High-Performance Secrets with Mick Hawes

Andy
Get ready to uncover the secrets behind solving your biggest business challenges with none other than Mick Hawes, stay tuned because this episode is packed with game changing insight.  

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 & wife team and co-founders of Lifestyle Tradie. Are you ready to have some fun? 

Andy
Hell yeah!

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Ange
Today, we’re diving into the mind of a performance coach who’s worked with elite athletes and top-tier trades businesses. 

Andy
Our guest and friend Mick Hawes always has lots of practical advice to help tradies scale their business and live a life of freedom. Welcome to the show, Mick. 

Mick
Absolute pleasure to be here. I love catching up with you guys. It’s always fun. 

Andy
Oh, we love catching up with you too, mate. An absolute true champion. 

Ange
Absolutely. So Mick, let’s get straight into the first question for you. Can you tell us a little bit about your history? 

Mick
Well, how far back do you want to go? 

Ange
I know it’s a big question. 

Andy
Many, many years ago. 

Mick
Um, uh, well, you know, I started life as an electrician. I came home from high school one day and my dad said, there’s an electrician coming over to give you a job. This afternoon, and if you don’t take it, you’ll be working for me. So my destiny was sealed from that moment on that I wasn’t working for my father. Yeah. So I became an electrician. I hadn’t even thought about what I was going to do. So that was preordained at the end of my apprenticeship. It was a mutual agreement that I probably shouldn’t continue.  

Ange
So you actually finished your apprenticeship? 

Mick
I finished my apprenticeship. 

Ange
I didn’t know that. 

Mick
Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ange
Well done. 

Mick
Oh, yes. Yeah, no, wait, but wait, there’s more. Went for the three month holiday to Sydney up to the big smoke from Hobart in my HQ panel van with mags, you’d be pretty impressed with that, Andy. I had my drum kit and my three in one stereo in the back and, and became a professional musician and was touring all over Australia and a little bit internationally as, as a muso  and then fixed photocopies for a while or what have you, but then I just woke up one morning and went, I’ve got to sell life insurance, uh, which is something that, Jesus! 

Ange
Everyone’s life dream, that is, Mick.

Mick
That’s right. You know, I quite often don’t talk about this because it makes people jealous, but 

Ange
I can understand. 

Mick
I’m honest and open with you guys. It was a horrible job, uh, apart from the personal development part of it. And so I met a lifelong friend, Ian Seagale there, who was a sales trainer. He’s still a friend today. And, and that just got me thinking about the whole personal development thing. And, uh, I think one of the, uh, Tony Robbins-ism was, uh, we teach what we most need to learn. And as I got exposed to this stuff, I thought I’ve got to learn this stuff. And if teaching it is the best way to learn it, I’m just going to build a business around teaching it. And that’s kind of how we got into coaching and then eventually sort of niched into coaching residential builders. 

Andy
Yeah. Nice, can you done a bit late tennis players and Car drivers and a bit of everything, haven’t you, in the previous years as well? 

Mick
Yeah, uh, that was just sort of a bit of a distraction, I suppose. Um, but I’m a big fan of this activity called the dream catcher. I was taught that many, many years ago in the life insurance days. And it’s just an exercise where you write down for, say, a minute or two every day. Anything that would be awesome to have become an experience accomplished as long as there are no limits to what you’re writing down and that’s the challenge and the whole idea of it is that it chips away at the self imposed limitations that we have in our mind. And so I was writing down what I wanted to, I don’t know why I wrote it down. I wanted to teach in schools this stuff and I wanted to teach in jails and ended up teaching in, uh, Risden prison. And it’s just bizarre how this thing works. You can write stuff down and I don’t know the lines of the universe somehow. So the opportunity presented itself and I got called by the Risden prison and they said, listen, we’ve heard a lot about you. And we want you to come and put a program together for our pre-release people. And I said, yeah, I said, yeah. And I immediately hung up and went into an instant panic because I’d never taught anybody anything ever in my life. It was a wrong number. 

Andy
Yeah, that’s crazy.

Ange
What a life experience. 

Andy
Yeah. But all these experiences, was he? Did you have a chat with him? Did you have ears at that time or? 

Mick
He told me he’d never killed anybody that didn’t deserve it. And I said, that’s fair enough, Mark. Let’s have a cup of tea. 

