Between Two Beers Podcast: Izzy Whitley: How I built a $30m business at 28

On this episode of Between Two Beers, we talk to Izzy Whitley.

Izzy is one of New Zealand's most successful self-made men under 30.

He's 28, has founded two businesses that do over 30 million a year in revenue, and has

the world at his feet, but things weren't always so smooth for Izzy.

In this episode, we work through his incredible rise from his humble beginnings in Gisborne

to leaving home at 16 and dropping out of uni.

At the age of 21, he had lost his father to suicide and suffered two heart attacks and

was dealing with his trauma alone with nothing in an Auckland hospital.

That's when he had the idea to start Auckland labour hire by contracting himself out to

construction sites.

The seven years since have been a whirlwind of success and hard work.

Auckland labour hire is now Aotearoa labour hire with 11 branches around the country and

a short term goal of 100 million in annual revenue.

Izzy's story is captivating and his mindset inspirational.

We both left this recording quite blown away.

His approach to life, adversity and using his time is exceptional and he's probably

the most dialed in under 30 we've ever spoken to.

You're gonna love this one.

Listen on iHeart wherever you get your podcasts from or watch the video on YouTube.

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This episode was brought to you from the export beer garden studio.

Enjoy!

Izzy Whitley, welcome to Between 2 Bears.

Cheers, happy to be here fellas.

That can pop.

It's been a long time coming Che.

That's a nice, it's nice to have that back in my eardrum.

I've been talking about that for about three months but we finally got it.

Hey anyway, super excited to have you in the export beer garden studio.

This is a net vnche I've been super excited about and there's so much goodness to get

into but we wanted to start in a place which is perhaps a little bit unexpected and it's

music.

So we asked your fiancee you know some quirky bits about Izzy.

Oh she kept that quiet.

And yeah she's come through, she's come through with some goodness.

And she said one of the interesting quirks of your life is that you have a song of the

week and I would like you to tell us what that's all about.

Yeah well, yeah she sent me out to dry hair.

Now every like on a Monday and a Friday my Spotify gives me like a discover weekly and

a release rate.

One's on a Monday, one's on a Friday and on a Monday morning I wake up getting on my

way in to work.

It's kind of like a 20 minute drive and I kind of out of those first 10 songs one click

so I guess and I think that's my song for the week.

I'm quite sporadic like with some of my thinking and stuff like that so if I can find anything

that can kind of almost provide to be an anchor point of consistency for my week I'm into

it.

So I kind of dial in that one song and then that's me.

Yeah just expand on that.

Song of the week is literally that song on repeat.

Yeah on repeat.

Look if I had control of the office music 24-7 I would play the same song and I'd try to

do it a few times but is this on repeat?

I'm like yeah go on someone else jump on but if I'm in my car, if I've got ear pods

on or whatever and I'm in control of the music, same song all week until Monday morning.

Do you ever go back to back weeks?

If it's a ripper.

If there's one that's been like a great week and it's almost like sentimental I'll carry

the momentum through you know so but that's pretty rare but there is sometimes an overlap

yeah.

So I've got a playlist on Spotify it's called Bumpher 2023 and I just add my favourite

songs that I've had so people and I believe people in the office follow it.

I was actually done in Hawkes Bay at the weekend and I went to go into the TV it's a place

I'd stayed before and my Spotify was still on the TV so I could just like from six months

before I'd just tune back into Bumpher bit of house music bit of energy so it's always

house music or a verge on a little bit of DMV but I enjoy my house music.

That's fascinating point number one about Izzy but does that expand into routine being

a very important part of your life?

Yeah if either of you had to hire a hit man on me I'd be the easiest person to kill because

I'd do the same thing all the time.

I love it.

Same food, same timeframe I'm leaving the apartment, car park, it's a pretty routine

base week and when it does get I guess inconsistent at times like I always try and have a couple

of anchor points to bring me back in to feel like I am in control of my week.

So it's actually just feeling like I can have some ownership on my week more than anything

it's kind of like actually I do I am in control what some basis points that I can kind of

go back to to give me that consistency so I don't feel like I'm reactive to everything

that's coming across my desk.

Can I pick away to just a couple of kind of things because I think we've got some similar

similar traits here and some really not similar traits in terms of our bank balances but volume

in a car is a multiple of two or a multiple of five?

No issues well the maximum volume is 45 so I run 45 on my way into the office and I actually

often get complaints from like our body corp about like the music volume when I'm leaving

the apartment because if the sun's up no matter how cold it is I'll open up the old sunroof

and the windows are down blazing so I've never been too focused on the numbers of the volume

okay I do know that there's a lot of common themes for some people but nah it's never

as loud as it can be that's me that might be the most shameless question I've just

I'm curious can I follow it up with another one same haircut every time at the same barber

yeah yeah nice fuck yeah every every week I run a two-week operation yeah I like to think

that I don't even know that I can tell I've had a haircut that's how consistent I like

my week to be so I've never had unfortunately I've never had someone come up like man it's

a really nice haircut well because you can't tell so it's kind of my geez she actually

often says oh nice haircut babe it's like three days later you know what I mean so maybe

I just blow tried a little bit better that day or something that's good consistency and

lunch same lunch same lunch yeah I had a bit of a falling out with my my prior lunch incumbent

three weeks ago I hate fish like I can't do raw fish and I ordered some sushi and it came

and I went to bite into it and it had a little bit of salmon yeah on the seaweed and that

just put me out of sync a really so for about a year I'd had jumbo chicken yeah no vegetables

in it just rice and your seaweed roll for probably a year and yeah put put me out of

whack for long because I'm yet to recover actually so just just sticking on the food

thing just for a minute have you buried the hatchet with with pack and save Albany around

that pink chicken debacle a few years ago why there's a first I might here remember it I did

get some vouchers for that but I don't live up those ways so you know what I'm I'm not a petty

bastard and I do forgive but I don't forget so I probably wouldn't go back so no rotisserie chickens

I do but not from there no way no pinkies I'm so I'm already so well you've dug deep

just checking the Air Force ones as well just to see whether they were they custom yeah

that's just on of Nike right Nike.com you can kind of just get the get some initials put on

the back like like people do with football boots yeah yeah I'm so interested in unpacking that

mind I'm gonna start with a few character references so we recently had Luke Kimmies

from Boys Get Paid on the pod who is an exceptionally high level operator himself

and he had this to say about you from what I say sorry from what I see he's a 1% massively

driven high performer who is an ability to bring a team together to achieve a goal thinks a lot

bigger than most Kiwis and won't stop until he achieves it he's mad on fitness because it's done

so much for him and he encourages his team teammates to live the same way leads from the front

that was Kimmies and we also had this from Sammy Jasper who I believe was your employee number

one yeah he said Izzy is the most driven person I've ever met he's one of those few people that

actually thrives when the going gets tough or when tough conversations are needed I haven't

seen anything like it from when I started working for him you could tell he was going to be

successful and whatever he did and fear play to him what he's done with ALH is incredible 25

laborers and just me and him in the office now he has multiple branches across the country and

maybe 500 plus staff incredible really so no one Sammy I'm wondering if you needed a few

tough conversations with him over the years but I digress I want to focus in on the point he made

about the tough conversations and when going gets tough yeah like is that what you really thrive on

I so there was a really big point for me like I think what people sometimes can look past as I

started ALH when I was 21 that's fucking young looking back at it and you don't really get taken

too seriously when you're that that age and a big kids industry so there's actually a point where I

remember my now chairman Rob we're kind of getting through a bit of nitty gritty times and there was

a real challenge that was kind of presenting itself and I never forget he was off overseas and I

said to him I was like fuck Rob I was like you know what do I do here how do I have this

conversation and and what do you do and he and he kind of said to me he said well is he I'm

actually off overseas for the next seven days why don't you show me that you're a capable leader

and show me if you're as good as you are and if you are you'll be able to have that conversation so

when I come back why don't you signal to me that you're that guy and if not and and if not right

and and I was kind of holy shit like if I don't have this conversation the goat is gonna is might

not talk to me again you know what I mean it's kind of like so I guess I've always appreciated

feedback and if I've ever once I've got that respect for someone I'll often be really proactive with

actioning that feedback and that was the first time I felt like I had to do that so I guess I did

