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
How To Deal With Online Hate
Have you ever posted something online only to be met with unexpected criticism or outright hate?
In this raw and candid conversation, we pull back the curtain on what really happens when you put yourself out there in the digital world. We break down the psychology of online criticism - why different platforms breed different levels of toxicity, what motivates trolls to attack strangers, and most importantly, how successful people maintain their mental health despite the noise.
"You're only ever going to get criticized by people doing less than you." This powerful perspective shift is just one of many strategies we discuss for handling negativity while building your personal brand. We share our own experiences with haters (including some hilariously absurd comments we've received) and how we've learned to separate valuable feedback from baseless attacks.
The conversation takes an especially valuable turn when we explore how to determine which criticism deserves your attention. We discuss the importance of considering the source - is this feedback coming from someone qualified to judge your work or just a random keyboard warrior? Understanding this distinction allows you to grow from constructive feedback while protecting your mental health from toxic commentary.
Whether you're building a business, creating content, or simply existing online, this episode provides practical wisdom for navigating the inevitable criticism that comes with putting yourself out there. The digital landscape is only becoming more crowded and contentious - learning these skills now will serve you for years to come.
Subscribe for new episodes every Monday where we tackle the real challenges of modern business, personal growth, and navigating an increasingly complex digital world.
There's something I've been meaning to tell you. Go for it.
Robby:Me or everyone?
George:No, just you specifically Okay, guys, block your ears Something I've been meaning to tell you. You know we're 82, 83 episodes down. Yes, and I don't think you're a good podcaster.
Robby:Look, that's been the word on the streets, on the YouTube, On the YouTube. I also.
George:I also on the YouTube street. I also don't think um, you know what you're talking about. I also have heard that your face isn't very attractive, and I look at it often because I'm sitting opposite you.
Robby:This is all. It's not news to me, and I look at it often because I'm sitting opposite you. This is all.
George:it's not news to me, and also, I think you drive a shit car.
Robby:Now I'm offended.
George:Yeah, that's I. Just I'm glad I got that off my chest. That's been thinking it for a while and I just want to publicly put it out there that you aren't very good at what you do Do you feel better. No, no, never mind, I don't feel better. I feel like I might need to go and insult someone else as well.
Robby:So all the people on the social platforms must not feel better either. You reckon. Well, I don't know. I don't know if you've seen some of the comments that have been coming through lately, some lately, some of the stuff people are saying on, and if you haven't, I think it's hilarious.
George:It's so funny. All you trolls out there. It fucking makes our day. Do you know how much we laugh? We laugh so much.
George:So what I wanted to talk a little bit about with you today is how to handle that, because a lot of people don't. A lot of people get in their own way when they see comments like that. They get very self-conscious, they get very upset because a lot of these things. You're upset that it didn't happen earlier. You're upset that it's taken 80 episodes to get that sort of feedback. But, yeah, a lot of people get in their own way when it comes to things like this. They get upset. It can also be very personal and very mean. You know what I mean.
George:So I've recently did a training with some mentees of mine and we're talking about brand and building their personal brand and all that sort of stuff, and the question often came up and I always address it because I know it's an issue. It's like you know, how do you deal with the haters? How do you deal with negative comments? How do you deal with this? How do you deal with that? And here's the thing when you start to put yourself out there, you're going to get people with different opinions, first of all, but also, you're just going to get people literally they're called trolls and keyboard warriors, whatever you want to call them.
George:You're going to get people that just hate on you, and I want to talk a little bit about today how you go about navigating that space, because it's a real space and the bigger you get, probably the bigger your haters get too. The more change that you force and create and do, you're going to get people that are jealous, that are vindictive, that just do it for no fucking reason whatsoever. So, yeah, I wanted to chat a little bit about you, or about A my thoughts on you and this podcast, first of all, of course, and B I appreciate the feedback. No, and please let me know how fantastic I am.
Robby:I'll let you know off air. So how?
George:do you deal with?
Robby:it. Well, first of all, let's talk about the platforms that it happens on. Let's touch on that first. I think it's different on every platform, oh dude, it is 100% different on every platform, you know. 100% different on every. You know what I've. This is my own personal experience, but I feel like Facebook and Instagram are the least.
George:LinkedIn as well.
Robby:Yeah, because it's people. It's real people. Yeah, do you know what I mean? So, no, no, it's when you go on platforms like YouTube, all of a sudden, the accounts are not real. There's no relation to their name. People that have profile pictures you can't tell who's talking yeah, tiktok, same to their name. People that have profile pictures you can't tell who's talking yeah, uh, tiktok, same sort of thing. You use a 978247 blah blah blah. Thinks you're an idiot? Yeah, okay, cool, uh, reddit yeah, no one has it you don't ever use red never.
Robby:Anyway, people are very much the same, like they're willing to say whatever they want, because you don't know who the end user is and and I feel like people hide behind that mask.
George:Yeah, without a doubt.
Robby:Yeah, I find. Anyway, we get worse. I reckon it's across the board, but I'd love to know what other people think. But I think the comments are worse on, like TikTok and YouTube.
George:Yeah, I do get it, though. I have had hate on Instagram too, though Very rarely Facebook.
Robby:I do with ads. I've seen people get trolled on Instagram.
George:Yeah, I remember a few years ago I went to the F1 and I bought some merch. I had a Mercedes jacket and a hat and all that sort of stuff and I was talking about why I bought it and all that sort of shit. It was like 100 comments, people just going to town on me Look at this fanboy, drive to survive, fanboy. All this sort of shit. Bought a hat, good luck Well done. Spending 500 bucks on two items, all this sort of shit. And it was nothing to do with the actual merch.
