Leading Ladies - Making Business and Marriage a Success| #13

Leading Ladies - Making Business and Marriage a Success

Episode 13

Matt [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to this episode of Power Up Your Business podcast. I'm your host, Matthew Jones. This episode is brought to you by Cube Performance that's my business. We coach tradie business owners to implement our Power Up methodology so that they can earn more, take home money, work less and ultimately create a great lifestyle for themselves and their family. Now, this episode, I am really excited to present our inaugural Leading Ladies episode. In this episode, this topic is around how to make business and marriage a success between a husband and wife team. We'll be speaking with Kylie Van de Graaf from Brizscapes Landscaping, speaking to Hailley Kent from Laurence Plumbing Group and speaking with Lyndall Cunningham from Outside In. Now, each of these ladies work hard managing the business as well as managing the home and ultimately what we find and this is a common scenario to get that balance right between the business and the home can be quite difficult with the husband and wife team. Often business will just roll into home life and there's a lack of separation. So in this episode, Kylie, Hailley and Lyndall really share some key points and tips and processes, how they implemented or what they implemented in their business to ensure that with their husband, they're on the same page. And ultimately, this is all about improving family life, reducing stress, ensuring that they're confident in the future that the blood, sweat and tears are worth the effort. How to also really hear how getting the whole team on board with the way we do it here to ensure that everyone is excited about coming to work and we're all working towards a vision. And then the big thing really here, how making really key changes in the business in the way the husband and wife operated, how that materially changed the financial position tenfold, pretty much from no cash in the bank and no profit to plenty of profit and ultimately materially changing their lifestyle for the better. So this is a great episode. Everyone, please have your pens ready, really hope you enjoy this cheers, everyone.

Speaker 2 [00:02:16] Because there's too much on the one you're sacrificing right now and your family need to benefit, you got to make learning the passion for yourself. I think it for me to realise that. I've got to get better at business.

Matt [00:02:38] Ladies, thanks for coming on to our inaugural Leading Ladies podcast, where you go from a back of house position, you can share your stories and awesome to Hailley from Victoria, Kylie from Queensland and Lyndall from New South Wales on this podcast. And I'll get them to introduce themselves during the course of this podcast. Essentially, what I'm really excited about, Hailley, Kylie and Lyndall being on board as long-term clients of Cube Performance, just seeing the transformation in both their business grow but more importantly, the transformation to their personal life. And that's a key thing for everyone as a business owner, we are in business to transform your personal life and really it starts with the office and that's one thing we try to do. Business owners, it's too often you get stuck on the tools. It's all about what happens on the site rather than what happens on the office. So really excited to hear and for you girls to share your stories and I'll throw it over to yourself, Kylie from Brizscapes. Kylie, just give a quick snapshot how long you've been operating for and in those early days running the office with Malcolm, what were some of the initial challenges that you were facing?

Kylie [00:03:49] We established by Breezescapes in 2007, so we've been going for about 14 years now. Initially, we started with garden maintenance and then launched into landscaping as well, with Malcolm doing all of the manual labour and myself working in the office and doing all admin tasks. Some of the initial [00:04:13]promise [0.0s] for us were work life balance and then also having children as well. So it meant starting out very early 4 or 5 AM and then still working late at night to work around our young family and then also obviously working for yourself. We weren't getting the perks of sick leave, annual leave or maternity leave or any of those things, so, yes, no holidays and then obviously relying on work coming in, working very hard and then following up on bills. So there were the financial stresses as well. So that's kind of a bit of a background to us.

Matt [00:05:02] And obviously in those early days too where Malcolm was very much focused on the job and there was that lack of probably appreciation, which is a common scenario, a lack of appreciation of what goes in behind the scenes in the office. Was that causing on your part frustration for that lack of understanding from Malcolm's part because he did not know. He is just born and bred on the tools, he's good on the tools. How is that impacting you from a personal point of view as well?

Kylie [00:05:27] Yes, so the biggest impact with that would be me saying to Malcolm, well, we desperately need money. We've got this coming out that coming up. And he would be like, what do you mean? I'm working all the time? What do you mean, we don't have any money left? So that obviously puts a stress on your relationship being husband and wife and mum and dad trying to keep everything together for your family but you would be losing sleep and stressing. And Malcolm's just thinking, how much harder do I have to work to make ends meet? So there were times you just wanted to give it all up and walk away. So, yes, it was very stressful on our relationship.

