100. Best Builders Secrets Revisited With Russ, Sky & Andy

I cannot believe that we've been doing this for two years. Which just goes to prove time flies when you're having fun.

Welcome to Professional Builders Secrets, the podcast for building company owners wanting to grow safely and securely. I'm your host, Will Blunt, and today I'm joined by Russ, sky and Andy, the leadership team at apb. Welcome to the show, everyone.

Hello.

Good day, Will.

Great to have you all on. This is a very special episode today. Today, where is it marks our hundredth episode of Professional Builders Secrets. So it's been what a journey. Yeah. Congrats.

100 congrats.

Yeah. Excellent. Exciting.

I've only been lucky enough to be involved in about 20 episodes, I think myself by the time this one is, but there's been so much amazing content created prior to that. And so we thought it would be a good opportunity to reflect back the journey so far and look at some of the better performing episodes and maybe think about why they've resonated with builders around the world. So, Scott, you want to kick start and give me a little bit of a reflection on what this podcast has meant to you over the last hundred episodes?

Yeah. Well, if you think 100 episodes, that's because we're launching one a week. So that's 100 weeks of content. And I think it's just actually been incredible that number one, it's still going because we always said we'd only launch a podcast if we could do it consistently. There are so many podcasts and people who launch podcasts because you have great intentions, you have all these wonderful ideas, but it does become a slog. It gets to a point where you kind of think, I can only have so many guests on, I can only have so much content. So the fact that we started with a plan and we're still going weekly episodes, they're fresh because of the content that we're putting out. And we're really able to help so many more builders, like, at scale, because it's in their ears. I think that's just been a huge achievement. So well done.

What do you think has kept it going?

I think the variety of content. It's not a podcast that we're just interviewing new guests and new guests. And for the sake of interviewing guests, either it's very carefully prepared, thought out and curated, who we have on our podcast. There's a difference between the types of episodes we all do together, where we just get to talk about a topic and give valuable tips and information that can help builders and busy builders right now versus when we get to interview some of our builders, when we get to interview some of our service providers as well. There's such a good depth and breadth and variety of content. That's what keeps it interesting week on week on week.

Yeah, that's a great point. It's a great point. I mean, the builders must be getting value out of it right at something because they keep going back for more. Russ, do you have a reflection on the first hundred episodes?

Yeah. I think the biggest thing for me is the feedback that we're getting from the builders in the industry when we. We hold our live events and we meet these builders in person, the amount of guys that are listening to the podcast in the background. And there's so many builders out there that aren't even part of the APB community, but they're still getting benefit and value from the podcast. So it's, it's fantastic that it's touching so many people. And I love hearing the builder's stories. I love getting an insight in their own words, you know, their journey, the path they've taken and how they've got to this point, and also the. The suppliers as well, hearing from different industry specialists and how they've been working with builders and helping builders. And then of course, our coaches, even hearing from our own coaches and hearing them talking about different topics. And yeah, we, we, we, we obviously go quite in depth, the three of us, different aspects of running a successful building company. But it's still great to hear a coach speak what's important from their perspective as well. So, yeah, it's just a great combination. And I think the podcast has just gone from strength to strength, and you and the marketing team are doing a fantastic job, Will, of making it such a slick process.

Thanks, Ross. It'll prop up there for the marketing team. Shout out to Bailey if he's watching this one. Andy, what about you?

Yeah, I think what Russ has shared is probably a pretty good encapsulation of what I've experienced. I have the incredible privilege, actually of hosting dinners for business coaching and elite mentoring clients all over the world. And I make a point of not only talking about the podcast, but actually asking for a show of hands of how many people in the room are actually listening to it. And it's. If I think back over the last two years, and I think that's what struck me when you said, this is episode 100. And then of course, sky said, well, that's one a week. I mean, 104 is two years. So we literally, I cannot believe that we've Been doing this for two years, which just goes to prove time flies when you're having fun. But it's. If I think about the growth about, you know, asking that question in those dinners a year ago and saying to people, how many of you have listened to the podcast in those days? Obviously we spared people having to look at me. They could just listen. And then thinking about even this year's round of dinners, how many more people. The actual physical growth of what this is doing has just been amazing. And I think the main reason for that is it's so wonderfully accessible. You know, I listen to it in my car. In my car, stick on podcasts, go to this one and press play. And I love listening to the builder stories. So, you know, I mean, we work with them all the time, but just listening to the transformations that have happened in their lives, you know, as they've implemented the stuff that we talk about on this podcast every week, and hearing that, that is changing lives all over the world, it's an incredible privilege to do what we do. It really is. So I'm a grateful man. 100 episodes in, I'm still here and we're still going. Fantastic.