Andy
Yeah, exactly. So mate, all these incredible experiences you’ve had in the early days, how has that helped shape your approach to coaching now?

Mick
Well, particularly you mentioned the sports thing. So I’ve, I’ve done a bit of work with, um, some state cricket sides. And so that taught me a lot about, um, Teamwork. And there, there are just so many parallels between elite sport and successful businesses. It’s incredible and read. 

Ange
Agreed. 

Mick
We can learn a lot from sport, can learn a lot from successful business and vice versa. But, um, there, there are so many principles that we’ve been able to take from sport. So I was over, uh, doing a Dan Sullivan session in, um, Toronto late last year. And I met a guy who works with the NFL footballers and he was talking about their commitment to having recovery and having preparation so they can perform at the highest level. And he’s talking about these guys who get paid 40 million a year. They don’t have the commitment, like a hundred million dollars. 

Andy
Yeah. Wow. 

Mick
And he’s talking about these 40 million a year guys, like, you know, they are a bit hopeless.  

Andy
I love that. 

Ange
Oh my goodness. 

Mick
Yeah. It was just really interesting but the principle is that from a business perspective, we have a commitment to the performance. So we’re in the office doing our admin, we’re on site, we’re doing all of those sorts of things and we do recovery and preparation when the moon’s blue and it’s like hardly ever. 

Ange
It’s an afterthought, right? 

Mick
It’s an afterthought. Yeah. That’s exactly right. The principle is that at the elite level of performance, whether it’s an actor, whether it’s a, you know, a singer or a musician or an athlete, the preparation and the recovery time, uh, absolutely critical to the quality of the performance and us as, as trades people and business owners need to learn from that. And we must have recovery, meaning we’ve got to have time for ourselves to sit and think, and maybe if we’ve got time, I’ll share something I’ve learned just recently that’s really valuable in relation to that, but we’ve also got to prepare. So we’ve got to do things like listening to this podcast. We’ve got to do our planning, our preparation, our prioritizing. We’ve got to learn skills of communication, of influence, of planning all these things so we can perform at the highest level. You know, golfers who go out and their practice is their round, never get any better. 

Andy
Yeah. That’s interesting, isn’t it?

Ange
It’s such an eye opener. In fact, to your point, personal development, this is actually always a journey about improving yourself as a human. And I think the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. So I know we’re both in the industry of, you know, coaching trade business owners. Yeah. So we’re obviously talking to them about business, you know, how to be more profitable and streamline, automate, how to basically get their business model right and get really specific. But at the heart of it too, it’s actually about them as a human understanding that this is a journey of self discovery and leveling up as a human to always be better. And to your point, be super consistent with how you show up. So, um, just a slight little tangent there.

Mick
Love it. 

Ange
What do you think, knowing that we work with trade business owners, what do you think are some of the biggest issues faced by trade business owners who really want to scale business?

Mick
Um, I would have probably had a different answer to this if we had been speaking a few months ago, but I had a blinding flash of the obvious recently.

Andy
Nice. 

Mick
Uh, I think one of the things that we don’t pay anywhere near enough attention to is the fixing of mistakes that repeat themselves. And I often hear, you know, Oh, we made the mistake and we’ve learned from it and we move on. And it’s like, have you? What are you doing differently? How, what systems are now different because of that lesson. And we did an exercise where I got our guys to, um, to write down every business mistake that ever made. And it was, it was very funny. Well, it was, and like in the past, you sort of asked them, you know, where do you want to go on? What do you want to be? And you’re asking them about their goals. And they sit there and I go, and they’re like, they just can’t figure out what to write down. And, but I said, write down every business mistake you’ve ever made. And all I saw was the top of their heads, the whole  time.

Andy
Four hours later, they’re still going, you know?

Mick
Yeah. Yeah. So we limited it to five minutes. And I said, just pick one. And they obviously picked the biggest one. And I said, Estimate what that mistake has cost you since you realized it was a mistake. Okay, so when you do it the first time, it’s not a mistake. It’s an opportunity to refine your thinking, your processes, your skills, whatever it might be. It’s a lesson. It’s an opportunity. When the same thing happens again, then it’s a mistake. And Keith Cunningham, the author of the book, The Road Less Stupid, says, now you’re paying the dumb tax. 