I dived into a hard conversation that people still aren't comfortable having and it was around an

underperformer in our business right like it was through an underperformance sector stage and we

just had to dive into the problem at hand where it's kind of like you can ignore a problem and it's

actually only gonna get worse or you can address it in a respectful way but a direct way and you

actually get a better outcome for often both parties from just being up front and honest amazing

insight on that and quite often we shirk away from the tough conversation right yeah and and you

know like it's it's it's I think it's far easier to soften someone's edges than sharpen someone's

edges so when we're kind of going through the recruitment process of bringing into our leadership

team and our management level I always think I'd rather have a hard time trying to almost calm this

friggin bull horse down and break it in then trying to push it to be better right or be tougher

and be harder so I'd much rather get people that are a bit rogue in their communication and what

they want to achieve and their competitiveness we can kind of pull them back and help mold them but

it's really hard to go the other way. There's a difference between knowing that you have to dive

into these difficult conversations and really thriving and enjoying it are you like did that

happen quite quickly that you actually look forward to that challenge yeah it happened really

quickly I think like I was always it was well geez might might as well explore a sport where it

probably comes from actually like being thriving and uncomfortable settings it's actually kind of

been the normal for me always growing up when I when I first started working and at a young age

and even started playing football everything revolved around pushing myself to the limit and

learning how to be better when I'm in that kind of threshold and zone so when I was kind of 10 or

11 me and my dad would go for a head bike around the block and then I would run next to him and

he'd be biking and we'd do power poles right so sprint jog sprint jog and I'd kind of get three

quarters in and and I'd be really outside my comfort zone and my dad would be on the bike

screaming like this is when you learn about yourself you know and it's like what do you mean

like I just want to vomit but it's kind of like I take it back that far so when I was 12 or 11 or

10 in those ages constantly having to be willing to go a bit further when I was uncomfortable

wanted to stop I guess for me mentally you think actually I don't want to have that conversation

but I know I can and often the benefit comes from going that bit further just like exercise

how early did you make that distinction because it's a it's a great analogy now looking back

with that old eyes but was it a was it a teenage thing yeah I would probably say it was a oh nah

look I actually think it was probably once dad passed away probably actually unpacking some of

the stuff because I think when you when you grow up how I grow up you know it's probably frigging

borderline psychological abuse like so military focused for me you actually don't realise that

that wasn't normal so you kind of almost think oh that's all good and then you kind of start to

have these experiences like Jasper's kind of alluded to and you think well if I can have these

conversations like what if a duck's back what why can I have that and other people can't what

actually has built that resilience or that kind of comfort to be in an uncomfortable space so it

was probably like early to mid 20s you start to unpack things when when when you start performing

in that zone in a different vertical I think I was kind of okay maybe a couple of reasons why you

know we'll be right back after this short break I'm really keen to start painting the picture and

I want to start in Gisborne growing up little in high school and I've heard you talk about the success

you've had and part of it being based on your ability to communicate with lots of different

people from lots of different walks of life and this listen high school it was kind of like well

11% Pakiha in Gisborne you know can you talk to us a little bit about that experience growing up

there yeah so we so like growing up I guess in the home environment that we're a massive family

we're all working working class family no one really in our family like everyone was kind of

involved in the trade and stuff like that it's kind of like you 99% of people in Gisborne are

like that so you end up going to school with people there's actually never really someone at

your school in Gisborne that's getting picked up in a cool car or something like that it's actually

such a level playing field so it's actually you grow up and it's just what it is you got so

many different cultures in Gisborne which I friggin loved right like we had a we had a

buddy on our school at high school like while some people think that's odd that was cool because

you learn about the culture and because I was so religious like with our Christianity growing

up we're actually never allowed to dive into that because you weren't allowed to worship like

false gods or other gods so little things to know that you weren't allowed to walk over the

Fuddys front lawn because it was tough it was a different like it was a form of disrespect I just

always really loved those communities and being involved in them so it's kind of like it wasn't

until I came to Auckland that I was like geez why so many friggin white people at school like

honestly like you know like I'd never I'd seen more Asians on my first day at Westlake boys

they're not ever seen in Gisborne do not I mean and like it's just like it was hectic so go back

to it but it was the norm for me do not I mean constantly interacting with different communities

different cultures different people from different places in the world in different income brackets

but it was actually kind of a common denominator like our school was like a DSL one school so

they're kind of all in the same group do you know what I mean it's again no one's no one's going

to school with a cool backpack it's got shit backpacks it's kind of no one's living any

different so I guess the question for that is is that that was what it was like until I left

Gisborne so I actually didn't know any different you know and I didn't know that you had to treat

people different if they were in a bigger profile role or if they're in a lesser profile role

because you just learn to respect everyone you know so you've got that side of things the

respect and at the same time there's fostering this competitive element within your family is

that competitive with your siblings and competitiveness passed down from your dad yeah so so massively

and it and that all started a young age like I everything I did my dad was kind of almost

playing me off against my siblings right my bougie is 12 years my oldest sister she's 12 years

older than me my brother's 10 years older than me my sister's five years older than me like of

course I'm not going to be able to catch them whilst we're still living at home but it was

kind of like almost made to believe that I should be so it's kind of everything we did it was well

you should be doing that so well like I'm six and my brother's you know 18 so so yeah the

competitors all started started at it I can't remember not being kind of encouraged to be

competitive that would be what I would say and it was and it often came at costs right like I

would I would Salko'd cry when I'd lose like it was just I was the worst sportsman ever because

I just walk off I couldn't bear myself to shake people's hands if I lost it was just like the

worst thing because my life revolved around playing sport on a weekend and and that was kind

of almost you know like a bit of an escape for me out of the life that I was kind of succumb

and in that was I looked so forward to that and if it didn't go my way especially because I impacted

it in a negative element I didn't forgive myself right I'd be out for around that afternoon after

kind of school sports and stuff it was just like so I was always pretty hard on myself but that

came from my dad being being hard on me it was like no no from you know I was never allowed to

sleep in and never remember like about allowed being to sleep in past 7 a.m. growing up in Gizzy

and it was always because you know that teaches bad habits you know five years old no you can't

sleep in bad habits just with the the upbringing amongst the religious backdrop stuff like TV and

bits and pieces were they prevalent in your household or were they so another thing that was

a great question probably a good question to answer because it gives people insights of how

intense it was right we weren't allowed to listen to worldly music so like if I could hear my dad

coming over the road because he had keys in his pocket because he was a caretaker I could hear the

the chinkle of the keys so I'd turn MTV off and I put on something else but it was we were never

allowed worldly music playing at home and we're allowed to listen to like the righteous brothers

in the Beach Boys on a Sunday and that was at a push you know but mum always had Savage Garden

seating in her car so we'd kind of get in there and have a bit of a hoot to Savage Garden but

truly madly deeply yeah so yeah so that's kind of like to the extent that it was at but again

like you just didn't realize that that wasn't all that abnormal yeah I wanted to ask that because

I've heard you describe it as coming from humble beginnings but I wanted to understand when you

reconcile the fact that it was humble beginnings because if you don't know any different it's

just what it is just beginnings yeah like going back to the Gisborne thing like you know at our

school they'd have like you'd get free Milo and toast in the mornings they'd do a breakfast

club at school the DSL rating and stuff like that because it was not normal for people to

not be able to bring lunch to school so I always felt like we were wealthy you know because we

actually had clothes we had a roof we you know like home was safe and and I always felt we're

still 20 times better off than other people but then I kind of come up here and I've experienced

some lifestyles out of here and I'm like far out like it's people just have no idea but then

that's not their problem that they don't know you know and I just use it as a bit of a strength

and a bit of a tool to my box to say actually I know what this can be like so so every day for me

man waking up and doing what I do is a real privilege right now like pressure generally is a

privilege and and I've never woken up without a smile on my face and thought shit let's get

stuck into it no matter how sticky the mud is for my reading the Izzy story you're at 27 now right

28 just turn 28 has three chapters and there's the beginning which we've covered in Gisborne

and family life and there's what's happened with ATL yep and in the middle there's ages 16 to 21

ALH bro ALH oh yeah good pick up yeah ATL I was like what have you been doing in Atlanta bro

yeah who knows but 16 to 21 is when you left Gisborne and you moved to Auckland yeah and then we

sort of mentioned some adversity are you able to talk about those years why you moved to Auckland

and then paint the picture of what happened across those years yeah so I getting into Auckland was

was look I I'm always I'm happy I always say I'm always happy I'm never satisfied and I'm not

yet proud just to see what I've delivered but if I'm going to put the P word out there I'm most

proud of myself for getting out of Gisborne because if I didn't get out of Gisborne shit who knows

