E79. Our shock award win and our story on how we got there

In this special episode of the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast, we celebrate Prime Design’s incredible achievement of winning the Practice of the Year Award at the 2024 Building Design Association of Australia National Gala Awards. Join Frank, Amelia, and special guest Alicia take you behind the scenes of this prestigious win, exploring the dedication, innovation, and collaboration that set Prime Design apart in the building design industry.

They discuss the team’s commitment to delivering high-quality designs, exceptional client experiences, and industry-leading practices. Learn how Prime Design approaches modern challenges like regulatory changes and evolving client needs while maintaining a reputation for excellence.

This episode also touches on the importance of teamwork and the role of strong client-builder-designer relationships in achieving award-winning results. From initial concepts to final construction, Prime Design’s focus on lasting quality and attention to detail shines through.

Whether you're a client, industry professional, or design enthusiast, this episode offers insights into what it takes to stand out in the competitive world of building design. Celebrate this milestone with us and gain inspiration for your next project. Tune in now to hear the story behind Prime Design’s success! And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode, there is a new one released each week.

About us
Prime Design is a building design company locally owned and operated in Tasmania since 2004.  Our goal is to share as much valuable information as possible about the process of building design, extensions, and more. We will talk about a different topic each week. To suggest a topic you would like us to talk about contact us at info@primedesigntas.com.au

Disclaimer
The information provided on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, individual circumstances, or remedy. We strongly suggest you consult a qualified professional before taking any action based on the information provided in this podcast. The views, opinions, and information provided in this podcast are those of the hosts do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organisation, employer, or company. All content provided on this podcast is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this podcast and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, or damages arising from its use. We reserve the right to change content or delete any information provided on this podcast at any time without prior notice.

Transcript

E79. Our shock award win and our story on how we got there

[INTRO] (0:08 - 0:24)

Hello and welcome to the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast, focused on providing valuable information for anyone looking to undertake a new build or extension project. We'll share our tips, tricks and stories from a building designers perspective.

[Amelia] (0:36 - 0:43)

Hello and welcome to the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast, I'm your host Amelia and once again we're joined by Frank Geskus.

[Frank] (0:43 - 0:47)

Hey Amelia, how are we? 

[Amelia]

Oh look, pretty good for a Friday. 

[Frank]

It's always good on a Friday.

[Amelia] (0:48 - 1:26)

It is good, we've got a glass of wine and a special guest here today. We've got a special guest. Welcome Alicia.

[Alicia]

Oh thanks guys, special guest, been here for 12 years. Thank you, thank you. 

[Amelia]

Well we're happy to have you.

[Alicia]

Thanks. 

[Amelia]

Even if it has been 12 years. 

[Frank]

Yeah, very thankful.

[Amelia]

Well the podcast hasn't quite been going for that long but we thought we'd talk to you a little bit today about Prime Design. 

[Alicia]

One of my favourite topics, yes, Prime Design. 

[Amelia]

The place where you live most of the time.

[Alicia]

Pretty much yeah, I've lived a lot of my life here. 

[Amelia]

Yes, the family.

[Frank] (1:26 - 1:28)

Yes, part of the Prime Design kids.

[Alicia] (1:29 - 1:34)

That's exactly right, we always joke about the child care centre here don't we but we should have actually done it.

[Frank] (1:34 - 1:35)

We should have done one ten years ago because it would be quite profitable.

[Amelia] (1:36 - 2:01)

Yeah, definitely. So we attended the Building Design Association of Australia awards recently and you know we were nominated for a few categories and you know we were quite successful in all of that and one of the surprises that sort of came up was the practice of the year. How did you feel about that? Winning that is you know a bit of a shock.

[Frank] (2:01 - 2:06)

Oh yeah, didn't see that one coming. Yeah, immensely proud for myself.

[Alicia] (2:06 - 2:33)

Oh same, we've been very lucky here at Prime Design that we've had a lot of awards over quite a few years but for me in particular winning an award as a team especially when we have such a strong team focus was just amazing. Totally unexpected and we had so many staff there that night just because it was in Hobart so we were really, really lucky. We had so many people be able to go up and accept the awards as well which is just wonderful.

[Frank] (2:33 - 2:34)

Yes and we went with the green theme.

[Amelia] (2:35 - 2:52)

By accident, 

[Alicia]

We didn't mean to. Three of the women were dressed all in green. Oh and Veronica as well. Yeah, totally unplanned but yes we were dressed in green. We should have had more foresight and actually dressed in one of the Prime Design colours that would have been much more appropriate.

