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Speaker 1: You've decided to quit your job. It's been building for

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Speaker 1: a long time, and then you applied for a position

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Speaker 1: with another company and you got it. Now it's time

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Speaker 1: to tell your boss that you're leaving. You can't put

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Speaker 1: it off any longer. But when you walk in palms

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Speaker 1: sweaty and nerves rising, instead of the shock or annoyance

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Speaker 1: you are expecting, your boss responds with excitement and wants

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Speaker 1: to hear about where you're going next. Now, if you've

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Speaker 1: ever worked for book Topia's CEO, Tony Nash, this could

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Speaker 1: be your experience. He's someone who's excited by the opportunity

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Speaker 1: of filling your role instead of fearing what is.

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Speaker 2: Going to lose.

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Speaker 1: I'm doctor Amantha Imbert. I'm an organizational psychologist and the

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Speaker 1: founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium, and this is how

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Speaker 1: I work. A show that helps you do your best work.

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Speaker 1: So Tony heads up Australia's largest online bookstore, book Topia,

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Speaker 1: the company that he started in two thousand and four

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Speaker 1: with his family. But recently he found out something that

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Speaker 1: has changed his whole perspective on how he works.

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Speaker 3: I discovered that I have ADHD a few years ago

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Speaker 3: because my son was diagnosed with ADHD, and then my

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Speaker 3: wife said, I reckon, you've got it. So off I

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Speaker 3: went to an adult psychiatrist who diagnoses ADHD for adults,

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Speaker 3: and we spend an hour together and he said, look,

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Speaker 3: topia very successful.

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Speaker 4: Everything that you're doing. I really doubt it.

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Speaker 3: But before I make a final decision, can your wife

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Speaker 3: come in and can I have a chat with her?

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Speaker 3: So we go in a week later and he talks

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Speaker 3: to for about twenty minutes, and after about twenty minutes,

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Speaker 3: he looks at me and he goes, you definitely have ADHD.

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Speaker 4: And what I.

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Speaker 3: Discovered was that basically with ADHD, you love doing what

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Speaker 3: you want to do and you hate doing what you

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Speaker 3: don't want to do.

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Speaker 1: So what was it that your wife said or described

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Speaker 1: to the psychologist that made them go, yes, Tony definitely

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Speaker 1: has this.

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Speaker 3: At home, it really felt like she was nagging about

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Speaker 3: so many things that needed to be done, and once

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Speaker 3: I got on Richelin, it's more like, yeah, yeah, I

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Speaker 3: know that needs to get done and that's an outstanding item.

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Speaker 4: So I guess personally.

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Speaker 3: That aggravation and irritation about not doing what you really

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Speaker 3: want to do and having to do those things that

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Speaker 3: you don't want to do.

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Speaker 4: That kind of capped that irritation.

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Speaker 1: So when you are taking the medication, how has the

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Speaker 1: way you work changed.

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Speaker 3: I can get through a lot more work that other

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Speaker 3: people are waiting for. Historically, in school, assignments, work, everything,

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Speaker 3: I would say that my best creative mind was when

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Speaker 3: I was panicking in the last minute or a deadline

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Speaker 3: was completing, and either it was an assignment deadline, or

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Speaker 3: it was a business deadline, or it was a team deadline.

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Speaker 3: And so what's happened is I've been more on the

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Speaker 3: front foot of getting things done that need needed to

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Speaker 3: get done. So more organized, more lists, more structure, more

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Speaker 3: box ticking. I'm still not fantastic, but definitely more effective.

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Speaker 1: So talk to me about lists, like what sort of

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Speaker 1: lists do you have in your work life.

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Speaker 3: I use Trello and so I've got personal or the

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Speaker 3: personal action items, then I've got general business action items.

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Speaker 3: Then there are follow ups with various team members that

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Speaker 3: I have that I'm tracking with each of my direct reports.

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Speaker 3: So I've got a list there which I can use

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Speaker 3: to link through to emails from the Trello boards to

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Speaker 3: the actual email and at the moment where my EA

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Speaker 3: z and I are printing off my daily runsheet of

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Speaker 3: my calendar, and then I'm quite often making notes as

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Speaker 3: I go along on that day's paper to capture anything

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Speaker 3: that needs to be done and is outstanding.

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Speaker 1: Now I know that you have an amazing working relationship

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Speaker 1: with Zia, your executive assistant. Can you tell me what

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Speaker 1: are the sorts of things that she does that help

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Speaker 1: you function better in your role.

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Speaker 3: First of all, she's a very talented EA.

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Speaker 4: She is.

