the online world—and why it’s sometimes wise not to get high on your own supply. Plus, we have a fun chat about organizing a morning barbecue and how small gestures like a smile can ripple through our lives, creating positivity in unexpected places.
Have you ever experienced the transformative power of a simple "thank you"? In our next segment, we dive deep into the significance of gratitude in relationships and everyday interactions. We share personal stories that highlight the beauty of living in the moment and the pitfalls of operating on autopilot. You'll hear an intriguing tale about football players and the language they use to describe themselves, underscoring how our words shape our perceptions and self-worth. This conversation is all about being present, spreading kindness, and recognizing the good around us.
Finally, we tackle some of the biggest challenges in the working world today, from hiring the right people to dealing with societal pressures. Learn why attitude and cultural fit are crucial in recruitment and how to streamline your hiring process with resources like "Top Grading" and "Who." We also explore the booming self-education industry, contrasting it with traditional education paths and revealing why accessible knowledge is changing the game. Rounding out the episode, we share strategies for effective time management and project prioritization, ensuring your team stays productive and excels in their roles. Tune in for an episode packed with wisdom, practical advice, and a sprinkle of light-hearted moments.
I think, as a leader in your business, you've got some level of obligation to drive these people. And if you are casual and you're just like, well, you know, it's okay, we're making money, we're profitable, I think that's not a good leader, because you're actually not allowing these people to live up to their potential, because you won't lead them. And some people need to be led Absolutely and some people need to be driven. Some people need that level of guidance and I feel like you're failing as a leader if you don't maximize people's potential. If you have an opportunity, just a bit of kindness Going around the world wouldn't go astray. So what are you going to do? Myself, yeah, I think it's just being a little bit more aware of my surroundings and just being a little bit nicer. People are kinder. Some people need that shit in their life.
Speaker 1:You got rid of Instagram. I hear you deactivated your account. You shut everything down. No, I didn't. I'm still very much alive to all the instagram followers. Posts are going out, comments are getting replied to. Shit's still happening people. Yeah, you, dm me, I'll respond. I just don't have an app. I don't have instagram on my phone anymore.
Speaker 1:Interesting for a digital creator such as yourself. Do you know what I mean? I could understand a lot of other people doing that, but you, that is your livelihood. Do you know what I mean? The social media aspect. Rule number one don't get high on your own supply. You know? Heard it here first. The crack dealer doesn't smoke crack, yeah. The social media guy doesn't spend time on social. Hasn't consumed three eights? Yeah, we're not. Don't get high on your own supply, guys. Damn straight, damn straight. I want to know, I want to know what's it going to take to get you to come have a nice barbecue in the mornings. What's it going to take? I mean, it sounds a little bit gay when you say it like that. It's not, though. It's not Okay, good, it's sick, as long as we don't make eye contact. Nah, right, look down, just stare at the ground. Nah, but seriously, though, just sign up to this recovery place and they've got I've literally got no excuse. It's literally across the road from here, and, dude, you could do it and roll straight into the office. Damn straight, I'll go to the gym and then I'll go there and then I'll come to the office. Were you here at 6.30 when you messaged me this morning? No, I was at the gym? Okay, because I was there. Oh, were you? Yeah, oh, no shit, how good, I didn't think that you were over here. I would have been If it was a normal day. That thought about the accountant crossed my mind when I was sitting in the sauna. Oh right, oh, my God, it's the last day. You know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, like dude, that would be perfect. Anyway, oh, he's overseas, by the way, dud, back on Thursday, greece. I don't know where the fuck he is. Is he Greek? He's Greek, every Greek's in Greece right now. Or just got back, just got back. Their summer's just beginning by the time this ends. Oh, yes, come on. Come on, oh, you're still living in June.
Speaker 1:I was walking down the street the other day, as you do, yeah, and I was walking out of Coles to my car. It was early morning and as I was walking to my car, there was a lady walking towards me. Did you say out of Coles? Yeah, out of Coles. There was a lady walking towards me as I was walking towards my car and she looks at me, makes eye contact, smiles, says good morning, like good morning, hope you're doing well. Then she kept walking her own way, don't know who she was nothing and it made me stop and think for a second. I don don't know who. She was nothing, and it made me stop and think for a second. I don't do that enough. So you're just walking past another human being. Hey, how are you? Smile, look at them.
Speaker 1:I thought it was a really nice gesture. You know what I mean. Yeah, I get what you're saying. I just thought it was nice in the sense that you know what. Why wouldn't you say hello?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, but if everyone, if everyone started saying good morning to you in the morning, you'd be like you'd headbutt him enough. Yeah, you're the 47th person to say good morning to me this morning. Beat it, I get it though. Yeah, you know what I mean, but you know what it is. What was it? No one does it, yeah. Yeah, that's right, because everyone did it. You'd be like what if you were the one person-? Yeah, no one does it. So what if you were the one person that did it all the time to everyone that you all cast Morning Good morning? Then I wouldn't walk with you. Good morning, yeah, not with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's talking to everyone, but you, actually, I do tend to. If I make eye contact with someone, I'll either, like, if it's a female, I'll smile, and if it's a male, I'll. You know, I'm just going to, like, you know, give them the nod Like the well done, bro, keep going. Give them the nod yeah, don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. You're not going to kill me. No, you're good. Yeah, we're. Do you know what I mean? You know the nod, I know the nod, and then, if they're kind of cool, you give them the other nod. Yeah, it's fair. I know Women, it's very confusing, don't bother, just try and understand it. You can just watch next time.
Speaker 1:Speaking of women, I was actually quite surprised the other evening. I was doing some, just spending some time on the computer looking into the podcast stats and things like that and just reviewing the data. Yep, and I was quite surprised to find that 40 percent of our listeners female. Fantastic welcome, and I'm glad that you're here. Well, why wouldn't it? It's not specific to men. This isn't. This isn't. It's not. I was just million dollar days, man man edition. Yeah, yeah, that's next week. Yeah, call up Spotify. We're changing the name. No, I was very surprised. Yeah, are you surprised? I'm going to say no. Yeah, no, I'm going to say no, because I think the content that we're teaching and talking about also is relatable to anyone in business.
Speaker 1:It's not just specific to men. There are aspects of what we talk about that are specific to men. However, even those episodes women can greatly benefit from If you want to learn more about how we think and what we're doing and what our challenges are, what our problems are. I think I even said it one day in a podcast where I go to them, I said women go home, and you should do this again if you're listening to this for the first time or find that episode.
Speaker 1:Go home tonight, or when your man gets home tonight and just tell him hey, thank you, I appreciate everything you do for me and you watch him. Dude, do you know how many people messaged me on that episode? You just remind me. Yeah, it's so true, it was my idea, but it's so true. You go, charlie, you walk home.
Speaker 1:A man's had a hard day at work, whatever it is. If you just say to him hey, I just want you to know that I appreciate everything you do for us. You watch, like it'll be like a weight has lifted off his chest. He'll feel so happy that that will do more for him than any back rub for him, than any back rub blow job or maybe not a blow job, but it'll do. It'll do a lot for him. All right seconds to that. Every guy's gonna suck, that's right. You know, you're like. You know I was coming home to this and now I'm coming home to thanks, yeah, so, um, yeah, that was.
Speaker 1:That was interesting, that happened to me during the week and I wanted to share that today because I think, if you have an opportunity, just a bit of kindness going around the world wouldn't go astray. So what are you going to do? Myself? Yeah, I think it's just being a little bit more aware of my surroundings and just being a little bit nicer, but then people are kinder to people. Some people need that shit in their life.
Speaker 1:Have you ever? When was the last time you were walking down the street and ran into someone you know? I can't specifically remember that's exactly my point, right, because have you pay attention to this, and you probably will now that I've brought it to your awareness but you ever run into people, you know, and you see them in autopilot and it takes them a moment to see you, and you see them and you're like, and they haven't seen you yet, I'm that other person, are you? Yeah, I'm the other person, especially if I'm walking on my own. If I'm walking on my own, like I'm in the zone, dude, I've seen people where, like, they're like I don't really well, and I'll, I'll see him and I'll be like, like they're so in their own automation, like they're just in autopilot in their own head, walking like pacing, and then you're like, and by the time they see you and you see, like something come over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you see, like that, oh, like, and they're back. Yeah, it's like fact, where were you before? Dude, like, you're walking pretty fast, do you know where? You're walking pretty fast, do you know where you were going? And it's funny. It's funny to say that because most people live their lives like that. Dude, I'm in that zone, I'm that person. Why? Because I'm always thinking about shit. It never stops. I feel my brain doesn't stop what Imagine? Your brain shouldn't stop, but you should. Also, being present is a skill. It's something you need to practice. Yeah, I agree, it is, it's presence. Yeah, 100%, it's like I'm here now, this, now right.
