Hey welcome to another episode of Builders Business Success podcast!

 

We quite often getting experts in different areas, helping us to overcome many of the common issues that most builders experience in their building business. 

 

But I always find that getting it really from the horse’s mouth, someone who has the experience someone who’s doing it just like you, can be really beneficial. 

 

We’ve created a couple of episodes, this will be the first, where we’re talking with actual builders about the specific issues that they’ve been having, the solutions that they’ve been implementing to overcome those issues, and even the struggles with the implementation of the solutions to those problems. 

 

So as usual we’re going to have the standard stuff, we’re gonna have Q&A, we’re gonna have “What’d I Say?”. 

 

And in this particular episode we’re talking with Andrew Pearse, he’s a partner and director in JADCO Homes, up in the Blue Mountains or in Penrith in New South Wales. He’s one of our Builders Business Blackbelt members, he and his business partner Jeff came through our Blueprint program. 

 

So the Blueprint program is a 12 week program that works on basically the three essential pillars of building a solid building business. 

 

The first of, is mindset and personal productivity. 

 

The second is what we call the quality client pathway and that’s the bit where we get rid of all of the time-wasters, the tire kickers and so forth, but you’re able to effectively charge for your proposals or your quotes. 

 

And then the third pillar is profit first, which really gets you into a much more solid financial position and gets rid of all of the financial and money stress out of your business. 

 

These guys have done exceptionally well in that first 12 weeks are invited to apply for the Builders Business Blackbelt. They were successful. They’ve been in Blackbelt for a little while, and they’re really, really kicking goals.

 

 

So I asked Andrew, what had changed as far as he’s thinking, coming into Christmas or any time where you’re going to have a break and you need to get things done. What was the difference in the mental, the thought process approach now compared to before?

 

– Obviously my usual run up to Christmas is absolute chaos, of promised too many things, to have finished the Christmas things that I have to control on. Tried supplies side both that you lose control of, I’ll promise to customers things that didn’t happen. I’ve even worked Christmas Eve, on the house myself, to try and get right for them to move into over the Christmas holidays. Or spent Christmas holidays on the beach on my phone, walking up and down the beach trying to organize things from back home. It’s been tightened. Christmas is normally chaos. I’d like to take all of November and December and January off just to get rid of that Christmas rush. This year, completely different. I guess I’m going to be the confidence this year to tell people what they will and what they won’t have. It’s very casual, very casual round to Christmas, I had two houses to hand over, the second one is going two days and it’s ready. The first one went last week and the customer was happy as Larry. The summary is no one is letting me down this year. I don’t know why.

 

– Well I suppose we have to have a little bit of luck at some stage, but what has changed for you now? I’m assuming that there’s two parts to it. There’s what you think. So tell me what you’ve firstly what you’ve changed with your mindset, and then I’ll ask you about what you’re physically doing differently. Like the techniques you might be using.

 

– My own approach, used to be take on as much as I could possibly chew and you chew . This year, have had a little bit more to think about myself. I guess I take on now what I know I can achieve, work out what’s more important, instead of doing 20 things in a day that aren’t important and you might do the one important thing and the rest of the things just tend to drop into place.

 

– What’s your thoughts around like, if you’ve bought off as much as you can probably possibly chew and chew like crazy, and there’s an outcome. Or you take a more planned, prioritized approach, prepared approach. When you look at those two scenarios, which one do you end up getting more done by using?

 

– 12 months ago I would have said the first one. I would have said go like crazy, go as hard as you can for as long as you can until you drop normally get more done, for the last six months, I never realized that if I do the important things first and prioritize does, label the little bits and pieces that are not important, I get a hell of a lot more done. I find that I’ve got free time in the day, I didn’t use that free time to do all the non-important things and more because they’re not important they don’t get done because they never needed to be done I just thought I did.

 

– ‘Cause I’ve like been in time management, for a long long time. And people will hear you say what you just said that I do the important things first, and they’ll go but everything I’ve got to do is important.