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Speaker 3: Very obsessive, very motivated, very emotionally charged and onto it

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Speaker 3: kind of personality. What works well is she manages my inboxes.

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Speaker 3: She's managing a lot of my appointments and liaising with

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Speaker 3: my wife to make sure that things are getting done

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Speaker 3: outside of ours as well. What needs to be get done.

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Speaker 3: Things need to get done personally as well, and I

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Speaker 3: need to as a contributing member of my marriage, I

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Speaker 3: need to be doing things as well as everyone needs

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Speaker 3: to do so making sure that I'm also prioritizing my

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Speaker 3: home life. I think we've been very open and honest

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Speaker 3: with each other about what goes on in our lives,

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Speaker 3: not to all the degrees, but it's not a purely

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Speaker 3: clinical working relationship where I have a private home life,

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Speaker 3: and she has a private home life.

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Speaker 4: That really helps because the work is not just work.

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Speaker 3: Workers is there to facilitate a life for you and

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Speaker 3: your family.

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Speaker 1: I want to dig into a few of those things

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Speaker 1: that you just said about Zea, and let's start with

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Speaker 1: the fact that it sounds like you do have a

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Speaker 1: close relationship. It's not just a clinical sort of working relationship.

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Speaker 3: One of the things that I know as a business owner,

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Speaker 3: I've been running my own businesses now for twenty five years,

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Speaker 3: and I was a recruitment consultant before that, so I

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Speaker 3: know that knowledge is not linear. So your knowledge over

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Speaker 3: time increases and therefore the area that your knowledge covers increases,

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Speaker 3: and so I'm much more patient in terms of understanding

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Speaker 3: where someone is on their journey of incorporating the knowledge.

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Speaker 3: And I know the senior roles that I have here.

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Speaker 3: Takes people a good two years to get into a

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Speaker 3: job and already.

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Speaker 4: Know their way around, and I love that.

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Speaker 3: I love that a job takes two years, because if

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Speaker 3: it took two months or two weeks is boring.

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Speaker 4: You don't it's not going to stretch you.

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Speaker 3: And I like the idea of a job stretching people

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Speaker 3: and expanding their skill set and increasing their value. So

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Speaker 3: I think that's one of the things that we did

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Speaker 3: do is we just started from the core skills, the

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Speaker 3: core piece of work that needed to be attended to,

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Speaker 3: which would have been definitely these days, managing an inbox

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Speaker 3: and all the contacts that were happening, organizing meetings, travel schedules.

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Speaker 3: The one thing that I still feel as a EA

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Speaker 3: to CEO kind of combination, I need ZEA to be

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Speaker 3: going out and finding out what do my direct.

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Speaker 4: Reports need for me?

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Speaker 3: Still that they they know they need and I don't

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Speaker 3: realize that they need it because a lot of people

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Speaker 3: that report to you think, well, you know, he's so

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Speaker 3: busy or she's so busy, and and you know, I

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Speaker 3: don't want to disturb them. They've got a lot on

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Speaker 3: But in the meantime, they're sitting on a piece of

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Speaker 3: work that is that is being overlooked, and they're they're

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Speaker 3: waiting for it, And you've just got to continue.

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Speaker 4: To ask that question, what else do you need for me?

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Speaker 4: What else are you waiting on?

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Speaker 3: What needs signing off, what reports, what's sitting in some

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Speaker 3: inbox somewhere that needs attention. I think that's that is

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Speaker 3: one of the things I find that gets that is

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Speaker 3: important to be on top of, not to be proactively

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Speaker 3: going out and discovering what's still being waited on, rather

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Speaker 3: than waiting for it to come up almost randomly, if

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Speaker 3: probably it's not randomly, but in a meeting where you go, oh,

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Speaker 3: you know you've you never did.

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Speaker 4: This, and it becomes therefore becomes a gripe.

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Speaker 3: There's bitterness, there's anguish because they can't do their job.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's such a great insight.

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Speaker 1: And you mentioned the ZEO manages your inbox, So does

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Speaker 1: that mean you are never in your inbox?

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Speaker 3: I am in my inbox, but we've got folders so

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Speaker 3: for me and that we've been running it this way

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Speaker 3: now for the last couple of years or so. So

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Speaker 3: the stuff comes in the inbox and then she'll move

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Speaker 3: it on to undertoos so something that she reckons. I

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Speaker 3: can get something done within under two minutes, and then

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Speaker 3: I have time blocked out in my calendar to get

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Speaker 3: through that folder. I have under tens, so she may

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Speaker 3: put it in there or it may end up in

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Speaker 3: the undertoos and I move it across to an under ten,

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Speaker 3: which means I need to give that a bit more

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Speaker 3: time under ten minutes and then over ten minutes over

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Speaker 3: tens and so okay, I'm really going to have to

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Speaker 3: block out some time.

