How to run multiple Businesses - Darcy Hannan

Episode 11

In this episode i have the pleasure of talking to Darcy Hannan owner of Chopt studio, Tanky au & Ostra Narooma. In this episode he gives great insight into how he started his businesses and how he manages the stress and responsbility of all of workload. 

A great insight for any business owner i hope you enjoy! 

Chopt studio: https://www.choptstudio.com.au/

Tanky Au: https://www.tanky.com.au

Ostra Narooma: https://www.ostracollection.com/

Darcy: https://www.instagram.com/darcyhannan/

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Okay, welcome back to another episode of the House Business Podcast. Today I'm with a Cornella legend, as I've told. He runs multiple businesses, which we're about to hear uh hear about shortly. Uh it's Mr. Darcy. How are you going?

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Good, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

First questions first, man. How's business?

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Business is good. I think there's so many. I'm involved in a few different industries. So we've got Chopped, which is the event construction business, Tanky, which is import company, e-commerce, and then Austra Naruma, which is an Airbnb property style company. And I've come to notice this is the first summer I've been through with all three going at a time, but they're very summer-based businesses. So it's gonna be a super tricky summer. I mean, some of the bookings at Naruma are checking out in the morning and then a new group checking in the Arbo, and it's like it's a very small coastal town. So it's gonna be a challenge. But um, yeah, Chop's super busy. We work on the Australian Open all through summer and then straight into Formula One. Tanky's going crazy, so yeah, it's just give me uh so pretend we've just met at a family barbecue. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

Uh, what is Chopped, first of all?

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Chopped is a design and construction company that brings global brands to live spaces, so it um essentially is carpentry, signwriting, shop fitting. If they got together and had a baby, you have Chopped. So it's like we have to provide all these different services, but it's really it's in the marketing space, it's for experiential marketing, and it's for big brands coming to activations and getting people involved in their brand.

SPEAKER_03 1:31

How did that start out?

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Started as so me and my brother Tristan were running a oh my god, my brother's name's Tristan.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Is it really?

SPEAKER_02 1:39

So we were running a company for that my dad owns that was like an import company for architectural products, and then it was Cork, and we bought a C and C machine, which is like a cutting machine, and then we wanted to make our own Cork products in Australia, didn't work, and then COVID hit, so we just bought this machine, product didn't work out, and then we started making flat pack furniture. Flat pack furniture, yeah, for people working from home, and then it was just that was through a creative agency, and then it kind of just developed. We just started doing little builds. My brother's a builder by trade, so we just started building little walls and taking on events, and then it just grew and grew and grew.

SPEAKER_03 2:14

Before COVID, what was your background?

SPEAKER_02 2:16

I was so I finished school in 2016, and then I went to university. I was doing a Bachelor of Economics, Bachelor of Finance, double degree. Nice, not very good at it, and then on the first uni break, I went to Canada with my now wife, and we didn't come home for 18 months, so traveled, went to Central America, then we came back and I went back to uni doing commerce, did that for about a year, and then at that time that was all around the time of working with my dad, and then started this company and then dropped out of uni and then just went all in on this.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

Yeah, I'm in business with my brothers as well. Yeah, it's it's it's interesting. Um, so that's chopped. Uh tanky next.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Tanky. So tanky's a how would you describe it? It's a party product, you fill up cocktails in it to pressurize the keg, and then you pour drinks all night. So it's mission statement for that company is pour more into the moment. We saw a little gap in the Australian market and just brought it brought it over from um China.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

And then we've we've really nailed the market, I think, for that company. I'm super proud of how that's come out. Definitely mate. Put a lot of work into it, but like not too much work, but a fair bit of work. And um, yeah, it's gone good.

SPEAKER_03 3:23

Yeah, amazing. And lucky last the Naruma property.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Naruma. So um I actually funny enough went on Blake Spooner's podcast. He's um a local guy in Cranulla, he owns a real estate agency. Went on, had a chat after the pod. We were talking about a town we both had similar interests in. We just weren't in uh personal situations to buy in that town, and we're like, why don't we buy it together? And then two weeks later, he organized an inspection, we went down, bought the property. Yeah, amazing, and then we we've done a renovation, and now it's on Airbnb and Booking.com and trying to build up that wellness retreat. We put a sauna in, ice bath, gym. So yeah, it's just like a really nice, relaxing Airbnb retreat on the south coast.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

Yeah, amazing. So we've done like a sort of little brief of all the businesses, so we've got some context with where we're at now, Chop. It started with flat pack perna uh furniture. Can you run me through how you went from flat pack furniture to this behemoth that it is right now?

SPEAKER_02 4:15

So it's a bit very organic journey, but it was like the agency, so there's like the how it works is there's the head brand, then there's a creative agency, then there's like the event builder.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

So the we went through a creative agency, we did a big job for IKEA. Okay, and then they had other work in the industry like photo walls and small event stuff.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

So creative agency, as in uh like can you elaborate on what you did for them?

