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🎧 Real deals, real strategies, real results. Learn how to find, fund, and operate profitable property plays from someone who’s actually done it.
Hosted by Andrew Wright, principal of Professionals Southport and a commercial investor who rebuilt after losing a ~$15M portfolio during the GFC, this podcast gives you a straight-talking look at what it really takes to build wealth through property.
Each episode delivers practical frameworks, real deal breakdowns, and honest conversations with high-performing investors and operators across residential and commercial.
But it’s bigger than the episodes. The goal is to build a community of like-minded investors who share stories, swap insights, help each other grow and maybe even do deals together.
🔗 Join the community & learn more - leave your email at: www.andrewwrightproperty.com.au
📍 Connect with Andrew: hello@andrewwrightproperty.com.au
If you can't get the people around you to believe in what you're doing- Mm ... and wanna be part of it- Mm-hmm ... it's not going to happen.
Today's guest built one of Australia's largest financial services empires.
Somewhere into the future you'll hear about us using wound care that makes your wounds heal very, very quickly.
If you've got kids and they ask you a question, viewers, "What skill should I learn in the future to be successful in business?" I'd probably answer saying, "Learn how to sell."
You've got to have a ticket in the lottery to win. What? I need to talk to you and tell you how I became successful in my career.
You left as a director.
Did you feel lost?
And probably 12 months later, I'm thinking, "Why?"
There is a very, very small handful of people in this country that have turned private companies to public companies.
I bought them for $300 each when I was 16 years of age, and-
Hi, I'm Andrew Wright, Principal of Professional Southport, and this is the Andrew Wright Property Podcast. I've built a multi-million dollar property portfolio, delivering a seven-figure annual rental income, and led my real estate team through thousands of sale and lease transactions. In each episode, I share real deals and strategies that will help you find, fund, and operate profitable property deals.
The aim of this show is to provide education and build a community of like-minded investors who can collaborate, share insights, and help each other in each other's journeys. You can make excuses or you can make money, but you can't do both. So come and join us.
Okay, welcome back to the Andrew Wright Property Podcast. Today's guest built one of Australia's largest financial services empires, expanding it across multiple countries, and then walked away, only to do it all again in completely different industries. Robbie Bennetts is the founder of Professional Investment Holdings, which in just nine years grew to over 1,000 locations, becoming the largest financial planning group in Australia.
He's been recognized alongside treasurers, regulators, and major bank CEOs as one of the most influential figures in Australia in the financial services industry, and has since gone on to build, invest in, and exit businesses across technology, manufacturing, online betting, mining services- And now advanced environmental and health technologies.
Robbie has been a company director on 36 boards in nine countries and had the privilege and honor of carrying the Olympic torch for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. This is not just a story about success. It's a story about reinvention, timing and backing yourself again and again. Robbie lives in Sorrento with his love- lovely wife Cherie and two daughters and five grandchildren in the family.
I've known Robbie for nearly 30 years and what I like most about Robbie is he loves having a hit of golf. Robbie, welcome to the podcast.
Oh, thank you Andrew and, uh, nice to, uh, be sitting here with you.
Before we get s- into the serious business, can you tell us about car- carrying the Olympic torch for the Sydney Olympic Games?
How did that come about and what sort of emotion did you feel having that honor?
Yeah, well certainly an honor and, uh, having always enjoyed my sport and- Mm ... and, uh, watching people doing it and having sponsored a number of people that went on and won both Commonwealth Games and Olympic gold medals. It was such a treat.
Mind you, I was nominated for it by AMP because they were a sponsor and they were allowed to nominate people. But once you were nominated you had to go through all the process about what had you done in your sporting career and for my sins I played 384 games of Aussie rules and became a life member of the club and was in their team of champions, so that, that helped.
Plus, uh, uh, what have you done for charity? So I was fortunate enough that I was involved with at least 25 charity events a year and, uh, that counted towards it. So fortunately I was able to get through the, the requirements to become a torchbearer. Wow. So that was something very special.
And w- was it just like 100 meters you run with the torch or what?
Uh, no,
you run for about 800 meters. Yeah, right. And, uh, I was fortunate enough to bring the torch down from the last bit of the hill at Byron Bay and, um, I took it from Larry Anthony, a politician at the time, and I was the first person to run it onto the flat area where the big crowds were, uh, waiting to, uh, see the torch.
Very, very special treat.
Wow. You mentioned you sponsored a couple of athletes. Are th- are th- is there a name there that people might recognize? Yeah. Well
Duncan Free went on and, uh, he won, uh, won- The rower? The rower. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he won medals at, uh, a couple of Olympics and he won the gold in Beijing.
Uh, Brad Kahlefeldt, a triathlete. Brad won gold at the, uh, Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. So, uh, very proud and very honored to have been able to sponsor these guys.
Wow, absolutely awesome. And- And before I met you, Robbie, like, w- what did you, what was your first business or career? What, what did you do in the early days before financial services?
Well, Andrew, uh, interesting question because, um, uh, you know, my parents got me to leave school because they were in the meat industry. And, uh, that carried on through years of, uh, uh, being involved with butcher shops and, uh, I actually owned part of an abattoirs at one stage. But, uh, I think the first real adventure of my own was, uh, owning a couple of butcher shops, uh, part of a bus company that, uh, was, you know, a small company taking some tourists around here.
So that was where we started to, to, uh, branch out and own things of our own. And, uh, uh, I did retire. I think I was about 26 when I first decided I should retire, and then a friend of mine came and sat down with me, a guy called Gordon Allen, and said, "You're crazy. You don't have enough money." And he spent two days convincing me that I did not have enough money to retire and talked me into getting into financial services.
I did say to him, "Gordon, I don't have expertise in this area." He said, "You're a business guy." And he said, "You're smart, you can study, and you'll work out what it's going to be." Very hard thing to go back and study all over again, by the way. Mm. But I did that, and I went and got a degree and moved into financial services.
Okay. So this is before 1996, before you set up PIS. Is that right?
That's correct. I started with a, uh, company called Monitor Money originally.
And take us back to 1996, the, you were a founder or the main founder. I'm, I hope I'm able to say the main founder of Professional Investment Services. How did that happen, Robbie?
Well, it was an interesting, uh, scenario, Andrew. We, uh, uh, were involved and I had the state rights to another financial services group, and they were purchased by a bank, an overseas bank. Mm. And the attitude changed. Instead of being out there, because we built a business working with accounting firms, suddenly it was, "Well, you better go and tell these accountants that they're lucky that they can sell our product."
