You are listening to the cactus project with your host Mel McDonald.

Hi, this is Melanie today’s interview is with David Wilson. I first heard about David just at the beginning of the pandemic where a mutual friend of ours told us about this guy who had gone all in on a business, bought a whole lot of stock and opened up big new premises. Immediately before the lockdown started.

So I’ve been really interested in his story and following his story. Uh, since then I’ve had the opportunity to have a chat to him and find out a bit more of his back story. And like everybody who’s done something big that didn’t start off that way. What does it say? An overnight success takes 10 years.

So today I’m having a chat with David and finding out what he does, what happened to him when he was about to open a brand new showroom just before the lockdown happened in Sydney. What he is learned from that experience and this previous business experience. It’s a great story. And I think you are gonna really enjoy hearing it.

There’s some interesting lessons for life and for business in it. So thank you, David. And, and welcome. I really appreciate you doing this today. If we can start by, perhaps if you can tell us a little bit of your backstory. So what, you know, the sort of five minute David CV, what did you start off doing with your business life?

Um, in, in business life, once I sort of decided that I didn’t really wanna be an employed anymore. My first, uh, four into the business world was in real estate. Um, and I was a real estate agent, uh, licensed real estate agent at the time. And, uh, I took an opportunity that came up, um, to, uh, start my own franchise at that particular, uh, real estate business, which, um, outlook in hindsight was probably not the best idea.

I wouldn’t say I. Ready to, uh, really start a business at that point in time. I thought it was, um, but I we’ll we’ll it lately. So what was in hindsight? What do you think you were missing? Um, the skills actually all the skills to run a business. Um, I, I considered myself an excellent real estate agent. Um, and what I based my decision on, on starting a real estate office was that I could sell real estate as we know, um, running a business and, and working in the business, uh, generally to very different things.

Um, and I just, I found too many. Shortcomings. And I relied on the brand that I was with, um, to provide some guidance and, and whilst, um, and they were, they were a big brand. Um, and they did provide some, uh, guidance, but I think probably not enough for, uh, well, and perhaps they did, but maybe I just didn’t reach out for it ultimately, uh, at the end of it, um, we, we ran the business for five years.

Um, and I, I ran myself into the ground because I just kept trying to make it more and more successful. Ultimately, the reason I got outta that business and, and don’t me wrong, it wasn’t it wasn. Unsuccessful. Um, we, we built up a rent role, which ultimately we sold on. Um, and the sales business as a, as an entity is not really worth anything in, in the real estate, um, gig, but effectively I built an asset in spite of the fact that I don’t think I really had any qualifications to do so.

So why did you get out. Um, look, it was, we were working, uh, I was working from 7:00 AM, till 11:00 PM on any given day between six and seven days a week. Uh, I had, uh, a young family and, um, so I had, uh, one boy at that point in time. Um, and his whole life really had been revolved around my real estate career.

In fact, he was born just before we started that business. Right. Um, so he hadn’t really known me to. Super involved his life at that point in time. Um, and I just saw, uh, that maybe like a bit of a disconnect with him. He was certainly all about, uh, his mum and brightly. So that’s of course, where he would’ve expected given a good five years of his life was, was exactly that.

Um, but we decided to have a simpler life. And I sold up that business. And, um, I worked for the company that we, we sold to for about 12 months or so. So, so was that, and I know you’re sort of telling that bit, like it was, you know, it was just a thing and you just did it, but was that, was that difficult and stressful to do that at the time?

Uh, hugely, hugely. There were a number of factors that, that ultimately contributed to the, to the decision. Um, I, I found that. Ultimately in real estate, um, loyalty and respect was not necessarily wasn’t prevalent, uh, in, in the industry. Um, and that’s from all aspects, that’s from, uh, vendors, that’s from other agents that’s from other real businesses, I guess it is one of those.

Uh, industries that, um, it’s one of those self perpetuating, um, uh, stories of yeah. Real estate agents fiercely competitive. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, and whilst again, I, I consider myself a good agent. Um, I probably didn’t position our business well enough to be able to be fiercely competitive in our marketplace.

Uh, so, um, ultimately I decided. Wasn’t for me, we sold off the business. Uh, and then we moved on, but yeah, there were a, there were a lot of factors, a lot of conversations because obviously we had built the business to retire on, um, in fact, our whole business that the acronym of our business name was RT. Y which was retire in 10 years.

That was, that was absolutely, yeah, it was, uh, far in 10 years. And after about five years it went, I don’t think I can do another five years on this. Um, so. Yeah, we, we decided ultimately that was, that was a catalyst to, to move on, uh, and, and, and see in such of a simple life, I guess. So when you’re doing this, um, and I know you’ve got a pretty cool story to tell in the moment.