I went and played at a football tournament and and linked up with a with a coach that was at

Sykesie who was at Westlake and I kind of exchanged emails but I had to lie to him and tell him

that my parents used my email so I was emailing Sykesie pretending I was my dad because there's

no way I would have been allowed allowed to leave like to a school that was outside of my family

church or my family home it was just so forbidden so I was kind of like orchestrating this whole

kind of opportunity and I was like geez like I'd been working for for about four years in

Gisie and I'd been mind the lawn so I knew that I could survive for kind of two years so I knew

that I could have enough money I think I could have spent like 70 bucks or 72 bucks a week in

Auckland with what I'd saved and I could sell my truck that I bought oh man that's a hustles

mentality early age yeah well I just thought I was like like I kind of just thought like I was

like man I need to get out of here so I kind of orchestrated it I never forget I I went to my

my mum and dad and I said look guys I'm I've got this intercity bus ticket that I'm I'm gonna jump

on and go to Auckland and give this school called Westlake a crack and if it's successful and they

want me I'm going I'm not coming back I'm 16 I can do whatever I want I don't know if that's

necessarily true but um but and and that was it and the trial went well um I didn't think it went

well but it went well enough um got involved at Westlake had had two of the most phenomenal years

of my life at Westlake what that school was able to provide me in the way of nurturing infrastructure

around actually just how to be a bloke a good guy um and and uphold yourself with integrity and

respect I learned so much from from that school um on a many many aspects and the family I live

with the corn to the family um they did so much for me they didn't have to take me in when when

they did and they did um and then yes I I went through school I failed school I couldn't go to

uni um but you know dad was a builder back in the day my uncle was kind of my brother's a joiner was

as a joiner by trade I kind of knew how to swing a hammer so I was like I'll just try and get a

building apprenticeship so ended up kind of getting on the books of a building apprenticeship

and I kind of was veering away from playing football and I just wanted to kind of get stuck

into work once you're doing big hours and your your labor intensive job you lose that that

motivation to one of them has to give right and I didn't even really like football I actually never

liked football not once did I kind of thrive playing it was always about winning and uh

and then so I kind of took a year off footy um did the building thing did the flatting thing um

with a bunch of mates which was fun and then uh year two got back into footy um

martin bullock actually gave me it gave me a buzz and and kind of went in and and jumped in

at the youth team at whitehack and and that was actually just cool to get back into a team

team environment and team setting and then continued to play from there um but then later

on that second year I then got um I got mugged in town so I got beaten up um Reuben Parker goalkeeper

that's a him problem bro throw it throw it throw it export can I'll never forget

into the wrong group of people and I was the one that got uh picked on really really sorry to

for for our podcast to trigger look treat the either top mate of mine that I've told them this

a hundred times so it's not new to him but um but yeah so that happened so my shoulder got

dislocated I had to have like a reconstruction surgery which put me off the tools for for a

long time and longer than I would have liked and it was at that stage I was I was kind of like

I'm on ACC I want to play youth league and I want to time my uh surgery so it's kind of only with

one game to go I'd never won anything in football like a league or anything I was like a whitehack

team was pretty good um can we do it you know and then uh so we went to kind of I basically

planned to have surgery two two games out before the end of the season and um so I was playing

through it playing through it I was I was thinking about studying starting studying the next year

I never forgot I never forget I played my um we played a game on on Saturday and then on Sunday

we had a crate day um and I was due to due to um go and get my surgery on the Wednesday and that was

basically us saying catch you later so we're uh all the boys having having crates the whitehack

fellas celebrating kind of a bit of an early end of season gig and um and I was getting pizza that

kind of a few hours later with my girlfriend at the time and and that's when my um you know

bearing in mind my dad was meant to be flying up was due to be flying up on the Wednesday morning

to be there with my surgery and uh and then I got a call from my sister um saying uh that my dad had

died and uh I was drunk I don't know what the hell was going on um and I kind of thought no he's not

I spoke to him last night he's kind of coming up on Wednesday you know kind of what are you talking

about and she said uh dad dad's been found dead and I was kind of like what what the fuck how's

this happen you know he's an upbeat guy like people think I'm a pretty high-energy positive guy

he was exactly the same so for me I instantly thought someone's beaten him up like because

he was a caretaker you had to go and do the alarms and stuff it goes high late at night so he'd

always kind of there'd be alarms going off a cat would set it off and and Gizzy's you know it's

probably the last place you want to be walking around late at night and um and yeah so then I

connected with the with the family I'd I've been living with the corners I went over there and and

kind of they kind of huddled around me and and we hatched a plan to get me home as quickly as I can

their dad Paulie Cornter drove me to Toadonga to intercept with my brother who was in New Plymouth

and then he drove me home and I remember I saw my brother um there's the BP in Toadonga that you

kind of if you're going back onto the modeway coming out of the mount I'll never forget and I

drive past that every fortnight and it's one of those things you'll never I'll never forget

never forget driving in there we're in uh Sierra Cornters Mini Cooper and my brother was sat at the

kind of barley in a pace where you kind of see your tradies having their pies and their cokes

and uh he was just sobbing and he was sobbing next to the BP employee and I was thinking all

right you know fuck this is this is step one of this is real I need to go in and see my brother

we're getting the car and then I said banjo I'm drunk I don't want to keep you know like

help me to understand what's happened he said oh I don't want to know he said uh I just don't

want to know I said well do you know he goes no look I don't know I it was hidden trees and I was

kind of like he's been beaten up you know someone's you know down one on him I was kind of whatever

and then I was kind of nodding on and off again crate days I wouldn't recommend crate day on a day

like that but um so we get to gizzy and then I walk in the door and um my my sister I got such a

close relationship with my sister bougie um and if it was someone that was going to tell me what

exactly happened it was her and I said bougie fucking cut me cut me break here what's going on

so then my sister just refers to me and she and she just said to me um that's kind of committed

suicide and uh and I was kind of like no he hasn't like come on like that's that's not happened

and uh and then she said no he has like he'd he'd left the letter um and that was kind of it

I was like all right well that's happened now where do I go go from here and where does the

family go so there was such a massive kind of hurdle to to have to experience and especially

because it caught me by surprise and maybe because I'd left home and I wasn't really there um

I I didn't see any of the signs like I knew dad had a bit of a screw loose and he was

quite militarily styled in the way he was kind of bringing me up to an extent um so yeah it was

it blindsided me and then uh it was kind of the next day I I never forget like all the family are

there as siblings people coming in and I kind of almost thought like they were kind of all right

is you need to move your surgery you needed you know it's on Wednesday and I was like no like

I'm not stopping for this like I'm gonna do what I need to do and what I think I need to do and

I kind of almost went into like upbringing mode it's like you you've got a challenge

deal with it the best way you feel and and push forward so I I kind of went about it um

my way and and wasn't necessarily the way that my family thought I should have gone about it

my brother-in-law um you know we kind of went up and and got my surgery and and and stuff like that

and and drove me up and down and and never forget waking up from that surgery and the first question

I asked the doctor is I had this bad dream that my dad uh took his life and uh and she just broke

down in tears and then she said oh that's not for me to confirm but I think that's the situation so

yeah so so that that was that hurdle um so that happens then I go and have surgery on the Wednesday

have the funeral on the Saturday and then it's kind of my whole exercise routine that was so critical

important was taken away so I was sat on my ass thinking about this thing for so long and I just

wanted to get back to playing football and I've never missed football because that was our first

time I actually wanted to play football so I could take my mind off things. I'll just jump in here

before you continue um thank you for sharing that uh when you are dealing with this incredible

adversity probably the hardest thing you'll ever go through and you're making these decisions and

you're figuring it out are you getting professional help as well are you are there other people who

are helping you through this? No not for a long time like I I probably went cold turkey for about

like a year and a bit um no just kind of dial yourself and do do what you feel is best and I

felt like I did all right like generally I kind of I was kind of I I did what I had to do like

I won ugly right you kind of it's a one no win you know and a scrappy win um but then uh the the

next stage the the hard stuff um so I kind of just went about my life right I kind of got stuck into

what I went to I changed some of the infrastructure around my life I I dialed into uni um hated uni

sucked at uni but I was playing football at the time um it was really awesome I was enjoying

forest hill we had such a cool setup we had my two best mates from school we're all in the same team

and and we were just having fun playing together and winning there's two we had a stacked team so