[Frank] (2:53 - 2:57)

Well that's true. Yeah. Good luck of finding some of those.

Yeah.

[Amelia] (2:59 - 3:19)

So I guess that's really the focus of today's podcast is really to go through what sort of makes Prime Design us and what are the key elements that drives us to being a business that is, you know, 20 years into fruition. You know, 20 years.

[Frank] (3:20 - 3:32)

Yeah, when you say that. Yeah, it's, I don't know, when I started Prime Design I could not have imagined we'd be here like this today.

[Amelia] (3:32 - 3:34)

Well it started from the garage didn't it?

[Frank] (3:34 - 4:44)

Yeah, downstairs at home. Yeah. And then doing, working full-time my regular job and doing part-time jobs and love jobs on the side and then got a little bit out of control and where I was working I was contracting out to all the guys in the office.

Can you help me out? Can you draw this up? Draw that up?

Do that? And then eventually I got offered to join some building surveyors to come into their building. They were renting a place. Hey, we've got some space here. Would you be interested? Yeah, why not?

So then I left there and just went out on my own. I had enough work to do that and I was so green at running a business. I was hopeless. I could do what I did. Technically I could do the work fine. There was no problem with that. But actually running the business, my wife went to learn how to use MYOB, did the bookkeeping. She hated it. Best day of her life when she got a pink slip after two years and we hired someone to do the bookkeeping.

But from there employing a whole range of wonderful people. Ange has been with me for nearly 18 years. 

[Alicia]

Almost all of it.

[Frank]

Yeah, it's pretty crazy.

[Alicia] (4:45 - 5:12)

Yeah, we have a really high staff retention rate actually. We've got a lot of people that are nearly at 10 years. I'm at 12 years, Ange at 17.

I think Courtney must be about 15, 16. Yeah, so we have a lot of people that have stayed around for quite some time, which is excellent. It's interesting, isn't it? Because we've got quite a few people who are reasonably new now and quite a few people that are more senior staff members. So it's a nice balance.

[Frank] (5:13 - 5:28)

It is. And I suppose early on the philosophy for me was bringing new people into trainees. Lots and lots of trainees. The majority of people have been trainees. I think it's close to 80 percent. So train them from scratch.

[Amelia] (5:29 - 5:29)

Yeah, or graduates.

[Frank] (5:30 - 6:04)

Yep, or graduates from the School of Architecture here in Launceston. Yeah, and that's been incredibly successful. It takes time to train people and you need to have a bit of a passion for that and encourage people to be able to do that.

And they've got to build the trust in you. So you're giving them the opportunity to learn on the job and in that stage learning from me what I knew. But then now it's gone the other way where everyone's teaching me how to do stuff because it's becoming more technically advanced in a lot of other ways and now we're all learning together.

[Alicia] (6:05 - 6:28)

It is. It's been a big shift. When I started I was three years out of university. I'd worked in Hobart for three years. So I had some good experience with concept development and planning. And then when I moved back here and applied for this job, I suppose I could see in myself that I was lacking in structural knowledge.

[Frank] (6:28 - 6:28)

Yeah.

[Alicia] (6:28 - 7:16)

But that was excellent. I was very honest with you in my interview with that and you said, look, that's not a problem because that I can help you with. And so when I came on board, that was the first thing we did.

And it was amazing because we had an engineer in house at the time. And with your assistance and everybody else, you know, that was definitely something that I chose, I sought out to fix in myself and my design abilities. So it's really nice to now be able to pass that, not that I know everything in terms of structural design.

It's, you know, constantly learning a lot, especially from our subconsultants. But it's really nice to be able to pass that knowledge back on to people that are in the exact same position that I was 12 years ago. And it's really rewarding to see them, you know, when it really starts to click.

[Frank] (7:17 - 7:17)

Yes.

[Alicia] (7:17 - 7:26)

And they really start to understand and ask questions that then start to stump you and you don't know, and you have to go and find the answer to questions.

[Frank] (7:26 - 7:27)

Or work together.

[Alicia] (7:28 - 7:31)

Or the best thing, now send them off to find the answer for you.

[Frank] (7:31 - 7:32)

Yes.

[Alicia] (7:32 - 7:36)

Even though you don't know and they come back and share their knowledge with the team.

[Frank] (7:37 - 7:41)

Isn't it amazing how much education we have to do every day?