So I do want to get to that, but what does, what does it feel like when you’ve had like five years of working a zillion hours a week and investing everything and thinking about this is your retirement plan. Like what what’s, what does that do to your ego? What does it do to your confidence? Like it was real mixed emotion.

It was definitely a sense of. Um, because I didn’t feel like I achieved what I ultimately set out to achieve. Um, definitely. Um, but I did have, um, some good people, including my wife or interview that, um, like we focused on the fact that we actually built a business to sell. Um, ultimately we did, we did sell it.

Yes. We sold it for less than what we would otherwise like to have sold it for. Um, and the nature of selling real estate’s businesses is that it’s not actually a, a finite. End. Um, there is a transition period, like actually space at all, businesses like that. Um, but it did feel like it dragged on well beyond that five years as well.

Um, and again, I probably put my hand up and say that was as much my fault as anybody’s, because I just didn’t have the skill. And I didn’t, again, surround myself with the right people, um, to assist me in. Transitioning outta that. So it just kind of right. The exit was as challenging as the being inferior

Yeah, it really was. It really was. Um, but what I, what I effectively did allowed me to go back into real estate selling mode. Um, and, uh, and I think doing that, um, look, I got success again, fairly early in doing, uh, and doing that, but. Ultimately, um, I, I didn’t have a passion for that business anymore. Uh, I think I probably had been burnt out by it.

I really probably should have just shook hands and, and moved on at that point in time when we agreed to sell, but I agreed to stay on for, for a period of time to assist the transition. And it’s the funny, isn’t it? I think that that thing that makes people successful is also the thing that makes us not let go as quickly as we should sometimes, you know, it’s that, that drive that goes, um, I’m gonna make this work and, and knowing when to just walk away is probably probably the consistent theme in a few of these interviews and people going, no, no, I’m gonna, I’m gonna see it through.

Yeah, absolutely. They’re lying. Like the Python character with one arm, one. I’m still going. liking it probably most like the fish slapping thing. I thought I was completely being flat by fish for a few years, but it was good. But again, like I just, I learned so, so much in that process and probably the biggest one was surrounding myself with the right people.

Um, and, um, Yeah, which is, which is what we’ve done now in, in this business. But yeah, it was, it was an amazing learning experience, I guess. It’s probably, um, I didn’t go to university. I don’t have tertiary qualifications, um, in what I do. So I kind of look at that as that was a five year degree I did, right?

Yes. At the end of it. I don’t have a hex bill to pay. So , that’s pretty good. I learned a lot of business in that five years. That’s for sure. And so, without giving away the business that you’re in now, and people will understand why not in the moment, um, I will get you once we do talk about your specific business to go back and tell the story of how you got into it, but sure.

Cause I think that’s quite an interesting story, but how did you, did you have a break in between the real estate business and your current business? What did you do? Uh, no, actually, um, so it was a year, uh, with the company that bought me out. Um, and then after about a year I was, it was actually, um, catching up in a mate on Saturday morning.

I said, I kinda, I’m kinda done here. I’m looking for the next challenge. And he worked for a, a very large company and retirement group. And, um, he said, I know they’re looking when we’re looking for staff. So why don’t you look at us? My immediate response was, what the hell do I know about retirement? Like, yeah, seriously.

I’m also wondering what the, I suppose people live in houses and then they retire. It’s about it. Yeah. Well’s do complex. Uh, equation that you you’re taking on account, particularly your retirement villages, where there are deferred management fees, um, and ongoing cost structures, uh, in place. And I had no idea.

I generally had no clue because my parents, um, uh, weren’t an aunt in a retirement village, um, and nor my wife’s parents. So I had no exposure to it whatsoever. Um, however, I was looking for a change and to be honest, it was probably the path of least resistance for me. Um, I. I subsequently reached out or he, he introduced me, um, through, to, uh, their sales director, um, who I managed to have a sort of a one on one with, and look, it, it peaks some interest.

Um, definitely because it still re uh, I guess, drew on my real estate skills. Um, so it was to an extent, a real estate transaction that I was, uh, working in however far more complex, but what I really loved about it. Was that you form these incredible relationships with these people who are in a stage of their life, where they need to, um, move on.

Like, it, it is kind of that that don’t wanna, um, make it sound almost more, but, but it is kind of that final decision of where I’m going live. Um, and, um, you, you kind of have to hold their hands through that process because some of ’em are kind of really freaking out at that. That’s one of the things I genuinely loved about my job for such a long period of time, um, with them or several years I was with them.

Um, and, uh, yeah, it, it was, it was a very rewarding job, both, um, from a, a personal psychological level, um, and a financial level, definitely with the company. Um, and it did, it filled in a gap for me. And I guess it bridged from the real estate business to the business that I’m in now. Um, and it gave me kinda that, that point of, I guess, a bit.

