Kido The One - Vintage Founder

Meet Kido — the man moving over a tonne of vintage clothing every single month.

Beyond the numbers, he’s got one of the sharpest business minds I’ve ever come across, and through his content, he’s become a genuine source of inspiration for the next generation of entrepreneurs.

In this episode, we dive deep into his journey — from where it all started to what drives him today. He shares real insights on business, mindset, and the lessons every young founder needs to hear.

If you’re building something of your own, this one’s for you.

Hope you enjoy it 🤎

Kido's youtube : https://www.youtube.com/@Kidotheone
Kido's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidotheone/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Okay everyone, thank you once again for joining us on another episode of How's Business where I talk to business owners, uh all shapes and sizes, all professions. This morning we were in Lake Macquarie. Uh me and Dre were down with Dave, who's the owner of SoFolk. This afternoon we are with the one and only Kiddo. Uh Kiddo's gonna get into all of his business ventures, how he started, but first I'm gonna ask him how's business?

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Business is going great, man. And honestly, I just want to say thank you for allowing me to come here and talk to you and hosting me here at this studio. And I guess before we get right into things, what I want to say is the context around filming this was I had to quickly have a shower before this podcast. I had a rush day. I was like, look, travel, I'm running late. I need to have a shower. Is there a shower there? He's like, yep, no worries at all. Um, in the process of having that shower, before I jumped in the shower, Natalia, his partner, gave me this Rub Club like single body wash sheet. Now, I was not expecting much because like look at it, right? And then I was like, this is amazing. This is super underrated, understated. So before we get in, I just want to say, shout out to Natalia. Uh shout out to Rub Club, and this was amazing because now I'm ready for the podcast and I'm so excited to be here, man. Smelling good. That's it, that's it. Leathered up. That's it, Aloe Vera. Yeah, there's a lot of it now, man. Bold case. There's a lot of it now. That's it. Bold cafe.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Yeah, so uh take me back right to the beginning, man. So when was your first business? How did it start? Take me right back to your very first business venture.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Okay, so I think I was always a fan of arbitrage. In other words, I would look at something, notice that it's undervalued, and want to take it somewhere else and kind of you know extract that that margin. Um, my first like proper hustle was um if I can really talk about that, is basically in I went to boarding school for six months. And in boarding school, on Wednesday afternoons, they used to let us go out to the supermarket. And at the supermarket, I used to see these like burgundy uh like sodas, and they were one dollar, they were on sale. So, what I used to do is I used to buy those and then take them back to boarding school, and every night we would have like a drink break or like a post-study break, and I would pull out these drinks at peak demand time and flip those for five dollars. So I was buying them for one dollar, selling it to rich kids at five dollars, and I was like, look, this is the that was the original hustle. Um, that then evolved to I was living in Cairns, and what I would do is whenever I would visit my grandparents in Sydney, is before I came up, I would always buy crispy creams. So I'd buy a 24-pack of Krispy Kreams, take them back to the boarding school, and sell the crispy creams, and that was my original hustle. Um, and then from there, you know, it just progressed. Um, and that's when I I think it was around 15, is when I started my first business. And that was me wanting to go to high school parties, and you'll appreciate this, you know, photography, videography, visuals. There's a funny thing that happens when you show up to events with a camera. And that was really for me a huge turning point because I realized that not only could I go to these events that I wanted to be at anyway, but I could offer value. And you know, surely soon enough, I was meeting the people that were hosting the parties. I was taking good pictures of the DJs, so the DJs were you know introducing themselves or saying, Hey, I want pictures, um, and then yeah, it really escalated from there. So I did parties at first, and then it was, you know, meeting those same people for proms and formals and that sort of thing, and yeah, that was that was a major uh starting point because it allowed me to be social, it allowed me to meet people, it allowed me to understand the importance of having conversations just like this. What was your photography name? Uh it was RKM, so Jugan Kiddo Media. But I always rolled with RKM. I had the watermark in the bottom right, and when I was doing it, like Facebook had the tagging feature where it would like blow if you if you're you were tagged in a photo, it would blow it out to your entire friends list. So it would only really take one person to tag their friend, and I'd have like a thousand, two thousand organic reach, and the page just grew from there. How old were you? I was 15.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Yeah, I started a DJ business when I was 15. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

So we would have been at similar parties and you've daffened each other up. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

We had a photography element, and that's how we blew up. We tag people and then they go on their feeds and whatever. Yeah. And then how many years were you doing that? And then what did that lead us to?

SPEAKER_00 4:18

So that was probably until 1819. I used my photography portfolio to basically apply for film school halfway, probably early grade 12, so my final year of school. Um, and I got early acceptance into SAE, the Film Institute. Yeah. Um unfortunately, when I went there, I thought, you know, a lot of this stuff I already knew from doing the thing, and I decided not to continue that. Uh, I think a couple days after deciding not to do that degree, I left before the census state, which is when they start charging you, you know, for the degree. Um before, like as I left that uh as I left that degree and the decision to go to uni, that was when things started getting interesting because the next day or within a couple of days I'd walked into Culture Kings and I was talking to one of the people there. I didn't realize who they were, I was just sparking up a conversation, and it was the store manager. And the store manager was like, Hey, look, we've got you know group interviews coming soon. You should come in, you should be a part of it. I'm like, okay, say less. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm gonna do this. Um, and so naturally went to the group interview, and I remember this so clearly because and I'm sure we'll talk about this more. But the night that I had a group interview, I saw Drake come to Australia for the first time. And when I saw Drake on stage, I was like, I need to make music, and so I had this, you know, turning point for me, which is okay, I'm leaving the traditional path, I'm gonna get a job, make money, but also that was the start of my retail journey, and also that night, the group interview was the night of me saying, Hey, music is very important to me. I need to make music. All happened pretty much in the same week. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