I think we lost once that season so it's actually a really cool shift for me to have um

but then I uh I trickled down your fellow's way to Hamilton that following summer when uh with

y bop um and I I signed for y bop we're doing the travel thing I wasn't good enough to be playing

national league I was just fit had a left foot not many people kind of have a kick with their left

foot you boys know um and I was kind of just like working harder and harder and harder and the only

thing that I knew and that was kind of fitness right I was just trying to get so fit remember

Scotty Hilli was in our team and geez I had some legs and lungs on him right and it's kind of like

I just wanted to be as fit as that guy and uh and so everything I was doing it wasn't football

based I was in training with sins about some strength and speed but it was just fitness

because that was kind of my escape and then I actually realized I started to feel kind of in

the end of January that something wasn't quite right in the engine and I was kind of like oh

something's feeling a little bit interesting like I know I should be getting fitter but I'm getting

more unfit and I was kind of kept it to myself for a long time and then the the summer season stopped

and uh you know as you have a bit of it overlap with Summer League and Winter League um I think

we had a few games off with the stand-down period or whatever and then I I said to Boinesy I said

I just want to get straight back into it I just need to get straight back into it um I hardly

played um I was like I just want to play football and uh kind of take my mind off things and then

I'll never forget we the first game of the season was against Western Springs and it was

stinking hot and I was bugger day like just after half time and I was like feeling cramp and I was

like something's really wrong here but but what do you think it is when you're that age you know

you fit you look down you got friggin abs you got you know a couple of muscles on your legs you're

feeling good about yourself when you're kind of the last thing you think that that's going to be

letting you down is your heart so I kind of pushed through got got a few games in and and my last

ever competitive game of football was against Hamilton Wanderers um and and I had two episodes

when I went to go and do my laces coming onto the bus and I was kind of went to went to type my

shoelaces and uh just felt this nasty like sharp pain kind of come come through my like lower back

and then kind of in the front it almost felt like someone like went like jabbed me either side of the

rib cage and I was like oh geez that feels a bit interesting anyway played the game asked to come

off a couple of times but as you know predominantly I was a fit guy no one believed me that I was

hurting and that I had to come off because I didn't have a bone sticking out of my leg I didn't have

a swallow on that like it was kind of like you look fine keep playing and I was like seeing two

eight like I'd never forget I was trying to get myself sent off like I was coming in flying into

tack I was like I'm not getting taken off I need to get off this pitch because something's about

to shut down and then um I went out that night uh had to go way too many beers um and then back in

at Britomart Mackers as everyone ends their nights uh in in Auckland when you're that age

and sprawled across the floor and I genuinely got up the first thing I did I touched my like

shoulder blade and I like looked for blood because I thought someone stabbed me like that's how

intense the pain was and I was like what the hell is going on and uh so so that all happened and then

I was kind of I looked at my I was with my girlfriend at the time I was kind of like

whoa what happened there I don't know let's just go home I was like yeah happy days go home

I could hardly get out of bed the next day and um and it was an incredibly unfortunate wake-up call

that's one of their family my partner's family at the time family friends had just um passed away

because of lung cancer and uh and she was like oh we need to make sure it's not your lungs and I was

like it could be my lungs so I went and got the whole lung test and and stuff at Massey University

and uh they said is your lungs have never been better and I thought so you know sweet I was like um

I didn't tell the coach that I'd gone and done this checkup and we had a Tuesday night game or

something I was like cool got my game they're like I actually hang back we're gonna do an ECG

I'd never heard of an ECG in my life and that's when they did the ECG on me and then the the nurse

she was um of Asian descent and and uh she went like pale when she'd kind of looked at my ECG

and uh and she she actually didn't say anything she just left the room and I'm constantly like

is she having a heart attack? I had a heart attack and uh and I was like something's really wrong

and uh she comes back and she said hey um you're gonna have to go straight to hospital

or we're gonna have to get your an ambulance and you're gonna have to go into the room next

door and tell your family that you've likely had multiple heart attacks and that she probably

hadn't seen something like that like she's a student nurse and she was so shook it didn't make me feel

comfortable um but you know she saved my life at the end of the day and I never forgot around my god

I've had a couple of heart attacks I was like I don't believe it but apparently I've got to

go to hospital uh and if I don't they're going to call an ambulance and uh so my uh partner at

the time's dad came and picked me up we we shot to the hospital and um kind of got all the bloods

and stuff done and post that then got diagnosed with uh cardiomyopathy um hypertrophic which is kind of

they say um you kind of get a flu right and you over train on it and then you continue to

over train and just exhaust it and it kind of um you lose a lot of functionality in some of like

the the left ventricle of your heart and it basically shits itself over time if you don't

catch it and it kind of causes heart failure if you don't catch it early enough so when they

found it my heart was 27 percent bigger than it should have been because it was swollen um

they didn't know what was going on so um yeah that that was kind of step two and I think in the

hospital I was there for seven days they weren't coming up with answers they didn't know if it was

athletes heart like a lot of triathletes and long distance runners get athletes heart and you can

actually de-swell your heart um but I was stuck in there for seven days and and that's coming back

to the dad stuff that's when I had to deal with it again it's kind of like I didn't deal with it

early I'm sat in a hospital no one's allowed to be with me at night time you know you kind of

I'm in the cardiac area I'm sure you can imagine the average age of the cardiac area

fucking everyone's gray you got 70 years old it's not like I can make too many mates with

the people next to me um and it was just it was a really humbling experience to say all right

you've you've fanged it this hard you've pushed your body too far you've basically created a

heart condition sit down figure out what you have to figure out and I remember I just cried

like most nights just bore my eyes out um dealing with the dad stuff and uh and and that was kind

of the the way it all all all kind of came about and then off the back of that I went to a psychologist

called Johan and Gisborne six times and uh it was just more directionary right like he kind of said

you're gonna feel this and that's cool but do this or these are some tips and techniques and I went

six times and um and that was it I felt really comfortable and really great after it and it

was just good to kind of have something that I clicked with he's a South African dude he was

funny he was pretty blokey and uh and and half the time I'd gone for those sessions we'd just talk

shit and it's kind of like he's not sitting across from me feeling sorry for me he's almost telling

me to get on with my life and this is how I get on with my life you know and he said that to me

I enjoy that you're willing to move forward he said these are kind of the guys that can be a

bit easier to deal with than kind of sitting there and being like why me why me why me like

whether or not or why it happened that's how do you push forward so those are kind of that yeah

what was the time frame of your dad passing to the two heart attacks is that sort of a year is that

it was um it was uh it was probably 18 months 18 months so dad passed when December and I found

out about May the not not that year May year so yeah kind of 18 months we'll be right back after

this short break so this is where the third chapter begins and thank you so much for the

retelling of that I think it paints a really good picture of where you were at and to fast forward

now 28 years old smashing it two businesses bringing in well over 30 million each in revenue

like absolutely on top of the world but there you were 21 and your father has passed you've

had two heart attacks and you're crying in hospital and you don't have anything and now the story and

now this is the most inspirational story is is what you have built so can you tell us from the

beginning how what you did from there yeah so amongst the tears and nearly drowned in the south

because I was crying so much I realized I didn't like football and I didn't even want to keep playing

football um all all the football was ever was as football was a I was so lucky to be playing football

that's what I was led to believe from my dad because he wasn't allowed to play with the world

Gisborne City were playing National League when he was a young fella he was never allowed to play

because National League was on Sunday and he always would tell me from a young age I I'm naturally

not athletic enough to be a professional footballer he said but at the least you can play National League

and I well I think I played two games and then but that was it for me like I could close that

chapter I'd done it if I hadn't had done that I probably wouldn't have been so willing to close

that chapter so I was like I've done everything I could have done do you know what I mean like

or I thought I could have done and I didn't even want to do that so um I don't want to go back

and coach I don't want to be involved in football I loved building and I knew that my boss is making

six dollars an hour off me when I was an apprentice so I thought when I sit in there I can football's

a no uni's a big fat no because I was fucking awful at it uh and building was cool and I thought if

