Property Hub - Investment Insights & Inspiration - Get Invested: Greg Moulton on the principles and processes of high performing teams

Episode Date: January 12, 2019

Greg Moulton is a highly regarded leadership consultant who prides himself on creating tribes through brand, plans and behaviours. Starting life as a naturally talented tennis player with a great love of sport, his professional career began in real estate where he quickly rose into State Management and CEO roles for leading real estate companies, growing large and successful business franchises. This was rewarded with his role as President and board member of The Real Estate Institute. His natural leadership style and love of sport has also been utilised and recognised through his work with elite sporting clubs including AFL teams Carlton, Adelaide Crows and currently with the Adelaide 36ers in the NBL. In short, Greg Moulton is a recognised local living legend . On a personal level, ‘Moults’ has become a business mentor for the KnowHow team and a lot of what he taught us has resulted in our ongoing business success, and we still utilise his performance approaches. Greg is one of those guys who is very humble and his relaxed down to earth manner belies his very sharp intellect and the ability to read people, situations and dynamics well and quickly create collective collaboration to achieve great things very quickly. In this easy going conversation you will learn some great and very easy to implement approaches to improve your own and your team's performance, including: The ‘3 Things’ model Keep, Stop, Start The Good, The Bad & The Ugly & The Non Negotiables Achieving success isn’t rocket science but there are a number of key principles, people and process elements that you need to consider and there is no better way to learn it and make it happen that to enjoy the wisdom of Greg ‘Moults’ Moulton. Greg’s book recommendations: Good to Great by Jim Collins The Happiness Trap by Dr Russ Harris Get Invested is the podcast dedicated to time poor professionals who want to work less and live more. Join Bushy Martin, one of Australia’s top 10 property specialists, as he and his influential guests share know-how on the ways investing in property can unlock the life you always dreamed about and secure your financial future. Remember to subscribe on your favourite podcast player, and if you're enjoying the show please leave us a review. Find out more about Get Invested here https://bushymartin.com.au/get-invested-podcast/  Want to connect with Bushy? Get in touch here https://bushymartin.com.au/contact/  This show is produced by Apiro Media - http://apiropodcasts.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I think a lot of people in life rely on skill and skill alone, so there's three platforms to a performance triangle, skill, structure and mindset. I probably worked reasonably well at the skill side, I trained reasonably hard, can eat a tennis ball okay, tactically reasonably sound, but what I didn't have is the structure to my weeks, my months, goals, what I wanted to achieve, and I certainly in those days didn't do any work around mindset. Welcome to the Get Invested Podcast, where we share great conversations with experts from all walks of life to uncover their secret know-how on where they invest their time, their skills, and their money, and the benefits this has created. You see, the truth is that everyone invests.

Every minute of every day, we're investing our time, our skills, our energy, and our money in something. Some of us are investing consciously, some unconsciously, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad, and sometimes for no impact. Get Invested will help you to start living by design, not by default. I'm going to help you to make it happen, not let it happen. You'll hear the top tips on how you can live with conscious intent so that you can live more, work less, and leave a living legacy by investing now. Listen to the show to discover the top tips on how to get started, make the most of your

investment journey, and ultimately, to be living your dream, not someone else's. More episodes can be found on iTunes or at bushymartin.com.au forward slash getinvested. Thanks for listening, and now, let's get invested. In today's episode, I want to come back to the elusive question of what are the critical elements that lead to success in any area of your life, be it personal, relationships, work, sport, business, you name it. Are there fundamental principles that apply to all and any area? Well, as a lifelong learner, it's a subject that fascinates me and I just love to investigate

it. So, what do you think it takes to be successful in whatever you decide to be successful in and however you decide to define success? What's the secret sauce that separates the goods from the greats? It's a subject that today's guest is well qualified to shed some light on. Greg Moulton is a highly regarded leadership consultant who prides himself in creating tribes through brand, plans and behaviours. Starting off as a naturally talented tennis player with a great love of sport, His professional career started in real estate, where he quickly rose into state management

and CEO roles for leading real estate companies, where he grew large and successful business franchises. Now, this was rewarded with his role as president of the Real Estate Institute and several board memberships, but his natural leadership style and his love of sport has also been utilised and recognised through his work with elite sporting clubs, including Australian Football League teams Carlton, the Adelaide Crows, and currently with the Adelaide 36ers National Basketball League team. In short, Greg Moulton is a recognised local living legend. Now, I've got a lot of time for Maltsey. I was lucky enough to be introduced to him a few years

ago and he became our business mentor and a lot of what he taught us has resulted in our ongoing business success and we still utilize a lot of his performance approaches today. Now Greg is one of those guys who's very humble and his relaxed down-to-earth manner tends to belie his very sharp intellect and his ability to read people, situations, dynamics extremely well and then quickly create collective collaboration to achieve great things in a very short space of time. In our easy going conversation today, you'll learn some great and very easy to implement approaches that will improve your own and your team's performance. And they include things like the three things model, keep, stop, start, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and the non-negotiables.