Thanks, Andy. That was a great reflection. Thanks to all of you for sharing your thoughts. I've only been here for a short period of time, but I feel like, to your point, Andy, just hearing the builder stories has really humanized the whole experience of running a business and being working in business. And it just has such a large impact on a lot of people when you can put yourself in someone else's shoes. So some really powerful stories. But let's dive into the content. So we break down our content in different pillars based on the topics. And I want to talk through some of the most popular episodes in each of those pillars. The first one is Operations. Now, all the way back in episode seven, which was recorded in 2021. Russ Sky Andy, you spoke about managing client expectations. Now, why do we think that managing client expectations was a popular topic for builders out there?

Who wants it?

I think if our experience does not match our expectations, we naturally become disappointed. And I think as builders, because they're dealing with such a high ticket item, there's kind of a nervousness about that in the sales process. And there's a temptation to say yes to everything and maybe try to avoid mentioning anything negative prior to that contract being signed. And that comes from a place of fear, fear of losing out on this potential contract because maybe if we upset the client, they won't go ahead. Or maybe they'll choose another builder that says all the right things. So it's coming from a place of fear. But the problem with that is the truth will always come out. It's always going to surface at some point. And that might be in terms of the price, it might be in terms of the timeline, or it could be in terms of the quality of the inclusion. So the truth will come out. And if you haven't managed expectations of the client, set expectations correctly through good communication, that will lead to disappointment. And in this day and age, a disappointed client is the last thing that you need because it was bad enough five or ten years ago. But these days with the online reviews and the way this, this can get amplified, it's not something you want. So I think it's absolutely crucial.

I think it's also important because it's constant. Like the fact that when you said it was 2021, like that was recorded actually quite some time ago, but it's still a relevant topic. And even from the jump when we launched that training and content, all to do with managing client expectations, it's such an important issue for builders because it's a constant issue for builders. It's not a problem that you just outgrow and you can solve with one change and one solution, because as Russ has said, consumers, they're only ever getting more informed, they're only having higher expectations. So it's actually a constant thing that you have to be working on and be, be very consciously tackling in your building company. It's not do this one thing and you've solved it. This is a constant work in progress so that you can maintain a standard of happy clients.

And. Well, I think we must keep in mind how long a builder stays in contact physically with a client. You know, it's, it's, it's one thing to manage your client expectations when they're in your cafe for 3.5 minutes to get a latte. It's another thing when they're spending over a million dollars with you and you're going to be in their home for the next 14 months. And expectations play a huge part in making that journey. One that is, is, is good for both parties. And, you know, we don't, we don't do a lot on, on the podcast generally about things like our mission statement, but, you know, we, we talk always about wanting to improve the construction industry for both builders and consumers. And the only way that that's ever going to happen because of the, the length of time that, that, you know, everybody interacts is if those expectations are realistic on both sides of the discussion, from the word go. So Russ's point about honesty and, and you know, there's an 800 pound gorilla in the room, let's deal with it, let's get it out now. Because if we don't, six months in, when we both too committed, we can't get out of this anymore, when it then rears its ugly head, it's. It's too late. And the effects of that are devastating. And I think the truth is why this episode resonated is because so many builders have had the bad experience. They've committed to something that they probably shouldn't have, or as Russ said, they didn't quite cover all the bases. And then that is manifested during the build. And it's hurt them financially, it's hurt them emotionally. In some cases it's even hurt them physically. So I think that's what makes this one resonate and continue to resonate with people because of it.

And it's interesting what sky mentioned as well, that clients, they're more savvy than ever. They're more informed than they've ever been at any point in history. And I feel like we've been saying this for probably the last 10 years and every year they become even more informed. And a little bit of knowledge can be quite dangerous. But I think the combination, the dangerous combination that we've now got is we've got highly informed and savvy clients. So their expectations are higher, but importantly their budgets are now lower because of the rising interest rates, which every time we get an interest rate rise, that obviously reduces the consumer's capacity to bor. We have a situation right now of rising expectations, but a reduced ability to borrow. So even more important to be very open and honest.

