S1E39 · Grant Rodgers: Clusterfuck

Hey guys, welcome to the Virtus Performance podcast. This is week 39. Today I sat down with the great man, Grant Rogers from Jetty Road Brewery, a local, soon to be national and then international brewery here in the Moynton Peninsula in Germana. Delicious pale ale which yes I am sipping on right now. Amazing, amazing tinnies, amazing beer. So I would highly recommend getting down there. So Coop, as you would all know who that guy is, he co-hosted today so we had a really good chat with Grant about what it takes to open a brewery for every

single human with a male appendage has wanted to do at some point, maybe, except for Wade who wants to open somewhere with probably Cognac or Rum or something like that. But so yeah today we had a really really good chat with Wade. We didn't talk to Wade at all. With Grant, the wheels are falling off, with Grant about beer and about business and about building a community and a lifestyle brand and something that's hopefully going to be around for a long long time which hopefully it is because the beer is delicious. Enjoy. My personal and business goal is to be just a little bit better every day.

I believe everyone, especially normal people, have a story to tell. The Virtus podcast exists to help us all find small ways of consistent improvement by discussing the journey and experiences of each of our guests. Grant, Coop, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Howdy. You've all heard plenty from Coop before but Grant of the Gini Road Brewery, how good? Awesome. Knack it. It's awesome. Yeah so first question for you and then we'll get into the crazy I guess couple of months, couple of years you've had. What gets you out of bed in the morning? At the moment work but I don't know I heard you had this question the other day.

Jesus what do I say? I'm a morning person so it's either gym which I've done for at least nine months but I just enjoy getting up and doing my thing. Yeah. What is your thing? Just business, I love business. Awesome. So everything, everything to do with it. Family, friends, breakfast, a lot of it ready which I also haven't had for a couple of days. Yeah that's fair. Steeping meals. Gordon's been fasting. It's me being lazy. If you can justify it. I can justify it. Yeah that's good. Talk to me about your business. What is it? How did it start?

From your point of view. Yeah when you messaged me I was thinking about this as well. It's been a couple of different things all coming together at once. Blake my head brother and another director, born a week apart, been friends ever since and at I think the age of 16 we were both like we're gonna have a problem again. That's so good. Which I think is a typical teenage thing to say. Yeah. But you know, we said that and then he went to London and I went over there, I went to try and find a job after I went and did an accounting degree.

Yep. And then I decided to try and get a job down here and I was a little bit lazy. I don't know whether it was because I was... Lazy or uninspired? I love accounting I just don't think, I don't know, I honestly don't know. I think I was having too fun at uni and just didn't realise. Yeah you had to figure out how to do it afterwards. Yeah you see all these young people are just always like, alright what am I doing next? Before they even have to think about it they've already done it. Yeah. And I'm like, oh what do I do now?

So I ended up in Hong Kong for three or four months trying to find a job with a mate that's a financial planner. That's cool. Yeah it was amazing, it was a bit of an experience and then from there I ended up not getting a job there, it was just too much middle-aged men drinking too much. Yep. So I just, it was more of a holiday and just learning to network and socialise. That's cool. All those bits and pieces and then I ended up going to London and doing Oktoberfest for my 27th birthday and that's when it really, the beer, I don't know what we'd call it.

Passion? Yeah and the history of it, it wasn't just, you know, the symbology just get absolutely smashed on as far as the day night. I was actually enjoying the beer. Yeah and it took me to the second day and I'm like, you know what, I'm actually, the locals aren't impressed with the way that most Australians are acting. It's good to get drunk but there's an appreciation for it and that just blew my mind and even when I saw pictures it just didn't do it justice. That's cool. And then I went to Spain and I started writing a business plan.

Was it brewery straight away? No, it was just, I wanted to do a, it's sort of the same as what you've got with yours, you've got a lot of beer behind it but you pull different parts into a business. And then it starts to change and tweak over time and adapt it. So it was more, I've always been around, I've never worked in hospitality but it was around offering lunch, dinner, fresh produce, all that sort of stuff. It was just a bit of everything at once. And then when I got back from the UK and then Blake came back as well about nine months later, we started homebrewing.

That's cool. How long ago was that? Well, I was 22 so yeah. How old are you now? What was that, seven years ago. Awesome. So it's been a while. So we started homebrewing and then it got to the point where we were doing parties and people put beer on and it got bigger and bigger and the beers got better. And one day, one of our family members just said, "Mate, what are you doing with this?" I'm like, "Well, I'm just having fun." I said, "Well, I've actually got a business plan." He goes, "Well, if you guys put a business plan together, I'll sit down with you and he's quite a wealthy individual."

And we started from there. And that was, I reckon the business plan evolved over five years. So I was just continuingly trying to find the right place, the right venue and then just perfecting the beer. So it's been a long road, but it's definitely worth it now, which is awesome. If it didn't happen now, I would have had a mental breakdown. Or my partner would kill me. It's a long time for an idea to be an intentional part of brewing and to be sitting there thinking it in your head and going, "Well, here's how it changes day to day."

Was there times where you kind of went, "I don't know if this is going to work"? I don't have that, which I don't know if that's a bad or a good thing. Mate, that's a good thing. I haven't even had time to reflect. We just opened yesterday. Congratulations, by the way. Thank you very much. It's amazing. Yeah, awesome. And it's actually backwards to what we decided in the business plan. It was always to open the brew first so we could actually brew our beer because at the moment we are contracting. And that is just, you know, it's a head fuck.

I can imagine. Mate, you can swear. You can say whatever the fuck you want. I paused for a second because my vocab's not very good. So it's always, I chuck a few notes with it. Treat yourself. Yeah. So no, it's been good, but open the venue just to get locals down there. The support's been amazing. So to open the venue and not being in hospitality, it's been a massive learning curve. And I'm, yeah, wrecked, but I haven't yet sat down to really appreciate what's, what's unfolded. Do you think you will be able to do that? I hope so.

Did you read my message I sent you yesterday? I figured you would have had a million, right? Yeah, I had a fair few and it's nice to, I hear what they're saying, but it's, you know, they're always like, you know what, you need to actually do it yourself and relax. And at the moment just little bits and dices that I need to be across. You totally just don't have time, but today I was actually enjoying it. That's good. Yeah. So yeah, like it took me like all of our like events and stuff we've run and like obviously not to the scale that you guys have, but like we've got that consistent like people stuff every day.

But it wasn't until like the second event that we ran, which was second big event, which was two years in where I was able to sit there and kind of allow myself to breathe and just enjoy what it was. And like, you'll have that day where you kind of like, it might be three months down the track, it might be tomorrow where you kind of go, fuck this is cool. Yeah. And properly allow yourself to reflect. What's been the biggest, I guess, drive for you to get to this point? I don't know. I think I've always had a vision of what I've wanted.

Yeah. And it doesn't waver. So I think that's probably a good thing. I mean, starting a brewery if no one really knows the whole ins and outs of the industry, it's a massively capital intensive investment to start off with small business what we are, we're not even, we're small as, and it's going to cost me $2 million just to get off the ground. And that's massive. And especially when you're 28, 29, and you're trying to get people on board to see a vision that we don't even have something physical behind you. So you have to sell something really good.

But also, you sort of see the big picture, and I'm a massive big picture person, whereas I don't get caught up in the, you know, okay, $20,000 in, you know, in arrears. That doesn't worry me because I know it's going to be successful. Yeah. So that's yeah, that's not been an issue for me. So it's probably a win, I think, because otherwise, if I got weighed down by all the, you know, the hurdles and the bumps that we've had, we already give it up a long time ago. So yeah, yeah, it's probably a pretty good mindset to be in because it's like, there's no, there's no plan B, there's no option to fail.

It's always you're just going to make it work regardless. Yeah. And that's like, yeah, to first hear about you guys a little while ago, and then just to hear it and then start tasting it as a, as a raving fan, like it's been pretty cool to see it come to what is now a brewery for everyone to check out. Yeah, awesome. When did you when did you kind of know that this was going to be what you were going to like dial dial in on? Because I guess a lot of people have ideas. And a lot of people have dreams and things they want to do, but never actually do it.

When did you kind of know yet this is what I'm going to put the next 10, 20, 30 years of my life into? Um, I don't know, really. I knew I would be I didn't working as an accountant, and then a tax agent. Yeah, yeah, it's like a lawyer, you log in every six minutes a day. And I hated it. And my efficiencies weren't great, because I just hated doing that work. And I like small business always have. So my idea behind work going as a tax agent was to get involved with small businesses, because I do I do book work for a couple of cafes, online jewelry shop.

I just love business. I love helping people get to where they want to be. But I also like to be able to be involved. So to just, yeah, not enjoying working there. I always knew that I would want to go and do something else on my own. And I don't necessarily think it mattered if it wasn't brewery related, involved in Humboldt body. That's been quite, that's been a massive one project. And I think, considering I stepped up as CEO there, and in general, full time work, and it was also trying to start a brewery. And then also running my own bookkeeping business, too many things going on.

And just too many people were expecting too much of me. Yeah, I just I didn't, you know, delegate very, very well. So yeah, I knew I wanted to be involved. And I was, I it was a couple of spots in there. I got, you know, I never want to work for somebody else. And that's not necessarily because I don't want to take any instruction. It's just that I'm too passionate about doing something on my I guess I get that I get that. Yeah, yeah. But at the same time, as there were times where I'm like

Humboldt body would take massive leap forward, like we're selling in Brooklyn, or we're saying, yeah, I can't remember the word now, but in America, suddenly the brewery, you know, invested before or something else would go, I was like, Okay, what is what am I actually doing? Because I'm passionate. I'm actually passionate about both of them. Yeah. So, you know, organic skincare. I've had eczema, hayfever, all that sort of stuff. So I can relate to that really well. Yeah. Because I think I put it on, I remember taking taking home body and I put it on my face.

And three months later, I hadn't had hayfever. My eczema had gone. I was actually benefiting from it. Yeah. But on the other side of the brewery, it's social. I love being social. And the whole idea behind G Red Brewery. The catchphrase is always beer, because it's always been about the beer. Yeah, but it's about sharing it. That's cool. Yeah. So it's kind of what you do down, you know, bringing people in, getting fit and healthy, but also sharing the ride. Yeah, I'm doing it on a social level. You know, clearly I'm on that complete opposite end.

Believe me, it's definitely not on the complete opposite, because we will take the whole crew and take us take everyone out, like to dinner or to lunch or something. Yeah. You know, we'll be we're rolling in the beers. But I think it's, it's a really cool because you like, it resonates a lot with me because you're creating community, right? Like, which is exactly what we're trying to create. Yeah. And I think that ability to instill community in the people of Germana. Yeah. Even though it's called Jetty Road. And you're not right, not quite on Jetty Road.