Mm-hmm. And my answer was, "Well, I'm sorry, but it doesn't work that way. They're out to provide the best advice for their clients-
Mm ...
not to sell the product." And they said, "Well, we own the thing now. You better rethink where you're going because we need to go and tell them they have to sell product." I said, "If you tell them they have to sell product, you'll be thrown out the door and they will not deal with you."
They said, "Well, we think you've got a better future elsewhere." So that's how- PIS came to be, uh, we, uh, decided we better set up our own. And that was along with some accountants, uh, particularly Ken Thompson and Pat Crowley and Ross Calvert, uh, John Chill, and a financial advisor called Di Pelham-Webb, and another one, Rick Carlin.
And that's how PIS was started. Wow. Yeah. Oh, and Shane O'Reilly, uh, uh, Steven Murphy. Just keep thinking of the names- Yeah. ... that all want to be involved at the beginning.
Oh, well, you... I'm just... You're just bringing back memories now. Yeah. Yeah. 'Cause I know a lot of those people, and, uh, an awesome story. And tell me about the philosophy, um, in that particular business model, and, um, perhaps you've done it in other business models as well, where instead of owning 100% of a business yourself, you've got other people, uh, with smaller shareholdings in the business so that you unite a group of people together to work towards a common goal.
Tell us about that, Robbie. Like- Yeah ... this is one of... Well, I'll just tell you, I've known this guy 30 years, and one of his greatest strengths is pooling people together and working towards a common vision in business. It's... He's incredibly good at it. Tell, tell us about that philosophy, Robbie.
Oh, Andrew, I think, uh, perhaps the word culture is very important in my life.
It's always been my culture. It's always been to encourage the people around me and to make people successful, and it is in the hundreds of people that I've made into millionaires back in when a million seemed a real lot of money.
Yeah.
Uh, so I think it's always been about getting the people involved. I sat with Greg Norman many, many years ago, and we were talking about business, and I said something about the financial services.
And, uh, we were talking about estate rights at the time. He said, "You own the whole thing." I said, "Well, just that part of it." He said, "Oh, I don't think you should own businesses 100%." He said, "I think you're better off owning 20%." And his thinking behind that was the people that own the other 80%, they're working really hard, so you don't require as much effort to get them to work hard- Mm-hmm
because they've got a very big interest in the, the business. So consequently, uh, I own 20 to 30% of quite a number of businesses.
This is, uh, Greg Norman, the world number one golfer at the time. Yes, at the time. And, and very good en- entrepreneur. Yes. So better off owning a small percentage of something that's massive than, um, owning it all yourself.
Yeah, and of course, the financial services turned out to be that way because effectively I kept... well, I had 20% of it.
Mm.
The other owners at the beginning wanted me to go to 40%. I said, "No, let's, let's share it amongst everybody-
Mm ... so
everybody can enjoy the benefits of our success. We've got to be successful, but- Mm-hmm
I want everybody to enjoy it," and that we did.
Okay. And along the way, initially, when you started scaling that business, it was all organic. We had, um, I was part of the group. We had o- about 1,000 locations there. And tell, tell us about how your belief system changed over time about organic growth versus when you eventually started to acquire- life insurance businesses.
Um, I think there might have even been some home loan books and, and- Mm ... international financial planning firms. Tell us about that philosophy of organic growth versus getting into acquisition mode.
Well, Andrew, we were very comfortable and very happy with the way we'd grown organically, particularly on the investment side of things, which is where our background really came from, accounting and investing.
And so that worked very well for us, and everyone was very happy going along. Um, mind you, we were the ones that really introduced financial services to the accounting firms. There was another guy called Barry Lambert. He had- Count ... a company called Count. Mm. And his role was, or his company went out to try and get the accountants to become the financial advisors, and it didn't work as well as our model where we introduced a qualified financial advisor to go and work with the clients of the accounting firm.
So our model perhaps worked better- Mm ... um, at that particular time. Now, with, uh, uh, having said that, it, it opened the door to allow more and more people to become involved and more and more people to grow an asset inside that accounting firm. Mm. So you got the, the, the benefit flowing across and you call it shared- Mm
rather than owning the entire business. But it meant the business was able to grow organically very, very quickly-
Yeah ...
because everyone knew that they were building something for themselves.
Mm. Mm.
Then what happened is we heard about, it was a company called Norwich at the time. Mm. And they had a situation with their insurance brokerage firm that they were losing considerable money every year on that firm.
And they said, "You don't wanna take it over, Robbie." I said, "Well, what do you want for it?" And they gave me a reasonable amount. And, uh, at the time we'd made enough that we were able to afford it. And there was about 600 insurance agents in that. We had a look through and thought there's probably 400 that we'd want to keep.
And, uh, so we went ahead with that transaction. That was our first taste of going into purchasing something. Okay.
And that, that, that entity, was it IFMA from memory? Yes, it
was. Yeah. And, uh, from memory, and please don't hold me to this, from, from memory, it was losing about half a million a year. Mm. And in its first year we made a million dollars.
Yeah, right. So we
turned it around from a loss of half a million a year to a profit of a million dollars a
year.
Mm. So mind you, there was a lot of, uh, oh, some may call it waste in there. Um, others would look at the management that was running it. So we sort of tidied all that up and enjoyed the rewards.
Yeah. I, I, I mentioned before- ... that one of your greatest skill sets, apart from being an awesome salesman, Robbie, is getting people together and building a culture and getting a large group of people towards- working towards a common goal. Now, this is just a little bit of fun now, but let me tell you, uh, the amount of events, functions, and conferences Robbie went through for about a decade would make you tired just looking at his calendar.
Um, he, he would run, he'd work all day. At nighttime he'd be running events and inviting new potential participants to the group to functions, and he'd be up there as the lead singer in a, in a band called The PIS Band, and did a very good impersonation of- ... Elvis Presley, let me tell you. And you, you were like a kid at a candy store there.
You love singing and, and, and just having social events with all these professional introvert accountants who would start the night like this, and by the end of the night they're up dancing or- Yeah ... singing with a microphone in their hand.
You know, the world's a funny thing, and sometimes it's finding that, that little bit of something that makes a difference to you.
And, you know, I was trying to do business with the Japanese back in the '80s. Mm-hmm. And I went to Tokyo, had dinner with them, and they said, "We're going out now." So we walked into this tiny little bar- Mm ... and one of the directors of this company got up and sings a song, and this is what they- ... described to me as a karaoke bar.
And then they said, "Now it's your turn." I said, "Oh no, I don't sing or anything." Well, of course, uh, if you're gonna do business with the Japanese- ... you will sing. So that's how, uh, uh, we had our very first song, and it was an Elvis song they put up. And just without boring you, just some of the quick stories that go with that.
