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
Football, Business, and Finding Your Next Passion
Robby and George delve into the mental aspects of fitness and health, exploring how mindset plays a crucial role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. They share their personal struggles with motivation, discipline, and mental blocks, offering strategies that have helped them stay focused on their fitness goals. Their honest discussions highlight the importance of mental strength in overcoming obstacles and achieving success.
The episode is filled with practical tips and insights on how to cultivate a positive mindset, set achievable goals, and stay motivated even when the going gets tough. Robby and George emphasize the connection between mental and physical health, illustrating how improvements in one area can lead to positive changes in the other. They share techniques such as visualization, affirmations, and mindfulness practices that have been instrumental in their journeys.
Listeners will find encouragement and inspiration to tackle their own mental battles and stay committed to their health and fitness goals. Robby and George’s blend of humor and genuine advice makes this episode both entertaining and enlightening. Tune in to learn how to harness the power of your mind to enhance your overall well-being.
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Top George, I'm joined by Robbie and we've got a special guest today, mr Nick Daffy. Thank you very much for joining us today. Thanks, guys, good to be here, excellent. So, nick, for those of you that don't know or don't remember, back in the 90s was an AFL football player for Richmond, and who else did you play for? Who was on the other team?
Nick:I actually played for Sydney for one year.
George:Yeah, nice.
Nick:And one quarter, oh, one quarter. So that was it. That's another story, but what was it?
George:11 years all up, oh fantastic. And then I retired early 2000s. Yeah, good, good. How many games did you play?
Nick:I played about 170. Okay, excellent. Yeah, I retired quite early. I was 28, so I'd been around for a while but I still retired, probably at my peak. Yeah, Was that a forced retirement? Yeah, my knees were just bone on bone but I felt like I was 45, but I was 28. When I'm looking now going, oh my God, I was so young.
George:Was that a tough decision.
Nick:It was sort of forced. I was literally draining 40 mils of fluid out of my knees before turning, literally just sitting there icing it the whole time. So as much as I felt like I jumped a little bit early because I probably could have handled it or when I say that maybe just I feel like I could have stayed longer but just mentally I was gone- yeah right.
Nick:Yeah, so, but it's funny because when you talk about football to me it feels like another person, it feels like something that was. It feels like a movie, almost, that I know I was involved in or I watched, but I wasn't.
George:I can't quite remember everything, okay good, I can just talk into the mic a little bit more. Sure, I'll bring it forward to you if you like, wherever you want. Yep, yeah, that's great. So post-football did you have a career in mind once you made that choice to go? Yep, footy's done.
Nick:Now I'm going to be an entrepreneur yeah, well, I think I was already involved in a few hotels and pubs with a few groups and um I had two. I had a couple in south melbourne. We had the waterside hotel in the city which was quite a good one. Oh yeah, we bought when it was um underdeveloped and had a good crew of guys who I played footy with and outside of footy and we did quite well there and so I did that for probably around 10 years, which was sort of into my last few years of footy, and then went through and we probably did over sort of 10 venues. So it was the hospitality we did quite well. We had a bad one at Docklands which didn't go that well, which was all more about the area than anything.
George:I think that's still the case these days. Now as well, isn't it your?
Nick:office is down there now. Yeah, our office is in Docklands.
George:How are you finding it now?
Nick:Oh well, obviously it's great down there because you get a great view and a great office for literally nothing. Literally they pay you to go there. Yeah, right, but we had two bars there. We had the Lounge Hotel, which was the first one in Newquay which was right near the Telstra Dome, first opened, so that was amazing, that did really well. And then we had another one, which was the ING area, which was just a nightmare.
Nick:So yeah, but through that time I was always in charge of probably finding, or helping find, I guess, the development and then the way that it would, I guess, help in, I guess, where the restaurant or the pub was going in a theme. And then I was lucky enough to sort of be involved in the building side of it with the architects, or really had no idea what I was doing as far as with our builders, just obviously pricing all sorts of stuff, and yeah, so it was really. I learned a lot on, I guess, on the ground, using our own money and getting involved in the room and stuff. Yeah, so it was really.
George:I learned a lot on, I guess on the ground using our own money and getting involved in the room and stuff. Yeah, great. Then when was it so you mentioned building when? Because you said you got. Actually, when we spoke the other day you actually mentioned that you were. You got into helping builders as well.
Nick:Yeah. So after so we sort of we sold out of most of those and then in the end I probably had about a year or two off doing nothing. Just I become a father and the hospitality scene wasn't really where I wanted to be. So after about a year of mucking around, I needed to work out what I was going to do, and construction was something I knew quite well and I went in and helped a company sort of in actually the first job was in Bondi which was for a builder developer, and just found it and thought that'd be a great opportunity to go and get involved, live in Sydney and and I ended up working with a builder and just helping them sort of grow their business.
Nick:And that went for about a year and a half. And then come back to Melbourne and that's what I did. So I was able to get into an area that I felt was good, which I could sort of connect the dots, um work out where I, you know, take a company, say, from doing 15 mil to potentially 25 or 30 or 40, depending on where they needed to go and what sort of job. So I did that over a sort of 10 year period, um, which I found really a lot about just persistence, putting ideas together, working out um and then connecting the dots of the people that can help um the companies get to where they need to get to.
George:Yeah, very cool.
Robby:Yeah, that's pretty cool. What's the because? A lot of people who do listen to this are in the construction space. What was the biggest thing you found working with these companies, like? What was the biggest hole? What?
Nick:was the biggest. That's a good segue into what we're going to talk about what I'm doing now. But to what we're going to talk about what I'm doing now. But I think the biggest thing was everyone was just so focused on growth. Growth, not pricing things amazingly well, but just grabbing a job, 2% margin, Saying whatever they've got to say to get the work Got. Employees just get in there and get it done. Yeah, Thinking they've priced jobs really well, but they haven't priced them very well at all. And I think the other thing is relying on an estimator that a director is, say a $40 million, $50 million company turnover and they're pricing $12 million jobs and really haven't priced that well. They're relying and they'll do a half-hour session of a summary of a tender and you just know they've got holes in it.
