WEBVTT - Troy Benjamin On How Backing Yourself And Asking For Help Can Really Pay Off 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.960 My name is Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:07.280 woman and I'm here to acknowledge country t Glenn Young 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:11.400 Ganya Niana, Kaka yah Ya bin Ahaka Nian our gay 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:16.920 In Nimbina, yakarum jar Dominyama, Domaga Ithawakawaman, damon Imlan Bomber 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.800 bang Gadabomba in and now in wakah ghana on yak 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.560 rum jar Watnadaa. Hello, beautiful friends, we gather on the 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.920 lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank, acknowledge and respect 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:30.880 the Abiginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:33.680 pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see. 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:40.160 She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:44.560 bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive. 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:46.520 She's on the Money. 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:47.560 She's on the Money. 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.759 Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.960 that helps you get good with money and even better 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:17.880 at backing yourself. And today's episode, from my perspective, is 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:21.160 a very serious dose of inspiration. Whether you've got a 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:24.080 business idea, a side hustle, or just need a reminder 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.199 that you are allowed to do things differently, my friends, 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:30.960 this one is absolutely for you. My name is Victoria 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.959 Devine and with me is a very special guest. Hot 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:39.760 off his win at the fiftieth Nadock Awards, Troy Benjamin 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:44.520 is the powerhouse behind Black Bruise, a proudly first nation's 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:47.680 owned tea and coffee brand that started as a kitchen 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:49.640 table idea during COVID. 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:53.160 And has since exploded into a national success story. 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.080 It's bold, it's culture led, and it's already caught the 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:01.560 attention of Gordon Ramsey, picked up major awards and landed 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:02.200 Troy on. 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:07.440 Some pretty impressive stages. Troy, my friend, welcome to the show. 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.400 Thank you so much Victoria for having me. Great to 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:10.760 be here. 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.920 We were just talking off about how we both feel 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.120 like sometimes we're in rooms where we just kids, like 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.040 we're not meant to be there. Like I feel like 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.600 you and I have a very similar energy when we're 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:25.160 just like we're just trying to have a good time. 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.840 It's exactly that's the currency of what I do if 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.520 I'm not enjoying it. I've always been like that too. 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.799 I've always been like that, found myself in spots that 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.680 I'm having fun and the ones that aren't. I'm personally 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:41.239 not having fun very rarely find ways to kind of 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.799 push through, and that's why we're here, because this is fun. 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:45.960 I love it. I love it, and I'm so excited. 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.240 I was trying to get you on the show earlier, 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:50.440 but I really wanted to get you in person because 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:54.040 content just shines so much better in person. And you 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.080 since won the Natock Award, which we're going to get into. 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.359 But before we get into it, some of our community 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:01.040 might not have meet you yet, so I think it 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.160 would be a miss to not properly introduce you to 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:09.440 my community. In your Natock Award speech, you thank your mum, 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.160 you said, thanks for raising a rule breaker, So I 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:15.760 reckon we should start there, right. Can you tell me 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:19.160 a little bit more about your upbringing and how it 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.440 shaped you into being I don't know, so entrepreneurial. 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:25.200 Yeah, it was funny. I was thinking about that rule 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:30.840 breaking comment that I made in my speech because I'm 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.160 a parent and I've got a twelve year old son 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.080 right now and he's. 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.680 Breaking the rules so in good ways, you know what 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:38.960 I mean? 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:40.560 What am I saying here? Like? Am I one of 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:42.160 the have we got to be? Some people? You know, 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:46.160 don't want to promote to not do school. You know. 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:47.840 You know, I'm gonna be careful what I promote here 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.360 and what we mean by a rule breaker. And I 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:52.880 was a rule breaker and at twelve years old, you know, 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.320 or fifteen or sixteen, you get in trouble for it. 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.000 I don't want to promote it to go break the rules. 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.560 I mean, you gotta stay. You've got to not get 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:03.320 in trouble, like. 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.119 The ones that can be broken, not the ones where 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:08.440 you're skipping out on school. 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.600 Totally, totally, you know, but that's not the law. You 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:16.280 don't break the law. Respect authority, all that jazz, and 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.640 maybe that comes kind of Christian authority to I think, 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.360 so don't always yeah, Like, and my son's in that space, 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.320 and I'm getting a good dose of what I was 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:28.400 like as a kid too. And I was an only 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.400 child with a single parent. Yeah, and a single parent 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.080 was it wasn't a father, it was a mother yea. 