NDIS Growth Hub: Your Guide to the Next Level of Disability Support

Hello, hello everybody, how are we? Welcome to the NDIS Growth Hub. This is Con here down in sunny today, sunny Melbourne. Welcome you all to our first NDIS Growth Hub. Lovely to have you with us and really looking forward to this next hour of conversation. Before we go any further, I want to introduce my co-host today and ongoing co-host going forward. There we are. Where is it? There it is. Get him in there. There he is. Hello, Bobby. How are you?

Very good, Con. Thank you for having me. How are you doing today?

Yeah, good, good, mate. Good. Thanks very much for being part of this, and hopefully we'll make it a regular event every week. So let's start, Bobby, by just talking a bit about who we are. I think it's important that we do that. I know most of our viewers probably know who we are, most of us know each other in the sector, but it's also important for anyone watching outside of the sector to sort of understand who we are as well. So first of all, let's do the introductions. So this is myself, Con, I'm the Social Selling Warrior. My business is mainly focused on supporting individuals, business development managers, relationship managers, as well as small business owners to come to grips with personal branding, positioning, and marketing themselves on the various platforms. But also, in the last number of years, I've been working with NDIS providers. So I believe I've got a good understanding of what they do and how they do it, and try to help them gain that traction on the LinkedIn platform. So you can always find me at thesocialsellingwarrior.com. There's no AU on this one. I managed to pick up the domain name with the .com. And like I said, LinkedIn is my business. LinkedIn is my bread and butter. So you can find me on LinkedIn under that banner. So that's me. So next, we'll go over to Bobby. Let's go, Bobby.

Hey, Con. So yes, from what you said, we're gonna make it regular. And the whole purpose of this is to share the knowledge and understanding about NDIS from us working in the sector for years. Like, I've been in the sector since 2018, starting with a small services provision for NDIS providers, NDIS participants, and moving on to providing a wider range of services in my previous role, which we are extending into other states in the country as well now. I'm also doing some regular events to share all the knowledge and understanding because I always, as discussed with you, and some other industry professionals, there's always a gap from what we see in the sector, from what some people are missing out. And at the end of the day, it is the NDIS participants that we are supposed to be helping with, helping out with all our efforts and with all the collaborations and working together with the other providers. So that's been a topic of our conversation every time we've met over the last so many months, nearly about, I think, almost a year now that we've been talking about this. And every time there is a new aspect to it, and we've been exploring ways between you and I on how we can share this knowledge and what sort of platform we can do. So eventually you have come up with this LinkedIn and Social Media Live, which is an amazing way. And it is giving me—

Yeah, tell us a bit about Wise Healthcare, Bobby. People might know— people should know you, but maybe they don't all know you.

Wise Healthcare is, look, depends on how you put it, but it's another NDIS services provider out there in the market supporting NDIS participants, helping them with their daily support needs, in-home supports. We've got a range of different services. We started a while back under the branding or the banner of Wise Healthcare, and we've been, we started in what do you call it, the core supports. We started with assistance with daily living, community participation. That's where we started. But we are also doing cleaning, household tasks, maintenance, home modifications, those sort of services as well in Melbourne area. We do have a footprint in New South Wales, in Queensland, and in South Australia as well, having a few clients up in those regions. Look, wherever we can support a participant and put together some of our resources to have some of the support workers and the right people to look after the participants, connect them together, and make that happen, make that all the difference for the participants. That's what matters. We're trying to support the participants, but at the same time, as we are gaining any sort of benefits, I'm always sharing those benefits with the industry as well, giving it back to the community in my way of extending that support to the NDIS participants indirectly, even that is through the other providers sharing all the knowledge and understanding. Oh, that's, that's a lot of information on that website. I love it.

That's great. Just thought I'd let people know where they can find you.

Yeah.

We'll just put up the— there it is. There's the website.

Yes.

So that's where you can find Bobby and all his team. It's good. Now, we'll talk soon about Bobby's backstory. I think it's a great story to talk about. And that's the aim of the podcast we're going to do going forward will be to talk about our lived experiences. Bobby brings a lot of that NDIS experience.

I bring a lot of that business and branding experience.

And together we will start exploring topics that will help you to grow your NDIS business. That's the aim of today. So while we do that, let's just, um, talk about what we are all about here today, which is what is the NDIS Growth Hub? So Bobby and I have been talking about this, like you said, for a while. We've been thinking that there is a need to help sort of people with trying to come to grips with the NDIS landscape. And we're not talking about it here just— I know it's important to be across all the regulatory requirements, and we're not going to shy away from those things. It's important to be across registrations and requirements the NDIS have, but we're not going to position ourselves here as an audit expert or a registration expert. We're going to position ourselves here to try to help you to understand the business side of the NDIS landscape. Bobby, do you want to add to that?

Absolutely. Look, it's It's not just— we're not the auditors, we are not helping you get your registrations, but we are definitely here to help you, guide you through your business journey on— even though it is a decision about you getting into NDIS, or why should you get into NDIS, finding your niche. Yes, there is a lot of different services and a lot of different business models that you can explore in NDIS. But it's not just one that you can come into NDIS and you're just a disability services provider. There's a lot of different avenues to it, to understanding what your skill set is, what your previous background and experience is, and where you would want to go and how you want to support the community is what matters. So, starting from that point of your decision-making on getting into NDIS or starting as an NDIS services provider or even starting as a disability support worker for one, Which is a basic first step. Starting from that and going on to becoming a large-scale provider or competitor in the sector in a certain area or a region or a service or a support system or a knowledge-sharing platform, there are a lot of different avenues. So I'm always, you know it, I'm always happy to help and consult different businesses as well to guide them in the journey. But we are definitely going to make it beneficial for the businesses to understand their growth potentials and dig out the pathway on where they can benefit and how they can benefit in the best possible way, sharing all the knowledge what we have and what we can pull together for all of them.