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Speaker 4: To get through that bit of work. And then there's

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Speaker 4: the personal folder.

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Speaker 3: FYI, so people are sending me stuff and it's just

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Speaker 3: if I don't get around to it, then she'll just

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Speaker 3: file it. But if I can stay on top of

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Speaker 3: my just for your informations, shouldn't be anything to respond

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Speaker 3: to anyone on to read, so just could be newsletters

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Speaker 3: that I subscribe to, or it could even be the

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Speaker 3: book Topier or Anguson Robertson. Of course we own Anguson

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Speaker 3: Robertson the newsletters that are being sent.

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Speaker 4: Out there that I might get a chance to read.

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Speaker 3: And then there's a few other folders like that business

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Speaker 3: updates from the industry. Now that we're listed on the ASX,

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Speaker 3: so there's probably We've created a folder just for me

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Speaker 3: to keep an eye on some of the business updates

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Speaker 3: from not just on book Topier, but just some of

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Speaker 3: our peers like templal Webs, the Red Bubble, a Door, Beauty,

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Speaker 3: Cogan and so forth. I just want to pay a

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Speaker 3: bit more attention, so I've kind of created our own

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Speaker 3: folder for those kind of things, so she's putting them

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Speaker 3: in and making sure that we can prioritize then of

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Speaker 3: what starts for so UNDERTOOS should I should be on

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Speaker 3: of all the time, and then everything else moves on

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Speaker 3: from there.

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Speaker 2: That's so cool.

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Speaker 1: Now, with your background in recruitment, what are some of

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Speaker 1: your favorite questions to ask with the more senior appointments.

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Speaker 3: I do want to know how they can help us

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Speaker 3: grow the company at that high level, at any kind

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Speaker 3: of sea level role.

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Speaker 4: I want to know.

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Speaker 3: We're going to turn over two hundred and seventeen million

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Speaker 3: in this financial year, so we're a few months away

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Speaker 3: from that, and my goal is to get to five

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Speaker 3: hundred million.

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Speaker 4: So what are they going to bring.

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Speaker 3: To the party to help us gip from two hundred

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Speaker 3: million to five hundred million and to a billion beyond

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Speaker 3: that when we want to expand overseas. So I want

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Speaker 3: to know are they caretaking, are an innovator? Can they

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Speaker 3: see what we can't see? Can they bring systems or

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Speaker 3: experience to our business that we've never had before, never

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Speaker 3: could afford before, or whatever the scenario or circumstances are.

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Speaker 4: That's what I want to know.

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Speaker 3: Because it's kind of like you want everyone to carry

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Speaker 3: the weight of the boat.

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Speaker 4: I remember, very very early on.

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Speaker 3: Bootopia was probably turning over five million, and there was

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Speaker 3: another online bookstore, a guy that I knew at the

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Speaker 3: time who ran an online bookstore, and I check in

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Speaker 3: with him from time to time. And I gave him

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Speaker 3: a call and I said, how are you going. His

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Speaker 3: name was Shlomo, And I said, how are you going, Shlomoh?

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Speaker 3: And he goes, Tony, I've had eighteen angina attacks over

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Speaker 3: the last three months. Really, he goes, yeah, My wife

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Speaker 3: and I were working six days a week, eighteen hours

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Speaker 3: a day. And I said, why are you working so much?

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Speaker 3: Because they were turning over quite a bit of money.

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Speaker 3: I said, how many people you got working there? And

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Speaker 3: I think at the time we probably had about twenty

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Speaker 3: or so people working, and he had two casuals. I said,

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Speaker 3: while you're hiring more people, and he goes, look, they

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Speaker 3: never do as good a job as us. And I said, exactly,

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Speaker 3: they don't do as good a job as you. They

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Speaker 3: never will, but they'll do a part of the job.

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Speaker 3: They'll do some of the job to lighten the load.

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Speaker 3: And so I've always been the one for hiring more

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Speaker 3: people to lighten the load. So when you've got to

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Speaker 3: lift the huge boat from you know, one river to

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Speaker 3: another river and you've got to cross you know, a

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Speaker 3: marsh to get it to the other side, it's like, oh,

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Speaker 3: that was pretty easy because you've got two hundred and

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Speaker 3: something people working with you.

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Speaker 4: It was much easier than twenty.

