The Polocrosse Plumber: Balancing Pipes and Ponies

Ange
These guys are such a beautiful young couple and a true testament to what it means to work smart and build a business and life you love. With John’s unique career as an elite sportsman, Emily’s expertise as an accountant and their desire to grow a family, they’ve combined their skills to create the type of business many tradies dream of.

Andy
So if this sounds like the type of business you want to build for yourself, then stay tuned.  You’re listening to The Tradie Show. This is the podcast for trade business and contracting bosses like you who want to lead with confidence, make more profit and create a better lifestyle. 

Ange
We’re your hosts, Andy and Angela Smith, husband and wife team and co-founders of Lifestyle Tradie. Are you ready to have some fun? 

Andy
Hell yeah!  Remember the dream you had when you first started your trade business, the freedom, the profits, the extra time to maybe cast a line or ride on the open road. But now you’re tangled in the back end mess of business, missing out on life’s good bits. I’ve been there and it’s rough. Listen, let’s hash this out together. Find the snags in your business and sort them out once and for all. I’m talking a real strategy built from blood, sweat, and plenty of swear words of experience. Book a free chat with me at lifestyletradie.com.au. It’s about time you reclaimed your dream.  

Ange
John and Emily, thanks so much for coming on the show today. It’s so great to have you with us. 

John
Great to be here. Thank you. 

Andy
You guys are absolute superstars. We love you. Your story is incredible and I know you’re going to, this is going to be such a successful podcast. So a big welcome. I know you guys are sweltering up there in Queensland. 

John
Yeah. Absolutely. Good to be in the office for an hour. That’s for sure.

Andy
So to set the scene a bit, can you tell us a bit more about your business, what you do? You know, how long you’ve been operating for and what your team looks like? 

John
Yeah, we’re a plumbing and gas business, uh, Franklin Plumbing and Gas. We’ve got a team of seven plumbers on the road, including six trucks. And two full time office admin, including Emily. Part time at the moment while she gets back into it after having our baby daughter. 

Andy
Oh, very nice. 

John
Yep. We started at the back end of 2017. My first project was subcontracting Fly In, Fly Out, which got us started. And then I Came back and yeah, got into it.

Andy
Perfect. 

Ange
So I’d love to take you right back to the beginning because it really is an interesting story on how you set your business up to work around your passion, John. So for the record, John, you’re a champion Polocrosse player for Queensland and the captain of the Gold Coast team, which is unbelievable. How did you balance building your business with your demanding sports schedule? And might I add for those of you who don’t know what Polocrosse is, you might want to elaborate a little bit about that. 

John
Yeah, it makes me cringe about the early days of trying to start the business and still trying to play the sport I love and I’m passionate about, but, um, basically when we first started, I was doing a lot of, yeah, overtime, obviously, which was eating into the time I required for my sport. It’s generally about an hour each morning, getting up and feeding the horses, rubbing the horses, and then a minimum of two hours, preferably of an afternoon to feed and rug and obviously train as well. As well as generally it could take up to six hours to travel to each carnival of a full weekend of Saturday, Sunday tournaments. So we like to get out there at a decent hour on Friday to sort of get set up and get my mind into action to play the best I possibly could. However, it was quite hard when I was trying to set up a full time business and not knock off till four o’clock on a Friday afternoon with six hours ahead of me. So it was quite hard to get my head in the right frame of mind for both the Polocrosse being competitive and also working. 

Andy
So what is Polocrosse? And I know you’re a member of the Queensland team. I actually heard there at one stage, I thought you were a member of the Australian team. Pretty much talk about Polocrosse and tell me Yeah, where are you at at the moment?

John
Yeah, so Polocrosse is basically a cross between polo, which a lot of people know and lacrosse. Yeah. It’s a bit of an extreme sport and also we’ve got a few tournaments coming up, which I’m in the Queensland side for. My club is the Gold Coast Polocrosse Club, which I’m the club captain for and generally the captain of the first grade side. 

Ange
Yeah. How many in your team? 

John
So there’s six in a team, on, and six horses, and you play checkers with three in each chucker. You change every eight minutes against three others, and there’s specific positions. I’m normally number one. So that scores the goals. Which is a goal scorer.

