BONUS Tradie Wife: Why Winging it isn’t Working – Part 2

Andy
Hell yeah.

Ange
Welcome to a special edition Season of The Tradie Show. So glad you could join us. Over the years, Andy and I have authored a few books on how to be awesome trade business owners. And because you all love The Tradie Show so much, we thought you would love our audiobooks too. Tradie Wife: Why Winging It isn’t Working and Breaking Old Habits Will Help, is written and voiced by myself with guest contributor Dr. Gina Cleo. It’s crafted specifically for tradie wives and partners who want to feel more confident co-leading their trade business and life with their partners. We’ll be releasing a new chapter every few days, so if you haven’t tuned in yet, we suggest you rewind and check out the previous chapters. Make sure you subscribe to The Tradie Show, wherever you listen to podcasts so that you don’t miss a beat. Now it’s time to kick back. Listen and enjoy.

Part one.
A message to my husband. Remember saying something along these lines to your husband? I’m gonna come in and help you with the business. Who would’ve thought such an innocuous statement could have such life-changing implications? Most of us transition into our partner’s trade business organically. And with the best intentions you want to help by taking action, you want to sort out that never ending pile of receipts, not to mention the tax situation. You want him to stop working ridiculously long hours so he can focus on what he’s good at, which is operating the trade business, either on or off the tools.

You have transferable skills, but the hard part is knowing how to help him. No one really knows what your role is gonna look like. You are wary of treading on his toes, and the blurred lines begin almost immediately. Then comes the bickering, fighting, and resentment. The tid over tat who does what. The strain on your relationship travels from the home to the workplace, over to staff meetings and directly into the dynamics with your employees. Nobody signs up for this. The connection between the pressure from the business and its impact on your life is a never ending loop. In the early days, it is the need to get everything out of your partner’s head that proves to be a sticking point, you know, the value you could bring to the business. The difficulty is trying to find the right time and the right tone to ask the right questions.

You are both learning how to work with each other. It is intense. Often the trade business is your husband’s baby. He may have established it long before you were in a romantic relationship. It adds an extra layer of consideration and complexity. Few of us are trained in running a trade business. Little do we realize the intensity will permeate everything unless we speak up. The cracks will only get bigger and bigger until you break. How do you express your feelings to your husband in a positive way before hitting rock bottom? Worse, still there is the risk of your relationship not making it. In this section of the book, you’ll learn how to address the sting of disappointment, when your expectations fall short of your new reality, what it’s going to take to reinvent this reality and how to plan for a more fulfilling future by changing some of your habits.

Part one – section one.
Why having this conversation is important. You are fed up. You see, for the uninitiated, you’re a lady of leisure. There is an odd and persistent perception that being a tradie wife means you’ve got a stack of time in your hands. Family and friends suggest catch-ups during the day. You are the one who gets nominated to ferry relatives to daytime appointments. Not that you don’t want to help. Of course you do. You are expected to be in a position to drop everything because you are the flexible one who’s rattling around the house or office all day with nothing specific to do. LOL. With each word I write, I can almost feel your eyes start to twitch. Your heart begins to race, and your hands form a tight fist. It’s triggering, isn’t it? It happened to me over 20 years ago when I first became a tradie wife. The fact your role in the trade business may not have been formalized, invites flippancy from others around the contribution you are making at work. The fact you’re at home or has resulted in the household management becoming your domain. We can point the finger at social norms for the most part to explain how and why you ended up with this huge weight to carry. This heavy load is a burden your partner can’t see because he can’t see it. He wonders what the problem is. Statistically, women are still carrying more of the mental load, a term for the invisible labor involved in managing a household and family. It is the organizing, the list making, the planning, more than simply the doing of domestic duties. It’s the constant pinging in your head about what needs to be done and when it is distracting and utterly exhausting. When you have to decide what’s for dinner, remember when the bills are due, buy birthday presents, check school emails, keep kids on track with homework and complete sports registration, and it never stops.

Research shows that even if the female partner works full-time and the male partner in the relationship is a stay-home dad, she will still carry the mental load. That would be you, tradie wife. Almost by default, you become the family chief executive officer. You are the domestic manager. He’s the helper in this role. While you absolve other family members of the time consuming and draining work of running the household, just for clarity, you are not on your own. Census data shows Australian women spend on average 5 to 14 hours per week doing unpaid domestic work, whereas men spend less than five hours a week. Women also spend an additional hour a day looking after children. When you feel exhausted and overwhelmed from being pulled between your responsibilities in the business and those in the home, your partner needs to know about it. Why? Because if you feel like you are not on the same team as him, working towards the same goals in a way that feels fair and equitable, your relationship ends up suffering and the resentment and dissatisfaction can have long-term consequences.