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:39.520 And boys can do some naughty things behind a single 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.600 mother's back. We're naughty, we're trouble where we're probably a 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.120 little bit loose in how can we look after my 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:49.719 mother right in this situation? Or we can be selfish, 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.720 and I think sadly, and it's the truth. Little boys 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.720 can be really selfish. And I was rule breaking. It 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.360 was fine. I didn't really get in too much. Mum 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:02.760 would often tell me stories about how we used to 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:04.280 go along the beach and I was just running off 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:08.520 with another family. And see your mom as a single 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.560 scared mom. My mom's very holds on tight to me, 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:12.359 and you know. 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.400 I didn't have me as a mom seen month old, 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.000 and I swear he just wants to be adopted by 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.920 every other family. We go to the supermarket and he's 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.440 like leaning out of the trolley and the other parents 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:24.800 and I'm like, all right. 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.400 I think that you want to leave me, and you 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:29.200 think all kids would like to do that, but it's 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.520 not true. Some kids really like to be near their 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:34.240 parents and hold onto the trolley and not leave. 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:37.360 And I've just always been a secure attachment though, I think. 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.240 So that's a good thing. I'm trying to tell myself. 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:42.880 Yeah, and it's a scary thing, I'm sure as a parent, 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:44.640 but I just couldn't. That's just the way I was. 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.600 And my mum often would be working or attending to 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:50.800 all the things in life that a single mother has 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.240 to do in her own world and for a family 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.920 and for a community. So often I was getting put 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.880 into situations where I was not being attended to, or 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.760 I was in other families setups, and there's no continuity 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:05.280 at all. So it was kind of like at all 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:07.720 times I felt like it doesn't really matter because this 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:09.880 is not the way I do things anyway. But there 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.040 was never really any kind of solid rules, aside from 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.360 my mother. She's an authority. She taught me to put 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.240 the toilet seat down, you know. She would go back 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:20.200 and tell me turn the lights off. That's cost money, 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.520 and you can't leave the heater on flung than two minutes, 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.400 and come on, it's called it to It's like an icon. 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.120 She had rules and told me off if I broke them. 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:32.400 So whilst I was a rule breaker, there wasn't like 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:34.680 I was left alone to my own devices. I was 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.160 in a very structured home and I had the great 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.680 privilege of having a stepdad come into my life as 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:42.479 a six year old. But you know, as I grew 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:44.839 up in many families' homes and there was some really 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:48.640 solid typical I don't know what typical is these days, 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.160 but you know, the traditional family I grew up mostly 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.240 in those family setups, and so i'd come back and 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.040 kind of try and implement some of the things that 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.360 I met. But i'd go to some family's houses, and 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:00.280 I was going there so often that I would be 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:01.760 on the on the dishes. 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.880 You're like, if you're going to come here, you are 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:08.599 going to be doing the dishes. 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:10.920 And if I went in there on Saturday and my 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:12.960 mate I would rock over to kind of go play 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:14.840 basketball in the driveway and they're like, no, I've got 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:16.400 flute and I've got a mother lawns, I'll be like, 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:20.600 far out the lawns. I'll help you my the lawn. 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.920 So I'm thankful that I had really good families around 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.200 that brought me up who I am today. And I 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.960 always credit my mother in trusting and finding her mother 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.920 instinct to be reliable, in letting me be in the 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:38.160 right situations that we're going to add value where she couldn't. 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:40.280 I love that, and that turns you into a very 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:41.920 entrepreneurial spirit. 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:44.640 So often I talk about the key things that kind 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:46.320 of get me to where I am, and the first 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.239 thing I think of is and it relates to exactly 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:50.680 what I'm talking about. Is asking for help. I got 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.160 brought up in a family that my mother had to 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.760 ask for help in the most kind of maybe even 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.880 humbling and embarrassing things as a twenty year old mother 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:01.760 having a try and many of her community members said, 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:03.600 you're probably too young to have a child, and you're not. 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:04.960 Do I just return it? 