Nick:Yeah, on a $12 million job, yeah, and for me I wanted to win jobs, so I would be, I'd just be sitting there. It's like a BDM role then. It was really a BDM and just a growth and probably strategy a bit as well about where we could go next. But I got lucky enough to be able to sort of get some building companies into Catholic schools, VSBA schools and probably council work that they weren't involved in, so there was some, and those sort of areas.
Nick:If you get in there, you work that they weren't involved in, so there was some, and those sort of areas. If you get in there, you stay in there. Yeah, you really contribute, Keep delivering. They pay well, they are tight margins, but if you get the jobs done well, you should be guaranteed work. So good. Probably just the lack of pricing jobs properly in such a big market, and that's probably where we're at now with a lot of builders that just got on a chain of doing that and then all of a sudden, five years later, they've realized when jobs dried up, they couldn't sustain it.
George:See, I don't like that building model, that whole business model, in the first place, on any level of business, not just construction. It's like you mentioned it there look at the greatest margins. But why shouldn't it be? I would look at a Catholic school and say, if I step into that space now, or any school or councils, so no, no, this is my price, but you know, I'm going to deliver. If you want to go to that guy, great, there's a good chance he might go broke. Yep, all right, or he will do it and make what? Two percent, three, five percent is a good job, eight percent is a good job. Now, that's not a great business model in any business. And why is it? It's funny. I find it funny how it's acceptable that builders should be making x amount of dollars, like 10%. Oh, wow, 10%, that's heaps. It's heaps in the perspective if you're doing a $500 million job. But it's all relative still, do you know what I mean? I'd rather do a $50 million job with 30% margin than a $500 million job with 3% margin.
Nick:Yeah, and you know that's a good point, because I think that some of those companies we spoke about before council, some of the schools they're responsible for some of it too because they had project managers that drove hard bargain on these jobs and they knew they had no margin but they still signed them up and they made it really hard, whereas it should have been almost a guaranteed margin of some sort. We're talking about money that's government money, a guaranteed margin of some sort. We're talking about money that's government money or and I don't think they. So I found that very. I found that unfair on the builders because they had to be at that level to get these jobs and I almost felt like you're almost making these companies get to the point of not making any money. That's right and yeah.
Robby:So I found it unfair. Can I play devil's advocate here, being I don't work in the construction space, so like outside looking in, I see it as well. They're trying to save money.
George:Yeah, like if you could get the same product at the same price. Oh sorry, at a cheaper price I'm going to get the same thing. Why wouldn't I go for the cheaper?
Robby:builder. And you're right, it's not the same thing. Because they cut corners, they do this, they. It's not the same thing. Because they cut corners, they do this, they try and make budgets. But the same thing happens to us that someone wants a video, someone wants, uh, some marketing done, etc. And then they're like, oh, you guys are more expensive, yeah, but we get undercut because they find someone who can do it for five hundred dollars. Yeah, but it's not the same thing. Hey, it's not the same thing.
George:The product is not the same, completely different. And it's funny ever since we've had like the caliber of iggy coming through and doing videos for us. People look at our content, for example now saying at my business, at my consulting, wherever we're doing it, and they go and that's next level. Shit, yeah, absolutely. But we pay for it Like it's not. If you want different things, if you want to go to that next level, like the bar I the other day, do you know Alex Hormozy?
George:Have you heard of him before? I think I have. He's an American entrepreneur, a really good guy. You should listen up to him. He's got some cool shit.
George:But he was saying these days the bar is set really low. You don't have to do that much more to absolutely crush it in an industry. And that's what I'm finding now. I'm finding that because the bar is set low across the industry my industry, but also just business in general you do 10, 20% more than everyone else. You're going to crush it Because they've all still got that mindset oh, I'm not going to win this job unless I do it at 2%.
George:And then the 2% person that goes in there and does that, he's going to be looking safe in your space. Like, oh, this guy does it for 500 bucks, yeah, but he's outsourcing the editing to India, right, and where he's paying $3 an hour. Like, what are you expecting to get for three bucks an hour? I can do that same edit on my iPhone. You know what I mean. So that's where it becomes a bit of education too, like you've got to educate your client. This is what it's about. This is why we pay extra. This is why we're worth this. And if it was the case, if price was always everything, look, it almost gets to a point where the whole industry needs to get together and say, no, we've had enough. We will never do a job at that price ever again. It's not going to happen. You're always going to find that one. It's not going to happen Exactly, you're going to find that one guy. I'll do it at 2%. Fuck mate, it's desperation.
Robby:It's desperation, though right is better than 0% of one percent of another.
George:I worked at a company once where they went in on no margin. Yeah To 0%. And they went back to the trades To win the job. Yeah, To win the job. They knew they had $250,000 in site work.
Robby:They go back to the trades and punch them and then that's it. They make the margin on that side. That's where a lot of them are.
George:Oh, wow, I didn say multiplex, for example, the big guys in the city. They will go in on two to three percent margin. I know this for a fact because I know one of the directors. They'll go in on two to three percent margin, yeah, like on a big job. No, it's not, not chump change. They'll do it on big projects. So on a 500 million dollar job, yeah. And then they make money by redesigning the structure. So they'll do a complete redesign of the building, as long as it looks the way it needs to look. Yeah, they can do a design and construct where they go and use alternative products. They've got the full ability to, yeah and design the structure to be more efficient. And then they might pick up another five percent okay, that's a fair business model.
George:oh, those are great, yeah, but you're talking not, they're not locked in, no prices, like they're going to go. Okay, we're pretty sure we can do that, but then they're ruthless too. Yeah, you go and work for them. They're like no, this is what our price is, but there is a Hickory Developments or Construction.
Nick:they've done that model really well, so it's probably back to when someone does it really well, they make money from it and they continue it. But then the ones that come in and try and do it unprepared are the ones that probably fail.
