E10- Youtube
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[00:00:00] Shelley: Welcome to the regional collective podcast. We're all about sharing stories of success, challenges, and the amazing community spirit in small and micro businesses. Here, we redefine small business with big hearts and determined hustle. Get ready to be inspired by regional entrepreneurs making a big impact.
[00:00:22] Shelley: Whether you're just starting out or already on your business journey, you'll find motivation and practical tips to help you thrive. We believe in the power of community. So let's share, support and celebrate regional businesses together. Tune in and get inspired to thrive.
[00:00:40] Speaker 2: Hi there, join us this week for a chat with Lisa Dakey from Saxony Building. We're diving into their amazing journey in the building industry and discover how Lisa and her hubby Luke's passion for construction and interior design sparked the creation of Saxony Building, a [00:01:00] family owned gem in the heart of the Barossa.
[00:01:03] Speaker 2: From their early start up days to their impressive growth and success, Lisa shares their honest dedication to personalised service, craftsmanship and how they've done it. So let's dive in for an inside look at their story and how they've turned their business dreams into beautifully crafted realities over the course of a decade.
[00:01:22] Shelley: thanks Lisa for joining us today.so first of all, you own a building business with your husband. Can you just perhaps give us a background into, what Saxody Building does and all about? Yeah. And then perhaps how you got started as well. Yeah.
[00:01:38] Lisa: Yep. So, we've had a construction company now, it's 10 years we worked out this year.
[00:01:42] Lisa: So it's been, yeah, a long time. Yep. Doesn't feel like a long time, but it actually is in numbers, I guess. So yeah, we are custom home builders. So. people come to us sometimes with plans, sometimes without plans. We like it without plans, because then we create our little team together to then, yeah, build everyone's dreams, I guess.
[00:01:59] Lisa: So, we've [00:02:00] got, yeah, five employees on site, plus a lot of subcontractors that are local, some not local, but yeah, so that's the essence of, yeah, what we do. Yeah,
[00:02:09] Shelley: and how did you get started? So, was it? Is that what Luke was involved in? Like, was he in construction?
[00:02:15] Lisa: Yeah, no, well, sort
[00:02:17] Lisa: of. It's quite, we were laughing about it last night, actually.
[00:02:19] Lisa: So Luke started off as a boilermaker, out of school. So welding and things like that. He started working for a framing company here in Shenandoah. It's called Nomadic Enterprises. the Rosenzweig family owned that. And that's where he kind of learnt how steel frames go together. And then I think he did a bit of a course in, I've never really put them up, just made them in the factory and then I got a teaching job over on York Peninsula and I think I was there for a term and then Luke couldn't live without me so he came on over and needed to find some work and it's quite an interesting story actually.
[00:02:51] Lisa: So, yeah. His brother lived over there. His brother had some contacts here. Give Gary a call. Gary is a builder. Yeah. There were two [00:03:00] Garys. We didn't really know. Luke rang the wrong Gary. Oh no. He rang the wrong Gary. Happened to be a builder over there though. So there were two Gary builders. And, so Gary owns Wellstead Quality Homes over in Moonshade, he's a very well known builder over on the peninsula.
[00:03:13] Lisa: So Luke rang him and said, Oh, I've put up frames, do you have any work? And so Gary said, yeah, come around to my house, come and meet me and we'll catch up. I got home from school that day and I said, like, how'd you go? And he goes, Lisa, do you know that house? And everyone probably knows it if you go to Moonshade.
[00:03:27] Lisa: Beautiful house, biggest house in Winter Bay, on the corner, just won't get to the jetty. He goes, it was that house. So he goes, I went to that house, big staircase, all the things, and Gary goes, oh, start Monday, come on in. And so, yeah, Luke started working. How long after did
[00:03:42] Shelley: he work out that it was the wrong day?
[00:03:43] Lisa: I think
[00:03:44] Lisa: maybe it was later, it wasn't even in that moment, so it was a sliding doors moment. So, he started working, and so Luke, I think he said yesterday, he He'd only had like three days worth of putting out frames, so he'd never really done it. He's kind of jumped into something that he didn't know.