Bit of a relax. Um, not that it was an easy job. In fact, quite the opposite. It was, it was in fact a, um, quite a taxing job mentally. Um, but you know, we, it was very rewarding, really rewarding. And so for you going from your own business to a job, it sounds like it would’ve been a job where you had quite lot of autonomy.

I presume someone wast taking what to do every day. Yeah, absolutely. And so was that, did you, in hindsight, was. The right thing for you to sort of let wounds go into something that you could earn good money and make a contribution and, and not have the stress of branding, a business and all that sort of thing.

Yeah. A hundred percent, I guess I’ve probably, um, built my confidence back up again. Um, I, I was, uh, obviously had come from that position, um, in, in five or six years prior to that, where I went, I don’t, I don’t think I can work for somebody else. Um, and going OK, well, there are benefits to working from somebody else.

Yes, there’s good income. I, I can have weekends off. I. More or less turn my computer off at nighttime and not have to worry about it. My go home and know that, you know, somebody who’s contemplating retirement is gonna ring me at 11 o’clock at night, uh, which is certainly, um, things that happened in the real estate world.

Uh, so it was, it was an absolute, it was that, that full stop at the end of the real estate into albeit still a real estate transaction to an extent. Um, but, but to be able to. Settle down and, and bring my thoughts back into alignment and going, what is next? Cause I think we’re still, I was still in the mindset that, um, I’m, I’m not really cut out to be employed, um, permanently.

Uh, I just, I, I just, I’m not that person. So you still head in the back of your mind that you would eventually go back into your own business somehow somewhere? Yeah, I just, I just didn’t know. Or how, or God. Yeah, honestly, there’s no clue and look, opportunities come up and, and people that know me well know that I’ll literally just come up with ideas on week and then of course do nothing with, because

it’s like, I want a whole people around just go give ideas to go make it work and gimme a cut. That’d be great. Oh, if I had a dollar for every entrepreneur I’ve talked to, you said, I just wanna give them the ideas. all right. And so, so let’s just call your, your new business, the product for a moment. So you, you discovered a product.

Do you wanna tell us about the process of what you did with that? Yeah. It’s gonna be a little hard to tell this story about getting the entry details. Um, however, as, as part of. Uh, my newfound, um, uh, lifestyle in, in moving outta real estate into this other role, we decided that we wanna have, um, something that would allow us to reconnect with our kids, um, and this product without us to do so, leaving it out.

But we, yeah. Um, so, uh, and, and there was an opportunity. Um, using the product to actually create a site income from it. Um, so we did, we, we actually, um, used the product, created some income, um, and as a result, the product was actually quite unique and continues to be quite unique. Uh, and, um, there was a, there was a channel for other people to use.

On a, on a renting basis. Um, so we were the first ones to use this particular product. People kept coming to going amazing. Where can a, of you.

Um, after, I don’t know, maybe six months of making reasonable money out of, of, uh, renting out. I said to my wife, I think there’s an actual pro I think there’s a business here. Um, and I think it’s actually selling this cause our experience in buying one was lack lost at best. Um, and so we decided that, um, I, we would approach the, uh, the director of it was a manufacturer of the business who was based in Melbourne.

And we, uh, I flew down to Melbourne, um, on a bit of a whim to sort him out through, uh, LinkedIn. And he knew of us because we were quite vocal about his product to the positive, of course. Um, and he said, yeah, I’d love to love to catch up. So I flew to Melbourne and, um, a meeting in his boardroom and a handshake deal.

We became, uh, the Queensland distributors for his product. And so is it Australian made the products not important? No, it’s actually it’s, um, it’s manufacture in China, uh, but they have a big assembly plant in Melbourne after Melbourne

Queensland. Uh, yeah, it was like many businesses, but still a bit of a side hustle. Cause we didn’t really know how successful the business would be. Um, in fact, our expectations we initially set were so low, it was more or less just to cover some overheads. Um, and we started if we could sell one a month or something year own or yeah, it was, it was pretty much, I think it was probably two and a half, maybe some months.

Right. Um, and. Oh, yeah. Look, I think we can do that. looking back. It makes me laugh. Um, but, um, so we decided to do it and we were running the business, our house. And, um, one point in time after I think probably three months back and there was. In fact of this product. So like eight of them in my backyard went about breed, that, that, and the neighbors going, what is going on with you guys?

This is probably time we make that decision to, into a so. We did. And, and that started that, that was truly the start of our business from that point in time, which has then just grown exponentially from there. So let’s rewind back though, because there was a little hiccup in the middle of it called our pandemic.