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Uh so for IKEA, we cut these puzzles. They actually partnered with some influencers, like some Emma from the Wiggles, some other guys, I can't remember, it was six years ago now, but influencers, they designed their own product, and then during COVID, it was a mental health mail out. So we cut all cut and made all these things out of plywood, mailed them out to everyone in Australia, and that you just put a puzzle together for mental health. Amazing, and then we kind of just got we were like, what else is in this industry? Like, how can we get involved? Started with the really small stuff, and that got us into some cool rooms, big events like Australian Opens, and then on site we just saw all these big companies and we're like, How do we do this? Like, how do we put ourselves there? Just went all in talking to people, learning, talking to the clients. I think we were super good at that at the start, and then yeah, it just grew and scaled it as what the industry needed. We just every time there was a pain point, we'd like right, let's vertically integrate that, let's get that, let's get that machine, and then yeah, it's just grown.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

So you along the way you're solving your own problems. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

Every pain point we had, we were like, let's let's fix this, let's make it in-house. And then so we're trying to be that one-stop shop for everyone.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

It's similar to us. We started the martial arts gyms, we had a problem with instructors, yeah. So we created an import instructor business, yeah. And then we had a problem with gear, paying way too much for gear. Yeah, so we sourced our own products, went to China, did the whole thing. And the China business is just so much fun, and then off that, more products came. So your sort of linear approach just solving your own problems. Yeah. Um, when did you start building a team and things like that? Like, when did you sort of say, okay, this is where we can take it? What how did you plan forward from there?

SPEAKER_02 6:10

So, funnily enough, there hasn't been a lot of forward planning until I would say the last two and a half, three years. But at the start, it was like we just kept winning bigger jobs, and we're like, oh shit, that one was bigger. Like, how are we gonna do this? And then a lot of it was subcontractors at the start, so it was just it was easy to scale up and scale down. And then I think it would have been second year, probably two and a half years in. We're like, all right, we need we need to get some help, some full-time help that we can control and work with and grow, develop as people, and then on our second year, we probably had I think it was one or two people, and then by our fourth year, we've got 25 now plus. It's amazing, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Were you on the tools uh for the first few years? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

And which is so funny because I don't have a trade background, I've just self-taught everything, learning off my brother and other people, and then when so the second wave of COVID hit, this would have been in the first or second year, and then we completely lost everything because we went into the events game. And then when we picked back up, um Josh came and joined us. He was helping us, he was good friends with my brother, they had another business together. He came and helped us. We all started this one big contract back together, nailed it, won the next contract, and then so that we kind of were like, we need to do this together. What's the vision? Where are we gonna go? So then, yeah, there's three shareholders in shop now, and we're all just pushing forward. Pushing forward.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

It's interesting because it's contract-based, so like you have to nail the brief and then move on to the next one. Yeah. Can you explain to me a project timeline of one of those big projects when you're first starting out?

SPEAKER_02 7:39

First starting out, we were very I think clients saw us as like the new guys, were keen to go above and beyond, which we still do a lot, but we would take on massive projects a couple of weeks out and like really sacrifice our lives, 100-hour weeks plus, and then now for lack of big Australian open project, we would be engaged like 12 weeks out, which is good enough to plan this stuff, but yeah, there's still projects we take on with a couple of days' notice, and then we're we're getting a little bit more filtered on what we take on because it's just at the cost of your life, but um, yeah, the bigger project's like 12 weeks. 12 weeks is ideal.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Yeah, so run me through the 12 weeks. Client comes to you because I'm really interested in this business model, yeah. Uh, because we've run events and like I've always wondered how this side of the business works. Client comes to you first week, full 12 week. Uh the event is on the 12th week, I'm guessing. Yeah, yeah. Run me through the the process there.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

So it's pretty full on. I mean, I think the creative agency has more lead time than us, and they work on like brand strategy, how they're gonna position it. Like, again, it's all in the marketing space, it's all trying to get people engaged with brands. So they design brand strategy, um, how they're gonna deliver it, what's the rollout plan, build websites, all that stuff, and then they come to us with the custom build items. So it's like this is what we're gonna build.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

It's what we need.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Yeah, this is what we need, this is how we're gonna execute it. Then we go, we start with a quote, so this is how much we estimate. Sometimes there's always reworkings with the budget, and then we go straight into industrial design, engineering, permits, and then delivery.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

I'm curious about the permit side.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Is it complicated? Is it is it is a headache?

SPEAKER_02 9:10

No, it's a it is a very grey industry because we come under the temporary uh building code of Australia, so it's not the actual BCA. So it's very grey, so it's like you can get we don't have to do DAs, they come up every now and then, but we don't have to do them because it's temporary structures. So, yeah, most of the permitting is just around like traffic management, safety.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

Um because I've seen some of the bills, they're incredible. Yeah, they're crazy. Incredible bills, the colours and everything, man. Like great work too, you guys, honestly. It's amazing, it's amazing. Um say you finished contract onto the next contract, onto the next contract. When did you decide, okay, let's go all in? What was the job that was like okay, this is a good business model we can do uh with your with your commerce background and your brother's building experience? Yeah, was there a moment like okay, we're gonna go all in now?

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Yeah, I think because we were still kind of running that other business, and then it probably would have been it would have been that first Australian open job, it was for Gordon's gin. Um, we got down there, we nailed it. That's when we saw all the other builders, and like we're like, what do these guys do? And then we're like, yeah, this is like there's work in this industry, let's let's go all in. That would have been crazy seeing the other builders going. And now we're like we're head to head with those guys in the same rooms, and it's like we're actually all on we're friend basis with all the the big guys now, so it's cool. That's amazing. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

That's really cool. Uh I wanted to ask you going into business with your brother. Yeah, uh, did you guys like straight away knew your roles? How do you manage the business relationship and personal relationship?