This conversation is not about what each of you do or don’t do. It’s about having an open conversation to find alignment between the two of you about what you want life to look like. When there’s that gnawing sensation that things aren’t working, how do you initiate the conversation? How can you address this truck sized point of contention in your relationship? Dr. Gina Cleo suggests you approach the conversation from this perspective. How can you both be better partners in business and in life? Importantly, the trade business is his baby. He’s likely to feel trapped between the demands of the job and his desire to be more hands-on at home. In a similar way, you are feeling trapped between the pressure at home and your role in the trade business. Now what? Practically speaking, Dr. Gina Cleo’s advice is to have this conversation face-to-face without emotion or bias in a neutral setting physically away from your day-to-day responsibilities. The conversation should be intentional, like a business meeting with an emphasis on counting the cost. The cost is what you stand to lose if there’s no intervention. For example, the cost is the time sacrifice and energy. You’ve already invested in each other and the business. By counting the cost, whatever this looks like for you and your partner when you come up against a barrier or hiccup in your plan to implement change. You’ll both know it will be worth pushing through. You are both on board with the idea that change equals some sort of sacrifice. Your greatest challenge will be getting him on board because he wants to be, not because he wants to placate you. Dr. Gina Cleo believes what’s known as intrinsic motivation will be the major force behind long-term behavior change because it’s based on internal incentives such as values.

Why intrinsic motivation is important? Motivation is what drives people. It encourages us to behave in certain ways. There is debate over how many types of motivation exist. However, two forms are universally accepted, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. For your conversation with your partner to translate into long lasting and self-sustaining change, Dr. Gina Cleo says, intrinsic motivation tends to result in higher levels of persistence and engagement and provides a positive emotional return. Intrinsic motivation is about pursuing a goal because it’s connected to something you value or has a real purpose for you. So the aim is to increase intrinsic motivation for a new behavior or habit you’re hoping to cultivate so you can achieve a goal. When we do something we love doing, it happens more effortlessly. Intrinsic motivations include starting a new business because you want to serve others, trying to be a good leader because you want to inspire others, staying longer in the office because you believe in your work. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is reward driven behavior. An example is working harder to task or project to receive praise, recognition and get paid. Extrinsic motivation is not a bad thing, typically, it’s a short term motivator. Realistically, we all need to be enticed by a dangling carrot or a bit of gamification to get stuff done sometimes. Extrinsic motivations include starting a new business because you wanna make more money, taking on leadership to command and control, staying longer in the office because you’re hoping for praise. At day’s end, you are running a trade business to make money and build wealth, which is extrinsic motivation. How you interact with each other as you make money and build wealth should be grounded in intrinsic motivation. This journey is about personal growth. What are the three types of intrinsic motivation? Daniel Pink’s three elements of intrinsic motivation are autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Autonomy –  Autonomy is the desire to direct our own lives. Mastery –  Mastery is the desire to continually improve, it’s something that matters. Purpose –  Purpose is the desire to do things in service of something larger than ourselves.

Exercise.
What is your motivation? We need motivation to be inspired to make a change. There are two types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. They explain our behaviors and how we pursue goals. Intrinsic from the inside, example, it’s personally rewarding and Extrinsic from the outside, example, you’ll earn something or avoid punishment. Neither is good or bad per say. They’re just different motivating forces. However, research shows intrinsic motivation leads to better persistence and lasting results. Extrinsic motivation is more of a short term drive, but might be good for initial motivation. As partners in trade business, fostering intrinsic motivation where you both see the value in making changes is going to help you form healthy habits that last. In this exercise, both you and your partner will openly discuss what you want life to be like through the lens of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. It’s time to tell the truth. Intrinsic motivation. What excites you when you think about your business and your life? Let me share with you some examples of intrinsic motivation through Daniel Pink’s explanation of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Once you’ve heard me explain these examples, write your own, and share with your partner using the first two words, I am.

Autonomy, desire to direct our own lives. I am excited to build a business, to make good money to support my family so we have a beautiful home and travel the world. I am excited to have the flexibility to provide value to the business and raise our family. 