Matt [00:06:11] And then there is that scenario where, as you mentioned, there's just like how long can I keep on going for? And it is that hand to mouth, Malcolm is working hard. And it's just like, what do you mean there's no money in the bank? What are you doing? What's going on? And there is that lack of being on the same page as we talk about all the time that was so important for the husband and wife team. We need to be on that same page. We need to be very clear in our vision and direction so that we're making the right decisions. So cool, thanks for that, Kylie. Over to you now, Hailley. We got Hailley from Lawrence Plumbing Group. How are you? Again, snapshot how long the business been going for?

Hailley [00:06:47] So I'd say around eight years. We started or shortly after we got married too, we've got a house and got married and then the next step was start a business, which was exciting. And we were ready for hard work and kind of said, you know, we've got quite a few years of just working all the time. And then it'll pay off, I was like, okay.

Matt [00:07:08] How many years did that end up turning into?

Hailley [00:07:12] More than eight years, still hard work now, I was doing all the bookkeeping for him while working full time in my nursing position and Nathan was just working around the clock on the tools and then trying to get his paperwork side at night time. So he would often be in the office till like some nights and just midnight. He's just in there all night and have a few hours sleep and then get up and do it again. At the start, we just sort did any work he could get. We thought well, you know, we just make sure you get enough that's coming in and we're always busy. So on that respect, it was pretty good and we didn't have to go out and look too hard but I think it's the we weren't working smart enough in the business. So, as Kylie was saying too, I would be saying, you know, we've got bills coming in and not enough in the bank and him saying, where's all the money, kind of like it's my fault so that would be very frustrating and stressful on each other. And just to make sure that you can actually keep going and paying everything you need to. We then started a family maybe halfway through to four years later. So still at that stage, while working just as hard, I stopped working in nursing. But then you don't get maternity leave or sick leave or any of that, so started a family. And I just went straight back into it. I was tired and Nathan was tired still doing long hours. We were sort of like, well, how long will we do this for how many years until maybe, you know, you're at the other end.

Matt [00:08:47] Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?

Hailley [00:08:48] Yes, it didn't seem like it was coming.

Matt [00:08:50] And that's one of the things I know you mentioned on numerous occasions, especially those early days that lack of communication or again that lack of understanding what you were doing and how we get on the same page. And it's a common thing where business owners and tradies, you just you don't understand the importance of the office that's the mothership. We've got to get that right first. Anything that happens on site is easy from a business point of view doing the work is easy from a tradie's perspective. So how hard was it at times when the fingers pointed at you, what do you mean there's no money? Hailley, what are you doing with it?

Hailley [00:09:24] I know and it would be extremely stressful. I think the work was prioritised so the office work wasn't important. I'll try to make time to talk to Nathan about that side of things and then other things more important would come up.

Matt [00:09:38] But the important things were like, I've got to go back and do a job.

Hailley [00:09:41] Do a meeting, do a job, if I don't finish it, then we don't get the money.

Matt [00:09:45] Rather than talk about what we've got to get our invoicing in, we've got to fill out these people to get paid. We've got to make sure we're billing everything to the job, all those important things but from Nathan's perspective, at the time, that was important.

Hailley [00:09:56] Yes and invoicing wasn't important to him as getting things finished.

Matt [00:10:01] Yes, let's go finish this and go to the next thing. We'll worry about invoicing later. Cool, thanks, Hailley. Again, it's that common scenario where, as I call it, the husband and wife team, one talks in Arabic and the other one's talking Chinese. You just can't understand each other. There is that constant friction there. And again, it's unsustainable. We are speaking with Kylie, Hailley and Lyndall. If you'd like to turn your business around so that you can earn more money with a lot less stress, please pick up a free copy of my book, Power Up Your Tradie Business Pair, only pay for shipping, go to www.powerupyourbusiness.com.au/book and enter the code podcast, all lower case. Lyndall, thanks for jumping in this morning, so Lyndall, Outside In, western New South Wales story, just a background story, Lyndall with yourself and Josh.

Lyndall [00:10:55] Yes, so originally Josh and I were both working an office job and Josh decided he wanted to change from that, which is when he started his own business just as a sole trader that's been operating for about seven years now. We relocated to central New South Wales about three or four years ago, which is when we purchased another landscaping business to pick up their clientele. And that sort of when things really started to pick up and I left my job working for the other company that I was working for just to focus full time on our business. And I think that's when our problems really started because by coming to our business with fresh eyes, looking at what I thought needed to be changed. Josh is working hard out in the field, doing things as he's always done. And yes that's when we sort of started butting heads. I was trying to get information out of him late at night after he'd get home from work. And we were just really on different pages about how the business should be run and what systems we should have in place, how we should be managing our staff, issues with cash flow, obviously and yes, it was causing a lot of friction at home in our relationship and it just seemed that work was taking over and we didn't have time for ourselves.