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Yeah, it's a good question. Um, no, in short, we had we definitely we would always at the start work on the same things, and it'd be like you'd be going to meetings together, you'd be going there together, there, there, there. And I think we've separated our roles very clearly now between the three of us, and I think that was the best thing we've ever done. And we work with a facilitator, so he's business coach. Every fortnight we catch up, and it just mediates our relationship as business owners and as friends because that's another big thing where we're all friends, we're all family, but we own a business together as well. So that was that's been a massive blessing for us because we know our lanes now, we know where we're gonna play from. So I think that's been a big turning point in keeping our partnership together. Yeah, sort of not working on the same things.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

You're actually the first guest we've had on that has studied commerce, studied economics and finance. How beneficial did you sort of find that degree?

SPEAKER_02 11:26

Useless. Yeah, I didn't even finish it. It's useless. UOW? Uh UTS. UTS.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

I did I did uh management, I did management, economics, and commerce UOW. Didn't do anything, man.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Yeah, I think the theories are so it's very I think universities to condition you to work in a big corporation, which I think if that's what you want to do and you want to climb that corporate ladder, then yeah, have at it. But I think in where the the space we play in, it's we're entrepreneurs like it's yeah, it can't be taught. You have to learn this shit.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

Have you always wanted to be an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Uh yeah, I've always been entrepreneurial. Like had a job since I was 12 and I was 15. I had three part-time jobs with school, and so yeah, always selling stuff, making stuff. But yeah, I think like I've only as of I reckon the last 18 months I've been like comfortable being saying that, that I am that, this is what I do. It was always I felt there was a bit of ego that it was like I don't have a degree, I didn't finish a trade, like what have I done? And now I'm like, this is what I do. Like, I've learned so much from conversations and mentors and doing it. Yeah, it's like no, I think the the university system is a little bit broken.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

But um, how old were you when you started Chopped?

SPEAKER_02 12:32

What do you mean, 21?

SPEAKER_03 12:34

I understand because 21, a lot of people getting their first jobs, you know, going overseas, whatever, and then you're here saying, I'm gonna start a business. Yeah, how did you go through that lonely chapter at the beginning?

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Yeah, at the start it was really hard. I think you start breaking away from certain people in your life, and oh yeah, yeah, it's it's it was really hard at the time, but looking back on it now, it's like you probably wish you cut some people earlier. It's like I wish I went that way earlier. But yeah, at the time it's lonely, and you you've got no one to talk to about this stuff. And now I think like as you build your network out, you've got I've got such a great network of people around me that I can call on. It's like these are these are my people now.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

Yeah, I started this podcast for that reason. Yeah. Um, I look back, I was 20, homeless out of one of our gyms. Yeah. I really wish I just had some sort of material to listen to, like, oh, I'm not alone. Yeah, only now am I meeting people like yourself. Yeah. And it's so rewarding. What message do you have some uh to someone who's like say 18 to 24, just started the business, they've gone all in, family and friends are calling them crazy. Yeah. Like, why are you doing this? Why don't you go back to this? What advice do you wish you heard?

SPEAKER_02 13:41

What advice do I wish I heard? I think it's gonna take five times longer than what you think, and it's gonna cost you three times the amount of money that you quote. But um, yeah, what's on the other side is greatness. It's like there's so many cool people that I've met now from this journey. Yeah. That's like I wouldn't trade that for anything. Give me just hang in there.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

Give me like the sort of daily life back then when you're first starting out.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Oh man, just work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like start at 6 30, leave at midnight. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:10

For years. Were you juggling other jobs and stuff?

SPEAKER_02 14:13

No, so I went, I was lucky enough to when we s when we decided to go all in, that was all I was focused on. But yeah, like I I had jobs leading up to that and then got rid of them. But yeah, it was pretty quick transition. It would have been three to six months, I think. Yeah. Get rid of them and go.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

A lot of the listeners are business owners. So your business model is client comes in after seeing the creative agency, of course. Yeah. This is the brief, you build it, you deliver it. What are your main costs with the business? Like obviously inventory, staff.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

Is there any is there any other big expenses that you sort of our two biggest expenses are team members and rent? Because we have to have a big facility to because we pre-build all our stuff before we go to site. Very short timelines on site because they're paying big venue costs and huge shutdowns for cities to do events. So, yeah, biggest cost is rent and team members.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

Do you store the stuff here after?

SPEAKER_02 14:59

We used to. We got rid of that side of the business because we just found it too hard. Yeah, and a lot of the big brands they would store stuff for a year and then come out and they've done a rebrand or a new logo and they would throw stuff out. So we just we it just didn't work for our business model.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

That's crazy. What is the smallest business you sort of take on? Are you only doing big brands now?

SPEAKER_02 15:16

No, we still do the little stuff. Yeah, we got we still got that network of people that kind of helped us get into that industry. So we we still service all those people, we do some stuff for residential builders, but it's like there is a certain point of the business where we can't make any money because it's like to turn everything over, but we still our loyal customers we still service, and then we try and focus on the bigger stuff now because it's it's just easy to set your team up on a bigger project.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

Are there any challenges working with big brands? Yeah, what what are some challenges that people wouldn't usually think about?

SPEAKER_02 15:48

They just they can do whatever they want, yeah, yeah. Like they literally can just walk in. I think I probably won't say the brand, but yeah, we were doing a build at the Formula One. They walked in, we'd been working there for about 15 days straight. Uh, there's probably 10 people working on that individual site. The client flew in from Singapore, walked straight in, and wanted to change all the colour of the walls, and it was like the night before handover. So we were like, we actually probably can't, like, we've been doing this for weeks, and then they were just like, I don't, I don't give a fuck. Like, you guys have to change it. So we worked all night, change it, fix it. Paint of the walls, yeah, yeah, all that resheated stuff. That is crazy. So they just have the power, and I think they definitely abuse it a little bit, but like they can, you know what I mean? They're multi-billion dollar global brands. Oh, that's nice. And we're just the little guys, but yeah, you just gotta do it.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

Can you tell me the craziest build you've done?