They almost sound like movie titles, but there's some really good gold in what he's mentioning there. Now, achieving success isn't rocket science, but there are a number of very key principles, people and process elements that you need to consider. And there's no better way to learn it and to make it happen than to enjoy the wisdom of Greg Moulton. welcome freedom fighters today i'm going to do a deep dive chat with one of my mentors someone who's had a major impact on my life to date and is really responsible a lot for our current success so i'd like to welcome on board to get invested greg moulton great to have here, mate. Thanks, Bushy. How are you getting on? Really

good, mate. Really good, thanks to you. It's been an interesting time. Now, Bushy, do I call you Sir Bushy, mate? We've got books, we've got TV appearances, we've got public speaking. You seem to be travelling really, really well. Well, mate, you've set the mould, Maltsey. You've established the bar and I've just been following it, mate, so I'm pretty keen to dig into some of that, mate. But, mate, for those that don't know you, can you just give us a very brief rundown on who you are,

what you do, and why you do it, mate? Yeah, sure. Look, I will keep it brief, Bushy. Come from a sporting background, played a bit of tennis when I was a kid. Wasn't dedicated enough. Probably disappointed when I look back on some opportunities that I didn't grab in the sporting career. So when I got to work, I thought, righto,

I won't make that same mistake. I spent a fair bit of time in the real estate industry. So I ran some businesses called First National and Harcourts and Harris and doing some work with Owens Cassidy and a little business called Connect. But, you know, my real passion is, I guess, people. So that's taken me back into the sporting world, doing some work with the 36ers at the moment, which is an interesting experience for the young Joey,

but also done a bit of work with Nord and Crows and Carlton and those types of organisations, more in the commercial side, I guess, and trying to get teams aligned with the sporting team and all that sort of thing, which has been very interesting. But, mate, mine is I just get a real buzz out of developing people. It seems to be more younger people are more mature because they seem to be a touch more open-minded

to this sort of stuff at the moment. But, mate, that's me in a nutshell. or pretty simple, basic blow. Yeah, yeah. Just to, you covered an enormous amount of ground there and probably very humbly underplayed some of the awesome successes that you've had on that journey so far. Mate, I'm keen to sort of dig into your motivations.

You sort of mentioned the tennis and the sport missed opportunity and then some learnings there that you've put into your business life and then that's enabled you to branch back into assisting elite sport. Tell me about the motivations in terms of where you invested your time, energy and money on that journey and the major learnings that's helped you and others to date, mate. I'll go, if it's all right, I'll just quickly go back to the tennis. I think a lot of people in life rely on skill and skill alone.

So there's three platforms to a performance triangle, skill, structure and mindset. I probably worked reasonably well at the skill side I trained reasonably hard, can eat a tennis ball okay tactically reasonably sound but what I didn't have is the structure to my weeks, my months, goals what I wanted to achieve and I certainly in those days didn't do any work around mindset

so it was a pretty simple mode of play I'd work hard, I'd do the best I could on the court I'd lose, I'd go and have a couple of beers I'd go and do a bit of training and we'd do it all again rather than work to a plan or a structure of how I could actually do things differently. My working stuff, there's a guy called Gilbert Anoka. He's the All Blacks general manager now,

but when I met him about 10 years ago, he was the mental manager. And, you know, I was very lucky to spend a lot of time with him, spend a bit of time with the All Blacks in camp and really understood how they structured up their camps. They're the most successful, as most people know, on the world stage in any sporting team. And, you know, it was a combination of all three of those things, the detail they put into honing skills,

the time they put into preparing the best they can through the whole week, month, et cetera, that Gilbert spent a lot of time on their mindset. So, you know, I don't think any one of those three things is more important than the other, but without one of those, it just doesn't seem to work. So in youth, I didn't have a mentor. I had some great coaches, but I didn't have mentors.

I guess after that all I've tried to do is get some people around me that support me in those three areas. So, yeah, it's not rocket science, Bushy, but it's just a matter of being really consistent with what you do and your behaviours. Yeah, that's spot on, mate. And I guess they're pretty generic approaches that can be applied to anything

where you've got more than one person trying to achieve something. So how did you find that, you know, in the real estate career? Let's kick into that a little bit Because you've made a major mark in real estate, both within the agencies, but also to the industry at large here in South Australia. And there's some pretty... Yeah, I appreciate you saying that. Yeah, I don't feel as though I've done anything particularly special, mate.