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Speaker 3: And the only other thing I'd add to that is that,

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Speaker 3: certainly in the earlier years, it was like, okay, I

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Speaker 3: need that, I need a CFO. Right, we didn't have

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Speaker 3: a CFO at that stage. How many how many sales

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Speaker 3: do I need to be at to afford a CFO.

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Speaker 3: So I was very sales driven to be able to

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Speaker 3: hire a person rather than I need the person now

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Speaker 3: and then hopefully that'll get us to a point where

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Speaker 3: we can cost justify having that role. So I would

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Speaker 3: always try and generate the sales by coming up with

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Speaker 3: more initiatives to market our business further to afford that,

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Speaker 3: rather than coming up, you know, bringing someone and then

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Speaker 3: coming up short when it came to money. Because at

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Speaker 3: the end of the day, you've got to be sustainable,

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Speaker 3: and that was an important important part of the recruitment process.

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Speaker 1: Now the flip side of recruiting a lot of people

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Speaker 1: is that you must have experienced lots of people resigning

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Speaker 1: when it's time to move on, and I'm curious, how

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Speaker 1: do you react when people come to you with a resignation.

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Speaker 3: I love when people resign tell me about that, because

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Speaker 3: my reaction is, Wow, where are you going next? Because

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Speaker 3: if you don't want to be here, it must be

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Speaker 3: somewhere awesome. And quite often people get quite a shock

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Speaker 3: when they realize that I'm enthusiastic for them leaving, but

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Speaker 3: not because I finally waiting for them to resign to

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Speaker 3: let them go.

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Speaker 4: Actually the complete opposite.

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Speaker 3: It's just like, I do not have any fear of

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Speaker 3: someone leaving, because what I've discovered many years ago, probably

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Speaker 3: when I was an employee, more so than running my

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Speaker 3: own company, is that you start to fresh and fear

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Speaker 3: of that person resigning, and therefore they have leverage over you.

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Speaker 3: And then it's just like a relationship. You try to

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Speaker 3: hold on to someone that you love, but they've kind

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Speaker 3: of moved on and the relationship's not.

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Speaker 4: There anymore, and you're in this.

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Speaker 3: Bit of a limbo situation where they're just staying for

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Speaker 3: convenience and it's not it's lost the magic, it's lost

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Speaker 3: the spark, and the lover is not there. And very

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Speaker 3: similar when it comes to work for me in terms

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Speaker 3: of people resigning, it's like, if they want to move on, wow,

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Speaker 3: just let them, because more importantly, they've created a space

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Speaker 3: to someone even more incredible to come in to take

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Speaker 3: up the role and take us further.

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Speaker 4: And I wonder who that exciting person is going to be.

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Speaker 3: And so I know it's a little crazy, and I

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Speaker 3: know it's scary, and a lot of people would that

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Speaker 3: would be very counterintuitive to their thinking because when someone leaves,

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Speaker 3: it's all that knowledge. But your business has got to

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Speaker 3: be more robust than the people that are working in it,

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Speaker 3: including me.

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Speaker 1: I'm so fascinated by that perspective and that reaction that

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Speaker 1: you have. And I say, this is someone who in

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Speaker 1: the past has been that business owner that's been really

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Speaker 1: fearful of resignations and that I used to take it

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Speaker 1: as a personal rejection, and after having some conversations with

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Speaker 1: mentors of mine, something shifted and I'm like, of course,

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Speaker 1: it's not a personal rejection. It's a new challenge for them.

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Speaker 1: And that's exciting because you care about this human being. Hey, there,

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Speaker 1: it is time for a little ad break. But before

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Speaker 1: we go to an ad I would be so grateful

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Speaker 1: if you hit pause and leave a little review in

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to this from. You

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Speaker 1: can do that by just scrolling down to the bottom

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Speaker 1: of the show and you can leave a star rating

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Speaker 1: or write some words. Thank you to everyone that's done that.

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Speaker 1: I think there's hundreds and hundreds of you, So thank you.

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Speaker 1: It's so wonderful getting your feedback, and thank you if

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Speaker 1: you plan to do that today. Okay, Tony will be

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Speaker 1: back after this short break, and we're going to hear

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Speaker 1: all about Tony's attitude towards people resigning and how he

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Speaker 1: actually genuinely is excited when people resign. I want to

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Speaker 1: know about books because I'm assuming, given your role and

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Speaker 1: your organization, you enjoy reading.

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Speaker 2: Is that fair to say, Tony?

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Speaker 4: Unfair to say I don't read?

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Speaker 2: You don't read? Tell me about that. Why do you

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Speaker 2: not read?