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Craziest build, I think, would be Hennessy on Sydney Harbour. That had so many complications. That was very early stages of our company. The client that we did that job for, we're still very close with now, very good friends with, actually. And um, they had a build to pull out of them three weeks before, and he rang me, he's like, I know you guys are just getting started. Can you help us on this job? And I was like, Yeah, I reckon we can. We're luckily enough, Tristan, my brother, had some contacts in the waterways in the harbour. Yeah, so we we grew up on boats and called in a few favors, and then we got all these permits approved, and it was just crazy. And then next minute we built it and got it done, it went global, global views across yeah, everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

And do you have like an agency or something capturing it after? Like, how do you showcase your work?

SPEAKER_02 17:17

No, so we're lucky because it is marketing, they spend so much on photography and content, so our clients will send us the content. That's amazing. Yeah, it's so good. So our Instagram looks sick.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

Is are you allowed to put like a little thing on the corner like built by? Never, ever, never.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

No, we're fully like white labeled to them essentially. Which at the start used to really affect me. I was like, oh, we're doing all this work and we're getting no credibility for it. Now I just like love it. Ticky little A-frame in the comment. Little QR code. Yeah, we've tried, we've tried. That's nuts, but not.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

Uh, do you do permanent stuff? Like yeah, a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Yeah. So we're getting into shop fitting now. We try and try and not, because it's like we are set up to do temporary structures, and we found the further we deviate from that path, the harder it all becomes. Yeah. So we're just we're focusing in now on what our offerings are. But yeah, we still do some shop fit outs and yeah, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 18:05

Are you are your days like I know that you're just rebranded everything like that. What stage of business are you in now? Are you guys still in the sort of acquisition stage, just trying to get more work, or you're just trying to meet demand?

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Just meet demand, I think, now for this business. Um we kind of we're in talks of uh opening in Melbourne. So we scale up there during summer, we get a temporary factory and run a subcontractor team, but we're like just doing feasibility studies on if we open up there permanently.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

There's so many people here, uh I noticed in the factory here. You and your brother at the head of it?

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Yeah, uh, and nah, so we could our roles are separate now. I sit as CEO, my brother's in like a BDM role, and then Josh sits as director of projects. Yeah, okay. So he essentially manages all the building.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

Who's dealing with all the staff?

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Josh.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

Josh, yeah. And how how do you guys manage the teams like to this scale? Because you went from two people to what it is now.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Yeah, I don't think we do it that well yet. We try, a lot of it's off the cuff, reactive. Like we have we have our management meetings and stuff, but I think we're in that stage of still finding that flow of how to how to manage that many people and how to get it done efficiently.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

Do you have any advice for business owners that are transitioning from small team to like medium to large team?

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Do it slowly. Do it slowly. Um or yeah, I think structure and meeting cadence is really important, and you've got to just be so disciplined with that. It's like if you set a meeting and you need to cover these whatever things, and then you miss those meetings, you kind of you um teach what you tolerate throughout the team. So if you're like we're oh, don't worry, we'll cancel that meeting, I've got to go here, I'm busy, then it's like you set that throughout your whole team.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

Starts from the top, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

It starts from the top, so you need to be ruthless on hitting those meetings and try and do less meetings.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

Less meetings, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

So I think like the daily catch-ups are a joke, they're just too hard too hard to hit that discipline.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

Um do you have any advice for hiring?

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Any advice for hiring? Uh good question. We we're up to like we do three interviews now, so we used to just do like the one and shake hands and let's go.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

Why three?

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Just to get them through different stages. We we now like and it also depends on what position it is, but say a project manager role that we would do like situational questions of what happens on site. We do discrofiling, so trying to get to learn how to communicate better with that style of person, and then yeah, just trying to filter because hiring's hard. It is hard, yeah. It is hard, hiring's super hard, but the I think what's harder is firing. Because you you're all you're playing with people's livelihoods, and yeah, so we're we're very we do a lot of due diligence in our hiring now, but yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

Um, do you do any upskilling along the way?

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Like yeah, yeah, heaps, heaps of courses, heaps of training. We actually focus heavily on um stress management training as well for the team. We have a um Jim and Sauner at the back, yeah, nice, which is cool. Jim, sauna, ice bath. But it's yeah, we get some coaches down who they coach the Olympic teams, but they just come and do breath work and because it is a very stressful industry, yeah. And I think if you can't learn to switch, switch off from that, you take that home. And we see problems throughout the whole business with that.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

Yeah, so we try and really upskill people in their personal lives and I will tell you when I got here, um, Natalia meeting me at the door, really lovely. She just told me she was just doing some breath work, yeah. And I found that, oh, that's amazing. Like, yeah, I'm really in a granola now. Like everyone's looking after their health. But when I went upstairs, everyone says hello, you can tell everyone like is in it together. Yeah, that's it. And then you look over the window and there's music going, like it's a good vibe.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

So awesome. Yeah, we try super hard with culture.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

Yeah, I think you've done a good job, man. Saying you I wouldn't worry too much. Thank you. Um, so run me through what are your goals next for this for this business?