All I guess I've done is, you know, it's the same as everything. You know, not everything goes your way, but if I believe I'm on the right track and I've got a plan, I'll just stick to it. Yeah. And as I've been pig-headed, you know, obviously we do change things up if something's definitely not working. But I guess, you know, resilience comes to mind. You know, I've had a couple of tragedies.

You know, I lost my mum when I was young. Those types of bits and pieces really, I think, forge a certain personality. So my personality is to just stick to what I really believe is right. And, you know, people are going to not like me. I know there's a lot of people out there that probably really dislike me because I've stuck to what I've done, and that hasn't always been the way they've seen it. But overall, you know, I've been lucky enough

that enough cards have fallen my way to sort of show that if I've got the plan right, the right people around me, that nine and a half out of ten times you end up on the right side of the card as far as what you want to achieve. But, yeah, look, mate, look, you know, that's all the heavy stuff for life. I've actually met some interesting people.

You know, I just love having a beer with blokes like you and, you know, some of your cronies, Benz and Collo, all those guys I met through you, you learn something from everybody. You know, I'm learning from people, buddy, 15, 16 years old all the way through to older people and, you know, I think that's really it. Let's just keep talking to a whole heap of people

with an open mind and keep learning. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's spot on, mate. There's a... The day we don't learn something is the day we're probably in a box or like a multi, but, mate... Yeah.

The... I mean, you have sort of gravitated to the higher levels in real estate and in elite sport. And in both of those arenas, you're dealing with some pretty big egos at times, mate, people who think their way is the right way. And you've sort of mentioned the persistence that you bring to the table

when you have got full belief in the plan. How have you managed to manoeuvre through that maze and get some of those big egos on board so that they're all rowing the ship in the right direction? That's a really good question. I don't know if I've ever really sat down and thought about it, and I probably should have, but what comes to mind, and I can think of three or four different individuals

who I won't name for obvious reasons, but I think what I've done is tried to build up people around them. So a lot of people's ego is based around their self-importance and needing to be the top dog or top lady or whatever it is. and in each case, if I can build a team around those so they're not, or a business isn't, or a team isn't, or even a partnership or a marriage isn't reliant on one or the other, they either leave, which is fine, that's never really worried me,

or they actually go, okay, hey, this team gig's not too bad, there's other people out there doing things differently to me, they seem to have a more balanced life, they seem to be ending up more successful than me and in different areas and all those types of things. So in a couple of areas, unfortunately, people have left, but we've built the team successfully and haven't missed either their income or their, you know,

50 goals or a football or out in front, whatever it is. But, you know, the real success stories are when people that have had massive egos and sort of acted like prima donnas actually come back into the team and start playing a team sport or a team effort in the commercial world. and get more reward out of that.

You know, they generally become happier people. They generally don't flop any income if that's their driver. Yeah. And, you know, I think that's really what I've enjoyed, mate, and it's been three or four cases, particularly in real estate, where we've had criminal donors that, you know, they're indispensable and all that sort of stuff, realise they're not and really start enjoying their careers

and the organisation that they're working for. Yeah, yeah, yeah, OK. So one thing I remember, and we still utilise today, Malt, is the good old keep, stop, start formula that you introduced to us. Yeah, didn't we have you on that boat? Oh, it's a cracker, though, mate. The good thing about that, if you do that regularly enough and you get smacked in the face often enough with the same message,

then you're more likely to listen to it and actually do something about it. Yeah, I think working with guys like you, and look, luckily most people, I'm a real believer in this good to great Jim Collins if anybody out there is sort of into Jimmy Collins it's certainly worth a read and there's some praises on his work but a whole lot of that's just setting a really safe environment

where people actually walk out of the room they don't have to agree but they commit to it and more importantly you're not just sitting all there nodding at each other and telling everybody they're great and then going to the water cooler and saying that was a load of crap or Billy the Goose is you know no good or whatever so setting the scene

getting a really safe environment and your three partners, you had some very robust discussions. You know, the thing that sort of formed your success as it were is the three of you then, whatever the hell the decision was, committed to it, and away we go again. So the keep stuff's pretty easy. The stop doing stuff is more difficult.

But what do we start doing to do things differently? A lot of people find that probably the most challenging. So maybe, you know, there's a different one we do now. It's the good, bad and the ugly. What's gone really well? what can we do better, and what's so shithouse that we need to change it straight away. You get more value out of what you can do differently in life.

So every single day, Bushy, I try to do just one thing differently to what I've been doing before, and sometimes it works for me and sometimes it doesn't, but I'm not going to die wondering, mate. No, I love that, mate. I think this is the beauty of what you bring to the table, Malti, because in that whole leadership and team arena, At one end of the spectrum, there's the academic propel heads who get so lost in the jargonese that the average Joe on the street goes,

what the F are you talking about? And at the other end, it can get so basic and so generic and so woolly and fluffly that nothing ever changes. But you have this happy knack of actually being able to come up with really usable, simple techniques that everyone gets and can be implemented straight away. And, Matt, I'd love you to share a little bit more around that. So we've talked about keep, stop, start.