Okay, so thanks for that. Let's wrap that one up there. Otherwise we'd have a whole episode on managing client expectations. I think another area which has been covered extensively in the podcast is sales, episode 19 about sales processes for builders, episode 67 about professional contract proposals, and episode 93 about closing high margin contracts for us, that was one recent one that you did. They're all some of the most high performing episodes of the first 100. Why do we think that is?

Yeah, what we've got to keep in mind is that this is the cornerstone of any business, that if, if we don't have leads coming into the, into the business of the right type, the right quantity at the right frequency, and we're not able to move those people through a predetermined process to a contract. We don't have a business. So, you know, we can say we're in the construction industry. And I mean, every, every. What should I call it? Every training seminar you go to on sales, the first question they always ask is, who in this room is in sales? And then the guilt. Every one of you that doesn't put your hand up because we're all in sales all the time is the message that we're given. But the truth is, you can have the greatest idea in the world. I've recently become a bit of a shark tank addict. I've got one of these things on my smart TV that, like, plays episodes from the last 20 years, and I kind of flick it on when there's nothing else to watch. And I've been amazed at some of the amazing ideas that people come there with. But the sharks, what do they do? They sit down and they say, well, if we can't turn that idea into sales, it's a great idea, but it's not going anywhere. So I just think that, you know, marketing and sales is such a critical component of every building business, and it is something that I think we've seen over the years. Most builders battle with for a variety of reasons. So if I look at the three episodes you just picked out, you've almost nailed the stepping stones. It's. Do you have a sales process? If you do, do you know how to present the outcome of that process to clients? And oh, dear, what are you going to do if it's a high margin that you're putting on? I mean, literally, you've just stepped through the stepping stones that I think every builder is concerned about at some point. So for me, that would be the reason why these episodes in particular stand out.

I'd probably add as well that it's. It's very clear that it's a skill, like sales is a skill, and it means it's learnable. So people are looking for that information. It. Sales isn't something that comes naturally. Some people a little bit more natural at it. Some people feel a little bit more comfortable than other people. But you're not just a good salesperson or you're not, because that's what you're born with. You have a certain set of skills that you work on that you practice, that you sharpen your saw in order to close, in order to bring people through a sales process. You have a sales process. You know what I mean? It's all these little things that are skills. But being a natural or naturally gifted at making people feel warm and, you know, getting a few people to sign on the dotted line. I don't want to call it luck. Some people just are better than others at that. But it only gets you like a foot in the door. It doesn't create long lasting success in a building company long term. And that's why I think these episodes have resonated. They've had been, they have been so popular and it's because we've really just mapped out well, here are the skills that you need to master, here's the process you need to follow and it becomes very much like a formula. Not. Well, you know, you don't have that naturally gifted talent, you can't succeed in it. I think that's why it's really resonated. People have realized, you know what, yes, if I can just follow this formula, pick up and sharpen the saw on these skills, I too can be successful.

I think one thing we've always tried to do in the all of these episodes as well when we've been talking about sales and marketing is, is emphasized to builders that the fundamental, the number one problem that really exists within most residential building companies is that they're not investing enough money in marketing. So missing that right at the very beginning, that very first step is leading to a lot of other problems. And I think a lot of people, you know, can believe that, you know, all the leads are getting is rubbish. They're not getting enough good leads. Maybe they're just not getting enough leads at all. Or maybe the market's too hard and people in their market won't pay the price and there's always someone else quoting cheaper. But it really fundamentally comes from a lack of investment in marketing which has to be between 2 and 3%. You know, closer to 3% of your annual revenue has to go back into your marketing and that will create an abundance of leads from which you can, you can pick the high quality prospects and that makes selling way, way easier when you, when you do that. And, and I think what's happened in the last couple of years as well is where sales have been easy, a lot of builders have just switched off their marketing altogether because they, they say they don't need to, you know, they, they got people queuing up to sign and that was true. But our best performing builders kept their marketing going and they got even pickier. They, they didn't just go for the top 10%, they went for the top 10% of the 10% because they could. And, and they've enjoyed some great contracts over the last couple of years and now as things start to soften, they're still busy. Whereas a lot of guys that switched everything off, they're having to get that old tanker moving again. Which you can be difficult, you know, getting your marketing going when you're on the back foot.