SPEAKER_02 21:42

This business? Uh big goals. Yeah. Yeah, we we're gonna we're working on Melbourne now. We are gonna try and acquire a few other um people in this space, and yeah, we we want to try and be one of the biggest in Australia, I think.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

Well you're you're nailing. The branding and the builds themselves, of course. Um, what made you want to start another business then? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

I think probably like a bit of that silver spoon, shiny object kind of thing, a little bit younger than.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

Yeah, so how did Tanky come about?

SPEAKER_02 22:17

And yeah, well, tell me, tell me that story. That's a good story, actually. So we I went to the Canton Fair with my brother-in-law. I love the Canton Fair. And we I went there to find some supplies for Chop so we could get better materials, make some like 3D stuff overseas, just try and lower our costs.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

Lot of steps A.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Yeah, super hard. It was a really it was very over overwhelming fair, amazing experience.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

I I felt it um physically, mentally, psychologically. Yeah. I was burnt out by the end.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

I was done. And you just like, oh, I just you look at the world so differently.

SPEAKER_03 22:45

Uh the the main thing I found was the hotel we were staying at, everyone's going to the fair. Yeah. And you just look around and it's like every single person is from a different side of the globe. Yeah. And you get this FOMO, even if they're in textiles, you're like, what's he doing? Yeah, yeah, everyone's wearing a protect. It's like, what? What is going on? Um, but yeah, you went to the Kids Off fair with your brother to fulfill needs for this business. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

And then we saw, so we were like, oh, maybe we should do an e-com. We kind of didn't have the vision to do an e-com company. We were there for materials. He wanted to do some e-com stuff, so I was like, let's go together. And then as we were leaving, we're like, oh fuck, we need to bring a product in, let's just do one. And we had to, we had to make a flight, so we're kind of rushing out, and then we saw that just as we were leaving. Like, yeah, we'll do that. And then when we got to the airport, because there's obviously that latency from manufacturing to branding to get it to landed, and we started freaking out. We're like, shit, what have we done? We ordered a thousand. We should have started with a hundred. But we ordered a thousand, we're like, oh, I don't think this product's gonna work. You just go through all those things in your head and you're like, fuck with the mistake, yeah. And then we launched in the we launched in August 1st of August of this year. This year, yeah. Yeah, and then did I think we sold like 25 to like all our friends. Nice. And then October, we had a video go viral on Instagram. I just don't know how it just went viral, and then it's just gone bananas.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

Yeah, nice, man.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

So fully sold out, sold out of the thousand in the month, and then we've air freighted another thousand in, and then we're trying to air freight another thousand in the month. It's a different game, man. It's a different game.

SPEAKER_03 24:10

We're we're similar. We developed a new, a new guard, a new product, so we had to get it paid in it and everything. Yeah, it flew out, but we didn't update the store that the inventory was gone. Oh, we've done that as well. Dude, so stressful. And then the problem doesn't become is this gonna sell? The problem's gonna then becomes shit. How do we keep these customers happy? Yeah, we we made a mistake, and it's you're just starting out.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

How did you manage that? Because we've had a similar problem.

SPEAKER_03 24:37

Okay, so we have a we have a we have an event in Spain in about three weeks. She's ordered her products, but there's been a delay in the shipment from China to her martial arts center. Yeah. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna fly from Australia to hand deliver these products, and then sell the, and then we still come out ahead and all that, but it's all about like the brand. Yeah, make sure the brand is good because these guys are Olympians, world champions. Yeah. But the thing that we're doing is we've created a really scarcity mindset of the product. Okay, you're gonna be the first to know when this is available next. Yeah. And then now we're getting messages like, hey, when it's available, when is it available? Yeah, it's cool. So now it's like a okay, when we drop each drop, yeah, packaging might be different or the price might have a different price point. And it's just it's just that scarcity mindset now, sort of like Supreme or things like that. Um J Dart. Not because that's the strategy, it's because we've got no other choice. Because Australia is so far away from everything. Yeah, it is. Trying to ship one of our products to Madrid, it takes ages. France, so now we're looking at 3PL, things like that. So uh ecomflow, shout out e com flow, they're really good, but it you have to meet a certain amount of sales per week, things like that. So it's a different side of things, so yeah, just pump more into marketing or whatever you might see uh UGC content or whatever it might be. But it's an interesting business model, it's super interesting, it's super fun, um, but it gets super stressful really quick. Yeah. On a dime, it's stressful.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

Yeah, I feel like it comes like um gambling, like playing the pokey. Oh, it is, yeah. You get so addicted to it. Have you got the Shopify app? Yeah, yeah. I always have to silence the notifications, but um yeah, it's addictive.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Did you do anything for Boxing Day?

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Uh we have we're just working on our Boxing Day campaign now. Like we're kind of just recovering from Black Friday, which we've had a really oh sorry, did you do anything for Black Friday?

SPEAKER_03 26:21

Yeah, yeah, massive Black Friday.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Yeah, we did mailing list and um it was actually really good. So we we got like 1,300 people on our mailing list, nice, which was crazy. I thought for a new product, and then basically sold out in a couple of days, which is sick. Yeah, and then your cost of acquisitions down because it's all mailing, it's unreal. Yeah, I just I just want to do it again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want Black Friday every year.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

Yeah, so it was it was stressful for us. Um, like first one for us too. Like the we've only been we started our product in March this year, um, but the the funny part was we had these big products and we didn't think about the mailing of the to international, yeah. So we have to have some products just Australia and other products around the world, but yeah, it's it's a fun business model, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Yeah, yeah, it's so cool. I love it. I love everything about eagle.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

With with tanky itself, um different from here, yeah. Completely different. How did you find did your skills transfer over or did you feel like it was it was just a new challenge?