[Alicia] (7:41 - 7:53)

Every single day. Every single day there's some form of code or standard or something that you're having to research. And we're so fortunate in that we have 12 designers.

Are we going to count you?

[Frank] (7:54 - 7:55)

14 actually.

[Alicia] (7:55 - 8:21)

14. Designers working for part-time to full-time. But we have so many people on board to assist with finding the answers.

Or if they've received some information from council, they can pass it on to us or an RFI. And we're lucky that we get to share that around so that we've got many people working on the solution. But also we can implement changes into our drawings that, you know, cover everybody's set of drawings.

[Frank] (8:22 - 8:24)

And that level of consistency.

[Alicia] (8:24 - 8:24)

Yes.

[Frank] (8:25 - 9:06)

And that's very important. I learned early on through my business coach, get consistency in your service, consistency in what you supply. So we supply design, drawings, but design's not necessarily consistent, but it's consistent how you detail things so they don't become a problem.

Box gutters. Everyone knows about how I hate box gutters, but I won't go there. But it's that consistency in the documents that we provide and keep never-ending improvement of those for the people that are working off the drawings.

Whether they're planning, builders, all the sub consultants, all the sub trades working for our drawings, it's clear. It can't be misinterpreted.

[Alicia] (9:06 - 9:14)

We love feedback. We're asking all the time. And, you know, we genuinely take it on board if feedback is given to us, if there's something that we can do better.

[Frank] (9:14 - 9:16)

Oh, 100%. Or constructive criticism.

[Alicia] (9:16 - 9:23)

Absolutely. As a team, we're all interested in that. There's nobody that's going to take offence if you say, oh, we'd like to see this.

[Frank] (9:24 - 9:25)

Oh, we had that today.

[Alicia] (9:25 - 9:26)

Yeah. We're learning with you.

[Frank] (9:27 - 9:38)

And people have their own preferences, and it's interesting in the construction industry, the builders have certain preferences they like doing, and that's great. We make sure that when we're doing a job for them, those preferences come through.

[Alicia] (9:38 - 9:46)

That's right. That's why we like to know at the start of the project if you have a specific builder involved, because we like to get their feedback and their input. It's invaluable.

[Frank] (9:47 - 9:58)

And if we, the synergy of working with a builder. 

[Alicia]

It's a good time. 

[Frank]

It’s wonderful. It's a good time. And I keep talking about that a lot. That partnership between builders is very, very important.

[Alicia] (9:59 - 10:29)

Yes. Same as our sub-consultants as well. Because we deal with them so often now, it's really wonderful. What you can pick up from somebody else's set of drawings, too, is amazing. And because you touched on before, things are becoming not difficult, but technically, they're a lot more involved than what it probably was a few years ago. So we are having civil engineers involved, hydraulic, all of this, but the amount that we're also learning from their skills is a great time.

[Frank] (10:29 - 10:35)

But we do ask questions. But remember, we've had engineers come and ask us about the building code.

[Alicia] (10:35 - 10:35)

Absolutely. We love to talk about the building code.

[Frank] (10:36 - 10:52)

Why do you do that? Oh, here's the reason. Here's in the code. That's why we do it. We didn't know that. Because it's such extensive documents, the building code, all the Australian Standards. Then you've got top, every state's got their own regulations and requirements. So we've all got to stay on top of it.

[Alicia] (10:52 - 11:02)

That's right. And then when we start to see those details on their set of drawings, it's a wonderful package to include with ours because everyone's on the same page.

[Frank] (11:02 - 11:36)

Oh, for sure. And we love helping the consultants too. We've had good relations with so many consultants over decades that if they need help and advice, we can give them that and vice versa.

And you get that little bit of knowledge from how much mechanical engineering do you know now compared to when you started? And you don't do a lot of it. And then your fire engineers, your bushfire consultants, your registered land surveyors, all those guys, wealth of knowledge, and that they are part of our partnership to be able to succeed.

[Alicia] (11:36 - 11:45)

Absolutely. There's so many jobs now, anything other than a single residence, we're having to engage so many sub-consultants, or even with a single residence.

[Frank] (11:46 - 11:47)

Well, you've got a minimum of four.

[Alicia] (11:47 - 11:55)

That's right. But once you start getting into anything multi-res or commercial, sub-consultants, you've got a whole team involved in getting this project off the ground.

[Frank] (11:56 - 12:52)

Oh, exactly. Yeah. But I think it's also important for customers to be aware, or even the general public to be aware that when we start looking at projects at the start, and this will educate all the team, look for the areas that you're going to trip over or become a hindrance to your project.