Um, we used that, yes, when we were recruiting accountants and advisors to help break down some of the barriers. Mm-hmm. At nighttime they could have a dinner. We'd force them to get up and sing, and by the end of the night I was trying to get the microphone off them. Uh, we bought a business in Malaysia, and, uh, it was funny because the night that we'd settled and we went out with the management of the, the company that we'd bought, um, we've had dinner, then we've all got into two maxi taxis, went round to a karaoke bar, and they got up there and the, the CEO of that business turned round and got up and sung a song, and just immediately swung round, put the microphone into my hand, and said, "Your turn now, Mr.
Bennett." "You have to sing a song." And he picked an Elvis Presley song. The management there told us later on that because I was able to sing better than him-
Yeah ...
that there was no doubt about who the boss was going forward. And it just settled the whole management straight away. Just recently I spoke at a businessman's lunch, uh, sorry, a businessman breakfast up in Rockhampton.
Mm-hmm.
And I told the story of what happened here. When they were trying to attract some Chinese businesspeople for a very major property development called The Jewel- Mm-hmm ... I got a call from Steven Chobo, who was the- minister for the government, federal minister and member for, for here at the time.
And, um, they said, "Can you come and do us a favor?" I said, "What's that?" Said, "We want you to come and sing to a Chinese guy." Said, "You what?" And they said, "Yes, look, we've got Tom Tate, we've got a couple of other Gold Coast business people, uh, we've got Campbell Newman," this was when Campbell Newman was just running to become premier- Mm
I think, and, uh, Steven Ciobo. I said, "No, you can't be serious." He said, "I know you can sing Chinese. Some of your people told me that you sung a song in Chinese up in Asia." And I said, "Yeah, but it was really hard." He said, "Doesn't matter." He said, "We're having lunch, private lunch. There's eight of us, and we just need you to sing Chinese to this guy to try and get this deal across the line."
I go, "All righty-o." Yeah, yeah. So here I was with the, the, what became the premier or the mayor and, uh, the minister, and I'm sitting there looking this Chinese gentleman straight across the table into the eyes, and of course the song I sung turned out to be a Chinese love song. But the jewel got built ultimately, didn't it?
Yeah,
fair dinkum. So, uh,
yeah, the things that we do sometimes. But I told that story in this presentation- Mm ... at Rockhampton the other day, and the member for Rockhampton, the state member, came and spoke to me after the presentation and she said, "I need to talk to you and tell you how I became successful in my career."
She said, "Because I could sing, I used to sing in a band as a young person," she said, "I had a company that was dealing with the Japanese, could never, ever break the barriers down. So they hired me, so I was working for the company, but the deal was when the Japanese were around, I had to sing." So she said, "I learned to sing in Japanese, and all the barriers came down, and we had a very successful relationship with them."
Wow. Oh, that's, that's awesome. And, uh, n- just brings- She's a current
member ...
yeah. Well, look, look, the, uh, you just bring back so many memories- ... of being on the turps. I actually got pulled over one night going home after one of those sings, and I was right on the, right on the limit from- ... having a good night listening to you sing your-
your, um, Elvis Presley songs. So just going back to the, um, the, uh, from organic growth to, um, uh, acquisition mode, I, I just wanna point out to the viewers, um, uh, I mentioned on the last podcast with Peter Pullich, there is a very, very small handful of people in this country that have turned private companies to public companies or sold out to public companies.
Robbie's done it twice. Um, and one of the... I haven't, uh, i- Robbie might not be expecting these questions, but I see there's some sort of arbitrage there where you've gone out and you've bought insurance businesses, you've bought businesses overseas, maybe at multiples of two or three times earnings. And when they go to a stock market valuation, all of a sudden the PE ratios are, are 15 to 20 times instead of Two to four.
What do you think about what I just said there, Robbie?
Well, it's absolutely true, Andrew. The thing is, you've gotta make sure you, you pick your mark. Mm. And, uh, uh, 'cause the businesses that are buying you, they, they need to be able to absorb your, your numbers and make sure- Yeah ... it doesn't affect the business.
Yeah.
Uh- Yeah ... the IT business that we sold three years ago, uh, they're still struggling to get their share price up.
Mm. And I
sold that for 80% cash and 20% shares in their company, which made me one of the 10 larger shareholders. Uh, they're a small Australian, uh, listed company.
Yeah.
But, um, and mind you, it keeps me interested to make sure they have success in the long term.
Uh, and it's been a tough market for that sort of product, but, uh, they really should be better than what they're currently showing on the, the stock- Mm ... market. I think one of the interesting things there is the, the CEO doesn't have that flair. Mm.
And
I think, uh, if you're gonna be on the stock market, you need somebody to sell your story.
Yeah.
Their figures are much better than their, uh, what their price is. Uh, but that won't change until they can get somebody that can tell that story and, and- Yeah ... share the future with everybody.
Yeah. So what, what Robbie's just said there, like I, I mentioned one of Robbie's great skillsets is getting a group of people together and building a culture where people wanna succeed to a certain vision.
Well, Robbie's second-greatest asset is he can sell. Now look, he's not employed as a salesperson in any of his businesses. He's the managing director or CEO. But let me tell you, when you finish a conversation with Robbie in his business, you have no doubt about the passion he has for the product or service that he's selling.
And, um, if you've got kids and they ask you a question, viewers, "What skill should I learn in the future to be successful in business?" I'd probably answer saying, "Learn how to sell." Um, Robbie, what do you reckon? Well,
Andrew- ... um, maybe if I just throw this one out. Uh, uh, uh, what turned out to be a very good friend, he used to run Commonwealth Bank's financial planning.
Mm.
And we did a bit of consulting for Qantas for a little while there in the golf area. And they were talking to this new company called Concourse about getting some sponsorship. And the CEO of Concourse turned around to Qantas and said, "Well, I only wanna deal with Robbie Bennetts." And they said, "Robbie just consults a bit to us."
And he said, "Yep, he's the only one I'll deal with." So I've got Qantas on the phone saying, "Can you come down to Sydney and meet the CEO of this Concourse?" I said, "Well, why have I gotta meet him?" And they said, "Well, we're trying to get some sponsorship, and he will only deal with you." I said, "I don't know him."
They said, "Well, you're about to know him, aren't you?" So anyway, off to Sydney we go, and this guy introduces himself, says, "Robbie, I used to run Commonwealth Bank's financial planning for 10 years." And he said, "I know- a lot about running an internal business inside a bank." He said, "You know what it's like in the real world and how to run a business out there."