Mm. Right. So, so start of the pandemic, I hear that you’d invested a substantial amount of money just before the pandemic happened. Do you wanna talk me through some of those numbers and the timing of that? Yeah. So our, our Sharon Brisbane was operational at that point in time, and that was. That was good.

It was, um, we were achieving some pretty solid results in growth at that point in time. Um, and we decided again, over another meeting flying down, um, we an opportunity Sydney. So again, we, we took the opportunity and we decided to invest heavily into our. Sydney market as well to start product. Um, and that was awesome.

We, uh, we had done several trips to Sydney. We found, um, a great location, uh, that one fell over. We found another location. Um, and we said, okay, we’re about to start. And, um, we had pre-ordered stock. Um, and so, so, so can you gimme some down? So how big was. The lease that you took on how many square meter? So we, we, it was, uh, 900 square meter placed down in, uh, the, in west of Sydney.

So not cheap. No, no, no, absolutely not. And we had committed to initially, um, two staff, but very quickly, um, already had sort of envisage that we’d have more on that, but we had already sort of said, yes, we we’re gonna put two stuff on one had already said, yes, Working keen to come on board and ultimately, uh, then COVID hit between the lease and the stop.

Are you talking like a multimillion dollar commitment at that point? Thankfully? No. Um, but into the, uh, hundreds of thousands. So, um, in terms of kind of where our commitment was, um, definitely. So thankfully. Not all the funds had been committed, um, completely, but in terms of the, the business model in a virtual space time, those were sorts of numbers that we’re talking.

Right. Um, so ultimately, um, what was amazing like, and this is, this is kind of one of those blessed moments where, um, it happened and. Uh, our, our Brisbane landlord bit sticky. You’re not really sure how we were gonna handle that process because we had, um, reasonable staff levels up, up here at that point in time.

Um, and then Sydney was hadn’t. We, we, we hadn’t actually physically moved into that site yet. We were about to move into it when it hit. We reached out to the landlord down there and lovely, lovely guy, like genuinely one of the loveliest people I’ve ever met. And in fact, the, the real estate agent who we dealt with when we first signed up with him, said, you will not meet a nicer person.

Um, to deal with in this industry, uh, or in, in the leasing game. Um, so IED out him said, don’t mate, I’m the lease at this point, he said that’s but the lease let’s happens. The sorted me. Don’t worry about it. You focus on what you have to do, and then you reach out when it’s time to do it. And so this huge weight lifted off our shoulders because that commitment, um, whilst we’re still there, wasn’t, um, a financial burden to us at that point in time.

So we had, so that pandemic and you know, that. Fortunately, you’ve, you’ve taken this enormous risk and did all this stuff, but you’re not gonna have to pay rent immediately if you don’t have to. So that was one, one place. Did you put any other kinda risk mitigation things in place, or did you think through what you were gonna do?

No, honestly, I don’t think anybody was thinking anything at that point in time. What’s name was this going to look like? Um, so our focus was where. What we, we have a business up in Brisbane. How do we manage that? So, um, after many hours of, of sitting around tables and, um, you know, almost to the point of tears and wondering what this future looked like, we decide, I love the term pivot.

Everybody uses it. I know it’s probably one of the most over. Overused terms, particularly when it comes to COVID. But, um, we, we pivoted our business where we relied so heavily on people walking in or us going into big events where we could, um, could demonstrate the product, um, that night. And we, we shifted it to be, um, completely online and using Facebook live, um, using the social media content to get people to come to us because of course they were going nowhere.

So, um, we might as well give them something to do, um, on any Thursday at 11 O. So let’s, let’s give away the punchline. What was this product that you were selling? We sold trailers. Trailers. Yeah. So, um, the, what makes unique about our, our product is that that actually an inflatable camper trailer. So, um, lot of people will have seen up many, many people haven’t yet.

Cause it is still, I mean, it’s about market now, um, which we’ve been doing for about three. Um, but yeah, it, it. It is genuinely a very unique product and is the sort of product that instantly creates lots and lots of questions around like, well, what if I get a punctu what’s it like in the what’s like in the rain, how much is given it, doesn’t have steels on it, all these things that come along with, um, a very unique product and again, continues to be in the marketplace, um, some years later.

Uh, so we shifted. Our focus being away from camping expos, uh, and you know, having an open showroom for people to come and touch and feel to being completely Facebook live based. So we see how do you spell camp trailers on Facebook lives? EB astounded, how easy it is. In fact, um, there was one particular Facebook live we did and, um, what we had, so we.

Our showroom as a studio. Um, and we were shooting them off our cameras. Um, I sorry if our phones with the cameras on there, because of course that had connectivity to the outside world. Um, and, uh, we were initially doing just with that. So the audio was just horrendous. Um, then I found these cool little microphones that plugged in, and then we were learning how to use those.