[00:03:57] Lisa: And I was just so vividly remember him getting the [00:04:00] plans. He studied them all weekend. And that first house that he put up, it took him five weeks. It should take five days. And it took five weeks and Gary never even said anything. So I'm like, I don't, yeah, can't really work that one out. Oh my God, I had no idea what I was doing.
[00:04:16] Lisa: He had someone working with him. and he was a casual getting 17 an hour. And that's how that kind of framing started. And I think Gary probably saw something in Luke and, got him to get his subcontractors license and then we started employing people and that was like our first little taste of employing people.
[00:04:33] Lisa: I didn't have heaps to do with it cause I was full time teaching. So that was Luke's little, his business and his, employment. So I didn't have heaps to do with it. But. Yeah, we employed two other guys and that was our first taste of work health and safety and all of that kind of stuff. Having no idea even how to invoice the builder.
[00:04:50] Lisa: How do you do wages? Like what's a payslip look like? All of that kind of stuff. We had no idea. So that was the first taste of that. And I think Luke probably got a little bit bored of that [00:05:00] after doing that for quite a few years. Like he's always someone who's seeking to do something different, seeking to learn and grow and things like that.
[00:05:07] Lisa: He's never had, he's not that person who's got his dad as a builder or, but our parents are not in business or anything. So everything that we've done is new and fresh and learning on the go. And so he probably got a little bit sick of the whole just putting up frames and a lot of the frames for him to start with was, there was lots of development in Mouta Bay and Port Hughes.
[00:05:27] Lisa: So there's like a Patrick's view, Patrick's Cove and the Wallabrie Marina that had no houses in it. So Luke, built some of the first houses in there, the frames and got to learn a little bit at the start of construction, but had never You see the end of house, but he's done it onto the next house, so we never actually saw what happened in like a whole build.
[00:05:44] Lisa: And he's like, I want to be a builder. And we'd always loved houses and building and we built for ourselves and things like that. He's like, I want to be able to build homes for other people. I want them to have an amazing experience. Like, that's, we love building and we want other people to enjoy that [00:06:00] as well.
[00:06:00] Lisa: So he's like, well, we're going to start out a really, my goal is to build architectural homes. And at the time I was teaching, I'm like, Oh yeah, good luck with that. So yeah, good luck.yeah. So then, yeah, he got a little bit sick of that and that's when we moved to the Brosser and we often look back to like, we moved here, no jobs, no house.
[00:06:21] Lisa: We sold our house. We bought a block of land. Yeah. It was new, new, trying to find new jobs, new schools, new everything. Like we came with nothing and starting up a new business. He did a quick little vintage at your lumber. Yeah. so yeah, that was like the start of it. And he actually does. When we moved he got his builder's license as well so he hadn't even done that and quite often when people get their builder's license they're working for another builder.
[00:06:43] Lisa: He didn't have that, he was on his own and kind of leaned on a few mates that were in the industry. and so he had got his license and just started. And then here we are, yeah, 10 years
[00:06:54] Shelley: later. And and then when did you transition from needing to be a builder? [00:07:00] working, you know, in your career, but they're also moving into the business.
[00:07:03] Shelley: Yeah.
[00:07:03] Lisa: So a little bit, I look back, it's probably a little bit when the kids were little, I would sometimes send some invoices out. Luke's very particular. I didn't do it how I would like sometimes. And I vividly remember going, right, see, I'm not doing it. You're right. back to teaching for me. So, when we moved here, I was doing a little bit of teaching.
[00:07:21] Lisa: and a little bit of just bookwork stuff for him. Even prior to that, before I even got into teaching here, like we had nothing, no jobs. I've got a job at Typo at Elizabeth shopping center that was just to get some kind of income. And it was like three hours shift. So I dropped Matilda off at childcare, all ELC.
[00:07:37] Lisa: It cost us more for childcare and ELC for me to go there. Yes, and all of that, but for us to look like we could earn income for loans and all of that kind of stuff, that's what we had to do. so eventually, yeah, got into school here and then was doing half and half and just found out it was hard. Yeah.
[00:07:54] Lisa: Trying to headspace and wasn't doing either well and then you throw the kids on top of that. So [00:08:00] I think we probably got our business into a position where. we could afford for me to let the school stuff go because we weren't relying on that income as much. So when that little transition happened, then that allowed me to come into the business.
