In this episode, we talk to Peter Lloyd who shares his fascinating business story on how through building the right kind of business you can obtain both wealth and freedom. This is a wonderful story and so well-timed given the difficult business climate so many businesses are finding themselves currently in.
Today we are joined by the fabulous serial entrepreneur, Peter Lloyd, to talk about how to create a business that delivers both wealth and freedom. We begin with an overview of Peter’s amazing business story and discover how he managed to come out on top amidst the difficult challenges he faced.
Peter shares his formula for building the right kind of business and explains what it means to have the freedom of time.
Peter shares the importance of not blocking creativity, how to understand values and how to allow your thoughts to set the path for the reality that you want to achieve.
He does all this while providing advice along the way on how to achieve this elusive but winning combination of wealth and freedom.
Episode Highlights:
- Living your life with your values
- The freedom of time
- The formula to building the right kind of business
- Understand your values
- Let your thoughts create your reality
- Take action
- Collaborate with people who share your values
- Empowering staff
- Why choose a franchise
Connect with Peter and Kim
- Anytime Fitness Website
- Peter Lloyd on Linkedin
- Kim Lloyd on Facebook
- Kim Lloyd’s Private Facebook group
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Transcript below!
Note: This has been automatically transcribed so will be full of errors! We are not providing it to you as a word-perfect version of the podcast but just as an easy way to provide you with a different way to be able to see or scan what kind of information that might be relevant to you if you are the kind of person that likes a transcript.
Joanna: Hi, it’s Joanna Oakey here and welcome back to Talking Law, a podcast proudly brought to you by a commercial legal practice Aspect Legal. Now today is a bit of a different sort of podcast. But I tell you what, it’s an absolute ripper. We have onboard Peter Lloyd, to talk a little bit about his business story about how building the right kind of business can deliver you wealth and freedom. Now, this episode might be a little bit woowoo for some people. So I’m just putting a warning out there right at the beginning. But it’s such a fabulous story and I think really well timed given we’re in a difficult business climate for many businesses at the moment and many businesses during these really difficult COVID period might be stressed and might be stressed to the point where the whole business model is is under question.
The episode that I have here today with Peter, I think really focuses well on how a business owner can go from a business that has declined. In fact, Peter talks about his history of one of his businesses that ended up in liquidation and put him in personal bankruptcy. But he talks also about the upside of all of that and how it all turned around for him and the strategies that he put in place to moving from bankruptcy, to having the business of his dreams where he really sets his own terms. And so Peter and his wife Kim, are now in a situation where they have a business that they can leave for six weeks heading to Whistler, apparently, which sounds just fabulous. Perhaps not right at this moment because we’re still in the middle of lockdown for COVID. But the point is, he has a business now that allows him to do that. In fact, he has multiple businesses.
I think in this podcast. He talks now about currently owning three businesses, although having owned many more in the past, but the lessons that he’s learned along the way about how to create a business that can deliver you, not just wealth, but also freedom and the sort of freedom that you can perhaps only just dream about at the moment. So without further ado, let’s talk to Peter because I tell you what, this is a bumper it’s a really great story. So here we go talking to Peter.
Joanna: Peter. I just wanted to say an absolutely massive thank you for joining us on Talking Law today.
Peter: Very excited to be here.
Joanna: I’m just so grateful for you coming onto the podcast today because when we first started talking and we started talking in the context of working together in some gym acquisitions, but we’ll leave that to the side for the moment. When I first started talking to you, I knew that you had some stories that I really wanted to delve into on this podcast. And there’s another reason I actually just really love talking to you because you’ve got this rawness, go for it
Peter: Some people might call that an egotistical bastard but I don’t know. That’s probably more my wife. Haha
Joanna: I’m gonna tell you right now this podcast is audio edited, but we’re gonna leave this one quite raw today. So I feel the need to already splash a bit of a warning. You know, if there might be some near the edge today and you know what, if that doesn’t work for you, then just listen over because the content is so going to be worth listening.
Peter: And I’ll try and stem it a little bit guys.
Joanna: You know, Our listeners out there are ready for something raw so let’s hit them with it.
Peter: Haha yeah, okay.