Matt [00:12:13] There's no separation between work and personal life, work and family life and everything just sort of rolled into one.

Lyndall [00:12:21] It did. And when we purchased our business, it was literally handed to us in a great northern box, just this box full of paperwork that we were left to,

Matt [00:12:29] And some beer, was there some beer in there as well?

Lyndall [00:12:31] There wasn't any beer in there as well. So we were left to try and put all of this into systems, which was a lot of stress in the office as well. And it was just a case of Josh not understanding my stress in the office, me don't understanding the pressure that he had in the field because we didn't have any leading hands at that time. So he was getting all of the incoming calls and enquiries and managing the staff that we had.

Matt [00:12:53] So very stressful and it's hard when you're just on that different page, like you said, as you touched on, you can't really understand the pressures that Josh is going through, customer facing. Josh can't understand what's going on in the office. And it just caused a friction. And then because he's busy and you need certain information, it's the same with Hailley and Kylie, like at certain times you need information to proceed and make the business run. But they're not in the headspace at all. They're not in that headspace. They are thinking, look, I've done my bit. I'm checking out, don't talk to me now. And that comes from that classic, as we all know, that tradie mindset where people who start a business in a tradie mindset and they don't understand that the number one priority is the office, is their systems, is their process, is their communication. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, it doesn't matter how good you are on the tools as we know, it's about how great you are at business. Obviously, we need to create great value. You have a brand that delivers on our promise, you know, our team focuses in the way we do it here to drive everything. But ultimately, the three of you are doing a great job of managing the ship. And if that ship is not managed correctly, the whole business will sink. But the great thing is we really appreciate having you on board as clients with Cube Performance, which we really appreciate in value your involvement and input in our community. So I just want to go around now and just some of the changes so some of the things that we've been working on for some time now for over two years plus. So Kylie, some of the big shifts in some of the changes that we've been working on. You've really been working on it. It's a credit to you too like in terms of taking the bull by the horns and really what we call bringing your A game to everything. If you need to implement something, you'll implement it to the letter and make it happen and driving that, just share some of the key things that you've implemented from the back of house. It's really improved the overall business and obviously your personal life and cash.

Kylie [00:14:46] Obviously through Cube performance, we've learnt so many different strategies to use to better our business. So there are a lot of things that we've been working on over almost the last two years. So from Malcolm's side, it was definitely getting off the tools and working on the business so that has been a massive turnaround for our organisation. And then also for him, it would be understanding the figures a bit better. So we've been able to do that using a lot of the tools and templates provided to us through cash flow projections and how are you tracking reports. Definitely the profit planning has been exceptionally helpful for us because we love having a target and we love smashing a target. So that's been really motivating for us, building our brand, getting our team on board with our [00:15:48]rocks [0.0s] so, yes, it's been a lot of little things along the way but it's amazing how in two years it just completely turned our business around.

Matt [00:16:00] It's great and I think what you've alluded to there is having really clear goals of what you want to achieve, both from a sales perspective and as we always talk about our margins, our costs is managing our margins and then our operating profit, having clear line of sight. And this is a great thing with both yourself and Malcolm. Now you've got total direction and where you're going and more importantly, which you've done a great job and still doing a great job of, as you alluded to, building that team. The way we do it here, this is the way we do it here, here are our values. These are our key behaviours that we all buy into, this is what we believe because this is the promise that we're delivering. So collectively, you've done a great job there. And as you'd agree, it's not just one thing that's turned the business around. It's a multitude of little things done well daily. Those what we call aggregated marginal gains, you know, you don't have to try and hit a home run. It's just about doing the little things. But the great thing is, from your perspective, both yourself and Malcolm now are connected there. And one of the key things, too, is obviously now you've got, you are out of the home. You've got the office outside of the home so you can physically leave the house and put the work out and then come back and put the home hat on. So there's that separation there, which is fantastic now. Well done, we will jump into the results and some of the clear outcomes in the second. But again, it's really it's those little things done well every day. Hailley, your perspective, some of the key things we've been working on over the last two plus years or so with yourself and Nathan, what are some of the key aspects that you've been implementing and really working on?

