How To Handle Bad Clients

The fastest way to ruin a good business isn’t a slow market, it’s tolerating the wrong clients while telling yourself you have no choice. We open with some World Cup final banter, but it quickly turns into something more useful: what it looks like to stay calm, profitable, and in control when the construction industry feels tense and everyone’s running the “it’s tough out there” script.

We talk about why negativity spreads so easily across builders and trades, and how it quietly drives bad decisions, like accepting risky jobs, letting late payments slide, or doing variations without approvals. We get specific on construction business systems: stronger accountability (including why more trades should be registered, with waterproofing as a prime example), clearer payment structures, and how red tape like home warranty insurance changes can add friction. We also unpack the double-edged sword of AI in construction and ChatGPT, where “more informed” clients can become more combative if the process isn’t airtight.

Then we go deep on client management: spotting red flags early, building trust before signing, protecting your team’s mental health, and knowing when the real win is walking away. You’ll hear a brutal worst-client story that ends in legal action, plus a separate gut-call decision that likely saved a business from a COVID-era contract disaster. We finish with a reminder about investing in coaching and personal development, and a blunt perspective on risk, time, and legacy that puts day-to-day stress back in its place.

If this hits home, subscribe, share it with a builder mate, and leave a review. Then register for the Builder Summit and DM us if you want the book giveaway, what’s the biggest client red flag you’re refusing to ignore from today onward?

Transcript

World Cup Final Morning And Verdict

George 0:00

Surely you watched the uh cup final. Did you go through the pub? No, I just stayed at home. I was gonna go to a mate's house, but then I ended up staying home and watching it with my boy. That's too early. Yeah, it was a bit early. Like we planned. It was like a couple hours later. Yeah.

Robby 0:14

Like, alright, I can meet, I can see people. Yeah. That 5 a.m. kickoff, it's a bit early. Um, what were your thoughts on the game? As a as a professional FIFA uh connoisseur.

George 0:28

That's right. So I reckon uh it was very one-sided. I I think Spain should have won by a lot more. I think they had the majority of the play. Yeah, they had the whole game. Yeah, they they dominated the game, they were clearly the better side. So I think it they were deserving to win. I think as soon as they got that red card, Argentina, it was very hard for them to get saw that. Um so I think it was very hard after that for them to really come back. It was just gonna be very lucky if they did get a goal at any stage after that point.

Robby 1:01

Do you think um did you see the fight at the end?

George 1:05

No, I missed that. I as soon as the game stopped, I was to the left and went to work.

Robby 1:09

No, they got into a fight, dude. The players got into a fight. One of the Spain players, and I'm probably gonna fuck this up, but this is what I saw. I saw the highlights of it later. I didn't see it happening live. Uh, but one of the Spain players was running past one of the Argentina players, like they're all celebrating, and he was running the guy from the bench was wearing like a pink vest over the uh a pink highlight, you know, with the uh the bibs, yeah. Yeah, and he was running past, and the Argentinian players uh stuck stuck out his arm and like kind of close like into his gut. And then the player stopped and turned around, and then they got into each other's face, and then they started throwing punches. There you go. It's like wild.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah, cool. Um I miss that part.

Robby 1:53

It's everywhere. You you can't miss it if you if you Google it, I'm sure um you'll see something about it. And they started throwing punches, and there was all sorts of chaos happening, and uh they weren't handling it very well, the Argentinians.

George 2:04

No, no, but look, I think uh as far as the competition is concerned, what a great competition. I would go as far as saying it's better than the Olympics.

Robby 2:14

But of course, dude. I would leave this podcast if you said the Olympics were better. You would the Olympics are better. We invented it. I would get up right now.

George 2:25

We invented the the Olympics. I have to be biased. No, but I reckon it's a fantastic competition. Like to bring the world together the way that it does, to celebrate the game. People are so passionate as well. You see people crying and laughing and everything that comes of it, the personalities that come out of it, the players, just it's wild. It's wild. Such a great competition, and to see that happen. And I think it was great to see it in America as

Halftime Show And Sports Hype

George 2:50

well. Did you watch the halftime show?

Robby 2:52

Yeah, I thought it was horrible.

George 2:54

Oh, really? I just look at it and go, still, it was good from the perspective that they just put on a show.

Robby 2:58

Oh, but I don't think it compares. It doesn't compare to like the Super Bowl show.

George 3:02

No, it didn't. It didn't, but I think it was a little bit different.

Robby 3:05

Yeah, it was like it was just meh. Did you think it was good?

George 3:08

Did you watch it and say I I thought it was entertaining? Did you really? Yeah, I thought I didn't think it was bad. I've seen worse. I've seen worse, especially at an AFL grand show.

Robby 3:17

What was the most entertaining thing? Oh, it's just everything as a whole. I would say the last AFL grand final show was I can't even remember that. Snoop Dogg. Oh, that was pretty cool. Yeah, I would say that was better than the World Cup.

George 3:30

Yeah, but how do you go against Snoop?

Robby 3:33

Yeah, but like I don't know. I feel like they they um and maybe I'm just uh conspiracy theorists. Of course you are. I feel like they're targeting uh the youth. Did you notice like everything had kids and it was all about kids and it was all about the youth? Eventually, dude, the whole halftime show, every single thing had a kid involved. Yeah, and now all kids and Shakira was singing with kids all around her, and she hugged all the kids at the end. And it was like Shakira, by the way. For for a 50-year-old?

George 4:03

No, she's not 50. Shakira? Yeah, I think she's mid 40s, isn't she? Or early 40s?

Robby 4:08

Late 40s, 50. She's um yeah, she's she's something for sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

How old is she? Fuck 49? Yeah, 50. She's banging for 49, Jesus. Uh money talks. Good idea. Hey, she's obviously looking after herself.

Robby 4:29

Yeah, just took PK for half of what he's got.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Oh, really? I don't even know that.

George 4:37

Um Yeah, so I think it was a great competition. It was good to see. It's a shame, it's another four years away. Yeah. I wonder if they did it annually if it would still be as big.

Robby 4:47

Well, you know, scarcity tends to increase how much you value something.

George 4:53

Yeah. It does. Being a world cup uh a world cup player in a winning team. Like that's a pretty amazing thing to achieve in your career as a soccer player. To win a World Cup for your country and to be one of those very few really players that achieve that level of uh success. On the big stage. Yeah. Yeah. But really cool. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Um I'd love to see Australia get further in the competition one day. I wonder if we'll ever see an Australian team win it. That'd be pretty amazing. Even Greece, I'd love to see Greece win it. That'd be pretty cool. Don't know if I'd see it in my lifetime.

Robby 5:34

Well they they weren't even in it.

George 5:35

No, they weren't. They haven't been for a long time.

Robby 5:37

I don't know, Greeks don't play soccer. No, they're they're good at basketball.

George 5:41

They are. Yeah, they've got a great Euro team. I'm surprised.

Robby 5:44

I've said like I've said it to a few people, I'm surprised they don't do better in in soccer, but who's the uh who's the who's the goat in soccer?

George 5:56

I mean there's two there's two guys.

Robby 6:00

Are you saying an all- did I say goats?

George 6:03

Yeah, no, there's two guys in contention.

Robby 6:05

Yeah.

George 6:06

Who's the goat? I mean, if I had to say, I I would probably lean towards the messy side. Why? Just from the achievement and accolade. I mean the the World Cup, it's hard to say. He he performs on the big stage.

Robby 6:19

Messi does.

George 6:22

I don't know. I'm sure it definitely has something to do with the team that's around you as well. Yeah, it's a team sport. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Anyway, I again I I I'm sure there's lots of people out there that know a lot more than me on the topic and could put far better arguments forward than what I can.

Robby 6:38

It's uh it's always a good chat though. Um

Builder Summit Plug And AI Talk

Robby 6:41

okay, so just before we went live on this pod, you and I were sitting and discussing your the current campaign that we're running uh for the upcoming Builder Summit. So Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane. Guys, if you haven't already registered, I don't know what you're doing. The link will be in the description, it's on the website, builderelite.com.u it's everywhere.

George 7:05

Socials, you can find it. It's not even hard.

Robby 7:07

At BuilderEleet, builderelite.com.au. It's everywhere.

George 7:10

I'd actually be upset if it hasn't popped up on your feed yet. If you listen to this and it hasn't popped up on your feed, um let me know because then I'll have to find a new marketing company. Yeah, me too.

Robby 7:20

Um you've probably seen the ads at this point. And uh if you haven't registered, register already. But we're talking about how well the campaign was going. Yeah. And then we're talking about the current state of the market, right? And you know, we're doing all these things around AI, and people tend to think that you know, construction's gonna be the one of the last. You hear all the pros. Uh, how do I how do I AI proof my business? Go become a plumber, you know what I mean? And they're never gonna go fix tall, or not yet, not for a long time anyway. Blah blah blah. Uh but your take on it was that you know the industry is it's tough at the moment. I d I try not to buy into that haven't you? I just remembered something. I I saw this post yesterday. Do you know this guy? Uh I reckon you've at least heard of him. Fucking Instagram motto. His name is um I'm pretty sure it's Dwayne. Uh I think he's I I I s I'm pretty sure I might I might have completely screwed it up, but I think he's in Brisbane.

George 8:25

Uh oh yes, I know he was called kind of guy, but yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Robby 8:28

I follow him on Instagram. Nice guy, seems like a nice guy. I don't know him. But he put up this post yesterday, and I I watched a little bit about the most thing, but he made a really good point. And I I 100% agreed with what he said. And he goes, Listen, he goes, everyone I speak to, he he starts off the post by saying, you know, I I've got a fair few follow- I think he's got like maybe I got no idea how many followers. I'm gonna say like 10k. And he goes, you know, he goes, I if I pop into the shops, people tend to know who I am, blah blah blah. He's like, I'm not bragging. He goes, but every single like you know, every time I see a build they come talk to me and say, Hey Dwayne, you know, I follow your stuff, blah blah blah. And he goes, Yeah, he goes, and every single person says the same shit. Oh fuck, it's tough out there. Oh, the industry's fucked, oh blah, he goes, and you get you guys just need to fucking stop with the negativity. And I say the same thing too. Like, I think you know, so victim this industry. Yeah, like everyone I talk to, oh you know how hard it is, you know how tough this is, do you know how much risk we're taking? Jumps in brand new Range Rover and takes off. I'm like, hey, like I I told you, I don't know a single builder that drives a bad car, not one. Uh and hey, fucking great. Yeah, so you should. Like, I hope you never drive a bad car. Yeah, yeah. Do you know what I mean? Um, that's so you should exactly go make all the fucking money in the world. Well done. Hopefully you fucking share some of it, have a positive impact, hire people, yeah, you know, positively impact the economy, build some really cool homes, and uh, you know, leave your mark on the world. But the the overall consensus is fuck, it's tough. Yep, fuck this industry, it's changed, it's shit. What do you what's your what's your take on that? Do you agree that that's the overall consensus of the industry at the moment?