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:07.880 Well, you know what I mean, Like why are you 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.680 saying stuff like that? Like I just can't comprehend that. Cool, 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.680 So she's had a kid young, what additional support could 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:15.360 we give her? 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.440 Totally I'm not the conversation we have it, you know, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:21.400 exactly right, and you know what are we trying to produce? 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.280 Just perfect world? Like it just doesn't work. And my 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:27.520 mother obviously was pregnant, so she was the person that 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:29.240 was going to be best suited to think, how can 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:31.200 I do this? And she got brought up in and 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:34.040 out of orphanages. She had a super super rough life, 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.559 super rough, as rough as you can you get back 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.640 in the sixties, you know, fending off the social norms, 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:41.880 having to go find food. She's in and out of 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.719 foster care and orphanages, and her family of nine were 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.720 all in kind of abusive situations through the orphanage system, 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:51.240 and sadly it was really tough and for her to 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.560 sit there and probably hear those words and go, maybe 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.360 they're right, but I'm still going to have this kid anyway. 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.439 That's super strong woman. But then also, sorry, can we 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:03.280 just back to how proud would she be? You've just said, oh, 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:05.160 I grew up with the best mum. She had the 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:08.359 best rules, Like I grew up with all these supportive 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:09.079 families around me. 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:11.120 You don't just get supportive families. 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:14.439 Your mum would have cultivated that for you, giving you 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:19.280 absolutely everything. So to come from that having had that upbringing, 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:23.719 which as we know, unfortunately can be generational, Like we 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.800 often see these things carry on, like if you grew 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:28.680 up in a certain way, well, a lot of us 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:30.679 just come to terms with that idea, you know, like 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.640 I talk about money day in day out, and the 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:34.760 same thing is with wealth. 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:35.720 You go, well, we were poor. 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:38.199 I'm just going to live my life in that way 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.480 and with these rules and these systems, and like you 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:42.240 don't break out of that. It sounds like your mum 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.240 was like, absolutely not, we are breaking the world. Maybe 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.319 she just didn't bring up a rule breaker. Maybe she 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.679 was like the original rule breaker in news, maybe like 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.120 Stold a little bit of her personality. 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.000 Well, totally yeah, And I mean the question has to be, 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.520 how did she know if she didn't get brought up 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:01.920 this way, how did she know years? How did she know? 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.839 How did she know to go find food at the 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:06.839 right times? Where to go? I mean I remember going 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:07.360 to I don't. 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:10.079 Remember sauceful Queen, that's super resourceful. 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.280 I can really remember going through Geelong and thinking we 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:15.880 had an account with the butcher, but we didn't have 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:18.760 an account. We would go there and I would put 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:20.520 me up on the little seat where you put your 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.559 handbags and put your purse to ask the butcher to 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:24.559 cut your meat. And she would ask for free off 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:26.600 cut to meat. And I used to think, I love 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.280 schliced ham and Strasbourg. I love it. But I can 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.920 remember growing up on it. I used to go out 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:34.240 on Saturdays and go down the store into the market square. 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:35.640 I can't remember what it was back then, but a 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.080 little dai in Geelong and like I thought we were 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.839 paying for it, but we were just getting little. I 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:42.679 was the sample kid. 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:44.920 She made it an enjoyable process. 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:47.880 Totally. I saw it as a as a little excursion 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.199 and we're having fun today. And my mum. You know 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.360 that that movie The Pursuit of Happiness. I can relate 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.920 to that so much. And just my mother telling me 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.920 stories and playing tapes about was little Elephants, and I 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.120 can remember just life being so adventurous in like a 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.959 real life Disneyland. And then my mother tells me that's 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:09.520 the house where you grew up in, and it's a 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:10.000 little shit. 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.080 I'm like, sorry, no, that's not what I remember. 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:16.120 I remember mentioned I remember elephants going into the windows 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.600 and having Strasbourg ham and she's like, yeah, no, we are. 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.520 She's like, no, so that's not what happened. But I'm 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:24.760 glad that your memories are telling you that it was 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:25.560 really positive. 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.000 I feel like, you know, why not have a child 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:32.760 in a tough situation, because clearly imagination can make you survive. 