I think you made a really good point though as well. If you look at what's changed between the filming and recording of those episodes to now. It's funny, the same thing goes for what we were just talking about that episode seven we did on client expectations. The principles of how to manage a client's expectations are the same. It's just the landscape that's changed. And it's exactly the same with sales and marketing. The, the sales process still works. The tactics that are there, they're still working, but you just have to work them. And I think that's the big difference that's happened on the sales and marketing side. They just haven't been worked, not nearly as much as they either could have or should have been worked over that last couple of years, really. And like you're saying, Russ, you're just having to start all over again just to even get, and gather that momentum, just to get something moving. You know, you've got to work your sales process, you've got to work those systems, those skills that you have, otherwise they do get lost, they do get a bit dusty and you're going to think that, that they don't work. But really you've been out of practice for way too long. And so, yeah, it's nothing changes unless nothing changes.

Forgotten knowledge is a, is a real thing. And I think that has been proven and underlined in the state of the residential Construction industry report, which clearly showed that there's been a decline in builders with a documented sales process. You know, around half of builders don't have a documented sales process. I mean, they're on the back foot straight away. And the other one has been the objections man manual there. That's been in decline. Yeah. This past couple of years as well. And this is simply because builders haven't faced objections, they haven't had to overcome them. You know, we've got an objection, fine, I'll move on to the next one. But now all of a sudden we've, we need to figure out how to overcome those objections, which are just a knee jerk reaction. Yeah, it's not people saying no, it's just people saying, I'm, I'm not, not completely convinced at the moment.

I mean, just what you've Reminded me of Russ is the fact that it's easy when circumstances change to forget, as you said, that forgotten knowledge syndrome. What those episodes are really doing is saying to people, put a sales process in place, Saucy report then comes out and says the number of people that have one is diminishing. Well, what does that mean? That means that if you've got one, you've already got an advantage. You're already one step closer to closing a deal that somebody else who doesn't have one is not going to get to. So you know, these are, these are almost the building blocks of a professional builder as, as sky said, as he starts to develop this new skill set. And that's, that's such a wonderful reminder of you can learn these things. It doesn't matter how far into your building business you are, learn them, apply them. Because that's going to give you an advantage over every other builder in your market.

Yeah. The reality is the balances of power has changed, hasn't it? The buyers are back in control of the sales process. Well, they might like to think they're back in control. Obviously as builders we know better. But I'm tempted to say the bankers.

Are back in control.

That's a good point. Yeah, we've gotta, gotta deal with those bankers.

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaking of bankers, if we want to move on to financial education as our next port of call.

Nice. Two of our most.

Nice.

I saw the segue and had to grab it. Had to grab it with both hands. Two of our most popular episodes were episode 45, Russ, where you spoke about how much builders should pay themselves. And definitely one of the most popular episodes we've ever had. Episode 79 was fixed price versus cost plus. Russ, do you want to kick us off to talk about why you think financial education topics are so important for builders and why they've been two of the most popular episodes.

Well, I think it's been probably fueled by the situation that we've been faced with over the past two or three years with the COVID boom which has supercharged price increases and literally destroyed builders profit margins. And I think that is what has made builders very focused on margins over the last two or three years. Because this is something we've been analyzing for probably four or five years. So we've always had a very clear idea about what the biggest pain point was at the top of builders minds. And pre Covid it was very much marketing followed by sales. That's just the way it's always been. And then as that Covid boom happened and sales became easy. Marketing wasn't an issue at all, nor was sales. It was all about margins. And that has been the number one challenge for the last couple of years. Now we're seeing a swing back to marketing as those price increases are starting to stabilize again. But yeah, I guess to answer your question, why those financial topics have been of such interest, it's because even the builder that, that doesn't know their numbers, you know, and by that I just mean they're not fully across their financials. They're not calculating their work in progress each month to have an accurate P L and balance sheet. Even the guys in that position, they still understood cash flow. And those guys have seen their cash flow dry up as the, as the profit dries up. So it's become a very important topic for every single builder because of that.