Speaker 1:I put up a post about this the other day, saying like life is good. Think about this right now. Nothing else matters. Yeah is fucking good, dude, like this, right now. Right now, that's all that matters, nothing else matters. Everything you're worried about you're thinking the past. Are you thinking in the future? This is now, right now. Look around you. Life is good. Life is fucking good, dude. Black bark dude, come on. Clean tap water. That should be more than enough. There's countries that still don't have that, you know. You gotta remind yourself it's. But it's also a reason for you to be happy. Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:When I say I'm in the zone, I'm aware in scenarios, in situations, especially if I'm around people, but I say when I walk from here to get my lunch, I'll be thinking about stuff. I'll be thinking about okay, I've got to go back to work, I've got to do this, I've got to do this. When I get back, I have to call this person, I have to process this one, I have to do that. So that's what I'm thinking. Oh, I should go here, that sort of thing. So I'm not necessarily looking at what's happening around me in my direct environment in that moment. Oh, yeah, so I reckon you across the road, I go hey, robbie, and I'll be like no idea, I don't know that guy. I pay attention. I'm always paying attention. When you pay attention, you actually remember more stuff because you're paying attention. Yep, I believe that I recently did a training and it was around neurolinguistics, programming and communication and all that sort of stuff. And it's funny now, since doing that training, I've noticed language from people and how they talk and what they're saying.
Speaker 1:And the other day I was at my son's football training and there was a couple of AFL footy players come down I can't remember what their names were, but a couple of Collingwood boys and the kids were asking him a whole bunch of questions. And one of the kids said oh, what position do you play in, or what's your favorite position? And then both of them were like oh, I'm just a backman, yeah. And then you're like just and that's the wording I picked up yeah, you'll notice that with everything I see it a lot. Yeah, like that, you're just a back man really. And you think so, what did you? Yeah, I noticed that they said that no way, and they don't know, they have no idea.
Speaker 1:Like, I'm just playing the back pocket, I just play on, uh, on the back flank. Like, oh, really, you play on the back flank for one of the most powerful clubs in the country, playing afl at the highest level. Yeah, is that what you just do? That's not that bad. Wait till you see when people do it with themselves. Yeah, like, it's like I used to. I know a guy who I used to work with and he used to answer the phone like sorry, he used to make a call out and he's just like if his name was george, for example, he would say, oh, hi, so, and so it's, it's just george. Yeah, like, yeah, I mean it's like. Just like. What do you? Why are you playing yourself down? That's right. Yeah, I mean that's right.
Speaker 1:And you start to notice the unconscious language pattern. Yeah, that's what I've started to notice. And when you say it doesn't go away, where it doesn't go away, did it just? You start to notice it more. I'm kind of glad that I pick it up now because at least, if my kids ever speak like that, or even my wife, I can actually bring them up on that and say, hey, don't talk like that. That's negative talk, Self-talk. See, that's the thing with awareness. You don't know what you're not noticing. Yeah, true, true, maybe I pick up a lot more. Yeah, maybe you're missing amazing things walking from here. Glendis, that's it. You know, I'm going to check that out now. Yeah, you could be saying good morning to someone in Coles. Absolutely make their day.
Speaker 1:There was an. I don't know if this is true or if it was just a story, but someone was like, if I don't, they were at mental illness and they were walking down the street in new york or something like that, and if no one looked at them and smiled, they were going to go and kill themselves. When they got at home, when they got home, yeah, it was something dark like that. I can't remember if it was a real thing or if it was just in a movie or something like that. And, as it turned out, someone smiled at them and then they didn't go ahead with the D. But who knows, maybe your smile, maybe your g'day, maybe your hello, could change someone's life or just change a mood for a second there. Because I was actually pretty sick when this happened, as in, I was just feeling under the weather and this person walked past. I actually went to Coles to go buy some Nurofen or something like that, some Lemsip. Then walking back to my car feeling a bit crummy and she said oh, I feel a bit better. Thanks, thanks for that. That was cool.
Speaker 1:I've got at the moment I'm working, working. I was talking to you about this the other day. I was saying how I've got key staff going on annual leave and also ones resigned, so literally almost 50% of the company is going away, and all office-based, mind you. So I'm finding myself that I'm really really busy. But you know, what else I'm finding is that I'm really really fucking efficient and I'm really good at what I'm doing. I'm doing the work of three people at the moment, myself included, and then soon it's going to be four. I've already got the plan. I'm already ahead of schedule. I've already got everything just ready to go.
Speaker 1:I feel like when this moment I knew this moment was coming I thought, fuck, how am I going to do it? I'm going to have so much work I'm not going to be able to breathe. But now I'm like I've got this. Now you're like, what the fuck? What have these guys done all day? Yes, that brings me back to my next point. That's what I want to talk to you about. What have they been doing all day? I don't know. I put it to all the tasks. Let's get him in here now. Get him in here, get him on the cast. And it just leads to other questions in my head.
Speaker 1:Okay, and every other business owner thinking this right now, or going through this or thinking, oh, what are my employees actually doing? How much more could they actually do? Now there's a couple of avenues I look at it. Number one it's not their business. They're never, ever going to work as hard as I do, nor do I expect them to. That's the first thing. They don't own it. They're not getting the benefit, they're not getting a whole range of things out of that. Number two is it's not so much to say, well, look at what they're not doing, but how can it be more efficient for them to get more done in the day? Because I know they can do more? So what's the roadblock? What's the reason they're not?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, as a leader in your business, you've got some level of obligation to drive these people Like you do. In my opinion, you know what I mean. And if you are casual and you're just like, well, like you know, it's okay, we're making money, we're profitable, like, and I think you're, that's not a good leader, because you're actually not allowing these people to live up their potential because you won't lead them. And some people need to be led, yeah, absolutely, you know, and some people need to be driven and some people need that level of guidance. And I feel like you're failing as a leader if you don't maximize people's potential for them, not for you, dude. They're only going to work for you for so long. Yeah, that's right. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:I always say anyone who's ever worked for us or with us, I always say our aim is for you to. You're going to leave here one day. I don't know if it's going to be in three months, in three years, in 30 years, I don't know but one day you're not going to work here. It might be in 100 years. You're going to die, you're going to be gone. My aim is when you leave this company, for whatever reason you leave, you left better than when you came and you left the company better than what it was like when you came. It's just a win-win.
Speaker 1:But I feel like people don't do that. Oh, no, without a doubt, without a doubt, they don't do that. It's harder, first of all. Second of all, it's also time-consuming. So they'd be like I have to invest in to do that. It's too much effort, there's roadblocks for them to do that initially, but the payoff is massive.
Speaker 1:I've been thinking about it. I'm going to see how the next three to four weeks go, with myself and doing everything for everyone, plus my own work, plus other shit I've got going on. I'm going to look at it and go, okay, well, if I'm this efficient and if I'm this good and this is everything I'm doing, well, how can I translate that to the team so that they can also be efficient at what they're doing? I thought you were going to say I'm going to change the locks. Yeah, change the office locks. Yeah, take it easy, boys. That's it. Thanks, thanks for coming. Yeah, thanks for coming, yeah.
Speaker 1:So that'll be interesting to see how that folds out, because I know they're all really good employees. You know I've got, I see, the skills. They've got the skills, they've got the drive, they've got the ability. So it's not an ability thing, it's more. Just, maybe they need a bit more guidance. As far as time management's concerned, some of them may not know okay, how do I prioritize the right things at the right time? So, attitude is right. I think attitude, yeah, attitude's okay. Attitude is good. I think the loyalty's there. Like, everyone enjoys the job too. What do you think about an employee?
Speaker 1:I'd want someone that I can work with in the sense that if I'm going to hang out with you for 10 hours a day, like, be a good bloke, I can teach skill. I can't teach attitude. Hold on. What if they're like? Because there are people that could be very good at their role that you might not get along with? Look, I've had employees like that in the past that were very quiet and just sat there. Yeah, yeah, not a bad person. No, that's totally fine. They're not going to come out to lunch and they're going to sit there and have their own lunch, and I've got no issues with that. No issues with that. But when I say like, get along with, I, get along with that person. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It's more, I wouldn't want someone to come in and disrupt the culture and disrupt what we are about and how we go about things. I think that's important that they do fit into the culture of the business, because if they don't, they'll disrupt not just me but everyone around them, and then it's like they're the. They can lead to more issues down the track, as good as they might be technically at their role. So fits, I think, one of the biggest. Yeah, so I look at that first because I can teach skill, like, if you don't know how to do something, I can teach you how to do it and then I can show you how to be competent at it. I can give you the systems, the processes. This is how we do it Happy. If you think you can do it better, tell me Then. If it's good, we'll implement it. If not, go back to doing it my way. I can teach skill, but attitude, I think, is a little bit harder to teach. You either have it or you don't.