That was a Tommy T question. Oh, yeah. You know, being that entrepreneurial sort of streak in me. Yeah, I think I've always had it. The name we picked is one of our other directors, Simon Weir. He was the older bloke, you know, mentor sort of thing. And we were brewing in his house on Jetty Road in German. That's cool. So the historical part of it, and then telling customers and stockists the reason why it stayed Jetty Road. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. You know, if someone comes from Melbourne, they type in Jetty Road, they end up in Rosebud.

Yeah. You know, it would have been good to find another name. But we sat there for ages, you know, over whiskies, over beers, chatting about it, and we just couldn't find a name that worked for all of us. And I thought, you know, like Jetty Road, just it's got that coastal vibe for down here. And that's half the reason why it's, you know, so passionate about down here. I love it. I love morning peninsula and it just gets that coastal vibe. So yeah, yeah. Did you guys all grow up on the peninsula? Yeah. Yeah. So all the six directors are all from down here, which is great.

Awesome. So it started out with you and Blake and Simon. And how'd the other three come along? I can't even remember. There's been so many conversations. I had the original guy that really pushed us into sort of starting the business plan. He was in real estate, in his fourth generation real estate. Yeah. And his wife got sick. So he, we were all ready to go and we were looking at buying like properties for $2 million. It was just surreal. But I think at that time, we weren't ready. Yeah. But we didn't know it. So looking back on it now, I'm kind of happy it didn't happen like that.

And I had to work really hard on getting those investors and directors on board. But we went to a place called Wipon Brewery, which is in Wipon Brewery. We got a food truck park. So they do all the foods, but they also got the beers on and we saw it. I'm like, imagine this in German. It'd be amazing. So we went looking at that and luckily enough, one of my dad's neighbors, my dad lived in Mount Martha, a nice community. And he does food trucks. And so he just rolled for me. He's like, I'd love to get involved.

And you know, he sort of like, he works really hard. He didn't have, he had the idea that, you know, I gave him a business plan and I've done forecast financials. The accounting side of me came in, he's like, this is next level. That's awesome. But then he's a networking and a half. So he brought on a few more people and, you know, it's starting to get momentum. And I found the factory and I just thought when I walked into the factory, that brick wall, I said, that's it. And it was bigger than what we needed, but if we can grow into it, that would be fantastic.

But right now, I'm already outgrown it. So what we're putting in there is going to, it's not going to be enough. I'm hoping anyway. So that's the next drive forward. So yeah, that's, that's, that's amazing. What's the, would you, if you could go back, would you change anything or would you make any changes to the mistakes you made or anything like that? Probably not. That's cool. I don't think so. I don't even think about it to be honest. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it's worth it. Yeah. I thought you should learn from your mistakes, but I haven't made any massive ones to go, right.

What have I needed to do to make that different result? So yeah, I heard it quite the other day. That's if I could live it all again, I'd make the same mistakes only quicker. Yeah. You're not going to do it again. And I suppose those are the ones you go, right. I'll have to adjust, but it's not something you go. I have just put us in a hole here. And again, right now you get to a point where it's like, well, I've sunk half a million dollars into this already. You know, that extra hundred grand that we need to spend, you just do it.

You just got to do it. You know, then you start to panic as an accountant and go, right, you know, how am I paying that back? If I believe in the products and I believe in what we're doing, then it should work. So yeah. What's the, what's the plan with the product? Is it going to expand? Are you going to expand your? I'd like to. We'll just play it by ear and see how we go. Because the pale at the moment is mate, it's a lead. Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. No, it's really good. And I try a lot of beers.

And I don't drink palo. I love that one. And I don't know if it's, you know, biased, but you have to mate. It's definitely bias. Yeah. Which is okay. Yeah. So I don't enjoy, I don't drink a lot during the week. It's only on the weekends, but the palo is working really well. And Blake and Simon, you know, their idea behind what we want to do with our four or five core sessionability. It's not high on alcohol, but the quality and the flavors there. So we don't substitute on costs in regards to making it. So

if Blake wants a hot, that's, you know, a little bit more expensive, but it gives him exactly what he wants, then we're going to try and make that happen for him. So we've got the amber ale and the IPA on tap at our menu, but they aren't perfect yet. So we'll just keep tinkering away at it. And once we get happy with that, we'll put them in the cans and go out again. So it's been a long process because usually a brew will open with four beers ready to go, whereas we're just going to keep trying it.

Because if it's not selling, I don't want to release it. Yeah. I think if you put it, like put a heap of time and like resources of money into it, you won't need it to be able to go, people pick it up and enjoy it the first time. Exactly. That's like the back story of that was that we wanted to make a pale ale that wasn't too bitter, very sessionable, lower alcohol, but also gets those cider drinkers. Because I mean, pale ale in the craft industry is that stepping stone between going to your carton draft and your VB into craft beer.

So I wanted to, or even the ciders and what we're getting back from the girls and the guys, they're into like, oh, I actually don't mind that. Like I've got plumber mates who's like, mate, this is bullshit. This is free as. And he mentioned the other day and he's like, dude, I can't stop drinking it. Perfect, man. That's exactly what we wanted. What was the first sort of feedback that you got after releasing it for the first, first time? Has it changed much from the original product? Yeah, it has a little bit. Mornington Brewery has been amazing.

Like I've met Matt out there at the common folk for like 50 times. The brewery industry is very collaborative and supportive. I mean, you can call stone and wood and they'd give you a hand, which is awesome. So those guys have been awesome, but we actually brewed our first commercial beer at Mornington and it was 20 kegs per month. When we sold out, we literally launched in November and we sold out in Christmas because we brought on a couple of customers and straight away the beer was great, but that was also a big thing because

you can craft, you can, you can home brew and you get a taste, but there's, in my opinion anyway, home brew will always have a little bit of a taste that's similar to home brew. And commercial, you go from a 50 litre batch at home to a 1000 or 2000 litre batch at a commercial brewery that's not your brewery. You don't know what's going to happen. And when I remember going down to the Mornington Brewery on a Saturday and I tasted right out of the bike tank and I was like, mate, this is, I couldn't get a smile from my face.

This is fucking awesome. And he's that, he's a typical bloke, like, he's just like, oh no, we need to do this, we need to buy our bags. I'm like, just for a second and like that, that is cracker. I'll drink that. So yeah, that's, it's been awesome that we haven't had any, yeah, there's always going to be people that don't drink power, but the support and the people that the feedback's been amazing. So it's good. Yeah, it's really good. That's really cool. What's your, if you could, like obviously you talked about it a little bit, but what are your, yours and Blake's and Simon's roles in the business and how does it all work together?

Yeah, so I suppose in business I've got a couple of lessons I have learned in regards to setting up businesses. It's been my business plan, I am the accountant. I stepped in, the one thing I failed at with this business is that when I drew the line on going from full time work to working on the business, in that business, because things dropped, dropped, dropped, we ran out of beer, no one was on top of it. And that was one thing I hadn't had a cost in my head. It's like, when do I do it?

Because not only are you putting your own money up, you're also going, well, I want to get, I want to get a pay ticket, but it was never been about, never will have, you know, has been about that. But yeah, I, I've structured the company, I've got six directors and everyone says, all right, six directors, that's a lot of people who manage on top of the structure in a strategy situation. But you know, I think that works really well for us because we're all, we're all coming in different angles, but the direction is the same, if that makes sense.

But for me as a managing director, that's been very hard to manage. It's been very stressful. But I think it's also as well, like you bring, there's three of us that, you know, kind of, we knew each other quite well, me and Blake especially, but these other three guys on top of that never met each other before. And I'm the youngest or one of the youngest, me and Blake are a week apart. I'm older than Blake for one week, but I'm the youngest to have to prove myself as well. You know, they signed up to it, but they want to see some actual performance.

And that's been a good proving ground for me, but to balance that out, it's been hard. So I'm, I'm managing director. I don't really care about the role. General manager, managing director, I don't give a shit what the title is, to be honest. But I'm apparently a control freak. But that just means just get the job done. I wouldn't have to mind managing. When it's your baby mate, you've got to be a control freak. Exactly, yeah. There's a lot of passion there. So yeah, I've sort of been at the forefront of all the business side of things, playing the bills, chasing up on.

All the fun stuff. Yeah, all the good stuff. And that's the thing I love all business, all aspects of it. Like the branding has been me and I'm an accountant and that's really ahead of what my partner Katie is the graphic designer and textile designer. So she's been putting up with me going, I don't know how to do it. She's smashed the logo. Yeah, and that's, it's been amazing to get that feedback. That's been one of the most exciting things for me to go, Oh, wow, these guys actually like what I've done here. And for me, it's a bit too close.

Probably that you're looking at logos. Have you been involved in this? Yeah, sometimes I love it, sometimes I don't. Yeah, exactly. Same here. And I see it on the shelf and you're like, Oh, wow, that's pretty cool. So I've been involved in it all that. And I've been in the factory, factories at 1000 square meters. And I've been in the front office by myself in an empty factory since February. So it's been a long haul. But then I'm just literally now coming into a situation where the beers picked up, and some ways been managing that venue.

So one of our directors is also is now the venue manager for the venue. So it's going to help me sort of delegate a bit more. So we can focus on putting the brewery in and then Blake's taken over as brewery manager. So those two there, and I've also got another guy, one of the directors, JP, he is doing all sales, marketing and PR. Huge. So he's working quite closely with me. Because it's still a small business. I'm still getting my hands on all of it. Well, that's the thing. Like you still have to wear all the different hats.

You just have to oversee how everyone does. And I'm literally just doing that now. So I'm still, I've got 7500 and I've got bills coming out. So I'm dropping the ball on a few things. But I'm feeling like, Oh, yeah, he's got that sort of bucket. I can expect Arizona. But it's also very hard. One learning curve for me in business is that you can't expect really good results unless you're paying someone. Yeah, I mean, there's a there's a certain aspect behind, you know, at the end of the day, it could be a multitude of reasons why they're not performing but yeah, good talk.

Good. Now, you know, people always put, you know, all the directors have put a lot of time and effort in for free. Yeah. Because they are passionate about it. But you can't expect or I can't pull something over. It runs out eventually. Yeah. So that's been a bit of a challenge. But everyone's just put the time and effort in. It's been good. So it's awesome. How difficult have you found it? Taking a step back from all these small roles and be able to delegate to someone. It's the worst. Because I know Lachie, you having Veritas

and taking on more staff and more team members, you've been able to step back from a lot of things still have a bit of an overview of everything. Yeah. But just monitor from a distance. I think I will have a problem. I did the books for Amy at Flock Cafe. And I mean, she's, she's also working for us as bar manager. Awesome. So she told me the other day, she's like, you're a micromanager. I'm like, yeah, but I just need it done. And once I'm happy with someone doing the job, like with Blake and the brewery, like, I don't, I know how to wire recipe.