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Speaker 4: I was probably the ADHD thing. I was never much

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Speaker 4: of a reader, but I've.

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Speaker 3: Discovered that I'm a very good audio book listener, and

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Speaker 3: I can listen to many many books backwards and forwards

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Speaker 3: to work, driving from home to work, and I have

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Speaker 3: listened to tons and tons of books and big ones

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Speaker 3: and different genres. So the appetite and the desire is there,

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Speaker 3: it's just the patience and the focus I think is

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Speaker 3: not there, which a lot of people have that as

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Speaker 3: there's something that can easily do. But I was never

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Speaker 3: much of a reader, and the fact that book top

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Speaker 3: you started as a bookstore had nothing to do with

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Speaker 3: any passion for books. Prior to book Topier, we and

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Speaker 3: I say we because I was in business with my brother,

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Speaker 3: my sister and my brother in law, and we had

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Speaker 3: an Internet marketing business that were getting people to the

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Speaker 3: top of Google and driving traffic. This was after recruitment,

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Speaker 3: and we also before that had an internet software business,

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Speaker 3: so recruitment internet software. Then that business was not going

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Speaker 3: so well, and we quickly morphed into an internet marketing

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Speaker 3: consultancy and through there we got Angerson Robertson to the

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Speaker 3: top of Google on a project, and that introduced.

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Speaker 4: Us to the book industry.

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Speaker 3: They used a company in Sydney to manage their site

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Speaker 3: and fulfill their orders, and we had a meeting with

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Speaker 3: them to try and get more consulting work. Actually out

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Speaker 3: of the other clients. They had about eighty bookstores as

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Speaker 3: their clients, and we pitched that idea and they were

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Speaker 3: interested in introducing us. So it was like, well, how

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Speaker 3: does your whole thing work here? And they said it

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Speaker 3: takes ten minutes to set up an online bookstore with

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Speaker 3: a million books on there. If you sell anything, we

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Speaker 3: pay commission, which have interested me. And then I went

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Speaker 3: away from that meeting not getting any more consulting work,

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Speaker 3: but an idea to start an online bookstore, which I

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Speaker 3: came up with the name book Toopia, and my brother

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Speaker 3: gave me ten dollars a day to start the company.

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Speaker 3: And so book Topia didn't come out of any big

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Speaker 3: light bulb moment or insight or there's a gap in

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Speaker 3: the market. It was literally starting it as a little

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Speaker 3: evening project which I worked on it from nine pm

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Speaker 3: till two am most nights, and then built the business

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Speaker 3: up and it kept getting bigger and bigger and it

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Speaker 3: went from there.

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Speaker 4: So there was no.

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Speaker 3: Love of book my mum, which I found out she

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Speaker 3: passed away almost six years ago, five and a half

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Speaker 3: years ago, and she had a passion for books and

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Speaker 3: would read every night and when apparently, which I only

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Speaker 3: found out many years after starting book Topia that she

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Speaker 3: actually always wanted to have a bookstore when she was

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Speaker 3: a kid growing up, And would you believe that her

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Speaker 3: three kids ended.

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Speaker 4: Up owning a bookstore.

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Speaker 3: So it was quite funny given that ended up being

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Speaker 3: the biggest bookstore in Australia.

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Speaker 1: I want to come back to audio books. I sometimes

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Speaker 1: listen to audio books, but the thing I find I

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Speaker 1: have trouble with is capturing or remembering the insights that

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Speaker 1: I'm getting. I find it far easier to read a

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Speaker 1: hard copy of a book and mark it up. So

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Speaker 1: when you're listening to audio books, what's your process for

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Speaker 1: presumably actioning some of the things that you're learning about.

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Speaker 3: Here's the thing, and this is important I think for

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Speaker 3: all entrepreneurs and for any business people to be fair,

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Speaker 3: is that you may have done it as well. Right,

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Speaker 3: but as a leader of book Topia, and I don't

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Speaker 3: have to do it anymore. I've got other people who

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Speaker 3: do this. But I've done first aid training at book Topier. Right,

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Speaker 3: So you go on and you do the one day

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Speaker 3: course and give the dummy all the pumps and do

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Speaker 3: all the things you're supposed to do. Lie them on

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Speaker 3: the side, talk about this injury, and what you've got

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Speaker 3: to do, applying pressure there, all the things that are

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Speaker 3: required to do first aid. My mate, my next door neighbor,

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Speaker 3: was working in the garden and he was using a

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Speaker 3: pickaxe to get rid of some sugar cane that was

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Speaker 3: growing in his garden, and he fell two meters down

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Speaker 3: onto the bed below him, and then rolled and fell

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Speaker 3: another two meters onto the concrete driveway next to that.