Ange
Yeah. Take all the glory. 

John
Yeah, that’s it. It is. It is the glory hunter position. Yes. 

Andy
You do like soccer stars and take your shirt off and put it over your head and all this kind of stuff. 

Ange
While he’s riding. 

John
Maybe when you win the tournament at the end, yeah, but not like, imagine doing that every goal you can, you can shoot like nearly 20, 30 goals at a time. So that’s a lot of shirts taking off.  

Ange
So if it’s a team sport, John, do you actually have to get together to do training?

Emily
Uh, sometimes you practice like we go out to John’s parents live down the road. So we go out there on a weekend and have a throw around. You don’t usually get to train with your team. It’s more so like on a weekend, there’s selectors that select who’s playing with who and then you go out and you play with who you get put with. But with the Queensland and the Australian side, it’s a lot different. Like they organize training days and things like that. So it’s basically like horses chasing each other and there’s a ball and One team wants the ball, the other team wants to get the ball. So it’s pretty intense because it’s on horses. 

Andy
And Emily, you love horses and you do Polocrosse as well. So it’s a full on family affair and you’ve ridden your whole life as well. And I think it’s how you guys met. Is that right? 

Emily
Uh, we met along the great vine of, um, I came from a different, I came from camp drafting, which is more cattle side of things. And then a family friend knew John and yeah, we kind of just had met. 

John
Had some common, 

Emily
Things in common.  And then, yeah, obviously it was hard to go and watch John play and not be involved. I don’t think there’s many sports where you can actually say, Oh, this weekend I went and played a sport with my sister and my dad, or actually got to play on the same side as my partner and my children. So, you know, like families can play together and like everyone is a community wherever you go. So everyone knows everyone and everyone is there for everyone as well. 

John
There’s actually circumstances where grandparents have played with their grandchildren. 

Ange
Oh wow, that’s amazing. 

Andy
Just explain that just very quickly. But I thought you’re hanging off the side of a horse, picking a ball up, then you’re throwing it. So it’s full on. 

Ange
Pretty much. 

John
Yeah, there’s a big thing going on. It’s all, it’s all safe and well, there’s rules and regulations, obviously. Horse welfare is very important. Yes. It’s all about keeping the horse safe. But, um, yeah, for instance, my father is 60 and he is still very competitive and can still play top grade. I really enjoy playing with him as much as we possibly can when we get the opportunity. Yeah. And I have aspirations to one day play with my kids and my daughter, additively and yeah, 

Andy
It’s amazing what you’ve done and I’ve just got to go back to when you said when you first started setting your business up and and trying to that load and and obviously finishing at four o’clock then driving six hours then having a quick sleep then getting up early and setting up for a weekend of fun then driving home like mate what a absolute nightmare. I know it’s tough, but if you want to have a business and be elite in any way, shape or form, it’s tough. And just being a trade business owner is tough. So hats off to you about that. I just want to talk about this Australian thing again. Tell me, are you in the Australian team? 

John
No, not so much in an Australian team as of yet. I’ve made it into the squad, which is obviously picked from about, I think, 20 people throughout Australia. 

Andy
So you’re in the Australian squad, not Australian team, is it? 

John
Yep. That’s great. And, um, there is a World Cup coming up this year, that team has been selected, but anything could happen and there is potential and I, yeah, I could potentially move in there one day.

Ange
Absolutely, anything could happen. 

John
Plus quite a few test series are coming up in the near future, which hopefully I can try and work my way into.

Ange
What fantastic aspirations to ensure that you stay as a family involved in a sport that is so inclusive of everybody, which just sounds unbelievable. Not to mention having the horses on your land. So, you know, they really are a part of the family, aren’t they? 

John
They’re really good lawnmowers anyway. 

Ange
Oh, that’s good. 

Emily
They’re expensive lawnmowers. 

Ange
Yes,  they certainly are. I’d be really interested to know from your perspective, John, how you think being an elite sports person perhaps has influenced your approach to business?

John
Yeah, I think they actually work hand in hand with each other. My sporting ability has grown from when my business has grown and vice versa. My business has grown from my sporting ability in a way. I’m obviously very competitive in both scenes. 

Andy
Yes, you are. 