Mastery, continual improvement. I am excited to learn new skills to drive a profitable and successful trade business. I am excited to lead a team and share my knowledge. 

Purpose. Something larger than ourselves. I am excited to know what to do every day to provide a unique service to our community. I am excited to help build and drive a business that will employ a team and support their families.

Is this what life looks like now? Are your motivations in alignment with your partner? What if it’s still too hard to speak up? Dr. Gina Cleo admits that having this conversation may be difficult, but when you do it through the lens of motivation, instead of wishing the potential issues, misunderstandings and complete exhaustion will miraculously go away. You’ll get on the same page in business and return to being loving partners. Ask yourself, what are the long-term implications of not having this conversation? “Be careful what you tolerate. You are teaching people how to treat you”. – Unknown. Perhaps you’d benefit from a trade specific business coach getting involved.

Lived experience.
Bridget Pare, Repare Electrical and Air conditioning, Queensland. Bridget Pare wishes she and husband Richard had called on a business coach earlier. That is the message she’d like to give other tradie wives when it feels like something’s gotta give. For Bridget, who comes from a corporate background crunch time came because they had a good turnover but weren’t making any money. Richard’s excellent technical skills and genuine rapport with customers. We’re winning them work. However, Bridget says his idea of promoting a business was to buy a car and put a sign on it. What did business coaching teach them? According to Bridget, they would’ve set up the business better from the start and waited until having their processes in place before growing the team, one of eight kids, Bridget, comes from a career focused family. She was thriving in her role in IT. When she and Richard reached across roads. “He just came to me one day and said, if you don’t come in and help, I can’t do this anymore”. After taking a redundancy from her job in July of 2015, Bridget worked full-time in the office and was determined to get the business running like her corporate job. All process driven. Bridget stamped her influence on the business in the first week, making the immediate decision to move from Richard’s paper-based system and integrate new job management software. It was the beginning of the business’s transformation according to Bridget. “In the first year of me coming into the business, our turnover doubled and I was taking a full wage”. I actually paid us both the same amount. From there, it’s gone from strength to strength. From the outset, Bridgette was intentional about her transition into the business. Richard wanted to stay on the tools and own that domain. She was leaving behind all the perks of the corporate world, life insurance and irregular income. That’s why Richard took the position that if the business couldn’t pay her in the capacity, her experience and expertise warranted. It wasn’t worth her being there. She took wage from day one and stepped in as equal with Richard as a business owner. Still working together wasn’t without friction and frustration. Bridget was worn down by Richard reverting to his old ways of using paper instead of the job management system and his habit of talking about work at night. She recognizes the sacrifices he’s making in working hard for the family, but can’t help feeling sad. He’s missed out on the kids growing up because of the long hours and responsibility. Describing their relationship as strong. Bridget says, their personalities complement each other. She is well organized and doesn’t like surprises. While Richard is calm and agreeable, it works well. The part Bridget continues to find difficult is the impact on her own identity. The perception that because she works from home, she’s not working. “I have been introduced as an electrician’s wife. Even to this day, my friends and family don’t think I work”. If someone needs a ride somewhere, they say, bring Bridget, she’s not working, and it must be nice being a lady of leisure. This has changed now with the purchase of their new business commercial unit going from her former corporate life where she was recognized and celebrated to office manager at Repare electrical and air Conditioning has left her with questions. “In my own head, I still wonder what could I have been? For all the what ifs”. Bridget is proud of what she and Richard have created together. Keeping everything on track at work and at home boils down to this. “For Rich and I, if we’re having a bad day, it’s a matter of asking why”.

Part one, section two.
The sliding doors moment that changed everything. A similar story often emerges when I speak with tradie wives. It goes something like this. You’ve been watching your partner slug it out for a while now and nothing is changing. He is putting in the hard work. You can see he needs help. There are small, obvious ways you can support him. It usually starts with bookkeeping. Before you know it,  you’re probably straddling your job and the bookkeeping for your partner as you dip your toe into the brave new world of living and working together. Commonly, it coincides with the arrival of your first child. Almost always, this moment happens without a formal plan of what your role in the business will look like. Once you step over the threshold from romantic partners to professional partners as well, you both become administrators. The business is the topic of conversation always on the brain, and the fun energy and joy can get lost, replaced with a checklist of logistics and decisions. We make roughly 35,000 decisions every single day. Habits contribute to energy conservation because our brains don’t have to consciously think about our habitual behavior. You are exhausted. He is exhausted. Bad habits enter our lives because they serve some kind of purpose. They might help us alleviate boredom or manage stress. For example, scrolling thoughtlessly on your phone or wasting time on the internet. Now you are living and working together. The fact you’re fighting more has become a habit and is another sign of the stressful situation you are in. What are the quirks and gestures negatively affecting your relationship with your partner? Discussing business at night? Ending up with a lion’s share of the housework? Taking a thought in your head and not being able to convey that message well to others?