He said, "I've got something that I think is very, very good." He said, "I'll offer you some shares in it. You can have them or whatever you wanna do just to get your business skills." And I said, "Well, what have we got?" And he said, "Well, I've got this technology that puts a computer, a battery, and a motor in a small golf buggy wheel, and it becomes an electric golf buggy."
I said, "Well, let me have a look at it." So I took it at home, had a good look at it. I actually got Greg Wimp to have a look at it with me.
Yeah.
And we went back and said, "David, you're gonna go broke." He said, "I've already put 8 million in." I said, "Well, you're gonna lose it." He said, "Why?" I said, "You need to go into other areas."
He said, "Well, what have I got to do?" I said, "Well, look, let's go across to disability. This is wonderful technology. Let's talk about wheelchairs or something." So cutting a long story short, we, uh, we got involved. I ended up buying in as a shareholder, and over a period of the next four or five years, we became the world's leader in wheelchair technology.
We took that same technology, we put it into wheelchairs, and, uh, sold, uh, this time last year to the German company Sunrise, who are the biggest disability operators in the world. And, uh, uh, we sold the technology for the wheelchairs. We didn't sell the overall technology. We can still use it in other areas.
Mm-hmm. But we've sold it for the wheelchairs. And, uh, again, that was somebody identifying that you need some business skills. You needed, you know, so someone's gotta have those skills to sell the- Yep. Absolutely ... the, whether, whether it's buying or selling property, someone's gotta ... You know, people make emotional decisions, remember?
Yeah. Yeah. They don't make it because of logic. David had all the logic in the world about these wheels, but you needed to put a bit of emotion in there, and of course the wheelchairs- Yeah ... did that. And what a fantastic thing it is for the disability world. Currently can't keep up to the demand for them globally.
Yeah, right. Just incredible what's gone on there.
Yeah, look, we could probably do a whole podcast on a lot of these businesses, but, um, there, there's so much to talk about. But let's go back to the, the financial planning thing. This is where the, the big money sort of came for you- Mm-hmm ... and the, the most, uh, impact, I guess.
Um, you decided to go global. Um, Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia. Um, tell us about your experience there. The board's decision, not just shareholders. Mm. I imagine that's a board decision- Yes ... to go, to go global. Tell us about why you expanded globally and some of the challenges that you faced trying to implement the POS culture- Yep
in some other country.
Well, uh, the initial approach was from some people in Singapore, and they'd been doing their research on what was the best financial services model. And they'd picked us as the best financial services model globally. We went up there, we met these people, we agreed to fund it and start a small business.
But it's very difficult when you go to these countries if you don't have economies of scale-
Mm ...
because you've got compliance issues that are gonna just cost you too much money. So after a very short period of time, we were actually offered the agency force of what was the Insurance Corporation of Singapore.
It had been taken over and owned by Aviva, but they offered it to us at a reasonably good rate, and that was going to bring on board another 200, 300 people that were all producers. So we went ahead with that, and that, that gave us a very strong business in Singapore straightaway. Through that business, and they knew other people in Malaysia, they introduced us to another company.
Uh, the company wasn't making any money, so we sat down. And again, this is where your culture's gotta come in. 'Cause if you can't get the people around you to believe in what you're doing- Mm ... and wanna be part of it- Mm-hmm ... it's not going to happen.
Yeah.
So the Singaporeans had already said, "This is fantastic.
We love the culture." Mm. Mind you, the first day I was there I said, "I wanna talk to that guy over there, the training manager." And, uh, they said, "Oh, you can't do that." I said, "Why is that?" They said, "Because we have tiers here. You need to talk to that manager, who'll then talk to that manager." Oh, my goodness. I said, "Well, I'm sorry.
The way we work, we're all in it together."
Mm. "
And, uh, I'll go and talk to that person," which I did. But of course, I had to say to the Australians, "We've gotta make sure- Mm ... they understand that our culture is that we're all in business together- Mm ... to help." So their first conference- Mm ... down in Perth, I said to everybody, "When that bus turns up," the hotel, The Hyatt in Perth, you had to come up the stairs.
Mm. I said, "You make sure you're there to help them carry their bags up the stairs," the Singapore delegates. "So we don't want to be seen above them. We're there to help them." Mm. Well, let me tell you, it was a funny story because as the bins opened on the, the bus, this little Singaporean young lady, she goes to grab a bag, and I reached down and said, "I'll get that for you."
Well, I've grabbed it, and she knew who I was, and she's panicking, "No, no, no, no, no. I'll carry it. I'll carry it." "No, no, let me help you." So I've got hold of the bag and virtually had to carry her and the bag up the stairs with her saying no. But I can tell you, 10 years after that, people were still telling the story of, oh, this company, very different culture.
This guy, th- that CEO- Mm ... he carried the suitcases up- Mm ... at the conference. And so if you can get your thinking and the way you wanna run a business, and, and particularly I come back to that word culture, if you can successfully transfer that, everybody's working for you.
Well, let me tell you, Robbie, I, I was part of that team, like, that network you built, and I've never experienced such a great culture.
And- Mm ... I miss it very badly. I miss the, uh, mateships there, uh, the functions. And I've just written down a list of- Some of the conferences that you put on, uh, you and the, the board of directors and, and the young ladies who did all the hard work- Yep ... with organizing function rooms and all the hospitality and everything, it's unbelievable effort you put into these conferences.
But I think from my diary, I went to Las Vegas conferences listening to you speak five or six times. Honolulu, Hawaii, five or six times. Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, not a conference but a, a tour. Mexico, Fiji, New Zealand, uh, Japan for a work-related issue, and after I left you were doing regular conferences in, in China.
And these things, um, were lifetime memories built, and that all fed into the, the culture where you'd go over there- Mm-hmm ... you'd meet other like-minded professional financial advisors, accountants, have a few drinks- ... go to fantastic shows in Las Vegas, and just have the, the, the best time of your life and it was all work-related.
And I tell you what, I miss that culture that you created there very, very much, Robbie, and i- i- it's very hard to duplicate a culture like that.
Yeah. Many people do, Andrew. We still get a lot of feedback and we obviously still stay friends with a lot, so many people-
Mm ...
that say they miss it. And, um, in many ways as we've gone through our different businesses we sort of partially carry that forward and- Mm-hmm
even to the extent of the new business now, I've had two 80-year-olds decide to come back and wanna do some work with us.
Mm.
And, um, you know, both said, "You don't even have to pay us. We just miss being
around." Yeah. That's an awesome story. So listen, all those, um... This is getting off the business topic now, but y- you were, uh, like apart from pilots and, uh, airline hostesses, I think you more than any other person on this planet that I know were on a plane all the time.