Speaker 1:Initially, anyway, because I'm in the process now of looking to employ someone. I'm looking to employ a new PA at the business. My first round of people have come through and I've got to also be mindful of my time, because I'm time poor at the moment. I don't want to spend an hour with each person in the office going through that application, going, oh, you were a good fit. No, no, let's do a 15-minute desktop interview. I'll review your resume first of all. Then, hey, jump on a Zoom, jump on a phone call. Let's have a quick 15-minute question back and forth and then if after that I think you're a good fit, then yeah, I'll invest a bit more time and we can take it from there and see if you're going to be fit for the purpose.
Speaker 1:Recruiting is an essential skill, yeah, and again, when was the last time you did a course on recruiting? I don't know. At anyone You're not taught how do you employ the right person. Read a book called Top Grading. There you go. You heard it here first. Just read a book called just purchased the other one.
Speaker 1:Pretty sure it's the same guy or someone like his brother or his dad or something. Same surname. It's called who, who, who, w-h-o, yeah, yeah, yeah, not like, not like an owl, yeah, like, not who H, I mean W-H-O Question. Yeah, it, I mean WHO question. Yeah, it's called WHO and it's all about getting them right. But who is the next person we need to hire? Yeah, there's supposedly another great book called who, not how, sorry. Yeah, no, who, not how, yeah, so it's like how do we do this? It's who do we need to do this? Yeah, and so there's some educational routes that you can take.
Speaker 1:For sure, 100% Self-education, dude. Do you know the self-education industry is the biggest growing industry. Why do you think? That is why I've got a theory. Why do I think the self-education industry is the most growing industry? A couple of reasons.
Speaker 1:I think, as time passes, we're starting to notice more and more that the successful people are coming from the traditional educational route. Yep, without a doubt, and I think that's driving a lot of people. I think people are starting to realize that what they learned in school is not what's getting them what they want, without a doubt. I think it's just as time passes, we're starting to learn that more and more and people just are starting to have knowledge. It's so accessible right now that's what I was getting at yeah, for sure, it's so accessible. It's so easy, dude, so easy. You couldn't go and learn how to speak Japanese 30 years ago without going to a school, yeah. Or going to Japan or getting a tutor yeah. You can do it online. You can go to YouTube. I was speaking to.
Speaker 1:I had a longtime family friend just drop past the office the other day. He was walking past and he goes, just randomly walked in and his missus is from somewhere. She speaks Spanish. She's from somewhere. She's from somewhere overseas. The family speaks Spanish. She's going over there, can you speak it? And he's like, oh, he goes, yeah, I'm all right, he goes. I've been listening to this audible, this book online. He goes, he does heaps of driving for his work. He just listens to that and he just repeats things and says it and now he can talk, he can have a proper conversation in Spanish. Like that's cool, just from listening, just from listening and driving everywhere.
Speaker 1:So you're going to have an appetite for it though. Yeah, I agree with that as well. Yeah, why do you want to self-educate? Like, are you happy just playing PlayStation all day? Playstation is pretty good, it's fun. Is it going to get you that Lambo? Or is it going to get you that life that you want, or whatever you want to do the holidays, anything? Is it going to give you fulfillment? Most of the time, not, and I think you'll bang on with all three of those points that you made, all three. Is there anything you want to add? No, you, pretty much.
Speaker 1:I would have said the exact same stuff. I would have said the exact same stuff, with all the reason why that space in that area? Look, I mean even do you think our society is driven like there's nothing Do you think our society is driven there's pressures for success and to be rich and all that sort of stuff and famous now with being Insta-famous Because once upon a time, the only way you were famous is if you were a music star or a movie actor. Then social media came along and then, all of a sudden, you can become famous just from having a million followers on Instagram. Yeah, there's no longer that fame of being specific to an industry. It's not anyway. It's accessible to anyone. Stuff as music, anyone can be a musician now. They just have to upload a song onto spotify and the market will tell you if it's good or not.
Speaker 1:How many musicians over the years now have just been made by loading their own music up, instead of going through a production company or record labels or that sort of shit. They go, no, no. Here here's my music. Youtube started. That Was it YouTube. Yeah, a lot of people started to like Justin Bieber was like that actually. Yeah, and I think, like Soulja, boy had set the path for a lot of people in the sense of like, showing them how to start to get traction without waiting for someone to find you. You didn't have to go because before you used to go. Here's my send your tape. You have to go to a label. Yeah, send your tape to the labels. They listen to it. If they don't like it, they throw it in the bin and it's like oh, but then they decide that's an individual person. Now, this song is shit. But if you put that same video, that same thing, back up on the online and it blows up and everyone loves it and they're using it in their shorts and their reels and anything whatever they're using, and you just become a huge hit overnight.
Speaker 1:So do you think the pressures in Western culture are that you need to be successful, you need to have the house, the car, the Lambos, the boats, the yachts. Do you think that is contributing as well to people wanting extra growth and success? That is contributing as well to people wanting extra growth and success? Yes, yeah, I think so too, because if you look at say, I'm going to use Greece, for example, so my family are from villages in Greece and you go there and you see the people, young and old, like they're just living their best life, sitting under a tree, drinking coffee on the beach. It's simple, they're happy, they don't need to go out, they don't work 30-hour days. You know what I mean. They don't go out there and work to the bone. They'll do their three, four, five hours a day. They go have a siesta at night. They come back out in the afternoon, come back, enjoy their life again.
Speaker 1:Are they winning at life or are we? I mean it's subjective, I understand it's subjective. It's always, you know, if you feel like you're winning, you're winning. That's true, because at the end of the day, it's all about how you feel. You know, the billionaire who's depressed is not winning, yeah. The broke person who's happy every morning yeah, it's all about how you feel. That's the reality, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:And it's like what are you doing? What's your purpose? What are you driving towards every day? Because if you don't have anything, like I couldn't me personally, I couldn't do that. Yeah. Like to wake up every day and just sit there and be like like even during dude COVID was fun for me, yeah, and even during that there was points where it was like what the fuck's next? Like what are we doing, man? Like this has been ages now. Like you know what I mean. Like we just don't know. And I was playing playstation, living with mates, like we're doing nothing. I was doing nothing, getting paid a time off, work doing nothing. Just I was at my peak of call of duty, at my peak.
Speaker 1:Do you look at that time now, looking back back, and go, fuck, that was a waste of time? No, you don't. No, because if you knew, like if you started what you're doing now, back then yeah, hindsight's a beautiful thing, I know, I know, I know, but no, I don't. I look back and I think that was a time Huh, at least you did it. Like you got to experience that you know what I mean. No, I just think that was a time where the world was in, like the world was shook, dude. Yeah, the whole world was shook. No one knew what the fuck was going on.
Speaker 1:And how lucky was I to be stuck with like two of my closest mates, to be stuck in the house with two of them. Do you know what I mean? And it was like even if you had a day where you were feeling flat, I could walk out and be like, hey, man, like you know what I mean, and they would be like, ah, yeah, like you know what I mean, it's like you're with your mates too, like that was to me that was the biggest blessing. What if you were on your own? Yeah, I feel like it would have been a very different. There's people like that too that were on their own. Covid had hit at that stage. Yeah, now, hello, you're next level.
Speaker 1:I would just knuckle down focus. I'd come out, I'd probably be there, I would probably, yeah, I would just Another COVID. Then, 100%, we need to lock it in. I would just, I wouldn't know what else to do. I would not know what else to do with all my time. I would just feel like, all right, cool, stack, stack of books of them.
Speaker 1:Well, I missed out on that playstation period. Maybe I'll just when it happens again. Yeah, muscle down and just go go deep on playstation. It was fun there you go. It was fun, um, but yeah, I look back at uh, how did I get onto society pressures, all that sort of jazz, as in, uh for self-education, yeah, but you know what I did in that time as well. I did read a lot as well, like I smashed through some books Even now, teaching how much books have been smashed through. Yeah, same path as today. Yeah, the society.
Speaker 1:I couldn't do that. I couldn't do what the people do in Greece. I feel like I would just eventually I'd get bored. No, if that's all you knew, I think you would be fine with it. Yeah, but it's not. Now it's not. Yeah, yeah, now it's not. So it's like I couldn't right now. I couldn't like need something to do. I don't know what is that like. Is that like ADHD? Is that like? What is it? Yeah, I mean, it feels like I just nah, man, I'm not gonna like, I don't know, I hate wasting time so much.
Speaker 1:I got a timer in my shower, not fucking around, not fucking around. I've got a timer on my desk. For what? Because when I want to get shit done, I like set depending on what the task is they're going to do, like okay, cool, this is 30 minutes. Okay, cool, 30 minutes. You know if that one of those circle things, so you see if I can get this done in 30 minutes. Because then when you don't do it and you're like 30 minutes just went by, what the fuck was I doing? Doing, what the fuck was I doing, man, I've liked some photos on Instagram. What else have I done? Like that's all I've done. You know what I mean 30 minutes has gone by. Okay, cool.