It could be flood modelling, it could be bushfire assessments, it could be civil engineering. And it's learning to identify that before you even start the project. Then you can advise the customer, be aware of these things, not halfway through the project.

[Alicia]

Reactive. Yes. 

[Frank]

You want to know what one of the classics is though, I find?

And this still comes up in our mate Toby Wilkins from Torple. So that where thermal assessments aren't done early enough, and then they come to the end of the project, all the construction drawings are done, and hey, it doesn't work, doesn't meet the minimum requirements. And then you're scrambling to try and make it work.

[Amelia] (12:52 - 12:54)

It almost sounds a little bit like double handling.

[Frank] (12:55 - 13:02)

If you don't do it in the right order, yes, you're right. So we pride ourselves and do our best not to have that happen.

[Alicia] (13:02 - 13:23)

We try our best. Look, we're not faultless either. I've been there, I've had a project that I thought, absolutely, this will meet the minimum energy rating quite easily.

And then it hasn't, and it's been quite a shock. Yeah, that's right. But you learn that hard lesson once, and then next time you order your preliminary energy assessment much faster.

[Frank] (13:24 - 13:26)

Because sometimes you don't think you need it.

[Alicia] (13:26 - 13:27)

No, that's right.

[Frank] (13:27 - 13:47)

So education is still a big part of what we do though. One of the best things I thought you brought in was, ask any question. So every couple of weeks we have 30 minutes, we've got a whiteboard, ask any question.

Anyone can write any question. There's no prejudice, there's no double questions. It's a safe space.

And we've had some doozies.

[Alicia] (13:47 - 14:03)

Oh, we've had the best questions. Questions I can't answer. Questions that we're looking to actually have to get people in to assist us with.

But it usually ends up with you on the whiteboard trying to show us with a diagram, or from experience, what has happened if you don't do this.

[Frank] (14:03 - 14:04)

Yes, that too.

[Alicia] (14:04 - 14:17)

Which is excellent. It's a lot of team involvement too, and I've got to do that next week actually, because I cancelled it for today. 

[Frank]
I noticed that.

[Alicia]

No, I thought it would be a good activity for next week.

[Frank] (14:17 - 14:19)

I think so, yeah.

[Alicia] (14:19 - 14:21)

We've got a lot of questions for next week.

[Frank] (14:21 - 14:24)

Have we? Yeah. Okay. Do it on Friday.

[Alicia] (14:24 - 14:24)

Drainage.

[Frank] (14:25 - 14:25)

When we knock off.

[Amelia] (14:26 - 14:49)

Oh, water drainage. Well, you know Frank's motto. 

[Alicia]

No box gutters.

[Amelia]

No. Too much drainage is never enough. I don't know how many times that is drummed into my head.

[Alicia]

However, recently a project where we had way too much drainage, and Frank came in and he said, no, no, okay. We've heard it loud and clear. You've gone way too far.

[Frank] (14:49 - 14:53)

Is there a river here?

[Alicia] (14:55 - 14:57)

So we are listening, always, always.

[Frank] (14:58 - 15:03)

But we all listen to each other, coming with good reasons or asking good questions.

[Alicia] (15:03 - 15:13)

We have so many people in the team with such different skills. So you would have had spoken to Bianca before with her skills with Access for Life.

[Frank] (15:13 - 15:15)

Yeah, disability access.

[Alicia] (15:15 - 15:30)

And it's just incredible to have somebody in-house that can answer these really complicated questions regarding accessibility and performance solutions. It's so specialised, that area, that it's really wonderful to have her involvement.

[Frank] (15:30 - 15:31)

Oh, it's gobsmacking.

[Alicia] (15:32 - 15:40)

It's incredible. But also we have Tahleah doing interiors as well, and she runs that aspect of Prime Design at the moment.

[Frank] (15:40 - 15:44)

I'm still amazed at some of the stuff that comes in. It's just beautiful.

[Alicia] (15:44 - 16:08)

It is. It is. It really, it elevates all of our projects, her involvement.

And the way that she interacts with clients, it's a really wonderful thing to watch interiors, because it's that next level from your house, all the way down to the smaller details. And she really, really puts in ... I've seen her take photos of somebody's dog, and they become the artwork in her renders.

She really, she doesn't hold back in ...

[Frank] (16:08 - 16:10)

Yeah, like the renders she did at my house.