George:It was a story that I had behind it and some people will resonate and go yeah, that's great, blah, blah, blah. But yeah, it was amazing to see how many people jumped on there and wanted to actually put their two cents in and have some level of authority, have some level of professionalism. But they had the right or it was their God-given purpose to go on there and say something negative or whatever it might be, to bring me down. For what reason? And it didn't. Again, I find it comical because over the years I've had a few videos that I've put up that have thought-provoking topics and then you get those people with those radical opposite idea about what I was talking about. So they come in there and voice their opinions, but it's not often backed with fact, with anything. They sort of attack you personally as well, and they'll go look at this dickhead, you're a wanker, you're this, you're this, you're this.
Robby:So one of the guys the video we did about, sorry, the episode we did about politics, yeah, where we told everyone the video ended with shouting at the camera saying vote for George. Like just to give you context on the video, on the episode. If you haven't listened to it, yeah, go have a listen. And people were coming at us like this is not serious political advice, boys, you know, pack it up. This is embarrassing.
Robby:It's embarrassing and I'm like it's embarrassing that you're looking for serious political advice. You know what I mean. Is it my fault if you came here looking for serious political advice?
George:But it's also. Oh man, it was funny. This podcast just goes to show anyone can start a podcast.
Robby:Yeah, it's called Podcast Bros.
George:It was shit.
Robby:Something along the lines of this social media scumbag, yeah, and property developer thumb or something, and I'm like cool man, like sure. Well, I didn't cry that much anyway.
George:No, no, no, we consoled in each other, so it was all right. Yeah, I find them so funny, so funny when I see that shit.
Robby:Why do people do it?
George:A couple of reasons. I reckon their shit's broken. Like, think about it, you have to sit there, consume the content. Then you have to grab it and then go in the comments, click it. You have to take these steps and then type, yeah, shit's kind of broken already to get to that point, because if you think about how long it takes someone to interact with a piece of content it's less than a second whether they're going to decide to watch it or not Then they take the next three, four, five steps to then engage and comment and share it and say listen to this dickhead, listen to this. I think there's a level of something's not right with them in their life. Whatever it might be, do you ever leave negative feedback period.
George:It depends, as in on someone else's content.
Robby:Content oh reviews anything.
George:No, not on a person I have for a company.
Robby:So why a company? Why is that different?
George:Yeah, because they've personally done something that didn't a lot Like. They gave me bad service. It wasn't a good thing that they did. Fuck them, ldv. I bought two LDV utes. Fuck you guys. Yeah, I bought two LDV utes and the experience from the purchase to the handover was absolute rubbish. The car didn't come as specified Like. There was a whole range of things and, yes, I get, they're an entry-level vehicle, but regardless, I bought two of them. They were the top of that range and it was for my employees and the delivery service and everything thereafter was just rubbish and I called them out. I called the guy. I spoke to the director, not to the director, to the owner of that dealership, all that sort of stuff.
George:Yeah, and because I left the Google review and I just said the truth, I said one star, like you guys, didn't do this. This, this, this, this, just fundamental basic shit. All right, I spent 90 odd grand with you on your cars, whatever it was, and you just didn't give me the service. Like that's disgusting. Anyway, he's. He responded back to me. He said oh sorry, you had this bad experience. Give me a call. I said okay, and I was going to remove the review bite. Mind you, I would have removed it had he then done whatever he had to do. He says give me a call, we'll have a chat. So I called him, said this and this has happened. He goes all right, we'll fix it, don't worry, come in, sort it out.
George:So then I gave it to my PA. I said look, you sort this out, I'm too busy, but just deal with him. He said he's going. It cost me too much money to get you to even do this. Just leave it, don't worry about it, it's not end of the world. So that wasn't specifically to an individual. I didn't attack him. I didn't turn around and say you're a dickhead, you're ugly, I don't like your face. It was the service with the company and trust me like very rarely do I have like that's the only one I can actually recall in recent times, only one.
Robby:I can actually recall in recent times what's the difference between? Because you're attacking a brand at the end of the day. So what's the difference between attacking a personal brand than a business brand? Like you're not even attacking for the sake of attacking, but like I feel like the people who watched the content like they must have. There must have been some level of upset by it. That's how I look at it.
George:What I saw was people that were in politics upset by it. That's how I look at it. What I saw was people that were in politics. They had a following in the politics, in that political space, For that video particularly. Yeah, yeah, I reckon, because a lot of the comments were like educate yourself, you don't know. This vote Labor, vote Liberal. But they all missed the point.
Robby:They all missed the point, yeah yeah, they completely missed it.
George:It's like we were talking about the political space, but also our perspective was one that was shared by hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions of people. In the sense of who the fuck are we going to vote for? Why am I going to vote for this dickhead or this dickhead? They're both fucking dickheads.
Robby:The ultimate question that was, I guess, put forward in that episode was why should I care? That's what it was.
George:Yeah, exactly that's what it was. It's was. Why should I care? That's right, that's what it was. Yeah, exactly that's what it was it's like.
Robby:Why should like tell me, help me. And no one gave us a single reason to care. That's right.
Robby:But, look, that's not here or there. We can sit here and tell all these people about how they're wrong and we're right, but we could like, I guess what I'm trying to get at is how? Why is that different to leaving a bad review on a business, do you know? Because that, that is what that? What they did is like hey man, I had a shit time here. Yeah, yeah, whilst I listened to the podcast. Yes, yeah, that's what it essentially is. It's like I came, I had an experience. I didn't like it. If it was google, we probably would have got two stars, two stars, stars.
George:How funny, but what's the difference? What's the difference?
Robby:The difference, because you just said I will do it for a company. I wouldn't do it for a person.
George:No, I would do it to a person in the sense of.
Robby:I will do it If someone puts up a video and I completely disagree with it.
George:Yeah, that's what I mean. I would say that, but I wouldn, personally. Do you know what I mean In the sense of you? Go, look at you. You're fat and ugly. Why will I listen to you? Do you know what I mean? Like I wouldn't do that. That to me is is so negative?
Robby:What's the?
George:worst review you've ever given a company no-transcript. I'm going to go to town, yeah, if you upset me.