I know how to brew. But I'm not that good at it. And I'm not interested in it as much as he is. Like he lives and breathes hops, grains, where it's coming from, how it's made, the smells. And I can, I can taste the beer and go, yeah, I like that. And I'm gonna pick this out of it. He will pick every part of it and I trust him 100%. So bringing him on board, I can just go, mate, just get it done. And I'm, I feel like I'm pretty good at it, but there's sometimes those things where I was like, why are you here?

Like last night, what, three hours before we opened Telstra decided to cut the internet and my card machines, all the networking is done. An hour and 15 minutes on the phone and I'm starting to sweat cause I don't have a backup. They told me that they've transferred me over to the NBN and I have no internet for 24 hours. So that's all the stuff. Great timing Telstra. Yeah, exactly. This podcast is sponsored by Telstra. I haven't finished with them yet. I'm so gutted. And that's the thing. Like I always have a backup. Did you get it sorted?

So another hour on the phone, I fixed up a wireless access through networking and the phone because I couldn't partake of money and I couldn't get the POS machines running. So that was, we opened the doors without having internet and I, that's, yeah, I, I want, they call me grangry. So I get grangry. Oh yeah, good. So on the phone with Telstra, throwing things around the office and swearing and cursing and I came out and what was so happy with this, the staff were just crazy. They nailed it. And this is their first day and they've got, you know, one of the big bosses there, which is, you know, I'm only a couple of years older than most of them.

I'm losing my mind and I'm trying to help them. But the director's come home and said, mate, just leave. You don't need to be here. But at the same time, it's the first night for starters, but I also want you to help and it's our brand. So door hands on deck. It's not, I'm not okay with walking away knowing that there's stuff to be done. But I think that makes a good leader. I think that you can't just walk away and go, well, I'll put someone in charge of it. I don't give a shit what happens because you need to.

Yeah. I think good leader shows people how to do it and then steps back, but is there to help if they fall, right? How's it been to go from like you and Blake at some mostly and then to 25 stuff or 25 ish stuff? It's like almost straight away. Yeah. Well, literally as of yesterday, two days ago. Yes. I don't know. You probably don't know yet. Literally the fact that we finished our building on Wednesday morning. Yeah. Brainy was in there mural. He finished an hour before people rocked up or two hours. Sorry. I'm not trying to have a crack at it.

I'll just be Josh brown snake. I'll just be better. Like Wednesday, right? It was the most detailed mirror. This is the only thing, the one thing that I didn't run past Katie, which I, you know, she's kind of the brand brand manager for us all for free, which is fantastic. But that's the one thing I didn't run past her. I met up with a brand new, we spoke to him about what we're trying to do. And I'm a bit of a farmer, keep a coastal and I'll just put it on the wall. Just go for it, man.

Cause I trust him. And that's the whole point. They're amazing. How amazing are they? What they do? Yeah. And Kate's like, Oh, I don't know. And everyone walks in and it's like, Holy shit. It's amazing. So I'm stoked to that. But um, I literally, and I had chairs come from China and the, I had, I don't watch the news. I didn't know what's going on. And suddenly someone's called me said, mate, they banked up that you haven't used another doc because they're all on strike. And it's like I had a whole container load of all my chairs.

So we were going to open with no chairs and stools and stuff. And they literally ended at two o'clock. That's all the stories you get. That's always going to happen. And um, nothing ever runs perfectly, but you make it work, right? Yeah, exactly. So you know, you go into, what are we doing next? One of the high $3,000 worth of chairs for two days. It's just, it's so expensive. I'm like, okay, well, you know, you're already here. You need to open. Um, but that literally ended at four o'clock before I left to get changed to do our shareholder night.

It all hit me. And so I just felt, I didn't know what it was. It was like, I nearly had a bit of a breakdown on the way home and I was like, holy shit, what have we done? And then I had to come back and do a speech in front of 120 people about what was making me emotional. Um, I looked, I probably still look knackered. I'm just, yeah, running on adrenaline. It's been a big week for you. Yeah, absolutely. It's been a big year for you. Yeah. Well, this week's been a big seven years for you.

Yeah, which is cool. Brownie, because Brownie Brownie trains with us and I was meant to, he was meant to train on Tuesday and he sent me a message like half an hour after he was meant to start. He's like, you're not going to make it. G road have you by the balls? I've got to finish this mural. And I'm just like, fine, but send us a picture. But he did the best job. Yeah. Yeah. I am so jealous of your mural. Like we got, we got some cool, cool artwork up on our walls. Genuinely like game changer.

Yeah. I was a little bit worried as well because what we've done there is quite, like architecturally clean and, and, but it's sort of, I just don't bring something out. It just blends everything together. It balances everything out. Yeah. It's been, we are a brewery, but we're also a restaurant. Like you come in, you know, a full meal. Um, our head chef is absolutely amazing. So it sort of blends two together. Um, so I've made, I couldn't have done any better. Yeah. It's pretty, it's pretty cool. And it shows how frigging talented some people are. I could draw like a stick figure and a duck.

They're the two duck. Man, I want to see this. I can draw a duck. I won't be able to put it on the podcast, but I'm drawing a duck right now. And it's fucking awesome. Thoughts? I can actually draw it. I'm going to go with a seagull, but that's fine. That's good. It's a fucking duck, mate. Yeah, nice. I like it. I can also draw a shark next. I can also draw a shark. Yeah. We might have a little, uh, you got, you guys have got the dolphin. Yeah. Have you named him? No, we haven't. Haven't?

No, the octopus is now in the van. Good. Yeah, that looks amazing. Yeah. So that was JV. And great van too. How does it have a van? Well, we've had the van a long time ago. I need two vans. That's all right. We'll get around to it. Because Blake the builder is like, man, I can't do this. I'm like, oh, you just going to have to put up with it, mate. Yeah. Yeah. That's insane. What's, what's the next step now that you're like, obviously you probably just want to enjoy it a little bit and make sure everything runs smoothly, but what's the next step now that you're open and you're rolling?

Um, the reason we opened was because we got so much support from locals wanting to come down. The venue is where people can show their support. Yeah. The reason why we were supposed to do cans at the start of the year, but we weren't happy with, uh, well, it's a massive investment for that sort of stuff because all the minimum ones are huge. So we postponed it, but we finally made the decision to do it, but it's a way for everyone who gets behind us without having to buy cake or go and buy it from somewhere else because wholesaling is not great, but it's also a good way of getting our branding out there.

But cans are awesome. So that and having the venue open is the reason why we did it sooner than doing the brewery. But we're, um, I've just taken a new investment, um, some really passionate blokes to give us the brewery house. So literally as of now, the focus changes over to putting in a million dollars worth of equipment in the next side of the brewery. It's basically from one project managing job to another. But, um, now we've got a little bit of income coming in a bit more than just an anti-factory. So that's what's really exciting.

That's super exciting. How important has it been to have that, I guess, community support? And I'm sure everyone I'm sure has probably gotten around you. Oh, everyone. I mean, Joe P's been doing ourselves and he's been absolutely amazing. He doesn't stop. Like he watches me at five in the morning. He messaged me after our shareholders like five, four in the morning. He's like, mate, how good is today? What's going on? Sometimes I might just let me sleep. It doesn't stop. And I love that energy and he's always got it, which is great. But, um, I'm tired.

What are we talking about? When did you guys actually launch your, like, or your wholesaling and start jumping into pubs? November last year. Yeah. The support. Yeah. So as soon as we launched it, even the hotel, um, within two, three weeks, we already had, you know, Portsea hotel, Thinnest hotel, um, Casa da Playa, and a couple of other big ones. And they're huge. Like even Portsea, I've never seen craft beer, local craft beer in the air, besides their own, because they are owned by colonial brewery, colonial brewing company. Um, and we were stoked with that. And they've just been soaked.

Like we were, we were down there for snow jams. They let us have our own bar, um, get our own stuff. They wear our merchandise. Yeah. So, and it's important to you, like we're in Germany and you know, they'll be honest from Australia, they call themselves the general original. So it's just awesome to see you guys like that. And that's the reason, like I'm, I'm working, you know, most of the time, I don't know what day it is and I don't care. No one stops. And if you're there on Saturday, Sunday, working from the office, we didn't paint the factory or put any logos up until literally last week.

Um, because I still have people rocking up. I have no address. I'm having trouble now because I don't know technology that well. I haven't updated the address and no one knows where we are. The people are turning up. Yeah. Um, but they were fine because they were going into the website and drilling in so quick, so much they could actually see where they, where we are on the map without the address. Gotcha. And now I'm knocking on our door. So I knew that the support was there. So it's been, it's been unreal. Even with the brewery, breweries.

I mean, we're all getting together now trying to work out a brewery trail and you know, they're more than we are. So it's really cool. Yeah. But like the more breweries and craft beer there are on the Pinshall, the more people are going to start drinking or continue to drink craft beer on the Pinshall and everyone wins. I think, yeah, I mean that's the, that's the growth in the whole of Australia. We're behind New Zealand, I reckon three years. We're behind America by at least seven. Yeah. Um, and it's about quality over quantity. And that's what I'm about because I don't think it's healthy to drink 30 beers.

It just isn't. I don't think it's funny. Exactly. People do it though. That's the sad thing. That is the sad thing. The trend is changing. Have a couple enjoy it, but talk to them, talk about it with your friends. Have a good quality conversation over it. Don't just go get fucking shit face for the sake of getting shit face. Yeah, exactly. But you know, you have three of the, you know, you go to Warrington, you have an Imperial Stout, you have two of them and you're in your ass. Yeah, true. That's a different kind of cook though.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You're like, I'm not bloated. I'm not unhealthy by doing that. So that's what I'm passionate about. That's what's changing. Yeah. I think I remember the first time we had your beer was our Christmas party, our staff Christmas party last year. You guys were over at, um, over in the nook. You had your, you had your trailer at the nook. Yeah. Yeah. One of our staff members ended up in hospital after that, but I don't necessarily know if it was directly related to the, uh, to the jetty road, but it was, yeah. I remember tasting that beer and then just going, this is, this is really cool.

And then start like, you know, it's that like cognitive bias where you start seeing things everywhere. I remember seeing your beer everywhere and every pub we seem to go to seem to be one of the ones with your beer and it's just, it's, it seems to have blown up. How many different establishments are you guys in now? Do you have a, do you have a number or a guess? Um, watching the cans has been amazing. Like we've, we've drawn a line to Frankston, you know, there's no point, I don't have the money to pay for a sales rep.