SPEAKER_02 27:16

Uh no, I feel like they transformed over. I have a bit of a creative mind, and I get it, I actually get a lot of energy from the startup phase of a company. So I found I see that now a little bit in CHOP, and it's like CHOPS maturing, so it's like it needs that level of executive now, which is like that's what I'm working on learning. But I really love that startup hustle, like quick decisions. You kind of just do whatever you want, not much risk. So yeah, no, I felt we did well. I really enjoyed it. I want to do it again. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

Uh I was just talking to James last pod um council on fair, we're gonna plan a trip. Yeah, we're gonna go back.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Yeah, I think I'm gonna go back in March.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

I'm hesitant to start another business, but oh well, it's fun because you can just run products from either one of your businesses, right? Um so lucky last one, the Naruma house, that's a different business model altogether. Yeah. Accommodation, right? Yeah. What are the challenges with the accommodation space that you've found? Interest rates.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Interest rates, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

Yeah, so um property is a very long game, like it's a it's a 30-year plan. Um yeah, just the running costs, like as I said at the start, it's a seasonal business. So having summer now we're flat out, we're good, we should we should be covered for most of the year now. But just that winter, that renovation, the launch leading up has been super expensive, and it feels like just a slow burn. Whereas e-comm's that dopamine kind of vibe, whereas this one's not, but for longevity, the it will build a lot more wealth, that kind of style of business.

SPEAKER_03 28:41

Yeah, amazing. Your current day in business. What's a current day for you?

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Current day for me in business. Uh, a lot of meetings. I think a lot of um we're working, we're actually rebuilding our whole operating system. Now we worked with some off-the-shelf products, they didn't really work for our industry, it's very high-paced. So we've been working the last three months on a full custom operating system, which I probably wouldn't do again. It's been a nightmare. Like the customer, like and I like a back-end system for the project managers, um, finance, all that stuff, um, budget tracking. But yeah, I've been building that, so I've been spending a lot of time on that. But a lot of, I think, too, in my role is a lot of counseling for people, so a lot of HR, a lot of just like making sure it's all good, and then shareholder management. Yeah. So just reporting, making sure that we're in a good spot.

SPEAKER_03 29:26

Yeah, amazing. Can you give me the best day you've had in business?

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Best day I've had in business, I think. Probably the dual one that's behind us on the wall. I can I can send you some photos to pop up on the screen. But we built we got told by a few different people that there's no way that would ever be able to get done. We designed it on the back of a napkin after we we went to the site visit, and we're like, shit, this can't be done. Where is this? This was at Water's Edge in the rocks in the city. Um, we had three days, uh, we're sorry, we had five days to install it, and it was like a two-week build. So we're like, can't be done, can't be done. So we went and had lunch, we're like, shit, we're gonna have to pull out, and then back of a napkin started drawing this design, and then we decided to design it in panels and then crane it in. So we actually got it all in in a day, which is so crazy. And then I think the next day we actually had something else go wrong inside. We're doing a big internal fit out, so we actually ended up working all night. We had to come back to the shop at like 4 a.m., drive back into the city for the handover. So we hadn't slept, and then we were just standing on the edge of Sydney Harbour looking at this big facade that we built in a heritage building, and it was like that was the coolest. I reckon it's the coolest thing we've ever built. Looks cool, man. It's just a sick moment.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

It looks really cool.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Yeah, that was cool.

SPEAKER_03 30:34

How big is that?

SPEAKER_02 30:35

That was 12 and a half meters high, eight metres wide.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

And that's like that was there for how long?

SPEAKER_02 30:40

Six days. Six days. Yeah, crazy. Six days took us, it took us probably I reckon four weeks to build. Yeah, crazy. Six days. Crazy.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

What was what was it for? Was it just like a pot like a new product or something?

SPEAKER_02 30:54

It was all their products, so like the Savage range, actually can't remember their other products, but all their perfumes. So it's like a pop-up store sort of thing. Yeah, so you walk through that tunnel and then you go up into a big fit out. So we fit out like 12 rooms. It was massive.

SPEAKER_03 31:07

Cool job. Uh, on the other hand of that, can you give me your worst day in business?

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Worst day in business, I think it was only last year, actually. This was a heaps bad day. We were building a job in South by Southwest. We had to do like a 3D facade, it needed to look like an envelope. I can send you a photo to pop up. Um, we spent about a week building it, shaping it, and then the reason we decided to build in house is not normally something we do that 3D style foam sculpting. We normally use a subcontractor, but we didn't have enough money in the budget, so we're like, right, we'll just try and do it.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

We have to do it.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

And then the night before it was going to site, we put the wrong coating on the foam, and then with foam, if you put like the wrong coating on it, it turns to like napalm, it just melts. So we're coating it, coding it, coding it, and it was like it was going the next morning, and then a couple of hours later it was dead flat, it just melted into like a mush. Oh no, and we were like, how are we gonna fix this? So we just turned all our machines on, worked all night, all through like the next day, took it in, and then good just got it done, like handed over two minutes before the event opened. Dude. So that was stressful.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

That sounds it sounds like you've had a lot of late night just high quarters of just craziness. Huge. How do you bring yourself down after that? Soreness, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Soren is an ice bars, I think, been a huge um unlocking for stress management.