Ange
So is Emily. 

John
Yeah. Oh yeah, sure is. Which I love sometimes. I sort of like to think that you, you should be running your business, like training an athlete as such, you’ve got to have continuous training and learning, implementing new systems and just keep on improving and growing. Yeah. Continue it forever. 

Emily
But I think what has helped is like being a part of Lifestyle Tradie Group has given us a guide in the sense of, you know, it’s given us the tools that we can use. So that’s like saying, you know, you’ve got a coach of a sporting team, so you’ve got a coach of someone in the business aspect, which I, and I think that’s brought the focus in as well as I think I, the work life balance from, you know, yes, we dedicate a lot of time to go to Polocrosse, but for me personally, I see it as John’s kind of removing himself from the business. He’s actually got to focus on something else because he can’t go out and think about business while he’s trying to make teams or throw goals or think and focus on a horse as well. So I think it’s a good switch off, but definitely like we could transport and not have to drive. That would be great. 

Andy
Yeah, exactly. And I think you hit the nail on the head there. I think all elite people have a coach and they have a plan and they have someone to guide them, and that’s what Lifestyle Tradie helps. There’s a lot of stuff in Lifestyle Tradie. Yeah. You can say to yourself, yeah, I’ve heard that. I’ve seen that, but it just never, ever gets done. Well, we can say to you, this is what you need to do now and stay on track. And that’s what a good coach does in any sport, any business. So, great that you mentioned that, Emily.

Emily
I think, and it’s also the versatility, like when we go to the conferences, you know, we are getting to listen to people that we wouldn’t have even thought of. Yeah. So it’s even thinking about things like the coaches bringing something to light where you’re like, Oh, actually that’s something I need to work on.

Andy
Exactly. 

Emily
So I think that also plays a massive role. 

Ange
It also sounds like you’re incredibly time poor to a certain degree. And that’s what I love about the fact that you guys are such executors that, you know, you want to make change. So you can actually go down that route quite quickly because you just know, I just need to learn from people who have done this before. It’s like a Polocrosse. Learn from your coach, execute something new, uh, you’ve always got to stay upskilled. So, Emily, you are an accountant, or that’s your kind of background, I suppose, before joining the business. How did your skills influence perhaps setting up the business, especially in these initial stages, and how has your role now evolved over the years?

Emily
Um, look, it was like I was working in the, I’ve always worked in the construction side of accounting and then, you know, meeting John and everything. And I saw how dedicated he was in his profession as a plumber and a gas fitter. And he kept on saying one day I’m in my own business. And it was kind of well, why don’t you actually do it? Yeah, so I just set everything up and said, let’s just give it a run and it’s already, it’s there ready to go. But I guess the potential I saw in John, because he is so driven and I think a person like that, you know, you can’t just let them do that nine to five because you can actually see they’ve got a lot more to give. And I think that there’s different sorts of, some people are really happy to work in a big organization like I was. And then you see John, you’re like, Oh, you can actually do so much more. So I guess I just saw what John could one day be. And now I just don’t even, I mean, I am proud as well as also like blown away as to how far John has come, especially ever since having Isabella, you know, I had stopped working and I came into the business and then I was pregnant and, you know, now having that break and then getting myself to come back in now, I’m just blown away with how much growth has happened. And, you know, I hear John having conversations and I kind of have to check. Is that actually John having those conversations? You know, like he just sounds so professional as well as so mature and growing into this completely different person. 

Andy
And I think just as a business owner, you’re always growing, but this is this thing that when you’re hanging around the smartest tradies in Australia and they’re becoming your best mates and you’re on the phone every second, you know, you’re chatting to each other, you’re catching up events, you’re bouncing off each other that it all, it all wears off, right? It’s like being an elite athlete. You’re hanging around with the best Polocrosse people, you grow to be one of the best Polocrosse people. It’s like a trade business. You hang around with the best tradies in Australia, you become yourself the best tradie in Australia because everyone’s going in the same direction.

John
Yeah, that’s exactly right. And those people who are willing to give out the information, want to see you succeed with them and be at the top with them. All the time. Both Polar cross and business, of course. 