And I'll, I'll jump in on the why how much builders should pay themselves gets the mileage that it did. I can, if I think back over every single business planning workshop that I've ever run and as you all know, I am ridiculously old, so I've run a lot of business planning workshops. If, if there is one reaction that's common all over the world for that entire time, it's when we get builders to calculate the hourly rate that they're paying themselves. And it's, in some cases it's, it is unbelievably confronting for them and very, very depressing. And, and you know, this speaks to the kind of, the moral fiber of most of the guys that we get to work with, the privilege that we get to work with. Because in virtually every case when I've looked at people with that rate per hour is low. And I've asked them, how does that compare to how much you pay your team members? They are paying themselves substantially less than what they're paying the people who work. They kind of live off the scraps that are left over at the end of the job. And sure, we can talk about they didn't cost the job correctly and they're not working to the correct margins and all of those things. But I think the truth is there's almost, there's almost a. They feel guilty to earn a market related salary for what they deliver. And I think being able to realistically look at that subject and have somebody like Russ talk into this is what you should be taking out of the business. And why? Because at the end of the day, that's the reality. It's not, you know, pay yourself an exorbitant salary Even though there isn't that in the business, the two go hand in hand. You can only pay yourself more if you're making more. You can only make more if you get all of those pieces of the business running correctly. And if they are running correctly, you should be rewarded appropriately. And I think that message in the building industry has not been shared enough. You know, guys are guilty about actually earning a decent return out of the work that they put in.

Absolutely. These are construction engineers at the very top of their game that don't get the respect they deserve from the general public. And I think that can have an influence as well. Because if you read a lot of the rubbish on social media, posts by people outside the industry that have no idea what a builder does in order to bring all these materials and labor together on a fixed budget, on a fixed timeline and how complex that is, they have no appreciation for that at all. They all believe the builders should be working on 1%, and that's simply not possible. They have no idea that it costs 15% just to run a building company, let alone have some additional profit for the shareholders that build a company, builder's company. And make no mistake, as the owner and director of a residential building company, you earn twice. You need a market wage to cover your role as the director, which is roughly about 5% of the revenue. So work that one out and then you deserve a return as a shareholder for the risk of your money invested in that company. And that needs to be around about 10% of revenue a year. So that's the benchmark. That's where you need to be.

But I think that's why that episode resonated so much, because it was an episode titled how much Builders should Pay Themselves. And it was every building company's owner, every building company owner's ability or like desire to then listen to that, listen to a third party explain how much you should be. It suddenly took a lot of the guilt away for a lot of building company owners. This is what I think. Just because I thought, like, am I being greedy? Do I pay myself too much? Is it too less? Like, what is the standard actually having the ability to go somewhere who is an authority on the topic and put it into a mathematical formula. It's not a dollar figure. This is what every building company owner should be earning. No, it's a formula. We explain the whole formula. We explain what that means. And you know, the bigger the business you are running, the more risk you're taking on. This is how you can be rewarded. And it suddenly just Made it a lot more logical over emotional for a lot of people. And I think that truly is why that episode that just, oh, that went gangbusters as soon as it went release like the first seven day listens and then week on week on week, it was one of the most shared episodes.

And Russ, I couldn't help thinking to myself, you said the danger is that, you know, builders listen to people outside the industry. The danger is listening to some people inside the industry is even worse. They end up feeling even more guilty, you know, and I'm not, because this is the 100th episode and we're celebrating. I'm not going to mention any three letter or four letter acronyms, but you know what I mean, it's, it's, it's dispelling the myth, I think is really what made that one as good as it was. Just remind me, well, what was the other one?

Fixed price versus cost plus, which is episode 79.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, that one's been around so long, it's almost like a pet. And it's, I mean, again, if you think about the, the one thing that's common about both of those is we were able to dispel some myths. There's a lot of myths around both of those subjects. And I think in both of those we were able to, let's say, establish a baseline that is understandable by everybody and really put some hard fact into why we believe what we believe.