[Amelia] (16:12 - 16:23)

Just to fill everyone in, that was ... Tahleah had a really fun time putting together photos above Frank's bed in his house in the renders.

[Frank] (16:23 - 16:24)

Of the whole team.

[Amelia] (16:24 - 16:30)

Yes, the whole team. 

[Alicia]

Just so you don't forget us. 

[Amelia]

Yeah, in case you want to see us in the middle of the night. It's not creepy at all.

[Frank] (16:33 - 16:35)

Isn't there another one she put in the kitchen as well?

[Amelia] (16:35 - 16:38)

Yes, oh, that was a self-portrait, Frank.

[Frank] (16:38 - 16:43)

Why would I have a self-portrait in the kitchen? 

[Alicia]

Oh, she's just wonderful. 

[Frank]

Just rolling around laughing.

[Alicia] (16:43 - 17:02)

Yes. And of course, we have Drew and Mitch, who I consider them to be the commercial division of Prime Design. So we really, we have Tarcia working on pools almost exclusively.

We've got a whole range of people and skills that we can draw upon for all of our projects.

[Frank] (17:02 - 17:06)

But also wanting people to develop their own areas that they love doing.

[Alicia] (17:06 - 17:20)

Absolutely. That's probably the most fun aspect of my role at the moment, which is to just help people achieve where they want to get to, what they want to do. And they're so good at it here that we're celebrating things all the time.

It's excellent.

[Frank] (17:20 - 17:23)

Yeah, it's fun to be able to celebrate, isn't it?

[Alicia] (17:23 - 17:36)

Oh, it's so good. It's so good. You're sharing that when you're such a strong team, you get to genuinely be part of everybody else's success. So when you've got a team as big as ours, it's been a wonderful year.

[Frank] (17:37 - 17:44)

It has. It definitely has. And then topping it off and getting, you know, practice the year, that was a real head spin.

[Alicia] (17:44 - 18:00)

It really just felt for us, we're on the right track. Everything that we've been working really hard for is to be recognised, not just by us, because I think as part of the team, we know like how hard we work and the effort we put in. But that was a wonderful surprise.

[Frank] (18:01 - 18:06)

Yeah, it is. Yeah, I suppose justification for everyone's efforts that they've put in too.

[Alicia] (18:06 - 19:03)

They work so hard. Yeah, yeah. I think it comes down to opportunity as well.

[Amelia] 

I think when you're given an opportunity to either expand upon your role, expand upon your education, there's a certain drive in that too, that sort of propels you forward and makes you, you know, enjoy your work a lot more as well. I don't know, I think that's a massive aspect of a role in any job, but yeah, to be given those opportunities to, you know, pursue certain areas that you are passionate about. I think that's another reason why we have such longevity in the staff and sticking around.

[Alicia]

Absolutely. You're excellent at this, you know, you say, okay, you're interested in disability access. What can we do about this? How can we grow this? You want to do a healthy homes course? All right, let's four of you do it.

You know, so it's, you have to keep learning.

[Frank] (19:03 - 19:16)

You also follow people's passions. That's right. And sometimes you don't know what they are, and you've got to work your way through it, you know, the healthy homes, you know, and also meeting Zara. We had Zara on the podcast. Phenomenal what she does.

[Alicia] (19:17 - 19:32)

It really is, and she's so passionate about it, and you get really, you know, really into it doing the course. And every staff member that's done the course, you know, they've said the same thing. You know, it's really wonderful to see what she's doing.

[Frank] (19:32 - 19:36)

And it opens your eyes to another area you may not have considered. Absolutely.

[Alicia] (19:37 - 19:47)

And you might not follow that path completely, but just to be open to all of that livable housing, you know, most of us have now done that course.

[Frank] (19:47 - 20:45)

Yeah, that's true. And we're quite passionate about livable housing in Australia. And for those who don't know what that is, it's providing different levels of disability access into everyone's homes.

It recently got brought into the National Construction Code. Unfortunately, in Tasmania, it was supposed to come in on the 1st of October, somewhere around there. And the powers that be and a few other influencers stuffed it up completely. They just made a complete cock-up of it and watered it down. And they're going to spread it over two years, like kicking the can down the road. It's so ridiculous.

And I think it's very short-sighted. Because we've done it. We've worked on people's houses.

We've been doing these types of houses for many years. Everyone has the right. It could be disability, it could be an injury, it could be whatever. And it makes the manoeuvrability and accessibility within the house so much better. And it's not a lot extra. And that was the frustrating thing.