Tell us about the, I call it a junket, the tax-free Qantas frequent flyer points that you- ... put together. Like, there must have been unbelievable amount of frequent flyer points, Robbie. T- And this, you were... Was it a Qu- uh, Qantas Chairman's Club or something? I think, yeah, Qantas Chairman's Lounge, yeah. Tell us about that just, just,
just briefly.
Well, yeah, the Chairman's Lounge is normally set aside for the leaders of business, uh, the politicians and the judges, et cetera. That's basically what it comes down to. Mm-hmm. Or somebody they see that is, uh, very influential- Mm-hmm ... out there for them. So, uh, um, uh, it's, it's a great program and you're fortunate enough.
I was sitting in there one day and, uh, I'm just head down reading the newspaper and I thought somebody's standing there looking at me. I looked up and it was Peter Costello. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I'd never met him, and he said, "I've never met you." He said, "Who are you?" I said, "I'm Robbie Bennetts." "Well, what do you do?"
And that's how I met Peter Costello. And after that we used to talk once a quarter- About what was happening in the economy Mm. So it was pretty amazing that there's your treasurer, just stopped in the lounge and said, "Well, who are you? I don't know you." Yeah. And, uh, that's the way I got to, to meet him, so.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Yeah. And I remember, um, some time ago just picking up a Gold Coast Weekend bulletin, Robbie, and you were listed as one, in a, a, a short list of the most influential businesspeople on the Gold Coast. And from memory, it's a long time ago now, but you've got, like, the Mayor of the Gold Coast there.
You've got, like, the billionaire Clive Palmer. The, the f- is it the Frizell family who are, now own- Oh, geez. That's a long time ago ... big shareholders of- Yeah, yeah ... the Titans, and they, and they own a lot of car businesses. And how is that- And I think- How is that, how is that influence that you've got there and those big hitters that you can dial up on the phone, "Hey, it's Robbie," has that helped you in business?
Mate, I, I guess it's about knowing people. I don't think I've ever gone and asked for any direct help. Mm-hmm. But it has always been very good that if you want a speaker at a- Mm-hmm ... seminar or at a conference- Mm-hmm ... I've always had access to all these people. And when I was listed in the, uh, top 10 people in the country, um, over three different years, uh, that they listed me in the top 10 influential people in the country in financial services-
Mm-hmm
um, it meant that you kept on having people like, uh, like a Peter Costello and that wanting to stay in touch, 'cause he was in that same list.
Mm.
And so they, um, uh, it, it gave you access to people that you may not have had access to before.
Yeah. Well, I think you're, you're underselling this. Like, you, you we- had lunch with James Packer, didn't you?
Yeah.
And I remember- Dinner it was. Dinner ... dinner. And I, I remember after you, you had that, that dinner and I said, "Robbie, what did you learn from James Packer?" And you said, "Roddy, you've gotta have a ticket in the lottery." And this wasn't about gambling. It, it was about having some sort of business where you can add value and at least give yourself a chance of making something really substantial.
Yeah. I've never forgotten that, Robbie- Mm ... and I tell myself that little bit of philosophy every 6 or 12 months ago when I'm-
Well, here- ... setting my goals ... here's what actually happened. Th- that particular dinner, we both owned a property at Parramatta that had gone down at the time.
Mm.
It was when the- Pressure was on a little bit on property
Mm-hmm
And, uh, uh, he said to me about, he said, "Hey, Robbie," he said, "I'm- I want you here because you always have a ticket in the lottery."
He said, "You've got to have a ticket in the lottery to win."
Yeah. "
Those that don't win, let the lawyers and accountants sort that over there." He said, "Get on with the next ticket in the lottery, because you're gonna have to have that ticket to win." And I, I thought, very good advice.
Okay. So look, um, we, um, we were in a, a conference, I'm pretty sure sort of 2007-ish.
I, I remember it was, uh, Sheraton Waikiki, and I'm just having a general chitchat to you as we're looking at these little turtles at sunset raising their- Yep ... heads above the water. Absolutely beautiful location. And you were mentioning that because of the culture and the systems and the team that you'd put together, that you were of the opinion that the business had a built-in 30% per annum growth rate.
And little did we both know at that time that the next year the GFC would come along. Mm. Mm. And we ended up, you- and the shareholders of the company ended up exiting that business to a public listed company. And from memory, the numbers were, were, were about $100 million, uh, valuation on the, the whole PIS group.
But, uh, I'd imagine a couple of years earlier, uh, might've been worth a lot more than that one. I mean, look, I, I was, um, looking at the stock market, the ASX200 in 2007 was 6,800, and then a year later it was 3,400. It had dropped 50%. The recurring revenue of all the financial planning businesses were based on a multiple of the, um, the value, if you like.
And all of those recurring incomes halved. The value of the financial planning businesses halved. And the group decide shortly after to sell out for $100 million. What, what do you think the value of that business was before shit hit the fan, Robbie?
Andrew, we had banks offering us 160 to $180 million for it.
Mm. Uh,
the problem with that was they all wanted a minimum amount of around about 70% of the investments made into their products. And we just said we couldn't do that.
Mm-hmm.
Aviva was the only one that said, "You are already 30% of our Australian business. We're just happy if you just keep going and do whatever you like."
The problem was Aviva ran into financial troubles during the, the global financial crisis.
Mm.
And it was an interesting story because- There was no real pressure on us to sell, but we had a listed company come along and say, "Look, we've got $19 million in a cash box, and, um, we think it'd be really good to come and get involved with you.
You guys could become a listed company-
Mm ...
and, uh, we could use that $19 million for expansion." We said, "Well, you know, it's been pretty tough times since GFC. Might be tough for the next couple of years. It'd be good that if we use that money to go and buy some more businesses and roll them up into our existing advisors so we don't have to worry about managing it.
Mm. They'll manage it for us- Mm ... but we could use the money that way." And that was basically what made that deal happen. I think it was about 120, the actual value of the business at the time. And, um, we thought, well, this will just get us through this couple of tough years with the GFC. Mm. Things will boom on.
And- Mm ... you know, it's something I regret greatly because everyone said, "Well, this is a, a good thing." But of course, as soon as they got control, they changed their, their thing. It's like looking at it in this morning's paper. If you look at this morning's Sydney Telegraph, it's just, uh, I lie, I lie, I lie, I lie five times down the front of the paper about what's happening with the budget that's about to come out.
Mm. So you, you've got to look at what these guys did. But my regret is that business today, because of the market from 2012 to today, that business, in my opinion, would be a billion dollars today. Mm. Uh, it was a real pity that we did it. So that was a bad decision. Very good for us over all the years, and people got more than 1,000% distribution- Mm
over the, uh- The shareholders, you mean? The tenure the shareholders did. Yeah. And of course, for every year except that year, our, our growth was between 25 and 33% growth.