Speaker 1:It creates a real level of awareness around time and how you're spending it. Do you know what I mean? It makes it real Because all of a sudden, sudden, the thing went up again and then the thing went up again and then you're like I have not gotten anything done. It's been 90 minutes. Do you know what I mean? Or underestimated how long this was going to take? Yeah, that's another thing.
Speaker 1:We do that a lot, yeah, oh yeah, I can do this, this, this and that. Do you know what I mean? And as well, okay, you're doing that. What's your eta? And I do it for them because 95 percent of the time, it's going to take them longer than what they estimate. But I do it for them because I want them to see, like, this is a. This is not a 20 minute task, this is a 90 minute task. You need to understand that. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, because you need to know what you're capable of doing, yep, and when I hold you accountable not doing enough, I need to know what you're capable of doing, yep, and when I hold you accountable not doing enough, I need to know what you're capable of doing right. And that's what I found again with some of my employees of late is.
Speaker 1:I would ask tasks of them, which I know take, as you said, 30, 90 minutes, whatever it might be. And this is coming back to something specific. I was asking. One employer said oi, have you done this? I need you to do this by week's end. And it it wasn't done by week's end, then Monday I'll do it. First thing. Monday I said, okay, that wasn't the mission. Yeah, told you Friday. So then I sent an email on the weekend. I said, the moment you read this email, you stop everything. You're doing everything short of an emergency and you work on this until it's finished. Okay, I didn't follow up on purpose. Three o'clock have you done it? No, no, I said okay, he goes. But he said this. I didn't say it. I said okay, he goes, I won't leave until I do. Okay, if you're here till nine o'clock at night, so be it.
Speaker 1:That thing needs to be done because I said to the owner they're going to have it tomorrow, all right. So you make me look like an idiot. You're in trouble regardless. I knew it was a. It was a good two to three hour task that he had to do and it was a pain in the ass. I get it regardless. Had to be done. Yeah, the more you put it off, it doesn't get shorter in time. Yeah, it just gets more severe because I'm going to get shitty.
Speaker 1:And also, it the deadline is approaching, your cram study and then something else is going to pop up in the future and you'll be like, oh, holy shit, you know how do I? I can't do this now, but that was. I wanted to have that example there so I can show him. I said listen, that is the exact reason why you need to do this. You need to start planning your days better. You need to prioritize what work needs to be done in order for things to get done throughout the day. I said to him you've done all this now, cool, I'm going to load you up with more. It's coming. I've got two jobs starting in August and I'm going to give you a whole bunch of work. If you're still working on projects you should have finished in July, then that's a fucking problem. Then that's a fucking problem. So, so that's where. Uh, that's where that was at, and I want to have that conversation. When pretty much everyone's back from annual leave, I'm going to sit them all down and say cool, team meeting. I'll get even the guys on site, back in the office. So we'll have a big team meeting, say, guys, this is what we need to do, moving forward, and then everyone understands everyone. I'll have clear kpis for them.
Speaker 1:I said I'm going to be watching and monitoring this. You need to be efficient with what you're doing. I don't expect you to be me, but I expect. I expect a high level, I expect excellence. You should, um, you should create scorecards.
Speaker 1:How's, how's that work? So basically, you sit like it's like a series of kpis for the role. Basically, you sit like it's like a series of kpis for the role. Do you know what I mean? Like, if you are a project manager, the expectation is that you manage at any given time. You are managing x amount of dollars in value worth of projects. Uh, you complete a minimum of x projects. You're setting this like it is. Basically this is what we expect of you weekly, monthly, yearly, quarterly. This is the expectations. Yeah, this is your scorecard. If you don't meet these, it means you're not fucking doing your job properly. Obviously, that has to be realistic. Yeah, for sure. Not like goals scorecard. Yeah, I like this. I like this idea. Yeah, yeah, it's this. I like this idea. Yeah, it's something that I'll look at developing, I think, over the next for the life, for the next quarter, probably the last quarter template yeah, that'd be sick. That'd be sick because it would. It would be very good for them more so than me. I get the benefit of it, obviously, but it'll be good for them to be able to go through that and have and be efficient and go cool. This is what I need to tick off. This is like how we win the game, yeah, how we win the game this year. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, they, that for them. They start and then you change it over time, like this because obviously, employers start to do more work and they become better, they learn more, blah, blah, blah. And then you change that, you adapt it over time. You revisit it in every six months. You say, cool, is this still relevant? Oh no, you're doing more than this. Okay, cool, let's set your, because you're now a senior position, whatever it might. Let's set your, because you're now a senior position, whatever it might be. Let's set the thing to this. Now, this is what we expect of you. With that comes whatever remuneration or whatever it might be, but generally it's clarity. It's like cool, this is what you're getting graded on. You know what I mean. There's. No, I feel like you're not doing a good job. It's either. Are, aren't the numbers? Don't lie. Yeah, yeah, that's a hard one. Bang on like we do kpi reviews with everyone, but I think that's a little bit different. That's the review post and also setting what they are. But I like the scorecard idea. Yeah, this is the expectation of your role and what I think you need to be doing in the next in during your week. This is your weekly scorecard. This is what we expect. This is your monthly scorecard. This is your quarterly scorecard. Yeah, it's like did you meet whatever it was for the month? Yeah, did you do that? Okay, you haven't done it. Why? Whatever it might be? Um, another thing, speaking of employees and the amount of work they can handle I'm 51, 54 days, 54, which was 54 days, 54?, which was 54 days into 75, hard at the moment, and I put up a post a while back saying about how I'm going to the gym, like training, twice a day. So like gym in the morning and something in the afternoon. I've been going to this recovery place every like, almost every day. Now as well, I'm cooking my own food. I never used to cook before, so I'm cooking my own food. I never used to cook before, so I'm cooking my own food. And I'm still doing everything else I used to do. So, like building two businesses, work full-time, working on stuff, reading more than ever, more than ever, I'm enjoying it. The reading yeah, I'm reading some cool books, Like I'm currently reading Gary Vee's Good Life. I think it's interesting. Don't listen to the audiobook and read it. Oh, you don't reckon. No, because he just goes on tangents on the audiobook. Oh, does he? Yeah, and then you've got to wait for him to finish his like listen to it, but I wouldn't try and follow because he just I'm going off script here, guys. And then he just like rambles on and then, yeah, it's hard to read and follow because he jumps and he misses words. He doesn't, he's not a good reader. Yeah, it's self-confessed. Yeah, he says that. Yeah, and mispronounces words. Like says something. It says something else in the book yeah, but cause that's what I was trying to do. But, yeah, getting all that done. And I was like what the fuck was I doing before? Like, what was I doing before? How was I only getting so much done before, even with me. Now I'm thinking that same thing. Yeah, do you know why? Because I'm so busy. Parkinson's law is a real thing. Oh, explain Parkinson's law please. So Parkinson's law states that a job will be completed in the time allocated to it. So if I give you three hours to do this, it'll take you three hours, but if I all of a sudden push it to two, you'll probably get it done in two. Now, within reason, yeah, like you're not going to do a two-hour job in six minutes? Yeah, yeah, but if I give you a two-hour job and give you four hours, you'll end up taking four hours to do it, jadarine. And that comes back to the whole driving. You're leading your employees. You need to start to understand. Okay, cool, if this is, you need to understand the work and how long it takes. Jadarine, you need to be able to look at this and say cool, yeah, writing this level of copy shouldn't take you that long, which most business owners would know, because they would have done what they're employing their people to do. Yeah, sometimes, not always. Yeah, a lot of the time, though. But you need your ability. You reckon a lot of the time. I think so, unless I'm hiring a marketing role, which I've never done. Yeah, but I don't reckon I've done most of the roles in construction. Yeah, but I'm saying there's a lot of businesses where they are business people and they haven't done like. I know someone who runs a panel shop, yeah, doesn't, has no idea how to panel beat cars, no idea how to spray paint. Yeah, yeah, I believe that, yeah, and I'm like that's good. Good on you, dude, like that's just, you're good at business. Yeah, I drive people you get to under you. You know I need a guy who can paint and a guy who can let's say most. In most cases, however I'd say yeah, more often than not. That's right. Most cases, the person that owns the panel shop has been a panel beater at some time in their life. Well, most people who go into business go into it based on their skillset. So that's why I make the assumption that you've probably done that role before and know how long it takes. The whole concept of I used to get. If you are lucky enough to be an apprentice at PASCON, you will sweep like you've never swept before, and that's not because I'm trying to get slave labor out of you. It's because you need to understand how long it's going to take you to sweep a floor, because one day you are going to have laborers, apprentices, people beneath you or below you on the hierarchy of things, and you're going to know that sweeping this room will take you four and a half