George:Well, I priced up a commercial project, a business park like warehouses, last year yeah, it would have been last year. It was 41. It was a $6.5 million project yeah, so let's just call it 6-6, for example, and I went in on pretty fair and reasonable margins, right, I looked at it. And I went in on pretty fair and reasonable margins, right, I looked at it and I'm going look, this is competitive, definitely what I would do it for, wouldn't really want to do it for much less. I had another builder come in. He was $600,000 cheaper than me and so at that price he's saying he can still make money and be 600 cheaper than me. That's like 10%, yeah, at least Almost, yeah, at least. So 10%, yeah, at least Almost, yeah, at least. So let's just say that's my margin for the project, right, I've got 600 grand on the job. So he's saying he can build it at cost and still make money. Now the reason they can is touching on what you said.
George:A lot of those builders in that space, a lot of them own their own plant yard, like their own precast yard. They own their own steel yard, so they get a lot more material to build that thing for next to nothing. Well, not for next to nothing, but significantly cheaper. They get it reduced rate, yeah, significantly cheaper. And they put it this way I would buy it from them to build. You know what I mean? So it's like that's where the disadvantage is in that space. And some of them do have that. Where they go yeah, well, we can deliver it at this price because we can do that they sort of make money on the manufacturer of it. Well, they do, they make money in the manufacturer, but then they also make money when they erect the thing on site too. And then they probably look at it and go cool, that business is making 3%, this one's making 3%. Together we're making six. We're happy with that, and that's sometimes how they look at it.
Nick:So, yeah, it's an interesting area, isn't it really? I mean, and it and it goes back to, like you said earlier, who puts in the most work and who does the extra will make the money out of that 3%. But the ones who jump in and try and get on the gravy train and don't get prepared and then don't price well, they just fail basically so yeah, so it almost sounds like you've been in business ever since you've got out of football.
Nick:Yeah, I have Well, I have I've been well. I had to, obviously, but I guess I been well. I had to, obviously, but I guess I still sometimes sit there and go what am I going to do when I grow up? But that's just a, I don't know. It's just how you feel and, um, and I feel like I've been building in construction. Seeing how you win jobs, how you connect, seeing how the estimating works, see how companies really roll and how they make them, how they, I guess, function in general, has really brought me to where I am now with the software. So it's been a. You know, when things just evolve, I feel like it's been an amazing evolve for me to get where we are now.
George:Was that a whole? So we'll dive into what you're doing now, but was that a result of what you had seen happening in construction companies? That you go? Okay, I need to do something different here.
Nick:Yeah well, I need to do something different here. Yeah Well, certainly. Look, I got lucky and worked in a software business, a construction software business, for a little bit to try and help them grow that business and I didn't know enough about, I didn't know anything about construction software, so it was a real eye-opener for me. And then all of a sudden everything I'd sort of seen in being a BDM or helping companies grow and all come to light that you know a lot of these companies weren't very good with, I guess, tracking their projects, yeah, um, and obviously I'd seen the, the budget, getting how they come up with the budget. But now I was in, I guess, now I'm involved in how you set a budget and you track all the communications through to the end of the job to make sure you know where you are real time. So that's been interesting because I think that's an area that I'm quite passionate about and you'd know a lot of companies don't know where they're at halfway through a job.
George:Yeah, it's one of the most common things I see with all the guys that I coach and mentor. They're just. I can tell you right now. If you said, george, how much money are you making specifically or losing on rubbish removal, on any job? I can tell you to the cent right now. You give me a minute, I'll print a report and say there's how much money we've spent. There's every transaction, there's what we're forecasting, it's all there and that's powerful stuff.
George:You need to know that because then you can make business decisions really quickly. So, for example okay, what's an example? Yesterday, when we were at the training, when I had my event last week, simon, my project manager, who you just met before, he messages me hey, this is our budget, this is what I've got a price for. It was 15 grand pickup on a particular package Fantastic, all right.
George:So that $15,000, a pays for some of your salary, let's say, or I can go cool $15,000, that's great, that's exactly what I need to go and invest in this software. That's exactly what I need to go buy this new generator, that's exactly what I need to employ someone else and then you can start making smart business decisions based off real-time information, whereas a lot of the guys will go oh, 15 grand. They go okay, great, 15 grand, I can go buy the new ute. Oh, it's okay because I've got 15 grand, so that'll pay for it for the year. Then they go oh shit, but actually I'm over budget by 20 grand on my rubbish. They don't know that information so they can't make proper real-time decisions, which is so critically important to their business.
Nick:I like to. Well, obviously, the day we had with you Saturday was talking about. It would take them five years if they didn't have someone to mentor them. I believe in growing their business and going through all the mistakes.
Nick:So I felt like that was a really good point in saying it can take you five years and lose 200 000 and do this and potentially get there, or you get on top of it and have someone who can checklist all the areas early. I think that's a great. I think that's a great way of looking at it, because I had no doubt that that would help, especially in just every part of the business, from pricing yeah to clients to safety everything.
Nick:So, yeah, so what we haven't actually mentioned what's your company called? Every part of the business, from pricing to clients to safety everything. So we haven't actually mentioned what's your company called. It's called Stick Construction Software. It's a project financial software that we've been developing for about five years and it's been on the market for about a year and a half and, yeah, we're really excited about it. I've got two business partners One's the programmer, one looks after all the commercial and worked in electrical company and a construction company as ca and project manager. So we've got a really good mix at the moment and that's stick sty sty ck.
Nick:Um, it's one of those ones. We got all our initials and put it together for a nice. Eventually it looks okay, but we do get a bit of stike and stick. So it's pretty exciting at the moment, In a time when I guess it looks like it's not a great time for construction. We're well-priced, we're easy to use, oh you've got some point in the software.
Nick:Yeah, it is, and it's not complicated. You don't need a degree. One person can use it, or we've got companies that have got 15 people using it. So we're really flexible and I guess we're finding we're getting a lot of people in the middle of the night inquiring about software. So obviously people are probably up to their necks in construction and worried about where their dollars are and are typing in or seeing us on Facebook or Instagram and going, yeah, I need to get on top of my projects finances and that's what we do. Well, and we play in between the Xero, the Myob and really just on site, so there's not a lot of companies in between that and we integrate with a lot of different stuff. So, yeah, it's really exciting yeah.