Andy
Isn’t it funny how you can see tradies out there, and I know you know them everyone does, and they’re mates, but they look at say, a Lifestyle Tradie or getting a coach, ah, I don’t need this. I don’t know that. And you look at ’em and you go, you are the perfect person for this because you’ve got no idea.  But they play this game of I know everything, and they just get left behind.  

John
Yep. That’s exactly right. There are people who are uncoachable, of course. 

Andy
Yes, there definitely is.

John
We’ve all seen it. Yep. But I still try to help everyone at Polocrosse and also at Lifestyle Tradie and most people take it on board and really appreciate it. That’s for sure. 

Emily
Polocrosse probably tends to tune out to John because we usually don’t talk to each other because we’re both so competitive.  

Andy
You’re on the other team, Baddie. I’m not talking to you. 

Emily
What I’ll say is like, do you know what you did wrong? No, I don’t really want to know what I did wrong, but it went on, so. 

Andy
That’s like Ange and I snowboarding. Like, there’s no way I can give her tips. I’ve got no idea. 

Ange
No, he just loses his shit at me instead. I’m like, can you,  oh, I’m not going to learn unless you do it anyway. It does crack me up. So, I do want to touch on working together as a husband and wife because we know that this is a really common trend in trade. What is the most challenging part about this for both of you working together? 

John
Oh, just, uh, definitely that work life balance, not taking the work home with us, I guess. And obviously we’ve got a young daughter who we want to spend as much personal time together. So definitely that work life balance is hard, but we’re absolutely managing now better than we ever would had we not have started Lifestyle Tradie. 

Emily
Yeah. I think it is being around so many people that are in a similar situation, like yourselves as well but it’s more so like minded people and, you know, we’re like, we get information from everyone else. Like, I can message about 12 people with, from Lifestyle Tradie, all the women I can message if I need a hand or, you know, it’s, it’s things like that where I don’t think if we weren’t a part of it, we wouldn’t know about that we’re not alone. Yeah. I guess. 

Andy
Yeah, agreed. 

Emily
So I think for each of us to have individual support. This has helped dramatically and also talking to each other. 

Andy
Yeah. A hundred percent. I also think too, like we’re over in Fiji with over 300 people, right? And when we do that planning and exercise, when you’re working together and you both have the same plan, then you both know what you’re doing. And it’s the old story, if you want something done, you ask a busy person and the people that are the busiest are the ones that just seem to get the f*cking thing done. And that’s, isn’t that true, right? Like there’s so many people out there, they go, I’m so busy and you go, well, what are you doing? Eh, they’re doing nothing. 

John
Yeah, no, we’ve found since that, that Fiji, believe it or not, since aligning our goals together, we have really come together more than ever and it’s great. We don’t niggle as much. We know our direction and where we want to get to and we want to do it together obviously and we probably never really did because we didn’t have the same values and we weren’t heading the same directions. But now that we’ve aligned, we’re just going up together, which is great.

Emily
I think the biggest thing we would love to do again is actually, you know, maybe even throughout the year, do this again together. 

Andy
My life by design it was, wasn’t it?

Emily
Yeah. Yeah. And it’s something that, you know, John and I have just recently had a conversation like we both actually need to review it and sit back down together and potentially redo it again, but do one joint as well. Because it was such an interesting part. And that’s what our chats have been lately. Where are we going? What are our goals? We haven’t actually come together again yet. So that trip to Fiji and, and those tasks that you, you don’t think will make a difference, but they really have. 

Andy
Yeah. And some of our best businesses, you know, we’ve done these my life by design and we help them understand where both want to go and you connect together. But it helps you predict where you’re going to be in business and where you’re striving to be. But then it also predicts what property you want to own, what wealth management you want, and it goes to a whole nother level. So that’s great. We love that in Fiji and everyone’s raving about it. But what is one piece of advice that you’d give to other couples that are working with their partner out there?

John
I guess communication is key. Just to be open and honest with each other. Like we just said, we do have aligning goals, but of course, we both have individual goals that don’t associate with each other, which is great. So you need to support each other’s goals. 

Emily
As well as actually talking about them, you know, like recently it came out, we both realised we’d actually never had the conversation of what are our personal, individual goals. Like, you know, we hadn’t actually had that conversation. And since having it, we both have been a lot different towards each other. And it was just a simple form of talking that you don’t think about because life gets away, Johnny’s busy. We’ve got a baby. You know, and then we actually are sitting down together talking.