And sometimes it would drop out or we’d have one microphone, but two of us were on camera. So we pass the microphone to each other. It was a lack off for a best, but after only a short couple of videos, we, we kind of settled on this, this format. Um, and it became quite professional in house, even though it was still filmed, just on a mobile phone camera, we would actually, um, the team.

So there would be, um, a cameraman, there would be two people on camera. We would have, um, marks on the floor where we would go we’d. We’d practice. Um, the, the walk around and we know what the questions were. We’d have a team, um, in front of their laptops, um, monitoring all the conversations and the questions that were being had, um, because we were advertising the fact that these were on every single week and we were getting good traction.

People were coming to our Facebook lives to ask questions. So they were physically asking questions. What about this? Uh, and the questions were either relay to us live or. There and then, but what we would do, we’d take down their details. Like we we’d make a note of their names. Um, if they were already in our CRM program, we would then engage with them after.

Um, but there was one, one particular one as I started the story where we counted back and I sold 15 counter trailers from that one because they, that didn’t all happen at that live. Like that was over 15 from one live. And you were thinking that you had to sell two and a half a month to smoke? No. Right.

Um, so. What it proved to us. Um, I mean, it was a proof of concept that, um, we didn’t have to rely on these big external events to continue our growth. Um, and it meant that we kept those transactions happening. Cause we did actually have stock. We had already committed to, with the manufacturer to keep purchasing, um, and the manufacturer great.

He goes, well, don’t worry about it. You know, what, what you haven’t, you can’t sell we’ll we’ll keep and do so again, you know, we were surrounded by people who were very supportive of us, which was great. Um, but we managed to, for the most part, sell all of the stock that we had, granted not at the same levels, we would have pre COVID in terms of pricing, the, the exercise for me kind of unlocked this thought in my mind, going well, when this reopened, we aren’t going to.

See a slow growth back in our market. We’re gonna see boom, which then made me very excited because of course I had locked up Sydney. Um, so we had that premises down there. Um, and so you had the, you had the license, the agency for the whole Sydney teaching? Yeah. Yeah. All of new south Wales and all of Queensland.

Uh, so, um, it meant for me that if I can get down there quickly enough when the borders reopen, um, then we can capitalize on this. So at what point did you realize that. The best business to be in during a lockdown pandemic is the cam trailer business. Uh, you know what, that was probably the first weekend we opened our Sydney office.

Um, and, um, there was a period of time that they were really unserviced down there, be pre COVID. Um, and then of course that whole COVID, um, at first closure, uh, so we opened that. And, uh, I think we, we hoped we might sell 15 camper trailers in the weekend and we sold, I dunno, 42 or something. And I said, my wife had flow down for that.

Cause I’d, I’d been living in Sydney for the month prepping. And like, I literally did the entire setup myself. We, I, I remember the first day it was middle of winters freezing cold it west of Sydney, cuz in Sydney know, knows how freaking cold that place is. Um, and I come from Queensland, so I’m like, how does anybody operate down here?

Um, anyway, so I, I just gradually set. The showroom, trying to figure out what I needed to get, went to Ikea with the Ute and loaded up stuff to try to make a little decent. Um, and then we invested. So you really did it yourself when you say I, I, 100% did the entire set myself, got Astra turf, and I cut it with a Stanley knife and shipped down one of forklifts from up here and froze the day I got there, I went, well, that’s not good.

So like all these little hurdles came up, but ultimately in a space of a month, we had, uh, I had set. Sydney showroom. And, um, I had hired a new technician. The guy, the first guy that had committed to coming on board was a bit uncertain because he’s like, oh, look, they’ve looked after me pretty well during COVID here.

And, um, thankfully he decided to come on board and, and that entire team is still with us now, um, through the second closure I’ve had down there, which is now just reopen thankfully. Um, and, and it’s been amazing. So we opened the door and there was just this flood of people. Uh, like eight or nine hours nonstop.

We were going good Lord, where is this? How is this happening? Cause we’re, we’re not, um, we’re not on a main road. We, we are a destination business based on the fact that, you know, it’s quite a unique product, so people will travel for us. But you know, we are, you get off one and then you travel 15 minutes and you turn right and you travel another five minutes.

You turn right. Travel left, and then you, anyway, that’s where we are. It’s like, oh, geez. I’m not sure this is the right big video. Let’s find it. And then, um, that’s when I realized, so Lindsey your question in a very long way. That’s when we realized. Are gonna go absolutely gangbusters. And it did for a very long period of time.