So, you know, doing Frankston and Dernaporte, we've got 65 venues that are stocking us, which is just, that's huge. Yeah, it's really cool. And people like, even in the city, people are like, Oh yeah, I've heard of those guys. I don't even know that. Like it's just, yeah, exactly. And especially down here, I mean, it's not hard to get it going, but we don't have a marketing budget. We don't have like, I still do the social media. I do the website, my cell phone one, two has been absolutely amazing for us. Um, but that's all

the money I spent and it's just been me and I was just doing, I was just doing a post then and I literally, I'll tell you what, I'm sorry. How do you do it? Because I run on our social media, even though I've got a marketing guy. So go fucking figure. Chip in mate, do something good. Isn't that part of the job? I haven't delegated yet. So you know what, either of I, I've got a, JP's my marketing manager with PR and events. And then I've also got a, um, Susan who from AJE marketing, which is in the book as well.

Absolutely. Um, but I'm still doing the social media because I think it's important to have that, you know, that kind of gay vibe coming from the business. I think both of you guys managing the social media accounts, it's original, it's authentic. You can sense how you can sense the divide from what you post. And I think because you have such a strong vision that carries over. Uh, but I think that's, I was talking to one of the guys that one of my mates that's a stockbroker, a stockbroker, and he was saying that he will only, or he will try and only invest in, in founder run companies.

Like where the CEO is the, is one of the founders because then they've got that authentic vision and they're not just going to, not gonna be an executive that just comes in and smashes it. Right. So then you've got like, and you guys, I see all your, all your social media and it's just so genuine because it's like, you can see the passion through it. And I think like that quality and that passion, that drive comes through in social media and you can see through the people that are just doing it for the sake of it.

Yeah, exactly. Agreed. That's true. Very true. Speaking of the, uh, the big industry, where do you see Australia's industry going in the next few years? That's a really good question. I mean, my family's quite into politics and discussions on current issues and I used to be really into it. Like Bloomberg watching all that sort of financial stuff. And that's that point where it doesn't, it was not affecting my day to day in regards to, um, I don't like talking about it, watching the negativity on the news, you know, you watch your Simon Sennix, you watch all those positive things and you know, I'm done, but talking dirty doing, I love it.

Oh, it's, it's addictive. And um, you know, that sort of stuff is really positive, but I've stopped doing all the news and all that sort of stuff. But at the moment getting into an industry, you kind of need to know what's going on. And it's very interesting to see, you know, breweries being taken over by CUB or, you know, Nathan, um, I don't know, I don't know. It'd be like a new pirate life was basically, they were a lifestyle brand, which is kind of what I want to do. It's not just about, you know, we've tried to, I don't even have a marketing plan just yet, but it is about the inexperience.

That's what we don't want just the beer. It's got to be about experiencing it. And that's the important part in the lifestyle brand. And that's what pirate life we're doing. And there were two or three years in and they've sold CUB and that just goes, like for me as a business owner, it's like, I'm not even done yet. Like you guys are just here and you haven't even plateaued. What are you doing? Um, so it'd be interesting to see what happens because they were literally, you know, besides Stone and Wood independent, um, there's a couple of really good independence ones, but they're not, they're not nationwide.

They're not big as, you know, pirate life with Stone and Wood. You know, Feral Brewing, which is in WA, they were the number one beer for, I don't know, three years. Um, and they've gone as well, but I mean, there's always a reason behind it. You don't know financing, you could be doing do something or they could be just support or the way the structure of the purchase could be completely different. So I don't want to talk shit, but it is interesting to see what's going on. And I feel that there is a massive gap in the market for actual independent brewers.

Like you get online and you look at the social media, the support behind businesses that are owned by conglomerates that no one wants it. Someone was saying, you know, they lose, you know, I don't know what the percentage was, but they lose a percentage in the market because in America they're actually putting on their cans and their bottles independent. So you can only put it on if you're actually independently owned. So I think that's probably where we'll go, but it's taken off quicker than I was expecting. Like to see pirate life and Feral go and Four Pines.

Was it Four Pines? Yeah. Yeah. Those guys just going under. I mean, at the end of the day, we are running a business and everyone has a dollar figure. If someone says, you know, I'll give you $20 million each to walk away, you're probably going to take it. That's the hard truth really. It doesn't matter how passionate you are. And that's what they're probably going to do. Do whatever the sign is, do five, ten years out of the industry and then you'll go and buy my own booster and live on the beach and surf every day.

Yeah, that's exactly it. Is your, obviously your goal, Jetty Road's goal is to go nationwide? I'd like to, yeah. I'd like to. I don't know. I don't really have much more of a plan than just getting the beer to a point where we're actually producing, we've got 16 taps on at the moment. We don't, we're filling three of them. So once we've got them all going and we're producing some good beer and there is a demand for it, lots of people want to be trying Jetty Road. But I suppose we'll just see how it all falls out.

That's cool. Like being someone who's, I guess, business driven and loves that side of things, what have been your resources that you've looked at and followed and chased up over the last seven years? My resources as in? Books, podcasts, people, whatever. Yeah, I literally have, for the last, I reckon six months, I've fallen off a train on everything. Which is completely understandable because everything like, you should like, it's understandable that you've had nose to the trough just getting everything done for it. It is, but it's also like you're passionate about those things like you need to keep.

They come back. I was doing CrossFit before the other one started cramping CrossFit. Yeah, that's awesome. And I started doing it, I finished my job at Club Lynx, which is a golf management business. And I stopped and I was like, righto, going down the factory by myself, doing my own job. I was like, this is freaking awesome. Yeah. And I had enough time to do it. And then as soon as March hit, I was like, I don't have time to go and work out, which is just a freaking cop-out. Yeah. It's pathetic. I'm going through the same shit at the moment.

Yeah. Like, I'm in the gym and I'm in there like all week and I struggle to find an hour a day to train. So mate, I get it completely. Yeah. And I'm an hour on the sun and go, I need to do something. So I'm getting to that point now, delegating and getting people in, which is good. But yeah, what was the question? Where did you get, I guess, where did you allow yourself to learn about all the business side of things? As well as obviously you can in degree, but TED Talks. Club Lynx, when I joined Club Lynx, I moved from a taxation business to an accounting management account.

They're more fluid, flexible. Yeah. And it's more of a managerial role. And I spoke to them and said, look, this is what I'm doing. I'm not going to cut the shit because I don't want to hide this because it's too hard to manage. So I'll get in three hours before my day will start at Club Lynx and then I'll probably stay two hours afterwards. Yeah. But during the day, if I need to answer, like Facebook messenger was one of the ways that I'm, you know, networked. Yeah. So I use that and as long as my

job is being done and you're happy with my, you know, if I'm smashing it out for you, I'm going to do what I need to do. That's cool. And it's going to do this all day. And yeah, that was being good for me. But Ted talks during the day, I'm an accountant, 12 to 14 hours a day on my ass, which is great for your body. Standing desk mate, just get like a reamed paper box, put your laptop on a computer on top. 30%, you'll burn 30% more energy standing there. I need all that. Fun fact.

Yeah. Okay. 30%, which means you could drink 30% more beer and maintain the same body composition. We need to talk that out. That's my point. Yeah. No, I like that. I just kicked myself out of my office. So I need to, I need to find the, the, um, the bench sector. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's dangerous. Yeah. Ted talks. Um, yeah. I'm really into positivity. That's why I stopped watching the news. Like if I want to find out about something, um, that's why I like Bloomberg. It's all financially based, but it's only factual. You go on the ABC quite like ring, but you get the facts, you don't get this.

Who's that to? Who drove over who? I'm going with that. So yeah, positivity ones were good. Simon Sinek. Um, I've read a fair few books. He's come up probably the last five podcasts. I have a laugh cause like, you know, I know, um, Angus and I and Simon Sinek's a laugh. We just, we will, Angus and I and Matt Box, um, humble body, you know, Simon Sinek. It's just, that's exactly what the vibe is. You just haven't got that business dialed up yet. And yeah, it's that sort of guy is just spot on for me the way I think.

Um, well I think any, any business owner, any, anyone that's enjoying business or anyone that's in, that's working in a, is a cog in a business. If you're listening to Simon Sinek and you're not inspired or, you know, or passionate about what he's talking about, like you're probably not doing the right thing. Or you're not interested in any of that sort of stuff. And there's nothing wrong with that either. Yeah, I was gonna say anyone, anyone can get value from reading his books or watching him speak. There's always going to be little gems you're going to take from it.

Regardless of whether you're the top dog in the business or you're. Yeah. I'll get home now. Jump, jump on YouTube onto TV. Eat dinner and listen and watch Simon Sinek and Jocko Willink and Rogan and all those, all those incredible like Brian Brown, like all those thought leaders that are just like, you're just sitting there like, yes, yes. I remember sitting here, sitting in the car with, with, with Maddy Borg, shout out, who you know very well. Yes. And we were, we were driving, I think we were driving up to the Royal Children's Sea Rye and we were listening to a podcast with, I can't remember who it was now, Callie Brogan, who's, and, and Joe Rogan.

Yeah. Which isn't, for anyone that has listened, it's an amazing episode. Psychologist, it's basically no medication. And Maddy's like sitting in the backseat and just like literally like cheering. She's like, yes. Oh my God. Yes. Yes. And she's like punching the air and she's getting up and about. I'm like, look at that. I'm like, you alright mate? But, but like that's the feeling you get when you watch that stuff because it resonates with you so deeply. Yep. And it allows you to show like, it's kind of like, and like Gary Reid is kind of similar for me.

Like it just reminds you of why you're doing what you're doing. And, and it can't, when you have those shitty days and I'm sure you would have had fucking plenty over the last seven years. Like I've had plenty, I'm sure Coop's had plenty where you're just like, fire out. This is hard. Like it gives you that little kick you need. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's like that. I mean, it's almost like grabbing a coffee with someone that you need. That's professional. Like watching video, you don't need to be talking to them. Just listen to that experience and that knowledge.

It's just absolutely amazing. So yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Ted Talk Savvy I reckon. That's cool. Yeah, YouTube videos and all that sort of stuff. And then, you know, books like, I mean, I don't, I'm not a book reader, so Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela, that sort of books is just like, Nelson Mandela's book was very hard to get through. It was massive. Just taking away the little bits and pieces that you can relate to. It's just like, wow. Like anything when you're doing this is hard. It's definitely worth doing. It's all, I mean, it's that typical, you know, if you don't put in the time, you don't get that gain.

If you don't go through this shit, you don't get, you're not going to enjoy it at all. You're not going to appreciate it. If it's just given to you. Yeah. So yeah. It's funny how all those cliches that you hear as a kid, like start to actually like come full circle. You're like, Oh, so that's why people say that over and over and over and over again. I laughed. I was listening to Alana's podcast with you last night, actually at the start of the week. I pissed myself because I haven't been on YouTube for a while.