SPEAKER_03 32:23

Have you always been health focused when you're running the business? No, no, no, me either, only recently. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

Not at the start, it was go, go, go, go, go. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

How are you managing now? Can you can you sort of give advice to business owners how you manage your health and what what have you found works for you?

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Um yeah, I th I do a lot of saunas and I was I was running ultra marathons last year and I was doing that to push my resilience to see how far I could push the mind. Um, and then I had a hip injury, so I've just come out of surgery 10 weeks ago. So at the moment I'm doing very little. Just doing saunas. No, I was like a it was like a pre-replacement surgery, so they just try and save the muscles and reshape the bone. Ouch. Um, so I'm only just recovering from that, which is good, but I'm just doing all rehab stuff at the moment, exercise bands and yeah, lots of saunas, lots of ice bars.

SPEAKER_03 33:06

What have you found works like to de-stress from the business? Have you found the ice bars saunas helping a lot?

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Yeah, I think heaps, and I think too, just like bringing it front of mind, like stress. It's like right a it's like okay to be stressed. Like you're gonna have stressful days, and it's like I love the whoop, I think it's really cool. It kind of like you balance out your days with your sleep and how you're gonna feel. But yeah, so what does it do? It like tracks um tracks everything, health-related, heart rate, heart rate variability, how you slept, stressful stuff throughout the day, but um, it just kind of coaches you on like you need a rest, which sometimes it's like I can't rest right now, and then you start, you actually work yourself out a little bit, but um yeah, just being like content that you will get stressed, like yeah, so you're gonna have shit days, yeah. Probably have one shit day a week still, so it's like just letting it be. It's a natural emotion of business.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

You've built the business to a stage where like even where you were a year ago, a year and a half ago, without tanky, without all that, people would stop there and just be content. Yeah. What what makes you hungry? What's what's your driving force?

SPEAKER_02 34:08

Uh what makes me hungry? I think the more like the more people you meet as well on this journey, you go, Oh, right, I actually like I really enjoy that. And it's like I could do that too. And like, I want to you talk to someone, you're like, Oh, that's easy, let's apply that here. And then it's like business is like this infinite game, and it's like you can it's addicting, eh? Yeah, it's addictive, and once you start to understand the core principles of like every business is really the same, you just gotta solve a problem, charge money, pay everyone. But yeah, I just I've just got so much further I want to go.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

I found once you fulfill your personal needs through your business, so yeah, how you want to live the lifestyle, yeah, that's when the real fun begins. Yeah. Because you're not doing it to sustain your life, you're doing it to play the game, yeah. Which is really interesting, which is where conversations like this are really important. Yeah. Um, so you your your motivation is you're just addicted to the game, right? Yeah, definitely. Uh what what do you do for family time? Like, do you do you have a family? Do you sort of switch off from business? Like, how do you how do you make that switch?

SPEAKER_02 35:04

Yeah, it's a good I've got a I'm married and I just had a little baby in January. Congrats. So she's 10 months old now. So it's been a crazy year with starting the e com business, buying the property.

SPEAKER_03 35:14

I have a serious question for you because obviously in the future I want to have kids. How did how did you manage that period of the pregnancy and the 10 months?

SPEAKER_02 35:22

I mean, it was a lot tougher for my wife, but give me some advice, man. I think don't listen to older people, I think they freak you out. Everyone's like, oh, your life's gonna change. It's like enjoy the sleep before the baby's born. I think it's like you gotta like pick your heart. I mean, business is really hard as well. But it's like we we really wanted to have a kid, so we were we're super lucky, fell pregnant straight away, and then yeah, we just adapted so well. My wife's super maternal, she's just born to be a mum, and it I've I love it, it's like it's the best thing that's ever happened. So it's like giving me hope. Yeah, yeah. I was I just want to go again and again.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

We're just on this side of the fence, it's scary as hell. Yeah, like but no, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Uh and they just have to like you got to integrate into your life, you know what I mean. I think you see some people they have a kid and it just completely derails their life. It's like this is our life. Let's how do we how do we fit a baby into this schedule? And it's like, yeah, we're within reason. The baby sometimes controls our whole life, but yeah, it's the best thing that's ever happened.

SPEAKER_03 36:16

Like, was there a period when like your daughter was born? Did you take time off?

SPEAKER_02 36:20

Like Yeah, I took two weeks off. So when she came, it was actually so funny. She came ten days early, and we went in for a scan, just like the last checkup scan, and then the um I can't think of the name of the people who screamed, what are they called? Sonographer. Yep. The sonographer kind of had a bit of a blank look on her face, and she was like, she didn't really say much. I was like, oh shit, this is not good. Came back to work, and then my wife called me, she's like, I need to go in for an emergency C section tonight. Oh, right, sorry, not tonight, like right now, it's like 2:30 in the hour. I was like, shit, I had all these meetings booked out before the due date, so never back in the due date. And then someone's just ringing everyone, I was like, I'm gone, like, I'm gonna have a kid, I gotta go, I gotta go. Moved a bunch of meetings around, and then within two hours, went home, grabbed a bag, hospital baby. It just happened so fast, dude. Which I think was the best way because you don't have that stress of like this is booked in or we're going in this day or whatever. So yeah, it just happened super quick.