Hailley [00:17:27] There's been quite a few as well because when we started, we were really seeking and needing that support and we knew we had to change quite a few different areas if we wanted to grow and get it to where we needed it. Implemented quite a few software systems, we didn't really have a main one, so we couldn't really get all the materials to save photos, documents, everything in the one place to make it easier for Nathan and myself and the team as well, working with Xero, which then also works with the Cube. So just having everything on the one platform and using the best platform that you can.

Matt [00:18:03] What's a tough situation when you did the transition from MYOB over to Xero, which is every time you're doing a transition from one platform, it's time consuming and painful.

Hailley [00:18:11] That's right, there is a good push to do it and just learning what different things do but definitely on the right track now with that, a really big one has been working with our employees. So we had a lot of issues finding employees and keeping employees. We just kind of blamed them at the start.

Matt [00:18:32] Well that's a tradie mindset where it's their problem, it's not my problem.

Hailley [00:18:36] We're providing them a job. Why aren't they working hard?

Matt [00:18:40] Why aren't they grateful?

Hailley [00:18:43] He was being really could be coaching us and helping us any little problems that arise or bigger things, getting them to actually buy into the way we do it and our brand. So we've seen a really big change with that. Guys that have recently said to us that apprentices that they could see themselves staying with us for quite some time and hopefully growing with the business so when people are saying those sorts of things to you think, well, we must be doing something right now. And shows that what you're putting in is working so, yes, that's a good feeling.

Matt [00:19:14] Again, coming back to we need everyone needs our team on board. It's too often too many businesses owners and those that are listening, you often struggle to get the team on board. Or you can understand why your individual team members are not working because they're not connected, they're not engaged. They are not actually sure where you're going, what's the vision and what are we promising. So as you know, the whole thing about our methodology and the process is to make it easy for you and Nathan to articulate really clearly to your team. This is what we believe in. If you got the same values, come and join our business because you'll be well supported and you'll grow.

Hailley [00:19:46] That's right, being really clear and just passionate and promoting it and just being excited.

Matt [00:19:51] You got to get excited, right?

Hailley [00:19:53] You do. They want to be part of something that's growing and exciting and good for them and good for everyone. And I think Nathan, jumping back off the tools a bit, he is mostly off the tools now. But I mean, he actually has time for our meetings to be in the office and do all the processes that he's meant to be doing. So we can look at how we're tracking, doing our profit plans, instead of me just doing it, knowing all the numbers, and he has no idea, so we can actually share the numbers together now, which is really good.

Matt [00:20:24] Well that comes back to both of you buying into the success habits, those weekly habits or daily habits with the bigger cash flow invoicing, how are you tracking, sales pipeline, all those key aspects. You've both got to be connected. You can't just have Nathan, which has happened in the past, both to Kylie and yourself and you can't be that's your job. Your job is to do that. My job is to do that. No, we're connected. You both need to share information. You both need to have your finger on the pulse of the overall businesses operating. And the great thing too with that change, it's a similar story with Kylie, right, like making sure now that you're not working weekends, changing the structure of how you operate as well. And again, having the external office with Nathan have got the external office now, which is fantastic.

Hailley [00:21:11] Yes, that's so great, separating life, otherwise you do just like, oh, just jump out and do some more, someone's email or call me so I can just jump out to the office and have a look at it and so, no, I can wait until tomorrow not an emergency that can wait.

Matt [00:21:25] Spot on and all three of you done that well is limiting the amount of time that you work. You're not an open shop for 24/7, here are the operating hours and if you can't get it between then we'll get back to you tomorrow. And again that's a separation, when you're at home, you're talking home stuff. You're not talking work. You don't bring this garbage home. Too often use, some people think that to run a successful business, you got to talk business 24/7 that's not my approach, that's not our approach, that's not living, switch off. We want to have the business to facilitate a great lifestyle, especially with all of us, with young kids. We want to be there. We want to be present in mind. So well done with the changes there, Hailley and Lyndall. One of the cool things when we had those early discussions with yourself and Josh and talking about on different pages, there was that assumption there was sometimes when Josh would say, look, Lyndall, you look after that and I'll look after this and we'll sort of meet somewhere in the middle, which I know that caused a lot of frustration in the early days, correct?