[Alicia] (20:47 - 21:02)

Frustration for us was also that we were prepared for this. We were ready. We'd held in-house training sessions.

We had started preparing our clients. We'd sent out brochures to people to explain what these changes were. And then it was just pulled at the last minute.

[Frank] (21:02 - 21:32)

Within seven days, it was just ridiculous. And it's funny, if I talked to one of the builders that was actually involved in the discussions with CBOS to change it. And we both disagreed with each other. We're still mates. It's all good. And he's got a different point of view.

And I suppose that's a problem in the industry. There is always a different point of view. But I can see this long-term benefit for everyone in Australia because we've got an aging population. And that's just fact. And Tasmania's got the oldest population in Australia.

[Alicia] (21:33 - 21:40)

We were introduced to this a bit earlier as well. So we've also had a long time to kind of think about this and contemplate it.

[Frank] (21:40 - 21:41)

We did the course.

[Alicia] (21:41 - 21:59)

That's right. So this is not new information to us. It was just going to become compulsory.

And so we were probably really quite prepared for it. So I can completely understand if you weren't around what these changes could be, there would be a definite level of concern that there would be.

[Frank] (21:59 - 22:08)

You had to do. And actually see it, where a lot of these builders and people in other organisations have not, or they're concerned about how much it costs.

[Alicia] (22:08 - 22:16)

Yeah. A lot of these things are being done anyway, though. Like if you haven't noticed, most custom houses now, you will have a 920 entry door, which is already a tick.

[Frank] (22:17 - 22:18)

Because people like it.

[Alicia] (22:18 - 22:20)

That's right. And you have to get furniture through somewhere.

[Frank] (22:21 - 23:10)

But again, it's about education. And I love educating people. And that's why we do this podcast.

[Amelia] 

Exactly. 

[Frank]

It's just about education. 

[Alicia]

Educate ourselves.

[Frank]

Educate everyone else. Share this, because there's no... Housing, and I won't talk commercial building, that's another little bit. Housing is so easy to get wrong. I kept banging on about choosing the wrong site, wrong decisions for your house, wrong claddings, wrong access. Your budget doesn't match your dreams. A whole bunch of things. And the whole point is educate people. You can make better decisions because of that, do the research.

If we keep banging on about doing research, don't believe us, do the research. And that's what it's about. When you come in and see a company like ourselves or anyone else, becoming really well-prepared, becoming eyes wide open.

[Alicia] (23:10 - 23:14)

And tell us everything. Tell us what your worries are. We'd like to hear it. We want to help you.

[Frank] (23:15 - 23:46)

Yeah, exactly right.

And I understand, especially after we've had a good three years of building businesses go broke and cause total mayhem all over Australia. And we have not been immune to that. We've been hurt badly by a number of these builders that have gone under.

And it's the worst thing to see from a business point, obviously, but it's even worse for the customers because their life is on hold.

[Alicia] (23:47 - 23:48)

It's devastating.

[Frank] (23:48 - 23:50)

And in some cases, it sends them completely broke.

[Amelia] (23:52 - 23:55)

So how does a business overcome those sort of challenges?

[Frank] (23:56 - 24:27)

Well, that part, I'm not sure about the builders. We work with a lot of quality builders and you don't know sometimes of where they're at financially and stuff. But you can usually tell really good builders though, that really care what they do.

They're definitely not the cheapest builders, but you know, they're going to do a really good job. And for us, if we recommend, we don't necessarily recommend one builder, we recommend three at any time. And then you go interview the builders, go talk to their customers, make sure you're happy with them.

[Alicia] (24:27 - 24:28)

Talk to them.

[Frank] (24:28 - 24:29)

Talk to them. Yeah.

[Alicia] (24:29 - 24:31)

Make sure your personalities are compatible.

[Frank] (24:32 - 24:46)

Well, it's yeah, because it's a relationship that can go from anywhere between four months to two years. We've seen some big houses get built over a long period of time. And it is quite a marriage, but it's a pretty strong relationship for a while.

[Amelia] (24:46 - 24:50)

It's the same with a designer too. 

[Alicia]

Yeah. That's right.

[Amelia]

Many months often.

[Frank] (24:51 - 24:52)

Yeah. In some cases years.

[Amelia] (24:53 - 24:53)

Yeah.

[Frank] (24:54 - 24:57)

And we're very fortunate. We've got a lot of customers that keep coming back.