Mm.
Uh, compound growth for all those years. People used to say it was not possible as you got bigger, yet we managed to maintain it. Mm.
The only year that we had, uh, uh, tough growth was the year of the global financial crisis. Yeah. And realistically, those things only ever last a couple of years. It's like you're in property. Mm. You see it go up and you see it go down. Yeah. No one guarantees everything goes up forever. Mm. But as long as you're a long-term player- Mm
you're fine.
Robbie, when I left high school, I was, uh, in a lot of sports, and I went to university where nobody knew me, and I just felt really lost. Did you feel lost when you had a falling out with the new board? I'm, I'm not sure if you had a falling out, but you left as a director. Did you feel lost?
Andrew, we had somebody else come along to wanna buy the whole company.
Mm.
It was a bank. Mm. And it was going to give everybody good money. Mm. And I went to them and said We should take this deal
Mm.
And they said, "Well, you, uh... We think it's probably time that you're not here anymore."
Mm.
And I said, "This is a good deal for all the shareholders."
And they said, "Yeah, well, thank you very much and see you later."
Mm.
So that, that's what actually happened. They didn't take that deal. Within, uh, about six months- Mm ... their share price had dropped another 40, 50 cents.
Look, this is getting philosophical now, but did you... Like I said, I'll ask the question again.
Did you feel like you'd lost... Like, you had, you had thousands of people across Australia. You're talking to at conferences with 500 accountants and planners geeing them up on what we're gonna do going forward- Mm. Mm ... and drinking with them all. You're mates with them all. And then you, you, you know, you s- they still knew you, but did you feel a bit lost when you lost all of that, the traveling, the conferences, or did you just need a rest?
Were you exhausted?
Well, that's probably a little bit of it, that I'd probably had enough- Mm ... at that particular moment. But, um, probably 12 months later, I'm thinking, "Why?"
Mm.
Uh, and of course, uh, uh, it only took us four weeks or five weeks and we got involved with something new. And-
Mm ...
as you know, many of the, uh, staff from the old business didn't like the new management, and so they all came and joined us, and that's how we started On Platinum, the IT business.
And I think we had 17 ex-PIS staff there within six months. Right. And, uh, they went on. So how did that,
how did that business start up, Robbie? Why, what- Well- Why financial services to computer technology? How, how does that happen?
The, the guy that used to, uh, supply our photocopiers at PIS, uh, he came to see me and said, "Well, look, I've got this wonderful system that will help market everybody."
So Greg Wimp and I thought, "Well, maybe, you know, what are we doing now?" Mm-hmm. This is four weeks into call it retirement or whatever you wanted to. And, uh, we said, "Well, okay, we'll, we'll run with this. We can go out and show everyone this great new sales system- Mm-hmm ... uh, being an electronic one." Uh, the only problem was it didn't work as good as what he told us.
And Shannon, who was the CIO at Professional Investment Services, he didn't like the new owners, so he came out to us and said, "That system's not gonna work. They haven't really got what they think they've got. How about I come over?" And Pat Cunningham said to me at the time, "Oh, you know, get Shannon over there."
I said, "Mate, he's a very high-paid person. I can't afford that straightaway." And he said, "Yes, you can." He said, "Come on. You'll make it work." So that's how Shannon came, and that's how On Platinum came to be. Mm-hmm. And after a very short period of time, the network started saying, "Oh, can he come and help me with my computers?"
'Cause Shannon was so technically wonderful Mm And, uh, that's how we started then providing services for computers Right
And that grew- And then you exited that one out again, you mentioned just before. You- Yep ... you got out of that business, and then another opportunity came up. Um, tell us about this, uh, equipment leasing in the mining industry, Robbie.
What, what's that all about? Well,
that's not really... That, that, that's, um, a company called Vansite. And Vansite is industrial caravans. This was a gentleman called Grant Gasnier that used to work at head office at PIS. Mm. He went to the Commonwealth Bank. He had, uh, a nice, uh, um, acreage piece up at Jacob's Well and a house at Arundel, and, uh, he wanted to start this new business.
But of course, the bank, in their infinite wisdom, said, "You don't have any income," so they wouldn't give him a loan. He came to me and said about the loan, so I gave him a loan and took 20% of the business. And, uh, uh, that business now has 200 caravans we own that we lease out. Our biggest clients are BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore.
The main roads, if you've been watching the tram track, uh, being built here down from Palm Beach or, sorry, down to Burleigh, um, you would've seen a lot of caravans along there. Mm. If you had a look carefully, they might have had Coates Hire on, but somewhere they would've had Vansite. They were either built by us and sold to Coates, or they were leased from us.
And I suppose there's probably 1,000 caravans out there that we've built. Very, very successful business. I still own 20% of it.
Right. And, uh, just very quickly, BetGold, online betting. What's, what, what's-
Yeah, again, another guy that wanted to go from being a bookmaker to being online and, uh, uh, wondered where he would get the finance from.
And he knew some friends of mine from out at Warwick and Killarney, and they said, "Why don't you go and talk to Robbie?" And consequently, I own 30% of BetGold, and it's an online- ... bookmaking service. I must admit, because of my lack of knowledge, um, I, um, would be happy if it was sold.
Okay. But,
um, I'm there. He doesn't give me any headaches.
And, uh-
Okay ...
uh, every month there's a check, and, and it's all there. But it, it's, uh, it's, it's funny, when you're involved with a business, you like being involved- Mm ... even though it's sort of smaller. Mm. Uh, but I still like to be involved. I find it difficult to be involved in that business. Okay. But of course, now I've got the new one.
It's got me very busy.
Let's, let's talk about the new one, Robbie. Let's go. We-
Yeah, well, you talk about stories, Andrew, and you talk about activity. 'Cause remember- Mm ... our culture was always to keep everybody active.
Mm.
And we knew from all of the financials and the graphs that went with it, when we were busy running events, whether it be a conference, whether it be, uh, a luncheon or just a, a seminar- Things stayed busy and, and we'd proven that over and over again.
So with the IT business, we had a luncheon at our office in Sydney. We had 28 people round a square table. And it was to talk about what's happening with all this ransom that had been going on. Mm. It was getting really bad at the time, and so people were breaking into systems. And so we had... Our clients included stockbroking firms, um, some insurance companies, uh, lawyers, accountants.