Ange
Oh, that’s such a good sentence, right? 

Mick
And so I said, from that point where you started paying the dumb tax, what has this mistake that’s continually repeated cost you? We went round the room and people were saying 50, 000, 100, 000, 250, 000, it got up to 1. 3 million dollars. It was the estimation of what this one mistake had cost, just one. And remember, they’d been writing for five minutes. So there are many, and we were just looking at one. And I said, let’s, let’s unpack this, the real cost of this, because it’s, it’s like, okay, if that costs you, let’s say a hundred thousand dollars, that mistake over the period when you realized that it was a mistake, what is your current net profit level that you’re running your business at? And so for ease of calculation, because I’m not the best mathematician in the world, let’s call it, you’re running at a 10 percent net. That means that to pay back the cost of that mistake, you now have to find an extra million dollars worth of revenue just to get back to where you were before you made that mistake.

Ange
All right. 

Mick
Wouldn’t it have been far cheaper to identify that it was a mistake? Buy some software, employ a consultant, create a system, have a conversation with your team to fix that mistake so it never happens again, but we spend all this money on the front end of our business trying to develop new leads and the marketing and this, that, and the other, where there is, there is this massive hole in most businesses where all of this money and time, because to get that extra million dollars of revenue, that’s taking time away from you where you could have been doing something else. So the cost is absolutely massive. Not to mention the emotional cost. 

Ange
Yes. 

Andy
Yeah. That’s amazing, man. I love the way you explain that. And I know there’ll be a lot of people sitting in the cars or wherever they listen to this podcast going, Oh yeah. Wow. That is seriously good. And the thing is, that’s why, you know, what we do at Lifestyle Tradie, as you know, it’s all about getting the structure, the systems, the flow of a job, everything a hundred percent right at the very beginning. Because you don’t want to be making those mistakes and then growing, making those mistakes. And most trade business owners, when they’re in a bit of trouble, they’ve got a bit of stress, they’re wearing too many hats. One of the first things they do is let’s put on more  stuff. And I was like, Oh my God, fix the freaking problem first, dude. So mate, I absolutely love that. But you’ve mentioned before that some of the biggest problems started as good ideas as well. And can you explain this concept and how it applies to trade businesses? 

Mick
Yeah. Oh, it’s another Keith Cunningham-ism. Yeah. Uh, wrote the Road Less Stupid.  He just says, if you do a bit of a forensic search into some of the biggest problems in your business, they started off as a great idea and that sort of went bang and hit me like a ton of bricks right in the forehead, but then  I got introduced to another book called The Six Types of Working Genius by Pat Lencioni and it unpacks the six important parts of a project and to remember it, all you need to remember is widget. The six things are those letters and the first one is the ability to wonder, to ask the big questions. What if we did this or what if we became this or so you’ve got to have the ability to wonder for a successful project. The next one is I, which is, invention. So you’ve got to come up with a system to be able to make that happen. Then the third one is discernment. And that is the genius where somebody that doesn’t even really have to know all of the moving parts about a project, they just have this innate ability to go, Andy, that’s a bad idea. And so there’s another three geniuses, but in relation to the good ideas becoming your problems, it’s because often there isn’t that person involved in the process that has the genius of discernment. Yes. And so we just go, this is a great idea and we put money and time and effort into it and it ends up being costly, a waste of time.

Andy
And that’s the challenge where most tradies, you don’t know what you don’t know. And by the time you end up knowing. It’s too late and you’ve dusted a load of money.  

Ange
Well, they live in the life of trial and error, right? Instead of asking people around them, maybe someone has actually done it before them. So, 