I think what made fixed price versus Cost plus that argument in that whole episode be so valuable, I kind of think it was to do with timing as well, because if you think that was up to episode 79, so that was launched more than a year after our podcast was in play. And this was a topic that I think the audience was just screaming for because we went from an industry that had, to be honest, actually accepted that fixed price was the better way to go. And then with everything that had happened over the last several years and so much uncertainty, it derailed so many people into thinking, ooh, fixed price, I probably can't make money this way. This is why I haven't been making money. Maybe I revert. Maybe I should go Cost plus. Cost plus is better because. And by the time we actually were able to launch that episode, which was a little bit later, it was so well received and so many people were looking for that information to just listen to the argument, what are the pros for, what are the, what are the cons, who's for, who's against, and how do they compete with Each other. And what does that genuinely mean for my building company? I think the timing was perfect when that one finally went out.

And it, it was probably at the height of the COVID bite that even rhymes. Yo. Yo. Was the height of the COVID bite. No, it, it's by. By the time that episode aired, I think we'd had enough supply chain disruption, we'd had enough squeeze on margin that a lot of builders were looking at fixed price and going, I can't make money doing this. I need to go to a cost plus scenario. Because in their minds, that was the only way to deal with the problem that they were perceiving at the time. And I think what we were able to do was to bring a couple of other solutions to the table around how to actually deal with the situation. And again, here it comes. Dispel the myths. Literally put. You know, that's the. We've got, we've got such an incredible depository of, of proven fact data that we talk from. If you look at what source he's done over the last three years, if you look at what, what as an organization we've done over the last 15 years, we've been constantly measuring, measuring, measuring, measuring that when we come to a conclusion, it's not because we had pizza for dinner last night. It's. It's actually because the global data proves that beyond a doubt. This is the reality around this particular scenario. So I, I mean, I'm almost feeling like we should retitle the. The podcast Mythbusters. Oh, wait, somebody's already got that name. Oh, dear. Okay, we'll have to think of something else.

And I think this was an important topic to come in with. Well, not so much opinions, but results based on real data. Because a lot of builders are very passionate about this topic. It's quite difficult to change the mind of a builder that's fully entrenched in Cost plus. So, yeah, we had to come in with the full data to back up everything that we said.

Thanks, team. So the next topic is about self improvement. Episode 53 was it featured Clint. Clint Best, one of our executive business coaches at apb. And it was on the mindset of a professional builder. So, Andy, I'm going to throw back to you because I'm hoping maybe there's another wrap in there.

Yeah, look, it's. It's probably the fundamental reality of every builder. I think Henry Ford said, if you think you can and you think you can't, you're right. Bottom line is your mind largely controls the outcome of Most things that happen in your life. So being in a place and I mean we primarily separate that into fixed and growth mindsets. And I mean even the point that sky made earlier about the sales process and those things being a skill you can learn if you have convinced yourself that you'll never be able to do it, you're right, you won't be able to do it because you've actually shot yourself in the foot before you even started. So having a mindset that literally realizes every single experience we have ever, we, we today are the sum total of all the decisions we've made our entire lives. That's, that's literally what, what we, we embody is the result of all of those decisions. Well, the beauty in that is we want a different outcome. We need to change the way we think and we need to change the decisions that we make. And that is possible to do. It is absolutely possible for an old dog to learn new tricks. And the mindset thing is the key to that. If you don't allow yourself to believe that you could improve, you might know you might never be the best salesperson in the world. But you don't have to be. It's back to the tiger and the running shoes scenario. I don't have to be able to run faster than the tiger. Just got to be able to run faster than one person that's with me. It's the same in your geographical area where you are building homes. You don't need to be the best salesperson in the building industry worldwide, just in your neighborhood and little things. I mean just having a sales process can be enough to give you that edge. So it's, it's really a question of getting up every day. Sky and I do it every time we're away on a vacation or a holiday. We get back and the first question we ask each other is what broke? I've never worked in an organization where we celebrate things breaking, but why is that? It's because our mindset is every time something breaks, we know where to go to fix it. And we can fix it. I mean that is such a freeing scenario to be in. Not that we condoning below par performance. That's not what we're doing here. What we're doing is saying we are constantly fine tuning systems and if they still don't meet the requirement, let's keep tuning until we get them there. So that's a long way of saying without a wrap, without a. That really the mindset question is probably the key to everything we have been talking about. And will talk about on this podcast forever.