I could get five guys out on site doing 40 hours a week that's a thousand dollars gross profit margin

a week life can be good and then I can go and be a stopbroker because that's what I want to be

working suit snazzyed up suit be a cool guy being the financial markets you know I always heard

they did big hours and they grind in so I was like that's a bit of me um I couldn't think anything worse

now but um but yes I was like actually I'm gonna give this a punt and the first person I told was

was bougie my sister um and I was so nervous to tell her but she was the only validation I needed

and I reckon if I honestly think bougie is that important to me she'd probably be the only person

that could have deferred where I am today um I said to her bougie I think I'm gonna start a business

and she goes well good if it's anyone that's gonna do it it's you I believe in you go for it I was like

oh off we go and and that was generally it and and and that was all I needed and then

four months later uh four five months later started up Auckland labour hire and uh and yeah

that was kind of um that that was where it all started no business plan right no none none at all

even on the back of a napkin like no business plan and just that's the equation in your head

about five yeah and I had I had no business now it's about me I had uh no one to lean on about

business it was all gas no brakes right I'd rather hit the wall before I hit the brakes that was kind

of always kind of what I'd rather do you know you can kind of come back from it and is it right

that the first person you contracted out was yourself yeah I said I was banjo banjo yeah yeah

so funny story I was actually at the warriors on on Saturday um and we're sitting in the

embankment and uh I sat down and there's this guy I I probably was a easy target but I had a

like hot pink hoodie on and uh for no reason I just genuinely like pink and he like taps me on the

shoulders and like knuckles me for having a pink hoodie on and he goes fucking hang on a minute and

I said oh what's up he goes I know you he goes you're banjo's brother

and he goes oh listen oh you you said you were banjo you're that guy and then oh mate his name

was Jimmy um and and he was an awesome bloke and he probably chewed my ears off for about 25 minutes

for the first half just talking about work he was a farmer from New Plymouth um and told me how much

he'd kind of you know even on the fit out business he'd kind of knew some of the fit

outs we'd done like you know he's he kind of knew what was kind of going on and stuff like

there and I kind of look back and I think you know it it's not necessarily a natural desire of mine

to be uh overly public with what I am doing what what achievements we might be going or have achieved

but you have people like that that you kind of feel they've got a kick out of kind of following

some of some of that journey and and and it kind of almost yeah he felt like he was a part of it

right like I kind of told him I'm going to the state of origin in two weeks and he was dead

seriously like can you take me I'd love to come like we kind of build a little camaraderie that

that wow but it I guess he felt like I kind of got a sense he felt like he knew so much about me

already he was so comfortable to have that chat and stuff like that and kind of have those things so

yeah I get that that's the banjo story he was the first worker and and I guess I I uh got recognised

as my my brother's my brother's brother so for those listening just to give a bit of context

at ALH it started providing general labour to construction sites in the early days yeah can

you help link up um the progress it made over those first few months or years to when you met

Rob Fife on the Milford track and where your business was when you met him um yeah so uh I um

we started out in the construction site and I was just going hammer and tong I was still building

like because I was still at uni right I still like had an overlap of uni because I was like Jesus

one of these got to work you know uh or else I fucked and then I ended up getting the uh

invite to um go on the Milford track walk so I started in August went on the Milford track walk

in end of January with Rob and Sara um and a mutual friend of of theirs and uh I handed the

reins over to Banjo he ran now six six labourers that I had whilst I was away and I was stressing

out the whole time because I didn't have any cell phone coverage so when I'd met Rob I had no idea

who Rob was I had no idea the success that Sara had equally had at 62 um and I kind of

fall into this Milford track walk and we've got all these friggin awesome people there

and then I was I kind of just got talking to Rob about uh about business and he was

sharing some stories with me about Air New Zealand and and uh and I was just fascinated

um by the stories he had the magnitude of the deals that he was doing like with Boeing or Airbus

at Air New Zealand so for those that don't know he was CEO of Air New Zealand General Manager of

BNZ and like other things like yeah incredible yeah got a good CV yeah and uh and I was just

like picking this guy's brains right there's probably times I never forget I can't it's like

day three we're going over all these friggin mountains it was like cold up there the altitude

was hurt in Maticka but I was not going to let him not get away without asking some more questions

and then so I kind of just leaned into it and he was so open and cool about being honest with like

everything from like you know it's public information of what he earned at Air New Zealand

but he was happy to like I was I was always like money never impressed me and money was never my

be all an end all but I knew the challenges that would have had to have come to earn those figures

so that's what always drove me um and man it was just fascinating I was kind of wow this is so cool

like I've had this experience and you know he the inspiration I left from Milford track with it

it was just a completely different beast I was kind of like actually I want to be having conversations

like that when I'm his age to people my current age and I want to at least try and give even 1%

of the inspiration that he gave me unintentionally just from being a really good bloke and sharing

the stories with me at the end of the Milford track is there a little sense of fear with you that

he goes his way you go your way and that moment in time is that moment in time but how did you

leave it to to reconnect in the real world um I never thought about that and I actually had a

really good relationship with Saiyan Rob prior to that so it wasn't like it was a cold turkey hey

let's just jump into it um and you know for me we kind of laugh about I'm I'm the adopted

son at uh in Saras Saras family so I had such a good relationship with them that that wasn't

never a concern but equally I actually didn't think I deserved Rob's time and I actually didn't

expect it I kind of just thought that was enough I'm off here and then it wasn't until two months

later I called him I think he was in like Colorado or something and uh or Montreal

somewhere like that and uh because someone offered to buy um 49 or 50 percent of the

business for 25 grand and I was like this is a freaking awesome deal like you know I could go

and buy a 10 percent deposit in Gisborne on a home you know I could move back to Gisborne I could

walk away from ALH and and um and I'd still be better off than than anyone else my age in Gisborne

and and that was actually a really like contributing thought to me like seriously

contemplating it I rung him up and he kind of in short said to me if you fucking do that

you never get my advice again you know and that was kind of it I was like actually

he said is he you're the kind of guy you've got the kind of energy and drive you can get this

business to 25 to 30 million in revenue he said you just have to put your mind to it I'm thinking

if this guy's saying this he's a no bullshit kind of guy I'll fucking hold him to that you know like

I'm gonna get there and then so I I went and delivered a a full first financial year of 1.2

million in revenue by myself and then it was in about June and July um so it was nearly two years

before I had any investment right um and I started with 500 bucks um and it was it took

that long and then I actually went around to to say and Rob's and I said look Rob is there any

chance I could tap into some of your network I've got X chasing me for uh well they want to invest

but you know I don't know if I kind of align with these guys so is there anyone in your network and

he and Sara is sitting right at the table and he goes oh Sara will invest she doesn't know that

yet but she'll be keen and I was like hey all right you know and then she was like yeah come

around next week and thing like never forget walk in there I'm like I'm going for 80 grand for 10%

business was probably worth 250k at that time right I kind of walk in there and I'm like

80 grand Sara she goes well fuck I see I'm not spending more than 50 grand today and I want 10

percent so take it or leave it deal and uh and and that was it man and and then um and then

actually sorry no that conversation was Sara was in April because I remember we got Sammy

Jasper on in May I think and then uh and we had to get an employee in order to get the funds released

and that 50k went straight into working capital and then

as we like naturally progressed uh I went away to Robinsire's wedding um in America which was

an awesome experience like you know like a guy from Gizzy I'd never been there before because

all these friggin awesome people there um and from from that point uh I was there and then I met a

guy called John T. Edgar um and he kind of said is he giving me your elevator pitch I'm so drunk

I probably dribbled and mumbled the whole thing and it probably only went for like 10 seconds

if that and he said let's just do lunch let's just do lunch and I'm back and then uh and then so

we went and had lunch at at uh Ibiza it was the first time I'd ever been to Ibiza and I turned

up in a hoodie and my ripped jeans and my chucks I never forget what I was wearing because we sat

there at the at the um at the table and we talked shop for probably three minutes and I was so

nervous I didn't actually know why why the fuck he wanted to have lunch with me I didn't know that

he wanted to invest and what I was going in there for was half of what he offered me like I wanted

half of what he came for he he proactively doubled what I needed because he said to me is he