Mick
You can go to  the, the, um, the six types of working genius websites. And I think for 25 US, you can do the assessment  and it gives you a whole report and it says you’re two geniuses because what they’ve found over the years and hundreds of thousands of people doing the thing is, that everyone has two geniuses; two working competencies and two frustrations. And what that means is that two out of those six things you’re really good at. Both of you are really good at two of those six things and it gives you energy. So when you’re doing that type of activity, you can do it all day and you need to use the analogy of a thermos of coffee. Like it’s still hot at the end of the day. Yeah. A working competency is something that you’re really good at, but it just drags the energy out of you to do it, but I don’t like it. And that sucks the energy out. And that’s like a cup of coffee. It’s been hot for a little while, but it’s getting cold. And then there are the two frustrations that you’re lousy at and you hate them. Yeah. And that’s like a cup of coffee with a hole in the bottom. It just doesn’t last very long at all.  And so if you can get yourself and your team to do these assessments, you can find out who has the geniuses in what area, and you can kind of move the chess pieces around in your business and make sure that people are investing most of their time in their areas of genius, and you can protect them from the frustrations. They work better. There’s more productivity. There’s more energy, less mistakes because you’ve got somebody with the genius of discernment going, Andy, that’s a bad idea. And if you respect that they have a genius, you use that and it prevents you from making those costly mistakes where, you know, you’ve got to get an extra million dollars worth of revenue to pay back. The mistake that you just let go. 

Ange
So the lesson is that, all humans are not the same and that we need to treat them all differently, don’t we? 

Mick
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Key leadership point. 

Ange
Correct. So, Mick, tell me what process do you recommend to prevent good ideas from becoming problems in the future? 

Mick
Uh, again, Keith Cunningham talks about thinking time. Yeah. Uh, when, when you listen to his book. He’ll, he’ll teach the, whatever he teaches in each chapter. And there’s something like  55 chapters in this book,  but at the end of it, he says, now go think you will thank me later. And I think this is what we tend to do because a business owner tends to be quite an entrepreneurial personality. Let’s get it done. Let’s get it done. That’s a good idea. Let’s go. And we never just stop and go, okay, what are the questions that we haven’t asked? What’s the unasked questions? What is a scenario of this not working? And what are the chances of this not working? What are the chances of this scenario of it not, not panning out? Are they higher? Are they low? If it doesn’t work out, what is the potential cost of this not working? And in this thinking time, even by yourself, but you can do it as a group, but by yourself, you can ask, okay, what are the chances of this not working? And what is the cost of if it doesn’t work and what you really need to do is wait until you’ve got a low chance of it not working and a low cost of if it doesn’t work before you pull the trigger. But the entrepreneurial personality, we haven’t got time for that. Let’s go. Let’s do it.

Andy
It’s interesting because I do that in most decisions I make, I look at it, I make a decision. I go, yeah, we’re going to do this. I go, okay, if it goes, well, what’s it going to do? It’s going to do this and this and this you beauty. If it doesn’t go well, what’s the worst case scenario? And then it will say, well, the worst case scenario, it’s going to be this and this and this. And as long as that worst case scenario, it could be losing a chunk of money. As long as I feel comfortable in that scenario, I move ahead. But if I don’t feel comfortable, I squash it straight away. But what he’s saying is if you can still feel comfortable, but why don’t you want to lose it at all. Maybe it’s not the right time to push the go button. Just take it a little bit slower. Andy. 

Mick
Yeah. Is the juice worth the squeeze? Like, is this going to end me if this doesn’t work or is it going to be a little bit of a speed hunt? But my suspicion is if you did that assessment, I suspect that you’d probably have the genius, if not a working competency of discernment. 

Andy
Yeah. And I have, and I’ve, and I’ve shut things down. I’ve got to a certain point and dusted at 50, a hundred building a tradie app. I got to 150K and then woke up in the middle of the night and went, what are you doing, mate? And then I said, it is nothing. It is, it is nothing. But at the time. 15 years ago, it was something. 

Mick
Yeah. Well, I think about the same time I did the same thing, a quarter of a million on an idea for some software.  Didn’t have the genius of discernment. 

Andy
I remember that. 

Mick
Biggest white elephant ever, quarter of a million dollars, 18 months down the tube.

Ange
Wow.

Andy
Anyway, it’s all part of our journey. It makes us stronger. 

Ange
I was about to say exactly that too. So I do think one extra thing to layer in there about just ideas in general. I think with trade business owners, you mentioned this Mick, they get so busy Doing the do, you know, hands on deck, just doing the work that it is so important to remove themselves from the business so that they actually elevate themselves and actually see their business from above. It’s like, these are these moments, like we even talk about some of your best ideas are actually shower moments. Well, why? Because it’s that moment where you have kind of fed your brain with certain, you know, probably problems or challenges that are happening inside your business and your mind is ticking. And normally you just take action, but whilst you’re in the shower, your body actually slows down and your mind has time to think. So some of our best ideas actually come from the shower. I think we all need to take a lesson from that, which is time out. You actually need to remove yourself frequently and be around other people so that those who are trying to elevate their business like you are to create these ideas in the first place, so that you can even start this process to your point of, is this a good idea? Yes or no for my business. 