Okay, so let's just get started on that in relation to you, Simi. Yep, there we are. So let's talk about why start an NDIS business. So I'll hand over to you with your background knowledge. Why start an NDIS business? What's, uh, what drove you? Give us your backstory about what drove you to start the NDIS business and, you know, the kind of things we can talk about. So I'll just put some of our stuff here. So there we are, there, where to start from, finding a niche. So let's talk in broad, but more about your story about why, why start NDIS business.

Why starting NDIS business? I've had a very interesting journey. I got into NDIS as merely a cleaning services provider. Back in 2018. Before 2018, since 2012, I had a cleaning services business. Since 2012, 2013, something like that. I had a cleaning services business doing house cleaning, vacay cleans, after builders cleaning, carpet steam cleaning, tile grout, shop fit out, a lot of those things. I still got the website up, but I won't share it here. Then I got into NDI services, NDI services providing just cleaning services for the NDIS participants. I did not have much goals or too much of a knowledge about what else I can do and provide so many different services in the sector. So starting with the cleaning services, then I got my registration pretty much just only for cleaning services because I did not want to do or overstep my own boundaries. Understanding the point about that you don't need to overstep your own boundaries and limitations is quite very important because if If you go beyond, or if I would have gone beyond on providing self-care or community participation or SIL and plan management and support coordination and behavior support, therapeutic— I had no idea about what that is. Yes, 6 years, 7 years later, it's a different story. Okay, it's a different experience. But back then, I was there only for the cleaning services, which is why I always tell people that, okay, you need to start from your own niche, what you understand best and what you can provide best, what you can do best. So starting from cleaning services is when I— where I started, got into NDIS. I had a very slow growth in terms of services and in terms of the number of clients. But I've always concentrated on cleaning services on those initial years, which eventually took us into support coordination, self-care, and all that. But it was an extension for my existing cleaning services business getting into NDIS rather than expanding into an NDIS services provider. Like a lot of other small new entrants in the sector that we see out there.

Good, good. That's a, that's a great story, Bobby, a really great story. So some of the things that they're scrolling through at the bottom there— so by the way, before we go any further, if anyone's watching this and you've got some comments and questions, please put them in the comments section. And, um, we do have a Q&A session at the end. So any comments, any questions, any thoughts, any observations you'd, uh, like like to bring to our attention, I'd love to hear from you. Like I said, there is a comment section there, put them on there and we'll put you on the screen and show your question and Bob and I will have a go at answering it. So in relation to those things you talked about, Bobby, so some of the people I speak to in relation to their businesses, and I work with a couple of clients who are just starting out in NDIS, it's about finding their niche. So how do you— I know you talked about your cleaning business and all that, but how did you find your niche? How did you end up where you ended up? Is it a bit of a journey? Is it a bit of a self-discovery? Is it a bit about getting some people in to help you? What are some of the things that people can do to find their niche, which we hear a lot about?

Look, my niche has been about supporting people at any different level that I can, whether that was in cleaning services. I was trying to find different ways to provide a better cleaning output. Yes, there are always mistakes when we're doing some cleaning for anyone. We can't make everyone happy no matter what we're doing. So my niche mostly has been about helping people with whatever they're looking for, whether that's a service that I'm providing, making it better, doing research and learning from the process or learning in the process and through the journey. It's different for everyone. Everyone's got a different niche. But me trying to support people in general is how I got in, how I got into NDIS. And then it kept growing because as I was providing a cleaning service to an NDIS participant, and they needed any of the, any of the supports, I started connecting them with the support coordinators or plan managers or the BSPs, therapists or psychologists or counsellors, whoever I was getting in contact with through my initial stages of marketing. It wasn't a journey or a purpose that, okay, if I get the support coordinator, that particular reference, I'm going to benefit any sort of a financial financial terms or get another reference, client reference, in return for another monetary benefit. It was entirely about the benefit for the participant that I always tried. And in the process, I've been trying to create a win-win situation for the participant and for my cleaners, my support workers, my team, on what can be the best win-win scenario for all different parties that come to table on any certain transaction, whether that is providing a support.

I'll pause you on that one because I think this is the important part. I think sometimes people go into any business for that matter thinking about the end result, the end outcome. I think it's important in the OEDS business to think about the participant. The participant is the main focus. So if you think about the participant and how you can help the participant or the participants for that matter, I think your niche starts evolving and developing as you go further.

Yeah.

It's about putting that person, those individuals front and center of what you are about and then focus on them and then Would it be fair to say the niche starts developing and starts crystallizing for you as you go along?

Absolutely. Absolutely. That's how it works. If you know what you're doing and what you're doing best, and you're just concentrating on doing best what you are doing, that's how it takes you across the limits or on the other side of the horizon. Some people want to be on the other side of the rainbow, then of course, let it be. But that is how it works. If you're concentrating on building up a niche or building up a niche or some sort of specialization which you don't have before, which we see, I've seen people coming from the trucking industry into the NDIS services sector and nice dressed up and beautiful business card, which always has impressed me. I don't have that smart of a business card. They've got QR codes and everything. I mean, amazing website. I sometimes feel feel belittled with my website at Wise Healthcare. Like, wow, man, you've got an amazing website, such a beautiful flow of information. But you— but they are coming from a different background. They're coming either from a trucking industry, they're coming from, uh, from a profession of being a carpenter for the last 20 years. Uh, but come on, I mean, that's not your niche. You are a carpenter and this is a service for, for disability, uh, people with disabilities with, uh, highly complex healthcare requirements, and disability is not physical. So a huge number of people— that 4.4 million numbers has been going around— a huge number of those people are not physically disabled. They've got mental and intellectual disability. That is important to understand. So what do we understand about that mental disability or intellectual disability or the challenges that we face day to day? I mean, do we even look around, uh, our own friends and family when somebody is throwing tantrums and sarcasm on why is somebody doing it. You know, it's, it's a simple, it's a simple outlook or oversight. But people are not paying attention to that. They want to specialize in nursing because even though they're coming from a carpenter's background, why? Because one of their friends' wife is a nurse and they've got a good going relationship. I was like, yeah, good luck. Good luck. Let's see how you go in 3 months.