Robby:I'm coming for you. Every single one of the people that left a comment. I'm coming for you. No, no, but like I've gone to town on some companies. Yeah, like absolutely gone to town, like if I get really, really dude. You know what bothers me more than anything?
Robby:This is going to go so sideways, but like, for example, a pizza shop, you guys just make pizzas. You should be able to make a decent pizza. It doesn't have to be great, but it's not hard to make a decent pizza, yeah. And then you go and it's like this is all you do. You've got one job and you fuck it up. Do you know what I mean? You give us the wrong pizza, or the pizza tastes like shit or it's not cooked well, and it's like what are you guys like? What are you doing? Like this is fucking. Come on. One job, one service, one product, one thing, one Like that's all you have to do. And you can't even do that. Right, Cooking ain't that hard. Do you know what I mean? If I go somewhere like, and I don't have like a, I went to a five-star restaurant and blah, blah, blah, it's like no, no, no, no. Like, make it eatable. I'm not. My standards aren't that high. Like you know, I'll foods, and it's like you make it so bad. I feel like pizza now.
George:I feel like pizza every day, every moment of every minute context it's quarter past, that's nearly 9, 30 in the morning am pizza for breakfast.
Robby:It's the breakfast of champions cold pizza.
George:How good is that breakfast of champions, do you? Have do you like pineapple on pizza?
Robby:yeah yeah, me too I like everything on pizza except anchov, because that's not normal.
George:Arguably pineapple's not normal either.
Robby:Yeah, get with the times.
George:Did you know the Hawaiian pizza was invented by a Greek. Just going to leave that there, let's keep going. Tell your friends, google it. Some bloke in Canada, but he was Greek immigrant and invented the Hawaiian pizza. Are you sure Greg's invented everything? Of course, I'm sure.
Robby:No comment. I'm sure someone else will, though, clip that and post it on TikTok. Long story short. If someone really upsets me, I will take the time to say, okay, cool, I'm going to let this person know. You know what I mean, but I'm not.
George:I'm not a douchebag. Yeah, you're not petty about it. Not petty, petty's not the word. You're not going out there in a vindictive way, you're just voicing your opinion and I don't mind discussion.
Robby:I don't mind the-. Yeah, I almost see it as a. This is going to help them.
George:Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's almost a level of empathy.
Robby:Yeah, but also if I could show you some of I don't know how to bring them up, but if I could show you some of the reviews I've left, like there are reviews where I've said some.
George:Maybe you're one of these negative people. Look, Leave those negative comments. See, I've only ever noticed it since we since building a personal brand, first of all, but also since running ads too, Like the other day. I don't know if you've seen this one yet, but I found it hilarious. I don't know if I told you we're running an ad now for an event that we're doing, and one of the comments was literally it was exactly this this guy looks more like he should be running a kebab shop than a construction company. Yeah, I sent that to you. Yeah, and I'm like that's hilarious.
Robby:First of all, yeah, and also They'd be great kebabs yeah.
George:Let's just point out the obvious. Let's be honest If I'm fucking half as good at building as I am making kebabs, I can watch out.
Robby:Yeah.
George:Have you seen George work the spit Shit? Something to be watched, but you know what I mean. But you know what I mean. Like that's he's gone on an ad for a construction event. That's funny. That has nothing, yeah. So he's looked at my ethnicity. He hasn't done, but he. I find it funny though. Yeah, but he hasn't done that in a. Oh, let me, let's get some laughs.
Robby:Like he's done it in a way there is nothing overly negative about that. Like he's just turned around and said like you, look like you should be making kebabs, yeah, but I don't think he meant it in that way.
George:Do you honestly reckon he was doing it as a joke? Oh, like tongue in cheek? No, I don't.
Robby:I don't get to decide how you say it.
George:but people will see that and get real upset Like what, what the fuck? Why do I look like I run a kebab shop?
Robby:I run a multi-.
George:I, but he hasn't said it in a positive way. Yeah, do you know what I mean? Like, what's wrong with kebab shops? Nothing. But he's looked at me, my ethnicity, assumed I'm from that part of the world and gone. Okay, you should be running a kebab shop, not a construction company. Okay, but that was just one. There was other ones like, whatever it was, over the years. You get heaps. I don't trust this guy. You're a snail oil salesman. You don't know what the fuck you're doing. It looks like you've never been on a construction site in your life.
George:101 things that people say about you. Now, if I listed them all out, you'd read them. You're like oh well, shit, maybe I'm not good. Maybe I should stop running ads. Maybe I should stop building a personal brand, because people are always going to attack me. Maybe ads, maybe I should stop building a personal brand because people are always going to attack me. Maybe I should stop putting myself out there, my ideas out there, trying to grow a business. Maybe I should stop all of that and just stick with what I know and hang around people I know.
Robby:So why don't you, I guess? How do you overcome that? What's the? It's easy to just say no, I read them that that's very easy to say Absolutely it is.
George:It comes a lot. I think it really comes down to the individual and how secure you are within your own skin. Do you know what I mean? The comments that people are saying I don't read them and take them in and go. This is an accurate representation of me. I don't look at it and take that for gospel. Like, this is a person who I've never met and who often are hiding behind a keyboard or a username smartypants8463. Do you know what I mean? And you never real user. Yeah, look him up. I saw him on YouTube, but you look at that and I've even gone into some of these profiles just out of curiosity sometimes and I click on them and it's like one of them that left this comment a while. I think it was on TikTok of some sort.
George:I put up a post about apprentices need to stop bitching and moaning about how much you're getting paid, and it had really nothing to do with the monetary thing. The message I was giving it was about stick through it. You're going to end up charging $150 an hour by the time you finish your apprenticeship, because we have a skill shortage in the industry. You'll be able to charge whatever you want. Anyway, there was this guy who goes on there and starts like God, you have this. You don't know this. He looks like you've never worked a day in your life. You wouldn't know the right end of a hammer, all this sort of shit. I clicked on his profile just out of curiosity. The right end of a hammer, yeah, like, which side do you hit a hammer with? Do I hit with this end or this end? I don't know? Okay, anyway, I went on his profile and it's just some kid man. He was just there. He was hanging out with his mate. He had some stupid photo of him trying to be a gangster or some shit.