Joanna: Now Peter, I have a really strong belief in business growth through acquisition. And when I heard you talking, I could hear within you someone who had worked through the elements of business in terms of finding a way to make things easier or maybe fit with your life plan a bit better and that’s part of what I really wanted to dig into today. And then I wanted to make sure we could deliver to our listeners, how you got there and what your recommendations are. So some of the learnings from the past and now what it is that you’re following, that’s really sort of jelling for you and is worthwhile for you because I think you’re beating a path that’s quite different to the majority of business owners I speak to and I think that is cool. And I think it’s really worth delving into and exploring a little bit. So before we get into where you are now, how about you give us just a really quick background, just so that we can see where you are now and how you got to where you are because I think it’s a unique story.
Peter: Okay. So I guess my story is like everyone else. I grew up in a small country town. I grew up in a very violent family. And my mom asked me to leave at 10. Which I did I hitchhiked up to from South Australia up to tele Queensland. And I think that was the start of my wonderful journey. Obviously, I took some, there’s a lot of lessons that you learned through that, but then a few years later,
Joanna: Sorry, can I just pause what you said a lot of lessons and started off when you’re talking about that you said like a lot of people And to be completely frank, I don’t know that there are, you know, like it’s it sounds like a really tough childhood. There’s not many people, you know, hitchhiking themselves, you know, across the country. So what’s the one learning that you reflect back on? And you say you took out of that period?
Peter: I guess, the biggest. This is intimate, but I guess the biggest thing for me is, when I got up there, and I was in this house, I was I got dropped off at a random person’s house. And I said, he’ll look after you for couple months. About five months later, the living in that house. I rang my father. And I was at the point where I forgave him. And I even said to him, I forgive you. And I love you no matter what. And we’re both crying at the time. And he goes, I don’t deserve that. And that was the big. That was the turning point of my of me being a victim. You know, because everyone stays in that victim mentality. and if you come from a place of love and forgiveness, then you can move on elevating yourself higher and higher and higher. And I think I believe that’s what we’re all here for. And that was the turning point. For me. I think the biggest lesson.
Joanna: You were quite young to hit that, that insight, though.
Peter: I guess, you know, if you look at kids in Africa or anything like that, then they probably got those sort of insights to know when when any human personal spirit is put into a place of pain or fear and anger. You know, it comes out in different formats. You know, I think, some of the best lessons we learn in life are from tragedy. So, people need to embrace the tragedy as much as they embrace the joy without the fear, you don’t embrace the love. If you’re just in love all the time. You wouldn’t grasp the concept of different levels of love. You need to understand the concept you need to understand you’re both love.
Joanna: I love it. And so here you are meant to be in your 10 but not in school. I love it and then..
Peter: I went to Darwin from there I went to Darwin and I spent any few years laboring around. I did all the top end of Australia on a pill boat, which was amazing to pull and trolling. Lots of adventurous things that I found very exciting. And then I joined the military attended to be a parachute specialist. Wow spent 11 years there, injured myself over in East Timor and got a medical discharge or in 2008 start up an e commerce business selling gym equipment, with some business partners. We did it exceptionally well, but the GFC hit us up because we were spending too much money on cars, etc, etc. You know, we didn’t have an understanding of budgeting or anything like that, that all came crashing down. And that sent me personally bankrupt. So we lost a lot of my wife’s money, all of my money and I’d had multiple properties. We’ve done a little bit of developments. We, you know, share trading back then. So, yeah, and then, you know, getting back to that initial question you asked me, that was the turning point. You know, and we talked about some of the hardest things in life create the best things as well. So at that time of bankruptcy, it was a very dark spot. But hat’s what created the amazing life I have now.
Joanna: I mean it’s interesting isn’t it that we’re having this discussion and reflecting on some of these things right in the middle of COVID and obviously may not be obvious you are in the gym industry it is an industry that is you know being completely hit by the pandemic and here we are when we are recording, almost everything is opening up and yet the gyms still don’t have time but..
Peter: It’s complete bullshit. I mean, you’ve got people opening bloody bars but not a single bloody gym open. It’s just make absolutely no sense.
Joanna: But they’ll come back.
Peter: Yes, 100%.
Joanna: But the people I feel like a lot of our group of listeners at the moment are going through pain and I guess some of what you’re talking about here is you’ve done the pain, but the pain had a silver lining.
Peter: Everything has a seed, and it’s like a mustard seed of goodness to it. And we don’t necessarily understand it at the time. You know, if this COVID has allowed you to reflect on your life the way you are living it, and you hate it, then to me, that’s amazing. That’s a step because the that is the first step to change. And you’re the only one that can create that change. Yeah, and that’s the mustard seed of hope. Yeah. That’s the master seed of growth.
Joanna: And so what what is it that at that period, what was it about that period of, you know, having built all this wealth from nothing, and then having lost it all. What were the learnings then what have you taken on and what fueled you to be where you are now?