So we had 28 of them there. But we got in a guy from an insurance company that insures you for, for damages in those cases. We had Shannon about the IT, and I sort of, uh, ran the session. And we went round and we asked people, "What can you tell us about somebody that's been hacked?" And everyone had a story to tell, whether it was their story or someone they knew, but they all had stories to tell.
And so then the insurance guy would say whether they would pay out- Mm ... or not, and Shannon would say what they should've been doing or what they need to do going forward. At the end of that, this guy walks across me and says, "Hi, I'm John." Uh, not John, sorry. Uh, uh, I'll think of his name in a minute. And he said, "I knew you years ago.
I used to be at Baines." And he said, "I've got a guy..." He said, "I, he's got something that I think is really good, but I don't think he's a good businessman and I don't think he's got any money. Would you talk to him?" I said, "I talk to everybody." Mm. "Where does he live?" He said, "On the Gold Coast." I said, "Send him in to see me."
So this guy comes in and he talked all about this nanotechnology and what's happening with nanotechnology, particularly in the health industry area and agriculture and aquaculture. And so mind you, he talked me into getting involved, and his lawyer that he introduced was Twiggy Forest's main litigation lawyer.
Uh, the day after I was on the front page of the paper taking on, uh, uh, Meta over in the US. And I thought, "Jeez, I better be real careful here- ... if he, that's his lawyer." But He thought he needed to invest another $100,000 to go to market. Well, $2 million later we got to market. Mm. But I've ultimately bought him out of it.
We started by manufacturing our own water that's been infused with these ultra-fine bubbles. So the easiest way to explain that, if you took a glass of Coke and took one bubble that explodes through the top, well, we could get a billion bubbles, not a million, a billion bubbles into that one bubble. And these do not float to the surface and explode.
They just swirl around inside water, and if it's something you've been drinking, it'll go into your body or go into your blood. And when you need that extra oxygen, it's there. So it'll help your performance, help with recovery. Um, for example, in Canada, this is used massively on all the salmon farms. You probably heard of the problems we've had down in Tasmania- Yeah, yeah
and the government's just spent $35 million. Mm. Well, they're deploying this, this technology to clean up the waters down there. So it's infusing ultra-fine bubbles and s- increasing the dissolved oxygen- Mm ... to wherever it goes. It can take the pH level down in wastewater really quick so it can go back to the environment.
Um, we've got sprays that make your skin feel smoother and tighter, and we've another one that we've just created now, we're about to launch it very shortly, that stops all the itching and scratching when people get a tattoo. Makes it heal incredibly quick compared to... And it's all about this nanotechnology and using oxygen, ozone, CO2, and how that's all made.
Uh, the company in America that actually owns the patents that we're very heavily involved with or virtually tied up with now, uh, they've just created a new product with NASA, of all people. Uh, NASA had a lot to do with the development of it, and this product was taken into space for that last space trip.
Uh, it's a wound care product, but it has to go through all the systems yet before it can be used here. Mm. Uh, but, uh, somewhere into the future you'll hear about us using wound care that makes your wounds heal very, very quickly.
Look, Robbie, thi- this is, um, a chance now. Can you, if someone, uh, listening to this, it is a property podcast, but someone might have some interest in this, where can they find out about this business?
Oh, just go onto O2 For Life. O2 For Life. O2 For Life or Oxygn, spelt O-X-Y-G-N. Great. Or look up Robbie Bennetts, and you'll find it. Somewhere in there you'll find it. Yeah.
Did I tell you that Robbie knows how to sell, listeners? Okay, let's move on to, uh, property. This is, um, this is quite interesting. So, um, you're a businessman, but on the side you've, uh, you've collated a, a bit of a property portfolio.
And, um, Sorrento, where you live, you've, you've- Mm ... bought some waterfront properties. Have you got any stories about property? Let's get into it. Well, let me, let me
take you back a little bit. When I was 16- Mm ... there's a, uh, street down in Miami called Chaney Avenue. Right. And if you go down to where it turns around the corner- Mm
the two blocks on that, I bought them for $300 each. What? I bought them for $300 each when I was 16 years of age, and, uh, they needed a bit of filling, so I filled them. It cost me around about $200 a block to get them up to the level I needed. And I sold them not long after that for $3,000 each and thought I, th- this is it.
You- you've, you've ultimately done well here. And this is when I was 16. So that was my first taste of property.
Wow. And,
uh, uh, I've had many different properties over the years, but jumping forward to Sorrento, as Andrew did ask me if I'd talk about it. Um, and I have the two blocks side by side at Sorrento.
One of them has a tennis court on it, uh, it's on the Isle of Sorrento, and the other's a house I live in, and I paid 300,000 for that house back in 1993, I think it was. It was originally sold for 500 and something thousand in 1987. Mm. Bought it in 1993 for 300. It was va- excuse me. It was valued at 900 in 2000.
And we're still holding that, and we get phone calls all the time from real estate agents saying, "With the two of them together, you know, you, you could get anywhere, you know, eight to 10 million, you know? You should let us have a look at it." Mm. Say, "No, we're not interested in selling." Yeah. But I also, I own another one in that street that we, uh, we bought when, when things were tough.
Mm. And, uh, I paid 700,000 for another waterfront home on the Isle of Sorrento, and there was another one I paid 900,000 for. Yeah. And I bought the one that's number 20- Mm ... in Boomerang, uh, and I paid, what did I pay for that? I paid 700,000 for it, uh, and put a tennis court on it because I wanted to play tennis and I'd never been able to get the one next door.
When the one next door came up for sale, it got bor- bulldozed and, uh, the tennis court down at 20 got sold. Oh, you must have been making too much money . Should never, should never have sold number 20. Is it, you know, sold it for 700 and something thousand. Um, and you know what it's all worth now. Yeah. You know, two and a half, three million.
Wow. It's, it's amazing, isn't it? The, um, the, the stories of the, the 1980s and 1990s purchase prices and the- Yeah ... how property is compounded. And, uh, you, from a lifestyle perspective, you, you also bought a unit in Broadbeach. Tell us about that one, Robbie.
Yeah. Andrew, I guess, um, uh, you know, my lovely wife, Sherry, decided we've got grandchildren and wouldn't it be nice if we had something over near the beach even though it's 10 minutes away?
Mm. But it'd be really nice if we had something near the beach. So we actually bought an, a unit in Oracle. It'd be about, I suppose it's four years ago now, maybe- Mm ... '21 Something like around that era. And it was 1.2 million, and we thought it was the absolute top of the market. Yeah. And I said to her, "I'm not used to going in and buying things at the top of the market."
Mm.
Yeah, poor fool me, because, uh, I thought, you know, geez, I'm kicking myself for having to pay top dollar for
it.