I think you make a very good point. So one of the things we talked about, you and I, for a while has been the passion and the profit. And you know what drives people to make this choice? So can you just— I mean, so how do we balance the emotional drive, uh, with practical business considerations? So can you just, yeah, again, give us your experience, try to go back into your little memory here about how this evolved for you. But how do you balance the passion for what you do and the participant, and then also keeping an eye on the profit, the business?

I think, uh, uh, if you give me— if you would have given me that question to sleep over, I would have come up with a better and more intelligent answer. But in the moment, straight away coming out of my mouth, I'd say there is no direct interrelation between a passion and the profit. You can either be passionate about, uh, the wildlife photography, and which, which you won't make a million dollars a month, Or you can go after setting up a business just merely for profits, for $1 million a month, which you do not have any passion in, which is completely money-based, money-based, the revenue stream and your 9 to 10 or 9 to 5 job that you're doing every day. On the other hand, how do I balance out things? Look, I've followed my passion about helping out people. But as I said before, trying to make it a— create a win-win situation, whatever the amount of money that was coming in. I think back then when I started, it was about $43 an hour for the cleaning. I want to really look up now how much that was. Starting from the $40— let me have a look at my price guide. Cleaning. Okay, so back then, according to the price guide, what I'm looking at, which came into effect on the 1st of July 2019, the cleaning services rate, uh, going rate was, uh, where is it, uh, $49.16. But this is 2019, I'm talking 2018, so that was about $43 or $47 or something like that.

Wow.

But even in this, yes, and something that came into effect in 2020, that was, 2020 was, sorry, I'm looking at the wrong one. 2020 was $54.08. So let's say, let's see with this self-care, what are we looking at self-care? Because I know there was something that was, that was very less that I was working with. Compared to what we are getting these days, these days in the sector. Weekday daytime. Okay. Weekday daytime, it's here. Because I've got my own complete application with all the price guides uploaded into one.

Yep. Yep.

So, okay. 2019, 2019, the prices for self-care was $52.85.

Okay.

And that is a weekday daytime. And right now when people are getting there starting from July 2024, people are getting that $67.56. It is amazing. It is an eye-opener on the increment in the price. But look, it's a cost-price index and based on the inflation that is, which has changed the prices and there was COVID, there was other factors. It's from the $67 or from the $47 where I started. It is balancing things out between the participants' needs and fulfilling those requirements. And also at the same time, with that fulfilling requirement for a participant, and there is a dollar amount that comes in, how does that dollar amount get distributed in 2 different parties, which portion that stays with me for churning into the future business and the amount that goes to the support worker or the cleaner or the maintenance guy? So how does that entirety of that justify? Because if you go into, say, if I compare this to any outside industry, let's say it could be any trades, for example, I won't name which one, but if there is a client and there is a business here and there is staff, depending on the client's needs, I can be charging $1,000 and the same service I could be charging another person $1,500. And I can have a set rate of this person to go at $500. So I could be making $500 or I could be making $1,000. If I need to go on a holiday, I could be making $1,000. Or if that person needs to go on a holiday, he still gets $500. You know, that's, that's how the other sector is. But here the government defines what you're going to get by the hour.

Exactly.

And that is what you need to balance. I've been balancing that revenue stream in a lot of different ways and making it a win-win situation where the support worker is happy, The participant is happy, he's getting the right services, and I'm just there following my passion out now.

That's great, that's really good insight into how you've approached it. I think from my background and my business background, I've always come from the view that get your structures upfront settled, whether it be your business structures, how you're going to— what rates you're going to pay, how you're going to recruit. I think it's important that this passion and profit be kept in perspective in relation to if you continue doing the right thing and delivering a good service, I think the profit does come in. It's all about providing a great service.

Absolutely.

Providing that service in the initial stages, yes, you probably need a bit of backing and you might be a bit behind in relation to that profit and loss situation. But what I've noticed, a couple of providers that I've been working with, there's one really good one that I've been working with and she's doing very, very well for herself. It's been based on delivery. Continue to deliver, continue to perform, continue to satisfy the client's needs. And then the word of mouth, you know, we talk about branding, positioning, at the end of the day, it always comes down to the word of mouth, that referral that comes across from a fellow SC, from a fellow allied health professional, from a fellow, you know, other professional in the sector. That's what's going to make you stand out and continue to deliver and get a better balance between that passion and profit. But my advice to people is start by providing that service. Do it well and do it properly. Focus on the participant. And over a period of time, if you do that properly, people will notice. The word gets around.

Exactly.

People will notice. People will remember you. And as long as you look after the participant, people will remember you. So people will not— people sometimes— what's the old saying? People don't sometimes remember who you are, but they'll remember what you did for them. So they won't remember who you are and your name, but they'll remember what you did for them, and they'll be able to recall that in relation to how you went about your job. So, want to add to that?

