Episode 13: From Paperboy to Pioneering CEO: Justin O'Donnell's Tale of Tenacity and Technological Triumph

Ever wonder how a paperboy from rural Victoria transformed into a cutting-edge CEO? Join us as we sit down with the remarkable Justin O'Donnell, the direction behind UAM Tec and Print Express, to explore his captivating story of growth and leadership. Justin takes us through his early days of determination, starting with unloading trucks at Coles and swiftly rising to a managerial position at an age when most are just starting their careers. His narrative is a testament to the power of adaptability, as he pivots from retail to IT systems, and then into the bustling world of print management. But it's not just about career milestones; it's a deep dive into the entrepreneurial spirit that drove him to launch his own company amid the economic turmoil of the global financial crisis.

Our enlightening exchange with Justin doesn't stop at recounting his past triumphs; it's a masterclass in leadership and mentorship. As a past President of the Chapel Street Association and current CEO of a robotics firm, Justin's experiences offer a wealth of knowledge on team dynamics, strategic decision-making, and the art of resilience in the face of adversity. He shares his progressive approach to hiring and the invaluable impact of mentorship, echoing the gratitude of those he's guided. And for the aspiring entrepreneurs tuning in, Justin sheds light on the undeniable importance of networking and fostering connections beyond the traditional educational sphere. His advice provides a roadmap for success in the intricate dance of business and innovation. Don't miss this inspiring episode filled with actionable lessons and the kind of wisdom that only comes from years of experience at the helm.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome to Full Circle with Sean. I'm your host, sean, and today we're talking to Justin O'Donnell. Justin is the CEO and Chairman of UAM Tech, which is a robotics and R&D company. He's also the owner of Print Express and he is the previous President of the Chapel Street Association. So welcome, justin. Thank you, sean. Let's start by you telling us a little bit about yourself. Thank you, sean.

Speaker 2: 0:24

Let's start by you telling us a little bit about yourself. Yeah, sure, I was born in Ararat, country of Victoria, one of a large family. My father's actually one of 17 children.

Speaker 1: 0:36

Wow, that's a lot of kids, A lot of cousins too. So where did you start your career? So I know you had a paper route.

Speaker 2: 0:43

I believe, yes, that's right. In country of Victoria, I started at the age of 11 doing a paper round.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Awesome, and where did it lead to from there?

Speaker 2: 0:52

So I went from there to head paper boy, running a team of paper boys at the age of 12.

Speaker 1: 0:58

That's pretty impressive. And then, where did you start your first career move?

Speaker 2: 1:03

Yes, I actually started at a company called Coles, which became Coles Fossies, as a storeman unloading trucks.

Speaker 1: 1:09

And how old were you then?

Speaker 2: 1:10

I was 16.

Speaker 1: 1:12

Great, and so where did you go from there?

Speaker 2: 1:15

Yeah, look. I decided I wanted to work my way into a management career and at the time the manager I was working with told me that if I was willing to turn up early and work back late, he'd teach me all he knew about management.

Speaker 1: 1:27

Okay, so you did a lot of hours.

Speaker 2: 1:30

I certainly did. I was there before he arrived and I was there after he left. And you got paid for that? Absolutely not. And so why'd you do it? Personal goals I made the decision that I was going to put in whatever it needed to get a management career. A lot of friends and family warned me against it. They said I was being used. However, I stuck to my guns. I actually had my own goals set and decided I'd do what it took.

Speaker 1: 1:56

So then you worked your way up and you became a manager.

Speaker 2: 1:58

That took a few more years after that.

Speaker 1: 2:00

So how old were you when you became a manager?

Speaker 2: 2:02

I managed my own store at the age of 22.

Speaker 1: 2:05

So can you tell us any important lessons you learned from your time at Coles?

Speaker 2: 2:09

Yeah, sure, I think my first lesson I learned was the value of finding mentors early on in my career.

Speaker 1: 2:15

Like the store manager.