George:Like I'm like, dude, you're coming onto my page and leaving that shit and I'm gonna get upset over this bloke, over this 18, 20 year old, 25 year old, whatever. However old you are, do you know what I mean? So, do you? Why would I take on the opinions and and views and beliefs of someone else and get upset over that? I matter who the other person is. Look, um, if it was someone like, let's just say you came on there but you were being genuine and say, oh, you're a fucking idiot, like I think we need to stop being friends. I can't do this podcast with you anymore. Yeah, that would upset me to a degree. So, hey, what have I done? Like, tell me Right, then I would be like engaging?
Robby:Yeah, because I value your opinion. Okay, so take out the personal relationship. What's the? What do you look for if it was a random comment from someone you didn't know? But you go on their profile?
George:Person of authority.
Robby:Yeah, do you get what I'm saying? What are you looking for? That would make you say shit. I might have to take this comment seriously. Take it seriously Because you just said this kid and I'm like why am I going to take this seriously? It'd be pretty extreme. Yeah, he's a celebrity.
George:Okay, but I'm saying okay. So someone seriously, a person of authority in my field or in the topic that I was talking about, potentially I don't know who is but yeah, yeah, potentially. But I feel that if they were a person of authority like that and had a big, not necessarily celebrity, but influencer, like a micro-influencer in that field, known, respected, and they put something on my page, I don't necessarily think they would go on there in a bad way. They would go in there viewing their opinion and maybe saying trying to correct me, or say, hey, I think you're wrong here. I don't believe that someone like that unless that's how they get their followings and what they do Most of the time professional type people aren't going to go out there.
George:Winners don't bring down winners. Do you know what I mean? You're only ever going to get criticized by people doing less than you. That's something I always think of. You're only going to get criticized by people doing less than you. I look at that whenever I get those comments on my page or pages. I don't look at them and go okay, this is an opinion of someone I need to value. They're not even touching the sides of what I'm trying to achieve in life. They're not even in the space of where I'm at today, let alone where I'm going to be in the next one, two like what I was trying to get at is.
Robby:It sounds like you're just lowering the person on a scale like, in a sense of like they don't matter. Yeah, like in a fuck, you keep watching from the sidelines.
George:Yeah, I think for me that helps Absolutely. Fuck you, that's a great way to look at it. Fuck, you keep watching from the sidelines and I can't remember who. It helps Absolutely. Fuck you, that's a great way to look at it. Fuck, you Keep watching from the sidelines and I can't remember who it was. It was someone. It was one of the famous. I think it was a soccer player. It could have been like a Ronaldo or someone like that. And they're like how do you deal with all the boos and all the abuse from the crowd and all that sort of stuff? And it's like well, they've come to pay money to watch me play. They're sitting in the sidelines. I'm on the field. So, yeah, I do feel a high level of connection to that personally. You're sitting on the sidelines.
Robby:Yeah, what about? You know, I heard a comedian actually say this once and I thought it was very cool, and he goes. People who critique, he goes. You should only be allowed to critique if you've tried, Because people who have tried and they've willingly gone and put something out there won't critique as hard. Oh, without a doubt, like in the sense of there's a level of empathy because they know what it's like to try. Yeah, and they know what it's like to try and get shut down.
George:Yeah, and comedy would be a massive one for that. Think about how hard it would be to do stand-up and get up there. And you are there for a purpose to try and make people laugh. You have to talk, and you have to talk in front of a crowd and you have to be funny. And then if you get up there and you talk and you're not funny when people are expecting you to be funny, so there's already a level of I'm not laughing at this Before you even get up there. Before you even get up there, people are not laughing. You need to make them laugh.
Robby:Yeah.
George:And it's like when you get to that level and you do it and you fall on your face and then you go. You're not going to get up there and boo the next comedy act that you see.
Robby:No, because you're going to be like. I get it. Yeah, I've been there and that is a. I guess you can relate to the position a little bit more.
George:And this is where, again, if you go and say, click on a profile and you see that person, they're coming to criticize you about whatever you're talking about. They've probably got posts of their dog, of the footpath, or maybe no posts. Posts of the footpath yeah, just stupid photos, I don't know. Maybe no posts. Posts of the full path yeah, just stupid photos, I don't know. And they're coming and trying to tell you about how to run a business or how to advertise, or what their interpretation of good, bad, ugly, funny is. And something.
George:I've said this many times before and I instilled it in my kids and I say it at events it's like I don't like your blue hair. If someone says to me I don't like your blue hair and I don't have blue hair, why would that upset me? I know it's a truth of mine that I don't have blue hair. So when someone says something that's untrue, why am I going to be upset over that? Now, if someone comes in and says, hey, you're ugly, your beard is patchy and and yeah, okay, cool, it's got a bit of white here and ugly, maybe I am ugly to you, but I'm not ugly to other people, I don't think I'm. I know I'm not ugly. So why would I let something like that upset me? It really comes down to your what's the word, not your self-awareness, but just having that level of consciousness to go. I know I'm not this thing that you're saying I am, so I'm not going to let that upset me.
Robby:Yeah, it's also, I think it's. It becomes like it makes you question that thing. Yeah, it could, it could. Because it's like, hey, you're dumb. And then, if you hear that over and over, you'd be like anyway.
George:Well, without a doubt, think about how you could influence a child from a young age if you just called them dumb every fucking day of their life. Hey, dummy, imagine you do that to your own kid. You walk in, you're dumb, don't talk to me, you're dumb. That kid's going to grow up and he's going to think he's dumb, of course. Do you know what I mean? So, yeah, if you buy into it and you listen to the noise, yes, I once put a post up and I was explaining something in construction and I had another director of another building company who was much bigger than me, like a decent organization, send me a DM. No, it was a DM. He didn't put it in the comments, but he sent me a DM and corrected me. He goes actually it's called this, not that. And I'm like yeah, cool man, tomato, tomato. Like, did you get the video? Would people understand what I'm like? Yeah, cool man, tomato, tomato. Like, did you get the video? Would people understand what I'm talking about? Like, yes, then shut the fuck up.