Like I can't, I've, I hired a video the other day. I was like, I'm watching the DVD. I never watched it. And it was three hours of a day. I haven't watched TV that long. It's 2017 download. I mean, legally buy like I did or go down to the shop. Legally download off iTunes is what I was trying to say before you two rudely interrupted. I don't have an iTunes account mate. I'm a Samsung man. Oh wow. You're one of those ones. Yeah. I'm one of those ones. Android. Yeah. Android all the way. You'll be, you'll be like Cooper will be on the Apple train.

I got far off. Yeah. Apple. See, I'm doing the same thing. Be a progressive sheep boys. Just be a sheep mate. I refuse to. And that, yeah. But anyway, I had a laugh because I was listening to Alana and I just got back on to it. Like feeling like I've got more time on my hands. I watched a video and it was someone sitting and I think it was only three months old. So it wasn't too bad. Yeah. But he was talking about the, the whole situation on the, the run that he was talking about, going on a run in New York and the bagels.

Yeah. And that wasn't out of me. I think that's the same thing. It's like, I don't need to worry about these little things that are going away. Cause this big picture, it's going to save all of it and we'll just deal with it. And, and, and I think Alana said that and I just laughed out there cause I was like, holy shit. I've been telling everyone about that story. It's like the bagel man. He's got to look at the bagel. Fucking lies. Get in the line. For those that haven't watched that talk, it's Simon Sinek and, and he's with one of his mates and there's a line for free bagels.

And he says that, awesome, free bagel. Let's line up. And his mate only sees the line. So he's just like, I don't want to line up for the bagel. And then Simon Sinek's like, dude, free bagel. Yeah, exactly. So, and like, but that mindset thing is really, really positive. Is that something really positive, really important to have that positive mindset? Is that something you work on or you just have? Well, I think that's probably the reason why I stopped watching the news and I look for the information I need. Um, I don't know who the

guy is from Ted Talks, but he's a positive psychologist and he's talking about, you know, the same things like my partner wrote on the book and you write three positive things. Yeah. And it was, the speech is amazing. I watched, I'd watch it once a week, I reckon for the first three months while I was at work. That's huge. And it was just about, you know, writing three things down that are positive and things you're grateful for. And it could be just like, I'm just grateful for, you know, not feeling pain after a CrossFit workout yesterday, or I'm grateful for my dog being an absolute muppet or those sort of things because it's just continually positive.

And then at the end, you'd have to write an email to someone. So during the day you just smash through your work and I've always, I'm like, I'll be strict. I even think on the way here, my text messages to you aren't necessarily the way I like to do. I'm like, hey, I made this message and you get that positive. I hate not doing that. But it seems like, you know, write an email with someone and say, thank you for whatever work you've done. And I got into the habit of doing that and I felt really good.

So that's a massive thing for me. I'm always positive. I try to be. I'll lose my shit. I'll fall out of the handle. Um, but it doesn't, you know, check yourself and come back. Yeah, like if I have a shit day at work or I'm having a shit moment, that's fine. And I'll lose my cool. Um, but it doesn't actually carry through with me. I've gone through that moment. Now what's the solution? I think that's just the way I've been brought up with my family, but yeah, that's, that's probably saved me a lot. Yeah. It's

really, it's really important to be able to check yourself after it and go, that's not me, but yeah, I feel better for it or I'm able to get through it. And that's the thing, like I am very mouthy when I'm angry or you know, you know, worked up and that's something I was just like, you know what, that's how I manage my, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to have those at moments. I haven't had it all. Things that are out of my control and I don't have a backup for it. That's when I lose my shit.

Yeah. Yeah. So, and that, but I accept that. And if I walk, like I'll never take it out on anybody else. So this is just, it's just chasing me. Um, yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Thank you for the free beers by the way. No worries. Appreciate it. I'm glad we're drinking gin, but that works well. They're in the fridge. Like they'll be ready to go. Lay up cold. I've got the biggest cool room. You'll be the same. But um, yeah. I hope you guys enjoy. You're a great man. Thanks for the t-shirt. Yeah, you're welcome. I hope I fit into it.

Yeah. If you don't, we'll just start training again, then you will eventually. We've got a bunch of questions for you. They can be as, as long winded or as concise as you want. First one, what is your philosophy on life? And I know you've kind of described it a little bit there, but if you could shorten it. Elevate a pitch to how, how you think everyone should live their lives. Um, I think you, you asked this question quite a bit because I've been listening to you. I love this question. I think, I'll be talking about this for a while for a lot of friends.

Do what you enjoy and that's it. That's all it is because I'm not that person that goes to work for someone like trainees. Go to work, enjoy your job. Yeah. Earn a bit of money and enjoy it and go and come home and watch TV every night. And, but enjoy beer. That could be all you want. Yeah. And there is nothing wrong with that, but that's not me. Everyone's got it. As long as you're enjoying yourself. Cause I don't want to put up with someone or deal with someone or know someone that's not enjoying themselves, but continues to do it.

Yeah. I mean, that's, my sister, um, she came, but she went, she's a sardar in the city. She's doing criminal law and she was doing massive high profile stuff. Yeah. And it was massive stress. And, um, she went away for six months with her and our fiance and she came back and she went back to the same job. I'm like, you fucking didn't like it. And what are you going to do now? Nothing's going to change. And then she was living down here and I was like, not only that, you're traveling an hour and you're not enjoying it.

And she goes, yeah, but I've done three or four years of study. I'm failing. I said, you're failing at life if you're that miserable. Um, and I think that I'm hoping that helped. Yeah. What was it like having that conversation with your sister? Um, eye opening for me because that's something that I heard just, I spat that out and I went, you know what? That's really true. You know, if you're not happy with something, change it. And it's on that sort of person. You wouldn't work it out. Yeah. Yeah. Throwing the deep ends. You end up working in a coffee shop, but you're happier than working in another joint.

Then they do that. But then as long as you're chipping away at something you're passionate about, I don't care. It's supposed to be hard. It's not supposed to be easy. So that's, yeah, I was got really worked up about that. You're not failing in anything. I don't care if you do a study on, I don't care if you spend 10 years doing a degree in something that you love doing. Yeah. But you realize you don't love it. Yeah. You can go on the workforce and go, you know what? This is really depressing. This is really hard and I'm not enjoying it.

And she did. She moved to, she's now in Hastings. She lives in Frankston and she's a solicitor and he's enjoying herself. Happier. Yeah. But it was a massive deal for her to do that. Yeah. But that was, I said it out loud. I'm like, damn, that's fucking great. So as long as you're enjoying yourself, that's all I care about. Put that on a t-shirt. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, you've got to earn money unless you've been doing it. You've got to earn your money and you've got to do your job, but you either work to live or live to work.

So choose it and be happy. And if you can find that thing that you'd like, that's work that you're doing, that you love doing, then life's good, right? Yeah. And I always find that funny that people will spend three or four years at uni and realize they don't enjoy it, but go, you know what? I've contributed three years of my life to this, so I'm going to do it for the next six years. Get on with it. Like, wait, what? It just makes no sense at all. I think it's Western society, like I failed because I'm not doing what I studied to do.

It's just shit. If you're coming home depressed, annoyed, angry, everybody else, or it's taking you three or four hours after you get home to wind down, you're doing something wrong. Yeah. People are confused to do it. And I think it's a slow progression. Like I've watched people working in an office, it's not like one day it's fine, the next day it's shit. It's like this slow increase of just unhappiness. But that unhappiness becomes a norm, right? Exactly. You become, that's my normal, like I'm just going to be unhappy, hey, I have a slightly better day here.

And one of our staff members, Alberta, said it really well, she's like, I was 60% happy. And I realized, and like she was pushed to realize that 60% happy isn't good enough. Like 100% happy is what you want. And whatever changes you've got to make, and yeah, it's going to be hard, like yes, to change anything is going to be really difficult, but when you do make that change and change the thing you love, I use the language, like what you both scares and excites you. If you chase that, then you're kind of sweet, and

you get out of that program life that we're taught with the primary school, to high school, to uni, to a job that you stay in for 40, 50 years, then go get a gold watch and die, like, I couldn't think of anything fucking worse, and like, I'm sure you're the same, but I spend every minute of my day doing the shit that I want to do. Not to say it wasn't hard, or it isn't hard, or it isn't difficult, or there's not struggles, or I don't wake up some mornings and not want to get out

of bed, or go to bed some nights and go, shit, how are we going to pay those bills, but like, you do it because you love it, and that allows everything else to work itself out. Absolutely. Moving in the right direction, moving towards happiness. You need to be taking steps, even like you said, every day you might not be doing something that you may not enjoy, but you're working towards it, and you've got that awareness of that's what you want, I'm going to get there, I'm going to chase that. Yeah, absolutely. Nice. You've already pretty much answered it, but what is success to you?

I got caught on that, I listened to another podcast you did, I don't know who it was. I love how much of my podcast you've consumed. I used to listen a lot, and now I haven't, so I was like, you know what, I need to brush up on this, you know, talking about myself is, I think you've got to learn how to do that. Yeah, a ton. I'm off tangent already, but people will come, hey guy, what's going on with Groovy, like he'd have a shit day or a shit week, and you get caught up

in going, oh yeah, we're getting there, you know, people are asking because they're interested in their passion about what you're doing as well, and you should also give them insight, they're going to be bigger fans. Yeah, exactly. And it's breaking free from saying, I was always going to mention this before, but saying, if someone asks you how you're going, just not being saying, oh yeah, good, thanks. Actually being... Oh, two things I hate, not an automatic response, like, oh yeah, good, thanks mate. Are you actually? Because I can see you've got a pack of shit. If I'm actually looking like a pack of shit, I'm going to tell you.

And the other one is, oh, I'm so busy. Mate, you're not fucking busy. I guarantee you're not busy. If you go home and watch TV at night time, you're not busy. And that's fine, I just feel like as a society, we're getting to that point where everyone works too hard. I do, I think that we do too many hours. Working too hard. Yeah, there's working too hard and being productive. And I think learning from, like coming from a professional background where you do, like you go, righto, I'm paying you 40, you're guaranteed doing 60 hours a week.

And that's just the norm. And I think that sort of doesn't breed good business sense, but at the end of the day, people do work hard, but there is, you know, I don't know who was it, 24 hours into the day. You just got, it's up to you to fill it out. And people don't do that. And it's like, everyone else, are you going to burn out? Like, well, I need to be there here. And I need to do this. I need to do that. I don't need to sit down and watch TV because it's in, it's not productive.

Yeah. And you find, like we use the analogy here, like you want to fill your cup, like you need to fill your cup before you pour into others and that's, that's fine. And like, you might be aware of, you know what, for the next, like for the last six weeks or the last six months probably for you, but I'm just going to, I'm going to do everything I need to do to make it work. And then when, when I've got a chance to fill that cup back up, I will. And like, it seems as though you've got your head on pretty well to be able to do that.