[00:08:13] Shelley: Yeah. And how did you feel then having that kind of, you know, like sort of simplified life, I guess a little bit, because it gave you the permission to just fully be in the business. Yeah. And how did that feel?
[00:08:26] Lisa: Yeah. So I guess. If we look back on like part of like what our why is for having our own business, a big part of that is time.
[00:08:37] Lisa: And we don't need all the assets and all the fancy things. Really, we wanted a business that would buy us time to do the things that we want to do. And if that means going down to Netfull in a couple of weeks, we can do that. And we've got the flexibility to do that. And that doesn't mean that we work any less.
[00:08:55] Lisa: And I think that's, that's, that's To get your head space around that too, like you have
[00:08:58] Shelley: to have a perception of [00:09:00] that, oh I don't have to work as much, like you work differently.
[00:09:02] Lisa: We
[00:09:03] Lisa: do work differently and it's the stuff at night. It's the other bits and pieces that people don't see and sometimes It's hard to push past that guilt.
[00:09:09] Lisa: Cause I think how people see me at sport and all of that. Cause I'm like, what does she, what does she have a coffee? Go and see
[00:09:17] Shelley: you guys.
[00:09:19] Lisa: Yeah. So I guess it's been training myself to not feel guilty in that space because we do work hard. And the point of it was to get the time to be able to do those things.
[00:09:30] Lisa: So that flexibility. Yeah.
[00:09:33] Shelley: and how getting onto, I guess, how you've built your, you told us, talked about your why and, how do you, or how have you sort of positioned yourselves and Saxony building and what your purpose and your mission is? So how, where have you done in that respect?
[00:09:49] Lisa: We even went back to talk, cause we've been doing some backend business strategy at the moment and went back into like, What else was it?
[00:09:56] Lisa: Why did we even start this up in the first place? And a big part [00:10:00] of it was we love building and we want others to experience, have a really great building experience. How many people do you hear? I always say, like you go to a barbecue, someone there is building. There's always someone who's doing some form of building and they're not having a great time.
[00:10:14] Lisa: And you has
[00:10:15] Shelley: heard another story. And it's
[00:10:17] Lisa: hard. And we're just so passionate about That is the biggest money you will ever spend probably in your life and how many people have a bad experience doing it And so part of our why is just to give people a really great experience building So we've really drilled down into what gives someone that great experience And so that has become part of our values and it's the communication the relationships the teams And all of that kind of stuff at the start creating that creates a really nice build at the end quite often like you see the awards the flashy houses and all that but who knows what's going on in the background of that and for you to get to that point was that actually hard i don't know but ours is yeah really [00:11:00] experience emotion feeling that side of it so that's and creating
[00:11:03] Shelley: something together as well isn't it so we you know i've heard from other people who've used your services as well that's been a big part of it yeah is you know that and i think you You've sort of really nailed, you know, that ethos of communication and I think managing expectations as well as setting expectations.
[00:11:22] Lisa: And I
[00:11:23] Lisa: even think about like, On our inquiry form, we don't necessarily ask like how many bedrooms you want to build, what do you want, it's not what you want to build, we're only why you want to build. Tell us what are your hopes and dreams for this project, let's bring that to life and so let's create the team that we need to bring your vision to life, like what's your why, let's bring all that together.
[00:11:41] Lisa: So
[00:11:41] Shelley: you can be the facilitator. Yeah,
[00:11:43] Lisa: yeah.
[00:11:45] Shelley: and I guess as you've grown as well, how do you make sure that you've got that, you know, attention to detail, that craftsmanship. in that. So what sort of, how do you make sure that that's all of it? Yeah,
[00:11:58] Lisa: buildings and custom [00:12:00] buildings are so different. Like everything is different.
[00:12:01] Lisa: Every house is new. And quite often it's things that we haven't done before in each build. There might be an element that we haven't actually done. And so it's all learning. And a lot of it is really leaning on the people that we employ and the people that we work with, like always says, like I can't build everything.
[00:12:18] Lisa: I can't lay bricks. That's not my skillset. I'm not going to try and do that, but I'm going to find the best person who can do that and has the same values as us and can actually create what we want to. And I think a lot of that with our team as well, it's not only about the quality of the work that you do.