George:But he didn't do it in a way to sort of help me, because I know him. He wasn't doing it in a way saying oh, just, hey, dude, just letting you know. This is what it's called. It's like no, it was almost a way to pump his own chest up and say I'm smarter than you and it doesn't create any content. Dm'd you. Dm'd yes, not publicly. Yeah, yeah, he sent it as a DM, so people can sometimes bring it down in that way too. Again, going through that, I think he did it responded to a story, I think that's where it was, so it wasn't a specific. I'm going to go into the chat area, but yeah, so I often look at that as well. I know in my own truth I have my my own self-esteem about myself and what I'm about and what I do, that that outside noise I don't listen to it so okay, but I think you know, I also try and have that level of if someone's going to have say something that's not in agreeance to what I'm saying, I will.
George:I often respond in a respectful way. I say hey, saying. I often respond in a respectful way. I say hey, dude, I appreciate you having the conversation. This is why, again, years ago I put up a post about owner builder homes and how we should get rid of them and all that sort of stuff. Then someone's saying he goes no, some people can't afford to employ a builder and this is the only option available to them and they still want to build their home and this and this and this, and they go through it. I'm like, hey, I totally get that. I appreciate that things are expensive, but you're not taking into consideration X, y, z, because this is going to be so much more expensive for you. There's a house four doors down from where I live. They've been building it for four years, owner builder. Now you take into consideration the time, loan repayments, price escalations in that period, the fact that you're renting probably somewhere else, you're not in your home, the stress, the quality is not going to be there, as if you used a proper builder, like a whole range of things come up. So do you reckon it's cheaper for a builder to build? Oh, if you get the right builder, yes, yeah, absolutely Cheaper. Absolutely, you'll get it done properly.
George:People don't understand how much compliance there is in construction. It's mental and you don't know what you don't know. How are you to know? You have to get this certificate before you do that stage, or you have to put this much concrete over this area to do this. You've got to get this test. They just don't know it and they're not supposed to because they're not in the profession. Then add the time to that.
George:Add the fact that all the trades are going to charge a premium as soon as they see owner-builder. It's not going to be. My plumber is going to give me a very different price to an owner-builder person Because he's going to say to me if he submits a price for $100,000 to do the home and I know it's a 40 grand job I'm like oi, what the fuck are you doing? Fix this and send me your proper price. He would never do that in the first place, but at least I know what things cost to build, whereas he's going to go to that owner builder and say, oh yeah, here's my plumbing price. It's a hundred grand. They're not going to know any better. They're like, oh okay, sign it off.
George:So this money that you think you're saving, you're actually not. You're paying a premium for trade. You're probably paying a premium for materials too, because I get better rates than what you do. You're going to take longer. You're probably going to fuck up along the way. That are going to cost your time and money. Uh, and the fact that we'll get it done in a period of six to twelve months. It's going to take you three to four years or two to four years. So overall, yes, I strongly believe that it'll be detrimental to you in the long run and it'll cost you more money.
George:And most people I speak to that have done owner builder projects. Most of them vow they'll never do it again. And also, most of these people I'd say 90% have a full-time job, so they're trying to do what I do as a profession every single day, have a full-time job and do that on the side. It's never going to work the way they think it is. They think they're saving money, but in the long run, the builder's generally not charging that much on top of labor and materials to affect or to be that detrimental in price A bit sideways there, but I've spoken about that topic in the past and you can see I've got some passion behind it. But people don't agree with that point of view. They will still now probably listen to this clip and go no, you're wrong, you're this, you're this, you're this. I'm like man, I've got 25 years of experience that says otherwise. But please tell me, mr Butcher, how you build your house better than me or another builder.
Robby:Yeah. So when I used to work in real estate, I used to tell people, if an agent charges you, they're like, are you going to charge 20 grand to sell this home? And I'm like, yeah, 20 grand is one question in a negotiation. Do you know what I mean? And you can take that gamble. You might make a mistake and lose a hundred grand because it's all minute, whereas I say with building it's kind of longer, there's no quick. What are you going to do with the timber? Right now? It doesn't matter. You know what I mean. You can work out stuff as you've got time to think about it, whereas in real estate it's all in the moment. Do you know what I mean? At an auction, an auction goes for minutes, yeah, you know. I mean yeah, um, they used to use that to that and be like man, it's like, it's a no-brainer, like we do this day in, day out. You make one mistake. It costs you 100k. Yeah, pay the 20, move on, make sure that you've got someone that has been in the space. Yeah, without a doubt.
George:Um, so I can kind of relate, but um, yeah, I don't know so what would you do if you get these negative comments and someone attacking you, not just?
Robby:me. I was, let's say, in a personal way, let's just go. I went and dished every single. I went and dished every single person but that's even funnier.
George:That's right back. Some of the stuff, though, is funny, like oh yeah, some people be like there.
Robby:Yeah, exactly, and you're like they're giving it to us.
George:This is the worst blah, blah.
Robby:It's like no, subscribe.
George:Yeah, like you should subscribe. You need this podcast. Yeah, you need it more than you think, but I'm talking. Let's just say, someone attacks you personally, like I did today, started this podcast. You're horrible at what you do. Don't like your face, oh no, don't like your car, it's um bad color choice, but why? Why do you? What would you do when someone says something like that to you, like, how do you? How is it water off a duck's back for you, or isn't it? Do you take it to heart?
Robby:um, look when. So okay. So, going back to that same example, when the first few comments came in, I laughed. And then, when they started pouring, like there's, there's 100 comments on that video, yeah, um. And when they started pouring in, I thought like have we done something wrong here? Like do you know what I mean?