Dr. Gina Cleo says, to be able to change an unwanted habit, we have to understand how it forms. Four steps of habit formation. Whenever we want to change something about ourselves and our lives, we mostly count on self-control or willpower. We set a goal and go for it with sheer determination and a laser sharp focus. But chances are most of us will fall off the wagon. The truth is self-control doesn’t work. It is easy to see why this happens when we know a little more about how our brains are wired. The brain’s two systems, the basal ganglia, impulsive and the prefrontal cortex reflective, differ in how they process information. In short, the reflective brain plays a central role in self-control, responsible for making deliberate decisions. It takes up lots of energy. Like a muscle, self-control tires with overuse. When you are exhausted and feeling stressed, we don’t make the best choices. That is when we fall back on old habits. On the flip side, the impulsive brain is spontaneous and reacts to emotions and triggers. The gold is in the fact that once new habits are formed, they become an effortless, automatic part of life. The only glitch, habit learning is hard, at least in the initial stages. There are four steps we can follow to form a habit.

Step one. Decide on a goal. Our brains are only capable of changing up to three things at once. If you only focus on one or two goals, you are more likely to achieve them than if you focus on many goals. What goal are you going to prioritize in your life right now? 

Step two. Choose a consistent action to move you towards the goal. Take on one small, simple action. This will make the goal easier to achieve and easier to maintain long-term. If your goal is to be more productive, the chosen actions could be one, check emails only twice a day. Or two, take a 10 minute break every hour or three, turn off phone notifications. 

Step three. Pair your daily action with a cue. When you associate that habit with a cue, such as the time of day, the place you are in, your social situation, or the action you just did. Over time, you’ll start doing the habit automatically each time you encounter the cue. 

Step four. Each time you encounter the cue, do the chosen habit. The more you complete the new habit, when you encounter the cue, the more automatic it’ll become.

Consistency is the key to forming a new habit. Keep on keeping on. You called me the admin girl again? How long does it take to form a new habit? Research concludes that on average it takes 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic. So which new habit will you both be aiming to form? Evaluate your habits through the following lens. Is the habit helpful or not helpful? Useful or not useful, aligned or unaligned with my goals and values? Dr. Gina Cleo says, if we use the example of your husband’s habit of referring to you as the admin girl, we’re introducing you. It’s important to have an empathetic conversation where you can describe to him how it feels for you. It could feel demeaning. You may feel hurt and want to shut down. He may not even realize it’s a habit. He might think he’s just being tongue in cheek. He could be saying it because he knows it stirs you up and gets a reaction. In this conversation, it’s your chance to explain your side of the story and help him understand the benefits of changing the habit and reframing this language. In this conversation with your husband. Be ready for him to share with you the habits he may want you to break. Listen, really listen to what he is saying. Habits are always triggered. Remember? A trigger is an event that kicks off the automatic urge to perform a habit. Therefore, to break old habits, you’ll need to understand the cue or the trigger. It is not as complicated as it sounds. There is a systematic process called the habit loop. It explains how and why habits develop. There are three parts to the habit loop, trigger, routine, and reward.

One – Cue or trigger. The cue is the trigger that kicks off the habitual behavior. Usually it’s a location, time of day, the emotion or the social situation you are in, or a proceeding action. In this instance, let’s focus on his habit of calling you the admin girl. The cue here is when you’re sitting with the team for toolbox meetings, same as always. 

Two – Routine. Routine is the behavior you wish to change. In an effort to change the habit of calling you the admin girl after having first discussed this with your partner, introduce yourself to the team with the title that best reflects your contribution.

Three – Reward. What is the payoff or benefit that’ll reinforce the habit? The benefit of this action is an elevation of your self-worth acceptance from the team in your new elevated role. Not that it was ever any different, and ultimately equality. Looking at the habit loop, you can see the culprits of unhelpful habits start from the cue.