So you saw what 40 say 40 or 42 in that first day? It was 40, yeah. 40 or 42 camp in the first weekend and much how much the camper? Like what sort of revenue is that for one weekend? Uh it’s uh, they, they generally retail between 30 and $40,000, depending on, on the, um, so yeah, it’s, it’s a site. Nice. So if anyone can do math.

A lot of money yeah, I think that was, did you have, did you have stock six? Uh, no. So, um, and, and we continue not have stock now. We, uh, we’ve got an order book, um, out currently as when we’re recording this until, uh, April 22. So about six months, there’s a waiting list of six months for one at the moment.

Yeah. Correct? Correct. Wow. And that’s, that’s not unique to us. That’s pretty much every manufacturer in this industry right now. It’s, uh, there’s such a high demand for product and yeah, it’s, it’s crazy. I was talking to a caravan person the other day. And they were saying, it’s their waiting lists until the beginning of 2023.

So that’s like 14 months or something. Yeah, absolutely. It is. It is genuinely mind blowing the amount of people out there trying to explore, which I think is amazing, like genuinely amazing to, um, for all these little caravan, um, uh, or caravan site operators over the years have struggled to get people to come to their site.

They’re all booked, they’re booked a hundred percent of the time. Um, so I think it’s incredible that there’s, um, all. Areas out in, well, obviously we’re based in Queensland, but you can’t go on a whim camping in Queensland. You have to plan months in advance. So you get absolutely, um, so difficult, get a site and in any of the major places around Brisbane, which is.

There’s so many businesses that are in such dire straits through the pandemic. And so it’s really wonderful to hear about the ones that are actually thriving instead. Yeah. And look, we we’ve had a lot of comments, um, in the past going, oh, well, how, how lucky are you? It’s like, well, yeah, yes or no.

Absolutely. We, we are lucky in that. Um, we are in, in an industry that is experiencing a boom, but it wasn’t by chance that we got into the industry, we were already committed to the industry. Um, and we were already seeing projected growth to the numbers that we’re doing. Now. It just hit it a little bit earlier.

So. I don’t subscribe to the, the luck too much. I mean, we put a lot of effort into making sure that we were known by the time that it opened up again and that paid off, ultimately, because it, it might look lucky from the outside, but you had, you had a pretty worrying time when the pandemic first had, and you had to kind of think about like, even just the coming up with the, your little, you know, TV channel, your Facebook live thing in terms of, so it.

Remarkable to me that you managed to get followers for Facebook live about a camp trailer, but that’s clearly my Ince . Now I think, uh, you might, you might open your eyes if you jump online and see kinda what is out there. The, the marketplace for, um, touring in Australia is absolutely huge. So we, the YouTube channel, which is, is.

It was really tough to get our first thousand subscribers. And I really didn’t know what YouTube was when we started doing it. Um, but now I kinda have a bit more of a grasp on it, but there are just, there are so many channels, social media channel. That’s what drives everything in this marketplace, um, where we have to continue to drive content into.

So. Yeah, it’s, it’s pretty cool to be a part of. Um, and it is the cool part about, um, some of these channels like YouTube is that they’re an actual, additional income source as well. So you’ve gone from a few years working for someone else, fairly independently, earning really good money to leading a very fast growing business.

Mm. Um, what’s been the biggest challenge in that, cause that couldn’t have been that easy with that growth. I mean, it’s great, but it’s not easy. Yeah. Oh no, definitely not easy. I think probably the biggest challenge is that actually manag managing the customer’s expectations from purchase for delivery when you they’re committing so far and advance it’s, um, keeping them engaged, um, making sure there’s no risk of buyers remorse.

Per that time, keeping information going to them. And we haven’t been great at that. In fact, even today, we’re still working out ways. We can keep our customers engaged with us during that, that point in time. Um, but then the other challenge, um, and truth is probably the bigger challenge is actually.

Getting the stock because there’s, there’s a lot of moving past my wife who is technically the director of our business. So we we’re, co-partners in it. Um, she manages all the operations side of things. So our business works really well. We have our silos, so she runs all the operations and I run sales marketing.

So she like sources, the sources, the, um, trainers and things. And yeah, so basically she is. Effectively the liaison, um, between their operations and our, that they being the, the manufacturer operations. So, um, it’s a challenge where, um, something may happen over in the China, the manufacturing in China, um, where there’s a delay on a product.

And that then has a knock on effect to Matt, to assembly in Melbourne to transport up to us, asked to do the predelivery and hand out. So, um, one change can have this huge knock on. So it’s continually managing that expectation, but she, she does it and she does it extremely well. And I tell you, I couldn’t do it.

Um, which is why, why we have our very defined role. So she does it very well. It’s two different personalities. Isn’t that the one that can deal with that? The one that can go. So, um, we too, from here, I mean, we’re gonna have interesting times ahead again, I guess, for, for the sort of camping caravaning market up, where we, as the country opens up again, and people are allowed to go overseas and people are allowed to come in.