Robby:and I had to re-watch the episode because I I never listened back to what we talk about yeah so I put it on and I watched like 10 minutes of it and I saw what we were talking and I'm like everyone here's taking this completely out of context. Yeah, like I'm sitting there screaming at the camera saying vote one for george. He's gonna run to think plastic straws are coming back. Yeah, like that was the conversation we're seriously, yeah, having a having a and then and there were some serious moments too, but majority of it-. What was the most serious thing? We bagged the party for their party.
George:That they no, I think the most serious thing was when we said our opinions are reflective of us but also a lot of people. I speak to a lot of people like oh, who are you going to vote for? I'm like, vote, I'm going to go in and just do a donkey vote, so I don't get my fine in the mail, just cross my name off. I know people who did that. So how is that different to what we were talking about? They just don't care enough to vote for anyone, or they think that they were really bad, both parties, that they couldn't get involved in it.
Robby:The question I I guess pose with that is what changed from that conversation. Now you know that's happened to everyone's mind, whatever. But what did you do? What are you doing different now? Or what did you intend to do different if the other party won? It's like you gotta do the same shit anyway. You can have the same coffee, same breakfast, same work, same everything, like that's my. Anyway, I'm taking it. Going back to the comments, comments thing um, when it flattered in through volume, I kind of looked back at it just to see like have we don't know, have we overstepped the boundary here? Like what's the? We actually look stupid.
George:And then when I launched the thing, like and I watched a bit of it, I'm like people are tripping um, we had similar response when we did an episode on welcome to country, and this is, before it's sort of recent.
Robby:Yeah, but that was.
George:People were more, they were in support of what we were saying the majority of people but there were still a few negative comments there like educate yourselves. You guys don't know what you're talking about. You know this, this, this. There was definitely things there. I find whenever you talk about more controversial, type topics or, you know, political religion. We weren't even saying you need to vote for the Sparks.
George:No, that's right, we were just having the conversation, but I'm finding, generally speaking, things that spark conversation are those types of topics. Okay, let's look at the other end of the spectrum. How do you feel when you get positive comments? Is it yes, I'm doing it right? Do you feel good? Do you get sucked into it Like the likes? Your, your emotional state shouldn't follow that of the likes and follows and comments on your social media?
Robby:It doesn't. I'm talking to the people, yeah, but I think no one doesn't like getting positive.
George:Yeah, that's right, Absolutely. And as much as I would see them and go, yeah, it's good to see those positive comments come through, but in the same token as well, you shouldn't let that feed you to do more content or or to feel good about yourself.
Robby:Yeah, cause I think that opens you up for the opposite Exactly right.
George:So as much as you hear, don't you blocking out the noise, the hate, you probably need to block out the praise to a degree as well. So, yeah, great Again, your opinion of me, based off what you've heard and what you've seen. I'm glad you liked it, appreciate it, but it's not going to affect my mood moving forward.
Robby:Yeah, and that's easier said than done, but it's uh, easier said than done, yeah, but it's, it's definitely the right way to handle it. Uh, I actually remember Chris Judd talking about that a long time ago, talking about when he was playing footy, and they're like you know, you hear all these people saying stuff about you and you when he was 21, 22,. They're like what did you think? And 1, 22. They're like what did you think? He's like I used to completely block out the media. He's like cause, if I let the good get me up, that bad's going to get me down. Yeah, he used to completely block out the media. I wouldn't hear any of it.
George:Yeah.
Robby:Yeah, A 100% yeah. And most people say, most people say don't look at the comments.
George:Yeah, but I get sucked in. Once you have millions of followers, I think it's going to get to that level where you don't even bother. He's like.
Robby:I'm going to read the comments. Let him talk, you know what I mean that's the thing.
George:You're going to get to that level like someone think about that, like someone like a Joe Rogan, someone like a Jordan Peterson or whoever it is, grant Cardone like there's people that love them, there's people that hate them, hate them, hate them, and it's like you're going to listen to both sides. You're going to be oh, happy, happy, sad, sad, sad, sad, happy, happy, happy, happy, sad, sad, sad. That's an emotional rollercoaster. It is, it is, and that's why you're going to have that disconnect from what you're doing on your platforms compared to what and who you are in real life, and only take I guess only take the comments or the feedback from trusted sources.
Robby:Yeah, yeah, that's right, yeah, that's right Turn to people that you know, and you should have a variant Like don't just listen to people that are going to tell you what you want to hear, which most of the people that generally care about you will, which I disagree with. But I just remembered something that I'm going to share with you right now as well. I don't know if you read it, but I think you do need to have some level of disconnect from the outcome, and it's like it's all like focus on the process, not the. You know. Go to the gym, not with the weight, just go to the gym, go do the workout. Stop focusing on the weight, go do the workout. This is the exact same thing. Go do the workout. This is the exact same thing.
Robby:Put out the content, or put out the thing, or whatever it is like. Build the brand, do the work. Don't worry about what people are saying as much. But to some degree, I also think there is a. It's good, like you want. You want to have someone read it, but not you Do you know what I mean? I think it's good to have someone look over it, because that's feedback.
George:Yeah, exactly right, exactly right.
Robby:Yeah, I mean, and now I'm like cool, like if we want to rattle some cages, I'm going to tell people who to vote for. Yeah, I mean, um, we worked out that, okay, cool, that's a very sensitive topic. There was obviously more people that cared about it than we thought.
George:Yeah, again, we didn't really care about politics, still don't care about it, exactly yeah. So, as you said, you're getting that aspect of it and it's yeah, you're getting that perspective from those people. When would you forget social media, for example? What if it's people speaking to you directly Like I don't like you, yeah. Or maybe saying, like um could be in an email, but um text messages yeah, you could get in a, a text message from someone that could also affect your mood. You could get um yeah, but even face to face, by saying you're wrong, you're this, you're this, you're whatever it might be, could even be from stage. You know, we, we speak on stages quite a bit. I'm yet to come across someone that's negative whilst on stage, but I'm sure it'll happen one day. And how I combat that? Like what sort of example? Oh, I don't know, maybe, yeah, exactly. Like this is a joke, you're a crook, whatever it might be, I don't know, who knows.