[00:12:36] Lisa: It's about the person that you are as well. The way that you work. The way you conduct yourself on site. I think we've seen what sites, there could be languages, all of those things. We just really take pride in the people that work for us that they just, yeah, conduct themselves beautifully. They speak beautifully.
[00:12:51] Lisa: They, take care of the site and just really respectful of this is someone's place. Like we treat it as like it's our own place and we don't [00:13:00] have rubbish lying around. Like it's tidy, it's clean and products are respected and looked after. So that creates a nice product at the end, but it actually creates a great experience rather than going, Oh, they've made
[00:13:12] Shelley: a mess of our space.
[00:13:14] Shelley: There's a
[00:13:14] Lisa: dent in this wall because someone carried something through and yeah, knocked it and things like that. So just really respectful of the place and. Just really good people to work with and that communication teamwork element, too. So the team, yeah, that we have created really supports our values in that, which then creates a great product at the end.
[00:13:33] Lisa: So it's almost like the product at the end is a by product of
[00:13:36] Shelley: the quality that you've got to start with. And that's it. And I guess that, does that fall into both yours and Luke's role? You share that role in terms of Looking after the team? Yeah.
[00:13:49] Lisa: It's really hard. And I think we're delving into that leadership and what does leadership look like?
[00:13:54] Lisa: Luke does a lot of the science stuff. I'm more just the front end stuff. and to be honest, I'm pretty relatively new to that. [00:14:00] So I have sometimes just felt like an employee rather than a business owner in that. But I think after doing this for a few years, I do feel a bit more comfortable in that.
[00:14:08] Lisa: Yeah. and working with Luke rather than underneath him as such, but I think we always just lead by example and lead by doing and I just, yeah, I think the way that Luke conducts himself when he speaks to people and just how he holds himself and the care and that kind of stuff, it just really filters down and that, yeah, the main leading hand boys on site, they're the same and yeah, I think their individual values have just, yeah, flown on and it's kind of just, that's where it's so
[00:14:34] Shelley: important to find the right team members that share your values because skills could be learned.
[00:14:39] Shelley: And
[00:14:42] Lisa: creating that culture and And culture is a funny word too, like how do you create culture? Like how does that actually work? And we've kind of dived into that a little bit too and really tried to nut out, it's just the space, the feeling that you create, and the example that you set.
[00:14:57] Shelley: And like you said, it's the way that you speak, the way that you [00:15:00] conduct yourself that all presents.
[00:15:02] Lisa: And it's not all roses, like there are hard conversations to have and things like that too, but if you can do that in a really respectful and considered manner, I think that
[00:15:11] Shelley: comes out too. I've got some questions, from our members. can you, so interested in that sort of building project, side of things, can you share an experience where perhaps your team went above and beyond for a client?
[00:15:27] Lisa: Yeah, that,
[00:15:28] Shelley: or is that just the norm?
[00:15:30] Lisa: That's yes. And I was thinking about that and we were kind of nutting through it a bit and To be honest, if there's like some isolated situations where you are going above and beyond, that's time that you haven't allowed for. That's not your product that you haven't allowed for, and that affects your bottom line at the end of the day.
[00:15:49] Lisa: So you don't want to have to be doing that all the time, but it's bringing it in at the start. This is the expectation. And this is what you get when you come to us. This is what everyone [00:16:00] gets. That's just not one person's over and above. And I think the perfect example of that is I think when, and this is probably comparing with project homes, like custom building and project homes is very different, but when you build a project home, you sign up for it, get all excited, they lock the doors on you.
[00:16:16] Lisa: You can't go in there, you cannot visit that site with, you might get on a little bit if there's a tradie in and you can sit in and have, yeah. Yeah. Well, if you know somebody in the know and you can Yeah. Come and have a little look, but building is the most, that's when all the hard work comes to fruition.
[00:16:30] Lisa: Yeah. And for you not to see that. That spins me out.
[00:16:33] Shelley: Yes.
[00:16:34] Lisa: So I guess one of the normals for us is that Luke will have a site meeting nearly every two weeks with clients to come on site, have a walk through, bring your kids, show them the bedroom. Like this is the exciting bit. Yeah. Have a walk around, have a look.