SPEAKER_03 37:11

That's nuts, man. I wonder what I wonder what your watch would have said about that.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

Yeah, yeah, it was so stressing. But no, it went really well. Everyone's healthy and awesome.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

No, that's really good, man. It's really it's really cool to see uh business owners starting the family. Like, obviously, you've started your business now. Um, how do you plan to juggle family and business life as it goes forward? Because as they get older, it gets different challenges, more kids, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

Yeah, I mean it's gonna be hard. I think the hardest thing for me now, especially is my little girls growing up, it's like they she's like looks at you now, she knows I'm her dad, and it's like that obligation to go home is getting stronger and stronger. I'm like, fuck, I just want to spend every minute with her. But I think it's like what you gotta just be super clear with what you've committed to, and it's like I try and be super structured and get home, get out of here, and but there's nights where I work all night, and then sometimes I go home, we have dinner, and she goes to sleep, and then I'm working on the laptop, working in the mornings.

SPEAKER_03 38:04

It's just like has it made you more productive?

SPEAKER_02 38:06

Definitely, yeah, really work heaps harder, yeah. Wow, just more like I think when it wasn't when you didn't have that commitment, it was like you didn't really have to be anywhere, so it's like you kind of could just move that, do that, skip that. But yeah, now it's like right, I want to go home. Like straight after this, I'm like, I'm going to the beach with her for a switch.

SPEAKER_03 38:24

That's super, that's super interesting. My older brother said the same thing. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Dolls in it. It's so funny.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

I think it must it affects everyone the same.

SPEAKER_03 38:30

Dolls you in, huh?

SPEAKER_02 38:31

Yeah, dials you in.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

So we've gone best day in business, best day in business. What's the best piece of business uh advice? What is the best piece of business advice you have received?

SPEAKER_02 38:40

Best piece of business advice I've received. I think be content with latency is a really good one. And I've I've struggled with that a lot, especially my personality type. I'm very go, go, go, impulsive, need it now, now, now. So yeah, just be content with latency. Like it this shit takes ages. It's a long journey. And I think if you can a lot of people just start saying then quit straight away, and you're like, oh, that could have probably worked if you did it for three, four years. So yeah, just being content with that, and it's it's been a big challenge for me to get my head around. It's like, especially if it's like, right, we want to roll this new system out, I want to do it in a week, and it's like it takes six months. Yeah. And you're like, oh, it beats you up, but yeah, sort of like delayed gratification, yeah. Okay, and it's just gonna take like I said before, it takes five times longer and costs you three times more than you think. Like it just takes forever.

SPEAKER_03 39:30

But have you ever had a build not meet the deadline?

SPEAKER_02 39:33

No, no, so close, yeah. But like a lot of another good one we were doing Vogue Fashion Night in Pitt Street, and it's like a big runway takeover on Pitt Street, super tight timelines because Pitt Street's really expensive. Uh, they we actually made a little mistake on the design, which kind of put us back a few hours, and then one of the partnerships didn't do some contracts right, so they had the wrong signage up, and then we had to come back and manufacture it and make it, and we ended up working for 36 hours straight, which was like oh, it's the sickest you ever feel. Like it's just so bad.

SPEAKER_03 40:04

But that was But the sunset after that hill would have been amazing, would have been euphoric. It was good to get it done, it would have been euphoric, right? Yeah, yeah. Uh, last question for you. Um, a lot of people listening, they might be in trade, they might be starting a business, like they might be in business. Uh, what what piece of advice would you give to someone starting their business? And then what piece of bus uh business advice would you give to someone at like the middle stage of business, they're about to expand, something like that. So before you made that two-step jump to okay, we're gonna go all in, what advice would you give to someone at that stage?

SPEAKER_02 40:37

I think advice for someone starting would be get comfortable with the fact that you don't know what you're doing. So it's like reach out to as many people as you can. And I've I've learned that over the years. The people that have achieved whatever they've achieved, they want to share that because they're done, they're they're there. So I think ask as many questions as you can and be comfortable not trying to know everything. Like you don't know everything, so it's like just ask, ask, ask as many questions as you can.

SPEAKER_03 41:00

I love that. And middle stage of business where you're not paying yourself, you're just putting everything back into the business. Uh things aren't going your how it how you expected it. What would you say to that person?

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Just hang in there. Yeah, there's those they can go for years, those periods. I mean, again, probably similar advice to starting. Reach out to people that have I mean, find what niche you're in, find someone that's achieved some level of success, reach out to them. Yeah, all these people want to help, and there's just so much knowledge. I mean, we're in an era now where knowledge is at our fingertips with AI and research is so easy now. So, I mean, yeah, you just have to hang in there and just be be relentless on your pursuit of just trying to learn the next thing. Yeah, amazing. That's all I think it takes is a bit of education and execution.

SPEAKER_03 41:46

Ah, that's awesome. Uh honestly, man. Uh, we want to thank Darcy for his time on the podcast, of course. I'll leave all of his details down below. Make sure you give him a follow, make sure you support these businesses. And um, I think from today's episode, people are really gonna see like the linear approach. Start one, yeah, do a good job. Contract base is pretty stressful, so yeah, just do a good job, move on to next, do a good job, move on to the next, and build the team through there. And things like your e-commerce and your Airbnb, like the the Naruma place. Yeah, I feel like those are just really good examples of learn as many lessons in one business, and then you can bunny hop and do other things. So, really appreciate your time on the pod. I know a lot of people will get a lot out of it. I know I got a lot out of it. Awesome. Thanks, he's for your time. Thanks so much for having me. No, all good, bro.

SPEAKER_02 42:29

Thank you. Thank you. There you go. Done. This is your second pod. Yeah.