 

– It’s what I used to think too. I used to think everything was important. I used to think that if I put in 12 hours a day, and I’ve still got things to do, all I’ve got to do is put in 14 hours a day, and I’ll get them all done. It didn’t work. There was always things to do. Now if I put in eight as a day, of a quality day, all the important stuff gets done. The stuff that doesn’t get done didn’t need to get done anyway, and tomorrow the diary is very clear I’ve got three hours work so far. Now I can work on the business, instead of in the business.

 

– So what are the things physically? So I’ve talked a little bit about mindset. What are the things physically, that you do differently these days, to instead of working a four day night hour day, and still feeling like you didn’t accomplish anything, to having three hours ahead of you tomorrow?

 

– I must admit it it’s a lot of planning. First thing in the morning, I sit there and plan my day, I prioritize what has to happen that day, and I put to the side, what doesn’t have to happen. I also close the door of my office, when I’ve got things that I really need to do, I’ll shut the door. I’m known to everybody as answering the phone always, no matter what time of day night the phone is on 24 hours a day, I’ll always answer the phone. I don’t do that now, if I’ve got something important that has to be done, I’ll set some time aside to do it. I don’t have disturbances. I don’t answer the phone. I often kinda look at the emails until I’ve got everything done that I have to do. That’s something that’s been really important to me. Because I do a lot of driving around. I do a lot of foods while I’m driving that’s not only dangerous while I’m driving because I end up in the wrong place half the time.

 

– I was just thinking that I hope I don’t have to cross the road when you’re coming in the road.

 

– So what I do no I plan though, before I’m getting up early in the morning. So by seven o’clock everything is under control. Everything is planned. I’ve got a diary that says what’s important to get done by a certain time and once that’s done, anything else that comes, I’ll then plan for the next day.

 

– You’re an experienced and intelligent builder, why didn’t you do all of that before? Why have you waited to start doing it the last six months?

 

– It’s time because it’s a really simple thing to do. I guess I was too busy, to think of the simple things. It took someone else to tell me, what to do for me to realize, that I knew I should’ve been doing it. I just wasn’t because I was too busy and I thought if I put in more effort, I’ll get less busy, but it didn’t work that way.

 

– Surely like nothing that we have taught you through Blueprint or Blackbelt, was revolutionary, or was something you didn’t already know.

 

– Everything I’ve learned since I’ve been here, it was a relearning thing. I already knew it. I already knew to relax, plan, think about the important things, but I guess it was a wake up call to change mindset. And the mindset was I’m a business owner. I’m 10 years in. I’m not happy where I am, work harder. But I know I should work smart not harder. And all it took was for someone to tell me to sit down and listen to them and think about it for a sec. And my mindset is completely challenged.

 

– If you are to be that person for people watching this episode of this podcast, what do you think you need to tell the person who’s watching or listening to this, for it to be that wake up call, what has to be said? What do they need to understand? Because as you’ve just mentioned, it’s not new. It’s not revolutionary, you already knew it. What do you need to say to people to get them to start to do it?

 

– I suppose everyone is different. But for me it was to let my defenses down a little bit and trust somebody else. I’m a very skeptical person, if someone tells me that can help me, my first thought is what are you trying to get out of it? I got to a stage where I needed someone to help me, and I let my defenses down to say, ” Listen to this guy and just open up your mind a little bit,” and it did, it worked.

 

– Let’s assume that people are after what you’ve just said, then again, open up their mind, what do they need to open up their mind to? What are the simple, big lever things that you’ve done, that you’ve changed, that you’ve implemented in the last six months, that someone could grab from this conversation and just start to implement and get results from it quickly?

 

– To sit down and think of where I wanna be. So having a goal that I’m trying to attain. That’s probably the biggest one. To sit down and say why am I doing this? And I still really don’t know why I’m doing this.