Mick
And shower once a week, whether you need it or not, I think is the big lesson. 

Andy
Well, you are from Tassie, mate. We understand what it’s like down there. Can be cold. Once a week is probably good for you guys. Hey mate, tell us about the business compass you created and how does it help business owners?

Mick
Yeah, I can’t take credit for creating it. I repurposed  the information out of Mike Michalowicz’s fix this next. He talks about a compass. We’ve just massaged it. So it works for our builders, the residential builders, that’s all. But it’s, it’s a one page document if you like, and you just simply, it’s set up in a way where you ask, First question first, then the next, then the next. And the whole idea of it is that what most business owners do is that they leap to what’s called the apparent problem. So it’s, it’s whatever’s pressing on you most, whoever’s screaming the loudest, whoever’s poked you the most and you’re feeling the most urgency about your run to that. And generally the apparent problem isn’t the actual problem. So Mike talks about your, your business being a chain and, and obviously it breaks at the, at the weakest point where the weakest link is and the compass, its purpose is to identify what that weak link is. Since we’ve been using it, we’ve found that there is very little, if any urgency when we use the compass properly, and we find what is the weakest link in the business. There is very little to no urgency around that at any given time. We, so we’re running around like a headless chook, fixing these things that aren’t the problem. You can use this tool and find out exactly what the cause of the, or the weakest part of your business is. And you can fix it. Something else we learned from Mike was you, you don’t have to make now that link, the strongest link in the chain. So that’s quite often what we do. We go, Oh, that needs fixing. And we want to fix it to the nth degree, but you don’t need to, because that’s a waste of time doing too much work to fix it. It just needs to be not the weakest link anymore. So you can put tension on your chain again and find out what the next weakest link is so you can work on that. I love the way that he explains that a compass just gives you direction, but we use our instincts to navigate the terrain. So when we’ve got a problem in our business, our business acumen or the community, like you, you guys have an incredible community. You, you reach into that community and say, guys, I’ve got a problem. Can you help me with it? That that’s improving your instincts and your instincts allow you to navigate the terrain. So we’re running through the bush and there’s a boulder. So I jump over it and there’s a hole. So I leap over it. You’re using your instincts to navigate the terrain, but if you’ve got really good instincts and you’re navigating the train like a champion and you’re going in the wrong direction, what’s the point? So you need a compass to go that’s the direction we go in. Then you use your instincts, your own personal and your communities, knowledge and wisdom and experience to help navigate the terrain. So if you work just with a compass and go, I’m going that way like a robot, you end up walking straight off a cliff. So you need instincts. 

Andy
Yes.

Mick
But instincts alone aren’t going to help you either because you need to go in the right direction. Then there’s a lot of people like that who are brilliant at decision making and problem solving and all that sort of stuff, but their business still doesn’t work cause they’re heading in the wrong direction. They’re putting their effort in the wrong place. 

Ange
Is this how you’re, you would recommend a tradesperson implements his business compass in their daily operations? What you just explained or? 

Mick
You can use this tool. It’s just a one pager and you just tick boxes, right? And all you simply do is work on the unticked box at the lowest level, because it’s all built around, we all, we all know Abraham Maslow, don’t we? 

Andy
Oh, we’ve heard of him before.  That’s about as far as hierarchy of human needs. Yeah, now we do. 

Mick
All of that, you know, the hierarchy of human needs and, and we need air as the base level. And then the next one up is safety. And we don’t think about safety if we’re starving or drowning or what have you. Basically, we need to satisfy that need before we move to the next. Business has the same thing. And, at the base level like business oxygen, the equivalent is cash, cash creation. And you’ve got to have cash creation systems in place before you worry about profit. But then once you’ve got cash, profit, then once you’ve got profit, we need to buy back time. 

Ange
Correct. 

Mick
So there, there is a hierarchy to these things. And if you’re running around spending money to get time freedom and you haven’t got your act together on the cash creation space, your business is going to always be in trouble. So we’ve got to be able to make smart decisions. 