minutes, and if it takes someone three and a half hours, you know they're fucking around. Do you know what I mean? So what I mean, sweeping is a metaphor 's. A sweeping is a metaphor, right, it can be any task, whatever. That task is as mundane as it is. So do you feel like you need to be able to do every task in the business? Me personally no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not in the sense of now, I think as a junior, I'm talking from a junior perspective. So you need to learn the fundamentals, without a doubt. You know, when I'm teaching, when I'm coaching football, for example, we want to teach the kids how to kick, mark, amble right. They're the fundamental things of the game. If you get those three things right, you're going to be they have to do that, they have to do it. Yeah, but I'm saying even from the perspective of you're not always going to be just a carpenter, just a laborer. You're going to progress in your career Working for me you will anyway, otherwise, most of the time you probably won't work here. But you're going to progress in your career. So you're going to need to know how to do a lot of the fundamental things in order for you to then be able to supervise others, to teach others, to show others or just to know when someone's taking the piss in any aspect of doing some work. That's why I like to give a lot of experience and exposure to many elements of construction to the guys working, because one day they'll be a carpenter apprentice but I'll get them to build a retaining wall, or I'll get them to work in with the steel fixes, or I'll get them to go and whatever run some pipes with the plumber. Go help the plumber today. Learn what they're doing. Then that way, one day you know how hard that work is or how easy that work is or how long it should take someone to do. You get that experience and that appreciation and knowledge base. For that. I can tell all employees like when I'm writing these scorecards, I already know what I'm going to put on it. I know what they need to be doing each week, because I've done everything they've done before and going to do it soon. But I've done all of that and now I can say cool, these are your tasks, this is what you need to be doing on a week-to-week-by-week basis. Yeah, and I think if you can load that up, they'll probably do more. Yeah, and that's what I want to put the pressure on them to see how far they can actually go with it. Maybe it's a sink or swim scenario. Maybe some of them will hate it. Then I go cool, maybe you're not the best fit for the company. That's interesting. Yeah, some people just hate change. Oh, they're doing this now. I think a lot of people resist it. I recently read a book called Blue Ocean Strategy Good book. You were telling me about that, I think. Was that a hard read? Did you say Blue Ocean Strategy? No, it's a good book. Yeah, hard read. I was probably talking about Top Grader. Yeah, more recently, yeah, and they talk about how. So Blue Ocean Strategy is all about changing the way you operate so that you're not competing anymore. You know, red Ocean, blue Ocean, yep, right, and it's like everyone's competing in the book. It gives you concepts of to change something. Like you come, okay, this is how you come up with it, but then it doesn't just stop there. It's like okay, now, this is how you influence all the different people in the business to buy into it and it actually teaches you or gives you a framework for how to get your employees to buy it. And I found that really interesting because you've worked in big corporations and you've seen what can happen on the floor level like, fuck, these managers. Do you know what I mean? They don't know what the fuck's going on. They don't know, they have no idea. All problems start at the top. All problems start. You know what I mean? You know it's like and you feel a level of disconnect, kind of like us versus them. Yeah, we had that massively at one of the companies where that was huge. It was the site guys versus the office guys. Yeah, right, and it was massive. Oh, look at you site guys all nice and warm in your office while we're out here doing everything. Oh, look at you, fuckers can't even read plans and making mistakes everywhere that we have to fix up and find money for. You know, dude, massive. Even when I was working in this hades, that was a massive thing there, the yard and the front there and the front of sales. Yeah, dude, as soon I was like when I was in the workshop, yeah, yeah, they're like, no, you're trying to see, you're one of them now, yeah, and I'm like it's me, what do you mean? Come out and they're like we're rather up, you're one of them, that's it. They're like I couldn't believe it. Dude, that was hilarious. Wow, like that's full on, like that's a badge culture. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, it was really interesting to see the's about to get replaced. Do you know what I mean? And I've been in that position where you think what the fuck's going on here and you start, and you start you gotta seek on your phone, you start looking at what opportunities are available, because you don't know, you don't know what's gonna happen, and all you know is I need a paycheck. Yeah, like you know what? I? I've got rent or bills or whatever it is, and that's the employee mindset. And I feel like we can get too far away from that. Like you forget that. You forget that I can. Had I not read it in the book, I would have never thought about that feeling ever again in my life, but when I read it it just reminded me of yeah, that's what it was like. I've had those thoughts, everything they're explaining here. I felt that way. I would never have thought about it now. But when they gave the example, I was like, oh Interesting. I think we forget that people still think like that. You know how you think everyone thinks like you. You know how you think everyone thinks like you, or like everyone. No, not in the sense of everyone thinks exactly like me, but like this is the world I live in and it's like kind of like what I was saying to you the other day, like how can you guys not do this? Like this is simple, yeah, but then that's you expect them to think like you. Yeah, do you know what I mean? But it's simple for you, it doesn't. You can really be disconnected from that, you know, yeah, so what would you do to combat that then, like with that problem you had the other day, as far as you know, you had that you thought something was easy for your employees, which, they excuse me, they made a mistake on A simple mistake. Even I thought it was simple and I'm not in your space. How do you then correct that? Like, do you come down on them with like like a ton of bricks, many people would like what the fuck's wrong with you? This was the dumbest mistake. I've told you not to do this. I don't, personally, I don't. Yeah, I don't. I've had people come down on me like that because you just leave saying fuck this guy, yeah, me too, yeah, or it's yeah. You'll either be like fuck this guy, yeah, me too, yeah, or it's yeah. You'll either be like fuck this guy, I'll do it, I'm out of here, or you'll do it out of fear. I'm sorry, like don't. I'm sorry, boss, you know I didn't mean to. I won't do it again. You have to please. Then what sort of person are you building? That's right, yeah, you. I used to operate like that. When I first started in construction. I had a boss that was exactly the epitome of that, but he used to do this to fully grown men, mind you, and I was just a grat. I was just fresh out of uni and he was doing it to me. But then he used to do it to fully grown men that had been in the industry for 30, 40 years. He would break them down and they'd be nervous speaking to it, whereas I took the other like it made me tough too, though in the same token, because it only after a little while I started to not get used to it but understand the game a bit better. So he was. I felt that he was being cruel to be kind to toughen me up, because I was probably a bit soft in that space, purposefully, yeah, but he was just like that, regardless to anyone. So he wasn't doing it purposefully. I don't think he was doing it purposefully, but that's how I took it, because I kind of got the lesson out of it. Oh cool, I'm going to deal. I realized that he's not unique. There are people like that, like him, in the industry. So if I can deal with him and he's the worst of the worst then I can deal with anyone. So after a little while I stopped getting nervous and started to handle it better. It was actually one day when, specifically, he was going off at me for something. He was saying he calls me up on the phone. I was like why the fuck have you not installed these lights here? I told you they needed to be done. I've waited. This is a simple task. It's a fucking three-hour job. All they had to do was install these lights and we'd be done off this area. And I was like I'm like I won't say his name, let's call him Paul. So, paul, I said, do you want me to come up and install three fucking lights, or do you want me to stay here and do this, where I need to watch this bloke in case he doesn't fucking kill himself? Because if you want, and we need to get this done by the end of the day, otherwise we have to close this whole area down. So do you want me to do this or do you want me to come and plug three fucking lights in? And he's like oh okay, george, you got under control. Yes, I've got it under control. They're coming tomorrow. The sparkies are coming tomorrow, they're going to put it in. He's like okay, great, good work. He just wanted to see I had it under control. And then he left me alone. That's poor leadership. It is, but it's also that's how he was. But in order for me to be a good leader why do you justify that? No, no, I was actually a better leader than him, because I was able to adapt and change how I was reacting to him to get the desired result in the end. And then he left me alone because he saw okay, george has got this under control, I'm going to leave him alone, I'm going to go yell at someone else. So I handled that situation. That's what he was like, all right, and I handled that situation. He was like real slave driver type boss, crack the whip, slaves, get the shit done or I'm going to kill you. That's what he was like. It does get results, especially in the short term. Right, driving I don't, I don't know, I don't agree from fear. A lot of people will do a lot of stupid. We'll push, we'll work hard, we'll work late. I flip the narrative and I realized I did not want to be like that growing up, like when I progressed through in my career, I wasn't going to be that type of leader. However, I realized there's people like that everywhere. You're're going to come across them. Could be a client, could