You've talked about good, bad, and ugly. Talk to us about some of the other things that you've used when you've approached some of the late team sports and some of the businesses like ourselves in the past that have helped them take them on a journey that's taken to the next level, mate. All right, mate. I reckon any session or anything they're trying to achieve

is just asking the question, why you would have heard that a million times why the hell are we in the room and what is the objective that we're setting out now if the objective is a common objective i'm going to get by if it's not a common objective there's no point having it so whether it's sporting or business what are we trying to achieve so you can have the big picture stuff which is your strategic direction where do we want to be in three years why do we want to are we sticking to our knitting a lot of people try to do too many things without doing you know a few things really really well Once we've got a three-year plan,

what do we need to do in the next 12 months to achieve that? What do we have to do in the first quarter to achieve that? And then break it in a month, week, day. Really simple stuff. So I just try to stick to three things. Bushy, I can't do any more than three things well. Half the time I'm not doing that well, but at least I'm trying. And instead of trying to do too many things.

So if I was to have two or three key messages, have a roadmap for a period of time, I don't go further than three years, understand what you need to do in the 12 months you're in understand what you need to do each day but just break it down to three things that you can be really really bloody proud of that you've done well

so we talk about important many people get into work they've got all this stuff thrown at them and bloody where do we start I just sit down calmly at the end of each night and go right there are three things I'm going to do my very best at tomorrow and if I do my very best at those three things

times five days of the week working days there's 15 things I've done well and sort of that multiplies out through the year I think a lot of people sort of get in there and they do everything to their best of their ability but if they're not concentrating on it or protecting their time to do it well

they do it at a 6 or a 7 out of 10 but if you really protect your time and nail it you can probably do it at an 8 or a 9 out of 10 so you get more out of it and just one other very quick one a lot of people concentrate on stuff that they're not quite so good at and try to improve it

that was certainly the case when I was playing the tennis I had a shit-ass backhand, reasonable forehand the normal coach wanted me to do is have a really good backhand because I didn't like that shot as much as some of the other shots I was never going to be good at it so a lot of us are elite at stuff we're passionate about I want to be really, really good at the stuff I enjoy doing because I'm more likely to

and unless the other stuff is really dragging me back just accept you're not going to be quite as good at some stuff as long as it's not detrimental um you know i don't think we have to be absolutely concentrating on being brilliant at everything so i don't know it's just lots of little simple things mate but um i think the biggest thing that's helped me is not trying to do too much you know try to do a few things really well rather than a lot of stuff and ending up doing it pretty averagely yeah that's a really good comment mate because you know a lot of people and me included before i met you mate uh grew up with this

impression you've got to be good at everything and you're right what ends up happening is the stuff that you do naturally and do very well, you don't put any more effort into and you spend a shitload of time on things that probably make about 1% difference but occupy a shitload of your time and therefore your overall performance goes down rather than going, no, I'm actually shit at that,

I'll get someone else to do that or we'll work out a way that someone else can do it who does like doing that stuff and then I can focus on the bit that I can really kick some goals with. So that's a bloody good insight, mate. But what about accountability, mate? Because what I find with a lot of these exercises

is there's some great agreements around the table, you know, generically, but on a day-to-day basis, you mentioned the three things, and you've been very good at this with us and others. How do you introduce that element of accountability to make sure on a regular basis that things are moving in the right direction? Well, Shane, I don't know if you remember, there would have been a couple of things

that I think you and Mark and Gary jointly, we had some behaviours, some non-negotiable behaviours that we all stuck to you know, so again, if I'm going to work with a group of people, what are the behaviours that we all absolutely are going to do time after time

I don't do it sort of so it's my idea, but you know, the two things that I just want is no bullshit I just, you know, people lie to me and that sort of stuff, I lose respect very quickly and I expect them to lose respect in me if I bullshit to them the other one's just real simple mate, if I say I'm going to do

something I'll do it and I learned that through Gilbert and the All Blacks and others but it's just if we say that we're going to do something so this is accountability I will do this particular task by this particular time I expect you to do it and I will

question and drive it or have a process where the very first thing we talk about our next session or our next meeting or whatever is hey this is what we said we're going to do how are we tracking simple as that so I think it's not so much holding people accountability through micromanaging,

but it is definitely setting some ground behaviours before we start and make the only businesses that are going to be successful are people that actually stick to what they say they're going to do. So I've never, ever made up any rules for a footy club or a tennis club or whatever club or a traditional organisation. I'd never walk in and say, right, these are the rules,

but I will work with a team for them to come up with their own rules and then it's up to them to stick to them and quite often if they don't find they can stick to them, again they leave and good to great, mate. It's all about getting the right people on the bus but making sure that bus stops enough so you're getting the right people off the bus and that's the difficult thing for some businesses.

