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This week in home building news! Catch up with Az and a colourful array of guests, to hear about who's killing it, who's innovating, and who's getting into strife in the world of new home construction.
Az (00:18)
Good morning and welcome to the Good Builder Podcast. I am super excited because I have an awesome gentleman here today, and we've probably launched a few clips of the pre-recording variety listening to this podcast. But who I have today is Abba, awesome builder here at the TPB summit, and we're gonna get to know him a little better. So how are you, ABBA? First of all, mate. Right. Doing really good. Thank you for having me, man. Appreciate it. mate, the pleasure is all ours.
The reason I think I gave you a quick reason why we started the Good Builder, talk to good builders about their experience and stuff like that, and they want to share knowledge and build this community. And man, you're you're doing it. You were one of the first that actually put up their hands as you would have seen on the board that went, Hey, I want to do this, man. So you are a good builder, man. thank you, mate. Yes, I appreciate getting the opportunity to speak to other builders and people in the industry. everyone's got such different insights, and I'd love to share.
Mine today, so thank you for having me back. Well, let's kick off if you don't mind, Abba, about your journey, mate. How did you get into the construction industry? so I was 18 and I was really into the IT industry at the time, and I was at a crossroads about to finish high school. Am I going to pursue IT or something else? And I really thought about it, and I could not see myself doing IT for the rest of my life. I enjoyed it, but it was very mundane and
Dry to be honest. so I jumped into building for no particular reason. I don't have any tradies in the family, no nothing. But I thought this looks kind of cool. Maybe I'll build some houses, go into commercial. So I applied to go to university, do a construction management degree. To be honest, the first two years sucked, they were awful. I I got a job in the commercial sector, and that
Really was like a crash course on what building is. And when you're in the commercial sector, I'm in residential now and I love residential. Should have started with that, love the residential sector. But commercial, you're surrounded by other experts, and it's a real top-down approach. We were a subcontractor, and you just got grilled every day by the head contractor. And I thought this is really, really hard and unfriendly in that area. In commercial.
Building people may have had better experiences than myself, but for me it was a dog-eat dog kind of setup and I didn't like that. But then I moved into residential and that has been absolutely phenomenal. Dealing with people like everyday people, you're building their dream home, that's extremely rewarding.
yes, I haven't looked back. So that was a bit of the turning point of of you coming into residential. What about I've I've worked a little bit in commercial. It's do you find it lot more structured?
yes you would have got a lot of structure and stuff like that. Did you bring a bit of that structure into Resi? Or you were saying there was too much structure. There was too much structure in some ways but what we brought over with us was the weekly round table meetings that commercial does. They do that very well.
Where they go around and say, You're bringing a big delivery of windows next week, so train operator, be ready. No one park here in this area, you know. That was really, really good. Yeah. so we brought that to the resin side. So I deal very professionally with all the contractors and and people that that need to be dealt with in that way. Instead of I find a lot of resi builders are just we call the plumber, hey mate, can you be there on Friday? Just doesn't work.
You've got to give everyone notice. You have to have some kind of system in place and say, Hey, I need some forward planning, be ready in three weeks for me, you know. Yeah. So I did bring that, and that's been valuable. You know what's really cool about you, mate? What's cool about you, Abba? Well, mate, you were one of the first builders that we've talked to that either well that has a different degree or had gone through kind of the whole university route, got a degree in a
different industry and then kind of turn into a builder. I think that's really interesting in a couple of reasons. I love builders. Don't get me wrong, Wouldn't be sitting here and you could probably punch me in the face and knock me out and I don't want that. But I think builders like the professional side of it and the education side you know could be ramped up a little bit for the industry and I think you've kind of got that. And what's really interesting for me is like you're here today at CPB and you seem like a very intelligent guy and I'm not saying that the
not intelligent guys here but you seem like a really intelligent guy and I kind of wonder why you're here. What was the tipping point? Why did you join TPV? Or are you kind of that guy that always likes to keep getting better? That's what it seems like Dean. Certainly and and I'm glad you asked that question because I did give that heaps of thought before our our what would you call this meeting? Meeting our hangout yeah we're having a chat it's all it's all
Awesome. And I thought exactly what you just said, actually. Builders are so good at putting up a frame, getting things done on site. We don't take our professional development seriously enough. And and the guys here, they've already done it. And they're just they're leading us to water, all we have to do is drink, you know? They're telling us you want to expand your business, here's how to do it, mate. You want more sales, here are the challenges you're going to find.