be a fucking employee that bullies the boss. You know what I mean. You're going to come across people like that in your life. Could be a friend, could be a friend of a friend. So I needed to be able to handle that and I did, and I'm glad I worked with him because it made me a better employee on my journey everywhere else I was working, and also now that I'm doing my own thing, now if I have a cross paths with, say, I work for him again or whatever it might be, the intimidation won't be there anymore. It'll be more like what you said the first time. I'm like fuck off, I don't deal with this shit. Talk to me with respect and I'll get it done. I can't think of a single time I've been introduced. I remember one time I did something wrong yeah, Not something stupid Something I acted out of being pissed off. Okay, do you know what I mean? Don't regret it till this day, but it was like it was a stab. It was a solid stab. You stabbed. Yeah, it was like it was a stab, it was a solid stab. You stabbed. Yeah, it was like a stab and a half To my direct, the manager of the department, in front of his manager and in front of everyone, like group of people. You feel part, I was part, I was. So to me it was like I'm not, I'm not sitting, I'm not a pleb, I don't give a fuck like. And we were getting raped, like you were getting hurt by like the senior management or something. But I'll give you. I'll give you some context. Yeah, so I was working mercedes-benz, I was a service advisor. We would, cars would come in like you'd be like here, man, I'm gonna drop my car's first service, just oil change, and come in like 7 30 am. And because management had things so it was so out of control that you, I knew like, if today was, uh, monday and you're dropping your car, I know for a fact that we're not going to start your car till thursday. Yeah, and they said, no, can I pick it up around midday. And I wasn't allowed to say no, I had to sit there. Yeah, yeah, I'll call you. And cars weren't going out. Yeah, because the workshop was a mess and we're overbooked and it was just dude. It was like every single day was like ridiculous stress chaos. It was like ridiculous stress chaos, it was fucked. Like people were dude, people screaming at you how the fuck, I can't, I'm ready, you gotta, you can't do anything. Yeah, I'm sorry, you know, like we've had some guys calling sick and you have to make up all these bullshit excuses. And then they took us out to dinner like a monthly meeting. We're going to have dinner with the front of house team and the dealer principal is going to come. Is that the owner? The dealer principal is the guy who runs the dealership. Okay, so the head of the dealership. And then the dealer principal asked a question and I answered it in a smart ass way that threw my department manager right under the bus. So you started that. No, I was dude. I was at that point. I was stressed. I was like everyone, everyone, everyone was like man, this is like, this is out of control. And yeah, I did. I didn't start the conversation. They were asking questions. The question specifically I was asked was something about we don't have a plan b. Or someone was saying we don't have a plan b when this happens and that happens. And I was like we don't even have plan a. Like what the fuck are you talking about? Like this is a fucking yes, yeah, yeah. And I went to get like we left that night and I got a. I've walked your book. In the next morning I see my manager walk in, get an invite meeting two o'clock and I I'm like, well, anyway, dude walked into his office at two o'clock, sent me down, him and his like his sub-meta devil, assistant, meta devil, whatever. They sent me down and, dude, I don't think I've ever been yelled at like that. No, shit, huh, a whole fucking rift through. Who the fuck do you think you are Doing that and fucking? You know we'll fucking end you. Blah, blah, blah. You're not going. And I was like I don't care, man, I'm moving to sales. I don't give a fuck, fuck this, fuck you, fuck service, I'm going. Did you say that to him? No, not like that my attitude. But I was like dude, I'm going to go and I'm going to start selling cars because this is a mess, yeah. And he's like you're not going to sales. And I'm like yes, I am, I've already spoken to him. He's like you're not going to sales. And I said all right, whatever, anyway. So I went back, finished my day, went for a better go, if I can make sure everything's good as a, he goes oh, we can't take you on. And I said why he's all? Just, things have changed in the department. And I just looked at him and I thought you got to you. Huh, yeah, you got to you. That's what happened, yeah, so I resigned. Yeah, good, within three days. Good, resign, yeah, fuck you. You want to like you don't play this game with me, it's not gonna work. Yep, and that's what I'm saying. Like, that attitude has never put me in a position where I'm gonna say like, okay, better do what they want. Yeah, no fucking chat. Resigned left when I did real estate, that's just what I mean. And I got out of there and I was like, and hey, best fucking thing I've ever done in my life yeah, probably should have done it earlier. Oh, yeah, I'm so glad it happened now. Yeah, but at the time, fuck, I was shattered. Yeah, I resigned. So cool. Yeah, walked in like I was washing suits at the time, yeah, and I walked in and pulled an envelope out of my pocket like a real subpoena. You were in a suit. You were in a suit After servicing the guard. Nah, I was a service advisor. Bang, I'd sit there in a suit all day, just dropped it inside the unit, I'm out. Did you give it to the bloke that was yelling at you? Yeah, yeah. I walked into his office. I said are you going to win it? Yeah, I said, yeah, take that. Yeah, done. He said sit down. He said sit down. Yeah, he said sit down. Yeah, he's like is there anything we can do? And I'm like, no, like that's it. You reckon he was probably happy about that anyway. Yeah, you know what I was happy about? No, exiting WID. Huh, yeah, exiting WID, you want to go down swinging? Dude, I'll swing. You're spiteful like that. Yeah, you want to swing and bang? So I went all out. I was like, is this recorded? Sick, before we start, can you record this? And I went to town on him yeah, and within 60 days he didn't have a job there. Oh, no shit. Yeah, yeah, dude, we were like I was going to war with him. You want to do that, let's play. Okay, let's play. I did nothing wrong by you. I was your star pupil. I was crushing it for you. I was making you so much money. I came in and ran rings out of everyone on everyone you had on that team. Yeah, and then you throw me under the bus like that. Yeah, like, come on, man, joe. I mean like, where's your, where's your loyalty? Where's your? You don't know, we're getting drilled. Yeah, for ages this happened for months. Yeah, it wasn't like a. You see that, that that your manager didn't have the balls to go tell the fucking principal to say, oh, this thing's fucked, we gotta fix it. Yeah, I said to him dude, block out a day, like block it, don't book any cars for like two days. Yeah, I wouldn't do it. Yeah, I'm like just block out, it's not that hard. We're fucked. Yeah, that's, but you're not even. This is where mistakes happen, right? Well, tell me like where mistakes happening with the mechanics? They're fucking. How many? How many times did this happen that they forget to put the oil lid on the oil cap on the engine? Was that a common mistake? I've seen it. Let's feel like it would happen all the time. It's probably one of the more common. I personally have made some horrible blunders, but if you're a mechanic and you're pumped, you've got like 30 cars to do when you know this one car is going to take you all day to fix. You know what I mean. I could do. I could do a whole episode on like dealership fuck-ups and I swear you would never take your car to a dealership again. I'm honestly, I'm. I'm at that point like I don't, I don't like doing it. I saw a guy put 39 liters of oil into an engine. How is that even possible? Because it's got an automatic trigger and he set it and he forgot the thing. And he got distracted with something else and he forgot all about it. And it was sitting there pumping the oil, yeah, but it would pump out at the top of it, wouldn't it? It wasn't even full yet. How's that possible? And he caught it at 39 litres. Yeah, how's that? Yeah, I've seen that. I've left a wheel off a car like left it loose, like put it on my hand, got all that out of here. Yeah, car took off. Jesus Came back saying there's a knocking noise. Yeah, let me check that. Iggy's laughing. Iggy, it was your car, dude, I'm telling you, I've seen, but that's what I mean. So you look at that perspective, like servicing and and maintaining a vehicle is quite an important thing, because if that car leaves in a way that it shouldn't, it can fucking cause, like that touch wood, that could have killed someone. The wheel, yeah, if the wheel came off, could have killed the person in the car or it could have hit someone as it came off and killed them. Listen to this. I was a second year apprentice and I called in sick the next morning. I didn't know, I didn't know what, know, the wheel was left loose. I'd left, oh right. So he came back at like 6 pm and I was gone. I was home and I didn't know. And then the next morning, uh, I didn't want to go to work. I used to use all my sick leave. I was that guy, yeah, that guy, yeah. And then, um, I called the manager to say I'm not gonna be in. And I called him and I was like hey, hey, he's like hey, where are you? And I was like, oh, I'm actually calling to say I'm not going to, I'm not feeling well, I'm not going to be in today. He's like what time did you leave last night? I was like four, why, he's like. I woke up and there was a missed call. So I called him back and said sorry, I was at the doctor's. Yeah, listen. And then he goes you worked on a C63 yesterday. C63, dude, you worked on a C63 yesterday. I said, yeah, he's like wheel came off. I said what? He goes, the wheel came off, he goes. You left the wheel loose and the wheel came off and I said are you sure that? While I worked there, he's like yeah, he's like the wheel came off last night. And I'm like he's like when are you back in? I said tomorrow. And he goes okay, as soon as you come in, come see us. And I said, hey, do I just tell me the truth? Do I have a? I was fucking straight on seek. I thought this is it. Will came off the car, I'm done Anyway. Will didn't come off, he lied, but it did come back loose. Yeah, yeah, could have. Yeah, very much could have. That's what I'm saying, the guys, so that whole process and that whole system was so fucked. Okay, someone should have had the foresight to say this isn't working. But that's where leadership had failed. So the principal had just gone. Nah, fuck it, it wasn't the principal. No, no, in the sense that he the principal, it's his dealership, isn't it? He's in charge overall For him. He doesn't know that it is so far away from him. His direct respondent is the manager of that department. Who was your boss? Yeah, it was my boss. Okay, so he should have had the leadership, if he's been put in that role, to go. We need to stop taking bookings for the next two days, because all you're doing is you're just. You know you're getting a car on Monday, you know he's not getting it back till Thursday, for a fucking service. And I would lose my mind. I think that someone called me up and said Oi, I'm expecting a car back today. Look, maybe the next day, but Thursday I'll fucking burn your dealership down. Someone said it. Someone's like, hey, we are under the pump, you're not going to get your car back in two days. And the guy flipped, that's okay, and we all got pulled into the office. What are you guys doing? Yeah, I just told him the truth. No, no, he's bringing the information. You can't tell him that why? But we know what's going to happen. Can we're like, what? Like? So who said that? The head of the? Yeah, yeah, he's a fucking idiot. Oh, he's a fucking idiot. He's a fucking idiot. 