George:I think that's a misconception with a lot of builders too. It's oh, my finance. Stuff is zero yep, my, that's my op like oh, what do you use for you, for you to manage all your finances?
Nick:oh, my op yeah, no, you don't, so you find that as well?
George:yeah, I do I find it doesn't work at all, like that's the worst thing to use. It works well for other businesses. Like you know, you got your media business. You use zero. I use zero in my consulting business. I would never Xero or Myob or any other accounting software other than the one I've got. That's construction specific. That's the biggest thing I tell people. I don't care what you use, just use something that's specific to your industry that helps you. If there was a better software for marketing and branding I dare say you'd probably use it. Do you know what I mean? Something that does everything that you need it to do.
Nick:And that's it. And at the moment we're finding a lot of people are out there wanting everything in software. You don't have everything, you don't have estimating, you don't have finances, you don't have safety all in one. At this point, if someone's saying they do, they've got holes in it. Yeah, I agree, and we're sitting in a nice area where we can work with anyone, we can integrate with anyone and we can also be a good starting point to really starting point for a company to start getting organized with the document management and then flow into your projects, watching the actuals versus budget, communication, contracts to subcontractors and then just daily use of all the communication with finances, so it's. And then that will integrate with BuildPass, which is an amazing company doing a lot of safety and doing a really good job in the safety area.
George:So we've got some good companies we're learning to work with and yeah, we'll probably get Matt on the show one day as well, I think. Yeah, good guest.
Nick:Matt would be fantastic. Matt Perrot at BuildPass is amazing for us. I think, yeah, good guest, matt would be fantastic. Matt Parrott at BuildPass is amazing for us. He's probably a year or two ahead of us in their development but he's been really good for us just being a sounding board and just a very smart guy. And they're the ones at the moment really getting in the market and getting the job done and we're happy to say we're working really well with them, which is going to be great for us, yeah it them.
George:so which is going?
Nick:to be great for us. Yeah, it's good.
George:It's a collaborative approach when you integrate with other businesses like that too. So I think that's, and even with what we're doing too, yeah, it's good that you integrate with the right people.
Nick:I think that's important, and it is something that we need to do now is just try and find the right people to. I guess, in a time like now, it's probably the best time to work with the right people and help each other, I guess, rather than just being out there by yourself. So yeah, so no, it's exciting.
Robby:Yeah, collaboration is definitely the way to go, like in the sense of because you try and do everything yourself. Yeah, you try and create, like you said, you try and create that software that does everything for everyone. Yeah, but only if you have holes in it it becomes overcomplicated. Yeah, that's it's hard to use. Yeah, it is. You need a degree.
Nick:Exactly, I get really offended at the moment talking great software. They've got such a big market of Australia For us. We get a lot of people coming to us looking for more For us. At the moment we're really trying to find what companies are we going to work with to provide that full solution. We've got an estimating company called Dindo, which is a really good company, and we're integrating with that. We integrate with BuildPass and then all of a sudden we'll literally have the full flow of construction and we feel like that will almost have that all-in-one system and we've gone and hand-picked the best three to make the one. So I think that's a good way. And then we've all centralised and probably mastered our own little areas.
Robby:Yeah, like you do this the best better than anyone else.
Nick:We're trying to put that three best together, if you know what I mean. So, yeah, yeah, which is really exciting. So, yeah, whether it works, I mean I think it will.
Robby:So we're definitely um on the right track with that, yeah, nice, and I think we were chatting off air as well and we were talking about how, with software, it's's such a long game, right, like you don't see results for years, but then you can go from having nothing for three, four, five years to all of a sudden you skyrocket through the roof. Right, because a lot of the initial investment is at the start. You're spending time developing software, getting things right, creating it. How long did it take you before you actually launched a product? It was a good three years really.
Nick:So it's like three years of work, and that persistence is something you needed, or you would have given up. So if someone doesn't have persistence in your area, you're going to give up. So how?
Robby:do you do that? How do you do three years of work without seeing? I'll speak for myself. At the moment, in the position we're at in our business, I feel like I've been riding on a treadmill.
Robby:Yep I feel like I've been doing that work over and over and over and over and over and over, and I feel like I'm in the same spot, even though I know what I'm doing is going towards something else. There's times where doubt creeps in or you see someone else and you think, fuck, look what they're doing. Do you know what I mean? I should just do that. And there's salt to creep in. What do you say to yourself to make sure that you stay in line or to keep yourself going and motivated? At that point you know you're not going to see anything for years on end.
Nick:It's a good point, probably have to read the financial review and find out what some of these software companies are making are probably worth once they get it right. But I don't think that's not really. That's not really the goal for us. It was we started something. We knew there was a gap in the market, yeah, so we just went for it now um, when was the three of you?
Nick:yeah, yep, and when we first started we were going to try and be everything, but then we we realized, no, we can't be everything. Everyone's's tried that and there's gaps. So we really had to hone down on the area we thought was missing in the area. And that's what we've done, which is really the project financials communication. With that, claims tracking, retentions, we're looking at like a cost plus reporting system, which is crazy. There's not one out there at the moment.
George:We're finding there's holes in that there's one of those projects coming up.
Nick:these yeah, and you know, I think that's great to build it because that means the person who trusts the builder. You've got to obviously have a bit of clarity. So we're helping with that clarity to make sure the owner knows or the developer knows, yeah, this is where it's going and I think that's a great way to do. Jobs cost plus yeah, plus plus, yeah. And then we can help them with that clarity, we can help them track every dollar, because there is that confusion of margins when you do that. So yeah. So I guess. Back to your question how I guess you just got to believe in it. I guess, and you know, I think, george, you said earlier about putting that extra work in. We know we've put the extra work in to make it work and it is working. It's still going.
George:Yeah, that's right, I could stop now no, that's right.
Nick:So now we're putting more energy in, like you said, um, into the integration. How are we going to make this flow? You can, everyone can say integrate with my old ball, build pass, but now we want it to actually flow, yeah and work well, yeah so you touched on it a little bit earlier.