Andy
Yeah. No, a hundred percent, a hundred percent. So I’m going to dive into numbers. I know you love numbers, Emily, being an accountant, but since working with Lifestyle Tradie, your numbers have changed quite a bit. And you mentioned it earlier, you’ve had a lot of growth and your revenue has doubled and your profits are extremely impressive. I won’t mention them here, but can you share what you’ve done to get there? 

John
Yeah. Yeah. No, we’re, we’re going at the moment really well. As you said, our revenue doubled. Especially during that COVID period, which was unexpected at the beginning of it. No one knew what was going to happen. We had a rapid scale, which was pretty full on at the time. We didn’t know we had everything going everywhere. Luckily, we obviously were in Lifestyle Tradie, and we were able to get on top of our numbers and work out. The direction we needed to go in, I think, uh, the biggest thing was, and simple was the hourly rate calculator, working out our hourly rates, what we need to charge out. Obviously, when we first did it, we absolutely sh*t ourselves.  

Andy
Like everyone. 

John
I like everyone, absolutely. However, like now I look back at it and just can’t believe we haven’t been charging out hourly rates and, and whatnot. And definitely the break even exercise was very important. Yeah. 

Emily
And just knowing that we could actually dial back and look at the numbers, you know, we were cranking up the revenue and you know, we had 80 percent revenue and then all of a sudden we’re losing over 60 percent because we weren’t charging out all our materials and what our worth was so it was actually having to look at those numbers and go, wow, like, what have we been doing? Because it’s so funny, like recently the money, you know, everyone’s tightened up, you know, everyone went through the whole splurge period, but now everyone’s restricting themselves again. And doesn’t want to spend money. So it really pays to know what you’re worth when you’re going out onto site, you know, because John’s time is costly. So he’s going out to the site and then the client doesn’t want to pay a quote or something like that. So it’s actually going, well, no, we still have to pay for that time. So it’s working out those numbers and also trying to get the best out of our boys as well saying, well, you know what, there’s places where you guys are excellent, but there’s places where you’re not.

Ange
Yeah. And the fact that, you know, that you two have a heads up just for the fact that you have already a finance background, Emily, like that definitely helps because you’re interested in the subject, right? So although we’ll, you know, in Lifestyle Tradie, we obviously highlight how important finance is for a trade business owner to be on top of their numbers, but you’re conscious, even more conscious than the average trade business owner, which is really, really good. And to be able to nip pick down to each of your tradies so that they understand the impact they have on your business because some of your driving times between jobs aren’t short. So, you know, there’s lots of considerations that you have to have because of where you’re based. 

John
Yeah. It’s made a massive difference, obviously showing data to our tradesmen about productivity, billable hours, markups. A lot of people shy away from it. Obviously they think that you’re basically showing them how to run a business. Yeah. Obviously, which potentially yes, but at the same time, they need to know and their productivity since showing them their data has gone skyrocket. 

Ange
Isn’t that interesting? 

Andy
Yeah. And the part of Lifestyle Tradie, we always say, and I’ve always done that in Dr. Drip is you show everyone what the hell’s going on. But most people are like, Oh my God, they’re going to see how much I make. And they’re going to understand what’s going on. Then they’re going to go out on their own. They’re all scared. And most trade business owners are doing that all wrong.

Emily
Yeah. And I think, I think the thing is, is it’s Also, you know, one of the questions that John and I had recently was, you know, we’re looking at billable hours versus what they’ve got in their timesheets and, you know, three hours versus an eight and a half hour to 11 hour timesheet. And John was like, well, I would have to do that work though. I would have to sit there and do the invoicing and, and all of that work. So that would add, you know, another four hours to my day. So in that sense, it’s worth those sorts of things. So it’s just weighing up what’s worth and what’s not. And also, I mean, if you don’t invest in people, you get nothing out of them. And you know, like people are tradesmen and some people don’t want to work for, they don’t want to run their own business, but they want to know and they enjoy doing it. And I think the trade shouldn’t be limited to just walking and working on the tools.  I also think they need stimulation, you know, thinking about what they’re actually doing and actually looking at a job and quoting it and knowing the numbers themselves as well. And why not guide them? Because it saves us doing it.