Living your life with your values
Peter: Oh, that was brutal pain, like brutal, demoralizing pain. And that took me to a really dark spot for a couple of years but what we realized is…thankfully my wife if anyone wants to look her up you can check her on Facebook, but she obviously helped me in that turning point when we both came together a little bit closer, a lot of pain I was a completer asshole. But it was probably more us understanding that we were happy together without anything. And you can utilize this for yourself. If you live your day by the day, not looking at yourself in the future or the past. You remove the past and you remove the future. You’re freakin happy.
All the time you’re happy. It’s all these potential programing of I should be here, I should have done that or look what I did previously. That is not you. That’s the past. Yeah. So if we can come into the context of that day, I think that’s what allowed us to, to come back to that day and go, God, we’re so blessed. My wife was pregnant and was due in like two-three weeks when I had to come home and tell her we have had gone bankrupt. How does that makes you feel? but from that we’d created our own vision. And this is the other thing if you don’t have a specific vision that you can engage, and for us, we did a goal board and a lot of people laugh about it and they go, you know, that’s dumb is dogshit whatever.
I don’t care but for me, when you wake up after losing everything to and having a new baby. You need something to create energy for you to get up to go to work. Okay, so my driver was looking at this vision board. At the start, I thought this is complete bullshit. There’s no way I can reach these goals and these targets, okay? Then what I did was I did a demartini course, he is such brilliant guy. And it allowed us to link our values to our life. So every decision we made from then on was linked to our values, you need to understand your core values. Yeah, and I suggest everyone out there write down if you’ve got your your partner the 10 most important things to you and consider yourself a life raft, okay? And your sinking, so you have to get rid of six of them. If you’ve got to throw them overboard, they’re gonna die. Your top four that you keep in that boat is your core values. Okay? Very important guys. And if you live your life by your values, you will be happy.
Joanna: And so what and what would the values that you then came up with as being core to you.
Peter: Family. Yeah, my family because that was what for me it was family, my wife and my kids. Okay, but then second of all this is very important. Money.
Joanna: Yeah, right.
Peter: Yeah. And I’ll explain that a little bit more. Then there was health. And then there was fitness. Health is easy. You just eat healthy. Okay, fitness is easy. You just go for a jog or whatever makes you happy. Okay. The family was easy. Well, I’ve got a wife so it’s not that easy all the time haha. But um, haha a lot of people probably take the money thing the wrong way. But I’m a big believer in if you put your energy. If money on the bottom of your list. Money needs energy and needs traction. It needs a job to do it needs to be a need focus on.
If you don’t give a shit about your husband or your wife, you lose them. Yeah, yeah. If you want to grow your marriage, you focus on your marriage. Yeah, that’s that’s you put energy into it, a lot of people, there’s got to get my wage I’ve, I put 100 bucks in savings. You know, it’s just like you got to put energy into it doesn’t mean that you’re focused on money. It just money is just an energy to help you get what you want in life. It’s a trade, everyone’s trading everything. If everyone says they’re not into money, that’s complete bullshit. Think about you got to buy groceries, you got to have a new car, you want to travel, you want to buy skis to go skiing and when you want to send your kid to a private school. Everyone’s friggin interested in money. It’s just whether they allow themselves to freakin believe that or not. Yeah. So when you truly believe that, then things change.
The freedom of time
Joanna: What one of the other things that I I’ve heard you say, is the freedom of time. So whilst it doesn’t make it to your top four, I have a feeling that mostly driver as well.
Peter: Yes. Now the reason why we put money up, we put money and then the word freedom next to it. So that’s where we associated money and that’s what I meant it comes back to. It’s what you associate family. I mean, your family might be your dog, your cat, right? So for me and Kim, our association with money was not money to go buy a nice car. Our association with money was to give us time, which is the most valuable up from your family. You could have a family and have no time, what’s the freaking point? You get to spend time with the family.
Joanna: And so tell me Let’s move right now to today just so that we can give You know, a contrast of the picture. So where are you now? Have you gotten yourself that freedom and time?
Peter: Yes. Without without a doubt more than anyone else I know, in reality that will that I’ve met so and even I get teased about it by my friends as well.
Joanna: Give us a snapshot. What does it look like? What are you doing?