 

– But that’s okay isn’t it? Like you’ve got to keep asking this question. What is the purpose of me, putting my ass on the line to run my own business rather than taking no risk and working for somebody else. Tell me your experience of what’s happened if you’ve just asking that question of what am I doing this for? But you haven’t necessarily got a defined result. Have you got some idea? What’s caused the change?

 

– I guess it was just someone to stand in the way, of my seven day a week action, and someone to stand in the way that I’ve had to go outside my comfort zone, to get around that person. Once I’m outside that line, I’m seeing what else is available. And there’s just so much outside my business day now, that is just as important as the business, and more important to myself. Like my head space now is so clear, compared to how it was six months ago. But I really don’t know why that has happened. That pop in the back that I think I’ve just prioritized, and got rid of half the things that I thought I had to do.

 

– And maybe people don’t need to know why. There’s plenty of people around who get in a car, and use the engine to go forward and use the brakes to stop and have no clue about the internal combustion engine workings or hydraulic systems that stop them from running someone over at a pedestrian crossing. Or they walk into their home at night and flick the light on and they have no idea of how electricity works. Maybe we don’t need to know why. Maybe we just need to do things different.

 

– There’s a little bit like when you drive home from work, for 10 years and you use the same highway you turn left at the same street. If that road is blocked and you go the other way, you see something different, and it’s an eye opener. And I guess it’s the same with what we’ve done here over the last six months. I’ve been self-employed for 30, 40 years. I’ve run this business for 10 and I run it that line for the 10 years. You’ve come along and you might be run it that way a little bit, and it’s changed things for the better. It really has. But I can’t put things to what it was, apart from the fact that you just stood in front of me and said, ” What you’re doing is not right?” And I thought how would you know?

 

– Well just look.

 

– Just look.

 

– How is it working?

 

– Its working fantastic.

 

– No I meant before. That’s what Tony Robbins taught me many, many years ago. If you’re not getting the results that you wanna get, you’ve got to change your approach.

 

– Yeah you keep doing same thing, you get the same result. Well I have been, was something different, but Mick it’s funny, it’s not just the result of having a quieter easy day, the business has changed completely. The passion that I’ve got for business again, six months ago I was read to throw in, all finished, all worn out. I’ve had enough. Now I’m thinking new opportunities. I’m working at a different ways to do things. The businesses is picking up, next year is gonna be our biggest year ever. Six months ago I thought next year I’d be out of work completely and closing the business down.

 

– And bear in mind this is the year of 2020 COVID year you’re talking about, that was a bad year.

 

– Yeah that’s right. It’s supposed to be our worst year ever. It was for the first three months, but now it’s just everything is so much more positive. People have told me, that I seem happier. I seem more positive. They see smiling occasionally. I used to think that if you could just work harder and harder and harder and out of everyone saw that I worked harder and harder, that would be meaning being successful. But it didn’t give me what I wanted it. I’m still not in the position where I’d like to be, but I’m really enjoying it, and the future is looking very positive for this business and for me.

 

– What advice can you give someone, they’ve got a building business and it’s not going exactly how they’d like it to be? So that was you and your business partner Jeff, and I’ve said this too before the conversation with both you and Jeff before you decided to jump into Blueprint, you were kind of, what reminds me of you guys are the guys in the Muppets who are sitting up, at the side of stage, the grumpy oh God. And you were so very, very skeptical, which is really funny looking backwards, hearing what you’re saying today. But looking back to that, what was the thought process you went through or what was said or what happened, to cause you to go, ” Let’s just give it a crack.”

 

– I guess it was my own thought process in my mind that I I had tried everything that I knew of, and I was totally worn out and I just thought if anyone comes along now, that’s got anything positive to say, I’m gonna go with the flow and see if I can change my own mindset. I’ve never met anyone as positive as you. Yeah I took the gamble, and geez I’m glad I did. I don’t think it’s a good step for someone who’s just started out in business, and of course, they’ve got a lot of learning to do, but anyone that’s been doing it for a number of years and are a little bit lost, a bit of direction and a bit enthusiasm from themselves, I think it’s a great thing.