100. Surely that doesn't happen. Now, I mean, every time I've taken my car to get service, it's not in that. Yeah, no, dude, we were. They often tell me, hey, I can't, we'd not. With that, actually, the opposite happens. So we have an opening on the 21st of june you can bring it in there which is in two weeks, yeah, or or three weeks. That's good. This was amazing, dude. I've worked in dealerships for seven and a half years. Yeah, this sort of three-month window, I've never seen anything like it. Yeah, anything, throughout the whole time. This was just like a one-off and I left while it was all a mess. Yeah, I, that's why we were trying to keep you, because he needed someone there to do that work. Yeah, but yeah, that's, paul, you've got to. You would have to. Either you've got to take control of that situation and go. We've got to start putting a schedule together and going knocking people back or saying we can't come in, excuse me, until this date, or you've got to take it up the notch. Go to the next manager and say listen, shit's falling apart here. You're going to lose a lot of money and someone's going to sue us because we're going to destroy their car because they overworked, they're making mistakes. It's costing us money, we look bad. What do you want to do? So it's bad management, see, bad leadership, yeah, yeah, but then the person that employed that bad manager as well, who was responsible for that? Then big corporations, like you know, it's like, yeah, but again, the person you're talking about, a prestige car, one of the prestige car brand, you would think that you know german engineered, that they're a well, well-oiled machine, pardon the pun. Do you know what I mean? I would expect excellence from them than what I would go into kia. Do you know what I mean when I'm saying that sort of stuff I would expect the better. So who do you? Well, you reckon you say, hold on. You think when you take your car into a dealership, do you think it's work? It's worked on by a guy who's worked at land rover for 10 years? No, it's probably the apprentice. 100% of the apprentice. Dude, all the service work goes to your apprentices. That's right. Yeah, that's right. I know I've got no doubt about it. That's like the other day I called up Land Rover to service my car. Okay, how much are you looking for a service For your car? Yeah, $750. $3,000. It must have been a major service. Major service is what Drop the oils, check maybe the brake fluid, all else, spark, I guess, spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter. Yeah, what else? Um, that's maybe transmission service. Doubt that. And that wouldn't charge the transmission. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. So what you just described is 250 bucks in parts. You know what I mean. Yeah, but what's the labor rate? You know, whatever the labor rate is, it's not that, especially for an apprentice. Ben's. Yeah, they reckon. They said oh, yeah, we're gonna get an apprentice, so we can exactly exactly dude. But I'm saying it's the apprentice, it's already been charges now 300. When I was there when I was there, when I was an apprentice I think it was it was 209 an hour labor rate. Now it's like 300 and something, yeah it, it was like $209. You know how much? They'll pay me $7.40. They'll charge you like 1.5 hours to do a service. I do a service in 45 minutes. Yeah, you know what I mean. So they're charging $300 in labor Plus parts and material. That's a good business, I can buy a dealership, but yeah. So, yeah, that's a good business, I can buy a dealership, but yeah. So in that example, think about that in your business, now that you guys are listening to this. Where are there areas in your business that aren't running well and you can say it? Maybe your team's not happy, maybe shit's happening all the time that mistakes having. I was coaching this guy a little while ago and he had this employee that he just kept. He knew was a bad egg. He he knew he kept fucking up, he wasn't pulling his weight. Other employees were getting upset because of him. Good employees were getting upset because of this guy's action and he was a senior manager at the business and you could see it. He's like oh, but I'm so busy, I'm this, I need him, I need him, I need no. He's cancer. He's causing you huge issues and it's going to blow up across your business because of him. Then he's just going to leave and go somewhere else for more money. Anyway. He's got no loyalty to you. He's showing that in his actions Leave a fucking mess. He's showing that in his actions now and then your employees are looking at that and going well, if they accept that standard, well, why am I busting my balls when he's accepting him doing that shit? I've done that. There you go, I know. And if I said like, why would I do this? If no one here is going to do this, why would I do this? Why would you go bend over backwards? The boss can't even control his shit. Yeah, so control your shit, guys. If you are the head of this ship, if you are the one driving it, then take control. That is a leader. That's one of the hardest things it is. And you might not be the employee thing Like the knowing. You know deep down. You know, because you will convince yourself that they just need more time. Yeah, you know, they're very nice. Yeah, yeah, or I've done that too. Oh, dude, I've done that, fuck, I still do it to a male. Yeah, it's the worst. Yeah, and this is the thing, like I've in my business as well. So you build close relationships with the ones that aren't family. I've got friends that are working for me now, so that's where the blinds can be blurred sometimes, and the other day it's like I was going through my Amex because at the moment, my PA has resigned. I'm now doing a lot of the reconciliation for the credit card, so I'm seeing every single invoice. I always did, anyway, but now I see it in more depth and I've noticed that the guys and this is just little things, yeah, and not that I lose sleep over this stuff, but I'm getting a lot. I'm seeing a lot of coffees on the Amex, right, A lot of cafe invoices, right, and I was adding them up. It was like there was $150 worth of coffees in a month. I'm like what the fuck? Sent an email out to the guys, to all the employees that have Amexes in the company. Do you give them an Amex? Most people, yeah, oh, cool. Same account, yeah, oh, you can do like employee card stuff. Yeah, you get 99 of them, oh, shit, free. They charge you for it. I had no idea. There you go, learned it here first. There you go. What did I say? Yeah, 150 bucks worth of coffees. On the business account he said, hi, all Just a reminder that the Amex is to be used for business purchases and not coffees and food outside of this. I'm not here to buy your fucking coffees and food whilst you're doing that at ED. Outside of this, I'm not here to buy your fucking coffees and food whilst you're doing that at 80. And part of me was like oh, I don't want to say that I sound like a tight ass or don't want to sound mean, I don't want to do this. No, it's easy spending other people's money. Do you know what I mean? Guys, this is a business. It's not a charity. If you want to buy a coffee because you feel like a coffee, your fucking money. I will shout everyone every time I go out friends, family like whatever that's in me, but that's me using my money, giving it to you when you take. That's a different story. Don't have that level of expectation. Oh, the company can just pay for this, the company can just pay for this. No, no, no, bring it in, because today it's a coffee, tomorrow it's yeah, you gotta drill the line, that's right. Yeah, tomorrow it's. Oh, you know I deserve this. Yeah, this new drill, because mine broke or or worse, I wouldn't buy a copy. But since the company, that's right. Yeah, that's right. So it's. It's that level of entitlement that goes. It's not about the, the dollar, the five dollar coffee. It's not about that at all. It's about what that represents. Sometimes, when you are that close with your employees or whatever it might be, like, okay, cool, I'll let this one go. I don't want to rattle cages or anything like that. I'd rather give them. I'd rather take everyone out once a month and spend $1,000 than them buying coffees every now and then. Do you know what I mean? If that makes more sense, Because that's me rewarding, that's me doing this. I'd rather give them bonuses, whatever it might be, but it has to come from us. Or you instill a thing where you say get me coffees you want by the other company. That's right. Do you know what I mean? That's right. And then it's like I've given you that privilege. That's right. That's exactly right. You have to draw the line with that stuff. You have to be able to, because then, if you don't, it festers. Yes, and then they do something else. Yeah, then they do something else and you're like it's not a big deal. Huh, it might not. They do something else. That might not be a big, yeah, but you start to crack it over that, because you've got all this fested, that's right. I mean you're like, yeah, this is the guy that bought 40 copies. This prick buy copies like his, like his liver, the dream, like he lives at code black, do you know, I mean. And then, yeah, it's a whole, um, a whole rigmarole, like the whole. And, dude, I'm still navigating it myself, like I'm still learning, like, yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt, and, as I said, it's not, that's not that