And I knew if I came here, they're gonna lead me to water, all I have to do is drink, you know. So so that's why we came and already it's day one and far out there's gems. Every person you speak to gives you a gem. So my book's already mostly full on give me more info. that is so cool, mate. So good mate. Love it. Actually I'm really infatuated about you as it you now. Build it like what's your building building let's tell everyone what you're building.
Building companies called Where You Build and What You Build as well. Yes, A to Z Homes. A to Z. where do you build? In the Newcastle, Central Coast and Hunter region in New South Wales. Yeah, and it's a great area. we build houses, duplexes, granny flats. We've just started doing renovations as well. so a bit of everything. No commercial. I don't want to do commercial. How many projects do you do a year? this year we're set
to do eight and next year we're aiming to double in twenty twenty seven. Easier said than done with the economy doing what it's doing. But we do think we will reach probably double next year. Yeah. wow. Yeah.
Now being here at the professional builder, one thing in your business, what would you change? What would you what are you looking at if you could work through anything? What would you change in your building business or what do you want to improve? Yeah. I've I thought about that because the boys are challenging us in there. They they keep saying, What are you going to implement? What's your game plan? so valuable. So one thing that they said that really resonated with me is you have to know your
Fixed costs, what are your overheads? Now, I think if you asked me that six months ago, I'd give you an answer. That answer's very different now. Because all the time someone resigns, you employ someone new, a vehicle breaks, you buy a new vehicle, a new subscription, everyone's on AI now. I'm not keeping my finger on the pulse enough in the way of the overheads. so when I go back to the office after this, I'm going to go through.
The overheads with the fine tooth comb. And then I may do it quarterly after that and see what's changed, you know. Happens all the time. Uniforms, even you know, yeah. Gets to summer, you need to buy everyone a new uniform. there's even easier ways. One of the builders here for tech, he had something called taps. Instead of a business card, you just scan his phone and it just sucks his number and all everything into your phone. Like, there's easy little things like that. Hey, like you talk about
Have other. I love you, mate. I think you're a fucking legend. you know, you talk about like not being on top of things. Yeah. I feel the same, mate. I bet you everyone in this room does. You seem like a guy that is on top of things. you seem like one of the most professional guys we've actually had on the pod. I shouldn't say that. We've done 350. I didn't mean to insult them. I don't mean to insult them. I don't. You know, and I say some stupid things on this pod and they love me for it, I hope. But like you seem one of the most professional guys, and it's so cool.
like to see someone of your caliber here. Yes. Because it kinda says to me that no matter how and I know you're not like this, how good you think you are, how much experience you've had, all that sort of thing is always
ways to improve and ways to little stuff. Is that how is that a bit of your mindset and attitude? So true mate. You know what's funny? I was speaking to a few chippies that are here and we were saying how the industry's becoming way more professional. Like it's not how it used to be, you know, you're in the building game, you're probably on the pokies every day. Yeah. That's really moving away. It's gone ahead. It's it really is. I really feel that. And all the boys that work with me, even subcontractors, a lot of them are
like professionals, they're family men, and they're family women now. Yep. There's more and more women in the industry. It's cool. It's changing. Top down, not yes. It's great to see. And we are some smart people. You know, like and and you're proof of it. I'm I'm and I'm not bagging everybody. Like I said, I'm not bagging everybody. But I'm so fucking happy you're on the plug because it's this is the perception we want to put out there. But
You're right. the public look at us and they go, they're like they're party animals. I bet you there's a massive dude tonight and everyone gets shit faced. I've talked to everyone here. You know what? I've said, Are you going out tonight? 'Cause I'm gonna be there, it's Hawaiian or whatever. Everyone's like, Yeah, but it's not I'm not gonna let loose. Have a few drinks, that's meet some people, talk to some people, get some stuff out of them, figure out how to be better.