And how old were you then? Uh I was probably 17, 17, 18. Alright, so segue me into the music side. Yes. You fell in love with it, you knew this is what you wanted to do. How did you start writing lyrics? When did you f record your first album? Go through that.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

So my music journey starts slightly earlier. That was at 15 as well, but it was very casual. I wanted a guitar, I wanted to play, you know, Ed Sheeran songs, folk singer, songwriter vibes. Um, but obviously, I always listened to hip-hop, I always loved rap, I always loved Kanye, I always loved, you know, Snoop Dogg, Tupac, that entire body of work that came out of the 90s, California. Um, and so for me, you know, getting in starting with the folk singer, songwriter music was then natural for me to then also make hip-hop music, and and that's where I think a lot of the melody comes from is the combination of both. Music for me was around 18, 19, so I've come off the back of the retail, I'm working retail part-time, and I just decided I was gonna go all in on music, and I didn't know how that was gonna work because I'm staying at home, you know, I'm raised by a single mother, only child, so it was my mum and I in a two-bedroom apartment, not a whole lot of resources. Um, but I knew that passion scales, I knew that if I just followed what my gut told me, if I follow my intuition, that eventually things would work out. Because the beautiful thing about following your intuition is that it gives you a resilience that you don't get from doing what other people tell you to do. Um, so in the process of making that music, I was like, look, I need to make money, I want to make the visuals, I want to make music videos. And in the process of wanting to do that part of the creation, which is I've made the soundtrack, but now I need to promote this, I need to do the marketing, I need to do something. I can't just, you know, do the audio only. I then mistakenly went into an op shop. I'd bought too much clothing, I was like, I have excess, I need to sell it. I started selling on a Facebook page, um, and what I realized from that, I I remember I was selling like excess Ralph Lorenz so it was like $20, $30, and I was like, hang on, like this, there's something here. And it was it's so interesting because I had this song called 4K God, and I knew it was something, and the reason why I knew it was something because when I had released I hadn't re released it yet, I hadn't released that song yet, and I was just like, I remember playing it out loud and just being hype by myself, and like I think when it comes to music, when it comes to business, there is you have to have a healthy sense of delusion, but you also have to be not so far away that you can't see your own work, and it's the same in art, it's the same in business. You need to have a level of detachment, but you also need to believe in yourself and back yourself so much that no matter what anybody else tells you, that you're gonna stay true to the path because you may be right, just not yet. And so for me, I had this song and it felt special. I'm like, Well, I've got to do a music video, I've got to try and promote this, and I needed $200. I was like, how am I gonna do this? And I ended up flipping stuff that I got from an op shop, and I came up with that $200, I paid for that music video, and we filmed it in Brisbane City. That video now has over 60,000 views, that song now has over a million streams, and it started from I was sleeping on the floor, I was recording my music, my eBay stock, the stuff that I was selling from the op shops was upstairs in my room, and and that's really what's captured in that song, and I think you know part of that is why that song resonates with people. And if you haven't heard it, I hope that you know that extra context around the story makes you want to listen to it because very special time.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

So it seems culture kings, Drake, Drake into music, music into clothes. Yes, sir. So it's sort of linear, yes, sir. It just kept falling into place, right? Yes. So you started selling your clothes. What was the first do you remember the first piece of clothing that you sold?

SPEAKER_00 9:35

It was a Tommy Bahama t-shirt. I think I bought it for three dollars and I sold it for $35. It was a red t-shirt, and it was it was unreal, right? Uh, I think anybody who has made on money online will know that feeling, will understand that feeling of sometimes that actually beats the feeling that you get from the bigger amounts later on in your journey. It's the first proof of concept, it is the first, oh hang on, there's something here. What have I just stumbled into? That accidental understanding of okay, like this is another path that I didn't know was possible, and now I know there's something here. That that was very special to me. Do you go off intuition or do you really think about it before you go in? I think there is a lot of things where trying to think it through will not help you. Instead, it will prevent you from doing the things necessary in order to get it done. I think a big problem a lot of people have is they are smart, they are intelligent, they are good at they have the skills, but in the process of accumulating all that, they also accumulate the ability to doubt themselves. And, you know, going back to what I said before about you need to have a healthy sense of delusion in that if you have something you want to do, you're gonna do it. Yeah. And you're not gonna let, you know, the voice that's inside your head that maybe is not actually on your side, maybe that's somebody else that you grew up with, maybe that's a parent, maybe that's an old friend who you haven't seen in years who said something offhand and it kind of got in your head a bit. You can't allow that to get into your head when it comes to you know the things that are important to you.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

What what advice would you give to people that have that voice in their head? Might be a family member, might be a friend.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

I would say the first step is definitely for me was awareness, is understanding actually that wasn't my voice. Because the other part of that for me was you know, my mother raised me with a strong sense of self-esteem. She always thought that I could do a lot of things, and that was kind of the other voice in my head. So I was very blessed, very lucky in that I could compare that. I had the reference points, I had this other voice, which may have been, you know, a friend, a teacher, etc. etc. Um, but I also had this other strong voice, which was my mum, who was no matter what you do, you're gonna be okay. And if you really love the thing, like you're gonna do well at it. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

So you sold the first shirt, yes, kept selling whatever you had left. Yes. What did you do next? How did you get your next month of clothes?