George 10:15

Yes, that's

The Industry Negativity Problem

George 10:16

definitely the consensus.

Robby 10:16

Dude, 100% more.

George 10:17

No doubt, no doubt about that. And there's a few things with it, and I tend to agree with what you just said. It's like it's there, yeah, it's hard. Yes. Good. All right, so there's an opportunity in itself. So I was having this conversation with myself, with uh my old man, actually, and also just I just have conversations with a lot of industry professionals, a lot of people. And I was looking at it recently and going, okay, what's the next five years look like? Can I see positivity in the next five years? Is it gonna get better? What does positivity mean? I'm just saying, is it gonna get better? Is it gonna get easier? Is it gonna get less red tape? Are we gonna be able to make money?

Robby 10:54

Okay, so what industries get better?

George 10:57

Oh, I think the tech industry, I think the AI space is getting better.

Robby 11:01

You reckon? Yeah, I think so. And why wouldn't it be getting better? The technology is getting better, or the industry is getting better. I'd say the technology is getting better. Did you know there's been a the the the stats on this are ridiculous, but the cost of AI has uh I think there's been like a 10,000% decrease or something stupid like that. Decrease in what? Decrease the cost of AI. So if you're an AI company, yeah, so if you're an AI company, well, how the fuck are you supposed to be making money right now? Apart from the fact that it's super hot. Do you know what I mean? But the the cost of it is actually the cost to the consumer is actually going down and down and down, and it's only gonna get cheaper.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Yeah, right.

Robby 11:39

I don't think we'll see these subscriptions like it's never gonna cost you a thousand dollars a month to have yeah, it's like a closed order. Yeah, unless you're like running a hundred agents and blah blah blah. Right. But the cost of it is going down. So just because the industry is you people would argue that it's easier to build now than it was uh like the 50 years ago. Yeah, well the technology, yeah, the equipment, yeah, the the you know what I mean, the manufacturing, the different suppliers, the things you can use, people should be more educated. The industry should have red tape is technically supposed to help you.

George 12:21

Yes, it should, but uh I don't think that it does in this space, would it all right? No, not at all. There's things in place.

Robby 12:28

Like holding

Accountability Through Registered Trades

Robby 12:29

plumbers, making sure they're licensed, holding them to an account of it.

George 12:32

So okay, so we're talking about improving the industry. I actually think every trade should be registered. I'm a believer in that, in the sense of at the moment. What does that mean?

Robby 12:40

Which what's okay so you think uh so Carter should be registered? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So what they can't do commercial work without being No, they can't do any work at all.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

People who are home and homes.

George 12:51

No, no, no, well, in the sense of if you want to do it as a business, if you want to paint your own home. So for your life. Sorry, when you mean commercial, yes. Yeah, for commercial. From business to monetary, yes. Yes, monetary gain, yes. You're gonna paint your own home, go for it. You fix your own car, go for it. But what I think needs to happen is I reckon a lot more trades need to get registered and be registered as a requirement. Now, things might get a little bit more expensive as a result of that. Of course, but the better quality and and um and level of accountability is gonna be there. It's there's huge advantages. I think there's huge uplift with that. So, for example, I think so. You've got plumbers are registered trades, electricians are registered trades. There's other trades that you need to get an apprentice to become qualified, but they're not necessarily a registered trade. So, for example, if I employ a carpenter. Yeah, if I employ a carpenter now, they build a frame. There's no, there's no fallback or responsibility on that carpenter to warrant that frame. The builder has to warrant that on there. That's right. The builder has to sign off on it. Uh, and the same with so many trades. I think waterproofing is one that has to be a registered trade. Like it has to be. We ripped up nine and a half years later. I've just I did a project nine and a half years ago. And today, tomorrow, we've just finished having to rip out the bathroom floor because there's the waterproofing failed, it had leaked under, and it was just fucked. Now, these things happen, but there was no recall on me to go back to that Tyler. Now, when I say that, I had contracts with people, but good luck me finding that Tyler saying, hey, you got to come back and spend five grand and fix this bathroom. It's just never going to happen. Now, I think that's a trade that has to be registered. If something goes wrong, you can make a claim against their insurance, or they make a claim against their insurance, whatever it is. There has to be some tie back to that level of responsibility. I think that would improve the quality of construction because now more people aren't going to go for the cheapest quote to go and do their waterproofing. They're going to go to a reputable trade that can warrant their work. And there's a bit of security in that space. I think that would alleviate some problems, not everything. I think there's got to be an onus on there's got to be a change in the structure of payments. And I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon as far as owners to builders. The current scheme doesn't work, where it's a deposit base frame lockups fix final, and it's a percentage of that. That's method A. And then there's method B, which is a more staggered claim. I don't think that's uh great. And there should be something there with a level of security to pay the builder that the builder pays the trades and so on and so forth. So I think there's there's levels there that can be improved, and I just don't see that happening anytime soon, especially not in the next five years. So I'll look at it and go, I'm looking at it not as a builder. That's how that's where I'm looking at it from. I'm not looking at it as a builder, I'm looking at it as a business owner. I'm investing my time, money, effort, and resources into this business. Is it the best business that's gonna give me the level of success that I want? And I look at it and go, I'm not sure. I things need to change for me in order for that to be the best business for me to go. And yep, I'm gonna continue with this. So, for example, we're saying there's more red tape. They've just changed the whole insurance scheme in Victoria with home warranty insurance and how you apply for it, how you get it, how you qualify to get X amount of insurance cover. And I look at that and go, okay, they're putting more barriers in place. Things are getting more expensive. Clients are actually more educated, but I don't think that's a great thing. I think they're going into their chat GPTs and going, oh, is this right? Is this right? Is this right? They get the narrative painted for themselves and then they go, oh, to the builder, oh, these are wrong, I'm not paying you this much. And it just creates people who are not experts to think that they have a level of expertise in construction.

Robby 16:28

So you think we're worse off of people being more having more opening.

George 16:35

I think so. I think so. Yeah, I kind of do because I look at it from even Google before AI was there. Like you could always go onto Google and do a bit more research and go, oh, is that right? Is that wrong? Now look, I'm not saying that there aren't builders out there that don't do the wrong thing and that do need to be called up on something not being built properly. I'm sure that exists as well. But the vast majority of builders are not like that. And I think we're definitely painted in that in that narrative. But coming back to what I was looking at, and I'm looking at this now, going, okay, that's the residential space. These are the parameters, these are the roadblocks, these are the challenges that I have to face. And I can sit there and go, what you just said, oh, everything's fucked, not interested. I'm going to shut down my business or I can't do this. Every day's a complaint. But I've looked at it at another way and say, okay, I'm still I'm still going to build. That's not changing. But maybe I do need to change my focus a little bit. Maybe I need to change the clientele. Maybe I need to change the subbies. Maybe I need to change the employees. Maybe I need to change the business structure. How do I get this to work in the constraints that it's at? Like I have to look at that. So it could mean, okay, I'm going to go to Brisbane. Better regs, it's easier, better trades, whatever it might be. Nicer weather, I'll feel happier up there. I can absolutely I can. You've got to get registered in that state.

Robby 17:48

But you could say I'm I'm registered in Victoria. Yeah.

George 17:52

And just get a transfer of your license to um New South Wales, uh, to Brisbane or even. You can lose your V Clice. No, no, you still have it. Uh-huh. You just pay the fee that's up there and you're registered there. So fortunately for us, Victoria is very regimented and very difficult to get your license here. So generally, when you go to the other states, it's like, yeah, just you pay your fee and you get your license. You don't have to do tests or anything like that, which is good. So people are doing that. I know a lot of people that have gone into state because here it's so cooked for them that they they've weighed up their option and gone, okay, that's the space that I'm in. I'm going to control my environment. I'm going to go to Brisbane. I'm going to go to South Australia, wherever you're going to go. So that's an option that I looked at.

Changing Your Market And Client Fit

George 18:30

The other thing I was looking at is saying, well, maybe my niche needs to change. If I'm in this space that's so difficult to succeed in, there's so many barriers, there's so many issues, there's so many things, why am I just going to sit here and complain about, oh, I'm not winning quality jobs, oh, the people are fucked. Oh, the trades are stuff. Well, maybe I change my niche. And that's what we're looking at too now. Like I'm investigating all of these things. I'm not going to be a victim to the environment. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I've I've gone through that. And I reckon in the, I'm going to say in the coming months, I'm if everything comes to fruition that I'm cooking in the background, in the coming months, I'll do an episode. We're going to do an episode on it with someone else, and we're going to announce what we're doing. So putting it out there in the world for the world to hear and see. But we're looking at other avenues of generating wealth and business and working in the construction space still, but just in a different sector. And that controls we're sorry, we're able to control a lot more of the outcome in that instance. It's not heavily reliant on all the issues that we're facing in the residential space.

Robby 19:30

Yeah. Do you think um do you think the grass always seems greener?

George 19:38

I think so, especially when you see it, the perception. I guarantee you there are people that look at me in my business and go must be nice.

Robby 19:45

Yeah, of course. Without a doubt. No, no, that's it.

George 19:47

Without a doubt.

Robby 19:48

More, more like okay. Do you think because dude, I I feel the same way. Yeah. I I think, you know, fuck, like I've got a s you could go and pick up a contract for a four million dollar home. Yeah. And you'll make X. X amount of dollars. Yeah. Yeah. And then it's like, cool, man. Like for me to make that, I think to myself, I have to sell so fucking much. Like it's like, I gotta sell so fucking much to get to that ticket. To get sell that same ticket. And it's like, cool, man. Like that seems lucrative from that element. But then there's the other element of like, say, for example, uh, a pizza shop might look at us and say, Man, like, I gotta sell a hundred pizzas to make what someone pays you in a month.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Yeah.