What, what’s your crystal ball say’s gonna happen? Um, it’s a very good question. And it’s one that we have. Contemplated a lot. Um, I, I have spoken to much smarter people than me about this who have, um, predicted that, uh, there won’t be the crash and I use, if you see me, I’m using the inverted commerce, um, of the marketplace.

Um, and I probably can go back to what I said earlier. We were already predicting the sorts of volumes that. We would be doing. Um, anyway, so I kind of subscribe to that. I don’t think we’re gonna see this huge influx of secondhand camper trailers hit the market externally effects. Our marketplace it’ll happen.

There’ll be some extent of that. Cause there are people we know that are bought off us going well, we’re only buying cause we can’t go overseas. So we might as well use that money for that. So they will eventually sell their camp trailers and then move on. So. Yep. That will obviously feed that secondhand market to an extent.

And I guess for some of those people, they’ll, they’ll be like, oh, well, we’ve got it now we’ve paid for it. We’ll use it occasionally. You know? Well, they’re enjoying the experience. Exactly. My genuine hope is actually that they focus on the fact that, okay, yeah, you can still go overseas, but, but this will allow you to get out.

This is what I love about our product. And we talk about, um, the virtues of this product regularly. It’s so easy to set up. They can go away for a night. So most people’s grow up about camping trailers. You set them up and then you’ve gotta spend another hour setting up the, the market or the annex insider.

Um, ours, the whole thing sets up in 20 minutes. Literally annex out fridge out, couch out beds, made the whole thing. Um, so you can still go out. It’s incredible. You jump on our website, check it out. Um, what is your website by the way? Uh, setup camp.com that. Okay. That’s easy. Yeah. And alright. It’s it’s it’s my wife came up with the name set up camp.

We were just, when we first started going, what’s it gonna be called? She goes, set up. Camp went that’s good. Or one as Ann, it stuck and yeah. Sort of a brand in itself now. It’s cool. Well, I was talking to friends and mine the other day. They’ve just bought a new, really nice caravan with an NX and everything.

And he was saying he was basically having that grumble about, you know, It’s fine for my wife, but when we get there, I’ve got spend like three hours sitting it all up and everything. Yeah. And yeah, it was not very relaxing for him. Yeah. That’s and that’s accurate. And that’s, that’s one of the great parts of our product is that we, we get these customers in, who have never done it, or they’ve had that experience.

They know this is not what they want anymore. So I come across our and go, yeah, that’s it. Which is why, um, it has the, this had the growth that we have. Cause it does make camping. So it is possible that even when people can go overseas, they’re still, you know, they might still keep these and keep going.

And well, that’s, that’s what I hope because there is such an amazing Australia is an incredible place. There are so many amazing places to visit that you can do on. Um, and once I think that that pressure, um, for bookings as has disappeared, um, and all of a sudden you go to places probably on that whi um, go book, some incredible places out to the west, north, um, on the coast.

Just some beautiful places where you can just go and unwind if it’s for a couple of days and the product will allow to do that. So for your business then do you think, I mean, what do you think will happen? What you, so you think that your growth might slow or it’ll slow? Definitely. I mean, it can’t sustain, um, the, the sorts of.

Growth that we’ve, we’ve had, we’ve already outgrown our Brisbane premises and to an extent our city premises, but, um, we’re just looking ways means of doing that. Um, our growth, I think will probably be in diversification to an extent. So we just launched our finance business as well. Uh, so 40% of our deals inside our business were finance and we were using an external broker for that.

Uh, and now we’ve bought that in house. And so we would basically, um, have a separate business in set up finance, which will fund, um, all of the, the camp trailers and also dealing with other businesses as well. The same. So there’ll be an element of growth. Well, actually I would expect that’s gonna have significant growth.

Um, but our business also has, or is in the process of, of transitioning from being known as. The open steel alone in Queensland, new south Wales to be a camping gear business. So we ultimately want set our business up where it is, um, known as you can come here and buy a set of matches, or you can buy 150,000 caravan and everything in between.

So, and that’s what really separates us out from the big camping stores, because. Uh, you go in there. Absolutely. You got a great range and you know, we’ll, we will never ultimately compete with them because it’s not our business model. It’s not what we wanna do. We’re known for high quality products. We don’t sell cheap gear.

In fact, we walk in here, chances are you’re most likely gonna buy probably the most expensive of the options out there because it’s stuff that we personally test. Our ethos is buy campers four campers. So it’s stuff that we use, we personally test. And if it’s good enough for us, then we’ll put it out to market.