Lyndall [00:22:22] Absolutely, getting a third party involved, Cube Performance was a lifesaver because we just had someone that we could both sit down and talk about our frustrations, to talk about where the business was at, where we wanted it to go. And just getting guidance for that was just a huge help and stress relief for us. And it probably did take a little bit for us to both get on the same page to begin with. But just having someone to go through all aspects of our business, we have to pull apart our figures, like Kylie has said to about the twelve month profit plan, that doing that at the start and having that to keep track of each month, doing our monthly reporting, it's just kept us on track. And it showed Josh and I just a clear, honest picture of our business just given us a common goal to work towards every month. There have been so many things that we've implemented. We've been really helped by the Tuesday night community calls as well, just listening to everybody else's stories and how they make things work in business, how they overcome hurdles. So that's been really inspiring for Josh as well because I think sometimes he can be so busy in your own business and you feel like you're doing it on your own. No one else understands what this is like so that was a really big eye opener for us. And we really do enjoy the chats on Tuesday nights. So also I just the systems that we're being provided through Cube. So, just being able to track our cash flow, put all our jobs into the sales pipeline and see that we have enough work in front of us that keeps us on track as well. Definitely doing the way we do it here document so even Josh and I just being forced to sit down together and talk about our values, our mission for our business, what do we believe in that was probably something that we hadn't really talked about before joining up with Cube. So that's really given us a clear picture of what we want our business to look like and what we want our staff to buy into and that has given us confidence with communicating with our staff and opening up those lines of communication in our staff meetings that we're having. We've asked our staff to give us feedback so that we can improve for them as well. And I've definitely seen a big improvement with our staff since we've opened up those lines of communication and we've gotten that confidence as well.

Matt [00:24:50] And it's great, you've done a great job in the whole thing about with the processes and, you know, our habits and what we talk about, you've got to implement it. And both yourself driving it and John, you've done a great job of implementing it and you all, Kylie, Hailley, the same thin, you're implementing these processes. You're following up, your tracking, you're making it happen. And a couple of things you touched on, which is really powerful, which we're really proud of, obviously, our community, tapping into the community and just hearing other like-minded people on the business journey, hearing their stories and what they're doing, just like you said, you're not alone as a business owner. It's a tough gig and you want to be in a like-minded community of business performance mindset, people not whinges and whiners but people who actually are progressive and take accountability. And so it's always great to be part of that. And share your story, too, because people learn. The great thing is everyone learns from everyone because everyone's got a good story to share so that's really positive. And the key thing that you touched on as well there is that getting the scorecard, making sure you're both accountable to the numbers. It's amazing. Most business owners they'll never [00:25:51]even talk about [0.0s] business owners, husband and wife team partners, shareholders never get together and look at the numbers. It's bit a like a footy team, think of it as a footy team. Let's say the office is the forward pack or the offence. And on site is the defence, as it were. It's like never getting together and saying, did we win this game? Offence is going to do their thing. The defence can do their thing. What are we working on here, team? What do we need to improve on? Oh, look, you just don't worry about that. I'll go over this way. It's insane. So, again, for those listening, you've got to get your to defence together, offsite an office in the one page checking that score because the one thing I think you'll agree to ladies is that when you first get the hell you tracking report and you are first going through the numbers and when we go through it, you're squirming in your pants, you're screaming in your seats, going, oh no. It's pretty nerve-wracking, agree? And again, we're getting it out of your comfort zone because there's new terminology and then you've got often again, your better half there, who really don't want to know numbers and they're really out of their comfort zone. But that's what we need. And the great thing about it, especially for the three of you and your businesses and your partners, is that there's been a lot of personal growth there. So I appreciate that. Now, what I wanted to touch on just to sort of to bring it home is just to touch on some of the cool results. So some of the cool outcomes that you've achieved, now, I'll start with yourself, Kylie, just going through some of the ratings that you've gone through. Now what we do, we got Kylie, Hailley and Lyndall to rate themselves some before and after so before in the early days of running the business and to after. Now family life, Kylie before changing and before engaging our services and this is what we're really passionate about, family life was 2 out of 10. Now it's 8 out of 10. Stress level was 10 out of 10. It's now 3 out of 10. This is a big one for us to confidence in the future was 2 it's now 8. And I think one of the things that you say is your biggest improvement is your financial position, your personal financial position, Kylie, you've gone from essentially 1 out of 10 to now 9 out of 10. Just shed  some light again on some of those improvements and how that's changed ultimately your way of life now.