Andy
I think the old school way of running a trade business was getting guys in, hitting them with a stick, treating them pretty rough, you know, but Go, go, go, go. Everything was go, go, go, get it done as fast as you can. But you realize now that’s not the way to get the best out of tradies and no one used to train their tradies. Now obviously at Lifestyle Tradie, that’s what it’s all about, getting the best out of everyone in your business, paying them really good money, but getting a great return out of it. So I love it. What you guys have obviously done. 

Ange
Well, I love the fact that you’ve touched on the fact that you’re open to developing all of your team because at the end of the day, like you said, it just means that they’re going to improve. And subconsciously they’re saying to themselves, oh my gosh! John and Emily actually care about me as a human. They care about my development, they care about my future. I’m gonna stay here forever. And that’s the thought process we all want, right? So you’ve also improved, I know your quote winning rate, like your conversion rate, I’ve heard from 50% to a whopping 80%. That is incredible. Yes, I’d love to know what you’ve been doing differently to see this fabulous result. 

John
Yeah, it’s as simple as following up your quotes, communication back and forward to the client is the key. What’s the point of going out and doing a quote if you do not want to win it?

Ange
It’s interesting, that sentence, isn’t it?  

John
Even if a client says no, until they’ve told you that the job’s been done by someone else, it doesn’t mean no. No, generally nine times out of ten actually means maybe. 

Andy
Yeah. And I, and I think that’s amazing. And that quote flow conversion that we teach everyone and we make sure we do, it’s changing the tradies world. Like there’s like 25 to 30 percent of extra work out there without paying marketing costs are sitting on your doorstep. And most aren’t even tapping into it, which is absolutely crazy. Another thing you guys are really good at and obviously communication skills, we’ve talked about a lot, but networking in your local community. Can you tell us how that’s really helped impact your business? 

John
Yeah, we love working in our local community and being a part of it. We’ve sponsored a couple of local teams and the local high school, which has made a massive impact on our business, obviously networking throughout it. 

Emily
But it’s also saying that, you know, we’re actually doing something, you know, we’re not just getting the jobs, which is also great, but we’re actually being a part of something, you know, we get photos of our logo on the kids sports uniform, you know, and seeing that out in the community, knowing that we’ve actually contributed to something as well as being a part of another bigger family and offering our services as well as, you know, helping people who You wouldn’t even think twice about usually, you know, when we first initially discussed doing a sponsorship, you know, it was a significant amount of money. And we’re just like, Oh, do we, you know, we could spend it on this, but it’s helped us, I think also professionally develop as well and become more of a community business, not just a standalone business. Cause there’s a lot of large companies across this area that obviously we’re in competition with, but you always see them not involving themselves in the little things. I think being that different person because I think that’s the type of person Johnny is as well, you know, showing that we’re not just a business for that profit and loss. We’re actually part, we want to be a part of your life and we are good people. 

Ange
I think this is a really good reflection of your values actually, to be fair. 

Emily
Hopefully. 

Andy
Yeah, definitely. But the one thing I’ll have to say, because obviously I talk to every trade, like I’ve talked to so many trade businesses around Australia, you look at some of these big guys and they look so big, but sometimes they’re less profitable than the small guys, and I know that a lot of these big, not all the businesses, but a lot of these big guys are less profitable than the smaller tradies that we’ve got in Lifestyle Trade, you know? So, and we’ve got some big guys doing well over 10 mil as well, but it’s just really interesting because they just don’t count on that nitty gritty and get their numbers right. 

Ange
So I want to step in and say a huge congratulations to you both on all of your business awards. A standout these past few months was winning the Master Plumber’s Business Person of the Year for you, John, which is, yes, he had his very model face on the front cover of the latest  magazine, which is no small feat. So I’d love to know your thoughts about how this recognition has perhaps impacted your business. How do you feel about your award, John?  

John
Yeah, it was great to see my face on that cover. It was a bit of a surprise and you can only imagine that my mates mostly drew on that and sent me photos. 

Andy
I reckon there’d be a few, there’d be a few pictures probably around that too.