Absolutely, yes. Uh, 2 things. I'll come back to the second point after that. When you say that you do the right thing and you look after the people, they'll remember you, and the profits come to you— I'll, uh, I would want to change that word profits into benefits. So you do get the benefits out of it. Profits is a part of the business and the financials. How you are, how good are you to operate a calculator is what matters, uh, in with the finances. Uh, but the benefit, you do get the benefits out of it. You do get recognized about doing the right thing for the, whether that is for the participants or whether that is for the community or whether that is for your staff. Uh, then the, uh, if you do good and people remember you, that is another story which came to light Quite recently, I had a support coordinator call me or contact me about a certain service. And I looked after— used to look after that particular participant years ago. They moved to another location. And I could not find— I did not have anybody on books in that particular area for the service or the support that they needed. And eventually she said, Bubby, I don't know how you're going to do it, but I can't find anyone. I just want you to help me out. I've been working with this support coordinator as well for a while. I've been working with this participant for a certain period of time in the past. So I said, okay, let me pull down, pull together some resources and see what I can put together. A couple of days later, I was able to put all the supports together. I came back to the support coordinator. Okay, here is this particular person. This is— I've enrolled the person, and this is— these are the details I've shared with the person, and the person will be there From this day, this time onwards, and get this done. She came back to me. She said, "Okay, Bobby, this particular the reason I came to you was that this particular participant remembered you and said when I discussed with her that I cannot find anyone in that particular aspect. She gave me your name that okay, if you can't find anyone, go to Bobby. He'll find you someone. If you can't, if anyone else can't do it, Bobby can do it." I like. Thanks. It's interesting. Put the pressure on. I did not have anyone, but you just put some pressure on me and I just, uh, went overboard and found somebody for her. But that's, that's all I did. But it's, it's once again, it is, it brings me back to the previous conversation we were just having. It is trying to do the right thing and benefiting the community, giving to the community, and trying to help out a participant in need. And somebody is there. I always tell people that, look, if If you are getting an inquiry from a support coordinator or any other allied health professional or a participant, trust me, it's— you're not the first person that they've called asking for help. You're not going to be the last one.

Correct.

So if you and I, we've already discussed at length, 1 hour is not enough. I think last time we discussed about this, our chat went about, about 2, 3 hours on this alone topic. It's important how you put your resources together, what you can actually do, what's your niche, what your— what having you on board is going to benefit anyone is important to understand, and for somebody to benefit out of engaging you with them along, along their side. So it's important. That's the niche.

Yeah, for the stuff that I do, always say to people, the word I use is swim in your lane. Just swim in your lane. Yeah, just imagine that Olympic swimming pool and everyone's got their lane. If you swim in your lane and don't get into the other person's lane, then you should be okay. So you develop— we go back to what we said before, that niche. If you're going to be a home care provider, be a home care provider. I mean, don't then start thinking, okay, well, eventually I'm going to do OT, I'm going to do physiotherapy. Swim in your lane. You're a home care provider, swim in that lane and do it properly. And then slowly look to expand your services. But don't try to do everything in the beginning.

Yes.

Swing your line, develop that niche.

Absolutely. It's like I threw out an example about a carpenter or a tradesperson to come into NDIS. You spend 5 years or 10 years of your life to learn the trade and build up a revenue stream. Now, if you want to get into NDIS, it's completely a new sector for you to consider, for you to learn. About, whether that is, uh, whether that is about the, the, uh, the services, a range of services, what NDIS is, what NDIS Commission does, well, how does the audit work, how does the registration work, what registration groups, because a lot of people have seen that they go for NDIS registration by whatever they think is right, they fill out the scope of registration, they do not understand the, uh, how a couple of different registration groups complement each other in a given moment until in the future and then they cannot do one thing or the other with their registration, then they have to go through the amendment to the registration process once again, which takes a couple of years these days. It's not quick and easy. So learning completely about something else is time-taking. It takes a lot of energy out of— and that time and energy, the costs and resources, if you put it in your own trade to learn something different about your trade which you've not known, which is why you're trying to diversify into something else, It's going to be— it's going to come back to you with a lot more benefits because you're already specializing in that. So that's what I always tell a lot of people.

Okay, I think we've done that one. Let's move on to the next one. One of the things we've been talking about too is, Bobby, and again, we touched on this already, but what drives people to make this choice? So some of the things we've been talking about is, you know, if you've got a current employee, let's say your current support worker, you're thinking, okay, I can start my own business. So should you leave your job to start your own part-time business? I mean, Can you adapt or add NDIS services to your current offerings? Yeah, they're the kind of things we've been talking about. So again, again, I want to delve into your background and maybe bring up some of that sort of, um, story that you've got to tell, which I think is a great story and people should make time to listen to it. And I know you've got some events coming up which we'll talk about soon that people can go and listen to your story. But what drives people to make that choice? So you obviously worked For the man at one stage, you were working for someone. What drives you to make that choice?

My drive, as I said before, is just to add extra clients or reach out to an additional market out there just to expand my cleaning services, nothing else. I did not start back in 2018 to be where I am today. So it was an expansion or the extension of what I was actually doing. I was doing cleaning, so I wanted to have more clients or, uh, just get, uh, be exposed to a particular resource or be in a particular group of people where I can get more clients and references just to have more hours and days for the cleaners on board, the cleaning contractors I had on board with me back then. That's it, simple as that. I did not want to get into self-care, but as I went through another year or 2 years, 2 years later when I was seeing there is a gap and there is a I'm learning and I'm talking to a lot of support coordinators. I'm meeting with them. I'm talking to a lot of different core supports providers. I'm talking to a lot of allied health professionals and I'm learning the process. Then it got me reading. I'm always exploring what else is out there. I mean, how— the initial reason of me learning about the core supports and the allied health on what a behavioural support does or what an OT is, is to eventually be able to have a proper conversation with a participant and a support coordinator. Because when I started home maintenance and somebody, uh, somebody came to me, a support coordinator, okay, can you do this? I was like, yes, definitely. How do you want me to do it? Like, no, no, you give me a— what I'll do is I'll send you the OT's assessment report and the recommendations. I want you to work with that and put together the quotations and everything for me, and I'll send it to NDIS. Well, I was new. I've got no idea what they were talking about. Even today, I see a lot of different people. Oh, the support coordinator said this, but why is it going to take about a year for them to get a wall knocked off and the bathroom to be extended? Well, that is a process. I can have a proper conversation with them. Back then, I had the same question, so I went on to researching, picking somebody's brain, somebody I knew that I can reach out to. I'll call 3 or 4 different support coordinators and say, look, you know I'm new. But I've got this question. What is an OT? What do they do? Okay, what does a physio has to do with whether somebody's cleaning or tiling in the shower or fixing up a door handle? Or could be just moving around or helping somebody to move around a bed, you know, or removing a bed. Those sort of questions. So it was a learning.