Robby 20:36

You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, and you get that, and it's like and yours is recurring.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Yeah.

Robby 20:40

And that that look at that, and that'd be like, fuck, like, that is, you know what I mean? Blah, blah, blah. I gotta I'd have to sell so much. Um, but then there's the there's the flip side of like someone who invests four million dollars with you is going to do your face in. Yeah, you do get that, and rightly so. It's four million dollars. It's like all their money.

George 21:03

That's right. It's often, and that's what's something people don't think of. It's often people's life savings that they're investing with you, with you.

Robby 21:09

Yeah.

George 21:09

And you're that, and there's a level of stress that comes with that, especially when you're thinking you're gonna get you probably get the worst version of someone. Yeah, it's so true. Yes, you do, you do, and it's it becomes demoralizing. That's what I found. Even with my team, they get demoralized when they're dealing with a bad client, with bad subbies. It becomes, it becomes exhausting. You don't want to go to site, you don't want to go to the project. You just know that it's problem after problem after problem. And it can become just detrimental to your mental health, but also how you're operating your business as well. So, yes, you do often get the worst. It's like everyone's always happy at the start of the job when you're signing a contract. I think it tells the caliber of the relationship and of the person at the end of the job when they pay their final invoice, that they're still happy, they're injured, they're they're grateful, and that you've done the right thing by them, and vice versa. That's great, that's a great collaboration. And I think about that a lot because I have clients that if they called me up right now and said, George, I need you to stop the podcast because I need like this is I need you to come and help me, I'll stop the podcast. No, no. Come on. Come on. You're not that good. Surely you're not that good. Relax.

Robby 22:16

No, but you know what I mean? There's highly balanced.

George 22:18

Okay, if I was at home now, it's say it's 6 p.m. I've just got home, about to have dinner. They're like, look, I I've this is an emergency. I really need your help. Can you come down? I said, yeah, no worries. I'll see you there. And then I've got other clients that I block. Like, don't call, you're not allowed to call me after 5 p.m. That's it. My you are not on my do not disturb list. Right. Now that's that's it, that's just the nature of people. And it's like I'm looking at that and going, how do I control that? Because I in the course of I keep using COVID as a benchmark from the perspective of that's where I personally noticed the greatest change in people behavior. And I think that's a fair thing. I like it. COVID really brought the worst out in some people, brought out some good in others. But I think it really turned, it was a turning point that I've noticed in the industry, especially in my business. Now, I might be solo on that, on that um thought, but I noticed that from that point on, people thereafter, it's it's like the industry shifted. How things were done, how things people, how people think. So many builders went broke. What specifically? Well, I think so many people went broke during that time, builders-wise. And I think that had a huge flow-on effect with the industry and how people were seeing how builders were seeing the trustworthiness of them, and then people's perception of them. So that by any time people are getting into contracts now, like you're often getting people wanting to buy a brand new home as opposed to going through the building process because it just saves them that headache, that heartache, that risk. You've got a final product that they can just walk in and buy. And yeah, I I think there's been a shift since that time. And I've had projects over the last few, say, three, four years, I've had clients who are amazing, and then I've had clients who are not so amazing. And I go, okay, I've had both. So what's what do I need to do to always have this? How do I get that amazing client every time? Because I've done it. These people trusted me, these people got me and employed me, and we've delivered them an excellent job. I haven't changed the process here. They still got the same service, they still got the same George, but what's changed that made them flip? And so what is it? I think it's the individual. How do I control the individual? If I can control my processes, my systems, everything we operate, how do I control that individual and what they're going to do? Because day one, everyone's happy. Day one, they're both on this side. They're both over here and they're loving life and so excited to be building with us. And then on day 365, they resent you, they don't like you, they don't trust you, they don't pay you everything that's owed. And it's like, well, what's happened on that journey to get them to get them to that point? Now I'm sure this like construction's challenging. You said it before. It is a challenging thing. For me, I look at it and go, any challenger comes up, I'm like, whatever. Like, well, you saw the conversation I had before this podcast. A client was like, Oh, you didn't, I was speaking to an architect. He's like, Oh, yeah, that $1,100 variation, I'm not gonna be able to get that one through. You know, the boys did it on site before getting proper approval. The owners sort of knocked it back saying, if I knew it was gonna cost $1,100, I wouldn't have done it. Now that you've done it, you haven't got the signed variation, like I don't want to pay for it. I'm like, okay, that's fair enough. Right? But he's stressed over that now. The client would have seen an $1,100 buck variation, got his backup, been up all upset and go, I'm not paying for this. This is bullshit, probably gonna be upset tonight, whereas I've already forgotten about it. Like, whatever. It's okay. You're you're you're right. We should have got approval before we moved it because you didn't have the opportunity then to move it, to say, no, I don't want to spend that money. And he's actually in the right. My team did the wrong thing. They should not have proceeded with the work without a proper approval for the variation. Their go-to for anything that's different on the drawings, and I'm again not my fault. I've got to communicate this to them exceedingly clear. Anything that is different from drawings, you have your first words that come out of your mouth is yeah, not yes, I can do it, right? Don't be agreeable. Don't customers always write mentality. No, no. I'll check with the office that there's no additional cost and they will be in touch. And if there is, if there isn't, we'll do it. If there is, approve it and we get moving. So I'm sure along the journey things happen that upset people, but I can't control that because you might have that same scenario on this side, and the client's like, oh, yeah, I did ask him to do that. That's fair enough. I understand that now that I've got to move this PowerPoint, I've got to put in an extra 30 meters of cable. That's extra time, labor, and material. I understand. And they're totally fine with that. But this guy over here, that loses his mind.

Robby 26:46

Yeah, but okay, so then is it a case of uh and and I'm I'm not necessarily talking about this story specifically, but say the one where you said, you know, we've got to, but two people start here, one ends up happy there, and the other one doesn't. Is it a case of bad client or bad management of the client?

George 27:10

I'm sure it's a combination. But again, some people you can't please, some people are just ingrained. It's just ingrained in them. Like they hated builders before we even started. Do you know what I mean? Or they they see you as a perceived enemy, not an ally. And I think that's a a huge issue. Like if you, and I've said this to people before, I said, listen, if you don't trust me to build your home, my advice to you is my professional advice and opinion to you is do not sign this contract. If you don't trust me to build this, you need to go with the person you trust. Because we're gonna get into a you know six to 12 to 18 month relationship, depending how big your project is. And if you like that's gonna be horrible for both of us if you don't trust me and I don't trust you. So there's got to be a level of trust before you sign a contract, before you move in that right direction. And I think I communicate that quite well at the beginning of a project and I build that rapport and I build that trust with them. And yeah, it could be something a team member does that upsets a client. Who knows? And then that's why they get that back up. So there's there's, I'm sure there's ranges within that space, but I looked at that, tried to look at it subjectively, and I said, all right, well, if the the numbers don't lie and I'm gonna get 50% of the clients that are really good and 50% that aren't great, can I bring these ones over? Yes or no? And if I can't, am I gonna still continue down this trajectory of going, all right, I'm forecasting to make a million dollars here and I'm gonna lose 800 there. Is that gonna happen over the next three, four, five years? I'm better off going and making $200,000 at a pizza shop. Right? So I look at it from a business perspective, not from the industry is fucked perspective. Because if it was, it's all doom and gloom. Like you won't go out and it's it is, and it is for a lot of people. It is, but the it's the opportunities you miss.

Mindset Beats Doom And Gloom

George 29:00

So it's the red car theory, which we speak about at our events. It's like if I told you today, how many red cars did you see on the way to work? You couldn't tell me the answer. But if I said to you on the way home, I'm gonna give you $1,000 for every red car you see, you're gonna be looking at every single red car. So you're looking for the opportunities. If you have a negative mindset, you're never gonna be open to the opportunities. If you have a positive mindset, you're gonna be amazed at the opportunities that pop up. And this has happened to me in the last week. The last week of me just having this venture that I'm looking at, I've found one, two, three opportunities that have the potential to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just three opportunities that had I not been looking in that space or been aware of them, never would have come up before. Never would have come up because the industry's fucked. I only focus on high-end residential, so on and so forth. There's a bit of ego that comes into it too. And I've definitely been victim to this. I'm a luxury home builder. All right. Look at me, I only build luxury homes. I only build the best homes, the most expensive homes. Who gives a shit? Do you make money? Are you making money building luxury homes? Oh no, not really. Then you're no good. All right, you what are you in business for? Go work for someone. You know, go and work for someone. So for me, I've had to remove ego a little bit because I I wanted to be known as that luxury high-end home builder, delivering excellent projects. It's cool building really nice jobs and big jobs and all that sort of stuff. And I and there's more money in it too, because it's not everyone can do it. But does it mean you have to shift your focus a little bit? Does it mean you have to go in a different direction? And I think that's the case in this instance, and that's what we're looking at doing at the moment. We're excuse me, we're fortunate we've got enough work to keep us busy and we're looking at opportunities moving forward.

Robby 30:55

Do you think um well so if someone's got that and I would dare say for the people listening to this, a large portion would be you know in the construction space. Uh do you think that well what do you think they should do if they have because I would assume they have doom and gloom most most of the audience, not everyone, but I'm sure some people are happy, chat. I speak to some of our clients and they're over the moon, right? And I thought nothing better than great clients, like nothing. It's the greatest thing in the world. It's also nothing worse than a bad client. Yeah, um, but what would you say to the to the people who are currently like, yeah, it is fucked, it is fucked right now, you know? And then you because people will uh people will fight for their limitations, yeah, you know, and they will, you know, if you say nah it's not, they'll be like, what do you mean it's not, man? Look at this fucking look at this variation, look at this thing I just got knocked back, look at these bills I have to pay, yeah. Fucking haven't heard back from these tenders, blah blah blah blah. And it's like you can find every reason in the world to uh prove yourself right about that. Yeah, you could also find every reason in the world uh to see the other side. Yep. So what would you say to someone who's maybe stuck in that kind of doom and gloom mentality? What what what is it you think gets people stuck there?