SPEAKER_00 11:59

So I guess it was just a lot of rinse and repeat. I I had proof of concept, I was like, okay, I can go to the op shops. I mean, it's not it's different now, right? The op shop pricing is much higher, um, but I still think it's doable. You just have to be a lot smarter, you have to have a a lot more brand understanding. Um, but at that point, I was like, okay, there's not a whole lot of people doing this. And this was like, I think I want to say 2018, early 2019. So it's not like how it was now, where you know, we have these thrift events and it's very on trend to wear vintage. Back then I was kind of weird. I was like, why would you go and get secondhand stuff from the secondhand store for a couple of dollars? Like, you know, there's all the questions of the hygiene and the low status versions of it. Yeah, let's talk about that. Is there is there a lot of truth to the hygiene side of things? I do not think so. I think that if you're wearing a t-shirt and you put it in the wash and you're using the right product and you run it through the dryer, like you're good to go. I will say on that, there has been, and this is an interesting story I never told before, but there has been certain vintage teas that I've gotten from certain bands, heavy metal, um, more aggressive music where I could tell spiritually there was some something still there. And maybe, you know, a lot of people watching this probably not woo-woo, whatever. Um, that has never happened to me before, but these specific teas, I was like, I cannot keep these. Like, these need to go to somebody who loves that music. Um, and it was just like this handful of teas. It wasn't, you know, I've sold a lot of heavy metal, I've sold a lot of, you know, Marilyn Manson, I've sold a lot of Cradle of Filth. Um, it was just these specific batch of teas where I was like, this is interesting, I can't keep these. Um, and on the flip side, it's like I think there is an element of beauty that comes with appreciating what's already here. I think that society is moving towards a state of more, more, more, more, more, and finally we might hit that reverse point where people understand we already have everything we need and we just need to use it more. I think there is a spiritual law to resources in that if you use what you already have and you use it well, that you will be granted more anyway.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Do you see that some items are more popular than others? Are people more buying shirts or not are people not buying shoes at all? What's the most popular?

SPEAKER_00 14:13

I think that you know, it obviously goes in seasons. I think a big influence is what celebrities are wearing, inevitably. People want to, when it comes to fashion, people want to uh, you know, get that respect, get that admiration from their friends. And in order to do that, they're going to, you know, replicate and identify with the people that their friends think are cool as well. Um, and that's you know, been a big thing for me watching fashion and understanding fashion because I don't really consider myself a collector of clothing much anymore. I have become to the point where I'm like, look, give me the basic T's. Like this shirt I'm wearing right now got for $2, but I've loved it for so long. It has been on such a journey with me that I'm starting to think like this is this is you know, my wardrobe is like a capsule. It's not extensive, even though it could be, you know, uh massive, it could be amazing, it could have all the colours, could have all the brands, but I'm like, look, I just want what is essential to me, what I like wearing, what's comfortable, and obviously something that I don't want to have to keep replacing.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah, I think what sets you apart definitely is your social media, the way you do videos day in the life. Do you remember when you first started recording what it was like recording yourself? How did you put yourself out there for the first time?

SPEAKER_00 15:21

I think my so my first intro to social media is, and I still have the video, is me at 12 years old recording a Call of Duty commentary. Nice. So it's been a while. Now I'm 28, so that's like 16 years ago I recorded my first video. It was Modern Warfare 2. So intervention, quick scopes, 360s, 360s, amazing time, right? I had I had basically just had this idea, and for the real ones, they'll know I had a Dazzle DVC 100. I used to have to plug the component cables in and trying to record and understand. Alright, I need to get the computer over here to go into Sony Vegas Pro 10. Like it was a whole thing, and that was really my intro, not into wanting the results from content, but but thinking like, oh, I've I've seen gameplay commentaries, I like watching them. Why don't I just try and make one of my own? Because later on I might want to see like how I was playing this game. So that was when it started, and then I actually made a few like montage videos of Call of Duty. I started recording stuff like going to the LAN events, and I saw the second order effects of that, which was people would know me and I wouldn't have to introduce myself. I think that is a huge advantage and really an underutilized advantage of doing content of doing business content, where if you can get to the point where you don't have to introduce yourself, or when you reach out, they already say, Hey, I've actually heard of you, or I've already seen this. It is a huge advantage. And if we're thinking about, you know, and I'm sure we'll touch on this more, if we're thinking about how AI is about to influence the business sector, whether it's behind the scenes, whether it's with content, the biggest advantage is going to be human connection and people understanding you and who you are and what you have to offer the world.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

To finish off the business, your business side of the podcast, the main expenses of your thrift business is obviously buying the secondhand clothes, any advertising costs for eBay or marketplace, anything like that?

SPEAKER_00 17:12

So for eBay, they do like a percentage cost when you run promoted ads, that is charge when you sell. Uh, in terms of yeah, just shipping basically. So shipping, storage, stock, those are the three main expenses. I think the beautiful part of pre-owned clothing and pre-owned and re-commerce in general is that you are not you're not necessarily building the brand of the item itself, you're building the brand around the business, the store and being the store, yes. Can you give me your biggest flip? Biggest flips. So I've had a collection of them. I think that the biggest flip wasn't necessarily a single item, but it was a haul. So from Facebook Marketplace, I was, and I'm gonna I'll give a gem away here actually, is so when you're looking for vintage teas, the biggest mistake people make is they search for vintage teas. What you do by doing this is you are competing with everybody else who is searching the exact same thing, it's tough to find. What I did was I backtracked and I thought about who would likely have the teas and how do I focus on trying to find the person. So what I did was I started finding every single C D listing and messaging them and saying, Hey, I noticed you were selling some CDs from this era. Do you happen to have any music t-shirts? I got a hundred no's in a row, it's probably more than that. It was a lot of no's. I was like, hey, so no, sorry. But I I I I reached out in a polite way, so it's so I got a polite decline, right? I got one yes. I got, hey, there's actually some here in the shed. Um, here's a photo, you can come check it out. And I was like, look, this is the first yes, the photo's terrible, I have no idea. I go and meet at this shed, and I probably would have bought oh, I don't know, maybe a hundred vintage tees, original silver chair, original nirvana, they were just there, they were all there, and that was really a testament to like you know the bigger picture, which is you may not be right. I mean, sorry, you may be right, just not yet. And also you've got to tolerate all the no's, and it's it's one of those things. Um, if you knew success was 30 failures away, how fast would you fail? You'd be excited to fail. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

What was the price of the flip? I have to know.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

The price, like as in the final arbitrage. Oh man, I was buying teas for 20 and 30, which is like if you think about it, it's an old T the average person probably like for old T, why are you paying that much? But a lot of those T's were 100, 150, 200, 300. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

So like a 10x.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah. Um, so let's go fast forward to where you're at now. Yes. People see that you're bringing in whole crates and things like that. How did you scale it to that level? And what are the challenges now with the business?