Continue to ask questions. Continue to find, discover. That's the part of the journey that we want to emphasize to the people watching, is to continue to discover, continue asking questions. Why is it happening this way? Why do people do it this way? Is that what you're saying there?

Absolutely, absolutely. You need to ask a question. You need to be honest with yourself, and you need to be honest with the other person that, okay, you don't know about this particular thing. Okay, you need to ask. If you're trying to reach out to a person that— okay, you, uh, put it this way— if you're trying to reach out to a support coordinator to get a client lead or something, yes, You're getting some reference, but if you reach out to the support, you show you're showing off that okay, you've been in the lost you a bit.

I think we've lost Bobby. Hopefully we're still going.

You there, Bob?

Maybe we'll just that's frozen. So I think I'm still live here.

Yep.

Yeah, we're still live. Yeah, I think. We are. Yep. Okay, I'm just watching the other screen there to see if we're live. Anyway, so what Bobby there is talking— while we get Bobby on, what Bobby's talking there is continue to question, continue to ask questions, continue to discover. So, and when you're making the choice about whether you start an NDIS business, think about what you're able to offer. Think about your niche. Think about the lane you want to swim in and think about how you are going to be able to provide that service. So if you're going to make the decision to move across and go across to do your own business, then think carefully about, again, what are you good at? What are you passionate about? Yes, we are in it for some, and, you know, an income at the end or some profit at the end. But if you put the passion before the profit, then those other things will start to develop and crystallize. It's easy for us to say that, but there is examples there for Bobby where he has actually done that. He's able to do that. He's been able to show that with his ability to focus on the individual, with his ability to focus on what's required, with his ability to ask the right questions, he's been able to then move on to be able to provide the services he wants to provide and also add to those services. So he's gone from cleaning to become a more holistic home care service provider. So it's very, very important to keep those things in mind when going that way. From my point of view, from a strategy point of view, when people come to me and say, well, Con, can you help me position myself? Can you help me brand myself? I go through a process with people trying to understand their business. So the most important part is trying to understand the whole business structure and trying to understand how they started. But more importantly, what I do is I interview these people, my clients, and ask them to talk about their journey. It's always great to hear their backstory because once you know the person's backstory, like we heard from Bobby recently, there you go. You can move forward and say, well, okay, this is your backstory, this is what you can offer. Let's develop your niche, let's develop your lane. So that way you can continue to perform in that lane, that niche, and then people will start seeing you more and more. And as you provide that service, you can do a good job, people will start coming into your environment and start to be part of your ecosystem and be helped. So it will be helpful for them to be able to use your services. So that's about— it's about understanding your backstory, what brings you to NDIS, what made you start your business, and then going forward, what's your vision? What's your values? People need to see that. Remember, guys, in the NDIS, we're not selling a product, we're not selling a computer software system, we're not selling a car, we are selling a service. And that's predicated on one key thing, and one thing I talk to my clients about, it's about relationships. So if you develop relationships and build strong relationships, that's going to help you go forward with anything you do in the NDIS system. So I think we've got Bobby back. Hey Bobby, welcome back. Hope you heard a bit of that.

Thank you. Yeah, okay. I think my internet dropped out for some reason.

That's okay. I gave you gave me a chance to give me a chance to talk a bit about what I do and how I do it. So it was really good.

Yeah. No, I was listening. I was listening to you. Coming back to the coming back to what I was talking about. Asking asking questions what you don't know is important. You need to be open to asking reference. If you can ask references, you can ask for guidances. If you don't know something. It's coming out honestly about what you don't know and what you are really wanting to learn. If you're new in the industry and you don't know a particular complexity or you don't understand a support plan, you need to read, you need to learn, you need to do research. It's even— I mean, a lot of people are getting onto ChatGPT and the other AI platforms. I'm developing some of the AI models for the industry as well, which we'll talk about in the coming few weeks, one thing at a time. I mean, I can even show you if you want. I can share it on what somebody can actually start with on a basic ChatGPT.

Okay, I think we'll leave that for a future session. I think it's important to set the groundwork now. Maybe in the future session, talk about those sort of things because I can, you know, and I'll also contribute to those aspects. I think it's important that I just set the scene about what got us into NDIS, how we can then learn from people like you in relation to the kind of thinking. So what I want to move on to next would be That this question about how to specialize and grow. So you were— you did cleaning, all right? And you started with cleaning, and then— but then you specialized and grew in a variety of other areas.

Yeah.

So how did you— how did you specialize and grow?

When—

what journey did you go on to do that?

Uh, what journey I went through that Yeah, so how did you— it's been, it's been quite a long journey, one, uh, one little step at a time.

Yes.

Uh, like I tell my, like I tell my team and a lot of different providers who see me and ask me for, Bobby, how can I do this? How can I make that, uh, make that happen? How can I achieve this? How can I do that? I tell them that, look, it's— look at, okay, people from the outside the industry, I tell them is outside the NDIS sector, I tell them, look, baby steps, okay? Don't try to jump the hoops or jump the, jump the, uh, the complete, uh, complete process and, uh, just be the winner at the end of the, end of the line. Uh, there's no instant results. But put it this way, if you achieve one little thing a day, a day, well, by the end of the month You've got 30 things that you've achieved.

Correct.

Yeah, you've got 7 things. You are 7 steps ahead of yourself and many others who are still thinking about how do you do this, how do you do that.

Correct.