[00:16:47] Lisa: And in that time you might say things that, Oh, I'm not really sure about that. Can we tweak this? Yes, you can. That's when those conversations can be had. And sometimes You know, things might not be right or whatever and that's [00:17:00] fine, we can fix that or yeah this is great, this is tracking along beautifully, go tell your friends, this is great.
[00:17:05] Lisa: Rather than get to the end and then go, that's not right,
[00:17:06] Shelley: that's not right, that's not right. Exactly,
[00:17:08] Lisa: because other builders, yeah, practical completion is when you first go inside your house to reach the end. out. And then that's when you're meant to be, you're half excited looking at all the things you're looking for all the wrong things.
[00:17:20] Lisa: It's just, there's a lot going on. So by the time we get to practical commons, you've seen everything, you know everything and you're ready to have it handed over. So I think just those little things. are part of the experience, which is a normal. Yes. And so even I think of like, online portal, like you can see the schedule, you can see that a title is going to be there on the 17th of June.
[00:17:39] Lisa: other builders, you might not, you have no idea. And then you're doing drive by saying, is there anyone there yet? Why is anyone there yet? Have they dropped
[00:17:45] Shelley: the tiles off yet? Yes,
[00:17:45] Lisa: what's going on? Can't contact the supervisor because you're not allowed to have contact with the supervisor. You have to go through the office and things like that.
[00:17:51] Lisa: Like you've got access to us. You can contact us anytime.
[00:17:54] Shelley: But putting those things in place, so using that technology opens up [00:18:00] that communication. So it means that whatever system you're using to coordinate, people have access to it. So it's not necessarily extra. Work for you to do, but it's keeping it transparent and open.
[00:18:12] Shelley: It's, yeah.
[00:18:12] Lisa: We've even had people, overseas when we've built for them and so we up upload photos every day on a day log. Yeah. That's just part of our recording of what's happened. Yeah. And you get to see, oh yeah. Tiles have gone in. That looks great. Yep. That's tap. Amazing. Yeah.
[00:18:26] Shelley: And like you said, that's that point of difference because we know what the, and most of the stories that people would have heard of have been with project kids.
[00:18:33] Shelley: and the, Oh, we've got to pay extra for this. We've got to pay extra for that. Variation, variation. Yes. You can choose a tile, choose one, two or three.and another question that we had was perhaps over, so you've been in business for 10 years. So what were some moments, or did you ever feel like giving up and then giving up?
[00:18:51] Shelley: What motivated you to keep pushing forward to start the difficulties?
[00:18:54] Lisa: There's one really particular moment that we always go back to. That was our, that was our [00:19:00] lowest of low point. That was like, I was in Adelaide, Luke messaged me at 3am. mum's with the kids and he goes, I can't, we need to do something. I can't do this anymore.
[00:19:10] Lisa: We were, I was kind of half and half in the business, I think, and we were busy. We were doing work. We were pumping it out. We were employing people. That was the good. We were not making any money. We, we didn't know why because we never run a business before. We were just. Siphoning money and we were in our own personal lives just having to be so frugal I remember getting like strawberries from the supermarket on special to make jam.
[00:19:35] Lisa: So we had jam Yeah, our holidays were intense like we could not do anything Our priority was sending the kids to the school that they go to so that's where that was Yeah, exactly and it was do we change schools? Do we sell our house? What do we do? We cannot live like this and The alternative was finding a job with someone else and being an employee again, knowing that you can hit a ceiling with that life fulfilling, probably not because [00:20:00] we started a business and we just didn't know.
[00:20:03] Lisa: And there was this guy, Kurt, Kurt Hegerschweiler in South African, but was a builders coach, a builders mentor. So we organized a Zoom meeting with him and I cried the whole time to this African guy. He was in Melbourne or Sydney or something. I cried the whole time. He was like, tell me about your business.
[00:20:23] Lisa: I couldn't even talk. I was in tears too. And we just, we didn't know what to do. You're
[00:20:28] Shelley: carrying all of that.