Kylie [00:27:59] Well, first and foremost, we've got better quality time with our children now, particularly by moving the office away from our family home. We don't have those constant distractions like the ping of an email or a phone ringing. So I find that my time with the children now is better quality. And I'm sure they would agree and perhaps a little less cranky, I'm hoping so that probably stems from my stress levels as well. It's obviously been less stress. You just have a better mindset. So I feel that we can think things through a lot clearer now and have a clearer picture of what we want to achieve within the business. Whereas before it it's really frantic thoughts, almost panic attacks at times where you would find yourself struggling to breathe because you thought, how am I going to get through this? So that's a wonderful feeling to almost feel in control of this business that we've created together.

Matt [00:29:10] I think being a lot of years, like a lot of years, nearly ten plus years out of control, late nights, no reward for the blood, sweat and tears and I am talking about financial rewards here to now turn that around. And again, like the strong confidence in the future and being in control that's the key word there about feeling that I am actually in control of my future. And now that you've put a lot of the steps in place, you know that you can just ramp it up. You know, actually what levers to pull to actually turn things around if you need to wrap things up.

Kylie [00:29:43] That's right and you kind of get an indication of where you want to go, what you want to achieve, different market set you may want to delve into finding your A-class client, who they are, what style of work you want to be doing so it's just that clear direction, whereas before you would take on any work at any time because you thought that was going to make you rich. At the end of the day, it wasn't. We were stressed and it just wasn't working for us. So that's been a big impact for us. And then, yes, with the team collaboration, getting the team on board, getting them to buying into the way we do here at Brizscapes that's been massive and it's still a work in progress. But definitely before it was the oh my goodness, we need workers, just employ anyone and then you end up paying the price for that in the long run. So now we're a lot cooler, calmer and more collected with that and have better ways of hiring staff. And then financial position, like you said before that's been the biggest impact for us where we were once scrambling the bottom dollar, sometimes having to borrow money for the business, whereas now we're in a financial position that we feel like we can start investing more in our business and taking plunges into different avenues with our business as well so that's been a massive impact for us.

Matt [00:31:21] It's a great result, I think was it some 75%  increase in operating profit. Previous to that, it was just busy. Like the turnover is there, the turnover is there but as you say, a lot of that turnover is fully of D-class clients who don't appreciate what you do. They try and knock you down on price. They're not going to refer you. They won't pay. And that's a key thing with all of you now and everyone in our community, we are just better at saying, no, we're better at profiling someone that's not good for us that's fine, that's what they believe in. They don't believe in quality that's fine. I don't need to work with them, I'm going to find someone and attract someone that believes in quality, which ties back into the way we do it here.

Kylie [00:31:59] And that's just realising what your worth is. And it's a big key particularly for Malcolm. He would often be asked the question, what are you worth? And he's thinking, oh, I don't know. So it's having that confidence to say, you know what, we are worth this. We do provide quality work at a high standard. So we are worth this.

Matt [00:32:20] So, you know, it's great. And I think that's a thing where for all of you and both of you, when I say both of you, I mean the husband and wife, front office, front of house on site, back office or back of house in the office, you both need to be talking from the same hymn sheet. Or communicate from the same hymn sheet, we are premium price. We do deliver value. This is what we believe in and we're quite confident to say no. So again, because you're on that same page, you very rarely have any sort of arguments about should we do this or should we not because it's like we don't go with them, okay that's fine, whereas maybe previously, because you weren't clear on that, you'd be going on, no, we should go for that job because it looks like a big job and we've got no money in the bank. Let's go for that job. And we're only going for that job is going to create more pressure on the cashflow. But because we've got that clear guiding light this is what we're about, this is the way we do it here, it just makes all those communications and dialogue a lot clearer. So cool, well done, Kylie, thanks for that. And again, it's that whole the platform that you're building in. And like you say, it's a work in progress, it's a continual work in progress. There's no magic pill. It's just like as one part gets better then another part sort of force behind, you got to start tweaking that in terms of processes that's great. But the good thing is yourself and Malcolm now definitely on the same page, which is fantastic. Hailley, couple of things, your rating before, really changing that mindset before getting Nathan on the same page as yourself and before really having that plan that guidance, so family life 3, it's now 7, great impact stress level was at 8, it's now reduced to 4 confidence to future, which is a big one, lacking confidence before 3, now 8, team collaboration was 2, you had poor team collaboration, now getting up to 7 and that financial position, again, a low 2 now up to 7, so getting in that strong position. So ultimately, from your perspective, again, what are some of the results first hand that you're really witnessing from the changes that you're making and you're investing in making this change, you're getting out of the comfort zone, what are some of the personal and business impacts you're receiving?