Speaker 2: 2:17

Yeah, absolutely my first store manager who taught me most of what he knew about management. What I really learned from him was how to read financials, understand the profit and loss of a business and make good financial decisions. Yet another equally important lesson I learned was with your mentors. But you can take a lot of negatives and positives from mentors. He was probably one of the worst leaders I actually ever worked with. He didn't train his staff well, he operated like a dictator and led by fear, and that wasn't my management style. So I learned to take the positives I could from that mentor and also learn what I didn't want to do as a leader.

Speaker 1: 2:59

Okay, so you became a manager at Coles, and then where did you go from there?

Speaker 2: 3:03

Yes, I went from Coles to actually managing service stations for a while and then shifted back to retail for a company called Best Less.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Okay, and so how long did you work for Best Less?

Speaker 2: 3:17

I did that for about four years. Another key role that I took on there was actually rolling out their IT systems for their operations, both storeroom and for retail POS systems.

Speaker 1: 3:28

Oh, that's really great. So, after best and less, where did you go?

Speaker 2: 3:33

I made a complete career shift and went from retail management into print management.

Speaker 1: 3:39

And who was that with?

Speaker 2: 3:41

That was with Kinko's at the time, which then became a division of FedEx when FedEx bought Kinko's, which was called FedEx Kinko's.

Speaker 1: 3:49

Awesome, and what did you do there?

Speaker 2: 3:51

I first started as a center manager managing a store and within 12 months I was promoted to regional manager for FedEx Kinko's.

Speaker 1: 3:57

And how was that different from managing, say, Kohl's or Best and Less?

Speaker 2: 4:06

say calls are best and less. One of the big differences was when I took the step from center manager to regional manager and I had to make a major shift from managing a team of employees to managing a team of leaders.

Speaker 1: 4:14

Interesting. So what are the differences?

Speaker 2: 4:18

Yeah, I had to learn very quickly that I couldn't do it all myself To lead a team of leaders, that I couldn't do it all myself To lead a team of leaders. They're already high achievers and they want to be trusted. So you have to learn very quickly to trust your team and to empower them to be able to be effective leaders with their teams. And one of the biggest lessons I had to learn was also be willing to let them make mistakes, because leaders learn from their own mistakes and until you step away and give them the room to be able to do that, you undermine your team.

Speaker 1: 4:50

Fantastic. So you went from FedEx Kinkos to Print Express.

Speaker 2: 4:55

Yeah, that was another major shift. Just at the start of the global financial crisis, fedex decided to pull out of a lot of their international locations and we went from doing exceptionally well here in Melbourne, australia, to one day being told we're all being made redundant. It was probably one of the toughest days of my career, having to tell our 70 plus strong team that they were all losing their jobs that must have been challenging to to work through it was certainly one of the most emotionally challenging days of my career and still is to this date.

Speaker 2: 5:28

I wasn't only just losing my job, I was having to deliver the message to really valuable employees and managers in my teams. And yet within a week of learning that news, I'd actually started and registered Print Express as a company, getting ready to open my own business on, I suppose, the back of the achievements we'd achieved at FedEx Skin Co here in Melbourne.

Speaker 1: 5:53

Awesome. So you went right from that and you opened your own businesses. So what are some of the early challenges that you faced and how did you overcome them?

Speaker 2: 6:01

Well, probably my first challenge was making the decision to start my own business. Right from a young age I actually at age of 18 wrote a list of lifelong goals and one was to run my own business one day, and pretty much my whole management career was about learning the skill sets. I would need to be ready to do that. Yet when the decision time came, it was a very tough decision because my partner had just bought our own house and it was a big risk. However, weighing up those risks, if we take that risk, we could lose everything and have to start again. However, once I really broke it down, there was two key decisions or two risks. One risk was to lose everything and start again. The other was to live the rest of my life wondering what if? What if I took that chance? What if I took the chance and trusted myself to have a go? And it made the decision really easy, because I couldn't live with the what if I could live with starting over again.

Speaker 1: 6:59

That's fantastic. So you decide to move forward. You're taking the punt. So what are some of the early challenges you had starting your own business?