SPEAKER_00 19:49

I think I'll start with the first part. The the scaling really just came from understanding that if I just trusted the process and and really dialed in what's working and just repeated that, that I would have no issues. And so initially it was you know buying stock from the op shop, not taking money out to go buy the steak dinner to celebrate, but actually just cycling that same money because that's the thing. I never I never had VC money, I I never had outside investment. Like my mum didn't have money to give me at the start, right? So it was kind of like okay, I've got to use what I have, use it well, and then and then go from there. So, really, that that first chapter was just about me being smart with the money, it was understanding okay, I don't have a lot, but of what I do have, I'm gonna maximize it. So, you know, nowadays I'm buying bulk, and early on, I really only had the capital to buy five, ten items at a time, and so what I would do is just go through multiple stores and just look for the best items I possibly could because I had the time, and that's the beautiful thing. At the start, you have all the time in the world, it's not until later on you're running out of time, and now you've got the capital, and you're like you have to kind of claw that back. But at the start, you have all the time in the world, so you have to really lean into that and be prepared to use that. And so I you know, I hear a lot of people they say stuff like I just don't have time, and right, if it's if it's something that you want, uh you're you're probably never gonna have the time. Um, but the reality is if you want it, you are going to make the sacrifice, and the sacrifice is what makes the time for you.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah, I want to get into the business mindset stuff now. So the business model covered all that. Great business model, congratulations. Thank you. Um, I think what separates you from other would you say vintage resellers, resellers? Yes, your social media is around business development, is around day in the life, it's around the grind, it's very, very informational to everyone. What made you want to start sharing your knowledge? A lot of people keep it in.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah. So I think with my model previously, just selling on eBay, I was operating as a ghost for a long time. I was I had the ability to basically run a business and be not completely. Anonymous but pseudo-anonymous as in people would buy from the eBay store, not buy from kiddo. The reason why I decided to you know put myself out there more was I felt like I was doing a disservice to the people that would need to hear from me, that would need to hear my story. I think about me at 15, and if I had somebody like me to hear from to say, hey, actually, you don't need all the resources in the world, actually, you can be from where you're from in Australia and make something work. It's just gonna take you some time, it's just gonna take some sacrifice, some discipline, and also saying no a lot. And so I I thought about it like that like I needed somebody to look for, I needed, you know, a big brother almost. Yeah, and so when I started the content, I was like, look, I don't think you build a personal brand to help yourself, I think you build a personal brand to help other people, and in the process of helping other people, you get everything you would want and more. It's a byproduct, correct.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Very, very similar to me. Let's say you're at a family barbecue. Hey, what do you do? I sell vintage clothes. Me, when I was first starting out, I teach kids martial arts. Yes. People sort of look at you like because they're studying to be lawyers or accountants or whatever it might be. Yes. Did you find that hard?

SPEAKER_00 23:13

I would I think early on I would shy away from telling people what I did. The other part of that though was I was so locked in with music that that was low status as well. To be white, Australian rap, they immediately have assumptions. So I'd say I make music, they say what type of music do you make? I rap. And you I would get that reaction, and then they say, Well, like, what do you do as a day job? And I'm like, I sell old clothing, so I get a double dose of that. But the beauty of that is understanding that you know the sexy businesses, and this is something I've noticed over time: the sexy businesses aren't the ones that make all the money, it's the unsexy businesses that are predictable, scalable, built on reputation and trust, and those are the ones that ultimately stick around after a long time. So early on, I definitely couldn't articulate that like I can now, but I understood that you know, once you find something that works and it allows you to do the things that you want to do, like I was able to flip stuff from the op shop and then go home record. That's what I wanted to do. So I almost began lifestyle first rather than capital first. And you know, a lot of people start businesses with like, hey, I want to make as much money as possible. For me, it was like I want to make as much music as possible, and in order to do that, I need free time, I need to free up the mental bandwidth in order to do that, and this is how I'm gonna do it. Okay, it's not gonna bring me all the status, it's not gonna be cool at the at the party that I go to, but at the same time, a lot of those parties I stopped going to, I was locked in, I was ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

I think a main part of it is how can you provide value by doing something you're actually interested in? And then it was it was really hard for me when I was coming up. Like I was going to uni, I was studying commerce, I use it, but I don't really use it. So I really I really encourage people that are 18 to 21, maybe take a break, go into the workforce, learn from people that are older than you. Okay, is this person 20 years older than me? Does he live the life that I want to live? Do I want to be like this person? Yes or no? If it's no, you need to surround yourself with different people. But I think the real hard part is when you're in those social environments, you're going out, you're going to a party or a club, or you're in a social circle, and everyone seems to be having their shit together, they're going to uni, they're they've got a job lined up, they've got an internship, but you fast forward six years, seven years, they're the ones that are miserable, and it starts to flip over. So all the ones that sacrifice early in your 20s, you just gotta hold out. Yeah, but it's hard. It doesn't get spoken about how hard it is that 18 to 23, when you're hustling, when you're grinding, you're not spending time with your friends or your missus, and no one else understands why you're sacrificing so much. That's probably the hardest period. So if you're listening and you're in that period, just stick it through because when you have your freedom from 25 to 30, and everyone else is locked 9 to 5, two-hour commute in, to me, two-hour commute out, and you're able to go to the gym when you want, able to work in your business when you want. I think it's gonna be worth it. But you're right, there's not enough people out there giving the guidance for that young that young generation, which is something I wish I had. Um, I didn't have that, so I had to learn pretty much off YouTube. I found YouTubers, I watched, I obsessed over their videos every day. They're the only ones I could relate to, so they're the only ones I listened to. But I want to ask you if you could say something to how old were you when you started vintage? Probably yeah, 18, 19.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