Yes, it's that fixed mindset, isn't it? That the belief is that skills are what we're born with, and that's our lot, that's our ceiling. Whereas the growth mindset, the person with the growth mindset believes that all skills can be learned. Therefore, if you can learn any skill, you can basically achieve anything. And it's probably why we see builders that believe that they can't charge for quotes, that they, they can't charge more or they, they won't win a job. They believe that more or growth means more work, more stress, more problems. Yet the person with a growth mindset understands that there's solutions to all those problems, there's better ways of doing things. And maybe the thing that's underlined that over the last few years, you know, maybe 10 years ago, it was a leap of faith to, to listen to people like us, but because of the documented proof and evidence being displayed by builders that have been through the APB systems, I think that leap of faith is a lot easier to take these days for any builder than it was 10 years ago, because you've only got to look and, and you can turn up to an event and talk to these guys and they will tell you, you know, exactly that they were in a not so good situation maybe only five years ago, and how quickly they've been able to transform their building company just by following a process. So it's a shame. I think whenever we do come across builders that have this fixed mindset, it's the American Coast Guard that has a saying, we can only save the ones that swim towards us. And it's exactly the same at apb. You know, we can only help these guys that reach out for help.

And as I always do when this topic comes up, don't wait till it's too late, please. You know, in amongst. In amongst all of the celebration and the myth, the truth is, across these hundred episodes, we've also seen people that didn't reach out early enough and because of that, ended up in a situation that there was nothing left to save, unfortunately. You know, so it's, it's. I mean, that side of it is exactly that. Be in the mindset of I can learn, I can improve, I can grow, and so can my business. Your business is always going to be a reflection of you. So as you improve, so your business will improve along with you.

And to add to that, I can ask for help. Like that is the mindset of a professional builder. It's there's there's a lack of ego, a lack of pride that would stop you from looking for new skills to learn, looking for genuine feedback, accountability, how you can actually improve those skills. I know you said it, but I just want to emphasize it. Our mind gives in before our body does. So if you can work on your mind and your attitude and even how you approach anything. I love this saying, I really have no idea who said it, but how we do anything is how we do everything. And that all comes back to how are you talking to yourself internally? What's your self concept? What's your self image? How do you see yourself? Because that's the standard you then set for yourself. That's the level of work you work towards. That's what you expect and accept from your team as well. The most important thing for everyone to know right now, or anyone listening right now, especially if they're thinking about their own mindset and their journey with, you know, trying to actually identify what they're saying to themselves, et cetera, is just know that it's tough for the whole industry right now. So a little bit of tough love here. You're not special just because your clients are being a little bit demanding, your prospects are coming through asking for this or that and, you know, whatever it might be, you're not that special. And if we can just understand that this is what's happening in the industry, if we can change our minds, we can then approach these situations differently. Suddenly you'll realize that you have less problems in your building company. And it's not necessarily because you're special. It's because you've had the right approach to solve a lot of problems, move forward, and you don't really see issues as devastating, earth shattering problems anymore. Just like Andy was saying before, what broke? Let's fix it. Crack on, get on with it.

I left this section for last because I feel like it's the thread that connects everything else together. And going through the data of all the episodes that we've aired so far, across the first 100 consistently, these episodes were the highest performing in the first seven days. And it's the builder stories, the interviews where we get builders on air and talk through their success stories. Sky, I'm going to go back to you because you mentioned this earlier in your reflection. Can you describe the type of builder that we have on the show and why they are a little bit different to your average builder?

I think we've got a range of builders. We've, we've tried to do a really good job of showcasing how many different kinds of builders that we work with, from, you know, people who have done this all on their own solo, to partnerships, to working with your spouse. So we've, we've tried to show and interview such a range of different building company owners, including countries, from small towns to big towns, but what they have in common is they all want better. I actually would say it's their mindset. This links perfectly to the previous topic we were talking about. But they all want better. But not only that, there are some people that want better. They really do, but they don't do anything about it. They're too busy. There's always an excuse. They're blaming the weather, their staff, their team, their clients. There's always someone else's fault. But what I would say with our builders and what makes the builders we interview so inspiring and therefore resonate so much. And again, highly shared episodes is they want better, but they made it happen. They put in the work and then they just shared what they did. And you can really hear from them like, yeah, it wasn't easy. I'm trying to think back in the day, like, yeah, I was doing this, this, this and that. This was a problem, but we solved it here. We moved forward there. It's just so real and it's so authentic. And that's why it's resonating with our audience. Because if you're listening to this podcast, I think. I think you want better as well, and you're willing to do what it takes. And that's why those stories are so incredible. But that would be the one, one link. And it is their mindset, but their ability to take action.