Speaker 2: 7:09

Probably a couple of the real early challenges was every dollar mattered. Every single cent that came into the business went to cash flow. How do we survive? Where's the next dollar coming from? How do we pay rent, how do we pay wages and living with that stress day to day. It never stops. And also, there's no support network in your own business. I learned that very early on. I went from being a cog in a very large company with a head office, support cost, hr team, finance team, accounting team, and then all of a sudden running your own business. You're all of that and it's 24-7. You don't get to switch off. And that was highly challenging. And in the early days probably one of the best decisions I made was to build a rainy day fund Every cent we made. Every chance I got I put away funds just in case on a rainy day and that gave me some peace of mind very early on in the piece.

Speaker 1: 8:08

And so you had your rainy day funds. Did you make any mistakes?

Speaker 2: 8:12

I certainly did. Probably the biggest mistake I made early on was trying to do everything myself because I was tight on funds and I didn't want to spend money unnecessarily. The biggest mistake I made was not outsourcing to experienced people in their fields and it took me a while and it was costly and also very stressful. So probably the biggest mistake I made early on was not building my networks and finding trusted professionals, experts in their field, to outsource parts of running my business.

Speaker 1: 8:43

And so you learned that, and then, what steps did you take to resolve that?

Speaker 2: 8:47

Yeah, absolutely. Look, I learned that it was very hard to find trusted professionals, so one of the things I did fairly early on, in fact, within the first 12 months of running my business, is I actually attended a number of networking events, and I was eventually introduced to BNI Business Networking International, and it was local chapters, and I was invited along to one of those, and it was all about building business networks to build referrals for your business. Primarily and, to be honest, that's the main reason I went there to start was to find more customers and more business for my business. What I very quickly learned, though, was I started building professional networks People I liked and trusted and were well connected to other people in business and I was able to start finding trusted professionals that could help me run my business in a much more efficient and professional manner.

Speaker 1: 9:36

And how long were you in BNI, or are you still in BNI?

Speaker 2: 9:40

I was in BNI for 12 years and it wasn't until I met you, sean, and I was helping you run your businesses, and I just ended up running out of time for that. In saying that, though, the professional connections I've made I've kept. I've kept over those years. It was 12 years. However, a lot of my business in my printing business still comes from the connections I made in bni. However, it wasn't until I learned that it wasn't about what I got, it was what I gave, and I actually found that the best way to network is to focus on how you can give to others and how you can support others, and it's one of the key skills I learned, and one of the most eye-opening skills was the laws of reciprocity, and when you give to others without any expectation of return, it's amazing what comes back your way.

Speaker 1: 10:25

That's good, really good advice. Any other advice you would give to somebody that's looking to make the most of, say, networking opportunities?

Speaker 2: 10:32

Yeah, absolutely. First of all, get out there and network and expect it to be daunting and scary. It was the biggest step outside of my comfort zone I've ever made. However, it is the largest growth in my professional career. For all the years I worked for large organizations in management, the growth and professional development I got from networking and learning how to effectively network. And the biggest lesson to learn in networking is if you go into it with a farming mindset, don't go into expecting what you're going to get out of it and being a hunter trying to get the next sale. If you actually network, genuinely wanting to see how you can help others and support your local community, that then leads to lots of opportunities for yourself. However, it also it's suited my personality as well. I'm not an extrovert. I'm not out there. I won't go out there trying to sell myself. But if I can help and support others, it's amazing how many others then go out of their way to help and support you also.

Speaker 1: 11:30

Well, that's really fantastic advice. So during the same time, you were involved with the Chapel Street Association.

Speaker 2: 11:36

Yes, yeah, that came about from learning how to be a better networker through BNI and I didn't have extended networks. Today, showing you think I'm very well connected and have really strong networks, it didn't happen naturally for me. Showing you think I'm very well connected and have really strong networks, it didn't happen naturally for me. So a good mentor, getting back to mentors, mentored me and said join a local business group or community group, give back to your community. So I looked at ways I could give back to my local business community and there was an association called the Chapel Street Precinct Association.

Speaker 2: 12:10

My business was a business on Chapel Street in Melbourne, one of the largest retail strips in the Southern Hemisphere, and I was invited along to a board meeting and met a number of the business owners volunteering their time to help support the local businesses.