You know, like if you're setting up— I'll put your picture and your video as an example, okay? Just what people are looking at now and what I am looking at now Okay, Con, you shaved up. That's one thing. Okay, that's what they will see. Okay, you've done your shave. Okay, and I've done my training. Okay, now second thing people will notice, the color of your shirt and the, the logo that's on your, uh, on your shirt. It doesn't take a day to get it done, but it takes a day to take a step to finalize a logo. Finalize, then it is something you sleep with the design, then you finalize the color the next day. Then you get the placement. Then you think about printing it on a shirt. Then you find— then finalizing that decision, then it is a task. It's, it's an achievement about finalizing a decision and making peace with it. Okay, I need 5 shirts with my logo on them. Then it is the process about finding a printer. Even, even if in a particular day you can't find a printer, but you've done all the research about reaching out to different printers asking for quotations and start putting it together by the evening. That's another task accomplished. Next day you get— you place an order. It's printer who's gonna take about a week or 2 weeks to send you the shirt. But then in the meanwhile, you think about, okay, where do I host this live stream? You do your research, which takes another few days. But every research, every day, it is an achievement because you know something more which you did not know last week. Correct. And then you create, uh, create the background where you, uh, what I see in the background, the, the NDIS and stuff.

Continue learning, isn't it? Continue learning, continue to explore. I mean, I've done a few LinkedIn Lives, but I'm always learning different things about the LinkedIn Lives. And I think it's a great platform, and I think people should be using a lot more, especially people like ourselves who are into business-to-business relationships. I think this is the best platform that I've seen that allows you to connect, interact, but also be able to take that conversation to the next level, which is that face-to-face conversation. And I think by doing things like LinkedIn Lives, by doing things like even just video, by posting some, some information about what you do— and like I was saying before, some of the clients I work with at the moment, the most— the first thing we do with them, they may have been in the US for a while, but we tell their story. I think once people know where you came from, they are happy to join you on your journey going forward. Now that we know where Bobby has come from, we know his journey, we know where he's been. I have a more deeper, I suppose, connection with him in relation to if I want to go work with Bobby or tap into his services, because I know he's been there. I know he's, he's traveled that road. I know that he's stepped on those, those pebbles and sort of slipped a bit and slipped a bit here and slipped a bit there, but he's continued to focus on his journey. And that's what I think. It's important that we are developing relationships. That's why I said when you were off that it's important to develop relationships in this sector, not try to sell, not try to push. It's about developing a relationship. It won't happen overnight, and it won't happen in a week. But remember what we said: people remember how you made them feel, and if you make them feel special, and that's what you do. You do very well by being. I mean this honestly because I've been to some of your events. You make people feel happy, you make people feel special. If you make them feel special and happy, people will remember you and they'll say, look, I want to touch— like you said before, hey Bobby, I need some help with this. Hey Bobby, they come to you because they see you as someone who can help them. And that's what we're doing in NDIS. It's about relationships, it's about establishing that rapport and that credibility for you then to be able to work with people. I'll hand it over to you. Thanks.

Absolutely. Look, it's— I have benefited from the industry in ways more than one, and it is, it is a process from learning to action. So, okay, you learn something about NDIs, but what do you do about it?

Yes.

You know, so you can take a particular action, but you just stop after the learning. You did not take any action about it. All right, you decided, you decided like 6 months ago that, okay, you want to be into NDIs. Last year you rented out a house and you've been paying $3,000 a month of rent because— and you paid another $10,000 to set up the house because you want to get into sale.

Yes.

Well, you've spent— you spent $50,000 in the last one year. What did you do about it?

Yeah.

Okay, but it's this house that is sitting there is not going to sell. So what's an action that you took? Nothing. Yes, you know, so this is a good example. That's a very good example. When someone— when I talk to somebody, okay, what did you do about it? They ask me, okay, okay, Papi, what can I do about it? I don't know what you can do about it. Sell the house, buy the house, you know, uh, sell the bricks, uh, take out the tiles, sell the plumbing. I don't know what you want to do. Okay, you want, you want to, you want to participate, then go out and talk to people, talk to providers. I've got the The reason I've got my events the way it is titled is NDIS collaboration, knowledge exchange, and networking. The first thing is the collaboration. So people need to be working together, then share the knowledge about what they know, what the other person can benefit from. Because look, if you are an NDIS provider and I'm an NDIS provider, trust me, we two are not going to get across our paths and have the same participants together, you know. So yeah, collaboration and networking event. This is This is one. So we're getting a good— by the way, we're getting a very good turn-up for this one. So if somebody's not purchasing the tickets, there's only limited number of tickets or spots that's left available. I won't disclose how much, but it's going to be a good start of the new year. And this 25th is going to be creative, and there's going to be a lot of different people. I've got James Loveday and Tanya Gomez talking. We've got different subjects and everything. It's going to be very interesting. I'm not at liberty to disclose it here now at this stage. But it will be on the day. Now, coming back to the point about the action and sharing the knowledge, what I was talking about, if, Con, you are an NDIS provider, you have your specialisation, and I've got my specialisation, we two are not going to cross paths, whether that's a client or whether that's just the connections that we have with the support coordinators who's giving you a client, who's giving me a client, because somebody's gonna like you and somebody's gonna like me. Okay?

Correct.

If I try to steal your client, Okay, and I try to poach a support coordinator who's giving you the participants or references, and I would do it smartly. Okay, I would do it very smartly, and the other person will actually pick on that. Okay, I'm trying to take away the business from Con, but the reason they are giving you the business is because they like you, they trust you, they have entrusted a person's support to you like one of the family members, like somebody that we are supposed to be caring for. And if they would have known about me or heard about me, and if they would have, uh, trust— entrusted that particular care to me, they'll give it to me. They'll, they'll talk to me because it's the actions that speak louder than words. It is not the marketing that at the end of the day matters. Do you get a reference? How will you look after the clients and how many actions you take? But when some people ask me, what can I do about it? I was like, look, you know it best what you can do about it. You know what you are not doing about looking after the particular participant and what you need to be doing about that particular care arrangement that you have been in So find the gaps, learn from your mistakes, build up a better process. Just do it. I'm learning and I'm doing something every day.

I want to take a little step backwards because we talked about getting out there and finding things, and we showed the event that you're doing. Why is it important to people to go to such events, whether it be your event? I know we're here, you know, it's your event, but you and I go to a lot of other events as well. So why is it important for people to, especially ones starting out in the business, Starting out, why is it important for them to go to events, network? And we talk about networking, there's networking and there's selling, you know, from the stage. So why is it important for people to attend these events and what do they get out of it? I mean, you talk to a lot of people at your events, they give you feedback. What do they enjoy about these events?