George:Just briefly, mentors have you ever had mentors, be it through your footy career, outside of footballing business? Have you ever gone to someone or reached out with someone to help you or give you advice along your journey?
Nick:Yeah, I definitely have. It's something I lost track of a while ago I think. When I went first into construction. I used the owners of the construction companies as mentors. Yeah, but realistically, I was on my own. I was just out there pushing Football. Definitely, you would look at the best players in the clubs, which was something I jumped onto early Wayne Campbell, Matthew Knights, Brendan Gale, who was my sort of guys, who were a little bit older than me, who were good players, and I just watched their habits and then from there you met some amazing people in business. So you use them as mentors and I think it's something that is undervalued. You really should find people that you can see have been successful, because I think most people will give you everything if you ask them a question, If you show a bit of interest and say I love what you've done they'll give you all the answers that you need to fast track.
George:Yeah, I agree with that. I think more people are more willing to help than what you would think.
Nick:Yeah, I think so. As long as there's there's a good, you know you've got to obviously connect with someone. But even me connecting with you, george, like I like your energy, I like what you're doing, so it's been good for me to see how you do business, because that gives me energy on. Okay, I'm not doing enough when you see people who are doing a lot.
George:We say that to each other all the time. It's like, fuck, we're playing so small and we're doing things like above and beyond what a normal person does, and even we still challenge each other. It's like, hey, what are you doing? Is that all you did this week? You know what I mean? Oh, it's 9 pm and you go to bed. Yeah, that's what.
Robby:I'm afraid of Half the time I'm taking the piss.
Nick:Yeah, and you know what. That's what football was for me. I remember playing forward or forward line in for Richmond and I won a goal kick. And then I think it was time to go into the midfield and I remember sourcing out. I sourced out Nathan Burke, but that was really to find out what Robert Harvey was doing at St Kilda. It was a gun, and Nathan Burke was a great player himself as well. Just hard at it. And then I got hold of Shane Crawford and went and had a coffee with him and had a chat about what he was doing While you were playing.
George:Yep, while I was playing, so did you, and this is whilst he was playing too, though. He was playing, but I needed to know what they were doing. Was that often that players would do that? That you have connections outside of your club?
Nick:I don't know, but it was something I did which I look back to and I think it was one of. It was a really good thing, because I realised that I wasn't doing enough and they were doing more. I think one thing that I found out from Sean Crawford was he was riding his bike.
George:I do recall stuff like he did, stuff like that. Yeah, I recall him doing stuff like that. I think it was I can't remember on the footy show or something it would say that he used to do, um oh he did all that, but from an athlete. From an athletic point of view, he would do a lot extra from everyone else like to. Yeah, he was a killer. Yeah, he was a very good player so you brought my medalist too.
Nick:Yeah, and most of those, the greatest players out there, have probably done a lot more than you know. Yeah, A lot more than other people. So anyway, I found out Shane was doing that and we ended up starting a train at Waverley for some preseason. All of a sudden, I was riding my bike to Waverley. Usually, Richo would drive me back in his car with the bike after training.
George:You would do pre-season with other players from other teams.
Nick:No, no, we ended up doing a couple of pre-season sessions at Waverley after I spoke to Croft and all of a sudden I was riding my bike from South Melbourne to Waverley or to Waverley Park and then you find other things to do, whether it's boxing and yeah, but yeah, it's definitely mentors and finding out what the best people are doing and how they do. It is just so important. Otherwise, who's guiding you? How do you know where you're going with this? I'm driving blind, aren't I? Yeah, and that's why probably Matt Perrett for us at the moment is just watching how they do things. He's really good for us and we're referring each other at the moment.
Robby:Work. What is? I want to touch on footy a little bit, if that's okay. What is the? What's the one thing people don't know about playing? I'm a I'm an avid AFL fan, yep, growing up Carlton's footer, carlton. I actually got a message from my cousin. He's like what are you doing later? I'm like I'm actually meeting with Nick Duffy. He's like oh, nick Duffy, he's played Richmond number seven, blah, blah, blah. I swear to God. He's like he used to be my favorite player when I was a kid Number 10, actually, oh, there you go, he's wrong. He's number seven. He's wrong. Close, he'll listen to this. What's the one thing people don't know? Do you know what I mean? What do people not know about playing sport at that level?
George:What was the one thing?
Nick:you think. I think one thing comes off is that my son went down to Richmond this year he's only 15, but he got invited down for two days and it was amazing. It was like his, which I sort of said to him you know, this doesn't happen to every kid, every boy out there I said you're lucky because we've sort of got this father-son um program at richmond which they're trying to get up and running. But they invited him down. He basically got um. He got two days fully to rock up at seven o'clock in the morning and be a footballer, be an alpha footballer. So, and after the two days was over, he was just beaming and that excited and I sat down and said, oh, what's the best part of this day? And he goes, oh, and he thought about it, he goes, oh.
Nick:I think the best thing was sitting down in the spa like they do colds and hot bars, and he was sitting with Taranto and Dusty, which would obviously I like to sit with Dusty, but he Obviously I like to sit with Dusty. But he said to me he sat in the spa with Dusty and Taranto and I said what were you talking about? I was like a fan myself.
Robby:What did you talk about? And he goes.
Nick:oh well, it's funny, Did you get his signature? But the things that he said he goes. Oh well, speaking about the omelettes and what we eat before we get on a plane, what the boys eat before they go interstate Taranto loves an omelette and Dusty loves his Vegemite toast. I said, okay, what else he goes? Oh, we just spoke about Dusty and his boots. He really wasn't sure what boots to wear and it just made me realize that these guys have come out of being 16, 17-year-olds from the country or wherever and put into this punt road. A Dusty or a Tim Taranto went to Sydney and everyone thinks they're this special human being, this superman, and everyone thinks they're this special human being, this Superman, but they're literally just someone who loved football, plucked from the country and dumped at Hunt Road and expected to be this Superman.
Robby:To have all the answers?