George 32:15

I think your limitations will become your reality. Like your limitations and your mindset behind it will become your reality. It's your mindset will become your reality. That's as simple as it is, as I could make it. Your your mindset will become your reality. Now, if you have a negative mindset, you will have a negative reality in business, in life, in everything. Yeah. It's too hard to lose 10 kilos. Oh man, are you serious? I've got to go to the gym every day. Yeah, that's right. It will become your reality. That's so true in so many aspects of business and life. And if there was a war outside and bombs are getting dropped everywhere, out like across the road and everywhere, and we're like, oh, you know, I need to win a job tomorrow across the road where there's bombs. Okay, like sometimes the reality is the reality if it's really that bad. But we're not in that space. We don't have bombs dropping. There's no huge catastrophes, there's no massive recession where people are living on the street and begging for food. Like we're not in that level at that level yet. Are things difficult? Yes. Can things get better? Yes. Will they get better? I think in time, yes. I think the government will change, we'll start making a bit more money, the economy will get better, consumer confidence will go up, housing prices will go up again.

Robby 33:32

There's definitely a lack in consumer confidence.

George 33:35

Yeah, there is, absolutely. I think a change in government would be a really good thing. I think that'll be a fresh uh start for a lot of people and get a bit of confidence back in the world, in the country, sorry. So I think a change in government's uh on the horizon, I'd be I'd be very upset if Labour got back in again. It's possible, but you know, it's it's it's a possibility that they'll they'll get back in there. But I would like to think that they their time is done. They've proven that they're pretty incompetent of late, and surely that's detrimental enough for them not to win the next election, both state and federal. But again, we have that change in government. Is that the spark that ignites everything and everyone? Because it can change very quickly. Maybe someone would be like, Man, you call them up, hey, how are you, man? Dude, I've got so much work making so much money that I can't keep up. Imagine you got that response for someone that said, Hey, how you going? Said, mate, I'm making so much money.

Robby 34:28

Yeah, but I'll tell you, like, if the person is doom and gloom in that scenario, that person would focus on the negative. Yeah, that's a I'm I just cannot keep up. So fucked, it's so working. Seven days a week, we're out of control, it's chaos, it's busy. I just fucking I can't even talk here. What do you want? Yeah, just you know, and they they kind of have that, they kind of have that approach. It's like that that's the perfect example, you know. You you wish and and hey, I've I've fallen victim to that. Well, I can't speak, man. Fucking and you know I have to remind myself in those situations. I'm like, hey man, there's fucking times where you wish this fucking thing rang. You know, you wished people had responded, you wish people would reach out to you, you wish and now you're getting all these people calling and you're like, oh man, my fucking phone doesn't stop. Yeah, yeah, it's like what are you, an idiot? Like this was what you fucking wished for. Um so sometimes you gotta remind yourself of that. And I I think one of the worst one thing that can really stick you in that doom and gloom thing, uh I think is is bad clients. I think if you get and like you know, we do we do fairly long terms, but I would dare say yours is definitely a stickier relationship, maybe?

George 35:50

Yeah, it's a generally it's longer term and it's much higher numbers. As I said, most people are not equipped to cope with the level of financial stress, understanding um the burden of building a home, they're not equipped for it. And I think part of my process. That's right. I think part of the process from the builder needs to be able to give them some tools to understand and say, hey, this is what's gonna happen. This is how it's gonna progress. Okay, I need you to understand, I've got your back. I'm looking after your investment. You need to understand that. You've got to give that person the comfort, the understanding, and you know, the level of respect that they deserve. But go, listen, this is gonna be a process. It always is. And the people of all my best projects, the people that trust the process. And you've got to have some buy-in from them mentally, not just financially.

Robby 36:41

What do you mean by mentally buy-in?

George 36:43

I think they've got to really wholeheartedly trust you as their builder, as their person that they're engaging to do the job.

Robby 36:49

Are there any um do you have any bad client stories that you're uh can share live on the pod?

George 36:56

Yep, yep,

Worst Client Story And Legal Lessons

George 36:57

yep. I had a client many years ago for a project we did uh in an inner eastern suburb, and he I I remember you you actually touched on this before we spoke. And I remember sitting across the table from him, like I am here. I always had the architect on my right, husband and wife on the other side, and we'll just literally contract was in front of them. I they were just about to sign it, and then it was on to me to sign after them, and they're talking, and they're this and that. I'm like, and I remember thinking to myself, I said, I'm like, you're fucking weird. Didn't say it out loud. I go not that they were weird as they were a bit odd, as people are concerned, but there was something there that I was like, there's something about you that I don't like. And they turned out to be my worst ever client. Worst ever client. When I say worst ever client, they were getting us to do variation work without any intent to pay. They took adverse possession of the home, so it was a renovation project. So they came in one day, we came to site to keep working, they'd come and change the locks, took possession of the home, and then said, We're not paying you, get stuffed. So we took them all the way to county court, we went the whole way and ended up going to mediation before court, and we ended up just parting ways. But you know, it was a good lesson for me to learn from a perspective of I've never been to court before, or I'd never gone through that legal process before, so it was a good lesson to learn in that regard and how that worked and what it meant. There was oh, I at the end of the day, I also learned that you don't unless you're chasing huge dollars, it's not worth going down that path. Um dude, it's almost it becomes it becomes cost neutral. It's no, it's that's right. And my barrister, my solicitor, said that he goes, look, unless you're chasing a couple hundred K, he goes, it just becomes ego at the end of the day. It becomes ego if you have enough money to say, no, no, fuck them, we're gonna go the whole way. I don't care what this costs go. And it's yeah, it was just really interesting. Like I'm grateful for the experience because it also taught me that like after that project, I updated my T's and C's in my contracts. I made more effort to help the client understand that I was doing business with as hey, this is how the process works, this is what it means, these are our payment terms, this is how we're gonna help look after your job. So there's a whole range of good things that came out of that. And that made me a lot of money, even though at the time they didn't pay their final invoice. In the long term, it's made me a lot of money. It's given me opportunities that, man, I can't even quantify. I can't even quantify. I I do builder elite, I coach builders all across the country, made hundreds of thousands. Over the course of Builder Elite being in operation, it's it would have made over a million, it would have made, yeah, it would have made over a million bucks in revenue, at least over the last three years, four years, whatever it's been. So, I mean, that's a great stat for a business that's uh a consulting business, like doesn't have the the value of what the homes I'm building.

Robby 39:58

No, but it also doesn't have the outlay.

George 40:01

No, that's right, that's right. Or the overheads. Yeah, correct, correct. But what I'm getting at is I never would have been in a position to do something like that if I didn't have that life experience, if I didn't have that business experience and that life experience. So, you know, this person was coming on site without uh approval, walking around, taking photos. There was a time when we'd partly demolished part of the building and he was just walking around looking at everything. And I'm like, dude, we have literally evacuated the site because that chimney is about to fall down and you're just walking around willy-nilly. And that could have fallen on you, and then I would be going, going to work safe, saying, they them saying, Where's the form that you sent him to said not that said not to go to site? I'm like, are you serious? Like, you know, things like that. So I remember at the time he did that, I sent him a breach notice. That was the first breach notice I've ever sent a client. And this is at the time when I liked him, as in when there was no bad blood. He was the first person I've ever sent a breach notice in the contract. I said, if you go to site again, like we're gonna terminate contracts. You cannot come to site without doing that. He's the first person that's ever gotten in my face, in the sense of we're on site once and he got in my face. And I actually said to him, I said, mate, you better step the fuck back. Okay, because my next you you you step up to me again like that, I'm gonna knock you the fuck out. I actually first, I'm not a violent person. I'm not a person that's ever escalated anything. But at that moment in time, it was during COVID as well. So pressure and stress is high. He actually stepped up to me and you know, finger in my face and said, mate, you put your finger in my face one more time, I'm gonna fucking break it. And then he left sight and we didn't really speak again after that. I said, All future communication, you go through your fucking solicitor. You don't fucking talk to me anymore. And that's what happened after that. So that was the last time I well spoke to him post that, but you know, that again was a was probably the most challenging situation I've ever been in. Never felt like that before in business, never seen someone act like that. And just thought, what an odd human being, you know, to do that in that instance. But again, like let's be a sit back and look at from a bird's eye view during COVID. He's probably stressed, his prop his project's delayed, which it was, yeah. Very stressful.

Robby 42:09

Yeah, no shit. I think every fucking COVID.

George 42:11

Six months it was at least six months late.

Robby 42:13

Pretty sure I had someone tell me recently they've still got a COVID contract, and I was like, what are you doing? I was like, dude, COVID was like six years ago.

George 42:20

Yeah, uh so look, there's an element of going, well, he was going through a really stressful time too, and he couldn't articulate, he couldn't handle his emotions, and he was taking it out on the one person that he could, which was me or the you know, the company going through there. So, you know, it doesn't just it doesn't make what his actions right, but there's a contributing factor to it. I'm very sure it was his family home.

Robby 42:41

Yeah, but so where do you where do you draw the line there?