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.600 It looks like, just from learning a bit more about 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:39.680 your mum, she clearly had that entrepreneurial spirit herself. Maybe 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.520 she's not out there starting businesses, but to be an 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:45.439 entrepreneur you need to be incredibly resourceful. You need to 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:47.760 be able to have that level of grit where if 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:49.319 you get knocked down, you're like cool, I'll just get 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:50.959 back home and I'll work out a different way. Or 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.959 I need this resource but I don't have access to it. 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:55.560 I'm going to find a way. I'm going to make 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:59.480 a pathway. And that's clear from me doing a lot 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:03.760 of research on you that you have that because Black Bruise, 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.040 which I'm going to talk about in a hot minute, 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:08.679 that's not your first business. I would say that you're 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.400 a bit of a serial entrepreneur, Like, can you take 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:13.840 me back and can we talk about the first business 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:14.960 that you started? 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:19.480 Yeah, Troy Brown's. It came originally from I wanted to 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:22.840 put one of these Danish cargo bikes with a coffee 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:26.400 machine ride it around Edin MG Gardens. And I a 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.559 friend of mine to come up with a name and 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:31.800 a guy and my breister at the time, I was 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:33.680 working at the cafe in front of the Art Center 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:36.599 back in two thousand and seven, and he used to 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.199 be this Irish guy that thought he was He always 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:41.319 loved hip hop. It was the strangest mixed video. Always 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.199 go lee Roy Brown or t Roy Brown, call me 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:45.439 t Roy Brown, the baddest men in town. And I 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:47.720 never knew the song bad bad Lero Brown. I had 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.440 no reference to any old history. And so I started 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.199 this coffee cart and called it Troy Brown's. And then 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.880 whilst I was kind of developing that coffee cart or 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.360 that little bike, I had a little side job delivering 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.840 coffee for it. Tomker, the great iconic cafe on fitz 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.640 Roy Strata. It's still there anymore. But and I've stumbled 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.199 across this little bolt hole. I dropped off one kilo 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.200 of coffee to this guy sitting on a crate at 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.520 the front of the banana alley vaults in vault one, 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:14.679 and he looked down and out. I could see it 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:17.040 in his eyes. He was like, I was dropping off 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:19.040 a one kilo per week. And I went in coffee, 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:19.760 that's bad news. 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.040 Yeah, that's terrible. That's like thirty cups of. 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.800 Coffee for the week. And I'd see next week and go, 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:26.920 what's going on? Man, Like you need some help with 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:28.840 kind of how to make coffees. And he had come 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.280 from a successful cafe. He just goes, no, man, I 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.680 want to start like my plastering apprenticeship. I went out, 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:36.120 do you know anyone needs to buy this little It 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:38.640 was two meters by two meters wide. It's a little 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:40.199 mop room at the front of Vault one in the 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.719 Banana vaults. And I went back and thought about it 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:45.319 and thought, maybe this is my shot, this is my 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:47.840 shot to have my own business. I went and got 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:50.800 two grand, which I had two and seventeen dollars in 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:53.360 my bank account at the time, and tried to wheel 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:54.920 and do so. Bro, I'll give you all lay down 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.360 two grand right now, the other I'll come back with 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:04.120 the rest and anyway. He's like, cool, I'll give you 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.600 seven days for the rest, otherwise you lose your deposit. 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:07.680 I went, it's all good man, it. 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:10.480 Went, I've got me way more than money. 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:12.800 Make some calls, move some money. I thought, that's what 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.880 people do, move money. Anyway. I told a friend of 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:19.800 mine at the time, be having me anxiety. It was stupid, 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:23.840 but my heart was too. I knew it would be brilliant. 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:26.480 I told a good friend at the time. I said, hey, man, 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:27.840 I just bought a cafe. And he's like, we've got 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:30.800 to go celebrate. Let's go get some champagne. We'll go 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:31.320 to a little bar. 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:33.680 You're seventeen dollars that you had left, I said. 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.800 I said, but there's a catch. I just need another 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:39.440 seventeen thousand dollars. 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:41.360 But that's okay because I did pay the two thousand 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:43.440 dollars deposits. I'm basically ninety per. 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.160 I mean, I mean, I get the business cards out. 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:46.440 Let's go. 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:48.880 Yeah, I've got a Blackmex Now. 