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Speaker 3: So with it hit his head and blood and unconscious,

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Speaker 3: and so I'm reversing out and as a lady standing

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Speaker 3: over him, I'm going, what's going on? And there's there

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Speaker 3: he is lying in the in the driveway. And why

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Speaker 3: did I know what to do? I couldn't remember. And

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Speaker 3: luckily for him, a doctor was driving past. He's an

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Speaker 3: op themologist, so you know, an eye surgeon with his wife,

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Speaker 3: and they stopped and he came out. He knew what

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Speaker 3: questions to ask. He's the doctor, he's trained. He knew

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Speaker 3: exactly how to ask this and do that and be

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Speaker 3: in this position. And then finally the ambulance arrived. And

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Speaker 3: the thing for me about business and about these books

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Speaker 3: and everything else that you're reading and consuming, it's got

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Speaker 3: to be automatic in a similar kind of way. So

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Speaker 3: when when I talk about someone resigning and my reaction

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Speaker 3: automatic reaction is like wow, Wow, you where you're going next?

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Speaker 3: It's so excited, and it's like that's automatic for me.

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Speaker 3: But if someone had to go, now, what did Tony

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Speaker 3: say again? Did he say we had to do this

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Speaker 3: or you have to like, then it's not automatic. Then

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Speaker 3: you're you're learning the skill. It's still at that. You know,

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Speaker 3: learning how to ride a bike or drive a car.

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Speaker 3: You're learning all the skills and it's not automatic. And

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Speaker 3: so it's really about the automation of that when you

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Speaker 3: say what you just said to me in terms of

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Speaker 3: you're reading these things and then you want to you

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Speaker 3: want to stop. It's like you want to put the

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Speaker 3: book on pause because you want to make notes and

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Speaker 3: you want to think about that and you want to

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Speaker 3: you want to mull over it and then work out

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Speaker 3: how you can use it. I've just set that up

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Speaker 3: that I'm going to do that through listening and that

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Speaker 3: whatever I take and I take in and is adding

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Speaker 3: to my data bank of knowledge and information that is automatic.

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Speaker 1: So with making things automatic, what are some other habits

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Speaker 1: or things that you do in your working life that

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Speaker 1: just happen automatically that you feel like, serve you really well,

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Speaker 1: like your reaction to when someone resigns.

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Speaker 3: So when something comes out of left field and it's

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Speaker 3: not necessarily something resigning, so extra costs on certain things

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Speaker 3: projects next to six hundred thousand dollars here that you

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Speaker 3: weren't expecting, or one hundred thousand here.

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Speaker 4: When we were moving.

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Speaker 3: From lane Cove to Lidcombe or to the region where

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Speaker 3: we are now near Olympic Stadium and where the big

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Speaker 3: Australia Post hub is, which is where we wanted to

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00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:28,280
Speaker 3: move to. We had spent a year trying to find

441
00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:33,320
Speaker 3: a place. Founder place paid out ten thousand dollars. It's

442
00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:35,640
Speaker 3: not a deposit, it's like a heads of agreement kind

443
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:37,960
Speaker 3: of holding money so that you go, yeah, we're taking

444
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:39,200
Speaker 3: this property.

445
00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:40,680
Speaker 4: And sign the heads of agreement.

446
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,160
Speaker 3: And then I got a call from the real estate

447
00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:46,560
Speaker 3: agent to say, Tony, I've got the worst possible news.

448
00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:50,800
Speaker 3: The CEO of a large multinational who rents from your

449
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 3: landlord that you want to take the building from. Once

450
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:57,760
Speaker 3: the property that you've taken as rung, the CEO of

451
00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:01,280
Speaker 3: that company demanded that get it because they rent all

452
00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:04,480
Speaker 3: over the country and doesn't matter they've signed something else,

453
00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:05,159
Speaker 3: forget it.

454
00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:07,880
Speaker 4: And so he was just like, I had to make

455
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:08,960
Speaker 4: this call to me and.

456
00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:12,280
Speaker 3: Just say how you know, like apparently he was sweating

457
00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:14,440
Speaker 3: bullets before making the call because it was Christmas, even

458
00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:16,760
Speaker 3: we'd worked all year, and he just like he was

459
00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:20,080
Speaker 3: just gutted to have to do this, and I let

460
00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:23,280
Speaker 3: him speak, and then at the end of it, I said, Sean, relax,

461
00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:25,720
Speaker 3: the only reason you're telling me this is there's a

462
00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,920
Speaker 3: better property waiting for us around the corner. And because

463
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:33,280
Speaker 3: I wasn't so angry and pissed off and kicking the

464
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:36,919
Speaker 3: bucket and whatever else, and you did this because I

465
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:40,320
Speaker 3: was so amenable. We got a bigger property for an

466
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:43,840
Speaker 3: amazing price because we really helped them out. They were

467
00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:46,359
Speaker 3: under pressure and so they did what they could to

468
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:49,439
Speaker 3: really support how supportive we were.