I don't actually know if Auckland Labor High is going to be successful and I haven't actually

had a look at it he said but I believe in you and I believe in you as a person he said and I

believe that your drive and energy is going to require more capital than what you're asking for

so I'm going to double it he said and he went to shake my hand and he pulled his hand back

and I'm like oh fuck the deals off and uh and bearing in mind like I had such little money I

couldn't have even paid for lunch that day if I wanted to right like that's that's how what was

are you able to say what what he doubled it yeah so so he said to me he said because you're

going to come back to me in six months and ask me for more money because you're so driven

and ambitious this company's going to grow quicker than you think and I'm thinking this guy's got great

mind games like he's gassing me up and went shake hand pulled it back and he said there's one condition

and I said what's the condition he goes the next business you start you come and ask me and Rob

for your for your investment if you ask anyone and uh and I said jaunty I'm never starting

another business I said uh this is fucking way too much already I don't sleep like it's a tick

tick it's it's full on but I'll shake your hand anyway um and and that was it and uh I walked out

and I called my brother called banjo and I remember just walking I was like me you won't

fucking believe the lunch I've just had and he was like what you know that's more than my house

costs and I said I know I said what's the chances so ended up um kind of like they ended up equally

purchasing it so sarah rob and jaunty had about 10.23% of the business each so they kind of

diluted it and chopped and changed it so they're all equal shareholdings in the business because

they rob had uh sarah had drag and drop rights and and whatnot and I had given Rob 4% of the

business for just helping me so I gave him 4% um and that was the cheapest that that 4%

no matter how much this business is worth in 10 or 20 years time that'll still be the best

focus that would be the best kind of thing because it's not the money that the money is the least

value I've got from from robin and sarah and that support you know from from what they've been able

to offer and provide me um has been the money's been the least and least important thing did it

take you a while to get your head around the money you know we've spoken from gizbin and coming up

and you've had this with rob and it's changed your perspective a little bit and then you're talking

about you know someone investing the price of a house and you're still 21 22 was that was that

an easy thing to take in your stride it was uh well I just knew that I actually wasn't going to

take any of the money right I it's it's worth saying I went and brought a pair of Gucci shoes

when I got the money and that's that's generally I brought a Gucci shoes and I brought a ticket to

go to the UK for a bit of a bit of a bash for it for a week or two and that's only money I took out

of the quarter of a mil so out of the 300k I'd only taken that and and that kind of had signalled

I guess I walked down rob steps at his house and he wasn't even looking at me he's just looking at

my shoes and then what what are those I said mate how cool are these I said gonna bought myself some

shoes he goes uh do you ever see me wearing those kind of shoes and I said nah man I said

but how cool are they he's basically I don't want to see those shoes I knew ever again you know it

was kind of like until I'm near him or or whatever then don't fucking turn up wearing those shoes

and I was like holy shit so I kind of never wore those shoes again and the cheeky bugger

I never forget because I was walking down uh uh doing a beachwalk probably like

nine months later and I was actually telling my friend Jordan the story and Rob comes around

in the pair of Gucci shoes and it just couldn't have been better timing so I think

you know probably back to the conversation earlier on about having that direct conversation

Rob sat me down on my fucking seat and said you are nowhere near where you need to be before you

start wearing that shit do you know what I mean he said you know getting like he didn't say it but

I I interpret it stay in your fucking lane like you're not there you got so far to go and those

conversations and that that harsh but fear and and rightfully so conversations continued to happen

I got asked at a TEDx youth talk and I was so excited and I emailed Rob and said what do you

think he said you haven't achieved enough to do one of these he said you'll be putting a target on

your back he said there's nothing to talk about I was like okay I've just done three million

revenue in my second full full year what are you talking about so you kind of go through those

things but you look at it and if if you if I didn't have someone holding me that accountable

I wouldn't have known that that wasn't the right thing to be doing so constantly reassessing my

image reminding myself I am Izzy from Gizzy I grew up in a three bedroom with with a family of six

don't ever lose that because I don't want to ever lose that and there's things that you can easily

start to lose but but you know it's so it's always been constant caring accountable conversations to

make sure I'm I'm sticking to who I am and and that's generally what we're there where the

kind of run to those conversations come from what do you think Rob and Johnty and Sarah saw in you

specifically dude I don't know like if I knew the answer to that question uh I could probably answer

that a hundred times that so many people would ask me a year but man I was upbeat I was high energy

I was fucking full of noise and uh I'm you know I just got a lot of energy man so they're probably

just like oh this guy's got a lot of energy if he could direct it in this way um then then so be it

and and unintentionally you know I'd like to think I was involved in their family enough to probably

get a feel of what kind of a guy I am and what I stood for um you know Sarah's uh daughters and Rob's

step um daughters Toby and Dolly they instantly almost became like little sisters to me so I was

you know before the investment happened I was kind of picking them up dropping them off and we

never knew that that was where the this was going to lead to but it was just a really organic

relationship in my eyes that that that kind of went to that way and and I genuinely believe

I don't even know if Rob saw where we are today in me he's just a great guy and so is Johnty and

Sarah's a lovely lady to think they just owe it to New Zealand business to give someone a crack.

Yeah I'm really interested in going down a little Rob Fife uh rabbit hole here um and it's in the

under the frame of turning a good business into a great business because you said you had three

million at revenue at that point you're up over 30 now I mean 30 that that is a great business

but with Rob like what is it specifically about him and the way he conduct himself or his work

ethical where does this genius come from that has allowed him to have the career he's had?

Um geez look I can only speak on on my experience with what would I would I get from him um as a

chairman professionally um there is absolutely no tolerance for bullshit there there is no gray area

it's black or white don't even try and fucking make it gray you make it gray you're going to get

eaten um you're kind of seeing yourself to the slaughterhouse if you try and make it own the

own the fucking problem don't go to him with a problem without a solution that's always been our

philosophy and he's never reminded me or had to but every time I get feedback I action it immediately

so it's um and I think it's just like a a respect thing I think I don't know like I respected Rob

before I even knew who Rob was I just fucking like Rob do you know what I mean like and I think

that's probably what maybe made it how it is you know like I I didn't even know what the hell

he was up to or what he had done at the time so it's kind of like I look at Rob in a personal

perspective before I look at one in a in a business perspective you know and we can kind of

decipher when we're in the boardroom or when we're at his home for for dinner on a Sunday you know

there you go so as this journey continues Auckland labour hire and you start expanding

and you get into the regions and you're building and you become Altearoa labour hire

what what was the timeline of that um it was about two years it was about two years so

12 months ago we had uh four branches and it was next week we opened up our fifth so in the last

in the last uh 12 months we've opened up seven branches and in the 12 months prior to that we

opened up two uh sorry another three so yeah a lot's happened the last two years right so kind

of we've opened up 10 branches in the last two years so that was uh that that was kind of what we

started trading in in Wellington and that's how the fit out business came about ended up building

a really good relationship with the project director of a of a construction company who ultimately

me and him had a conversation which led to us founding that that business together but I was

kind of doing a contract for him supporting it from afar um and executing that under the name of

Auckland labour hire and and no one likes Jaffers man especially not people in Wellington you know

and uh and it took me to call him on a private number it's for him to finally pick up and I was like

Aidan bro it's Izzy I'm from Gizzy you're from Gizzy we owe each other that time we're both from

Gizzy oh fuck what do you want he knew I'd been trying to call him I said bro give me a chance at

this this job that you're doing in lower heart and I'll I'll give you the labourers and um and then

he goes oh do you have labourers I said yeah I didn't he said uh starts next Wednesday and it was a

Friday and I said cool man consider it done and and we got 11 labourers on site on the Wednesday