You know, those tough conversations aren't easy and some people hold on to people that are detrimental to cultures too long, I reckon, mate. Yeah, I think that's a very good call, mate. And I guess because in a lot of occasions, the discussion around what you've just mentioned there, non-negotiables and behaviours, because that's not even there as a blueprint for someone to refer back to, it's very easy for someone to hide or to remain in an organisation where there's no common ground that they can talk about this as, well, are we all on the same page or not? So, yeah, nailed that, mate. Now, mate, sort of switching gears a little bit here, I noticed when doing a little bit of further research

before the discussion today, you've done some work with Harvard, mate, on immunity to change. Talk to me about that, mate. What's that about? Mate, I was the dumbest bloke ever to go to Harvard for a whole 10 days, I'm telling you. Don't believe it, mate.

It was a course on change and, look, it was a really, look, it really wasn't my cup of tea, to be honest with you. It was so just, what's the word, academic in its approach to it. But what it does do is it just teaches key levers and some key questioning techniques and gave us a little bit of structure around how to frame up some change at either a corporate level or in a person's personal life.

But, I mean, for mine it was just more the experience and hanging around with a whole lot of academic type people. They were trying to get better at what they were doing. And, you know, I met people from all around the world. I keep in touch with a couple of people through that process. My buddy was an Asian lady that had five children and, you know, worked her whole life as well. You know, you just meet some incredibly talented, passionate people. But I'm not great, really, I don't think, at this whole, you know, study and, you know, BDAs and all those types of things.

I saw it as important to do it. I quite enjoy the experience of learning and spending time with the people. But for mine, mate, it was just a fantastic experience to go to such a wonderful institution and meet some great people. Yeah. Yeah, no, awesome, mate. Well, I mean, you're way too humble, mate. You play things down because with a Master's

and quite a bit of education under your belt, you tend to play that down pretty well, mate. But, mate, why don't I switch gears now into the investment front and I'll ask you the question, can you remember the very first thing that you invested in? It was probably a beer followed by a good solid holiday. Yeah, no, I can, mate. I saved up a few dollars and bought myself a condi van

very early on in the days. Should have kept it because it would be worth about $80,000 now. Yeah. So I remember the old man, one of the first things he said, Daddy's done very well for himself and is reasonably wealthy in his own right. Still drives a really old car and looks very humbly, which, you know, is important to me. But more importantly, he said,

I'm not going to give you anything or within reason, but I will always be here if you screw something up. So in other words, have a fair crack, go out there and do it yourself, but just have the confidence that if you do stuff something up, I'm here to help. So with that, very early on, I bought a house, which did pretty well. And from there, just very different investments. I don't spend a lot of time, which will probably shock you,

but I don't spend a lot of time researching or studying. Again, it's around I'll either pick something in my comfort zone, which I know enough about to be dangerous, or I'll rely on people that I absolutely respect. so with mine I went into a vineyard with a group of people I respected we did okay got into some commercial property

sight unseen with Jeff Robertson who you know I just idolise as a guy but you know very talented and we've done very well so share market I've left up to the old man you know things like that so tried to diversify portfolios is probably

the key to it just because residential's been my gig I haven't thrown all my eggs into one basket, but relied on, just relied on people, to be honest. Again, Bushy, everything comes back to people, mate. If I get the people wrong, I'm in a bit of trouble. Well, it's a big skill to be able to read the right people and then associate yourself with the right people.

And I think life is an elite sport, mate. It really is. And if you're on the field with the best possible players in every position, you respect each other, but you work together and you're all kicking goals based on the same game strategy, life can be bloody good. But if you're rocking up against the Crows on your own part-time and playing 18 of the very best,

it's no surprise when Larry Lonesome doesn't quite achieve what he's hoped to in life. No, and I'll give you, you know, one thing. I reckon it's like those dominoes that you knock the first one over and the rest follow. It's always the hardest to knock that first domino over. So I bought a house for $74,000 at a $40,000 mortgage when I was 20-odd years old.

Just missed the $30,000 to $70,000 price rise. But I remember thinking most days interest rates were about 18%. So every time I went to the bloody letterboxes, the bank telling me now I owe an extra, my repayments have gone by this much. But at the time, it just seemed like so much money and such a pain in the arse and all the rest of it. But after you've done that one, the next one was easier

and the next one was easier. So investment or trying things differently or whatever is quite often just that very first one, knock that domino over and the rest follow and life goes on with those types of things become easier and easier. Yeah, yeah. No, good call. Mate, you have achieved a lot today, mate, and I admire the way you constantly play that down.

but how does the support of your life partner fit into assisting you to get to where you have made? Yeah, it's a good question. It's probably something I haven't done as well as I could have without. Christina's support and the fact that she's just really whatever I've wanted to do, some of them being harebrained ideas and some of them are safer, she's just always allowed me to do it.