Yeah. Well, I'm getting to that point now. I definitely, like my partner Katie, she's like, what was it, three, three, no, I'm living four or five weeks ago. I don't even know what day it was. She said to me, we're going away. Like she booked us out and got a caravan, go down to the water, just chill out for the weekend. We're living the weekend for the Melbourne Cup. Just chilling out there. And she goes, you just needed a break, but I still have like investors. I was truly trying to sign on a new investor

and I was all like, but getting away, they're having someone to watch you back and go, right, you need to get now I'm getting at that point. So I'm acknowledging that now I know I've overstepped, but again, you know, I'm doing something I'm passionate about. So, you know, you can do that extra 200% because people go, I'm done. And they're not even, they're not even stretching themselves at 40%. I'm sitting here and I'm busy because I mean, this is sound stupid because I don't like, I didn't want to say it. I'm going to say it anyway.

Like I, at the moment I'm busy, but I could be busier and I don't feel like I'm about to fall down. And the last time I finished at 10, 11 o'clock and I was back at the factory, I actually took the morning off and I wasn't there at 8.30. And that still stuffed me because I was like, I should've been here at six and I could have been there at six. But I decided to have the sleep in and I freaking loved it. You know what I mean? Like, and I feel like I'm busy. I can feel like my voice has gone to shit, tired.

It's a constant battle between like how hard you should push yourself and how hard you should like pull back. Like it's that I know I can do this and like, and when you know, or when you've got something to come up with, like, like everyone listening to the podcast, like this is going to be six weeks, six, seven weeks away from when it actually launches, which doesn't really matter. But like it's the week before Christmas and like I said to my staff earlier in the week, like there's 168 hours in this week and I'm going to be using pretty much every one of them.

Like I've, my whole week has been booked out, whether it be for, and like it's being mindful about what I'm spending my time doing, right? Like spending it two hours or an hour doing a podcast isn't necessarily that super tiring, but like you get out of there and your brain's fried, right? So you can't, you don't have that same kind of output you could afterwards. And I'm just kind of like crawling to Monday or Christmas day where I can have a little bit of a sleep in, can spend the whole day with the family, opening Christmas presents, sitting in the pool, drinking gin and just enjoying it.

And I'm like, that's, that's going to be Monday and I can't wait for it. But until Monday I'm going to be smashing myself and I'm okay with it. Yeah. With the 168 hours, we use this for our, for a lot of our clients to say, you're spending like maybe three or four hours in the gym every week. That's it. What are you spending the rest of your time on? Like you're at work for x amount of hours, that's fine, but what are you doing with all the other hours? Yeah. Are you looking after yourself? And especially for you guys as the owners of successful, busy, business, short and busy.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Successful businesses. How much time are you setting aside for yourselves to look after yourselves and take a bit of time off. And even if it is just for an hour to have a read or to chill out and have a beer. I don't do that. I don't do that. It's just stupid. When's your next holiday? I don't have one. Book one. Cause you have to. Like, like I'm like, I guess you've been doing it for a lot longer in a way, but at the same time, like now that the, now that the, the brewery is actually open, it's still kind of fresh.

I set, I booked six weeks in South America in about four months. So yeah. Which is like, which, which for me as a, as someone that was never great at delegating, which someone who wasn't like to do everything himself, like that was a massive step for me to kind of go, you know what, I need to put people in positions to do that stuff. That was like, I think I booked it eight months out, so four months have already happened. And like my business is so different to when I, when I booked it because I, because I've put myself in a position to have to do it right.

And like, if I did that a year ago, it wouldn't have worked, but I just, I don't know, felt like the right time or I made it the right time or whatever, but yeah, try and book, try and book a holiday at some point because it will make you put people in positions to, to do the shit that you're, you don't like delegating. Yeah. Which in turn pushes the business forward and helps you evolve when business grows. Yeah, definitely. Two-part question. What are you most proud of? Oh, wow. Um, I'll just say that it's good. It's been good to come here now.

I was just walking around the brewery before, um, just making sure the staff were good and updating the backend and all the technology and stuff like that. And friends and family were coming in and like, Oh, she's so proud and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't, it doesn't hit home. Yeah. Um, I'm sure, I think I am proud, but I don't think I've actually gone, Oh fuck, I've done really good here. Yeah. You'll get to that point though. I don't think I've had it. So, but I suppose what, you know, I'm doing what I'm passionate about, but my, my goal is to set up my lifestyle the way I want it.

Yeah. I want it to be a, I love flexibility. I love being adaptable. So I think that works well with running my own business. Yeah. Um, you know, sometimes it does stuff up. Sometimes you've got to do the 22 hour days, but it gives me the capacity to go, right, I'm going to do a 22 hour day tomorrow, I'm going to do it pays itself back. Right. Yeah, exactly. So I think, um, yeah, I think that's, I think I'm proud of where I'm at. Yeah. Um, I don't think, yeah, I don't know. I think I'm proud of everything.

I like that. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. It's a hard question. But it's like, it's a good answer because you've kind of gone, well, yeah, I've worked really hard and like, I don't know what the quote is, but it's like entrepreneurs or business owners will spend 80 hours a week working for themselves so that they don't have to spend 40 hours working for someone else. Yeah. Right. And like you've been able to do that and then you'll get to 6, 12, 18 months down the track and you'll go, you know what, I can

take that six week holiday or that three week holiday or whatever and kind of pay it back a little bit because it's on your terms, which makes a huge difference. Yeah. Second part of that question. What are you most ashamed of? I think I'm ashamed of it, yeah. Good. Yeah. No. No score. Next. Yeah. Okay. So if someone were to make a movie about you, what would be the title of this movie? Shit. And who would play you? That's so fun. Jesus. I'll continue. I haven't watched a movie in that fucking long. That's going to be really hard to answer.

Or even a book. Just say always be, mate. Yeah. Always be. Always business. That's what it's always been about, I think. I was going to say the accountant, but it's already been taken. Good. Good movie. Yeah, really good movie. It was what I was expecting. Yeah. Although I like to use the word clusterfuck a lot. Oh, good. The clusterfuck. Yeah. That's my life. I think not working in hospitality ever, while I did a couple of shifts in Mr. Paul's like porn business. I'll get rid of it and he was awesome on training us up and all that stuff.

He was awful, dude. He's now the spark and he did a lot of work at the factory. Did he really? Yeah. All that sort of stuff. It's awesome. Yeah. I think I like to be in control, but at the end of the day, it is a clusterfuck and I think hospitality is like that. You don't, you can't structure it like at the moment, backend payroll, I want everything on software. I want to be able to track it. Stock control. All that sort of stuff. I want to be able to track everything. I'm a percentage man. Yep.

If it's not working out, we need to work out how to make it better. That's cool. And I'm not going to sit here and try and make it better now, but I'm in the backend now today. I'm just going like, guys, I've never worked behind a till properly before under this much pressure. What do you want to see? What works better? And they're already giving me feedback, which gives them ownership as well, which is really exciting. Yeah. And I can see that working already. Awesome. So that sort of stuff is good, but I see down

in the factory today, trying to get some backend stuff done, but there's, you know, delivery's coming, the cooks are going crazy, someone's going at somebody. I fucking love that. It's really good. And I say it all the time, you know, how's your clusterfuck all week going? People are all like, I'm all over the joint. So that would be, you know, if it wasn't there, that would be the clusterfuck. Mate, that's going to be the name of your podcast. Yeah, absolutely. Really, really good. Fuck yeah. Did I ask that question? Yeah, you're up. Coop. No, I just asked the question about the derby.

Oh yeah, maybe. I forgot about that. I don't have an idea of who it would be. Yeah, no, the clusterfuck. I like it. I think I know the answer to the question, but if money wasn't an issue and you couldn't fail, what would you do with your life? Same thing. It's the same thing when I was talking. I've always, I've had a couple of dreams like a couple of years ago. It's like, what if I thought I'd won $300 million? There is no doubt in my mind that I would have spent the money and don't need that sort of money, but I would have put it in the business.

Yeah, that's cool. Absolutely. There's no fucking shit. Yeah. Listen to a podcast from the Howie games. It's a really good podcast because he talks to, you know, doesn't know all the cricketers because he does the work. It's a really good podcast. Yeah, but listening to, um, oh gosh, I can't remember who said it. Oh fuck, my brain's gone again. That's a loud thing. That's a loud. God, I hope you're having a nap sometime this weekend. I was thinking about doing it yesterday, it's just not happening, not really internet going down. But, um, what was the question?

Let me get it. I really want to say it. What was the question? If you got a little bit of money and couldn't fail, what would you do? No, it's not good. Exactly what you're doing now, which is a great answer, which is the answer that I like, I hope everyone answers. Sometimes you're hearing like, "Oh, you're fully shit." I'm like, "Oh, actually, yeah, sorry, it was Michael Clark. People are giving him shit. He's having a lot of money doing what he does and he's been fucking amazing at what he does. Same thing with Shane Warren.

Like, he never changed. I don't give a shit if anyone thinks he's a wanker, he's a fucking great cricketer. I was watching the, um, after the Ashes last match, they did, I don't know what it's called. It was on Channel 9, it was straight after, and they were doing videos of, you know, morning, you know, all the old guys. Just watching him, it was like, "You are fucking amazing at what you're doing. I don't care if you're lurking outside of the pub." It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. And the cricket industry is sort of like that.

They can have a big afternoon match, whereas football's a little different. And they're, you know, expecting to be role models. People are allowed to let their head out. And that's the good thing that Michael Clark said. You know, people were giving me shit for being the toffee bloke or, you know, buying the nice stuff. It's like, "I like fast cars. I like nice cars. That's me. I don't give a fuck about it." - That's cool. - And I'm not necessarily money driven. I'm never money driven. I'm associated with my money because I am the accountant and I know finance.

- Yeah. - And you can't go anywhere without business without it. - Yeah. - So I wouldn't be in business without it. But, um, I do like nice cars. So I would do that if I had a money, but at the same time as I would put it in something I'm passionate about because I'm not going to sit by a pool and be depressed. - Yeah. - By doing nothing. - That's cool. You do you. - Yeah. - Good. - Nice. - If you could be remembered in one sentence, what would it be? Sorry, Kubo. Just took another question.

But you kind of repeated my question. So whatever. - I don't have a question anyway. So let's move on. - Okay. - I don't know. Something, a word that I really like is charismatic. - Oh, good. - Yeah. That's the one thing I like. I look up to people like that. I don't have a mentor at the moment and I haven't had one for a long time and I'd like one. - Yeah. - But I do look up to people that are charismatic. You don't have to be good at one thing or the other. Just someone that, and I struggle sometimes I'll get nervous or I don't socialize as well as I should.