Be in bed by ten thirty. That's exactly it, man. Yeah, we got home I think eight thirty yesterday. Yeah, we were off at six this morning. went out for breakfast and stuff. The connotation's really moving away. I I'm not saying we don't get on the drink anymore. Okay, yeah, we could have a good time on a weekend for a special occasion. We're not at the pub every day anymore. And we're not on the pokeys. Certainly not. No. Yeah. So it's it's getting way better now. Very cool. Well mate, the sessions today. What are you most excited about?
About in the sessions. What session are you? Have you got your eye on? The AI and marketing. And I am all about AI and Claud and everything. and I'm really excited to see how everyone else is using AI. Yeah, so very much looking forward to whatever knowledge they give us. That's so cool. It's not my summit, but one thing I would ask you to have a look at, ABBA, and I don't know if they're going to talk about it, so they might think I'm an idiot when they listen to this podcast. Have a look at Grokbot.
Grokbot. Yeah. Have you had a have you said heard about it? Is that Grocks thing? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that he's a bit of a wild character, but is a wild AI. And it's not AI in that it replaces Claude or Chat GPT, as far as I'm concerned, anyway, and the way we're using it a good builder, it's the executioner. So it will you put a chief of staff on, it'll build out your staff team, and then it'll go in and talk to Claude, talk to ChatGPT.
To talk to your projects, retrieve the information and then action it for you. No way. Very wild, mate. And and saying you you haven't, got your finger on another of our just watched a YouTube video and implemented it and it seems to be working for now. But there are some really exciting stuff ahead of it. So it's like it connects to all the other AIs. Yep, and you don't need any integration. You're leaving you know, get into your one to build or any of your CRM systems and it doesn't need any integration.
That's pretty cool. Thank you. It's exciting. It's exciting and and and maybe scary. I don't know what else it'll get into. So maybe you should watch what happens to me at least. And then we go from there, Abba. Maybe disregard all that information everybody. Well mate, the session's going in, but I do have one more question for you.
And I could answer this with just saying Abba. For real, man. I I really this has been really cool and I I wanna have you back on if you don't mind in a few months or or you know, we'll do it again. But mate, you know we called the good builder. What do you think makes a good builder?
It's an excellent question. And that's why my answer was Aba Stop at you. He's gonna ask me for money later or something. I'm not made. I won't ask for anything, but I will buy you a drink to your back. Just one. Yes, that's right. Because you've got to be in bed at a reasonable time. what makes a good builder, like I said, I think we can all put up a straight frame, a good frame and build a good house. I think what makes a good builder is really caring about the end product and really caring about the customer.
And we have to remind ourselves, even the the customers that are a bit more difficult or demanding.
They're the ones paying our bills, they're putting food on the table for our families. If you respect the customer, look after the customer and really care about the product, I think everything else follows. at least that's been true for me. I'll I'll speak from my own experience. But that's what I think makes a good builder. I love it. You know what, like and the cool things were they were not technical construction things, which a lot of people that jump on our pod talk about. They were kind of almost
personality and behavioral traits. Yeah. And I think that's so cool. And I and I think you're a weapon because I think you have that. And then I think you've got the experience in education. And you blend that and you've got a you've got a bit of a dangerous man going on, which is cool. Like and I mean dangerous in a good way. I mean you know my mum always says to me, you know, be a dangerous man, which doesn't mean be dangerous to people. Yeah. But you're able to do whatever you want because you know the stuff and I can tell you know your stuff about that.
Thank you. It was freaking cool, man. A to Z building. Anyone in the Central Coast, Newcastle, Sydney, wherever around that area, go build with this bloke. But mate, we're gonna have you back on, and that was so cool. We've never had a builder like you on here after 350 episodes, and I'm not saying bullshit. Like we have not had someone of your experience and stuff like that. It's been interesting. Thank you so much, mate. Thank you for having me. Very cool. Thanks, Aba Appreciate it.