And, you know, in respect to that, I've sort of hopefully supported her as well. So, Steen runs a very successful shop called Two Pairs. She was a teacher, very safe job, wanted to have a go. So, as long as we support each other into our passions, and that was always her passion, I can't say that she'd go wrong, but I can certainly and have certainly seen some relationships where I think some very talented people are prepared to take risks unless they have got a support base around them, whether it be a mother, a father, a wife, or whatever, it doesn't matter, without that support base, a lot of people don't actually achieve or

at least have a go at what they could be bloody really, really good at, so absolutely, I know you're, Sonia's just been, in your lives, you just seem to be peas in pods, and I think that's bloody incredibly important, to be honest. Yeah, we're yin and yang, mate. Yeah, I look even on holidays when you're together, you banter. Some people just have a really cool relationship, not everybody's going to have that. Whether it is just your partner or not,

I think I have got four, five, six, whatever it is, really cool people around me that I've been on for different things. Yeah, yeah. Awesome, mate. But why don't I talk about your dream lifestyle for a minute, mate. What does it look like? Does it differ from your current? And what are you investing in to bridge the gap between where you are now

and ultimately where you want to be, if there is one? My dream lifestyle, Bushy, that's a good question. I've got this thing. I can't knock a nail into a wall. I wouldn't know green grass from brown grass, but I want to have a farm. Okay. I want some cows and I want to ride motorbikes and I want to learn how to surf again because I'm useless at that now.

Because I've been around people so much, I actually think I'm at a stage where over the next two or three years I'd like to spend more time more on my own and understanding who I am and all of that sort of stuff, mate. And I've found the last three, four, five years of business life reasonably busy, massively challenging, massively rewarding. I'm getting to the stage where I don't get that buzz I used to out of that and I think I'm going to lead a far simpler life.

I love travel, but I'll always, always be involved in, you know, if people are after some support through the stuff that I do, business planning or values or, you know, sales performance or whatever. I'd love to do it as a consultant, which I'm doing now, but I won't be anywhere near as busy as I've been over the last few years, luckily for me, mate. So there you go, Bushy. Perfect lifestyle, be a lot quieter, local pub, a few cows,

a bit of travel, and maybe three or four days, two, three, four days of consultancy work. Well, mate, let me give you the big tip on the farm, because as you know, I'm now living on the homestead up at HQ at Clarendon. And I'm like you, mate. I'm like what they call a black thumb, not a green thumb. Anything I touch comes. And we've got a caretaker that looks after the –

it's a bit like Noah's Ark, mate. So it can be done, mate. And I couldn't hit a nail with a hammer, mate. So for someone that's a similar ilk, mate, it's definitely achievable, mate. Yeah, no, I've got no doubt that we can find a way, Bushy, but a lot of people find it surprising that even yourself, you know, Bushy, you want to spend a bit of time on their own because I think most of our lives we've been surrounded by people.

So we do change a little as we get older, maybe bushy, but I also feel as though as I've got older, I've got a little bit better understanding of myself and feel a little bit more content because I think part of me being around people in the past has been because it's made me feel good. So there you go, mate. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, I love your thoughts around that, mate. Now, mate, I'll switch into what I affectionately refer to as the ambush or the bushfire lightning round that plays on the old nickname there, mate, because there are questions that... I'm ready, mate.

Yeah, yeah. Bring it on. All right, mate. So these are the questions that everyone keeps asking me to get responses on. So what's your favourite quote and why? My favourite quote and why, Bushy, you know, I haven't got one single favourite quote. But the one I do like is around the virgin dude who, you know,

if you've read his books and you understand where he's come from and all that sort of stuff, is around training people so that they can lead your organisation. I can't quite remember exactly how it goes, but it's along the lines of train people the very best that you can so that they can lead your organisation, but then basically look after them so they don't. So part of my whole, you know, mantra, I guess, in any business

is grabbing people, working out where they want to go and then helping them achieve that but then hopefully looking after them so they don't. Hey, sometimes that doesn't work. You know, some people you think are going to be with you for a period of time and get another opportunity and I really do think that's awesome as well. So although I enjoy people's company

and all of that sort of stuff in people you've developed when they decide to leave, as long as it's for all the right reasons and it's great for them, it's fantastic. Quite around that sort of thing probably, mate. The other one is just do it. You know, very simple. Just get out there and have a crack.

Just do it. Yeah, no, it doesn't get any simpler than that, mate. I totally agree with you. Mate, you've mentioned Jim Collins' book, Good to Great. Is that or is there another book that you'd recommend people read and why? Oh, look, just Jimmy Collins' book is just all the business philosophies that I believe in.