- Yeah. - And I think this sort of position that I'm in and being in the limelight, you're going to have to be better at it. - Yeah. - But yeah, you've always got to be charismatic. And I think that's important. And that doesn't just mean you've got to be nice and, you know, really, I don't know, positive all the time. Yeah. Just be genuine, but charismatic at the same time. Be genuine and ask the questions and be present. - That's cool. - Yeah. - I love it. Be present. - Yeah. - I'm all about that at the moment.

- I'm showing you that at the moment. I've read. - Because you need a nap, man. - I've been out three times and I'm like, "Fuck off." I've highlighted like every page and it doesn't make any sense to me. No, no, it does. It does. But it's a tough book to read. But I, yeah. - What is the book called? - The Power of Now. - The Power of Now. - Yeah. - That's something that I reckon I struggled through when I was a uni or a high schooler. I was just like, "Power of Now. You just got to be present."

And people ask. - Yeah. - I am always. Like right now, I'm always thinking what am I doing? What's going on at the factory? - Yeah. - You know, I've got to do this, this and this. I'm not present sometimes. Like, I'll just go after that and I'll just pull it back. But to read the book, you actually start thinking about it. - Yeah. - So I. - But when you're aware of it, like. - Yeah, exactly. - You're kind of halfway there. - Yeah, that's scary. I actually read it on the way home from Europe the second time with my partner.

And I bought the book at the start of the trip, and I didn't read it the whole time I was over there. - Yeah, cool. - I was in Dubai. I sat down with the book, and I started reading it. And I actually had this out of body experience. - That's cool. - 'Cause I actually stopped, and I. - That's what it talks about, right? - Yeah. And I had this, I literally had a pins and needles experience because I was witnessing myself thinking. - That's super cool. - And I stopped, and I haven't had it again.

I've read the book two more times. - So, so, playing is the way you should do it. - Yeah, in an airport. - Yeah. - Yeah. But then again, like, I reckon that's what the sort of book you have to read on the whole day. - Yeah. - You cannot read it after work. - I've been trying, and I'm not far in. Like, I've read it already, but I'm trying to read it again, I'm not that far in. - That's probably me after about four or five months. - Yeah. - Yeah. - One of the quotes I heard in a podcast the other day was, "A conscious relationship."

Well, I've paraphrased a little bit to kind of be a little bit more, something I can remind myself of. But, "A conscious relationship with my thoughts allows me to live a proactive life." So, if you don't think about what you're thinking, you're just gonna react to everything. - Yeah. - Yeah? - Yeah. - Yeah. - And that kind of reminds me that, well, if I'm thinking about what we're doing right now and not thinking about the gym, what's happening up there and making sure that it's clean enough or that all the staff are looking after each other or whatever, then I'm gonna fuck up this moment.

And yeah. - I do it all the time. - Yeah. And it's a hard thing to not do. It's something I'm getting better of, and, like, you'll get better of with it as you go. - Yeah. True. - It's a hard one. - I wouldn't say I've had a massive one, but I reckon continually doing things that I have to do to do what I want is, you know, checking yourself in front of somebody you don't know to tell a story. But, at the end of the day, you're telling a story that you're passionate about, so it's not that big of a deal.

- Yeah. - But I think, you know, getting investors to sign on to something you believe in, normally that, putting in the amounts of money that I needed, it hasn't been daunting, but it's also been, you know, it's a big deal. - Yeah. - To sell a story. - Well, it's a huge deal. - So, yeah, that's probably a defining moment. I don't really think I've had one big one. I suppose getting it, actually getting the company set up and then taking the money on was a defining moment. - Yeah. - But I never sat back a lot.

Yeah, I got through that, and so. - It's just a series of moments that build up to where you are now. - Yeah. Yeah. - Good. - Nice. - If, I don't know, let me restart, what three values do you think everyone should possess? - Oh, big question. - Whether it's in business or life. - Just life, yeah. - Joy. - Poor. - There's one. - Mate, have a sip of your water. Think about it. - Yeah. - Good. Chill out. - I want to say caring, but there's got to be a better word, but I want people to be genuinely, like, people genuinely care.

Like, people I talk to, he's like, "Actually, you care." - Yeah. - And those people you talk about, someone else got, "Oh, hell is that?" Like, he just actually, when he asks you a question, he actually wants to know. - Yeah. - Instead of going, "Hey, y'all mate," and they look it away, and they're not giving you shit. It's like, you don't even care, don't you? - Yeah, exactly. - So, I think, you know, making sure you're joyful, you know, or happy, I suppose happy is probably, you know, a happy joy, same thing. - Yeah. - Caring, I don't know, selflessness.

- Yeah, good. I like it. - Yeah. - That's the thing. I think the people that I look up to the most are always the ones who are genuinely interested in things other than themselves. - Yeah. - So, if they're talking to you, like you said, they give you that time of day, and they're present. - Yeah. - And they're just genuine, authentic people. - I've got, I had a guy, I do, he's a family friend, and he is so good at that. Like, it's the nice little questions, how's this going, or how do you do that, and what's been happening here, and how do you adapt that?

- Yeah. - And you walk away and go, "I did not ask you one question." - Yeah. - And I picked up on that, like, every Christmas we catch up. - Yeah. - And he's a, what do you call him, a consultant, he does business management consultancy. - Awesome, yeah. - And he does, he did Australian cricket training, a couple of Olympic teams, amazing bloke, amazing individual, and it'd be great to pick his brains, but I worked out over the last couple of years, it's like, you're always very passionate and you love what I'm doing. - Yeah.

- And if I ask you a question, you deflect. - Yeah. - I've done that. - Yeah. - So, I'm trying to figure out-- - Yeah, and it'd be like, "Mate." - Yeah, and I did that this week, and I've got nothing. - Yeah. - So, I think it's a bit of both. You wanna be engaged in the conversation, not just asking the question. - Yeah. - Just because you care doesn't mean the conversation's gonna work, so-- - Yeah. - Yeah, I think that's important. You've gotta be present in both forms. - Yeah. - Tell them, like, if I'm asking you a question, don't deflect.

- Just answer the fucking question. - Yeah, exactly. - Well, here's a question for you. If you could invite three people to dinner, who would they be and why? Dead or alive? - Oh, anyone asking. - Why? - Oh, he's just an inspiration. I love him. I don't, I don't know, I can clearly, I don't know how he works. But what he's doing, and his drive, and his ignorance to the shit that goes on in him-- - Oh, man. - --is fantastic. - Oh, how good is it? - Oh, and just the way, I mean, I suppose now he's, you know, the companies he's got.

- Yeah. - And so big. There is plenty of people behind him. - Yeah. - And he employs the people that are going to do the same thing that he would do. - Yeah. - But, you know, this is massively small scale compared to what he does, but he sees that and he goes and gets it regardless of taking on, you know, the debt that he's done and paying it back-- - Yeah. - --and having him believe it. - Yeah. - And the fuck-ups he's had, I'd love to hear about the fuck-ups he's done. And even Richard Branson, you know, those early days where he was trying to start, you know-- - Yeah.

- --flying a 747 and flying in the back-- - Have you read his new book yet? - No. - No, neither have I. It's sitting right there. - No, I love it. - But I haven't read it. Read it. I'm waiting, like, I'm waiting to give myself time off to actually read it. - Elon Musk, I was talking to, I was doing a podcast the other week, and he's done a new round of interviews, and I was told about something he said in one of those interviews, so I searched it and found it, and someone asked him, "Why you do what you do?

Why do you do what you do?" And his answer? "To be useful." - That's cool. That's really good. - Is that not the most fucked up, deepest, like, incredibly crazy fucking answer for someone who's doing all that shit that he's doing? To be useful. - And it's so simple. - Yeah. - Wow. - You know, at that stage, you've got a little bit of time on your hand going, "Right, I'm going to get asked questions like that. I need to be on the way." - Yeah. - I don't know. But he's just, I love it. - He's just coming up, yeah.

Yeah. That blew my mind, like, that he was able to answer that question with that. - Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. - So simple. - Yeah. - Like, just being useful. - Who asked two more? - Simon Sinek. - Yeah, good. - Yeah. I think the way I like the way he carries himself as well in the talks is just very composed. Third one. I don't know. You've got to be Simon Sinek. It's all business related. I'm pretty boring. I don't know. - Correct. That's fine with management. - Anything that's going to help me do my job. I want to say Richard Branson, but I feel like he'd be so busy with everyone else's lunch sets and units.

- Yeah. He's been a regular occurrence. - Yeah. I want to go to someone's, like, I'm a player. Yeah. Someone in cricket, I reckon. - Cool. - Yeah, I reckon. Someone's been through this shit. Even if it's just, like, Michael Clark or Gillies or something like that. - Yeah. - You know what? I'll take Warnie. I'd love to hear that Warnie. - Yeah. That'd be cool. - Yeah. Something like that. Because I mean, he's... - That's good, isn't it? - Yeah. But I think he's a larrikin, but he's also... When you watch him and hear him talk on the television or on the radio, he's got that cookie in his brain.

He couldn't be a captain if he had his head screwed on with all the other stuff. - With all the other stuff. Wasn't pulling around. - Yeah, exactly. But he's got no problem with where he's at. - Yeah. - So having a chat with him would be very interesting, I reckon. - That's cool. - Cool. Other than Jelly Road, what is your favorite beer? - Ooh. There's so many. That's the thing I was talking the other day to someone. It's like, I don't walk into a brewery and get a standard beer. Like, if I wouldn't go down there, if someone would go to a bottle shop, I'd have it on tap.

- Yeah. - I'd have it on tap to have it fresh. - Except for Jelly Road tinnies. - Except for Jelly Road tinnies. Definitely. I seriously don't drink during the week, but when we got those tinnies out that week, I was like, "Hey, Monday to Friday, I had a beer." And it's so icy cold. - Friggin' your beer. - Yeah. - That's cool. - That was surreal. That was a surreal moment. Driving home from work, I had one of my own beers in my hand. I'm like, "Fuck, man, that's sick." I don't know. No, I don't.

- Surely you can give someone a plug. - Yeah, I'll try. Well, I'll give a plug for the plug's sake. Mr. Banksy in Seyford. - Good. - Fuckin' awesome beers. He's a legendary bloke, and the beers he's puttin' down are really cool. And he's got his own setup. He's doing his own thing. He's done it by himself. - That's cool. - I mean, that's a ballsy effort. - It's amazing. - Yeah, I had one of his beers at Mr. Paul's in Moynton the other day, and it was just spot on. - We had one over lunch.

- Did ya? - Yeah. - Perfect. What was it? - I fuckin' can't remember. - Is that any names? - It wasn't the first one. We had a team Christmas lunch, and the beers were flowing. - I love it. - It was good. - It was good. - It was good. All right, a couple of favorites to finish off, unless Coop's got any more. - I was gonna ask a favorite for the next one. - Yeah, yeah, good, good, good. Favorite resource for new information, now that you've opened, and you've got a little bit of time on your hands to start diving into some new stuff.