What piece of advice would you give him? I would say you are right, you know exactly what you need to do, you just have to decide how important it is for you, and then go all in. Because the the one foot in the door, one foot out, it doesn't work long term. Yeah, you need to commit. And that is a very tough thing to ask a 19-year-old version of me to do because the other part of you know being isolated and you're building the thing is is like I didn't we didn't have this relationship back then, and and that's that's something I don't think a lot of people talk about either. Is like when you're locked in early on, you're not gonna have the friendships, you're not gonna have the network because the work hasn't been completed yet. You don't have the proof of work to to to show that you know you're one of them ones.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Yeah, you're not that version of you that attracts those type of people. I I remember the people I was hanging around with when I was younger. I I probably wouldn't get along with them right now. I'm just totally different to what I was back then. But if I stayed on that path, I wouldn't have become who I was. Like, say if we met now and I never started a business or anything, we'd probably have a 10-second conversation. It'd be different, very different, very different. Yeah, but there's a there's a wavelength that you sort of reach. Yes. Um, say same thing when I met our mutual friend Dave. Like you speak Shout out Davey, shout out Dave. You speak, but you can you can tell by the words they've gone through the same experiences as you. Yes. And then you finally find your crowd. The sad part is though, you don't find your crowd until much, much, much later. Many lonely nights, and you go you go a bit stir crazy. So I think that's why I wanted to start this pod as well. Yeah, there's so many young business owners that are doing it alone. Yeah. Um, so I think more resources is better. Um, I want to ask you what type of resources do you listen to? Do you watch to sort of keep you motivated when you are feeling that little bit little bit of a lonely chapter?

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Yeah. Well, you mentioned one of my resources, which is Davy, Davy Hamilton of Everything Property. You know, I've been blessed that I've been able to see his growth, and you know, it becomes a self-feeding cycle in that you know you have you have one friend that you can go back and forth with. And it's so interesting because recently somebody asked me, like, like, who do you talk to the most? Who's somebody who you would consider like a best friend, or or somebody where if you went somewhere, you just invite them and you know they they do well no matter where you were in the world. And I said Davey, because I know that to me, when I have something business related, when I have an idea, I can I can do that back and forth with him, and he'd be like, Yeah, like that sounds cool, or uh, we need to think about that. Um, I think that there is an over-emphasis for young people to have heaps of friends, an under-emphasis on having one to two to three real friends that will stick with you through everything because time is ultimately what sorts that out, and at the end of the day, you want to build with people, you want to be surrounded by people that you think you're still gonna be friends with in 10 years, and and that's really tough to judge during that chapter because everybody's growing at different rates. I know that at 19, like I was reading all of these books, and even though reality hadn't caught up yet, I knew exactly where I was heading, direction what you know, and I didn't know exactly how far I was gonna take it or you know where it was gonna take me. I just knew that there was something that I wanted, I was going to pursue it, and I needed the tools, and I didn't currently in that chapter have those tools, yeah, but I was gonna get them no matter what. You didn't have the means.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Correct. Yeah, but you're building the mind. Yes. Is there any materials or anything you remember reading or watching that really helped? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

So Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill. It gets a lot of flack. I think that between 17 and 19, something like that, even if you can take one to two gems from that book during that chapter, um, I think for me it was also it was less about what the material was and more about the amount that I was absorbing during that period, the stuff that I was exposing myself to. I remember I was watching Kanye interviews, I was watching Russ interviews, I was watching Nipsey Hustle interviews, I was also reading like Psycho Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz. I I you know I always loved Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, which you know it's funny, he gets a lot of flack for that that book title, but for me the ideas in that were like legendary because I hadn't heard, I I didn't know that was an option. I'd I'd watched my mother work at KFC, you know, grinding it out, and I didn't really have an example of somebody I could look to to be like, hey, there is this other path that you can follow, and so I I was much the same as you. It was like I was looking on YouTube, I was looking for examples, and at that time, like there was not a lot of Aussies. Now there's a few more Aussies, now we're on there, you know what I mean? But we didn't have us, we didn't have some of the YouTubers now that you can watch, and so like a lot of my influence actually came from the American mindset. A lot of my influence uh came from also the Japanese mindset as well, because you know, at that time, Australian content-wise wasn't a whole lot.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

My only problem with YouTube now and the business influences now is you see them at the very end, so they've got they've got the car, they've got the industrial unit, they're doing all those things. But business isn't just about that, it's about providing. So I think more needs to be said about if you just make enough to provide for your family, you've made it.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

So if you're listening, just make enough money to provide and then worry about all that stuff later. Because at the end of the day, if you're able to make money doing what you want to do day to day, that's that's the real goal for most people, and that that was the goal for me starting out. Um, next question for you. Something, sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Not to not to interrupt, something on that as well, is that if you are a real one in business, you'll be doing so much traveling that the car probably won't get used that much unless you're locked in into a certain business model, right? You're gonna be taking way more flights, you're gonna be having meetings here, there, and everywhere. That car that you post with for Instagram is a glorified prop for a lot of people, and I think that we put these material things on a pedestal for the wrong reasons. We want to look like we're winning to people. When in reality, sometimes what looks like winning is completely different, completely different to winning in real life. If you have a family that loves you and you can provide for them, that's the ultimate W. And that doesn't matter whether it comes from business, whether it comes from your job. I think as a man, our role is and and the biggest thing we'll get fulfillment from is by looking after the ones that we love and you know being able to appreciate the time we have here.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Alright, next question for you. Materialistic things aren't your motivation. What's your motivation?