George 42:44

I draw the line with the disrespect. Like for me, I the lesson I had there is that I should have terminated that contract before it even got to the final stage. That's what should have happened. Now, the way I would have done that is by sending the notices when the notices needed to be sent. Whereas I never did that. It was always like, no, no, let's just get through it, let's get this stage. He was always late with payments. Like the day it was late, I should have sent the notice. You're late. We're stopping work on site. Here's your cost per day. And when he doesn't pay that and doesn't respond in the appropriate time, we say, cool, here's your second notice, here's your termination letter, go find another builder and just walked away. And that would have been cheaper for me than going the whole way. Yeah, well, hindsight's a bit thing, isn't it? But if I do it again, then again, that's my fault. Like I should have done that. The thing is, I find with most builders, myself included, we're always trying to do the right thing by everyone. Like get to the next stage, come on, all right, come on, do it. We've released the payment now, I'll get this done. And they're like, no, no, I'm not paying for that, I'm not paying for that. And it's like you're just in that vicious cycle until you get to the very end, and all of a sudden it's two, three hundred thousand dollars you're okay, or a hundred thousand or fifty thousand. It's a lot of money for someone. And that's what you've got to look at at the end of the day. That's where it has to lie, and you've just got To follow the process and trust the process. So when uh when if if I ever have another bad client again, which I hope not to, and I don't, I've got great clients now. So I need to put the disclaimer out there. I don't have any bad clients now. I've got amazing clients now, but I've only got amazing clients now because of me going through the shit before. So I keep them in check, I'll keep them accountable, say, listen, we've agreed that you're going to do X, Y, Z. If you don't do that, I can't do my job properly. If I can't do my job properly, it delays the project, there's costs incurred, there's a whole range of things, delays, whatever it might be. So as long as you follow the process when it comes to that point, I think everyone's okay then. I think there's more control on it. And you just have more recourse to push back and say, no, you know the T's and C's, you know what we agree to, you're not doing your end of the bargain. On that basis, we're not going to continue on site. Let's just go our separate ways. Maybe that's the conversation you have to have sometimes. So, hey, how about I get you to frame stage? And I can recommend a few builders if you want to come in and finish off your project. We're obviously not seeing eye to eye. Let's just be adults about this. I still want to give you a quality home. I still want you to get into your house, blah, blah, blah. We'll still give you all your certificates, you know, all your compliance that we need for this particular stage. And then how about you finish it? Maybe you can do it on a builder, because you clearly know more than what I do. Maybe you can go do it at Owner Builder and uh and finish that job yourself. So perhaps that's yeah.

Robby 45:22

So you you said um when you signed with this guy the day of the contract signing. Yeah, you looked at him and you knew. I'm assuming you didn't tell him. No, of course not.

George 45:32

You knew it's I didn't know because again, I'm happy during contract signing too. That's when we make money, when we sign a contract. And I'll like I but it was still something there.

Trust Your Gut Before Signing

George 45:44

Like I'm looking back. You had a hunch. I had the hunch, I had something there, and that hunch paid off in the future because during COVID as well, we won at the time the biggest project we'd ever tended. It was a I'm gonna say it was close to 10 mil. It was like a $9.5 million project. And I tended on it, it was I think it was 10 or I think it was like 13 townhouses in Heidelberg, and we won the project. Shook the hands, contract sent, everything ready to go. And it was over the Christmas break, and then they came back to me and they go, George, uh, we sent you the contract, blah, blah, blah. I read through the contract and I was like, oh, there was this again during COVID. This is it was during the time when we just got out of a lockdown and we thought things were gonna be good again. That's before the really long lockdown. Yeah. So it was that that point, and that's when I got the contract. And in that contract, it had clauses like we couldn't claim for delays as a result of COVID, we couldn't claim for material increases as a result of COVID, a whole range of things that we never really discussed, but they sort of crept them in. And this is before the time of uh AI, that I could just chuck it in there and say, hey, what's my exposure? And then I started to, I was looking at that, I'm like, there's something not right here. I can't, I don't like where this is going. And I was looking at everything and so on and so forth. And I ended up calling the guy up in January or February of that year, this developer. And I said, Listen, we've just and we just won another big project, like a single home. And I look, I've thought about it. Our position's changed since November last year when you awarded us this project or December last year. And I don't think we can continue with it on the basis that our focus is going to be more so on the single dwellings, the large homes. And I think this townhouse development isn't gonna be suited for our business model at the moment. And I reckon we just go our separate ways. I thank you for the opportunity. I hope that we cross paths in the future, wish you all the best. But and look, it was between me and another builder, so he went with the other builder. But what happened? That was it. I went on my gut. Like, don't forget that I was gonna make good money, I was gonna make over a million bucks on that job. So I had good coin on it, but I went with my gut. After that, we couldn't get any timber. We could not get timber. That's when the timber shortage started, where we couldn't get any timber coming into the country. Then everyone went to light gauge steel, like gauge steel went through the roof. It was ended up being 30, 40% more expensive than timber. My supervisor that was going to put on that job uh quit because he had mental breakdown or mental health issues. So he quit. So the guy I was gonna put on there quit. And then the industry just that's when we had all these massive delays and issues across the jobs and the lockdowns, five people on. Imagine building 20 townhouses with five people allowed on site. It's impossible. You can't do it, just cannot be done. And I would have been left holding the ball with material increased costs, I would have left been holding the ball with the time issues, the costs and constraints with that. Now, would that developer have been sympathetic and helped me out? Maybe. Who knows?

Robby 48:54

Probably not.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

If it's in his contract, probably not.

George 48:58

Yeah. So I look back at that and go, I'm so glad that I followed my gut and I didn't go down that path. And I look back going, if we took on that project, there's a good possibility I wouldn't be trading as Pascal. You know, I'd be doing something else.

Robby 49:13

He's selling pizzas.

George 49:14

He's selling pizzas. Now, I mean you brought it up before the podcast, but following your gut, what what do you how do you follow your gut? What is it? Is it just you feel weird and you just listen to it and you go, okay, we're not gonna do business? Well, because there's got to be some more. I'm a logical person. I want to know, I don't want to just think, oh, I didn't feel the room didn't feel right when I walked in, so I walked away.

Robby 49:36

You don't walk into the room and sit there, like one second, I'm an Aquarius. Let me just um I can tell I can fit the moon position right now. That's right. Uh allows me to feel what's happening in the room. And you don't you don't do that?

SPEAKER_01 49:52

No, I don't do that. I don't do that. So, do you have something more tangible that I can actually go off?

Robby 49:55

All right, and that is I'll I'll tell I'll tell you something that someone told me once. Um, what I would do, dude, is I I truly believe, I believe you know. In your head, you know, in your heart, you know, but your head is blocked because you need the money most of the time. And you're kind of like, fuck man, we could do with this revenue right now. You know what I mean? And I I believe that if you were true to yourself in your heart, most people, if you're listening to this right now and you've ever had a bad client, if you're true to yourself, I would dare say that nine times out of ten, you knew before you went ahead. You knew that fuck this might like I might regret this, but it was kind of you know, things are tough right now, we're in a shit position, I don't have anything else in the pipeline, and sure. Yeah, yes, we'll do it. Okay, oh, you want that? Yeah, okay, cool. Like just say right now, we just need the revenue, just say yes. Yeah, and yeah, I I I think that's I'll speak for myself. I would say like that has been my issue in the past. Do you know what I mean? In the sense of like, and and and I would say that like me personally, I'm one who doesn't say yes to everything. And if you've ever had spoken to me, I'll you probably I probably said that to you. It's like, but sometimes you're in a position where it's kind of like you know that this client's gonna do your head in, or you know, I mean, they're it's you can tell, and you're like, I shouldn't I if I was in a better position, I would probably say no to this. You know what I mean? But you don't because you're not in that better position at that time.

George 51:32

Yes, I agree. And I kind of get some more like that gives me a bit of drive in all honesty, because if I had I look at it from a perspective when I have problems and issues on site, it's like, well, if I had 50 projects, would this be an issue?

Robby 51:45

Yeah, or if you had 50 people lined up to work with you, would you be working with this person? Yeah, that's right. Like I probably wouldn't. Yeah.

George 51:51

So I think that helps that helps to reframe it sometimes. And I I try and lean on that a lot of the time. And that's again, even when ego comes in, because if you have that one bad client across 50 projects, well, that's when you just say to Sister, hey, handle this, don't talk to me, speak to this person, they'll get you all the information you need. Go all the way. You got my approval.

Robby 52:10

Yeah.

George 52:11

Because you don't care in that instance. But it's further to that though, I think um I I I like the position that you've taken on that.

Robby 52:20

I I just think in my experience, and I I feel like it's most people, but I I I dare say that's uh that's the truth, you know. And if you had a bunch of people lined up ready to work with you, you would be in a different position. Because then you'd be like, hey man, I've got amazing people that want to work with me. I'm not gonna put up with your nonsense. Like, you know what I mean? Let's find a way to end this. If we're gonna both gonna be better off for it.

George 52:44

Yeah, this can't be nice for you. Well, that's what I was gonna say. So now, how do you handle? Say you got the client, you've signed them up. How do you handle them now? So they're a bad client. Do you go through are you trying to break up as soon as you can? Like, what do you do? Do you try get through that period? What do you do when you've got a bad client now?

Robby 53:01

I

Contracts And Collections Without Drama

Robby 53:02

think there's there's two sides to it, right? Um, I think the first thing we did with early in the journey when we had bad clients, like, dude, I've had situations where I I've had someone, like I've had people. I I I would feel I feel like I'm one of the people who tells people to their head so much. I say, hey, SEO takes fucking time. Don't call me in two months and be like, hey, I got no leads. Right? And I say that so much. And I've had people like six weeks in and be like, hey, we're gonna stop. They'd be like, what do you mean? And they'll be like, we're gonna stop. Like, we're it's uh we haven't seen anything from it. I'm like, dude, we're six weeks in. What the fuck were you expecting to see? Like I explained this to you from say, Oh, yeah, no, no, we just we don't we don't do this anymore. So those experiences, now we tighten our contracts. Now when and dude, surprisingly enough, like people still do that. And then you're like, hey, like you've signed a contract, dude. Like you want to stop, that's fine. You just pay out the remainder and you can stop. Yeah, do what you want. Stop, yeah. But you this much money is expected. Yeah, and I've had people push back and are much more firm on that now. Because kind of like, hey man, I made it clear, you knew what this was when you signed. It's I think it's important to set the fucking capitals that this is six months minimum. Yep. You know what I mean? And honestly, probably gonna push it to 12 soon.

SPEAKER_00 54:18

Yeah.

Robby 54:18

Because if you don't want to do 12 months with us, go sign someone else.

SPEAKER_00 54:20

Yeah, yeah, go, go. Yeah, like whatever time is.

Robby 54:22

It's it's like cool, you want to work with us, commit, you know, and understand that we know what we're doing and we are.

George 54:29

So say we do that, say I'll give you my credit card details, all right, cool, I'm gonna do six months with you, and then I just cancel my credit card. What do you do then?

Robby 54:36

Uh so we've got a follow-up process, and then if you're just like ignoring and ducking everything, we give you to the debt collector. Yeah. Yeah. And then it becomes a problem and they kind of chase you up.

SPEAKER_00 54:46

But do they pay you out, the debt collector, or they just change a percent.