469
00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:52,440
Speaker 4: And that's happened.

470
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:55,480
Speaker 3: Many, many times and various things where something comes out

471
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:58,200
Speaker 3: of left field. And when you're in business, things come

472
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,720
Speaker 3: out of left field. You cannot be running a company,

473
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 3: even as the appointed CEO or a leader in your company,

474
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,480
Speaker 3: doesn't matter what's going on, even in your team, something

475
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,520
Speaker 3: will come out of left field and you've got to

476
00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:10,040
Speaker 3: be able to say, bring it on.

477
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:12,600
Speaker 4: Oh, I wasn't expecting that.

478
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 3: I mean last night it is like my son, seventeen

479
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:19,120
Speaker 3: year old doing his HSC silly kids, right, He takes

480
00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:22,320
Speaker 3: his computer upstairs, He gets a glass of water out

481
00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:25,000
Speaker 3: of the fridge, turns around, and because I've been doing

482
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,800
Speaker 3: the dishes, the computer fell into the tub that I

483
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:28,760
Speaker 3: was washing dishes in.

484
00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:31,520
Speaker 4: You know, like there's no point.

485
00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:33,560
Speaker 3: In just kicking and screaming. It's like, okay, how are

486
00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:35,760
Speaker 3: we going to resolve this? What needs to happen? And

487
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,480
Speaker 3: you just got to get it done. But I think

488
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:40,919
Speaker 3: that's an important skill. You want to be able to

489
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:44,240
Speaker 3: be as stable as you can in any situation. Because

490
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:48,160
Speaker 3: you've got to, you'll be more resourceful, you'll be more

491
00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 3: available to listen to others, you'll think of options. It's

492
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:53,720
Speaker 3: when you're really emotionally charged and you're angry, all of

493
00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:58,040
Speaker 3: a sudden, all of that capacity to think of something

494
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:01,439
Speaker 3: else is almost removed because you just don't have the

495
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:04,880
Speaker 3: memory space to focus on that. That is definitely one

496
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:06,040
Speaker 3: that served me very well.

497
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,960
Speaker 1: So how did you almost train yourself to have that

498
00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:11,320
Speaker 1: reaction become automatic?

499
00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:16,879
Speaker 3: Not embarrassed to say, and I'll protect the people involved.

500
00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 3: But I when I sold my recruitment company, it was

501
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:24,760
Speaker 3: sold to a listed company, and we had a dot

502
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:27,240
Speaker 3: com crash and things were just were it was just

503
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:31,160
Speaker 3: everything just went to pieces. In the late nineties early

504
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:33,960
Speaker 3: two thousands, there was a lot of companies that went under.

505
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:34,919
Speaker 4: The whole market fell out.

506
00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:37,400
Speaker 3: If you look at the Nasdaq in the early two thousands,

507
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 3: you'll see it go from like five five thousand points

508
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:43,080
Speaker 3: to sixteen hundred or something.

509
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:44,399
Speaker 4: It was just really awful.

510
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 3: Anyway, the guy that was running a company that made

511
00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:52,320
Speaker 3: the acquisition, he had a meeting with the head office

512
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 3: and he came back and he just he was just

513
00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:59,480
Speaker 3: so pissed off with what had happened at the board

514
00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 3: level that he walked to his desk and just smashed

515
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:05,639
Speaker 3: the filing trays all across the room. And I was

516
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 3: there anyone in the office at the time.

517
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:09,639
Speaker 4: It was in the evening. I was working, and everything

518
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:10,800
Speaker 4: just went flying everywhere.