Nick:Yeah, it just made me realise that, oh, they're just guys who, just like I was when I first started, we're just footballers and we got lucky and we're in there, but we don't know everything, we're not great at everything and we just want to talk about what omelettes we're eating and what toast and what boots, and that's it. What colour boots did you wear? Yeah, and you know me Well. Actually I was one of the first ones who brought in a little bit of colour. I was going to say, because Adidas Predators brought come out. I remember having a little bit of the smallest amount amount of red and I would have, and I remember thinking I'm getting in trouble.
George:yeah, everyone's gonna give us here, yeah so I was thinking I was at the game. I went to the game a couple weeks ago and it was like, like when I was playing footy it was everyone wore black boots and then you'd get that one really good player might wear white. You know, go watch out hot shot. Yeah, everyone wore black boots. No, there wasn't a single pair of black boots on the field. No one wore black. I reckon it, reckon it's the anomaly it's changed.
Nick:No, they're constantly on fluorescent pink.
Robby:But they're cool.
Nick:I like them. No, they look great. My son's already sending me photos of what boots he's wearing for next year and they're like the brightest of brights. I was like, if you want to stand out, just wear black with nothing on them.
George:Yeah because no one's going to. So. So is he looking to go down that path of playing?
Nick:Yeah he wants to and he's always been a late developer, but he's starting to get on top of his game. He plays for Geelong College and some areas in Geelong League and I can see some really good qualities in him. He's driven, he's a beautiful runner, he's got beautiful skills and, yeah, I think it's there for him. But he's got a lot of work to do and he loves footy and he's halfway there because he wants it. He wants it bad and he works harder than most kids I know.
George:So he's, um, yeah, on his way so what lessons have you learned from football? Yep, that have helped you now in business well, I think just persistence is one thing.
Nick:I remember a pre-season for us was a nightmare because you had to do all this work but there was no results. So I think early days we knew we found out that you could spend three or four months doing nothing and hidden away running around and then all of a sudden, round one came and you were on fire or your body was just in a different area. So I felt like that was probably one thing. I felt that you could do the work, no one would see it and then all of a sudden, the results would come. So I feel like that's a great habit that I've found and that I've taken to life. My daughter's an interesting one too. She's an amazing calisthenics dancer and great at school and she has already learned that as well. At the time she puts work in, she's getting results and you can just see she's just feeding off that every day. And both my son and daughter and I've got a smaller daughter, but the two oldest they're on track to know that. And I think that's probably the biggest thing I'm taking into life is do the work and it'll come.
Nick:And one other thing is you've got to be positive. I'm allergic to negative. I think through footy you just can't have negative energy and any time someone would bring in negative energy it just didn't work. So anyone negative and that's probably the other part that I could never get my head around being negative. So hopefully I was positive through my footy career but I reached some areas. I won a BNF and we won finals. So I felt like you could do things differently, but I felt like I got a lot out of myself and enjoyed the process.
George:Yeah, excellent.
Robby:Yeah, anything you'd do differently in your career If you could go back, if there was a magic pill. We're asking you all the good questions, right?
Nick:Yeah Well, no one thing. I would have liked to enjoy it a little bit more, Just like be present. It felt like a war to me.
Robby:It just felt like it was just a that's competition, like the nature of competition, right yeah, but I really this is the enemy.
Nick:Yeah, and I don't think these days guys are doing it easier. I feel like they're doing it easier. Now what do you reckon Okay, sorry, you can go first. I just feel like it's not hard to watch Hawthorne or Richmond in the last few years when they were winning premierships and guys smiling and getting it done really well. But the one thing they had that we didn't have and especially Richmond was probably a really good the clubs. They've got some really good people behind them, so that probably gives them more confidence, whereas we had four or five coaches through the 11-year period. So maybe that was probably one thing that we weren't able to get that sustained, constant confidence that everything was on track, and we were always seemingly having to reinvent ourselves with a new coach or a new year. But that's probably the one thing. I would have liked to just look like I was enjoying it more Now. We enjoyed ourselves off the field.
Nick:We had a ball, but while football was on, it felt it was would have been nice to have a bit more fun. Um but um, I've seen some photos the last few days of richo and brendan gale's about to finish up at um at richmond and we've been throwing some photos around of past um like times, and there's some great photos there that I the away in london or at brendan's place in sorrento and we look really happy Like I'm just thinking, oh my God, look how happy I was. But when I was training or playing footy it just seemed really hard. Yeah, but we had a ball.
George:Do you think it's? How do you see the game now comparatively to when you were playing?
Nick:Yeah.
George:Bitter, worse, faster, slower.
Nick:I'm loving watching it because there's gears, there's control. They slow it down, they go fast, they yeah, and I've done a little bit of coaching at werribee the last five years. I'm having a year off this year. Yeah, I just love the skill aspect of it and I love the um, the strategy of it at the moment. So I really enjoy it. I'm loving looking at hawthorne how they're opening a field up. So for me personally I'm still it's a bit like my business. I'm looking for ways of um how they're, how different everyone's doing it, how the winners are actually doing it, but I really enjoy it. At the moment it's hard it's tough.
George:I'm talking about that the other day. It's like you're looking, it's not. You're seeing some people do some stuff and, like you know I'm better than them, but they're yeah, they're killing it at the moment. What's what's the gap there? Like what's the difference? Where are the winners? And then you look at the guys that are absolutely killing it, like, yeah, well, what's the gap? What's the difference? What needs to change? What do you need to study? What do you need to surround yourself with? And I think that's important too.
George:In business and in life, you've always got to look and it was great that you reached out to say you crawfords and yeah and all those types of guys, and then even with um in business now reaching out to other people, I think it's really important that you just stop and ask yourself that sometimes and go who do I need to connect with? Yeah, but it could be a check-in with a business partner or with a friend or colleague, with yourself. That's, I think, the biggest one. I walk to work this morning and it's about a 20-minute walk. It's not far, but I love it because it gives me time just to think about shit. That 20 minutes in the morning is very powerful for me because I walk to work. I'm like, okay, cool, what can I do here, what can I do there? What if I did this, what if I did that? What if I call this person? What if I connect there? Those conversations, I think, are really powerful sometimes.