John
There were one or two, yeah. Nah, it was great to be recognised obviously for the hard work that I put into my business, the other awards that we won obviously recognized our team and how great our team is and they love being a part of it too. They were very proud of the business themselves, which is great. Since winning that award, obviously it’s put us into the spotlight, especially throughout the local community that we are an award winning business. People win awards for certain reasons and it has had a huge impact on our clients choosing us over others  because they want to have award winning business work on their property and for them.

Emily
And I think it also, you know, one of the biggest things is like all the dedication and hard work because obviously I’ve stepped out of the business since having Isabella. And then knowing how hard John’s working, it was such a good moment for us mentally to go, it’s all been worth it. You know, because we’re not saying we’re happy 24/7 or everything’s working. We have ups and downs like everyone else. And, you know, sometimes John comes in and why am I doing this? Yeah. And that was the reason, you know, that recognition. And I think personally, one of the best things for me was that night, you know, we saw multiple Lifestyle Tradie members. We’re all nominated for the same award and we’re all supporting each other. And then when John won it, we got messages from all of them and it was, you know, like photos with them. And just, it was the atmosphere of like, we had people like, like going for us, you know, where someone was, you’re like, Oh, you know, no one knows who’s being nominated. And then when you see a life, you look at the magazine, you’re like, there’s Damo, there’s Jason, there’s, you know, and it’s like, which one of us are going to win, but we don’t care as long as it’s one of us.

Andy
Yeah. And that’s the beautiful thing about Lifestyle Tradie. We are one big happy family, but talking about a big happy family. I love your team. I’ve been seeing you a lot on social media. You know, you’ve had some pretty funny clips there. Anything from wrangling snakes and feeding magpies.  You know, you’ve got all this kind of stuff, but is this something you’re focusing on a lot more this year? The socials? 

John
Yeah. It’s amazing. You can put a post up about a massive plumbing project and you get a lot of praise and that’s the demographic we get obviously leads from, from that. But then all of a sudden you go and put something out with humor and you just, your inbox blows up. People love it. 

Emily
And that’s been a real good thing, especially with the boys, you know, we all know everyone’s on their phones these days and we said, if you guys get us a good video. He’s like, we’ll throw 20 in, you know, extra and give them an incentive of, because it’s, it’s free marketing for us as well as it shows, it gives people an insight to our business. And that’s something that our office manager Jay has been really trying to get one video at least a week. And it’s also entertaining to see the different things, you know, like the snakes and the magpies. And there’s always people out there that would rather pay attention to the animal than anything else. So it’s been really good and it’s fun to watch as well. Some of them are actually fun to watch, probably not the plumbers cracks, but, 

Andy
You know, I’ve seen a few of those as well. So you guys look real.

Ange
That’s what’s cool. You look real. 

Andy
Yeah, exactly. And, um, we’ve got a segment here and we’re going to be asking three rapid fire questions. You have around about 10 seconds or so to answer that. Are you ready? 

John
Yeah, absolutely. Let’s go. 

Ange
Okay, here we go. John, let’s start with you. What’s one strategy you use to start your day right?

John
I love to get it straight up, straight into the office and just get rid of those nitty gritty little jobs that you have to do obviously to get your day started. And I get up early. I’m part of the 5am club, I guess you’d say. My phone doesn’t ring and I get all that work done that needs to get done before I can go out and start my day.

Ange
Get some wins early. 

Andy
Hmm. Yeah. I love that. I love the fact that you’re pretty much going out there feeding the horses. 

John
And we’ve got chickens  too.  

Andy
But Emily, um, what is something that has made you smile recently?

Emily
Uh, well, nine times out of 10, it’s probably Isabella. She’s at that stage where she’s turning into us and it’s quite scary because she’s probably more stubborn than us. And you know, you tell her no and she laughs and continues to do it. 

Ange
And you let her get away with it. 

Emily
We’re in that stage of, have we created a monster?  

Andy
And how old is she now? 

Emily
Uh, 10 months. 

Andy
Yeah, wow. 

John
Yeah, 10 months. 

Andy
Yeah, you have created a monster. I’m just going to say that right now. 

Ange
No, she’s  beautiful. 