[00:20:29] Lisa: There's so much pressure and
[00:20:31] Shelley: responsibility, especially if you've got staff as well. Yeah. Feeling of, you're so, Yeah,
[00:20:37] Lisa: and we didn't know what we didn't we've never ran a business before everything we thought we knew and a lot of it is Around profit and margin and you don't talk to other builders We don't talk to other businesses about you can see what they do all that business is going well They're doing all the things but behind the scenes like no one talks about that and you don't know And so you're under the assumption that I think you're
[00:20:57] Shelley: saying well, we've had one of our coffee chats [00:21:00] Yeah in the cafe about not having coffee enough profit margin on your quotes as well.
[00:21:04] Shelley: Like, so you
[00:21:06] Lisa: were not allowing
[00:21:06] Shelley: for all the other. Yeah,
[00:21:08] Lisa: that's your overhead. So we thought that 15 percent on top of job, that's mine.
[00:21:13] Speaker 3: Yeah,
[00:21:13] Lisa: that's what everyone does. And even the HIA contract now will tell you a cost plus is the job plus 15%. That doesn't even cover your overheads, let alone anything else.
[00:21:23] Lisa: So no wonder we weren't making money. So yeah, Kurt was the first person that kind of funneled us into, he'd call it like what he had. blue jobs, red jobs, yellow jobs. So blue ones for the jobs that you actually make money, really good money from. They're the ones that you need to target, start doing those jobs.
[00:21:39] Lisa: So it was us, yeah, going through every, because we were doing these like changing gutters to like renovations to all the things. So it's like, if changing gutters makes you a lot of money, do that. That's your, Shannon went to that, but it wasn't
[00:21:50] Shelley: funnily enough. And like, it was, and like, when we first, nearly sort of work done as well at the workspace was doing, you know, just, Fixing doors and front doors and quite a lot of what?
[00:21:59] Shelley: Fixing [00:22:00] things? It was and it was like
[00:22:01] Lisa: general labour and things like that and that's, you've got to do a lot of general labour stuff to make money on that. And so that was our first point at starting to change the way we looked at our business. We got in another accountant who really helped us with some business mentoring and then after seeing Kurt just for those few little bits, Luke transitioned out into the loop like that.
[00:22:22] Lisa: group and you would see that a fair bit on our socials. They've been really beautiful. Pivotal in, really looking at you as a person. Yeah. Not as a business who's making a lot of money. Can you be a great person, be happy in your personal life. Yeah. To then work well in your business. And what do you need?
[00:22:39] Lisa: It flows through, doesn't it? It does. And what do you need to make your business work Well and so. This is all the front end stuff, communication, like client based stuff, plus processes, procedures. Are you putting enough on your jobs? Where are you spending your time? How are you, yeah, how are you being a great leader?
[00:22:56] Lisa: It's not about the fancy house at the end. So they've been, [00:23:00] yeah, they've really changed the way we've set up our business and It's still hard though. You're still not yet. We're still relying on that income at the end of the day Like we're relying on us like and if that doesn't work and I think there's that sense of responsibility of our employees They're relying on us to like their livelihood is based on us and if we're not doing it Well from our end, they don't have a job.
[00:23:22] Lisa: We don't have a job. Yeah, it's hopeless. So
[00:23:25] Shelley: There's, that's the driver and that's it. But at least you've got some supportive face around you as well. And that's also, as you grow to scale, that's your job as a leader in the business is to find the other people that can help you because you can't do it all on your own, but you need to have the right people around you.
[00:23:43] Shelley: And there's
[00:23:43] Lisa: some amazing builders interstate that, and there's some in Adelaide as well, that are just really like minded and it's really nice to, yeah, to work with them. We don't really even. We don't worry about what any other builder's doing. Everyone, great, do your own thing. We're not fussed. We just do our own thing, but it's nice to have people that [00:24:00] work in the same manner that we do.
[00:24:02] Lisa: And so that's how we learn and grow. Like, I think a teaching is such a collaborative, industry. We team teaching, you're working together. All of a sudden into building, doing your own thing. Don't talk about anything. Don't, don't just show your pretty project at the end. And so to have builders that, yeah,
[00:24:17] Shelley: are aligned with that.
[00:24:18] Shelley: Yeah. Yeah. It's, And that are able to, yeah, like you said, help you to share and grow as well, if there's people, so it's good to, to find, yeah, like minded people within the same industry as well. Yeah. And I guess, is there anything else, that you would, I guess, suggest for businesses who have been perhaps in business for quite a number of years that might not necessarily start up?