Cause we have very high expectations about, of our products. So. Yeah, we, we hope, um, or not hope. There’s no point hoping about it. We we’re basically making moves to make sure that our business transitions into going well, if you want quality of camping gear, this is where you come. So I guess one of the things that’s, um, that sounds like you’ve managed quite wisely is that you’ve had this boost of much faster growth than you expected, which would it be a reasonable assumption to say.

Given you some sort of, um, profit that you can reinvest back into these other things, like, has that sped up your ability to actually reinvest back into the business? Yeah. Uh, look, we’ve been lucky in that. Um, again, going back to my regular comment of surrounding with the right people, all of our staff, um, are amazing.

Uh, and we do see these. These waves of, of activity coming in, where we have this almost an oversupply of product from time to time and the guys just work feverously to get things, uh, ready. So ultimately the wash up of that is that we’ve not had to over invest in staff. Um, it’s not whilst it is to an extent inflated.

Um, we’re not to a point where we are overstaffed. So if it does go back, we’re gonna have to let people go. We are actually a point where I think it would. We’re almost at a point of being understaffed again and we’re, we’ll look to put more people on. Um, so yeah, our business growth will, will continue.

Definitely. Um, certainly not on the trajectory that it had over the last 18 months. Um, but probably more in line with what we had predicted before. So that is such a great story. Um, and, and yeah, so much so interesting to hear. The background people going, oh, you were just lucky. It’s like, no, there’s way more than luck.

Um, and you’ve learned some pretty hard lessons from your first business. I’m sure. Not a hundred percent. And so speaking of lessons, actually, let’s just wrap up with it. If you had advice for young players, you know, what advice would you have given young David when you were first doing your first business that you could potentially give on give to somebody else who’s thinking don’t don’t do seriously kidding.

No, no, definitely. Um, uh, surround like seek out mentors, seek out the highest quality mentors, find people who are willingly gonna give you their time without necessarily high cost, um, or find if you’re gonna find somebody that is at high cost, make sure they come very well recommended from other people that you trust, but seek them out.

Because if you, if you don’t have those people around you, you’re gonna be left with your thoughts and you’re gonna make decisions on thoughts and those thoughts for me, they weren’t. Um, mature thoughts. They weren’t , they weren’t, they weren’t based on real premise. They were, um, I think let’s do this.

Let’s go this direction. And, um, ultimately didn’t work. Um, so yeah, surround results of people that have done it, um, and ask a thousand questions and not only ask it, but adopt what they’re saying. And yeah, I think that’s probably the biggest thing. And for people who are currently in a more challenging business place right now, like, so, you know, in Sydney, what would you suggest they do?

Diversification is such a cool word. Um, some businesses, obviously can’t, but I mean, number one, look for technology. Um, what technology can support you and assist you, uh, in there? I mean, there are businesses, service type business where you physically need to go do things. Um, I dunno what the answer there is.

Um, but except. Pull your business apart and see if there’s one element in there that you can to adapt into, uh, a money generating process. So, and, and search out the technology, cuz I guarantee you that what you are going through is probably what other people are going through as well. And just seek out a way to do it slowly differently.

Um, you use. Best you can, the amount of people you can reach, um, using something as simple as a mobile phone is quite literally astounding. It just, it astounded me when we really put that into place, which kind of ties in with your first piece of advice. Isn’t it? That if, if someone’s right in the thick of it and they can’t think because they’re too stressed and they’re too busy and they’re too, they need to surround themselves with good people who go, Hey, You might not be getting any people coming to your restaurant, but what if you took your past source and bottled it and sold it on Facebook or, you know, something hundred percent a 100s around them who can think of things that they can do that are different.

They may not be able to do the business the same way they’re already always doing it, but, and the likely that they can’t. Um, and in fact, the, as we know, the marketplace is completely shifted. Now customer’s expectations have shifted. They want more things to come to them. So we have to adopt. I think is an awesome place to leave it.

Um, that is, that’s been such a good interview. Thank you so much, David. And I think that people, I think that, that the, um, the best thing out of that for people will be that the fact that you, you could have just stopped, right? You could have just stopped at the side of the pandemic and said, oh no, one’s allowed to come into our showroom.

Well, we might as well, you know, cancel our leases and go home holidays, actually. Yeah. You could be taking your camper trailer and gone. I know, right? At that point, I think I owned like 20 of them. I could have gone you could have had a lot money. thank you very much. I appreciate my pleasure. This episode of the cactus project is sponsored by global training Institute.

Australia’s leading online training college. It was presented and written by Mel McDonald’s. And produced, edited and visually designed by Maggie HASI. We hope you found this interview interesting for more inspiring stories from people whose businesses went wrong and how they recovered all went to cactus.

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