[Alicia] (24:57 - 25:04)

That's the best. When they just call you up and say, building another house. You want to be involved? Of course we do.

[Frank] (25:04 - 25:05)

Yeah.

[Amelia] (25:05 - 25:11)

I guess we've been around that long that people have gone on to their second and third and probably fourth houses. 

[Frank] (25:11 - 25:17)

Yeah. And we've got the same with builders that have stuck with us. A lot of customers just keep coming back.

[Alicia] (25:17 - 25:34)

Yeah. Or they're friends. Or their children. That's how long we've been going for. 20 years. 

[Amelia]

A life sentence. 

[Frank]

Not quite.

[Alicia]

I'd like to think of it a little bit more positive than a life sentence. 

[Amelia]

No, they're stuck with us.

[Frank] (25:35 - 25:42)

Yes. And it's wonderful to have that assurance that they trust us to do that with their properties. Yes.

[Alicia] (25:44 - 26:00)

It's very rewarding for somebody to come back to you or clients that they're returning for even an update to the property that you worked on the first time. And it doesn't fit them completely now or things like that.

[Frank] (26:00 - 26:04)

Things have changed or, hey, we can do an extension. We can get the house size that we wanted.

[Amelia] (26:04 - 26:38)

And I guess doing all of the marketing, I get to experience the end of all of that because I'm not part of a lot of that beginning process. But I get to go and see how happy the clients are when you walk into their brand new home or their new extension and they want to show you everything inside their house. And this room does this, this and this.

And we love the layout. And these are the pendants we chose and blah, blah, blah. It is really such a rewarding experience to say, I love my house. To hear that from a client is so amazing.

[Frank] (26:40 - 26:42)

Just doesn't get any better than that.

[Alicia] (26:42 - 27:14)

It doesn't get any better than that. And it never gets old either. I love going to people's houses and they tell you all about the house.

So much information because they've been so actively involved in it as well. They know what the room sizes are. They know all the details of the house because they've been such a big part of that process.

And so they're telling you the story as if you don't know. Of course, you know, you've drawn the house and designed the house with them. But it's so wonderful to hear it from their perspective.

[Frank] (27:15 - 27:21)

I've been in the game so long where I've gone into, go back to a property that I did work on previously, different owners.

[Amelia] (27:22 - 27:22)

Oh, wow.

[Frank] (27:24 - 27:35)

So I've been in this game a little bit too long. But that's rewarding too because then you can see how it's actually, how's it aged? How's it performed?

[Amelia] (27:36 - 27:37)

Yeah. Has it stood up?

[Frank] (27:38 - 27:39)

Generally, they have.

[Amelia] (27:39 - 27:41)

Well, you'd like to think so.

[Frank] (27:42 - 28:06)

Considering my background, I certainly hope so. It'd be rather embarrassing. But that's also very, I love going back to see how products have performed, how it's been used.

That's a wonderful part of that. And I think more so in the future as the housing is now going to greater efficiencies and there are other challenges with that, how those houses are going to perform.

[Alicia] (28:07 - 28:18)

Absolutely, to see how they perform long-term, especially considering everything that's happened regarding waterproofing and condensation management and all of the new ventilation, I suppose, rules that we have in place now.

[Frank] (28:18 - 29:01)

And also getting into the different types of housing because you're going to start going into generational houses. And it hasn't happened here in Tassie yet, but dual occupancy. That's a big thing on the mainland.

It will come. So all these changes are happening because affordability is a problem. That's just a straight out fact.

And now we've got to get smarter in how we do a lot of this stuff. And it's not going to get more affordable. Everyone says affordable homes.

It's not going to happen. So that means we've got to change our expectations. And that's where we're seeing a lot more of the granny flats, the smaller houses.

And I think that's going to be more of potential starting points for the parents helping their kids. Yeah, they move out of the house into a granny flat. The kids move into the house.

[Alicia] (29:01 - 29:07)

We need that kind of movement as well because two people in a house don't need necessarily a four-bedroom home, do they?

[Frank] (29:07 - 29:14)

Yeah, yeah, I know. Laughing because that's what I'm building at the moment.

[Amelia] (29:14 - 29:23)

To be fair, I live in a house with four bedrooms too with two of us. So are you going to build a granny flat out the back for you and Veronica to move into for the children?

[Frank] (29:26 - 29:26)

No, no.

[Amelia] (29:27 - 29:28)

You needed a bigger block for that.

[Frank] (29:29 - 29:30)

Oh, I don't need a bigger block.