anyone was doing anything wrong, it's just that maybe that was probably my fault more than anyone else's, because I hadn't really communicated that before. Yeah, and they probably would have seen me buying coffees, because for people, the hair tap, that's all right, just put on the amex. Or maybe I've told them, hey, go get coffees and put it on the amex, because they've got the amex. Sometimes, if I'm with clients, so I say, and then it's just maybe that, oh, let's put on the amex this time, you know. And then that one time has become 10 times, has become 20 times, you know, and then all of a sudden, everyone in the company is buying coffees for sites. So, yeah, like a 900 copy bill, that's exactly what happens. Yeah, yeah, because it's not just isolated to one person, it's, it's the four or five people that have cards and they're doing it across all of their sites. I'm like like guys, I'm not here to buy coffees for everyone on every job. This money is for the project, to be used on the project. But that's just one small thing. But you need to be able to have that conversation. So that was my fault that I'd never actually said it. So now I'd said it, and then you might be able to create an Amex guideline. Yeah, that's right. Just read the guidelines. See Amex, see the Amex card. These are the guidelines that are usable. That's right, that's exactly right. And then it's like cool. They just say show me where it said coffee. Do you know what I mean? I must have missed it when I typed it. Show me where it said coffee, that's it. And yeah, nice. So on that note, don't fucking use the company card for coffees. Yeah, it's like when you give, have you ever given? Like your, I've got a what's it called Officeworks card and you give it to your employee to go buy stationery. Don't ever let your employees buy stationery either. Officeworks card, yeah, it's like an account, oh no. Anyway, don't let your employees buy stationery because they come back with like $43 highlighters and like Montblanc pens and like gold encrusted notepads that cost $53. So I need this, I need this for work. No, the fucking Jumbro 30 cents. Notepad. Yeah, recycled paper, that's the same thing. So fun times. I love office works fun. That's so good't it. It's just fun. Might go there now. We should go to yesterday. Oh yeah, it's friday, open till seven. Open till seven. Might, um, might, just do that now and go buy a gold. What was it? Gold, god encrusted? Uh, notepad, that's it. Well, I can't take that to the other way. You'd be, but you're the business owner. You should spoil yourself. You want to buy your Amex? Yeah, no, don't just put it on there without telling me yeah, you've got my Amex, you run all the ads, so just put it on there. I'll see Facebook, facebook copy. Can you just buy a copy of my other Amex next time? That would be so funny. I wouldn't even be mad. They'll be like it's $5. And I'll be like, can I read the card number to you? But you know what? I'll tell you what the advantage of being an employee is. Five o'clock comes, or Saturday comes, and you are in your own world. You know, I was really good at that when I was an employee. You weren't in your own world. No, I was really good at that when I was an employer. You weren't in your own world, no, in the sense that when the clock stopped, I was able to put everything down. Mine switched off oh, yeah, I was really really good at that. Well, the clock stopped. If my clock off time was like 5 pm come 3.30, I'm switched off, switched off and gone. You know what I mean. He's laughing yeah, I'm being honest. I'm being honest. I wasn't that bad Dude. When I was an apprentice I had no sick days. You'd be fired at PASCON. But then ask him how I was when I became a service officer. I had all my sick days. Yeah, because my whole thing changed. You know, it was funny. And yeah, and then everything changed. I, yeah, I was. I was always an animal working like I was really busy. I was worked till, you know, 7 to 5 30, I would do that too, but I had this mentality of this is my entitlement and if I don't use it I'm going to lose it. Oh for the sick day stuff. Yeah, so like I could, I would not be sick. Yeah, and it's still like I need to take my sick day, like if I ever leave, they're going to go. It was like a scarcity mindset Scarcity, yeah, do you know what I mean? And it's almost like a poor, broken mindset. It's funny my father-in-law was saying that this morning he took a day off today and he's like I'll just use the sick day today. He goes. I've got about six and a half months worth of sick days. I thought I'd take one. He doesn't take them. This is like the first time he's ever taken a sick day and, yeah, it was funny that he it's funny that we're talking about that now. But same deal, like he's just, I just wanted a day off today. So I've taken a sick day. I've got six and a half months worth. He's probably going to retire Six months worth of sex. Yeah, he's like the guy's. He's an old school, old school wog never taking a day off. You know what I mean Only if he has to. Yeah, I had the. I was under the mentality of need to get your money's worth. Need to because you're. I felt like I was getting you know to Fortnite's pay. I'm 19 years old. Yeah, driving to work every day like in the city, fortnight's pay $560. Yeah, that's fucking nothing. I used to live my life on what's it called when your account goes into the minus Overdrawn, overdrawn. Yeah, I used to have a $500 overdraw. I used to live my life on minus 500. How funny. And if people who know me really well will remember that, because my account was always like Midas, 497. Dude, every time I get paid and I have a hundred bucks left for a fortnight, I'd pay everything I have to and I'd have bugger all left, just sit there like man. I'm going to make this last. I'd get fuel and because we used to smoke, fuck, that was it. That was my life, couldn't do anything, couldn't go anywhere. Yeah, I always have mates who again apprentices in the building industry. They would work the week, get paid weekly, blow all their wage on Saturday night. I've heard a lot of people do that All their wage. Like drinking, yeah, go to the pub. Or go to the pokies. No, not pokeys. My mates were always no, let's go to the pub or wherever they'll go and I'll fucking. Come Monday they had enough money for fuel and that's it. And I got to work and they got paid on Friday and I went bang back the next day just dropping money on beers, on whatever they want to spend it on, and broke by Monday, living life to the edge. I'm not in the edge. I'm not. I'm not a heaps. I used to get to the pub all the time. I don't think I never did that. I used to get annoyed at it. I used to get annoyed blowing my money on a night out. Does that make sense? I felt like it was the biggest waste of money when I'd go out Like it's okay, I didn't mind doing it would just piss me off too much to go to zero, because I worked hard for the money as well, and to go to zero just for a night out, and it wasn't that good of a night out. I used to go out every weekend too. I just didn't get smashed every weekend like some of my mates did. I used to drive a lot. I couldn't. Oh really, yeah, there you go. Yeah, yeah, just like. Just had fun to be out. Yeah, yeah, I used to go out every weekend too. Yeah, no doubt. Frankly, I don't think I could do it. It's like that's my. What were you doing? I didn't even like that stuff. Why were you there? Because everyone was there. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I had fun. I cannot recall many nights, yeah, yeah, no, I'm glad I had that time. I would not, you would. The odds of making me go out now is almost To a bar or a club or something like that. Dude, not a chance. We're going to a pub after this. Not a chance. What about a pub meal? I'll FaceTime you. It's actually going opposite your house. I'll have a pub meal. Come actually after you. Being serious, yeah, that's it. Oh, you're not making out. I'm not fucking around. Invite me on the podcast. What are you on? I'm talking about this Great motel. Oh, on the corner, literally on the corner. You could get smashed in a roll home. Who are you going with All the Pascolin boys? I'm on 75 hard. That's all right. Just have sparkling water with not and a straw. Is Mike coming? He is actually Mike's going to be there. Everyone's going to be there. My man will be there. Iggy. Iggy's coming too. Told me Iggy goes. I'll go, 100% Iggy's going. You think he wants to go home and change diapers. His missus will throw a diaper at him when he walks home. Where were you, iggy? She's like oh interesting, I've got something for you. Boom catch. So good chat. Not what I intended to talk about. Not at all, not at all. So funny. We're walking um back to the office today. I'm like, hey, do you know what you're talking about? Yeah, I've got a sick topic. I'm like cool, didn't even touch it, not even. The great thing about that is we can talk about it next week when you tune in. As always, same time, same time, same place, wednesday. Yeah, and you'll get that reminder now because you've subscribed. Surely, I mean surely by now. Yeah, if you are listening to this and you are not subscribed, I think you can see the look of disappointment If you're not. Go play this on YouTube right now just to see how disappointed. That's how he looked to me when I had a donut for breakfast. Fuck, that's shit. I'll never forget that. Honestly, I'm sick. When you get married, I'm gonna say speech at your wedding, it's gonna involve that donut. Watch him have a donut for breakfast, just so you know. He, after he did 75 great, he did 75 hard. It doesn't look like he does now. Once upon a time he used to eat donuts for breakfast. I would still eat a donut for breakfast. That was a great donut. You could never do that, man. How funny. I took a photo of it the other day, that same place. I was at that same place. I took a photo of it and sent it to you. Pink donut it's a good donut. Good day, norman. That's it. Yeah, so you'll all get the notification because you're all clearly subscribed. You've all clearly clicked the bell. You've clicked the subscribe button. You've shared it with your nearest and dearest. You know, look, in any scenario, you could talk about this podcast, couldn't you? If you're going to go see if one of your friends have just had a baby and you're going to go in there and congratulate them. Congratulate them by getting their phone going onto Apple Podcast or Spotify and subscribing them to this podcast. And so there you go. You're welcome. You're welcome. Change your life. No better gift. Change your life when your kid is old enough. Get them to listen to this. Yeah, and that's a wrap. That's a wrap, ladies and gents. See you next week. Awesome, thanks guys.