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Evolution. I think I understand there are versions of me in the future that I'm yet to meet. There are people in my life that want me in their life that I haven't met yet, and there's also conversations that I'm yet to have that I'm gonna get so much fulfillment, so much joy from that to not pursue that would be silly. And so, yeah, for me, I think what drives me is like and what really excites me is what does the next chapter look like? And also how can I enjoy this present chapter as much as possible? Because I remember there was a point where everything I wanted back when I was 19 is what I have now, you know, what I had a couple years ago is like that I I could have I could have felt like I'm felt like I made it then, and so yeah, it's it's that understanding of like, yeah, there's levels to the game, and it's interesting, you know, the more you do this podcast as well. I'm sure you've already had it, is like, and with Davey, is like we we're starting to have conversations with people where you know it kind of makes you re-evaluate your goals because you're like, well, I set this goal for myself, but actually what's possible is way beyond what I even thought to begin with.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Yeah, for me, what's motivating me at me at the moment is exposing myself to those high-level individuals because their way of thinking is very interesting. Um, everyone's motivated by different things. That's why I wanted to ask you. Um, what advice would you have to others that are in the same space as you? Is there any pieces of advice you can give to those that are strictly in the thrifting space that would have helped you a long time ago?

SPEAKER_00 34:27

Sourcing matters a lot more than you think, but consistency matters even more. I think that reputation, not from a social content, not from a clout, not from a fame, hey, I need all these followers, but from a people just understanding what you do and what you're looking for, is super important. So if you can have conversations and if you can first articulate exactly what you're looking for, whether it's brands, whether it's your niche, whether it's you know, whatever you're looking for, articulate that first, put that into a document, put that into a digestible format that can be shared. And then the second thing is to have those conversations and ask. Ask people to help you. Ask, hey, do you have some of this? Hey, I've noticed you have some of this, do you have more of it? I think, and it's really widely applicable to business in general. I was just gonna say that translates to all businesses, yeah. It is like, don't be afraid to ask. So many people never ask, and that's why I'm out here. I think the chapter that I'm in now is like I ask for everything. I want I I force the no because I know the NO, next opportunity. If I get rejected now, that's okay. There's something else coming. There's something else that's more meant for me, and yeah, that just excites me.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

In terms of no matter what business you're in, what advice would you give around content? How do you how did you start creating content and how'd you get into that flow where you're able to just post so consistently?

SPEAKER_00 35:44

I had a limiting belief that what I was doing was not interesting. I was a guy in a shed packing pre-owned clothing into parcels and taking photos of this pre-owned clothing and doing it all over again. So I had this limiting belief that what I was already doing was not entertaining enough. And then I, you know, somewhere in the line there, I stumbled across this video of this guy working in fast food, and I sat there for like, I don't know, five minutes watching this guy make a burger, and it was just like a POV shot. So his face wasn't in it, couldn't see his you could just see basically from his view of him making the burger. And I was like, to him, how many times has he done this? He's done this a lot of times, it's probably so boring to him, but me right now, this is so fascinating. And so from that logic, I was like, Look, man, I'm just gonna record what I can record. At least, at the very least, my grandkids, my great-grandkids have a record of me doing the work and building the thing. And I also thought about like, imagine if I could see my great-grandpa like doing his work, like even just to sit there for 10 minutes and watch a video, that would have just been so exciting, so encouraging to me that okay, somebody that I knew did the work before me, and I can witness that. So it was it was those two things. It was like, look, I don't need results from content. What I want to do is really just capture what I'm already doing, and what's fascinating is the more you do that, the more what you capture starts becoming even more fascinating to other people. So it's like I started off doing the content in the shed of me just doing the work, and then you know, recently Davey actually encouraged me a lot to do this was to record my recent trip to Malaysia and Thailand. And what's beautiful about that is like to me, that was exciting going through it, but to be able to also capture that and share it with somebody, it's like if I told that as a story, I don't know how many people would believe it, but I have the video evidence that I went and did it, and also as a networking tool as a founder, it's like here, I don't really need to tell you what I do, I can just give you this video and you'll get it right away. That was like a 40-minute video, yeah? Uh, I think it ended up being in the end, the final edit, over an hour. Yeah, I watched that one. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What advice do you give someone who's struggling to press that post button? I think you need to come to terms with what you're afraid of, define the fear, and then just do it anyway. I think a lot of people overthink how many people care about it, and the reality is when you start posting, you realize that nobody cares. In fact, you'll actually be fighting for the views. You might get 50 views, you might get 100 views, and people will be like, Well, it's not worth starting if I get that many views. It's like to me, I'm like, well, it doesn't matter, nobody saw it anyway. This is a rep. This is an example of you making a vote towards the identity that you want. I think James Clitz spoke about that in Atomic Habits. It's like when we are building this habit, each time we do it, we are we are repeating the identity associated with it. And for me, the identity that I wanted was somebody that executed, somebody that documented every single thing that I did, because I understood that back from the photography days, that having a portfolio, having a body of work, allows you to have the introductions that nobody else has because your work introduces you before you have to. Do you think volume negates quality? I think that it depends what we are defining as quality, and that's really the back and forth in modern day, right, with social media, because it's like, well, I'm being told I need to post heaps in order to grow, but also I want the quality to be there, but it's also like, well, let's define what quality means for you. I know that you know, in the last 48 hours I recorded six reels, one of them flopped in my criteria, and one of them absolutely smashed, and I couldn't have predicted that unless I'd posted all six. So it's almost like, and I think I've spoken about this before, which is when you are the stonemason is trying to break the rock, he's hitting it 99 times, the Brock does the he hits it 99 times, the rock hasn't broken yet. It's not until he hits it the hundredth time the rock splits, but the stonemason understands that it was the 99 before that actually broke the rock. I'd love to case study this.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

So pick your pick your brain. Let's say you install blinds. Can you give me content pillars off the top of your head?