Emily
And very stubborn. Very stubborn. 

Ange
Mm, wonder where she gets that from. 

Andy
Yeah, exactly. 

John
Yeah, they’re both, I’d say. 

Ange
A couple of finger points there. So, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? I’d love to hear both your answers here, actually. 

John
Oh, so many. I think recently at a seminar through Lifestyle Tradie, we had Nadine Champion do a talk and she was incredible. And yeah, she said, train hard, fight easy, said, do you play a competition easy? Generally, no. So why are you training so easy? Basically train harder than you play. So when you come time to play that competition, it’s easier. 

Andy
Such wise words, isn’t it? I love that. 

Ange
Well, I can imagine why that particular quote means so much to you because of your sport.

Andy
It’s the same as business though. You’ve got to put in the hard yards to get the results. There’s no magic pill and then all of a sudden you’re killing it. So, and what about you, Emily? 

Emily
Um, it’s probably one that my dad has said to me over the years, especially when I was studying. Um, procrastination is the biggest stealer of time.

Andy
Yes, it definitely is. And there’s a lot of people out there procrastinating. I tell you that. 

Emily
I still do it. Oh, sorry.  

Andy
But that’s where this planning is good, right? You’ve got things locked in. For someone that procrastinates, the worst thing you can do is not have a plan. You know, you’ve got to have it set up and you guys have done an amazing job. You guys are an absolute power couple. We love having a chat with you. You know, not only are you, you’re working with us and Lifestyle Tradie, you’re like best mates and we love you guys. And it’s been awesome having you on The Tradie Show today. We have loved Every single minute of it. 

Ange
Yes. Huge accolades to both of you, because even though John may have had his name on that one specific award, we all know that the hard work is from both of you. So although Emily, you quote that you’ve stepped away so that you can look after your daughter. The reality is you’ve trained the admin team that have come and stepped in. So we totally understand that as a powerhouse, you two are just incredible. The awards are not just for John, it’s for the two of you and for your entire team. So, uh, hats off to both of you. We love having you a part of our Lifestyle Tradie community and sharing your journey with us all the time, especially here on this podcast. And we absolutely wish you continued success in your journey. And we can’t wait to see you in Sydney at our next member event in March. It’s going to be epic.

Emily
Yeah, we’re looking forward to it and it’s also amazing to be part of a good community as well. And I think one of the funny things was having a chat with dad and he said, how many organizations can you go away with to another country? And there’s 300 like minded people in the one location. Yeah. And there’s, there’s not many times you can actually say, I’ve actually gone away with 300 people that are in the trade business. So I think that’s something that is a massive community and being a part of that has definitely changed our lives professionally as well as personally. 

John
Yeah. Thanks so much guys. We really appreciate everything you guys do for us. Can’t wait for Sydney and catching up with everyone in the Lifestyle Tradie Crew. Looking forward to it. 

Andy
Yeah. Thanks guys. Really appreciate that. And that was something that Ange and I did sit back in Fiji looking at everyone in the same caps that everyone got in the water, having Coronas and lime as their kids played out in the world, like it was just, and we sit back and go, wow, what have we created? And it’s an incredible community and we’re so lucky to have every single one of you. So I just want to say a big thanks for today. I know your business has started from here and you’re way up here. And those days, John, I know the hard work we’ve all been there at the beginning, but it’s really cool now that on a Friday, you don’t have to be working until 4pm in the afternoon and you can start moving very early.

Emily
Yeah, it’s good.  I prefer getting there when it’s daylight, not when it’s not. 

John
Yeah, correct. 

Ange
Thanks so much for joining us today. 

Emily
No, thanks guys. 

John
Thanks guys. Very much appreciated. 

Andy
No worries. We’ll catch you soon. 

Emily
All right. See ya. 

John
See ya. Bye.  

Andy
Hey guys. I just wanted to ask you a quick favor. We’d love it if you could rate and review this podcast. It really helps more tradies find us. And at the end of the day, we created the show to support tradies just like you build profitable businesses that you love. As always, we appreciate your support. 

Subscribe to The Tradie Show, wherever you get your favorite podcasts.  Rate and write us a review or for more information about Lifestyle Tradie, head to lifestyletradie.com.au.