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:54.280 Yes, how I was afraid my bendy go bank. He 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:56.080 could sit right between the lines. I needed some more 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:58.520 money and I was going to lose my two thousand 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.640 everything I had. Ye, he believed in me. Rang another 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:04.360 mutual friend of ours and said, let's tip in the 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.320 five k each with another friend of ours. He said, 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:08.960 you go back to the person that you've paid two 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:10.640 grand to and you tell them you've only got ten 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.080 k and you're going to pay the other seven remaining 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:15.440 over time, because I don't want to give you because 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:17.280 this guy could have given me all the money, he said, 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:18.520 don't want to give you all the money, and you 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:20.960 need to learn how to pay someone back. I'm not 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.760 too sure whether you've learnt that yet. So I did it. 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:25.640 I went back to the owner and said, here's my 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:27.680 other ten k. Can I please pay your seven grand 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.360 over as the money I was in? He said, no problem. 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.760 That was my first in We built a cafe from 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.360 literally no one used to walk past there other than 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.440 it was a pretty derelict area, but Ali Vaults back 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.640 then still is, but there's such a little thriving businesses. 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:44.680 But I put out an a frame saying it's my 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:46.520 first day of business, come and have a coffee in 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.480 a chat for free, and it was like kindling. It 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:51.240 was just a few people came in and the funeral 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.120 came in exactly right. We went through kilos for that 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:55.880 first week because it was free coffee in a chat, 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:58.840 and very quickly I just built friendships and relationships, and 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.640 to be honest today, before coming here, a guy came 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:03.880 into the cafe down and gelong. They just started. It's 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:05.760 one of my first customers in the first few days 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:10.000 and we built over seven years. The beauty of that 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.480 was it was so small. The rent was cheap. It 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:15.480 shouldn't have worked, and it worked, and we made some 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.360 really good coin for the first four years. And I 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:22.000 learned how to do more than just be a front 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:26.040 barista person. I learned the basics about finances. I learned 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:27.040 finances very quick. 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:32.480 Yeah, you've called this your tiny mbat before, and I 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:34.800 think that that's a perfect way to put it because 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:38.280 an NBA is expensive and what you did was a 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:39.280 massive investment. 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:42.640 But honestly, like, I feel like you probably learned a 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:44.280 lot more than you go into union. 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:46.800 Doing an MBA and doing like managerial finance, you're actually 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.720 doing the grit Like you're like, okay, cool, what am 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:50.080 I doing? 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.520 How much does it cost to open the doors? How 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:54.480 much does it cost? How do we get customers? It 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:55.760 would have been fun. 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:59.440 What do you think we're the biggest lessons that experience 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:01.440 taught you, Because as much as you made some good coin, 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.440 I'm sure that there were times where you were like, whoops. 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.159 We're walking out of a cafe on a Tuesday with 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.400 eighteen hundred dollars of cash in your left hand pockets. Nice, 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.480 is like, but it's dangerous too. So I had to 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:17.160 learn very quickly how to save for the rain, put 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.200 away some coin because the coffee machine might break, or 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:22.840 I've got to go away for three weeks because my 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:24.480 mates getting married in the UK and I want to 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:26.200 go and I'm the best, or something like that, And 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:28.639 I had to put stuff in that was something that 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:31.159 I had not learned or been taught because my mum 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:34.080 never had money, so we never really had time to save. 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.240 We had constantly. It was always catch up mode. So 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.280 I taught myself very quickly in the hard way. I 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.040 mean I had to make some hard conversations get them 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.040 over the line with the landlord and the landlord, I 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.280 don't know if we just move money inters these guys, 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:50.840 are you know Tony Doherty is a tough man. You 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:52.600 don't want to mess around with the Doughties boys and 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.679 now my landlord. No, no, they were so kind, they 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:57.360 were so kind to me. I'd tell them, hey, look, 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.639 I'm down this month and I can't pay rent. I 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:03.119 think the beauty have been able to own up to 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:07.000 your mistakes and admit them real quickly usually has met 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.240 with a lot of compassion and empathy. I think dealing 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:13.040 with things honestly and as quickly as possible instead of 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:16.280 ignoring your problems. And you see it in quite a 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:18.240 lot of those looking You're going to bring up Gordon 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.680 at some stage, but a lot of his situations on TV, 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.600 he's dealing with people that can't admit they've got a problem. 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:25.639 And that's why it's good television. 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:26.359