Ange
What I love about this compass, we’ve developed inside Lifestyle Tradie a workflow scorecard and it talks about these 12 stages of the flow of a job because regardless of the style of business they have, whether they do 20 jobs a week, 20 jobs a month, 20 jobs a year, it is actually the same on repeat and they really need to reach what we call excellence through the flow of one single job so that it’s repetitive, so that we can scale a business that is not chaotic. And when you share that with a business owner and they score themselves  with regards to what it looks like through the flow of a job, to your point, it’s really obvious where the chain is broken, where we have these, what we call bottlenecks, you know, this, they putting themselves at a five or six or a seven or whatever, and all of a sudden there’s a two or a one. It’s like, And all of a sudden they’re like, Oh my gosh, I never ever realized that that was a problem. It’s like, yeah, this is why your tradies are calling you every single time at this spot inside a job every single day, multiple times a day. This is what we need to fix first. So, 

Andy
Yeah, it’s all about fixing those things to obviously, um, drive the business to get to that another level. Hey, Mick, just looking towards the future,  you know, what trends do you see emerging in the trade industry and how can business owners prepare for them? 

Mick
Wow. What a question. 

Andy
It is a good question. 

Mick
I would expect nothing less, then.  

Ange
So much change in the trade industry though, right? 

Mick
Oh, absolutely. I mean, particularly with the advent of artificial intelligence, right, you know, I’m even reading stuff and I’m trying to get a dude on, on, on our podcast who’s 3D printing houses and stuff like this. Things are going to change. We’re going to have autonomous vehicles. Driving stuff and it’s just going to, the face of it is going to change. And I think that the best advice if you like about that, is just to be open to it, because if you try and resist it, it’s just going to run you over. So you listen to a whole bunch of people about AI and it’s a terrible thing. Just like guns or whatever, you know, it’s about how they use them. So AI is going to bring us some really wonderful opportunities, but, uh, there were some problems as well. We’ve just got to embrace the change. I think that’s the best thing.

Andy
Yeah. And it’s interesting you talk about AI because there’s no doubt that it’s on a lot of people’s lips and we talk about that a bit, but you know, a lot of people are a bit scared of it. There’s not much we can do to stop it. They’re saying it’s the biggest thing that has ever happened to this world. It’s bigger than when they first invented electricity, which was meant to be the biggest thing. Um, you know, and I remember when they invented the internet, a mate of mine said, you know what? The internet is fat. I’m like, okay, man. Yeah. Well, how did that work for you? You know, and, and I’m hearing some people talking about AI and they, they’ve got similar opinions and they’re, they’re, you know, there’s pros and cons around AI. But the thing that we’re talking to a lot of our tradies about at the moment and Lifestyle Tradie members is, There’s not going to be a robot with a shifter in its hand running down the street anytime soon. But in regards to running your front end of your business and running your back end of the business, you could plug a body in and do stuff. And we’re looking, you know, we’re, we’ve been spending a lot of time around this. Now, the big thing here is if you have a broken business model and you don’t have the right flow of a job and you don’t do it the right, um, the right way every single time, you can’t bolt a bot into a broken business model. So this is where all trade businesses at the moment have to realize. Let’s get this fixed up because when it does get real, and we’re talking six months, a year, couple of years, we’re not that far away. Um, and everyone likes our members and no doubt your members are ready to pounce on this and anyone out there that isn’t looking out because it is coming like an absolute freight train.

Mick
Couldn’t agree more. There’s just no point resisting. We’ve got to accept that it’s coming. It’s like a drum solo at a rock concert. It’s going to happen and there’s nothing you can do about it. 

Andy
Yeah.  I love that. I can just imagine you with your panel van. Was it a panel van you had going up the coast?  Long hair, drum kit, no windows. The coolest Tasmanian in the world at that stage. Like, look at me. I’ve made it. I’m traveling the world, baby. 

Ange
Yeah. He made it to Sydney. 

Mick
That’s why it is covered in crushed gold crushed velvet. 

Andy
Oh, man. 

Ange
You please need to send me some photos.

Andy
I’ve seen a couple. I’ve seen a couple. It’s been great. Hey, mate, any final thoughts or advice for trade business owners out there? 