I'm not a really big book reader, to be honest. I probably should be. But, you know, the sorts of books that I enjoy, I love how, you know, Agassi's book, for example, if you're into Biblioquism, he's an absolute ripper. there's another another councilman I can't even remember

I will think of it but you know I love those types of books but the other one is really just around how the mind works you know there's just so much

anxiety depression you know all of those types of things people not enjoying themselves as much as they could or need to so I've started to just

delve into that a little bit I will find you the book mate because I can't remember the name of it do you think it's because of old mate my memory is absolutely

This shite, this stuff. No, mate, I reckon that... I don't know what's going on. The book that I really do like is, here we go, here we go, The Happiness Trap. So stop struggling, start living, Dr. Russ Harris. Have a crack at that one. So that just gives you some techniques around, you know,

just allowing shitty thoughts flow through. A lot of people fight shitty thoughts, let them flow through. You know, I just quite enjoyed that. So there you go, mate, a bit of bibliography stuff and a bit around the mind at the moment. Yeah, no, it's good, mate. I haven't come across it on the happiness track, so I'm going to add that to the list, mate.

Happiness track. Yeah, sounds like a damn good read. Mate, a slight shift on this one, because it's something that everyone keeps telling me that they feel like they pay too much tax. So what's the top thing that you've done legally to pay less tax, Malti? You should talk to Paul Collins about that.

He's far better than me. Look, I don't think I've really been too clever about all that stuff. I've got an accountant that set up family trusts and made sure, I guess, that in particular getting into property or getting, sorry, getting into an investment with the right structure but always thinking about getting up at the same time, if that makes sense. It does.

A lot of people get into stuff but they don't think about how the hell they're going to get out of it or the implementations on the way through. Yeah. But I haven't done anything clever, mate. I've unfortunately paid a shitload of tax over the years, but if it's been invested, I've just made sure structurally from the day I've set it up,

I know how the hell I'm going to get out and as cost-effectively as far as tax goes as possible. Yeah. But I guess, you know, having some vineyards and some of those bits and pieces, depreciation's important to me. property. I wouldn't go into residential. These days, probably established, particularly if Labor get in with depreciation being challenged and negative gearing being challenged. So

I'd start to try and understand the trends, try to look ahead. If I had established property, I'd probably be thinking about selling that and buying something brand new. Just trying to stay ahead of the trends. Stock market, we've done okay getting out at the right time and buying at the right time. Adelaide Real Estate's a piece of cake, mate. It just doesn't matter. It just keeps chuffing along. So, yeah, go ahead and head to the trends,

but also just making sure I've got my exit strategy at the time of getting in. Yeah, and the exit strategy is a key one, mate, which I absolutely agree, whether it's investments, whether it's business, whatever it is. If you talk about how you're going to get out before you get in, then it makes it a whole lot easier. And, you know, we spoke about the work you did with yourself

from Mark and Gary, well, that exit strategy worked to perfection to the point where we still, mate, still have a beer, still have a chat, and that's pretty rare in the post-business world, mate. So, awesome. Yeah, no, it's basically rare. These three guys are accredited, but it just shows it can be done. You're three unbelievably different personalities with three unbelievably different skill sets.

You build a hell of a business, but you also recognise when the time was right to get the hell out and go with respect to each other, he did that amazingly well. Yeah, it's worked very well, mate. Thanks to a lot of your input there too, mate. Now, just sort of on the investment subject again, what's both the worst and the best piece of investment advice

that you've ever received, mate? The best investment advice is diversity. A lot of people, I think, particularly in the residential real estate world, which I've lived in, would only delve in that. Right now, I think there's just so many different opportunities out there. The worst and the best advice I think also is if it sounds too good to be true, it always is.

So, you know, I'm not into the high risk really. I'll have a crack, but I'm not going to go into the high risk. I haven't really had any tragically bad... I've done some investing emotionally, The vineyard investment was certainly an emotional investment. Six great mates, we all thought we were going to make a shitload of money and drink some really good wine for the rest of our lives. Soon as the great oversupply came along, they put us on our seat.