[00:24:47] Shelley: Maybe having those questions of do we keep going or not? Some of like, what sort of, I suppose, Insight, would you give people who may be in that sort of position?
[00:24:57] Lisa: Luke and I were listening to, we go to the gym [00:25:00] in the morning early and you always put on a podcast. I'm happy to sit in silence and listen to music, but it's on a podcast.
[00:25:06] Lisa: And today, one of the sayings in there was, sometimes you're too close to the painting. You can't see the picture. So sometimes you need to step back. What is working? What isn't working? Why isn't it working? So find that thing that you need to change or tweak and it might just be the smallest little thing, but keep pushing forward.
[00:25:24] Lisa: Don't be, sometimes it is easy to get another alternative, but if you're passionate about it and if, if your why is still strong, that's your driver
[00:25:33] Shelley: in that space, I think. Excellent. And so what, have you got exciting things planned for the rest of 2024? Yeah,
[00:25:41] Lisa: a few, extension projects on the go. Probably, I don't know, we don't normally talk about the project and that kind of stuff.
[00:25:47] Lisa: Like, I feel like it's a bit, how's building going? I don't know. Yeah, it's good. We probably will talk about the front end stuff and, who we're working with. we're chatting with some really good designers and architects to build in as part of our team. So that's probably the, that's what we [00:26:00] find exciting, I guess, rather than the types of projects.
[00:26:04] Lisa: and so you just got some clients that are aligned with, how they see. The building process, I guess. and we just see building as we're not just a price on a piece of paper. And we kind of find it quite challenging. Sometimes we'll get fully developed plans here. Can you give us a price? It's so much more than that.
[00:26:23] Lisa: Like it's really investing from the start and using builders knowledge right at the start. And so to create that kind of space. So. We've got, yeah, quite a few coming to us that are really aligned in that. So that's really exciting. Luke's really passionate about sustainability, passive houses and really learning in that space.
[00:26:40] Lisa: So I think he might even do a bit of study in that kind of space down the track, I think, and just learning about new products. So yeah, that's probably where the excitement kind of comes and I'm doing more interior design stuff. Yeah, which is super fun. I kind of look back to like when I was a kid and I was always passionate, like moving my room [00:27:00] around and my Tony Baudreau poster was like the focal point and everything was based around Tony Baudreau.
[00:27:06] Lisa: so I'd always, yeah, been super interested in that, even like classroom, setting up spaces that feel nice and have great energy. And I studied a bit of that when the kids were little. So for me to be able to do more of that in our business is
[00:27:21] Shelley: really exciting as well. So that's the key, isn't it? Finding what you're passionate about and what you do well.
[00:27:26] Shelley: You do that, other people who do other things will, they do that. And I think
[00:27:31] Lisa: that's what we've learnt here along the way. Find the people who are good at what they do. We can't do everything. So bring in those people and support you and kind of lift you up too. Yeah,
[00:27:40] Shelley: excellent.
[00:27:41] Lisa: Well, thank you very much
[00:27:42] Shelley: for your
[00:27:42] Lisa: time.
[00:27:43] Shelley: Thanks for having me. Thanks for another, more Yeah, no, it's a
[00:27:47] Lisa: quick little one. No, I'm perfectly reserved. I don't love talking about myself, so this is,
[00:27:52] Shelley: yeah, out of my comfort zone. But great to learn, especially from being, you know, as a more established founder as well. I think really good to know that it [00:28:00] is a long game.
[00:28:01] Shelley: If you want to, if you want to be in it. Yep. Yes. If you don't, if you don't, there's always a, there's a choice. Yeah, there's an out point, isn't there? Yeah, exactly. But yeah, awesome.
[00:28:09] Lisa: Oh, thanks for having me Shelley.
[00:28:10]
[00:28:10] Speaker 4: Well, thanks for tuning in to the Regional Collective Podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us. And you can join our community each year to get exclusive resources, expert advice and connect with other regional business owners as a member of the Regional Collective.
[00:28:31] Speaker 4: Check out our website to learn more. There you can also find free tools like Strategies to Grow Locally and the Ultimate Business Startup Checklist. Stay connected with us on social media for more tips and updates. Let's thrive together and make your business shine. Keep pushing forward. You're not alone on this journey.
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