And what you said earlier is, is. Is actually, for me, it's the key. It's. These stories are inspirational. You know, I mean, I always say this to, to our clients in the business coaching and the elite mentoring program. When you are talking to a client about building a home for them, even though it's not out there as a. As a spoken thing, they know you are trying to sell them something. And we all have this built in. I always call it the bullshit meter. We have this. We have this intrinsic thing that protects us from being hoodwinked or fooled into something. And I fully understand when Russ Guy or myself says something, there is always this little voice in the back of some people's head that says, well, of course they're going to say that. They have to say that because that's what they're trying to get people to do. But when you hear one of your contemporaries say, I listened to that. I did that. There's exactly what sky just said. I had an open mind to receive it. I then did something about it. I put it into action, and voila, look at what happened. I was, in fact, in a coaching session today with one of our elite mentoring clients who recently joined the elite program. And I opened the discussion by saying to him, just, by the way, how are you enjoying the transition from business coaching into elite? And he said, meeting with you every week gets shit done. I mean, at the end of the day, if you're not getting shit done, you're not progressing, Things are not improving. They're just staying exactly the way they are. So, I mean, for me, I'm glad you left them for last, because I find listening to these builders absolutely inspirational. It. It energizes me to keep doing what we're doing because we're changing lives all over the world. It's amazing.

Yeah, it's incredible, isn't it? We get the success stories every month on our team meeting from each of the coaches. Each of the coaches shares a meeting, major, documented success story from one of our clients, and they're great to hear. And then we get feedback from our net promoter score, where our members constantly rate us so we can make sure that we're performing at peak performance all the time and addressing any areas where we can improve. And we see some lovely feedback from those net promoter scores as well, which typically translates into Facebook and Google reviews. But even so, even after all that, when you hear a builder describe their story in their own words on a podcast, even if you kind of know what they've achieved, man, it's. It's just incredible. I. I listen to the podcast on the beach of a morning, and, yeah, I find myself stopping my wife and say, you got to listen to this guy. This is incredible. And I just find it amazing that, you know, here we are, we might be sitting here on the east coast in Australia, and we're changing lives in. In North America. It's just. Just incredible. And hearing those stories in the builder's own words. Yeah, it really does something.

Well, thank you so much for sharing all your reflections on the first hundred episodes of Professional Builder Secrets Secrets. Russ, Sky, Andy, great to have you on.

Thank you so much.

Bill. What a great recap. Yeah.

Happy Wednesday.

Sorry, Sky. Next 100. Exactly. Anything you wanted to say? Just as a final reflection, I would.

Probably just say thank you so much to everyone who's listening to the podcast who's not only getting value out of it, but taking action, literally, getting the results, putting things into practice, even just connecting with the guys that you're hearing on online or in your local community. Because it's these little changes, but over a long period of time that make a huge difference. So thank you to everyone listening to this episode and if you listen to all 100. Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, echo that. Thank you to all the builders and the industry partners that have taken part in the podcast so far and made it such a great, a great podcast to listen to. But if you haven't featured in the podcast so far and you'd like to, if you'd like to share your story, reach out to us because, yeah, we'd love to help you share that with other builders.

And I'll wrap it up by just saying what they said.

Exactly. I mean, that's exactly right. We wouldn't have made it to 100 episodes if we didn't have the listeners out there, the builders out there coming on and sharing their stories, but also taking action. Like you said, Sky. So, you know, kudos to them, but also kudos to you guys as well for all the hard work you've, you've put into the first hundred episodes. And as you said, here's to a hundred more. So let's leave it there for today. But thank you to all of our listeners out there, wherever you are in the world. If you liked the show today, I'll share all of those episodes that we recapped in the show notes. But subscribe to Professional Builder Secrets on your podcast platform of choice. And until next time, have a great day.