SPEAKER_00 39:56

For blinds. If you're a blind installer, I want to see a time-lapse of you installing blinds. I want to see you a day in the life of a blind installer. Like, what did you eat for breakfast? Like even just show me your work day, like you getting into the car. Maybe also walk me through what a hard day looks like for you. Walk me through what an easy day looks like for you. What's your schedule? Like, I want to know all these things. If you kind of look at it, and I can give it a different perspective for this, is if you feel very self-conscious about content and documenting, it's what an easy practice to make it you know more simple for you is actually to just kind of zoom out, detach, and that's really gonna help. Is detach from yourself and look at your schedule like you're studying a bug. If you're studying a bug, okay, what when when does the bug move from here to here? Okay, maybe that would be interesting to capture. When does the bug wake up? When does the bug eat? What is the bug habitually doing that actually is like fascinating to somebody who is outside the industry? Because I think it's so easy when you're in business to think that a lot of the things that you do, because you do them so often, you kind of get really familiar with it, and then familiarity you know breeds contempt, like you almost contempt at your own work because you've done it so much. Yeah, but what you don't realize is like from the outside, who's some somebody who has never seen it, even somebody who is in your industry is finding it fascinating because you're doing things your own way. So for the blind installer, I'm like, I want to know your methods, I want to know your timelines, I want to know your processes, I want to know your tips for how you acquire clients, I want to hear about a bad client story. Give me the worst blinds you ever installed. Tell me about all the mistakes you've made. You know, I think that when it comes to content, my approach to it is if I can, you know, save somebody time, it's worth posting. If I can make somebody money, it's worth posting. If I can save somebody money, it's worth posting. If I can reduce pain for somebody else, it's worth posting. If I if every time I post I only help one person, just one. I can post a thousand times and help a thousand people. Yeah, the inspiration element.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Correct. How do you how do you what's your mindset around negative comments and like people hating on the comments or like so I've got a lot and and it's and it's always the same.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

I've seen it. And it's it's so fascinating to me, right? Because I would never once wake up and be like, you know what, I'm gonna go on somebody's video who's doing a thing and be like, I'm gonna leave something negative, and like like ultimately I think you get out what you you know what you put in. And so to me, the idea of spending my time on somebody else's business, on somebody else's life, is a complete waste of energy. Like, my advice to somebody that that maybe is is overvaluing the negative comments, maybe gets affected by it, is understanding that they are shadow boxing with their perception of you. It's not actually you, you know, you could be vulnerable, you could be, you could put yourself out there for 60 seconds, but they don't have the full picture of your life, they don't actually know you. And so anybody, you know, when when they if they are negative on the videos, if they're even negative in person, maybe as a little snide comment masked by a joke, I kind of look at that as like, oh, they're investing time and energy into thinking about me.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Yeah. Usually comes from a place of insecurity. Correct. Can you give me your Day in the Life 2026 edition?

SPEAKER_00 43:12

Day in the Life 2026. Well, every day is starting to get more and more interesting due to the travel. I think that my standard work day, because I have transitioned to a bulk model, so maybe we didn't we didn't cover that fully in depth, but the the bulk model is I have a buyer network across Australia. The bulk network is uh sorry, I have a buyer network across Australia, and I'm essentially buying things in buying the stock in bulk and then breaking it down into smaller lots and then sending it out. It's a very simple business model. I've changed from you know listing and selling individuals to selling in bulk, and it's simple on purpose. Recently I heard this thing that was like uh everybody wants simplicity, nobody wants to be simple. In my case, I want to be simple, I want to enjoy my business. I think I want to run my business rather than my business run me. And I think that as business owners, we can definitely get caught in this cycle of we're overinvesting our time, energy, instead of just focusing on the things that matter. And so for me, every every month now I have one metric. It's how how much weight did I move? How many kilos did I move with this pre-owned clothing? And as long as I hit my goals with that, I'm good. And so, you know, just before this podcast, in the last 48 hours, I moved 340 kilos of pre-owned clothing. And so my goal now is to get to that one ton a month, and then we'll see see where we go from there. Do you believe in burnout? And if so, how do you manage yours? I think if you're winning, burnout will not affect you. The reason why I say this is it gets addictive, progress gets addictive, the results get addictive. I think we run into burnout when we get this feeling of I'm putting all this effort in, but I'm not getting anything from it. And that's why I also think early on, that's when burnout is the most harsh. Yes. Because it's like it's like a rocket, right? We have to put so much energy, so much fuel, so much effort to get it out into the atmosphere. But once it's in space, it kind of keeps going up. So that's something to really keep in mind. If there's somebody who's watching this, maybe they're early on in their journey, maybe something has started working, but it's not quite where they want it to be, is to understand that you are the rocket taking off, right? You need to invest all that energy. But what I promise that once you hit that stratosphere, once you are out, that like you'll understand everything is worth it, and then you'll find out you know, there's more, there's levels to this, there's there's another layer to breakthrough.

SPEAKER_01 45:33

I have a challenging question for you. Do you think you really can fail in business if you give it all your all?

SPEAKER_00 45:41

I think you can fail in business if you are tone-deaf to what the market wants. If you fail to put yourself out there adequately, for example, if I am if I'm an artist, let's let's take it from the artist's perspective, right? If I am out in a hut and I am putting all this effort in, doing all this work, and it's so great, but I never hit publish, I never get the distribution that it requires, I never share it with anybody, that's when you can fail. So when you're tone-deaf to the market, that's not to say that you should cater solely to the market, especially in the case of art, you should do your own thing. But I do think there's a there's value to uh doubling down on understanding what the market wants, doubling down on understanding that you have to put yourself out there to extreme levels in order to break through, in order to create that noise, in order to get noticed, because there is so many other people that want what you want, but the beauty is if you are it's it's very much like a last man standing, it's it's a war of attrition. It's like if you are the last one standing and you keep going and you never give up, like you will win. And that was something that like I learned from Nipsey, which is like I remember an old interview, he said, like the only the only one distinguishing factor, and I'm paraphrasing here, the only one distinguishing factor I had was I just never gave up. And if you look at his his story compared to everybody else, like as rappers, they're supposed to blow up young, this was this timeline, and to him, he was just like, Look, I love doing this thing, I'm gonna keep doing it, and I'm gonna build it my own way, and you know, he did pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

Do you think business owners such as yourself in the e-commerce space should worry a lot about what's going on in the world, the news, things like that, or just ignore the noise?