Exercise.
Cue monitoring to change habits. Cues or triggers are sparks for habits. For example, turning on a computer at work, triggers checking emails or waking up in the morning triggers scrolling on social media. Habits are reinforced by cues. Therefore, understanding our cues is the most important factor in forming or breaking habits. Using a weekly calendar broken up by time, write down your typical weekly routine. Highlight or note any patterns you identify. This will start to build awareness of the cues you currently have in your life. For example, cues that trigger everyday habits include when I switch off my morning alarm, when I take a shower, when I start the coffee maker, when I start the car. Still feeling overwhelmed? What is your version of the sliding door story? The habits we have created both good and bad, are hardwired into our brain. As Dr. Gina Cleo says, habits are the invisible blueprint to our everyday life. While starting new habits to replace the unhelpful ones is a proven way to change long-term behavior. What can you do right now when you are maxed out? One, remember to focus on one habit at a time. Two, slow down. It is okay to say no. Three, start with a habit you hate the most. Four, talk over your feelings with your partner or friend. Five, check in with your gut. What is it telling you?

Part one – section three.
Stubborn stereotypes are holding us back. If you close your eyes and picture what a trade or contracting business owner looks like, what image comes to mind? A man or a woman? For most of us, even though we might even be owners of a trade business ourselves, we think of a male. Yes. Gender stereotypes are still a thing. Since the 1980s, women have consistently represented no more than 3% of trade qualified workers in Australia. Research has shown gender stereotypes, bias, discrimination and harassment represent the main barriers, stopping women from enjoying the full benefit of trade-based roles. With the number of women going into trade, it is still low. It stands to reason that men continue to dominate trade business ownership. As you try to find your footing alongside your partner as a trade business owner, how can you raise with him that gender stereotyping is possibly holding you back? Examples of gender stereotypes. Women are natural nurturers. Men are natural leaders. Women with children are less devoted to their jobs. Women should not be too aggressive, outspoken, or smart. Men should be strong, aggressive and bold. Men are providers and protectors. Men who spend time with family are less masculine and poor breadwinners. You are not imagining it. Researchers believe gender stereotypes hold women back in the workplace. One of the stereotypes tells us that women lack leadership characteristics. Traditionally, assertiveness and taking charge have been chalked up as male attributes. For females. Building relationships, caring for others and cooperating are stereotypical traits. In turn, these gender preconceptions tend to influence whether we take on leadership responsibilities in the trade business, even if we’re completely capable. Women tend to low ball their abilities and men tend to overestimate theirs. A recent survey showed that compared to women, men are less supportive of gender equality, less likely to see sexism as extensive and systematic, and more likely to endorse men’s dominance in relationships and families. Perhaps you’ve never given much thought to why you haven’t taken on more responsibility within your trade business. Subconsciously, it could be the reason holding you back. In your conversation with your husband. Share your ambitions with him. You know the nice girls don’t ask stereotypes? Lean into it. Vocalize what you want, and explain why it will make things better. Traditional gender stereotypes are harmful for men too. These include self-sufficiency, like never asking for help, acting tough, aggression and control. These stereotypes are finally being shifted. Then you’ll be right, the mentality is being moved aside, making way for new norms for the Aussie male, including tough men showing their vulnerabilities, domestic roles and chores, not being defined by gender and asking for help as a sign of strength.

With the suicide rate among young tradesmen three times higher than for other men and construction work has been at least six times more likely to die by suicide than on workplace accidents. The evidence is in, breaking free of masculine stereotypes will have a positive impact on his mental health. But how in the heck do you have a conversation about gender stereotypes with your partner? Stereotyping is an unhelpful habit. We use stereotypes to simplify our social world. Think about times stereotypes might have impacted how you’ve treated your partner or how he’s treated you. Has it resulted in conflict? Is it causing low morale? Could it be contributing to productivity and retention issues in your trade business? Where did your fixed beliefs about each other begin? Did your partner grow up in a traditional nuclear family where his mom’s place was in the home? Did you see your dad take ownership of being the prime breadwinner and decision maker? Breaking the habit of unintentionally applying stereotyped assumptions about each other requires more than good intentions. Dr. Gina Cleo says, long-term change, take equal effort, and start with asking the following question. If we stay the way we are now with our current habits, what will our situation look like in six months, 12 months, and three years? Changing behavior, changing social norms. The way we behave is mostly automatic habit based and unintentional. For new habits to stick, we need to embed them into our new normal at home and at work. Social norms are the unwritten rules of behavior. Examples of forming a cue at store counters or saying, bless you when someone sneezes. There’s an unwritten rule that picking your nose during a meeting is not okay. Dr. Gina Cleo believes we can apply social norms theory to change behavior in a sustainable way. It’s about interventions that set expectations about what you want your positive social norms to be. Correcting the misconceptions or unhelpful stereotypes. Social expectations are powerful drivers of behavior. What social values do you want upheld by yourselves and your team? The social values we expect with our team are one, open communication. If something is bothering you, don’t bottle it up. Two, always respond with kindness. Three, take ownership of your work.