Nick:Yeah, that's. I'm very similar. I go to the gym and do it. I do a walk run on the treadmill, which I've never been able to do, but I've got. I got two. Actually one thing I've got two replacement knees about two years ago from footy. So I'm back on the treadmill, do my weights and then I do a sauna. So I've got a really good habit. If I don't do that, I'm in all sorts. I feel like I cannot concentrate, um. But also if I feel bad, if I'm in a really bad space where I guess a lot of people might go to bed, they're not feeling great, I'll go to the gym and get that out of the way. And then all of a sudden I take a deep breath and off we go.
Nick:So I think, that's really important to do that.
George:Yeah, absolutely. Well, no one does a workout and feels shit after it.
Nick:No, they don't do they, you just got to get to that point of getting it done and then all of a sudden, yeah. So I don't know how we got onto that but I guess that's just habits.
George:But that's the thing though. It's business and life. It's kind of one and the same. People would always try and separate the two, but they shouldn't. They're a blended aspect of your life, Definitely.
Robby:So there you go. So AFL pubs consulting. Now construction software. Yep, construction software. What's next?
Nick:That's it. Well, no, when I say that I'm working, this is our company, we're going forever here. It's an amazing business where it's one thing is we're bringing on, we're helping companies and they won't go anywhere unless someone maybe collapses in a few years, whatever, but this is recurring income. We're custom building for these clients as well. So every time we bring on a client each month, they're staying with us, which is an amazing, I guess, model to have yeah, 100% retention or very close to Close to it's quite great. So for me, we're just bringing great clients on great people understanding and we're actually listening to the market. We're listening to our builders. They're smarter than us in building, so if we don't listen to them, we are crazy.
George:That's right. At the end of the day, you've got to give people like I'm a big believer in employing your weaknesses, but also listening to experts Like get the best person in for that job and that's why I got you in after we spoke and you were, you know, credit to you. Yeah, you could have very easily. You were saying you were chasing me for six months.
George:I think I was yeah it's like, hey, george, love your stuff, love to connect, and I'm like, okay, nick, I'm like, oh fuck, I gotta call him, we gotta call him. And I was just so busy at that time you just called me, probably at the worst time that every time I went to go speak to you and I did respond a couple of times yeah, yeah, let's do this day. No, we tried, but you're right, but you're persistent enough to keep going. And then that's resulted in now collaboration to where we are today.
Nick:Definitely, and I think that's I could feel that was going to happen. Even watching you work on Saturday, I was like, oh, this is, you know, there was I just felt thing to do. You know what I mean? Like we can work really well in that way. So, um, but yeah, it was. It was definitely, definitely something that if you feel that it's the right thing, you got to go for it, don't you? To be honest, I'm gonna very much, but don't go for everything. You just got to pick and choose which one.
George:So are you going to look at going international as well?
Nick:well the thoughts there, because it's there. Well, if, if procore and builderertrain can come over here, why can't we go over there? There's obviously gaps everywhere, but our system, for instance, is very simple. It works well, so it would work anywhere.
George:Yeah.
Nick:And obviously there's a different language in some of the way, I guess, whether the US or New Zealand, but there's not much difference in how construction is done at the end of the day. So we'll get hold of our area here and I think we're talking about our builders. We've got a great there's a crew Turn Group Harry and Lachlan Turn Group in Melbourne and they're doing some great things. Now they're some really smart guys who are teaching us what they want in their software. Now we've built our system, but they're helping us build in some areas to help them, yeah which will in turn help others.
Nick:Yeah, and that's something I'm really excited about is connecting with the smart builders out there who are coming with us and we're not stubborn, where a lot of the software out there is plug and play. You get in there and, yeah, you can fit your business in it and that's it. But don't come back to me, there'll and that's it.
Robby:But don't come back to me, there'll be issues with it. So I'm feeling quite excited by that and learning from some really smart construction guys out there. So that keeps. So you guys customize, yeah, it to fit directly. Whatever they do like that, that business, that structure, you're like cool, we'll make this we and we are doing that.
Nick:We've done that with the cost plus model and we've worked with turn group guys to do that to make sure we understand what they want. There's um, and we've got commercial builders, residential, we've got landscapers, we've got developers on at the moment. So it works.
George:It works also for construction companies, like a carpenter. Could a carpenter?
Nick:it does, yeah, well carpenter, who's probably working in commercial, should use it because they can get their payments and their claims in time and get something where they're and then they're not. They're probably notorious for not having great paperwork as far as and it's good for a subcontractor If you're up against a big builder and you don't get your payments in time, you won't get paid. So if you can have a system that helps you get all your claims and variations in time and up to date, you'll get paid when you can. Otherwise they use an excuse and go oh sorry, you didn't get everything into me by the 15th of this month. You don't get paid. The poor guys don't get paid. So that's where our system can help subcontractors be better organized so they're up to date with the builders.
Nick:I think that's another area of our business that we're pushing. So, yeah, so, but I mean yeah, that's. You know, the software is where I'm going. I love the footy. Watch it. If you ask me software or football, I mean footy. To me, the way it's going would be great to be involved in it, but I've got some great memories of it.
Nick:That's good who you got for the flag this year. Well, I don't know. You know like I felt it's so open at the moment I feel I feel like Carlton's got a game that can go, but you've got to get over the first week, so that's going to be hard enough.
George:Carlton will get absolutely smacked around in Brisbane. Are they Brisbane? We beat them there last time, did you? You haven't won a game for the last fucking month and a half. Yeah, it's going to be tough. One of six it's going to be tough.
Robby:One of six. It's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. So there's a thing with that. Like I don't think they're going to win the flag. I think they're just something's wrong there. There's some. There's a morale issue or something. They're not playing the right type of footy.
Nick:They were. I think it was on. It Was that Merab when they played the ball for a few weeks back.
George:Yeah, because they seem like they're off.
Robby:Yeah, yeah, like Hawthorne, I get it. Hawthorne's on at the moment, okay, but still. But come on, we got slapped.