SPEAKER_00 47:25

I think one should always be aware of the incentive structure based around intention, right? Uh I think that there are a lot of companies that profit off of your attention. I think there are that it's always wise to ask who is benefiting from me consuming this right now, and that's not just from a news perspective, that's not just from that's that's food as well. It's like when you're eating something, ask yourself who is benefiting from me eating this. And if the answer is not solely you, and then there's no benefit to you, and you're you're essentially somebody's profiting off of you, then it's something worth thinking about. I think as a business owner, it really depends what chapter you're in. I think there is a lot of value in just locking in, focusing on yourself, not worrying about what the friends are doing, not worrying about what this person's saying, not worrying about all the noise, and focusing on what ultimately is going to take you to where you want to go. Can you give me your best ever day in business? As in the your favorite or my favorite day in business. Hmm. I I've definitely got some recency bias. I'm gonna say today, because I have this conversation with you. I get to see Davy, I get to be here, I get to meet Natalia, I get to the meet meet the man behind the camera. Dr. Dre. That's it, Dr. Dre. So I also spent you know the day with my cousin and then showing him because he started his business and he's really early on, and so I'm I'm almost like reliving that chapter, except I can help somebody skip all the pain parts that I went through. And I think that's why today's my favorite day in business because I'm starting to see the fruit, the harvest of all the seeds I planted a long time ago, and at the same time, being able to help my cousin and being able to see him and see him thrive just makes me really happy. Can you give me your worst ever day in business? Worst ever day in business? Hmm. I have a worst season. I have a worst season. So to give you the visual, I'm in the the main living room, timber floors, I have a box of coat cans on the ground, I have clothes to my right, and for whatever reason, I'm crouched sitting on the coat cans, taking photos of the clothing on the floor. My back hurts. I'm in my early 20s. My back should not hurt, right? For whatever reason, it's one of those things. And and I I think Jeff Bezos was talking about it, like, hey, why don't they they were like packing boxes? And he was like, why don't I get uh why don't I get uh like knee protectors? And I was like, why don't you just get a table? For me, in that chapter, I was I was sitting on the floor taking photos of the clothing on the floor with my back hurting, thinking, why am I doing it? I'm doing this the hard way, and in that chapter, like I don't have the results. I know there's something here, but I don't have the results, and my back's hurting, my body's sore. I'm like, why am I doing this? This is terrible. Um, but now looking back, it's very funny to me because I'm like, is it's the same thing as you know with Bezos, it's like just get the table for me. It was just like just build a backdrop so you can stand up, like it's so simple, but you know, fix the pain point, move on. Isn't it funny? The worst ends up becoming your favorite.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

It's funny, man. It's funny. My worst was uh we were living out of our gym, it's basically homeless. We had 20 bucks. Yeah, and then I remember talking to my brother, like, we have no debts, we but we have this 20 bucks. And in that moment we were up, and yeah, it was the worst, but the it was the funniest, it was the best, it was the worst. It was every emotion in the book. And with that 20 bucks, we went to Macca's and it was you remember the loose change menu? Yes, sir. Yeah, we got like three chicken and cheeses each. Amazing, it was the best day ever. Yeah, but now looking back, like in that moment it was the worst, but every day after that just got better and better and better. Um, one of my last questions to you is what is the best piece of business advice you've ever gotten?

SPEAKER_00 51:11

Be useful. Don't be cool, don't try to be something you're not, be useful. Find out what people need, fill the gap, be useful. If you do that, you will do very well because a lot of people have a lot of problems, and if you are somebody who actively looks for people's problems to solve, they're gonna want you around all the time.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

You're speaking about bugs, evolution, everything like that. Where do you see your journey taking you?

SPEAKER_00 51:40

More life, man. More life. I think I want to I want to travel more. I want to, I'm very close to retiring my mother, which is huge because you know, the last last few podcasts I've I've spoken about it, but I'm very, very close. And what's beautiful about that as well is like, hey mom, like we're getting close. Do you want to do you want to quit your job? And she's like, actually, like I love my job right now. So so it's like for all that time that she worked you know at KFC and whatever, and was getting me through school and grinding it out, is like now she's in a job where she loves it, and I'm now getting to that you know, that chapter in my life where I'm like, hey mom, like whatever you want to do, let's go do it. I got you. And she's like, Well, actually, I kind of love what I'm doing right now. So, yeah. It's a good feeling, eh? It's a good feeling.

SPEAKER_01 52:25

How close how how close do you reckon you are?

SPEAKER_00 52:27

I don't want to speak too soon. Buy the next pod, you reckon? I mean, I'm not saying no. I'm not saying no, man.

SPEAKER_01 52:34

Uh, where can people watch your stuff?

SPEAKER_00 52:36

So it's really easy. Uh, kiddo the one, k-i-do, t-e-o-n-e, but just google that, kiddo the one, you'll see everything. I think, you know, you'll find my I'm most active on Instagram. You'll find my YouTube, which is where I post long form stuff. And then if you look up kiddo, like you'll find the music as well. K-I-D-O. Just make sure it's the the profile with 4K God on it. You'll be able to find it.

SPEAKER_01 53:01

4K God. We'll we'll link uh kiddo stuff down below. Kido, I want to thank you for coming on the pod. I got a lot out of it. I know a lot of people early, middle, late stage in business will get a lot out of it. Uh, I just want to thank you for always being so open about your content game, your your business game, your mindset game. Um, if you don't already make sure you give him a follow. He's always dropping gems. And brother, we'll see you again on another episode. But thank you so much. I appreciate you. Bye guy. Bye guy.