- Yeah. - What are you gonna hit first? - TED Talks. - TED Talks? - Yeah. - Good, good. - Awesome. I know you said you're not a book man, but favorite book? - This is gonna be a weird one. - Cool. - God is Not Great. - Yeah? - Yeah. - Have you got that here? - Yeah. - Really? - Awesome. - That was amazing. - Amazing book. - Yeah. - Amazing book. - Yeah. - Yeah, mind blowing book. - I went through that stage when I was at uni reading a lot of books, and it was all, you know, around that sort of topic, and it was just really cool to read.

- Yeah. - And I was like, "What's that?" - Yeah. - And I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna write a book." And I was like, "Oh, I should say it." And I was like, "I don't like touching around in religious conversation." - Yeah. - 'Cause it's the same thing with politics. You can talk to someone, and you can have a two hour conversation, and you can just agree or disagree. - Yeah, and people just move away and just go, "Oh, I'm gonna write a book." - Yeah. - And I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna write a book."

- Yeah. - And I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna write a book." - Yeah. - And I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna write a book." - Yeah. - And I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna write a book." - Yeah. - And I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna write a book." - Yeah, and people just move away and do their own shit. - Yeah. And what's the point? 'Cause it's not a reaching goal. - Yeah. - Like, talking about this, talking positivity, talking management, talking about your experiences, and it's all positive, and there's a reason for why we do it, and why people listen.

Whereas I don't understand, like my family has said, political debates. - Yeah. Nothing changes. - When we're driving, I mean, left wing doesn't matter. - Yeah. - Like, we could always discuss it, but hey, it's not changing anything, and we're not getting anything from it. So what's the point? - Yeah. - And that's the frustrating thing about arguments along those lines, 'cause people don't necessarily change their mind. - No. - In that argument. But I've certainly changed my views on religion, and I think I read this on an AirAsia flight. - That's true. - But

I've definitely, not necessarily changed my views of what I think happens when we die or what the meaning of life is or anything like that, but it's allowed me to be a lot more accepting and have perspective of everyone else, right? Like, everyone else is just trying to find an answer, because we're human and we want to know the answers. - Yeah. - And yeah, if you get solace in the fact that you think there's some dude in the sky and he's sending his son down to die for you, then that's all that's completely up to you.

- Yeah, whatever makes you a better person, I suppose. - Yeah. - And that's true. Out of that book, I did get that. - Yeah. - But I've always been like that. If that's what makes you a better person or you've come from that sort of, that family or that, you know, that country or where are you from, like, there's always something different going on. There's something new in "The Scratch of Service" of being, understanding what perspective, you know, what is the word I'm trying to be, but understanding where people come from and what they're doing.

- Yeah. - There's three, four or five different massive groups, but there's so much more little tribes and like... - Yeah. - You can't "The Scratch of Service." - Yeah. - So what's the point? But understanding that they've got their own story and their own journey, that's fine. - Yeah. I always find it really interesting hearing, like, two intellectuals debate something that's so complex like religion, and they're both, like, coming in feeling one way, leaving feeling the same way. But they've had this crazy intellectual debate, and I love those YouTube videos. - Yeah. - It's pretty cool.

- I'm not that intelligent. It's not giving me a goal, I'm out. - I'm not that intelligent, but it's entertaining, man. - Exactly. - It's entertaining. - True. - Last one. - Yeah. - Favorite quote? - Oh. I've got two. One is, and I can't really speak for now because I'm wearing three-day-old clothes, but it's always... What is it? I'm not saying it all the time. It's better to be overdressed than undressed. - Good. - Yeah. I don't care if you're the nice overdressed person there. It means you put a bit of effort in. I mean, it's not like rocking up to a taxi to the brewery, but, you know, that sort of stuff.

- We should all rock up to taxis. Rock up to your brewery, taxis. - Yeah, fling it through here if you want to. It's okay. - Challenge accepted. Yeah, if you are. Make sure you're there. - Yeah, exactly. But he's not here. The other one I actually got from someone that was sort of a mentor, and I worked at Bunnings for seven years while I was going through me and in high school and whatever. And he actually wrote me a note, and I kept him on it for ages, and I lost the wallet. But it was...

It's a standard one, isn't it? Prepare, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. - Yeah. - And that's so true. - Yeah. - It doesn't even have to be a point where, like, I'm looking at this, your marketing strategy, and I'm like, "Ha ha! I don't have my answers to a lot of those questions or what you're doing there, and I haven't done that." - Mate, there's a lot that's got to be loaded up onto the wall. - But I've already prepared on where I want to drive the business, and in my back of my head, if I can pass it on to whoever's running that marketing strategy, go and do it.

But that's my preparation. - Everything comes back to it. - And if you haven't thought about it at all, and you've ignored it, or you've purposely just, you know, brush it off, then you're going to fail. - Spot on. - So I think that that was... I didn't think much of it at the time, but in my wallet, I kept pulling it down. - It's pretty important. - It's kind of cool. There's so many quotes. I used to write down quotes. Like, I used to save them in a document and just read over them. - Yeah.

I've got a big document. - Yeah. Well, I haven't done that in ages, because, you know, you get... - Yeah. - Yeah. You just sort of fall off the wagon. - I've got them all in about a thousand different notes in my phone, so I'm going to have to one day sit there and give it to an intern to collaborate. - You know what's good for that? I'll get my phone. This is going to be a little... I've got on... Because I'm on social media and getting all the branding done and that sort of stuff in the business, I've gone onto Pinterest.

- Yeah. - And I've actually got a folder here. - Oh, good. - Oh, I love it. Wait. I have to check one. I've got one here. How do you find... I don't know how to use this phone. - Come on, mate. You get an iPhone, they're a lot easier to use, though, for you. - There you go. - Well, mate, I'm just taking a word for it, because... - It's inspiring. - No, I'm going to be a soon convert. - Yeah, this is what I like and this is what I failed to do. It's like show up in every single moment like you're meant to be there.

- I love that. - And that's not just confidence, but it's just, you know, positivity as well. It's like, "Yeah, I'm happy to be here. I want to be here." - It's being present as well. - Yeah, and I've got... - Yeah, good. Yeah, I like it. Do you have a mantra? - No. - No. - No. - No, I should. - Mine's very similar to that quote. - Yeah. - Show up, smile, make a difference. - Yeah, I like it. - That's it. Simple. - That's why I'm trying to work out with the brewery. It's like always beer.

It's always beer because it's always been about beer. - Yeah. - And Katie actually came up with that idea. I'm not giving you enough information. She's like, "What do you want me to do?" I'm like, "Just do your job." And she walked back in her office and she was just doing a t-shirt design for me. And that's how the always beer came out. - That's awesome, yeah. - And I was like, "I don't need to piss you off and come for more times just to get really good results from you." - Yeah. - But she said, I said, "Why always beer?"

She goes, "Well, it's always been about beer. It's just been six years we've been here and we talk shit about this. Fuck, I'm done." But I wanna keep that going in business. - Yeah. - It's always positivity. It's all high vibes. - I love that. - And I haven't structured that properly. I've opened the venue and I'd love to have had that so I could just rev up this, you know? - Yeah. - Like, I want it to be organic. - Start writing that shit on the walls. - Yeah. - Like, I've done that up at the gym.

I just literally, I'll either write a quote on the wall or I'll get it printed and get it stuck on the wall. Like, if it's something that we want to live by day to day. - Yeah, so it resonates with you. - Yeah. - Yeah, exactly. And I suppose at the end of the day, this is a small business, but these people, they're coming to do their job and they're living and breathing this with me. - Yeah. - This is what I'm doing and this is who I am and that's what's, yeah, it's another arm of my life.

- I love that. - And just thinking about that, I actually, I should have done it, automate the policies in my use, actually has a message of the day. - That's cool. - Fours Magazine, when you're doing the wine and you're trying to find out how rich someone is, they always have a fucking, I like that, so I just typed in like, I can't remember what it was, second day in, you had boys and girls, good luck, awesome work and that's good, but it'd be cool to have something a little bit more deep and meaningful, but it's good to have that there.

- Yeah. - Which is cool. - Yeah, something to come back to every day. - I don't have a wall yet, so I need to... - I can write on Brandy's mural later, that'd be fine. - Fuck, yeah, I wouldn't, he would be that salty. So where can people buy your beer, how can people experience the Jetty Road experience? - Come down the brewery, I reckon, that's the easiest way to do it, like, that's the whole idea behind the business and again, it's another way of marketing ourselves. The reason why we started this brewery is

because we wanted the people, like, when we started homebrewing, we'd brew a beer, we'd taste other beers that we brewed previously, we'd talk about them, we'd have a laugh, put on some really good tunes and we'd have local produce like a beer cheese platter or a beer cup of meats and it'd be a whole day, like, I'd be gone over Saturday. - It's cool. - No, you know, nine times out of 10, I'd probably come home absolutely hungry, but that whole experience on, you know, as I said before, like, it's quality over quantity. - Yeah.

- Probably some of our brewers weren't quality, but, you know, we're trying different things and doing, like, we've got 34 recipes now and it's just about what's going to work and what's going to sell well and all that sort of stuff now, but, yeah, I've lost where I was going. - Yeah, that's cool. Get down the brewery. - Get down the brewery and then, like, I think pretty much most bottle shops from Frankston to Portsey have us on. - Which is sick. - Yeah, I mean, it's hard because we contract brew now and there are limitations, that's why we've only got that area, but people are coming out of the woodwork going, oh, can we have your beer?

And it's like, yeah, we'll keep saying yes, but some of this is, you know, Portsey Pub, get around those guys, Roseblood Hotel, Casa, Mr. Paul's, all those guys have been there from the start there. I mean, that's the good thing about it, craft beer, it's a very hard industry to get into because there's so many of them. - Yeah. - It's 127, 128 microbreweries in Victoria. - That's stupid. - It's the highest in Australia. - Yeah. - So, it's hard to get a tap and what they do is, I mean, so you beat buy taps. So, you walk into a normal pub, four out of the five beer taps are owned.

So, they go, we'll put you on rotation and a lot of local pubs have said, yeah, we'll take you on, which has been fantastic in the first place, but the parlour's done so well, they've gone, we're gonna keep you on full time. - That's awesome. - That's been awesome. So, get around those guys who've been there from the start. I think there's a list and there's a map on our website as well, which I've tried to get together, but it hasn't been that long. - Amazing. One thing at a time. - I'll take my head in.

- Yeah, that's fair. Well, mate, thank you very much for coming on. - Thank you. - Bravo on creating what you've created. - Cheers. - I look forward to consuming a significant amount of Jetty Road over the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years. - I hope so. - Thanks, man. - Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.