But overall, I think I get back to what I said earlier. Bushy, get the right people around you, get the right advice, and you usually don't go wrong. I will never listen to people I don't know. I get offered a lot of stuff and I only stick to my knitting with people that I know and respect yeah, nah it's spot on mate

just can't go wrong with that mate, you've covered some of this already but what's a personal habit that you have that you feel contributes most to your success Phil Harris got me getting, waking up at bloody 5 o'clock every morning and

getting out of bed and getting my fat ass to do some exercise and and just setting myself up mentally, especially after a few late nights. Bushy, I found that challenging, but I'm still getting up. It's 5.30 now, but 5.30 every morning,

taking my Kelpie for a decent stroll, freshening my mind up, going through my top three for the day, and make sure I hit the ground running. So I haven't got any other structures to my day other than my start and my three things I'm going to nail. Yep. and the other one is I've sort of got pretty busy there for a while

and certainly wasn't seeing mates enough. So two days a week, I've got in my little, I don't know, schedule-y thing that I'll contact such and such and always have a beer with a mate on the way home twice a week just to reconnect. Awesome. That would be it, Bushy. So no, I'm not massively structured

except around what I do want to achieve each day. Well, mate, you put the big rucks right in there, mate, and a lot of people don't even do that. So you clear the head, get some fresh air, get the blood pumping, three things, all those three things. Like I said, there's 15 a week, and I don't know how many of that is a year, but it's a shitload of things you're going to get done just by adopting that, mate. So it doesn't need to be rocket science. Like you say, mate, you keep it simple and get it done, and that's as complex as it needs to be.

Mate, a couple of final questions. I reckon the other one, mate, I always make sure, Bushy, I've got something to look forward to every day. Yeah. So some days you look at your calendar and go, holy hell, if it's one of those days, mate, I'll sneak in, you know, just something that I think, oh, thank God that's coming up. So that seems to work for me as well. Yeah, I hadn't thought about that one, mate.

That's some sort of reward there in for all the hard work that you're going to do during the day so it doesn't feel like it's all a grind. That's a cracker, mate. Correct. That's a cracker. Now, a couple of last questions. Well, this is probably a good one to finish off on.

If you spoke to someone who's just leaving school, what would you advise them to invest their time, their money, their energy and their skills in to create their version of freedom, mate? Somebody straight out of school? Yeah. Yeah, we do a little bit of work with guys and girls, you know, in the year 12s and whatever. Again, I just, look, there's just so many different opportunities

and bits and pieces out there. I'd get them to invest their money into travel so all the parents out there will probably hate me I'd go into life skills while you were young because the life skills will set you up for the rest of your lives I'd make sure that I was setting myself up with mentors, I don't like that

no, but just people that you really relate to that you feel safe with that you can go to about anything because a lot of the kids these days just feel so insecure in our world So the more secure they feel and the more they understand the big wide world, I think the quicker they'll actually sort of fine-tune

what they want to do. Once they understand what they want to do, have a plan, get them necessarily if it's a qual needed or the financial, if it's going to a business or whatever it is, have a plan to achieve that and have a crack. But no, I wouldn't pressure the kids into things too much. I would certainly, you know, my kids, yeah, buy a house. Nah, just sort of initially travel.

My oldest daughter lived overseas for a while. My other two, very, very well-travelled. All three of them fallen into, over a period of time, stuff that they really enjoy and doing really well. There you go, Bushy. Probably not what you wanted to hear, mate. Put a dollar away every day and buy a house. No, not at all.

I'd totally agree with you, mate. I'd said the same thing to my son. He was under a fair bit of pressure to go to uni, and I said, well, what do you want to do that for? Unless you've got a burning passion to do something that's going to get you to where you want to get, don't bother. Go out and get your feet dirty And see a bit of the world

And then that'll help you work out What you really want to do And you'll earn a crap load in the meantime Yeah, the amount of kids That go into uni straight from school And don't even finish the first year Wouldn't they be better off Maybe working and eating some dough

And checking out the world I'm not sure But anyway, that's been our advice Right with you there mate So just to wrap up then mate What's next new and exciting for you, buddy? Next year, can't wait. Massive year this year for us.

There's a couple of things on the horizon that if we can pull off next year are going to be massively rewarding for the people involved. Some of it's around a couple of businesses that I think could come together to sort of benefit from each other. There's another business That we're doing some work with That is just taking on so much stuff If we can structure that up right

I think it's going to be a very powerful Business in the catering side of life But look For my next year mate, Tokyo Going to see the All Blacks In the World Cup, so that'll be cool Apart from that Bushy, I haven't set my goals for next year yet

I'll get around to it Before the year's out and we'll see what it looks like I'll let you know. Yeah, let me know, mate. Well, look, fantastic, mate. Really appreciate your time. There's some wealth of wisdom there, mate, that you're always dumb it down and underplay it,

but there's some absolute gold amongst the stuff that you do drop, mate, and those that are smart enough to pick it up and run with it, we'll see. It's always good fun talking to you, Bushy. Next time we will have a beer in our hand, mate. We will, mate. All right, mate. Thanks, Malty.

Well, Freedom Fighters, how good was that? If you get a summary of all this investment gold in the show notes, just email me on hello at khgroup.com.au. That's H-E-L-L-O at khgroup.com.au. Or check us out at www.bushymartin.com.au forward slash getinvested. I look forward to joining you next week for another episode of the Get Invested podcast. so thanks for listening and as always dream as if you live forever and live as if you'll die tomorrow