 

– You’re a hundred percent, a hundred percent correct, because like you need to be somewhat established for the stuff that we do at least in Blackbelt, to be effective. In an ideal world when someone’s first starting it’d be good for them to start the right way. And we’ve had a couple of, there’s some guys that are in our group like Joel, I think he’d only been in business for three years before he started and he’s kicking goals left right and center. But that’s what also, the final question is, is the implementation how difficult, or easy, or how did you find the implementation of it? Because fundamentally, success that you and Jeff have had, with JEDCO Homes is 100% your responsibility. Because the information that we give you in Blackbelt is available all over the place. We might wrap it up in a nice, understandable way but it’s the implementation of that, and the changes that you make in your thinking and your actions that gives you your success. Tell us just a little bit about the ease, or the struggle that that’s been for the implementation.

 

– There has been so many let downs throughout my whole life. I’ve become very skeptical of anyone that’s offering anything, outside my single-minded line. So very difficult for me to sit there and imagine goals, that’s probably been the hardest part to sort of stick with. To sit down in the morning and try and imagine where I wanna be, has been the most difficult part. But the most healthy part as well. And that really blows me away, that a 15-year-old boy, can do something different, and you can teach an old dog new tricks.

 

– You don’t look entirely 48.

 

– Yeah it’s great isn’t it?

 

– I think smiling, and laughing helps a lot.

 

– It does and also just having a positive attitude helps a lot. It takes away a lot of stresses, to give some positive light to other people, when you speak to them, brings back benefits, huge benefits. And when you’ve got time to do it, and time to think outside the box, it just makes life so much easier. For me it has that’s for sure.

It’s an interesting concept, this whole perceived value and what motivates people to make choices and all of that sort of thing. 

 

What we’re trying to do here as a group, is change the narrative. Is change the default conversation in people’s minds. And I think it’s easier to buy, than build in a lot of people’s minds. 

 

Because of like just either their experience or the horror stories that they’ve heard from others, and yeah you kind of get what you want when you build, but it takes so long and it’s just full of decisions and painful experiences and all of that sort of stuff. 

 

And when you present yourself as something different, and you have a process and you communicate that you care for your customer’s experience, as well as delivering the best possible value, it just changes people’s priorities and perceptions. 

 

And the reason I asked the question of Sherry was it’s like my suspicion is what’s going on in your mind, is there’s a bit of history and a bit of experience going on, in relation to conversations you’ve had in the past and people’s responses, and that’s because that was the old dance building, the old process, the old presentation, and of course you get those responses. 

 

But you change the menu, you get different responses. You get different feedback.

One of the most common questions that I get asked and I have addressed it before on the podcasts. 

 

And the question is, how the hell do I get paid for my quotes? Many times I’ve had a builder, reach out to me and say. ” I’ve told prospects that I charge for quotes and they’ve just gone, well I won’t be paying for a quote.” And basically their mindset is why would I pay for something that I can get somewhere else for free which is fair enough. 

 

So the secret to this is, to not present it as exactly the same thing that everyone else is getting for free. But something very, very different. And the analogy that I’ve often used as you walk into a restaurant, and you’ve been going to this restaurant for ages and they’ve just put the prices up, but everything is the same. 

 

You will be a little bit pissed off. You’ll be a bit disgruntled because you’re paying more for something that you’ve been getting for a lesser price for ages. 

 

But if you were told that the menu had changed, the ingredients have changed, the service, the environment, there’d been a whole bunch of changes so it’s gonna be a totally different experience, and you’re invited into this experience and we’d love to get your feedback on the way out what did you think? 

 

And you went in to your usual restaurant but everything had changed. 

 

The menu had changed. The ingredients had changed. The service had changed. The atmosphere, the environment had changed, and the prices had changed. 