Robby:I don't reckon that would happen. You don't think so. I mean like they're going to sit there and try and heckle me from the ground. Yeah, I know what are you doing here. Most people are there. Why are you still?
George:sitting here.
Robby:Yeah, that's right, yeah, you can. Just most people are going there exactly and you can be like all you're doing is ruining everyone else's experience. Yeah, and then you could like, if you turn to the ground and be like who's learned something, puts their hand up and you just look at him and you're like you should leave.
George:Yeah.
Robby:Like you know what I mean? Security, security, get this guy out, get this guy out. I'll come and sit down, grab him and say let's get out of here, man yeah exactly, exactly.
George:I think that would be very.
Robby:yeah, I think you're right, I don't think that's ever going to happen, for those sorts not come in there to heckle or to do anything, and if they didn't like something, most people would just get up and leave. There hasn't been any real douchebags, like sometimes there's a person in the crowd that's a smartass.
George:Yeah, but even just challenging again like you've had it more so than what I have.
Robby:That's because people hate marketing.
George:Yeah, they'll say, oh, but I've spent 500 bucks on ads this month and it didn't work. Yeah, you know, and it's like well cool, do you put this much? Put this much sugar in your coffee and you're expecting it to be sweet Facebook ads.
Robby:Yeah, you spent $500. That'd be cool, I want one of those.
George:Yeah, can you get me one? I've spent enough money with it. Only if you my screen On the wall. But yeah, I don't know.
Robby:How else do you get it in person Like negative? It's all feedback at the end of the day, that's how I like to look at it and, yes, sometimes things are going to upset you.
George:Yeah, that's okay, that's okay.
Robby:I heard this thing. I was listening to a podcast the other day and Alex Hormozy and he talked about he goes. You're going to have days where some days are good and some days are bad. I thought this was a great framework for laying out you may have heard this and I thought it was a great framework for laying out days. And he goes. There's 365 days in a year. Yeah, some are going to be good and some are going to be bad. Do you agree? Absolutely, yeah, he's like. So. If you were to lay him out like top to bottom, like in chronological order from best to worst, he goes. You're going to have some bottom 10% days, he goes. Do you think you're going to enjoy your bottom Like? You expect to enjoy your bottom 10% days from the year? Like your worst 10%? Do you expect to enjoy them? No?
George:Okay.
Robby:He goes. 10% of the year is 36 days he goes. That's three days a month. That's almost one a week. He goes sometimes if you're having a shit day and something goes wrong, he goes. It's just a bottom 10% day. The upside is you're going to have a top 10% day three times a month as well. He goes. It can be 36 of those a year as well. So anytime shit's going wrong, something happens, like you know, when someone tries to hit you. Okay, you get a shit comment, you're having a bad day. You just don't feel right. It's just a bottom 10 day. You don't have to change anything, just keep moving forward. You probably feel better tomorrow, yeah, and I was like what a, what a framework, like what a perspective.
George:I don't think he's human yeah, it is, it's great, a great way to look at it. Yeah, it was just like, and you know, relatively young to have that level of consciousness and experience. Do you know what I mean?
Robby:Yeah, I think he's done a lot for his age yeah.
George:Yeah, he gives some solid advice, some real solid advice.
Robby:He gives great advice. You know what I mean. Some of the stuff he says. You just look at him and you're like. You're like a 70-year-old in a 35-year-old plane. Yeah, yeah, Like this guy's lived. You know what I mean. He's got a lot of experience for someone his age. Yeah, absolutely he does.
George:Yeah, very good. Do you know what would really upset me though? Someone left a bad comment on this video no, no, that wouldn't upset me. Where I would get really upset and be devastated, like to the point where I might cry might cry on camera is if people watch this whole episode and didn't subscribe or listen to it. That's probably what would really upset me. If you want to see me cry on the podcast, just do that. Do that.
Robby:I feel like you're enticing people to not subscribe. But if you want to see me happy, if you want to see me, cry with happiness, tears of joy, subscribe.
George:Top right hand corner. Press the red button. Just do some magical shit subscribe and listen, and that way we can give you all the great things, all the great comments, all the great conversations that we have over the years and weeks, and you won't miss a thing because you'll be subscribed and you'll know when we drop a new episode, which is every Monday. Every Monday we drop them. Now it's been that for a while.
Robby:Haven't missed the beat yet had a few people messaging me and they're like didn't you change days? How funny Months ago. Yeah.
George:That's that. That is that. So I would still encourage everyone to be building a personal brand. If you're in business, even if you're not you never know where things can take you. You could just be expressing your joy for peanut butter and become the face of peanut butter worldwide. Who knows?
Robby:Who knows why, wouldn't you? Hey, I want to wrap up with this. I want to share something that I shared with you. I don't know if you read it or not.
George:Oh, was that that in black? Yeah, that one.
Robby:Yeah, did you read?
George:it. Yeah, I did. I read the whole thing and I was going to respond back to you so you could laugh. I forgot to. I had to zoom in To read it. To read it I was going to because I can't see shit. So I was going to be like fuck this guy sends me microscopic text and I actually zoomed in and read the whole thing. Three pages.
Robby:Anyway, shout out to Dan Martell, who shared this. So if you don't follow Dan Martell, you should, I do now. He's a really cool dude. Wrote a book called Buy Back your Time.
George:Yes, I have heard that book, great book. Yeah, you've read it. No, I heard of it. I haven't read it. I'll get it.