Mick
I think that sometimes I’m asked, you know, what’s the best bit of advice you’ve, you’ve ever been given. Yeah. And it’s a difficult question, but I think the answer is, particularly when you’re, you’re talking about business, but I think it applies personally is work harder on yourself than you do on, on your job. And it’s a Jim Rohn quote, and I just don’t know of anything that’s more valuable than that because you can work in your business, you can build systems, you can learn skills of communication and leadership and all of that sort of stuff. But all of that falls under piece of advice. Prioritize working on you rather than the business.

Andy
Yeah. 100%. We say it quite often, don’t we, Ange? You know, you’ve got to work on you. You’ve got to be at your best. Otherwise, if you’re not at your best, your team’s not at your best, your business isn’t at your best. So what is the way of you being at your best? And a lot of the times that’s training, that’s doing running, that’s gym, that’s fitness, it’s looking healthy, you know, maybe it’s not drinking alcohol or going a bit light on alcohol. I’m off the alcohol at the moment only for a couple of months, but yeah, yeah, don’t worry I will be back soon, but I feel amazing. I feel amazing at the moment. 

Ange
You might surprise yourself.  

Andy
I bet. Hey, Mick, we play these rapid fire questions. We’re going to ask you three of them. You’ve got about 20 seconds to answer each one. Are you ready? 

Mick
Uh, no.  

Ange
Of course you are. Okay, let’s get into it. Yeah. Let’s get very serious. Okay. What is one strategy you use to start your day right?

Mick
A personal success ritual to make sure that I get the most effective day every day. And it’s a ritual, a series of steps.

Andy
Wow. Love that. 

Ange
Can you share them? Or a few of them? 

Mick
I can. The first one is watching a video or whatever, something that’s inspirational. Then I spend 60 seconds doing the dream catcher we’ve talked about where you write all that stuff down that cool with no limits, then spend some time with your goals, then plan out the prioritized daily action list based on the goals and what have you say, so you’re very, very clear as to what The, the big levers that you need to press. 

Andy
Yeah. I’m loving that. 

Ange
That’s, intention. 

Andy
Starting the day the right way is amazing. Hey mate, what is something that has made you smile recently?

Mick
I received in the, in the, in the mail, a pack of really big hands, big foam hands. 

Andy
Ah, yes.

Mick
Because,  um, you came onto my podcast and we had a competition who could have the biggest hand wave. 

Ange
You and Andy were like, I know. 

Mick
Yeah, but Ange won today. Oh really? I’ve been, I’ve been keeping my hands under the table on purpose. But Ange has been doing a bit of this. 

Andy
I’m surprised you didn’t bring those hands on this show today.

Ange
I wish we brought them with us. 

Mick
They’re in the studio where I normally record the podcast. I’m on the boat today. So, 

Andy
You are, mate.

Mick
I normally carry my big foam hands with me everywhere I go. 

Andy
I don’t think you’re going to work very well on the boat. 

Ange
I’m glad it made you smile because it made me laugh when I packed them up. All right. Third question. You’ve already mentioned the piece of advice that you’ve received from Jim Rowan. Is there a second best piece of advice? 

Mick
Oh, wow. Uh, the first one was to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. You know, I don’t even remember who said this, but they just said, don’t be a d*ck. 

Andy
I love that. 

Mick
There’s so much to that. Like, you  don’t need to be a d*ck. 

Ange
No. 

Andy
I love that. 

Ange
It doesn’t get you very far in life. Let’s be real. 

Mick
No, no, no, it doesn’t. So it’s great advice. 

Andy
Hey Mick, thanks so much for joining us on The Tradie Show and sharing all your wisdom and insights. It’s been absolutely amazing. You’re always inspiring people. You’re an absolute champion guy and we love you because guess what? Just this time, you’re not being a d*ck. 

Mick
Thank you. I press pause on being a d*ck. Thanks very much. 

Ange
Thank you. It’s been, it’s always amazing catching up with you. You’re such a legend. Thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

Mick
Thank you. I love this. Love having conversations. I wish we could catch up a whole lot more. 

Andy
We will do it. We will do it. Anyway, crew, thanks for listening to Mick. Yes, he’s an absolute superstar and we’ll catch up with you all very, very soon. Have the best week.  

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