[Amelia] (29:30 - 29:31)

You needed 25 acres for that.

[Frank] (29:32 - 29:38)

No, no, no, no. It'll definitely be a smaller one next time. The garage will be bigger than the house.

[Amelia] (29:38 - 29:40)

Oh, I believe that. 

[Alicia]

I believe that too.

[Frank] (29:41 - 29:43)

We've done the Man Cave podcast.

[Amelia] (29:43 - 29:49)

We have, yes. Well, we might start wrapping up because we have been talking for 35 minutes.

[Frank] (29:49 - 29:50)

I'm blaming Alicia for that.

[Alicia] (29:52 - 29:59)

Well, Prime Design and praising the staff is one of my favourite topics. 

[Amelia] 
Yes, we could go on for a long time because there's a lot of staff now.

[Alicia]

Yes, yes

[Amelia] (29:59 - 30:23)

I want to finish off with are there any people or organisations or any kinds of partnerships you’d like to mention for supporting Prime Design? Because we haven’t won awards or got where we are today without help from other people as you mentioned you’ve had business coaches to help evolve, so is there anyone you’d like to mention? 

[Frank] (30:23 – 30:30)

Yes, Mick Hawes and Jullie Cassar, been my business coaches for oh gee it must be sixteen or seventeen years.

[Amelia] (30:30 - 30:31)

Has it been that long?

[Frank] (30:31 – 32.18)
 yeah seriously and they for me have changed my mindset, all these techniques, these ideas, the coaching has been unbelievable so that’s Builders Blackbelt Business. So BBB. And they focus on builders now, that’s their target market. But they are amazing, they’ve helped me to no end. There’s been a lot of other mentors, my brother in accounting, he’s helped me all the way through. Other business owners we get together and talk and for me learning to become a leader and a business owner has not been easy, you learn you grow to be able to do that and it’s never ending. But also, the Building Designers Association of Australia, meeting some amazing designers and some business owners there learning heaps and I’ve been fortunate enough to be on the board for many years and learned lots of things there and be able to contribute to be able to give back and hoping to be able to give back a bit more there as well. 

All our subconsultants too that we work with you know and there’s been so many over the years geotechs, structural engineers, civil engineers, mechanical, electrical hydraulic engineers, consulting planners that we have, specialist guys that do the most obscure things arborists to heritage and things like that. You know all these guys are fantastic at what they do but help us help our clients achieve amazing results.  Yes there’s so many people over the years and the past people who have worked for us that have retired and…or gone and started their own business, its been wonderful to watch that as well where some of the guys have stepped out to want to have a crack at doing their own thing and I’m immensely proud of them for doing that.  It’s not easy.  

[Alicia] (32:18 – 32:35)

But that’s what we try to do here don’t we? Build skills so that you could become an independent Building Designer on your own. You Know so we from start to finish you’re not involved in one aspect of if you’ll run the project from start to finish. This is your baby you take responsibility for it. 

[Frank] (32:35 – 32:36)

Yes, and all aspects.  

[Alicia] (32:36 – 33:09)

That’s right and you look after it, Of course our whole team and also we’ve grown a lot since I started there was about five staff members to now even the structure of the company so for you and Angela and the way that you’ve now structured the company so that there are opportunities for other people to grow, it’s excellent because you can’t stay stagnant so you have to continue learning and you have to have something to achieve constantly. And you know we’re a team of people that want to achieve so you know it’s an exciting time for Prime Design.  

[Frank] (33:09 – 33:24)

Yes, a few changes and we’ve got quite a number of new staff members about to start with us and a few other people transitioning out you know like Bianca who will be able to concentrate more on AFL (Access for Life). It will be sad to see her go but you know she’s going to go follow her passion. 

[Alicia] (33:24 – 33:37)

It allows our other senior guys to step up which their already doing you know everyone has to step up to fill these voids and their doing amazingly, they know that they are, we tell them. 

[Frank] (33:37 – 33:38)

Yeah they are. 

[Amelia] (30:38 - 30:40)

We might wrap it up there. 

[Alicia] (30:40 - 30:41)

Thank you. 

[Amelia] (30:38 - 30:49)

That’s a nice place to stop I think after all of those lovely comments. Thanks for listening to the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast. 

[Frank] (30:49 - 30:50)

Catch ya’s later

[Alicia] (30:50 - 30:52)

Thank you. 

[OUTRO]

You’re listening to the Building Design, Prime Time Podcast.