I've gone the next flight down Wednesday that um my one of my childhood best mates uh house

mustered it all up and then uh and then got going and then um yeah that that was kind of it

my progression to Wellington we changed the name I stopped staying at uh Kye's house which was a

flat of five progressed into Mitchie's house Cam Mitchell you boys will know um then I started

going to stay with him jumping on the couch his apartment and so it was always a really cool

junior and I look back at it like Auckland labour hire it's kind of like there's been some psychological

shifts when we changed it you know I'd stopped staying at friends house because then we changed

it out at all labour hire an ALH and we got going so that was kind of the transition it was it was

actually a pretty organic transition but I went out open I never thought it was going to be bigger

than Auckland what what pressure did that put on you personally that rapid progression because

don't forget there's this covid in the middle of that as well right dude like I don't say this

trying to sound full of myself but I've never really felt it like I've never honestly felt

like there's so much pressure on me it hurts it's like I love that shit like I I couldn't

just have it in Auckland I I love doing four or six flights a week I love being in three different

cities I love knowing that I've got to deliver some fucking outrageous growth in this business

and I'm the one that sets the growth targets it's not my board they're actually saying oh slow down

like fuck we don't need this many the goal was to open up three branches last year that was their

advice and I said I got more of me you know so it's kind of like the the pressure stuff

it's almost like fuel for me the more I know I can deliver and it should be delivering the

the more excited I get to be undertaking that that that pressure which I transfer into to positive

energy like I love it man I I love walking into the office knowing that I've got to deliver for

everyone in this office and I love that kind of sense of feeling you know I I I I just really

enjoy the competitiveness and and you know people often say you're your your biggest competitors

the guy in the mirror and that's friggin true I wake up every day look at that motherfucker in the

in the mirror and think you've got to be better than this guy yesterday and and you just got a

push and and and I love that shit and being surrounded by competitive people is great for

that you know my best mate he's ultra competitive we competing with each other who wakes up earlier

you know we're texting each other happy Monday fucking happy Friday whatever it's like oh shit

you talk about delivering for your staff and but you literally do that as well and the people are

the core of your business right you do look after them as best you can yeah and that does that stem

from just listening to your story without telling it for you that time in Gizzy like growing up in

Gizzy and seeing what people had to deal with at work and and making work a fun place yeah like

again going back to the way we grew up we we always did so much more than what was what other

families would do for each other I didn't realize that until I got out of my family we always did

so much more out of out of no charge we would always be doing working bees at one of the uncles

or aunties we'd always be dropping off firewood before the winter set in you know we'd go up to

Duke and Nisho and Gizbin with my me and my dad and we'd chainsaw up the we'd chainsaw up the

cores and then we're going to drop in and stack them around so it's like we were always doing more

than what other people would do for their families so it's actually just natural that that feels like

I should be doing more for my people and the people that we have in our office and that's

actually just been a natural a really blessing a major blessing that I had that whilst I didn't

enjoy doing it if I can hand it firewood but if I look at it now it's actually just part of my process

it's one of the things we have learned the sense of community and how people enjoy belonging or

being part of a group and it feels like that is to the people I've spoken to that work in your

company is a real theme you know you've got a basketball court and in one of your warehouses

you do like team workouts and things which perhaps other workplaces don't and which really separates

you yeah is that fair yeah no absolutely it's it's uh exercises is so important man like you know

for for my my two my two things that I think about every morning I wake up and I think

today's a fucking great day I don't want to take my life like my dad did I'm not in that rut and

today I can wake up and I'm not in hospital with my heart so those are two fucking wins I have

first thing I wake up every day is a good day man you've got to start your day good and you've

got to start it positive and you've got to feel thankful for the body you're in I've never gone

to the gym to look a different way right I I have the worst genetics for putting muscle on but I go

into the gym every day to use my body because I'm thankful I've got a healthy body I've got a healthy

mind uh and I just want to get the body tickin right that that's my fuel that's my my my gas

station get into the ALH engine room man turn some shit out get some fuel to me you know

we'll be right back after this short break

so we've done this whole story and we've only briefly mentioned fit out solution

which on its own would be its whole story so I actually talked to Shay I was like fuck I don't

know much about fit out solution I was like do you he's like yeah I think so so I'm gonna put

him on the spot so Shay what is fit out solution and and what do they do my rudimentary understanding

would be fit out solutions when tenders for commercial commercial contracts and fit out

the shells with how they need to be for the client yeah can you give us an example

like if ACC are moving their headquarters to Hamilton yeah that they've someone has built a

building and fit out would come in and make that building inside look how ACC want it to yeah mate

now on the head there's my guy they do a bit of other stuff don't worry about it I'm not involved

I'm not involved in it day to day anymore uh Bretton Aidan uh Aidan the CEO Brett's Brett's uh

the the TYC project director they do an amazing job uh constantly focused on on top delivery and

and they're a real pleasure to be kind of doing on on their own journey with but it's there it's

there it's their race and they're running it fucking well and they're two top like so is your

oh yeah you've got a fit out follow-up because I've got another one you go ahead well I was

going to say is your list listening to your talk is your um major contribution now building up the

people around you like your senior leadership team around you in the branches because you

can't physically be in every place at every time I've got um three 14 direct reports no

13 direct reports and they're basically all branch management staff and our internal kind of office

management and uh and finance manager um so I'm I'm I'd spend 95% of my week communicating

and interacting with with our branch managers and it's just gassing them up man giving them an

opportunity you know we're all young like I pride myself on giving people an opportunity five years

before anyone else would and uh give them give them an open open canvas to create it how they want

um and I love seeing ambition and drive come through this business and it gets me so excited

every day to know that I've got some young keen eager leaders that are just out there ready to

fucking win you know your story is fucking inspirational man it's it's so good um I'd

heard interviews a few years ago maybe a year ago where you talked about goals of like a hundred

mil in revenue is that where are you at at the moment and is that still the target uh that's a

New Zealand target um hello um so we're going for 50 mil this year um this current financial year

uh we'll get this business to a hundred mil in the next five years uh and we've just kind of uh

we're incorporated um ALH PTY which is Australia labor hire um and so well isn't it and uh and

we've got someone based over there full time uh at the moment and we've got a couple of partnerships

that we're servicing right now so we're currently trading in uh outside of Brisbane um but we'll

be basing in Brisbane um and we're looking to do that kind of from early next year we're just

getting everything done in the right way and kind of easing into it but um 100 mil 100 mil in New

Zealand 100 mil in Aussie so 200 mil is that is that the most ball uh that's between two bears

they've ever received is 100 mil a tow when you see one tow man like like like it's it's you know

probably for for for you boys you know you see people you would have played footy with some boys

that that know how good or think they're good how good they are and it might sound it might sound

overly ambitious when you hear some boys thinking i'm gonna go pro and they go and go pro but they

just believed in in and what what they what what the tools that they have they can kind of go and

deliver and i that's how i kind of look at it i'm like man like i'm a fucking loser if i don't

deliver 100 mil because i've got everything i need to do to do it and if i don't i'm not as

fucking good as i am you know and that that's the accountability i put on myself like oh there's no way

i'd let this business not get to 100 mil in New Zealand and then there's no way i'm not going

to let it do the same over the ditch that's that's generally how i wake up and i feel every day and

i don't have one percent of doubt that that's not going to be delivered and that's not an arrogance

or or a cocky thing i just know how much i want this and how much i want it to win

and the people we have in the business right now uh want it to win too and it's like

it's gonna happen you know it's it's an insanely impressive mindset um and i'm loving it i want

to dig a little bit i won't keep you too much longer but um what your day looks like like how

you actually struct your day what time you wake up like what what is it yeah uh first alarm goes

off at 4 45 um and i'm kind of up and out on a monday it's earlier it'll go 4 15 because i like

to just to get that spotify playlist so yeah i just like to get the uh the i probably put the

body through its paces a bit more on a monday just now i've got a big week and and sometimes i might

not have as much time in the morning as i'd like but 4 45 leave home at five um kind of at the gym

at 20 past five i'm kind of on the bike at at kind of you know around there and um and i just

just hook into it i kind of do 30 to 45 minutes of exercise in the morning and i do a sauna for

20 minutes and then i'm kind of up at my desk ready to ready to get at it um i always make a

conscious effort to be home for dinner um and and then you know i'll have dinner with g and then uh

if i'm not on the road and then after that um watch a bit of tally and then the laptop's back open

kind of going through what i need to go through and uh but i'll be on the road two nights a week

minimum so kind of four to six flights is my average flights a week so it's kind of flat

tack but get that in routine really easy and what's bedtime if you're getting up in the fours