Robby 54:49

So the debt collectors give you a percentage of what they recollect. Yeah. There's deck d there's debt if you're you're a business owner, there's debt collector services who, if you've got a contract in place, they will chase the money for you, they'll take some of what they recoup, though.

George 55:03

Yeah. I think that's more than fair.

Robby 55:05

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, money well spent. Dude, I've had some clients who I'm like, ee, keep it all. Take the whole thing. Just go do this fucker's heading. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like, keep the whole thing. I'll pay you. I'll give you money.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

You're you're you're very petty like that, too.

George 55:20

Yeah, no, no. Like, it's you see, I've done the other, I've done the opposite. Well, I mean, I did the opposite, particularly in that case I was talking about. I walked away from the money. Like we walked, we ended up getting to mediation, and the decision was all right, let's just walk away.

Robby 55:30

Yeah, but you you know what you were buying. You were buying your peace of mind.

George 55:33

Oh, I was, and I've done that once before on another case. No, no, sorry. That and this is okay, dude. This is cool. That same case, we went to mediation, we're sitting there, my their solicitors in one room with them, me and my me and my solicitors in another room, and we're talking. That's my thing. And he's like, look, what do you want to do, George? I said, honestly, I go, I knew I was never getting this money. And I I I have to spend another hundred K to maybe get 50 on top of what we already spent. Do you know what I mean? So it was ego. And I go, for me, I'd rather focus on areas of my life and business that I can make money and that I can grow the business and have success and have happiness and this not hang over me for the next six to twelve months. Yeah, it's not worth it. No, it wasn't worth it. And like this, my barrister there, he was like, dude, he goes, I wish I had more clients like you. He goes, No one, no one talks like that anymore. No one thinks about that. It's always ego, it's always, no, no, go um, let's let's get this. And he goes, I'm I'm you're a breath of fresh air. I said, That's all right. Well, you don't get my money now either. So but the second I walked out, I'm talking we walked out of that building in the city, I can't remember where I was Collins Street somewhere. The second I walked out of that building, I got a phone call from a current client and I'm nearly finishing his house now. Goes, hey George, I just wanted to call you up personally and say that we're going to award you the contract for this build. And I was just like, wow, like that in that moment, in that moment right there, it taught me that what we've just been talking about this whole time about your your mindset is going to determine your reality. And like if you want to believe in manifestation or whatever it might be, but the opportunities there, the moon positions, whatever it is, it's I I was looking for the opportunities, I put the opportunities out there and I got that the second I walked out. And I'm like, man, I and I and as a result of that, I've walked away from other battles as well. People, how could you walk away from that much money? I said, because my peace and my ability to not be interrupted and have that in my life is more valuable over here doing other sick shit. 100%. Do you know what I mean? And it's like now where we mentioned the Build the Summit. This is going to be our biggest tour to date. Our biggest tour to date. You got ads running efficiently. We've got people registering ridiculously, and and good on you. And we're likely to go to these events, get more people involved in more trainings, and then get to the next level of training and get more people involved in more things. And all of a sudden, we're going to have a huge level of connection and business and everything. And we're worrying about 50 grand over here. And I get it, it's a lot of money for a lot of people. It's a lot of money for me. I would rather have that pay school fees. You know what I mean? I'd rather have that. I'd rather have it. Rather have it or not have it. Do you know what I mean? I've got to work hard to recoup that.

Robby 58:44

And he's like, hey, hey, here's gonna increase your income. Yeah. You can only save to zero. Because even if you completely abolish all your costs and found a way to live for free. Because if you're making 50 grand a year, you can only save 50 grand a year. He's like, if I'm making a million bucks a year, you can't keep up with me. Yeah. And I was like, fucking good point. Solid point. Uncle D.

SPEAKER_01 59:03

He's good with that.

Robby 59:04

Who's uh in a deposition right now.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

I was watching some of that. Very interesting. Um he doesn't hold back either. He's like, no, no, fuck you. This, this, this, this, bang, bang. Yeah, he goes, Yeah, good. Show me. What do you want? What do you want? He goes, Oh, what if they do this? Well, this. Yeah, yeah. Doesn't hold back.

George 59:18

He's very, very switched on.

Robby 59:20

I love it. Very out there. Uh, speaking of depositions, have you heard the story of Kanye West in the deposition? No. When he's sitting there in the deposition with his hands over his eyes, and he's got his hands over his eyes like this, and then the lawyers are trying to try to talk to him, and he just sniffed his hands on his eyes, and they're like, Mr. West, take your I think they say like, take your fucking hands off your eyes and talk to us. And he's like, Ask me nicely, and then like can you please remove your hands from your eyes? And he goes, No, no. So dude, if there's one guy that's taking the piss out of life, it's that guy. Yeah. Um but yeah, I I I think I think if you're in a position where you've got bad clients, you need to try and work out two things. One, you know, what's where's the light at the end of the tunnel? And then two, what got you in that position? And how do you try and not get back into that position? You've got to be able to do that. Because I tell you, business when you don't have bad clients, dude, is like we're winning. Yeah, you're like life is good. This is fucking good. Like, I'm gonna make the most of this while it lasts. Do you know what I mean? Or or like you know, dodging a bad client is almost as sweet as winning a good one. Dude, like even you.

George 1:00:35

You never know, like I mean, dodging a bad one, how do you know?

Robby 1:00:38

Sometimes you know, yeah, sometimes you see it and look at it.

George 1:00:40

I actually where I see it is initially, like straight off the bat. Yeah, yeah. And that's where I'm like it's no longer, it's no longer a gut feeling, it's a science. Like I know that I know the signs.

Robby 1:00:51

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about a particular client or a meticulous client. A meticulous client, I completely understand. Yeah, that's great. Let's go, let's go. I know what to expect in that. If you come to me and you make my business better, I appreciate that. I'm like, why would we not? We want to be better, like realistically. Yeah, like what are you hurting my ego? No, no, like I'm good, I'm cool with that. But I'm talking about the clients who are like their life is is hell.

George 1:01:19

Yeah. And they bring it out into you, yeah, and they bring in it. I see it, I've seen it.

Robby 1:01:23

Like, man, like, don't fucking this is horrible. Like, you know, uh and and the best approach to that was like, you know, I I learned this from Gary V. It's like, fuck, man, like, I gotta you know, you know when you run into a horrible person in the street and you kind of like and you you you have an empathetic approach to them, you kind of like fuck, if I had to speak to you for five minutes and that was fucked, like you must be fucked living with yourself, yeah. Like must be horrible to be 24-7 around that. Yeah, and you almost feel sorry for him, right? And it kind of makes you feel better about the whole situation because I could say like many moons ago now, people can rile you up, dude. Oh, yeah. Someone can rile you up in a minute, yeah. Yeah, and you're like, hey, the fuck? Do you know what I mean? Um not these days though.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:07

These days we just laugh. Yeah, kind of funny.

Robby 1:02:10

You can't look kind of funny. Did you see when Messi gave that face to the clearing? That's cool.

George 1:02:17

Made them pay. Then made them pay. The so what we're saying, but like now, if I get a new inquiry, say come in and they're like, hey, just you know, look and do this, blah, blah, blah. And they'll first thing they'll start saying is, okay, yep, I need you, I need you to, well, we we only can use method A on the job, for example, right? And I know it's a job that you can't use that method of payment terms. And they say, Oh, and you need to be done in six months. That's my time frame. And it's I know it's a 10-month project or a 12-month project. Oh, and we need to have uh there's going to be LDs and retention, right? These are all non-negotiables. Can you do the job? I've said, No, no, we actually can't. Yeah, if they're coming in. Do you know what I mean? Uh but there's it's not always that hot where they come in for this, this, this, this. But if there's certain things that I look at a project, or they come in and they're like, oh, I've got I've got half a million dollars, or I've got, I've got three million dollars to build a seven million dollar home. I've had that happen. I've had a client come in to me and say, if you can build this for $5 million, I'll give you the job right now. And I looked at it and I did some, I was like, amazing home, like one, such a beautiful home. I'm looking at it and I call him up that next day. I said, Listen, I've had a look at your project. I can't build it for $5 million. I think this is a $10 million home every day of the week. This is a single home. And he's like, Oh, okay. He goes, What do you what do you think I can build it for? And what could I do? I said, Listen, I go, I can might I might be able to get it to seven. I go, but you've got to change some stuff. And he's like, Oh, okay, well, what? And I said, This, this, this. He had a bowling alley and a swimming pool in his basement. In his basement.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:50

Why not? Exactly. Do it. Yeah.

George 1:03:53

But don't complain about the $10 million job and pay the bill. And he had a swimming pool that was above ground, that was at ground level, but that also had glass that looked into the basement. See what I mean? It was cool. Like it was sick house. Sick house. And a whole range of other things, which I won't get into. Canterbury.

Robby 1:04:09

Canterbury, actually.

George 1:04:10

Canterbury. Um, oh, what's a street? Mona Monument. Monument Street. Like one of the most expensive streets, I think it was. That's anyway. That's money. It was, it was. He's he was a doctor, his missus was a lawyer. They had coin. I had coin. But like he's like, no, no, has to be, you have to build it for that, or like we're not going to do the job. I said, good luck. Like all the best to you. Like I knew the red flag, like I could see what he was going to be like on that build. If I took that on and said, All right, all right, we'll do it for seven. He would have been like, every single little thing that comes up, I'm not paying for that. I'm not paying for you're not doing that. And all right, mate. All the best. I'm happy to let I actually get pumped to let people go like that. You know, I'm like, thank you, thank you. You saved me so much time and heartache. Thank you.

Robby 1:04:52

I had one of those the other day. Uh you know, as a as uh as an agency, most people you speak to have had a bad experience. Most. Not all, not all.

George 1:05:05

I I would fall into that category.

Robby 1:05:06

Yeah. If I went and spoke to someone, they promised me the world. I did what they said. Yeah, we spent five, ten, fifty, a hundred thousand dollars and we got nothing in return. I'd be pretty pissed off too. Yeah. Um, but the other day we got a call and uh I took the call. It was a website uh inquiry, and I called a guy, and it was like, I probe, you know, tell them about the business, what are you looking for? Oh, you've done ads before. What happened? Why didn't it work? Okay, cool, blah, blah, blah. And I I've got dude, I'm like a full process on this. Yeah, I've got a list of questions. I ask everyone the same questions all the time.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:46

Predictability.