Hailley [00:34:26] I think when we decided we had to make a change, it was so two big things was obviously financial and family life because the only reason you're doing it is it's for your family and together and to grow and to have some sort of life that you want together. So before, which I sort of did a 3, it's just not having time together, not being to plan anything together. So now Nathan has weekends off. When things come up with friends I don't go, Nathan's working, he's not coming or just say no straight away. We can actually do things, just enjoy ourselves. And Nathan's actually relaxing now and enjoying himself. So to see him like that again is really nice, enjoying himself.

Matt [00:35:10] And enjoying the kids.

Hailley [00:35:11] Kids and they prefer to do more stuff with him at the moment because they see him more.

Matt [00:35:14] How good is that?

Hailley [00:35:16] It is so good. Yes, it's a massive change, stress levels, Nathan would say I am a bit of a stress head so before it was extremely stressful for me because I could really see with me looking at the numbers, just see how everything is going. I'm a lot less stressed now, especially now that Nathan's on the same page. My 4 is more because I am still a bit of a stress head and just with business is always things to think about and to do so but I'm comfortable with that and comfortable having that little bit of stress because it just gives me motivation and to stay on top of things. We're confident with our future so you can actually make goals and plan on doing bigger things, whereas before you just sort of going day-by-day or week-by-week, like, we can't really think about those things because we don't know how we'll be going then. You just don't think about you houses or moving or bigger things that you want to actually do in your life or you don't have time to do those things.

Matt [00:36:17] The great thing, like obviously that big plan, there you are. You're sitting at that business, obviously in metro Melbourne or in that Melbourne area but still be able to operate it because you want to relocate a family to your property in rural Victoria that's a great thing now that you've got the confidence to be actually well out of town but still operate and maintain a profitable, thriving business. And that's credit to what you've been doing. Now you're getting a partner on board and there's a whole raft of changes that you've undertaken over the last 12 months. So definitely wouldn't have been happening three years ago,

Hailley [00:36:48] No, it wouldn't have been. I think Nathan suggested that earlier, I just sort of said, it wouldn't work or, you know, we wouldn't have money, we wouldn't be able to move, we wouldn't have the team down here or all those things. But now we've been putting all these little things into place and everything's a process and you still work on it. And I say this all the time too, just because one thing is going well, it doesn't mean you can leave it. You continuously have to work on every little bit, which is fine. It's just knowing that and continuously working on yourselves and the company.

Matt [00:37:23] It's all about again, those one percentage and refining it, getting that little marginal incremental gains, whether it be how we order things, how we control things, how we plan the day, plan the week, team meetings, train the team, looking at numbers, all those little marginal gains, that's where we get the big impacts because they compound. It's not about just getting out there and doing more work. We know that does not work. Doing the work does not, you might have a great six months. You might have a great year but ultimately it becomes that boom and bust. And we hear so many people come knocking on our door, can you help me boom and bust and you tell it to them on the habits. And it's going to be a long play. But I actually want to improve now. How long is this going to turn around? I want it improved and I want more cash in three months. So it's not going to happen. They're not willing to go through the process, well done Hailley that's great. And I think from my perspective and our perspective at Cube Performance we need to see that vision starting to come or that dream to come to reality, putting the steps in place, all because the business can now facilitate that so well done.

Hailley [00:38:23] Thank you.

Matt [00:38:24] Been awesome and Lyndall going through the rating now we had a bit of a joke before when we started the recording talking to Kyle and Hailley and with the rating here, I think they got together and really got all the same numbers here with their rating but just going through some of the before and after, Lyndall so family life before was before at 4, now it's a quality 8. Stress level was it a massive 10, now it's at a manageable 4. Confidence in the future, same thing as Kylie and Hailley, so 2 so very little confidence. Now it's a really strong 87. Team collaboration, same thing it was at 4 before. Now it's a really strong 8. And in the big, which is a consistent one, which is really [00:39:04]pleasing [0.0s] because as you know we're all about knowing your numbers are getting financial control. Previously it was 2 now it's a very strong 8 and no longer stressing about that weekly cash position you can invest back into the future. So just in that snapshot, Lyndall, overall, the positives that you're making now and the positives that you can see coming in the future.