Robby:Yeah, was it? Yeah, mike away and I shared him and he's like ah, anyway, really really good book. Um, super practical, just tools, no fluff. No, I'm gonna hype you up like just, this is how you create playbooks, this is how you manage your time, this is how you do, this is how you do that great book. Yeah, highly recommend um. And he shared a post. When was this? A couple days ago, so by the time you hear this, it'll be maybe four or five days ago, and he sent an email from the CEO of Fiverr. So Fiverr is a online platform. Most people have used Fiverr before you reckon.
George:I think so A lot of people have Just go on there. It's the concept you just pay five bucks and you get this thing done for you.
Robby:Yeah, it's basically a freelance platform that you can go and find people to do. You know, graphics, design, particular things for you, logos yeah, anything online. And the Fiverr CEO sent this email and I'm going to read it to you because I think it matters and I think the timing of this is, even though what we spoke about is nothing related to this. I just think I want to share this with everyone because I think it really matters and I think, if this gets through to one person yeah, it'll be worth it.
George:It'll be worth it. It's opened my eyes up, like last week when we had-. This is what I was saying to you Last week, man, last week, when you mentioned this shit to me. I've been thinking about it almost daily Most daily.
Robby:All right, so his name is Mika Kaufman. Kaufman, some European dude.
Robby:Anyway, ceo of Fiverr, and he sends this email to his whole team and he says hey, team. I've always believed in radical candor, which is feedback Right, and this is what reminded me of it when we're talking about feedback and despise those who sugarcoat reality to avoid stating the unpleasant truth. The very basis of radical candor is care. You care enough about your friends or your colleagues to tell them the truth, because you want them to be able to understand it, grow and succeed. So here's the unpleasant truth AI is coming for your jobs. Heck, it's coming for my job too.
Robby:This is a wake-up call. It does not matter if you're a programmer, designer, product manager, data scientist, lawyer, customer support rep, salesperson or finance person. Ai is coming for you. You must understand that what was once considered easy tasks will no longer exist. What was once considered hard tasks will be the new easy and what was once considered impossible will be the new hard. If you do not become an exceptional talent at what you do, a master, you will face the need for a career change in a matter of months. This is now he's talking about. I'm not trying to scare you. I'm not talking about your job at Fiverr. I'm talking about your ability to stay in a profession. Are we all doomed? Not all of us, but those who will not wake up and understand the new reality fast are, unfortunately, doomed. So what can we do? First of all, take a moment and let this sink in. Drink a glass of water. Scream hard in front of a mirror, if it helps you. Now relax. Panic hasn't solved problems for anyone. Let's talk about what would help you become an exceptional talent in your field.
Robby:One study Become a master of the latest AI solutions in your field. Try multiple solutions and figure out what gives you superpowers. By superpowers, I mean the ability to generate more outcomes per unit of time with better quality delivery, programmers, code, customer support, tickets, lawyers, contracts, et cetera. Find the most knowledgeable people on your team who can help you become more familiar with the latest and greatest in AI. Time is the most valuable asset we have. If you're working like it's 2024, you're doing it wrong. You're expected and needed to do more, faster and more efficiently right now. Become a prompt engineer. Google is dead. Llm and Gen AI are the new basics and if you're not using them as experts, your value will decrease before you know it. Get involved in making the organization more efficient using AI tools and technologies. Very true meeting Instead. Pitch your ideas proactively. Stop waiting for the world or your place of work to hand you opportunities to learn and grow. Create these opportunities yourself. I vow to help anyone who wants to help themselves.
Robby:If you don't like what I wrote, if you think I'm full of shit or just an asshole who's trying to scare you, be my guest and disregard this message. I love all of you and I wish you nothing but good things, but I honestly don't think that a promising, that promising a professional sorry, I honestly don't think that a promising professional future awaits you if you disregard reality. If, on the other hand, you understand deep inside, I'm on, I'm right and want all of us to be on the winning side of history. Join me in a conversation about where we go from here, as a company, as and as individual professionals. We have a magnificent company and a bright future ahead of us. We just need to wake up and understand that it won't be pretty or easy. It will be hard and demanding, but it'll be well damn worth it.
Robby:This message is food for thought. I've asked Charlie to free up time on my calendar in the next few weeks To those of you who wish to sit with me and discuss your future, we can do so. I look forward to sitting with you. Yeah, pretty cool Dude. I read that and I was like this is. And I've been pushing this now more than ever with everyone and I'm like, hey, this is now like. This is not. You know the whole thing about. We don't know how we're going to get disrupted. Yeah, now we know. Yeah, now we know. We can see it like it's there.
George:It's now. Yeah, we touched on this last episode. I think we've got a deep dive on it. Definitely We'll do the next episode about this. Yeah, I really, I really reckon that's a great lead into the next episode for sure. So be sure to tune in, guys, because it's going to be a sick conversation and Robbie's a lot more educated in this space than what I am.
George:However, I am looking at it more often now and educating myself and doing it at nighttime and watching YouTube and a whole range of things to get to that level where I go. Okay, that one of my favorite line there was it's like what? Like we're not. You should look within before you go out to hire people. What you can be doing better and more efficient now, because the tools are there and resources are there for you to do so. Yeah, and that's a massive thing.
Robby:And I think everyone else should start to take this seriously. I think people are sleeping. I put up a story the other day saying who's using AI agents in their business, and almost no one is. And there was people that said, like what the fuck's an AI agent?
George:Yeah, oh man, honestly hand up.
Robby:I didn't know last week. That's okay not to know. It's not okay to keep not knowing. You know what I mean. You need to. If you knew what social media was going to be 20 years ago, what would you do different? Exactly this is that, but bigger.
George:Awesome Guys. Thank you so much for listening, appreciate you, as always, and spending your time with us morning, day or night. One thing I do want to leave you with is just be positive. Be positive, be happy, share love. Go out there and put some positive vibes on people's content that are giving it a crack and having a go. And if you are that negative person, look within. Do you need to be?
Robby:And this whole episode was recorded with ai. All right, thanks everybody.
George:Peace out guys, thank you that was a good episode and need to go for another piss.