 

The thing is that if everything was better, you had a much much better experience, and the prices had gone up but the experience that you had, represented significantly more value, you wouldn’t bother about the price change, because it represented significantly more value for your investment. 

 

Even though you paid a little more you got a lot more value. And that’s how we represent the paid proposal. It is represented in a way that it is totally different to just doing your standard garden variety quote. 

 

There’s a lot more that goes into it, it becomes like an insurance policy so your client or prospect, knows exactly what they’re going to get, exactly how much they’re going to pay, and there are no nasty surprises. They can be really, really confident in what they’re going to get. 

 

The other part of the process is that you’ve got to learn how to communicate with your prospects so they feel totally 100% understood. 

 

Around their fears, around their frustrations, around their concerns, around their priorities, all of those things they need to really have a sense that you fully understand, what they want and what they want to avoid. 

 

That goes a long way to build trust, and it also makes sense to your prospects when they see you’re putting all of this effort and time in why wouldn’t they pay and invest in getting all of these benefits which they don’t get, when you are getting a free quote. 

 

So it’s a big mindset shift. If you wanna hear more about it all you need to do is reach out to us we can run you through how that process works and we’ve got all of the things in place that you can just implement it into your business. 

 

I’ll talk to you in a minute about how you can access that.

 

I think the main takeaway from this podcast that you don’t need to fully tear down your building business and build it back up from scratch. 

 

You can make some significant inroads into improving your business just by making a few simple changes. 

 

I’ve found through my 35 years of performance coaching and business coaching, and particularly working with builders for the last almost a decade, just under a decade, is that the mind shifts need to be from the neck up. 

 

In fact, 30 something years ago, our business model was we had one three and a half hour workshop live workshop, and that’s all we did. We just ran it two, three times a month. 

 

People would turn up to exactly the same workshop, with exactly the same content, exactly the same jokes and punchlines and exactly the same place and they would still laugh they’re very courteous. 

 

We still use that as a resource today in our coaching. And the main thing about that workshop the main message was your input, determines your output. 

 

Which basically means if you wanna change anything in your business or in your life for that matter what you need to do is stand guard at the entrance to your mind, and you need to determine what is going in. 

 

And that means that you determine what sort of words you use. 

 

You determine how you interpret what’s going on in front of you. You choose who you hang around with for the most part, and who you need to avoid for the most part. Because people have input and have influence on you as well. 

 

So you’ve gotta hang around with the right people. That’s why in Builders Business Blackbelt, all of our members make significantly faster progress, than our members used to when we used to have a one-on-one coaching program. 

 

Because it was just me and them. But now in Builders Business Blackbelt there are this group of amazing people that are supporting each other, cheerleading for each other, sharing resources, you’ve got a whole bunch of different people that will listen to you and share their experience, so you don’t have to learn from all of your own mistakes. 

 

You can learn from other people’s mistakes. And what we’ve found is, that group environment where you’ve got people influencing your thinking can have a profound effect on how things turn out in your building business. 

 

So the thing that you really need to change if you wanna change your building business is how you think about things. How you see things, and change your input, change your language, change who you hang around with can make a profound difference to your building business. 

 

So that is the takeaway from this episode. 

 

So as I mentioned before, if you are interested in finding out how you can get paid for quotes. Get rid of the time-wasters, toxic is out of your business. 

 

It will save you a ton of time which in turn saves you a ton of money but the real benefit for it is that it gets rid of a ton of unnecessary stress that people deal with. 

 

If you wanna figure out or find out if what we’ve got is going to work for you, all you need to do is have a conversation. The conversation is free, there is nothing to buy. 

 

All you need to do is just book a call, schedule a call. There is a button underneath this video just hit the button. 

 

If you’re listening to the audio only version just navigate to buildersbusinessblackbelt.com.au, there’s a big orange button on the website and you can schedule a call and find out if and how we might be able to help you with your building business. 

 

I hope this episode has been helpful, I’m Mick Hawes Builders Business Black Belt, That is it, bye for now.