11th then okay so it's asleep not prioritized no i i actually just think i've you know maybe

back to the whole upbringing thing i was never allowed to sleep in right so so when you're young

you think about you know you're up on your phones you're doing this your eyes are wide awake you're

thinking about x y z so you kind of get to the point where i was going to sleep at two o'clock

some nights but dad would still wake me up at seven so i was having to learn to operate it at

you know at uh at on five hours sleep so that was kind of part of the parcel i don't know any

different you know never check a bag in if you're traveling never check a bag in brother not even

overseas not even overseas because you lose time you know you lose half an hour either side of the

plane talk to us about this time compounding on the biggest like that there's a big priority in my

week on on compound time right like if i think all right if i'm doing four flights a week right

that's two hours uh that's two hours that i can not be kind of sitting around or mucking around

checking my bag and right that's that's eight hours a month you know that that kind of sticks

up pretty quickly but compound time for me is like i always think about it for when i'm working at

night so i always think if i'm doing two hours from nine till eleven nine p.m to eleven or eight p.m

till ten p.m my competitors aren't right i'm doing five days of that that's 10 hours a week

that's 40 hours a month you know you kind of do that then you kind of end up getting and you

know you start to kind of get things ticking i'm doing a whole working week when people are

fucking sleeping and that gets me going you know something actually over the course of

the seven years we're coming up to now you sit there and you think yeah it might look like seven

years on paper but i've fucking done 15 years of work you know it's like when i started at age

you know you just have to ask jess but how many hours i was willing to do you know like i was

doing 80 hour weeks like relentlessly like i was fucking living in that in the in the dungeon man

like i was i was grinding and then you put fit out on top of that for a couple of years it was just

it was you know you turn into it like an alien and you're just on that grind so compound time

whatever i can do you know i think over a year if you do 40 hours a week it's 2 000 hours a year

right i'll thought for my first three years i'm going to do 80 hours so then i'm going to do 4 000

hours a year so what someone takes six years i'm doing three because i'm beyond the grind right so

when people say man you must be so stoked with where it's at after six years i'm at feels like

12 brother you know it's been a while whilst on paper it looks like that i i know what we've been

able to do here is has been fast tracked through nothing other than ambition and willingness to do

more the way you are this super mindset optimized life everything seems to be firing on all cylinders

is obviously a result of your upbringing but we talked about you know it might not have been the

i'm not sure what the right word is but it might have been difficult in in patches

do you reflect back on the way that you were brought up in a positive way like did it make

you the person you are and would you change anything so i wouldn't i wouldn't change anything um

and to to probably be vulnerable to to getting to the underneath that question me me and my dad

didn't have a good relationship from the time i was about 12 to 16 right we're kind of at each

other's throat it wasn't until i left home that we kind of almost repaired it he was obviously looking

back starting to kind of have that real kind of shift in and in how he was feeling in his mental

health but you know there'd be weeks when i was uh year nine um year eight i was doing two hours

before school i was going to school two hours of mind the lawns i'd go to school i'd gone through

two hours you know i was doing 20 to 25 hours mine lawns a week whilst i was at intermediate

up until i left the west lake and then he knew the owner of bunnings so i went and did

one till six p.m on a sunday at bunnings you know i was working i was working every day

from the time i was 12 to i was 16 and and we'd get to like breaking point and there'd be times

he'd kind of say well if it ever gets too much just let me know but oh no you'll never let me know

well you're not really opening the door for me to let you know and i said there'd be sometimes

you get to breaking point and there was a only three times where i kind of felt like this is too

much i i need to know why the fuck we're going this far in terms of why you're pushing me like

this because you didn't push your other kids like this and uh he'd give me this distinctive look

and he'd say look we don't know what we're working for he said but you'll thank me one day for the

work ethic i'll give you and you kind of look like back at that and i think that's the one thing

that that you know if i lose sleep on it it's like i've never got to say that to my dad you

know i never got to say thanks for that work ethic because if i look at it now i'm i wouldn't be here

if it wasn't for that so going back to it massively the the upbringing is why i am and

i wouldn't change a thing if anything i'd probably dial it up a notch you know so so for me it's um

man i still lived a better life than a lot of people do and i think it's just understanding

and appreciating that there's always someone that has it worse you know there's always someone that

loses their dad earlier there's always someone that has a worse living environment someone always

has it worse than you have it and it's understanding that and and kind of getting that that feeling

you know so so yeah the upbringing is is is is easy you know and i think that's it and i'll never be

too proud to or or or beyond knowing that that's where it came from that's such an introspective

reflection that's that's so good thank you for sharing all this we've just got a few uh little

bits and pieces before we we wrap up uh one on my list was um this surprised me that you hadn't

read a book but your father-in-law has written a book and you've said that you will read it and

this was from an interview a while ago so i'm wondering how far you've you've progressed with

that one uh i think i got like four or six pages in i can't remember uh i haven't ever read a book

i i don't have the attention span to things i'm not passionate about not that i'm not passionate

with my in-laws sorry lance yeah he's a good guy but uh she's am i gonna read his book no

like uh i've never read a book not at all my one is coming from gizzy you must have had some r and v

stories not only attending but have you been part of a packout crew and what does that actually look

like i i went to my first r and v at 16 i was on the security and i did the old drop the drop the

hive doesn't get stuck in there so my my experiences was was always i was working for my youth group

not so godly straight in there man got a couple of cans um my experience has always been great

i've always been there i love r and v i'm going r and v again this year i went last year it's

fucking awesome um it's it's such a hoot and it gets better and better every year but yeah

there's been some doozies that's for sure the ultra competitiveness that you spoke about earlier

have you got a lid on that like do you what do you like these days if you go out and play a

social game of sport or golf perhaps dude i i can't i don't like i like i won't put myself in

the situation if i think i could lose i won't do it i i not because i i'm worried about my reaction

i'm worried about feeling like i've lost like i i i don't i don't even play snap right like i i

don't play any board games i don't play any card games i i'm the families i'm involved in uh they

all love it i hate it because i there's a lot of chance right at least at least i'm in control

of alh i'm in control whether we win or to an element you know i can control our result i can't

control whether i roll a six or a two i don't want to be involved in that you know it's like

i want to be know that i can work harder than someone to get that win that that's so no like golf

golf's super challenging for me like oh i'll do it i you know jeez you wouldn't have to look too

far to get some horrific stories of the extents i've gone to the wins last last one from me

mafia stole sitting in a restaurant always have your back to a wall so you can see what's happening

out in front of you yeah uh i've got weird ears man like like i um like almost get like a a bit

of a sensory overload so like if i'm if i'm sat here and there's like uh people behind me like i

almost can hear their conversations over the ones that i've got in front of me and it kind of

gives me the twitches and shit so i i eat the same place all the time and i'll always sit on the

wall and uh and i sit at the same cafes and it's kind of like you know takes a few months to say

to someone oh i've got weird ears i'll sit on the wall you kind of sit there but kind of get there

man uh all right i'm going to wrap up and i'm going to throw to shea as a outro guy but firstly

thank you so much for coming in i know how busy you are i think you've forgiven us your time um

20 i was just thinking before like you speak of someone who has lived a full life like it's

incredible your 28 and i was thinking about where you're going to be in 10 years 20 years time like

it blows my mind what you've achieved uh the mindset you have is perhaps the most impressive

mindset that we've ever had on the show like it is razor sharp it is so determined uh it's it's so

exciting to see yeah you continue to follow your story so thank you for coming in and sharing with

it but i'm not the outro guy shea i will say firstly i'd like to say on on here um i appreciate

the kind words but i'm the star struck one um i remember for those that are listening i uh when

i was at the ripe old age of 19 or 20 i was trying to i was thinking about what football clubs to be

and then uh there's this name stevie holloway northern league veteran please please don't do this

done this i try to tell shea that please don't do this done that and uh and it was it was a real

draw card um to to come and train with that team so mate i feel a little bit star struck nine years

later being being here sat set across you so privilege and pleasure is mine makes me very

busy you know i'm hating every moment of that um i'll i'll wrap i'll wrap us up properly um

a fascinating case study man an amazing reaction to some real adversity that's that's come along

your way and uh the resilience to bounce back from some of those challenges but then to approach

life with a smile on your face with energy with drive your enthusiasm is infectious i listen to

you on the drive up i've been privileged to spend an hour and a half with you here now

and you talk about gassing up your staff like i feel genuinely juiced and it's a real special skill

that you have i don't know how you've been blessed with it but i love that you continue to hone it

and i love that you don't see a finite end to it um i'd love the reaction that this episode is going

to get i hope nobody sleeps on it because like steven said you're being one of the most thoughtful

poetic articulate guests and for someone who says they dropped out of school they didn't do uni

the way you speak and compose your ideas and get that message across is really really inspiring

keep doing what you're doing man i can't wait to see where this thing ends up cheers brother i think

if you like being gassed up too if you've got to come in for a workout one morning at five o'clock

and we'll really get gassed out be brilliant sounds good show we in yeah only if i can ice bath

i promise you i'm going to hold you to that yeah we're all in cheers is he cool

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