Look, it is the knowledge and the understanding and the insights that we come from. Tania Gomez is coming from a perspective of an auditor and audit consultant. James Loveday has— I've always looked up to James. I was talking to him yesterday and I'll say, look, James, I look up to you in a manner that you— I can't explain. You know, the amount of knowledge that he's got, the amount of travel he's done, and the people he's met, it is amount of information that he's got to himself.

Correct.

But that huge range of amount of information is not going to help James all by himself or to himself. to benefit in the best possible way.

Correct.

Like, he knows details and fine print about 50 different things. But if he, if he's going to be as a human or as a person, even if he is going to put that experience or that knowledge to use, or Tania speaks to, talks to like hundreds of people every month, and if Tania or James or you speak to like 50 different people every day, if you're going to, if any one of you people are going to put all that knowledge and experience into practice and create a business out of it, and you know where people are falling short. You can't do everything. You can end up doing 10 things at the best. What about that knowledge about the 40 other aspects about the whole experience, your own understanding and research about where people are falling short, or the learning from that discussion? Somebody can benefit from it. That is what we are doing. That is what I'm doing. I cannot support 4 million or 5 million disabled people in the sector. I cannot expand into countries like New Zealand and something like many other businesses and companies and business development managers can actually do. Those expansions and leading and reaching out to those increased number of the disabled people and the aged and the children and the people in the other medical health requirements, and could be anything, TSC, there's DVA, People can benefit from understanding that particular knowledge. Now, if what I'm talking about at Caroline Springs, I'll just give that and I won't take the liberty to discuss on what James and Tanya is talking about at this stage. I'm talking about leveraging cross-departmental skills and specializations into the business's growth on how you can, how your accounting team helps you to grow your business. Now I'm talking completely about marketing perspective. I'm not talking about— I'm not going to be talking about how the financial management and budgeting and reports work together. It is entirely your accounting department, your— and the other departments per se, how that works. And how does your management helps— is it even for a bigger organization, what is the management's perspective and how does that assist and support the marketing initiative in an organization on a certain level. It's going to be something very interesting, which is coming from a lot of different knowledge that I put together in practice in the years before me, or— and I'm still learning on how still to balance out those things in, in different departments and like different— with different people and perspectives. It is a sharing of the knowledge where the other person can benefit. Maybe another person is not able to provide that right sort of a support to a participant because balancing out between those 3 to 4 or 5 or 6 different departments, or that department heads, they're not able to do it right. It can benefit them, and that participant can get better support out of it.

Yeah, and I've been to your events, Bob. I just want to stop in there and say I've been to your events, and I think, um, in the beginning I sort of wondered about it like we all do, you know, what's going to be the outcome here? What am I going to get out of this? And I say to people, that's why I highly recommend Bobby Singh or Wise Healthcare event, because what I find with your events, Bobby, is yes, there is some interaction with the audience in relation to the services that the variety of speakers provide. But what I like about the event is that it allows for pure networking. And as a new provider, one thing I think people look for is the ability to meet other people. Now, there has been no other events that I've been to— maybe I've not been to as many as others— but where you get so many so many providers, different type of providers, allied health, SCs, plan managers, home care providers, that you get so much of a variety of providers there in one place that you can actually make some connections and create that relationship we talked about and then take that relationship further. So I think, yes, we are here to talk about Bobby's event and the one at Carillon Springs, but there is a number of these events that are happening. I know Jane has done some with eye care which are really good. Our friends and plan partners do quite a few events. There's others that do events. I think they're important to go. There's some more smaller intimate events where you meet maybe a handful of people, and they're very good, especially when the topic's very relevant. And there's some bigger events like the ones you do, Bobby, which are the big ones at the Mercure or whatever else might be at a particular hotel. And there's also the ones that you do with your group, and I know Jackie Grant does those coffee catch-ups. Which are also very, very handy and very, very good. So there's a variety of events that people can tap into. They might be, you know, the big ones might scare them and they think, okay, I'm gonna— it's gonna be big. They might want to start off with a small coffee catch-up. But the aim of the game is to network, to meet other people, to connect, to learn, to share, and develop relationships. Because as you're starting off in this business, the establishment of relationships is very key to how you go forward. Would you agree with that?

Absolutely. Absolutely. The more you connect with somebody is a better process about reaching out to the other person, and you can actually discuss openly with the other person. If a support coordinator finds an issue with a core services provider and they can talk to each other, they can go back to the person. Okay, look, Con, or look, I won't put a name. There's a lot of common names in the sector. I'll just use your name. Okay. I'll use my name. Okay, so, uh, if as a support coordinator somebody can talk to you, they come back to you, Con, okay, your, uh, support worker went for this, this participant and they did not do it right, okay, for Jane Doe, uh, Jane Doe, the American fake name. So I think that would be good. So your support worker went to Jane and did not do this, this right, okay?

Correct.

Look, it's something that's been repetitive. I've been talking to you about it, uh, for the last few, uh, few visitations that this person is Like, is there somebody really you can find to get on board for this particular participant? It is necessary. You know, she loves you and you're looking out for the other clients and, you know, I trust you. Can you really do it? This small conversation, or whichever way this will be phrased or comprehended, this small conversation cannot happen between a support coordinator and a core services provider who cannot be at a really connected level. It will happen in a way, there would be one day you open up your email and there is an email from Support Coordinator Jane Doe about, okay, Con, your support workers are not being good. Okay, get this fixed or I'm filing a formal complaint. Okay, if it's not fixed within a week, next shift, if it's not done, please cancel the services. Okay, and I need a confirmation by the end of tomorrow.

Done. Done.