Well, about two weeks ago we got the latest offer from the real estate agent saying, uh, "Oh, we've got a buyer for your unit at $1.8 million." Yeah, I believe it. So, so much for buying at the top of the market.
You
have any property regrets here, Robbie? Any regrets in transactions apart from that one you sold when you were 16? Oh, I sold
one up at Killarney that I shouldn't have sold for, you know ... People were saying to me, "It's worth 150, 200." I sold it for 250. It sold six months later for 500. Small farm. Um, yeah, so but, but we all make our mistakes and, and I was fortunate enough that when the global financial crisis was on-
Mm
I was over in Las Vegas and thought, "Geez, these properties are cheap at the moment." Mm. And it was because Freddie Mac and Fannie Mac were dumping properties everywhere. That's what they're all talking about.
Mm.
So a very good friend of mine was Joe Esposito. Joe was Elvis's best man at his wedding- Wow
and, uh, was Elvis's best friend. And, uh, Joe was saying to me, "No, they can't be that cheap." Mm. But anyway, I bought some properties over there, three-bedroom, single-story ranch style for 110,000. I bought, uh, uh, two, um, two-story houses, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, extra toilet downstairs, double lockup garage, 124,900 each.
And, uh, I took the money out when our currency was, I took it out at a dollar five. I was kicking myself. It did jump to a dollar 10 for a couple of days- Yeah ... but very quickly went back to 90. Mm. So I took the money out at a dollar five. I did take enough to buy five of them. My wife got a little bit nervous 'cause we'd never bought- Yeah
properties in the US before. But anyway, we went ahead and we bought the three of these and, uh, I still own those properties. Mind you, a fantastic experience because based on what I paid for them way back then-
Mm ...
um, I get 23% per annum return after- Yeah ... paying the managing agents.
Yeah. And
that's in US dollars.
Yeah.
So, uh, it's pretty handsome sort of result, so. Yeah,
unbelievable. But mate, any
property- Yeah ... e- every property that you've had over all the years, like, it's like in the share market, unless, if they stick to blue ribbon shares and that, if you're there for the long term- Yeah ... markets are gonna go up and down.
Yeah. Your property will always go up and down. Uh, just gotta be- Mm ... sensible about it and not- Yeah ... not do silly things like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mac over there. As soon as they realized what they were doing and stopped dumping all the property-
Yeah ...
those properties jumped back to a couple of hundred thousand dollars just straight away.
Yeah, yeah. All properties because they stopped selling them. They were dumping them.
Yeah. So you had currency on your side. You're getting, like- Yep ... a dollar to a dollar basically. And I remember that year because once again, we had a, a conference in Las Vegas around that time, and I remember it going very, very quickly, um, from, uh, like 1 to 1 to down to 55, 60 cents.
And- At one of these conferences, uh, I'm guilty of hitting, uh, a roulette table at that time. Actually won five grand Australian. I kept thinking, "This is 10 grand Aussie." And I remember my wife pulling me up saying, "Oh, we've got a- we've got tickets for this, uh, this show. We gotta go." So I left that one and, uh, picked up five grand US.
So it's amazing what the currency can do. And I think, um, right at this point in time it's quite interesting all around, uh, the world actually with real estate. In, in New Zealand you got property prices down 30% in some areas. In Canada, uh, in Thailand now there's one and a half million empty condos. In Japan there's nine million empty houses.
So-
Mm ...
this story that you're going through, I reckon there's opportunities now with this high Australian dollar- Yeah ... for people to explore those types of things. New Zealand, no stamp duty, no capital gains tax. It's quite incredible. Oh, speaking of
tax, mate, may I just share this with you? Yeah. I was over in America the other week.
I'm spending a fair bit of time there at the moment, 'cause we're setting up to make, manufacture the oxygen bottles, these particular spray bottles. We'll be manufacturing them in Phoenix. The machine's on its way from China right now. But they all complain if they have to pay 10 cents on the dollar tax.
You wanna hear the ones over in Florida complain, "I paid nine cents tax." And I think, you ought to see what we pay here in Australia. We, we really need to do something about our tax. And when you go to set up a business over there, it's all get rid of the red tape. Trump's done all this. Let's get on with it.
Let's get on with it. It's all about encouraging everyone to have business. I just... I heard the ABC the other day, someone in Brisbane was trying to set up a new coffee shop. 73 requirements they had to go through-
Yeah. Wow ... to set
up a coffee shop.
Yeah, I agree. And, and you see there's so many podcasts now, people talking about moving to Dubai or moving to other countries where the, the tax treatment and all the red tape is, uh- Mm
a lot more, uh, beneficial for people in business. Robbie, um, it's an incredible story. As I said, we could probably do five podcasts. We've condensed it into one. So just to finish off with a few closing questions. What's the best golf course you ever played, Robbie?
Uh, mate, this is asking people to dislike you.
Augusta. And I played it three weeks before the Masters. So the grandstands are up, the scoreboards are up. Okay.
This is a negative question here. I want you to give a sledge. The least inspiring leader you've ever met.
Oh, it had to be Al Gore. He was vice president of the US at the time. Had dinner with him.
Four very, very uninspiring hours.
Okay. Enough said. The most inspiring leader that you've, that you look up to.
Well, this might be controversial with everything that's going on at the moment. Yeah. But we had four days with Donald Trump, and, uh, man, is he... You can't keep up to him. He just doesn't stop. He's just so full of life, but everything's positive.
He's just a business guy. Yeah. You know, everything's a deal You know, when you're talking to Trump, "What do you think of that? What do you think of this? What do you think of that? What about this?" And, you know, that's what he, he always goes in hard. Andrew, if you're going to buy something, do you go in with some weak wishy-wash, give it away, you know?
They want 100,000 but you go and offer them 110,000- He's a negotiator ... because you're such a nice guy. Or do you go in and start saying, "I don't like that property, I'll give you 80"? You know, and that's what Trump is. He's in there doing deals and, uh, he was inspiring the day that, or four days that we spent time with him.
Yeah, right. Robbie, um, you've been, in all honesty, on the short list of three or four people in my life that I've really looked up to in, in business, so thank you for inspiring me and the culture that you've put into the, to that, that business that I was a part of. Thank you for sharing your story, and I'm sure the viewers will be absolutely thrilled to, to, to see how you go with this- Yeah
new water business.
Yeah. Thanks, Andrew. And mate, all the best for you guys. You've been ex- super successful in real estate, so mate, keep up the good work. Thanks, Robbie. Thank you.
Thanks for listening to the Andrew Wright Property Podcast. This is all about building a community of like-minded investors who can share real-life stories, experiences, and collaborate with a view to helping each other.
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