Nick:But I think the one thing is finals will be about who plays well together. I think Hawthorne are playing really well together.
Robby:They're playing very well together. Full credit to Hawthorne.
Nick:When I see Brisbane and Big Joe Denner try and do things his own and not be a team player, I feel like they fall down. It's the same as Carlton. If I see Charlie Kuno drawing over shots from 85 instead of looking for his team, I feel like those things are going to be big in the finals. Geelong are a smokey, but they've got to get over Port tonight and we don't know what Port's going to rock up tonight. It's the one that's going to be an A-grade bang. It's a good game tonight. Yeah, I think it is. It's going to be a good game.
Nick:And then Geelong will just hang in there and, you know, potentially just wear them down.
George:The second look, finishing top four is a big advantage. You know what I mean.
Robby:I think one team's done it from the bottom. Four right Doggies did it Doggies?
George:was it Doggies did it? Who else? I think there was someone else.
Robby:I think they were the first team to ever have done it. Not ever, ever, oh, I don't know. I'm pretty sure that's what they were saying the first team to ever have not come in the top four and won. It could be wrong In 2016,.
George:Wasn't it Surely that was.
Nick:That was 16, yeah, that was 16. Yeah, 2016,. That was amazing, but maybe it's all open. But I think the home ground advantage of Port Brisbane, yeah, I agree. Sydney, they just won't. Yeah, sydney as well, but I'm unsure about Sydney. I feel like slow, fuel their runners down and they won't score. But they've only got about four or five mids who just kicked 30 goals. So, yeah, there's a few to slow down. Yeah, exactly, but it's a pretty exciting final series.
George:Yeah, and I think what the AFL have done is exactly what they wanted that equalization where it's two games. I saw this thing that if Hawks won, if they beat Port and GWS which they should have, they would have finished second.
Robby:Well, Mkharta went from being second or the halfway through the season to just making the eight.
George:But that's exactly what they want. They want those teams for the competition to be that close, but then also for someone out of the top eight to be able to win it. But then also they want it to recycle, like look where Richmond is now Bottom of the ladder. Two years ago they were like this team is never going to lose again.
Robby:Yeah, I was looking at the ladder and I think there's teams that have won 14 games and missed. Oh, this year, Is that right? Yeah, I think there's teams that have won 14 games and then, if you look back that's incredible. Yeah, you go back five years ago.
George:10 years ago there was teams that won 11month yeah, yeah.
Nick:You could make the eight with that many wins when we played, it was 10 or 12. Get you in, and I remember playing that last game of the year to make the finals and we lost two of them, which was a nightmare. So you rock up knowing you get a win and you get beaten and you're gone. What was it? Ninth man? Yeah, we used to. Well, I think we lost like two and the reason it was we lost two that were that last game of the year.
George:Got to win you get in, which was tough. Who's the best player you ever played with or against?
Nick:With? That's a great question. Probably for Richmond, the superstar was Matthew Richardson. Just the way that he flew at marks and just the way he ran. Yeah, again, the guy was an animal at training. Oh, was he really? He was, and so it's not obvious, it's not hard to see why he was that player. Yeah, as far as class and sustaining, you know that high level, wayne Campbell and Matthew Knights were right up there and then, yeah, I guess, overall, watching as a spectator, you can't go past Dustin Martin. Just the level that he hits at the right time. Yeah, so we've been real, just great supporters watching him.
George:Yeah, absolutely.
Nick:And I mean right now, me and my son love the Port Adelaide Mets, rose and Butters. He goes for Richmond. I'm assuming he's a Richmond man. Yeah, that's it, but we love watching those guys go at it. I think they're just two guys that were so different, but we love watching how they play.
Robby:Yeah, very good. All right, Nick, we appreciate you taking the time and coming down and having a chat. If someone does want to connect with yourself or wants to try out the software. Stick, yeah, stick. Where can they find you? Where can they find the program?
Nick:Yeah, well, obviously, stick wwwstyckcomau. It's the first time I've done that. We give a 14-day trial to anyone. We can give them a free demo. Like I said, we're cost-effective. 380 for two users a month. It's a pretty good going, it's a no-bra, it's no brainer. Less than $100 a week to get yourself organized, all your wife, all your CAs, all your PAs, project managers, pm, sorry. Yeah, I think it's not a bad business and yeah, we're there to listen and it's a great software. We're getting some amazing feedback.
George:What about yourself? Are you on social media at all from a professional level For Stick? No for yourself. What do you mean, sorry, Do you have your own social media profiles? We've got some diehard veteran fans.
Nick:Well, no, not me personally, but just you know what? I'm just in building Stick at the moment and working out the strategy of where we go with Stick.
George:Well, actually you're on LinkedIn.
Robby:I'm LinkedIn. You're on linkedin. I'm linkedin.
George:You're on linkedin we connected the other day. Yeah, so if you want to connect with nick, you can find him on linkedin.
Nick:Yeah, definitely, that's uh, but I mean you'll find us look up stick construction software, yeah, but uh, yeah, I really enjoyed the chat guys. Bit of everything, that's it. Um, like I said, I learned a little bit about myself when we start talking, yeah, about things of the past yeah, we learn a little bit about ourselves every time.
Robby:We do this as well. Yeah, definitely.
George:Yeah, look, it's been a great journey. What episode are we up to now? Late 40s, I think it's been close to 50, yeah, oh, really close to 50. Yeah, probably 48, 49, something like that. Very nice, very nice, so yeah.
Nick:Yeah, well done, Been a good journeyton went mate, let's close on that.
Robby:You didn't give us your tip For the grand final, for the grand final 2024 flag. You heard it here. First guys, I'll go Brisbane, brisbane. So, that means.
Nick:Carlton's definitely out. We'll see how we go Saturday night. And good luck to Richmond with all the draft picks too. I'm pretty excited by that. So.
Robby:I'm excited to see where they're headed, jim thanks guys, thanks Nick, thanks guys.
George:As always, we're here. You know what to do. Top right hand corner subscribe when you get the chance and look forward to chatting to you next week. Awesome thanks guys.