Speaker 2: 12:23

In fact, over 2,200 businesses were members of that association and we did a lot of volunteer work to help promote and market the precinct to support local businesses, and I did that primarily to expand my networks. But I quickly found that it also helped me with my professional development and I got to spend a lot of time giving to my local community and, surprise, surprise, a lot of people wanted to know what I did and wanted to know about my business, and a lot of the customers that I have now for that printing business are business owners that I help support in their businesses. So it goes around back to that reciprocity principles of if you give to others, others want to give back to you. However, some of my professional development also came from learning to deal with all levels of government and bureaucracy, which was a big learning curve for me, dealing with local, state and federal government representatives which often didn't have the same objectives as local business owners and their local community.

Speaker 1: 13:26

Yeah, fantastic Some lessons you learned from being the president of the Chapel Street Association and also how long were you president of the Chapel Street Association?

Speaker 2: 13:36

I was a member of the Chapel Street Association board for 12 years, a vice president for a number of years and four years as the president of the association. Some of the key lessons I learned though probably one of the real key lessons was to learn to pick your battles and manage your energy. There was many times where you felt passionate about certain topics and injustices that were happening and business owners not being looked after and employees not being looked after, and you could pick a million battles. I learned that you can't win them all and you just don't have the energy and time and it's managing that energy and focusing where you can make the most difference with the time and effort that you have. And I learned that eventually and it led to some real breakthroughs in supporting local businesses, and probably just at the right time, because that's when COVID-19 pandemic happened and we quickly had to shift from being a marketing presence to a business support and lobbying and advocacy association, helping businesses survive through one of the most challenging times in our history.

Speaker 1: 14:44

Yeah, absolutely. We all know that. So now you're also chairman and CEO of UAM Tech, which is a robotics firm. Why that pivot?

Speaker 2: 14:56

Absolutely, look. I've always loved to challenge and from a very young age, I was always interested in technology and one of my early goals was to actually find someone who had a skill set that complemented my skill sets. I learned very early on how to manage teams and people and get the most out of people. However, I didn't have the software development background and through being open to finding someone very clued on in that space, I met you, sean, and I found there's a really good synergy there and I'm excited about what we can achieve through technology to help improve other people's businesses throughout the world.

Speaker 1: 15:38

Yeah, awesome. And what kind of lessons have you learned from guiding a startup?

Speaker 2: 15:44

Wow. There's some lessons that we've learned there. Probably one of the first ones in the startup economy is whatever you think your runway required is to get from startup to commercialization. You need to expand on that significantly, doesn't matter what you think it is. It probably needs to be four or five times that, probably.

Speaker 2: 16:05

The other key lesson that I have learned is resilience is key. If you can learn any skill, it is to be absolutely resilient, and that means not giving up the first roadblock you get. You will get knocked down time and time and time again, and you need to build a strong skin and a resilience to not get beaten down and to be willing to lean on those around you as well. There'll be times where you will be fine and others need your support, and vice versa, and if you can surround yourself with similarly minded people who will pick themselves up and go again and again and again, that is what it takes. It's not easy. It's not for everybody. If you don't want a regular challenge, don't get into the startup world. However, if you do enjoy a challenge and overcoming all odds, it's very, very rewarding.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Okay. So if we look at all of the career positions that you've held and the places that you worked, how has your mentoring and leadership style changed across the board? Or do you use the same style across your printing company as, say, in the robotics firm?

Speaker 2: 17:17

My leadership style has evolved significantly. One of the things I had to learn, for instance, when I went from being a center manager to a regional manager, I had to learn how to find good hires and even to this day, a lot of people say, oh, you're really lucky, you've always seemed to find really good employees. It's that's not through luck, it actually, and it actually for people who know me, I'm quite friendly and easygoing. However, I learned very early in the piece was to learn how to take your time in hiring and which I call be slow to hire and fast to fire. Now it might seem very harsh, however, you generally know within the first few weeks if someone's a good hire, and I had to teach my managers to be good at that as well, and sooner we got better at that, the sooner we were successful.