519
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:14,160
Speaker 3: And I looked at that and going, is that really

520
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:18,199
Speaker 3: the best way to react and manage a situation? It

521
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 3: just didn't give me a lot of confidence in his

522
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:27,000
Speaker 3: dealing with crisis. And so that was one thing that

523
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 3: I remember I was quite shocked, and I remember going,

524
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:34,880
Speaker 3: that's not the way that I want to operate in

525
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:38,720
Speaker 3: a situation. So if you ask me what happened outside

526
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 3: of my personal experience, that was one that immediately comes

527
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:46,399
Speaker 3: to mind. But when I was younger, and I remember

528
00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 3: I was coaching or managing a young basketball team of

529
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:53,359
Speaker 3: teenagers and something had happened and I just lost my

530
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:56,639
Speaker 3: I lost it and I just started yelling at the kids,

531
00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:59,600
Speaker 3: and there was parents and everyone in the stands, And

532
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:02,600
Speaker 3: I remember with my mum coming up to me later

533
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:05,000
Speaker 3: and she goes, I've never been so embarrassed in all

534
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:08,480
Speaker 3: my life. Nothing could have been better for anyone to

535
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:12,280
Speaker 3: say anything at that time for me to then think

536
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:17,080
Speaker 3: about how my reaction really didn't work. So I think

537
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:20,719
Speaker 3: those two things was that when I think about them,

538
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:22,920
Speaker 3: they pop up and it must.

539
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,920
Speaker 4: Be some of the core, you know, red faced experiences.

540
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:28,960
Speaker 3: One that I had done to myself and one where

541
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,120
Speaker 3: I was like someone else had done it to themselves

542
00:27:32,119 --> 00:27:36,359
Speaker 3: that I was observing that gave me reference points to shift.

543
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:40,000
Speaker 1: Now, Tony, my last question for you, for people that

544
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:43,120
Speaker 1: want to connect with you and book Topia in some way,

545
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,440
Speaker 1: shape or form, what is the best way that listeners

546
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:45,919
Speaker 1: can do that.

547
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:50,359
Speaker 3: Look definitely just go to LinkedIn and or do a

548
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:53,560
Speaker 3: search on Google for LinkedIn, Tony Nashbrook Toopia. You'll find

549
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 3: me there and reach out and to say that you

550
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:59,480
Speaker 3: heard Amantha and the podcast, so I know where it

551
00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:03,360
Speaker 3: came from and that you're inspired, or you didn't talk

552
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 3: about this, ask me anything. I'm on there answering questions often,

553
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 3: and if it looks like we can do something more closely,

554
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 3: or you might have a service, so you might do

555
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,080
Speaker 3: something for be able to do with book Topia, then

556
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:16,760
Speaker 3: I'll probably give you my email address and Zia, we'll

557
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:18,440
Speaker 3: get that and then pass it on to the right

558
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:21,200
Speaker 3: people within the company. Or if you're thinking about book

559
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:23,280
Speaker 3: Topi and you've got some services or products that you.

560
00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:23,919
Speaker 4: Want to let us know.

561
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:27,800
Speaker 3: Our Wikipedia listening is pretty up to date, which has

562
00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:30,440
Speaker 3: a lot of the C level people that would want

563
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,600
Speaker 3: to hear from you, so you can do you look

564
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,479
Speaker 3: up those names and then go to LinkedIn and contact

565
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:40,440
Speaker 3: them directly. But I wish everyone well man thanks for

566
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:44,680
Speaker 3: having me on your program, and if you ever need

567
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 3: to have me again, if this is a part one,

568
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 3: I'll be happy to come back again and do a

569
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:50,600
Speaker 3: part two. It's never long enough to.

570
00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 4: Have these kind of chats totally.

571
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 1: I very appreciate him of your time, Tony, and of

572
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 1: your offer.

573
00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 2: I'm sure I will take you off on it.

574
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 1: So thank you so much and it's been a pleasure

575
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:01,719
Speaker 1: talking to you.

576
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 4: Good many thanks for your interest.

577
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 2: That is it for today's show.

578
00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:12,280
Speaker 1: Next week I have the amazing Emma Isaacs who is

579
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:18,320
Speaker 1: the founder of Business Chicks, an absolutely huge network of

580
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 1: women all around the world, forty four thousand members, and

581
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:30,080
Speaker 1: we talk about all things networking and balancing work when

582
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:34,000
Speaker 1: you've got six children under eleven at home. So there'll

583
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:36,960
Speaker 1: be a few parenting hacks in next week's episode.

584
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 2: So if you are not a.

585
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 1: Subscriber, please hit subscribe and you will be alerted when

586
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 1: that episode drops. How I Work is produced by Inventium

587
00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:50,320
Speaker 1: with production support from Dead Set Studios. The producer for

588
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:53,160
Speaker 1: this episode was Jenna Coder, and thank you to Martin

589
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:56,640
Speaker 1: Nimba who did the audio mix and makes everything sound

590
00:29:56,680 --> 00:29:59,640
Speaker 1: better than it would have otherwise. See you next time.

591
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:00,600
Speaker 3: Let's