Lyndall [00:39:24] Yes, so I think one of the major changes that has been positive for us is Josh not dreading to walk in the door of an afternoon and have me attack him with everything that I need to know. We have changed the way that we run and the processes that we use. So that has included just having more time in the office for planning and ordering. And we have seen a massive reduction in our stress just from that. And that has reduced our late night in office, which led to lots of arguments. So it's nice to just have Josh come home at night and just be able to have family time. And our improvement in our cash flow that was obviously a huge stress that took us all through the day, right into the night. But now we just have peace of mind knowing that we are keeping track of our cash flow and we can keep on top of that so that has been a massive improvement as well. And like you said, with our confidence in the future, we weren't even in a position that we were thinking about the future before. We were just getting by from day-to-day, not even knowing if there was a future. But now we are planning for the future. And yes that's really exciting because we have goals that we are working towards. And, yes, in a position that I wouldn't have thought that we would be two years ago so that's very exciting for us.

Matt [00:40:47] That's great and that's that pleasing thing now where you're both excited together. You're both excited on this. This is a really good journey and you can see what's ahead as opposed to that day-to-day where it's just everything's black. It's just like how can we go again and sort of get through the new year? You get to Christmas, oh, let's have a break. And then come January that's like, can we survive another year where you've totally turned that around. And it's also a credit to Josh. He's going out of his comfort zone. Remember, in some of those early discussions and early sessions that we had together, remember, Josh was sort of like, look, this coaching is for you, Lyndall, it's not for me type scenario.

Lyndall [00:41:24] Very hesitant.

Matt [00:41:25] We had some vivid ones where Josh would be like this. We will be in the middle of the session. Josh will be like this. This is not for me. I'm going over here just like he was out of there, wasn't he? But credit to you again, like he's really gone out of his comfort zone and adopted it [00:41:41]full bore now. [0.0s] I think he's 10 out of 10 buying in.

Lyndall [00:41:44] Taking it on, yes, a lot better than I thought it was going to go at the start. And yes, it's just been a massive improvement for us to just be able to talk the same language and to plan our work together and be on the same page. It's amazing.

Matt [00:41:59] It's all about just seeing that difference in [00:42:01]personal life, [0.1s] it's all about seeing that. There are little changes, different thinking but collaborating when everyone is aligned that's power of that alignment. The power of just actually going in one direction is unbelievable. So it's a credit to the three of you definitely for being diligent, for being persistent, for following though all those little things that make a difference and driving at different times. There are still different times when Nathan or Malcolm or Josh will sort of fall off, as they do at times, and we've got to pull them back in, like at different times, I'll be talking to Nathan or Malcolm or Josh. And you know, ladies, I'll have stern words. Listen, you've got to pull your head out of your backside and make this happen. You got to have balance and all this sort of stuff. So it's a continual evolution.

Hailley [00:42:44] It's great that you can do it. And we don't have to do.

Lyndall [00:42:47] Exactly.

Matt [00:42:52] So sometimes I'll get a text message saying, hey Jonesy, can you actually say this but keep it quiet, okay? I'll keep it quiet.

Lyndall [00:43:01] You are the marriage counselor, we all need.

Matt [00:43:05] I moonlight definitely as a marriage counselor but it's a good point. It's amazing how many businesses do as we know really bring down a marriage. But I like it, this is why I love supporting what happens in the office. As you know that's a priority because when I ran my business for seven years, I had no idea. I was classically, I was that classic tradie mindset and I just thought I just had to do more. So for listeners out there, hope you got a lot of really key takeaways. The number one thing is that the office and the site need to be connected. Information needs to be shared, the scoreboard, the numbers need to be both over looked and both people need to buy into the numbers. And effectively, though, that you've got to have a plan. Would you agree? I think from a sign off perspective, you know, Kylie, Hailley and Lyndall, the number one key thing is, which is what's happening the next 12 months? What are we trying to achieve the next 12 months and agree on that as a starting point? Thanks for coming on board to share those stories we had plenty of takeaways and also that feeling too of other people, such as your position that they're not alone. So definitely going to keep the Leading Ladies concept and credit goes to Kylie too for coming up with that great name, which is awesome. We'll tune in over the course of the next couple of months to maybe come up with some specific topics that we might drill down into and get a bit more detail around. But from my point of view, thanks Lyndall, thanks Kylie and thanks Hailley.

Hailley [00:44:27] Thank you.

Kylie [00:44:27] Thank you.

Lyndall [00:44:27] Thank you.

Matt [00:44:28] Cheers, everyone.