Speaker 2: 18:10

And what that comes down to is if you make a bad hire and we all do don't exacerbate it by taking way too long to move that wrong fit on from the business.

Speaker 2: 18:23

And an example I gave to one of my managers once was if you have hired someone wrong and you persevere and you persevere, and if you're spending a lot of your time performance managing underperformers, then your time is taken away from helping develop your leaders and future leaders in your business.

Speaker 2: 18:41

And I said to one of my managers if you could put that same amount of time into your best people, how much better and how much happier would they be. And I've followed that principle now for many years and that runs across all the businesses that I've managed and run is there are times where I have let people go within the first couple of weeks and some people think, oh, that's pretty harsh. However, nearly every time where we've allowed more time, they haven't worked out. And yet when we do move them on, we create a vacancy for the next superstar to join the team. And that's how you get a team of like-minded people, putting in what's needed for any business to succeed. And where do you want to spend your time as a leader? Developing and mentoring people who are exceptional, or trying to make a square peg fit in a round?

Speaker 1: 19:32

hole. Yeah, good analogy. But I mean, in reality it's also not good for the person that you hired. I mean, if they're not a good fit, they need to go find the job where they're happy at and where they fit, because it's going to lead to too much stress on them.

Speaker 2: 19:44

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's funny how you say that A number of people that I have on them, yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's funny how you say that a number of people that I have unfortunately had to let go uh, have stayed in touch to this day. In fact, some of them have ended up in other careers and they thank me for helping them change their career path and focus on their strengths. And even when I've had to let people go, I try to do it in a humane way and a compassion way. You know, you still should have empathy for people and it's helping them understand where their strengths lie.

Speaker 2: 20:14

And one employee once she was not a great fit for the business. However, she was great with other people and she ended up, based on some feedback, went back to school, did a HR management degree and ended up a very senior manager in HR. In fact, became a major customer for my printing company as well. So there are plenty of examples of that and what it does is it helps free them up to find where they're a good fit, because no one wants to come to work every day under pressure, under the pump, because it's just not the right career for them.

Speaker 1: 20:47

Yeah, fantastic. Well, we're going to have to wrap this up soon, but I just want to know how do you relax? What does Justin do for fun?

Speaker 2: 20:56

You know the answer to that, Sean. Ironically, it may not sound a relaxing pastime, but I run marathons to relax.

Speaker 1: 21:04

You run marathons and are you getting into any, I don't know.

Speaker 2: 21:08

ocean-based activities yes, that's the other thing I do, look, anything water-related helps me relax. I like nothing more than to get down to the beach on my time off, and it helps me unwind and relax. In fact, when I go running, I generally run along the beach as well. Yes, I might be taking up surfing at the age of 51.

Speaker 1: 21:28

That's fantastic. Well, you're never too young to learn something new, right? Let's close this off with any final advice you would give to any young entrepreneurs who are aspiring to start their own businesses.

Speaker 2: 21:43

Look. My best piece of advice for young entrepreneurs is the skill set you need to start embracing as soon as you can is learn how to network and network effectively, and find good mentors. You can be an expert in every other field. However, you want to be successful startup, you need to know how to grow your networks, how to mentor, and one of the best ways you can network attend a networking function, get out of your comfort zone and make a goal to make a connection with one or two people.

Speaker 2: 22:14

You don't have to meet everybody in the room, but make a plan to get to know one or two key contacts. However, that goal, then, should be not to sell your wares, not to promote yourself, not to talk about yourself, but learn how you can help those one or two individuals and, after that networking event, go and do it. Go and make a connection for them, connect them with someone they're looking to connect with, and that'll start to build your networks, because you'll be memorable and you know what. You might even just make some good networks and some good friends out of it, and it breaks it down and makes it easier. However, that is a skill set that most of us aren't taught in school. However, I've found that that is one of the most successful traits of successful entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1: 22:59

Fantastic. Well, thanks for joining us, justin, thank you, sean, and thanks everyone for joining us on Full Circle with Sean.