Robby 1:05:47

Yeah, and I'm asking them the questions, and I said, like, you know, tell them about the business, what do you do? Oh, we you know, builders. Okay, like, yeah, what do you do? Residential or commercial? Because everyone's just like, Yeah, we build, we're in construction. Cool, like, what do you do? Resi commercial. We do Resi. Uh, what type of homes? Like, you do custom homes, you do them center homes, you're building in the outer suburb. And he's like, What why? I inquired with you. Why are you telling me this? Blah, blah, blah. What do you do? Who have you worked with? And I'm like, excuse me? He's like, Who have you worked with? You're asking me all these questions. Who have you worked with? Tell me, who are your clients? And I'm like, they can tell myself, dude, you know, you don't even know. And you're like, man, like, are you can we call it?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:26

Can we call him now?

Robby 1:06:26

Is this what we're working with? Is this our first 90 seconds on the call? What'd you do? And you won a license. So how'd you handle it? I just said, listen, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:33

Did you say straight up this way? Is this who we are?

Robby 1:06:35

No, you should have said a No, because like, yeah, I don't know the person's situation either. He could be the nicest guy in the world who's having a bad day. I've got no idea. But I just said, listen, this is who we are. This is what we do. I've got a wall of people that can tell you what their experience is like. Literally built, when I say a wall, literally built a dedicated page that you can scroll for ages and just reviews and testimonials. Yeah. And I'm like, I'll send it to you, dude. If you like what you see, let us know and we can chat further. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:04

If not.

Robby 1:07:04

He's like, can you just give me your prices? I was like, that's not how we work. You know, if you want to chat, I need to know what you want.

George 1:07:08

So as soon as someone says, How much is it going to cost? You're straight up, you know they're not. They're just fishing. They're they're looking for the cheapest bloke that is going to do something for them or there's going to do the work for them, not really get the results, but they're the type of person who say our marketing doesn't work.

Robby 1:07:22

That's fine. We're not the cheapest. No, that's right. And if that's your strategy to be the cheapest, you must be the cheapest.

George 1:07:29

Yeah.

Robby 1:07:29

You know what I mean? Like if you're like, we're the third cheapest, that's fucked.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:33

Yeah.

Robby 1:07:33

There's no benefit to being the second cheapest. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? You either want to be the cheapest by a mile and be like, well, we can do this at a rate no one else can, or just work on volume. Yeah, but and and that's not a that's not necessarily a bad model. Yeah, I agree. If you're like everyone charges, you know, 5k to do this, and we can do it for you for 500 bucks, and you can actually do it. That's the key part there.

George 1:07:57

Yeah, I had this company, I told you about it.

Robby 1:07:59

Oh, dude, I was fucking thinking about that the other day.

George 1:08:01

Just reminding me of it right now because he emailed me his next invoice. And I'm like, I need you to I go, I'm not paying this invoice. I go, I want to see, you've been working on this for four weeks now. Show me something. Like, I don't care, like, show me any sort of stats that I can look at and reference. And he's like, Oh no, look, give me a couple weeks so it does the full four weeks. I'm saying, yeah, cool, take your time. No worries, mate. Because he was so confident on the phone. He's like, No, no, I'll get you a job in Brighton within four weeks. Because I knew what questions to ask him as well, because obviously I've done so much work with you. And I was more curious than anything else because he was answering the questions in a way I was like, okay, you know what you're talking about. Okay, show me. And for I think it was, I can't remember, I think it was like 400 bucks or something that I paid him. All right. And he apparently had this platform and all this sort of shit. I'm like, show me, show me, I'll give you a chance. I've got nothing to lose. 400 bucks, I'm not losing sleep over it.

Robby 1:08:58

Give it give us give us a give us a dollar figure, like just for context for everyone. Give us a dollar figure for how much you can make on a job. Roughly.

George 1:09:08

Actual dollars?

Robby 1:09:09

Actual dollars. Like, do you make is it a hundred thousand, four hundred thousand, is it twenty thousand? Like, what's the give us a dollar? Okay, so you make you can make three hundred thousand dollars on a job. Yeah, if someone can get you a lead for four hundred dollars, yeah, that person in his best interest should go be a builder.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:26

Yeah.

Robby 1:09:26

Because he would make so much fucking money doing that. Doing that.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:29

Yeah.

Robby 1:09:30

Do you know what I mean? Like, this is what people don't get. And they're like, I I had this conversation with someone at an event once, and he's like, Oh, but this other guy does it for me for $400 a year. And I'm like, dude, yeah, do you understand what they're doing? He's like, nah. I said, okay, do you understand when you're paying someone for this service? You're paying for someone's technical time, like this is a professional service. And he goes, Yeah. I said, So how much time do you think he's gonna spend in a year for $400? Like, realistically, even if he was doing it for fucking $40 an hour, he's gonna spend less than an hour a month. He isn't doing shit. You know what I mean? You need to understand that, you need to have that broken down and that level of education. Um, and that's why I think most people get burnt by agencies because they don't they don't get it, yeah, and they don't care to learn it. Yeah, like I don't want to know. I'm like, you need to you need to get your head wrapped around that, but um, that's the world we live in.

George 1:10:21

So anyway, I'm gonna email him probably tomorrow if I remember, and then I'll ask. Yeah, well, I'm just gonna start. I'm just gonna say, I'm still curious. He hasn't, he hasn't, like, I'm not saying I'm not gonna do it again, but show me some stuff, show me some improvement. What has my $400, my $500 got me? Did it did you get three inquiries? Did you get um did we get this much this many followers, this many views to our website? What was it? What did it do? What did I get? Yeah, so anyway, it was um it's interesting. We'll see how we go. I'll keep you posted and I might end up changing marketing companies.

Robby 1:10:53

I'll come with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:54

I told you I'll uh I'll join you. You'll employ him to do it for you and then charge it out at 10 times the amount.

Robby 1:11:02

There you go. That's that's how it works, isn't it?

George 1:11:04

There you go. But look, there are great clients out there, there are bad clients out there, and I think a lot of it comes down to you, the business owner, to make sure that you try and attract and have processes in place that will get you those good clients. Some people unfortunately need to get kicked in the face to understand what a bad client is, or you could come and speak to people like us or other people, mentors, advisors, they can potentially give you some advice and say, hey, these are the sort of things that you need to look out for when selecting a good client.

Robby 1:11:37

That's the um that's definitely if you have to pick one of the two, you're definitely picking the latter.

George 1:11:43

Yeah, without a doubt. And you'd pay great money for that. It'll be a lot cheaper to pay a mentor to tell you, hey, this is how you attract a really good client or how you qualify a really good client. Cheaper. Yeah, man. Quicker, less stressful. Less stressful. You know what I mean? It's worth its weight in gold. But people don't value that because they're like, I don't, I could do, I could give George $30,000 to teach me this in an hour, but I'm not going to get that $30,000 back immediately. You know, they don't think about things like that. But it's down the track how much

Investing In Coaching And Big Bets

George 1:12:12

money it can make you.

Robby 1:12:12

Nah, you know what I wish they should? I wish there was a stat on how many people actually, you know, the people who are doing really well. How many like if I said to you, hey, Alex Hormosy, right? Yeah. Guy does a lot of coins. Just released an episode of Diary of CEO, and I've seen it.

George 1:12:29

Yeah, I haven't seen it yet. Um I saw a snippet.

Robby 1:12:32

And he uh he did his book launch, right? Did $105 million. And you're thinking, like, hey man, this is Alex Hormosy. Who's he gonna learn from? Dude, he still gets consulted. I actually watched a video the other day of a guy who consulted on that book launch.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:50

Yeah, right.

Robby 1:12:51

Like a guy who got in, he got him in and said, All right, how do we make the most out of this? Because he's not so arrogant to think that someone in a specialized field doesn't know more than he does from that particular thing. Yeah, do you know what I mean?

George 1:13:02

Before he blew his brand up, he went and paid Grant Cardone 100k to sit with him for I think two hours or something. Paid him $50,000 an hour to sit with him. And he goes, What do I need to do here? And he's like, You need to put out more content, man. He goes, You're just not putting out enough. And he did, and he went out and he blew up and he became he had eight million followers in the space of a you know 24 months.

Robby 1:13:23

That's um looking back now, that is the biggest brand play, I reckon, we've ever seen.

George 1:13:36

Can I uh you've invested a lot of money into your own personal development as well over the years you often you you even get up on stage and you say you've invested over a quarter of a million dollars in learning at least, yeah. All right, let's just say it was let's just say, and guys, not over-exaggerating because I've done almost everything he's done. Let's say it's 300 grand. Have you made that money back? Yeah, easily. You didn't even hesitate. You know, hang on, let me think. Oh the No no like it's easily made, and this isn't long ago. How long have we known each other for now?

Robby 1:14:10

Five years.

George 1:14:11

Okay, so let's just pretend. Let's pretend it's taken you five years.

Robby 1:14:14

This podcast is almost three years old.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:17

Stop it. It's M3 in a virgin. I've just got a few more Greys. Yeah, I'm getting Grays. Are you? Yeah, welcome.

George 1:14:22

I'm gonna start dyeing mine, I think, just so I can look a bit more youthful. Nah, I'm not gonna do that. But what I'm saying, let's just say it took five years. You still made the money back, and then some. You know, every single cent I've ever invested in myself, it's come back to me. Sometimes, and a lot of those lessons that I've just we just discussed now about good clients and bad clients. I would, if I could go back in time, I would say to him, hey, go pay this guy fifty thousand dollars. Yeah, give him fifty grand and just for a day, and get him to teach you everything you need to know about getting a good quality client on board.

Robby 1:14:57

Do that, that's gonna save you.

George 1:14:59

$50,000. Save you hundreds of dollars. For eight hours, I want people to think you're insane, and it will save you hundreds, it'll make you millions of dollars, you'll be less stressed, everything. People don't do that, they don't get it. It's a very interesting thing, people investing in themselves, and why so many people struggle with the concept.

Robby 1:15:24

I think it's a it's a it's a big belief. Um has to be.

George 1:15:29

They don't believe that they can get that money back. Yeah, or that or that they're getting scams.