Lived experience.
Felicity Motycka, Ghostwood Landscapes,  New South Wales. Felicity Motycka is a female tradie and a male dominated industry. She started her landscape construction apprenticeship under her husband Blake, bucking stereotypes when she left her 15 year corporate career to join him. “I thought I was going to be plotting away behind the scenes in giving Blake things to implement such as new processes and systems. I am officially the apprentice, but unofficially I’m the real boss”. I do all the business side of things. I think Blake prefers it that way. He doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. He just wants to build stuff on site. For Felicity, it was a call for help from Blake that ultimately led her to quitting her job and joining him in a business he’d been running since he left school. Like many tradie wives, Felicity had become concerned about Blake’s mental health. She observed, he’d become totally overwhelmed to the point where he couldn’t talk about it. It was too much. Blake had built his business on perfectionism. It was hard to scale that he hated his work, and the business was going backwards fast. Felicity was trying to give Blake some hope when she registered for a Lifestyle Tradie Live event. “Once he heard about what Andy and Ange had to say, Blake started to see the light again”. It gave us a focus on what to work on together. Felicity gravitates towards the numbers and spreadsheets, and Blake is great with people and knows his landscaping. The biggest challenge has been defining their roles, including getting clear on who’s responsible for the communication with potential customers and who should do which part of the design and estimating process. Having no formal system and no formal handover responsibilities has led to some things falling through the cracks and other things taking a lot longer than they should have. “Because I came organically into the business, we never decided who would be accountable for what”. It ended up that no one was accountable for anything. Felicity is in the process of creating an organizational chart, factoring in growth of the business and assigning names to tasks. In the time Felicity has been in the business, she and Blake have gone from living off their savings to setting themselves up for the future in terms of superannuation and investing. “We’ve got a long-term view instead of just thinking about what’s happening this week”. While Felicity describes herself as the driving force behind the business, she’s reluctant to put a label on roles. Both Felicity and Blake are without titles on their emails. “I didn’t wanna label myself as a business manager or office manager because I’m also a tradie. I don’t wanna be stereotyped as that”. Instead, they’re equal partners. “It hasn’t been all smooth sailing, but me being in the business has definitely had a positive impact. I feel like we are more of a team now”. We unpack and repack tools and materials together every day. Previously, Blake would be outside doing it while I was inside doing housework. We take the kids with us on the weekend to pick up materials if we have to, and just make a fun family outing of it. Now, Blake and I have a landscaping business together, and I love it.

If you’ve got any questions based on this chapter or want to fast track your business, head to lifestyletradie.com.au or click the link in our show notes to book a free strategy session with Andy. Together, let’s transform your trade business and create the lifestyle that you deserve. But don’t just take it from me. Have a listen to what our Lifestyle Tradie members have to say.

Member’s Testimonial
Don’t wait. These guys are very honest and open. They share so much information, personal as well as, um, business. Uh, it’s a holistic approach to life, not just, uh, how to run your plumbing business.

Yeah, definitely joined Lifestyle Tradie, the amount of support and knowledge which, which is within the program is valuable. Um, the other thing is, uh, The community that Lifestyle Tradie has developed is amazing. There’s been so many times where I’ve learned on the community’s advice, where we’ve had certain issues that we’ve been able to bring up in our, you know, Facebook group. You get plenty of answers that you can actually action. You don’t know what you don’t know. 

Lifestyle Tradie has a huge sense of community, just a great group of people just hanging out. Helping everyone out and they help you out. Just hanging out after the events is always fun as well. Some great speakers come along and definitely always, always learning stuff from every event we go to.

Do it. Like don’t hesitate every year that you put it off, there’s just an extra year that you’re losing. You don’t get this time back. That’s one thing that we can never buy is time. So, need help? Get it.