Now it becomes much more formal directive, and it much, uh, becomes, uh, just draw a line. Okay, look, I've had too much of this person. And the only difference is that there is a Jane Doe, there's a Jenny Doe, and there is a Con. These 3 people cannot talk to each other. Okay. So the whole purpose of creating that atmosphere of the networking events, what I'm doing, and I'm doing in the events where people, people in the authoritative positions can come on board and they can learn from each other, share their story, share some experience Tell about what they are doing, what's their niche, what they're trying to achieve, how they can do it. Discuss the scenario even for, uh, uh, for their own business's sake or their team's sake that there is this particular, uh, scenario. Okay, okay, how can you help me with this? I get those questions every now and then. Now, uh, from the events as well, uh, before, uh, before I forget, I'll also add to it. From those events, a lot of different people come to me. Okay, Bobby, I need your guidance about doing this, this, this. Now I've got an open channel. I share my phone number and my LinkedIn with a lot of different people that you can come and join me, send me a message. But if you send me an SMS, do send me your name and details about, about that as well so I know what, who I'm talking about, who I'm talking to. And give me a bit of a reference about what we need to talk about and what, uh, where we met and stuff. So because I meet so many people, I forget. We can go from there. And I've got an open, uh, shared calendar online on consultations.wisehealthcare.com.au. You can select me on that dropdown and just see when I'm available. You can book a half an hour discussion with me online. I'm happy to help. But if it's something you want to be in person, I need to work together to put together something on paper, then of course I'm charging on a paid consultation for some businesses, which is a bit more concrete as well. So it's just talking about it in all different levels.

Exactly right. I'll give a quick tip to people because, uh, we probably will cover this a bit more, but quickly, when you go to these events, come prepared with your USP, your unique selling proposition. There is 10 OTs there, there are, there are probably another 10 SCs there, there are probably another 10 allied health professionals. When you are networking, be prepared to develop that sort of 30-second pitch, but make sure it's about your unique selling proposition. So if you're an OT, What's unique about your OT services? If you're a home care provider, what's unique about your home care provision, your provision, how you provide your services? Come prepared to differentiate yourself from others. Then and only then will you be rememberable, and people will say, oh, I remember he said this or she said that. So develop your USP, develop something that you can use. So when you're handing out that card to Bobby, say, Bobby, I'm Con, I'm an OT. What we do different is blah. Bobby says, okay, they are unique, something I can remember about them. So be prepared to develop that unique selling proposition and be able to spill that out when you're meeting someone, when you're handing over that card. We are this, this, and this, but we are different because of this. We do this good. We focus on this niche area. We focus with children under 9. We focus on adults over 30. Whatever you do, you've got a specialty. Make sure you differentiate yourself because that's the only way you're going to be rememberable. Bobby, we are running out. I want to see if there's any questions from anyone. I don't see any questions in our chats anywhere. So if people got any questions—

I'm sure you'll be definitely— we'll be getting a lot of different calls from your network on LinkedIn as well about different questions from this discussion and everything. So try to put it all— put those questions together.

We will.

And my suggestion is that next week we will start answering some of those questions, addressing those, and we will run a couple of scenarios on a few things on how somebody can— even where you were just closing about reach out, about tell them about your USP, we will discuss about how somebody can identify their own USP and a few other ways. In the meanwhile, if somebody really wants to define and phrase that USP when they're talking to different people, well, for whoever's listening, Con and I, we are open to working with you, sitting with you in the next 1 week or whenever we were available and you're available to help you define that USP for you for the next time when you come out to a particular event. So feel free to give us a call.

Before you go to Bobby's event on 26th, if you want to talk to us about developing a USP, come and talk to us. We're happy to sit down and put that together for you. And that way you are positioned in a better way when you go to that event. So we are live on LinkedIn, on YouTube. We are live also on Bobby's channels. Wherever we are live, wherever you're watching this, please feel free to comment. Bob and I will be looking at those and we'll be able to position the next conversation to be in tune with what you're looking for and hopefully address those needs. But notwithstanding that, we will go through some scenarios and talk more about how you then progress from now. We talked today about are you starting a business? Now we're going to start moving into, okay, once you've decided you want to start the business, what's your next steps? Bobby, thank you very much. I really appreciate your time today.

Thank you. Thank you, Con. Okay.

Thank you.

Stay tuned, everyone.

Thanks very much. Before we go, just to quickly show where you can find us again. Here we go. That's me, the Social Selling Warrior. So what we do, we focus on branding. So we look at profile optimization strategy, LinkedIn content development. Also, we do AI and ChatGPT. Bobby and I have been working on that, and we'll talk a bit more more about that hopefully next week, if not probably the week after, or going forward about how we can use AI tools to support our business going forward. Having said that, we also got Bobby, which is Wise Healthcare. Hopefully we can get that one up there. One second. Please keep that in mind. And under Wise Healthcare, you'll be able to also find Bobby's events. So when you go to the Wise Healthcare, just go to About Us, click on Wise HC Events, and in there you'll see that Caroline Springs event. Just take a bit of while to show. You'll see the Caroline Springs event show up and you'll be able to click from there and go to Eventbrite and book it. It's just not coming up, must be the internet's a bit slow. Anyway, I did go in there before and we did have that Caroline, and there it is there if you want to go into that.

Uh, they can also, they can, they can also go to the Wise Healthcare website, go to the About page under the About, there's a Wiser Events. So you can also find it, find them there.

There it is there. Yep, that's on the screen now, Bobby. So I can go there. And so Bobby's got a couple of other events coming up too, which is good. So I recommend the Wiser Healthcare events. I've been to a couple of them. And look, I also recommend a number of the other people in our network, uh, they have events. I really do recommend those as well. And we'll probably showcase some of those in the coming weeks as well. Once again, thank you very much, everyone. Thanks for watching. We really appreciate your support. Keep watching, and hopefully the NDIS Growth Hub will continue to flourish and provide what you need to start setting up your NDIS business going forward. Till next time, thank you. Have a great weekend, and we'll talk to you next week.

Thank you. Thank you, Con. Thank you, everyone.