Robby 1:15:33

Yeah, I used to I used to think the scam thing, I've shared that openly. I used to think, dude, I dude, I used to think like, E man, you know, if we pay this guy a thousand bucks and then like runs away, yeah. Yeah, and it's like yeah, you you you also you don't know what you don't know.

George 1:15:48

I just used to think, is it gonna work like I don't know it's gonna work? I was it was the unknown for me. Yeah, it wasn't so much my ability, it's like hang on, you are you well, make sure this scam actually I've learned a lot of stuff that doesn't work. Oh, without a doubt. Yeah, but that's good too.

Robby 1:16:02

Yeah, but it's kind of like what wait, was your expectation to like learn the one thing that does? Yeah, or were you willing to rummage through the fucking shit and say, okay, cool, I'm gonna find some gold in here.

George 1:16:12

Yep, yep, yep. Do you know what I mean? I've done heaps of courses and and some that you have attended and some that you haven't, where I was like, I can't really use that outside of this world, outside of this room. I'm not gonna use that process or that system or whatever it might be. And but I was still bet I'm still better for having learnt it. I'm still better for having learned that and go, okay, I get the concept, but it's not for me, it's not gonna work. It's not gonna work in my business, it's not gonna work in my life, whatever it is. But um a lot of life experience between the two of us.

Robby 1:16:42

Yeah, I think um you just gotta commit, dude. Like you gotta you don't want to. My thing now more than anything is like I don't want to look back in 12 months or two years and three years and say, fuck, I'm in the like I'm the same guy in the same position.

George 1:16:57

Uh man, that's uh that's something that's bugging me a lot the last 12 months. 10-year anniversary of the business. I'm in the 10th year, so in November it'll be 11 years. Yeah. And I looked at it and I was like, I didn't my biggest move with this whole mindset of when we spoke about you know the industry being tough. I don't want the next 10 years of my business or me in business to be like the last. And I felt that I feel that that's really that that's the reality for a lot of business owners. Yeah, but I think people just don't change. Yeah, they and that's exactly right. I'm looking at it and I'm going, I have to change stuff. Things need to change. Like I was telling my my wife about this venture that I'm looking at, she's like, oh, I'm like, hey, something's gonna change. We we have I have to do something different. This may, this could like what I'm looking at could change and be worth tens of millions of dollars. It could also be worth nothing.

unknown 1:18:02

Right?

George 1:18:02

And when I say nothing, I mean like it might not be the $10 million that I'm thinking in my head or of and I'm talking like money in the bank stuff. Like I'm talking some big stuff, some big moves that we're trying to make here. Now, it could be really great, or it could go the other way. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe the other party that we're looking to get involved doesn't pull their weight. Maybe someone robs us, maybe I get hit by a fucking bus. Like there's a thousand scenarios, but if you don't put yourself in the opportunity, if you don't give yourself a crack, and I'll great, great, great post I saw by Alex Ormozy saying as we're speaking about him, but um, I'll try to find it quickly because I think it's a really cool way to finish off the podcast. If the internet decides to work. Thanks, Alpha.

Robby 1:18:56

If you um you know since we were spoken about Alex Alwisi, if you send me a DM, I'll send you a copy of his book. Fuck it. Let's reward the people for listening. Damn straight. I'll send you a copy of his book wherever you are in Australia. Send me a DM, find my profile, give us a follow, and send me a DM. And the first how many, George? You picked the number. Fuck it. What's your favourite number? 17.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:25

17 Yashi's fucked up there. No, look, do we're not gonna do that. 17. First 17. No, no, no, don't.

Robby 1:19:33

Okay, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:34

Too many. No, that when I was a kid, it was five. All right, five.

Robby 1:19:38

First five people, I will send you a copy of Alexander Moise's.

George 1:19:41

Hey, uh R R P.

Robby 1:19:43

What, 65 bucks? 60 bucks, 60 bucks. $60 booking to you for free hard copy.

George 1:19:48

Yeah. All right.

Robby 1:19:50

With a little

Funerals And A Reminder To Live

Robby 1:19:51

sticky note from me.

George 1:19:52

In the last week, as uh in the last week, actually, by the time this airs, I would have attended three funerals in the last week.

Robby 1:20:01

Really?

George 1:20:02

Three funerals in the last week. One of them was uh uh an uncle of mine, actually, but quite close. Uh my my dad's uncle, so my uncle as a result too. Another one is uh a family friend, uh, and two family friends. Older, all old people, so they lived a great long life, um, but just where it's at at the moment. And then I came across this post from Alex Ormozy. What happens when you die? They divide up your shit, they summarize your life in 500 to a thousand words. People who knew you less say sorry to the people who knew you more. Everyone eats, drives home, wakes up, and then the next day goes to work. Whatever you're worried about won't be in those 500 words. You can dare greatly or not at all, but you're gonna die either way. You may as well squeeze every motherfucking drop out. And that's what I think about when it comes to doing anything in life and business. You know, what are we gonna like? What are you gonna lose? You've got to give it a crack. Go out there, be bold, be courageous. Being in business, it's a consequence of being in business. You've got to take risks, and that's what we're doing now. I'm looking at it and going, hey, this venture may work, it may be the best thing I've ever done in my life. And my brother's getting married in Greece next year. Oh, I think we spoke about this. We did actually. We spoke about it last episode. My brother's getting married in Greece, and I'm like, I am not going on that trip. I'm saying it here right now. I am not going on that trip, and I'm not going to be concerned and be concerned about all the work shit that I've got here and back at my business. I want to go there, I want to have three weeks, four weeks, however it's however long I decide to go, and just know, hey, everyone's got everything under control. That is my immediate goal. And in order for me to do that, I need to make some changes, need to do things differently from what I've been doing them over the last 10 years. And I'm practicing all the shit that I preach to my mentees on stage, it's coming into practice right now.

Robby 1:22:07

You know, um, as a guy who's consumed, I've consumed almost everything he's put out. Almost everything. He's got a lot of YouTube videos, I haven't seen them all.

George 1:22:16

But like you more than me, you have. Like you've bought a lot of his stuff. I've bought everything gone deep.

Robby 1:22:22

Um, apart from his new workshops that they've just released. Like, I've been to the US. Can I go? I'll go. Fuck around. I'll go, A, hey, stop. Huh?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:32

You would you?

Robby 1:22:33

Yeah, fucking oath I'd go.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:34

Alright, let's do it. Are you serious? Yeah, fucking oath. Alright. You heard it here first. Oh, that's sick. Um okay. We'll document the whole thing.

Robby 1:22:42

I I'm down. I'll take Cell. Uh I'd love that. He would frough. You're not you're not coming. You're not gonna relax. You're watching this right now, you know coming. Um the one thing I can say about him is that guy leaves nothing to chance, dude. Which quite admire. When I say leaves nothing to chance, like he You want to talk about a guy that dude, they interviewed the consultant who went in and helped him with the webinar, and they're like, how did he do it? He's like, I've never met anyone who's so skilled in so many areas and left, like did ticked every fucking box, like ticked every single fucking box you could tick. You know what I mean? Just made sure he did everything to the highest degree. Like he did not let anything like he didn't sit there like, all right, yeah, dude. The greatest example of that was like I thought I was good writing fucking sales scripts, three page sales scripts for my team. And the guy sent me the bo, he didn't send anything, I bought it as one of the bonuses. It was his book, his sales book for his team. A book, not three pages, hey, a full fucking book with stories and shit. Yeah, like and it's like this is actually their book. Yeah, like because inside, like the first bit is and and or maybe he just sold it really well, I don't know. But inside the first bits are nothing got to do with anything that's got to do with anyone else, it's all about the company and do you know what I mean? It's like all that jazz. And he's like, he shared everything. Uh and yeah, you just realize, like, oh, that's why like you are where you are, you are just doing more. Like you're ridiculously doing more. Like not not not like a little bit more, not like working twice as hard, like you you are outputting a thousand times what I'm fucking outputting. Yeah, it's like oh that's why you can do a hundred million a weekend credit to him.

George 1:24:36

Good on you.

Robby 1:24:37

Five books, very inspirational. First five to send us a DM. We'll send you the book that I bought too many copies of for free. I'll post it straight to you. Otherwise, if you want to learn some of the stuff we've learned, you know, I'd say we the event's pretty polished, George.

George 1:24:58

I think we've uh I'm so excited about the event.

Robby 1:25:00

This is gonna be so good.

George 1:25:01

Yeah, I I honestly we did it, we we changed the structure of the event in November last year, as far as the mod how we what we were teaching, the model and what we did about it. And I that was the very first time in three years or the the year that the events prior where I was like, fuck, we've actually nailed this. And then I was like, okay, maybe it was a good crowd.

Robby 1:25:24

Yeah, and then we did it again in March. Yeah.

George 1:25:27

And I was like, wow, okay, maybe people really resonating with what we're talking about. We'll see how we go. Then we did it a third time in June, uh June, May? May and I was like, oh, this is this is sick. This is um people are coming up to us, and people are coming up to us going, that was amazing. I never learned anything like that. So good, thank you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's coming in, they're coming back, and again and again, and it's uh and now I I think we've we're we're nailing it. Like now it's about how do we make it even better? Whereas I I think we need, you know what? I think we need pyrotechnics. What's that? We need like fire and shit coming off stage. Like we just gotta get some, we've got to get some like something sick.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:13

Do you want to drop in from like cable?

George 1:26:15

I need something like that. Yeah, yeah, like sting. We're gonna do something like that next. I just don't know how else we can top it. Um, if you want to see that, you know what you need to do. Yeah, register. That's it. Otherwise, you won't see me hanging from a cable.

Robby 1:26:27

Register be there. Last few events, it's been full rooms every single time. Yeah. Um, it's first in best rest.

George 1:26:34

It is. If you don't have a seat, you can stand.

Robby 1:26:36

Yeah, and that's happened. That's happened. Yeah. Those people have stood at the back of the room because we just couldn't possibly.

George 1:26:44

Hey, action gets rewards. Should have been there nice and early.

Robby 1:26:47

Um we'll put the link in below. Um, otherwise, to wrap this up, fire your bad clients, send us a DM, register. Register for the Builder Summit. And you're gonna die. And you're gonna die. That's it. That's it. All right, guys, thanks for listening. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later. Thanks, everyone.