Peter: And how many businesses do you have? And why does that work for you? Okay, so I live in Noosa all my businesses are in Sydney. Yep. And that’s for a reason I’ve dreamt about living in Noosa A long time ago. So we just we realize that the closer you are to something, the more involved you can be. So I’ve taken myself away from that and worked on empowering my staff to run our business because then that gives me freedom. So I mean, Noosa I wake up to the Sunrise over the ocean every morning. I have a dog a cat. I don’t have anyone that rings me up and tells me I have to be at work. I don’t have any clients that tell me that I have to have this call, pain in the ass. This is for me…
Joanna: We are truly thankful for you, Peter.
Peter: It’s how people value their time. Right? Yeah, so I value my time I don’t allow anyone else to come into my time that I don’t highly value. And that doesn’t mean I’m not a giving person or I don’t show love and empathy and give my time. It’s just I’m very critical with it. You know, so you know, yesterday, I went for a three-hour walk with my wife on the beach, having a business meeting. I spend my time listening to audiobooks, reading, researching on the internet, exercising, going for swims in the ocean, taking my kids surfing mountain biking. Yeah. But that’s my thing and look, I’ve got three gyms at the moment. I’ve got another three to build. I’ve sold gyms before, because they weren’t in alignment with my values. I had to fly to Perth. And that was a pain in the ass. I just want something simplistic and that’s for me, though. Everyone has their own values and time. And that’s what works for me. And that’s what we’re trying to create in this mentoring course, is time and freedom and everyone to break out of the bloody chains of debt that they’re in, you know.
The formula to building the right kind of business
Joanna: And tell us how when you first started to say business as a way to achieve this for you. But having said that, before we branch into that it you know, it sounds like in this period before you went bankrupt, you’d worked out a formula of how to at least make money right. So you It sounds business and that made money but before..
Peter: No, No, we didn’t. So we had a business but before that I made most of my money was in the army saving. Saving and we saved really hard
Joanna: Okay, so you’re a good saver.
Peter: Yeah, I’m a good saver. And look, the business went really well. We made a lot of money with that, but then we lost it all. Yeah, so and but I’m just saying no to I I brought my mom into the second gym. Yeah, right. Yeah. So just skipping a little bit because I got distracted. I did that to give her freedom. My mom had a very difficult life. Very traumatic. And so now she has the freedom to travel any way anywhere in the world. She doesn’t have to work.
Joanna: Okay, so tell us what is the formula? So you said you brought your mom into one of the businesses so you don’t Obviously discovered a formula before that, if you thought, I mean, it was going to achieve something for so let’s, what is the let’s start with that first one, what’s the formula? How did you find it? What is it?
Understand your values
Peter: Okay? Understand your values, okay? So go through your values and then what you do is you look for a business that works with your values. So we looked at boost juice, we looked at food shops, we looked at $2 shops, we looked at, you name it, everything okay? And nothing was sitting within our values. But then we found a gym that the system allowed us to have low staff, you know, no food or package, you know. And it was close to our values, because remember, one of our values was health. And so, for us, we looked at it we went This is amazing. This is this works for us. We didn’t have enough money, do it, by the way.
Let your thoughts create your reality
So that is the first step correlating a business to your values. Yeah. And then what we did is we focused on how we could get that, okay, and this is a little bit woowoo, but we kind of believe that your thoughts create your reality. Okay? It’s like quantum physics, okay? So if you are projecting, it’s like, you know, the red car theory, you know, you look at a red car and you lock it, you see it online, then all of a sudden, if that red camera, your eyes pick it up straight away, same context, okay? So if you’re always looking, searching, and very critical, you have to be very mindful of the words and the thoughts that you say to yourself.
This is another big thing that we change. So when we wrote our goals out we daily action task I am living in is the date 22nd May I am living in Noosa I can feel the wind from the warm sea air. Do you understand that it’s the association. So what I’m doing is I’m creating an image within my head that lets off a chemical release that gives me joy when I think about that. Okay, so that gives me an infinite energy to drive towards that. Okay, so that was my second big thing a little bit woowoo but I don’t give a shit.
Joanna: It’s funny that you’re talking about this, because I know a lot of people think stuff like, this is new age and woowoo. But I think it was Napoleon Hill who wrote Thinking Grow Rich, right? It was back in, like the 1920s? Or was it…
Peter: He was uhmm.. Carnegie paid him to or said, Look, you need to do this to change people’s lives. Yeah.
Joanna: And I just think, you know, like, there’s the point in showing that this sort of discussion or thought process is not new age, right? It’s been around for a really long time because that was written a long time ago, I thought I’d just write that in because I was thinking it sounding very Napoleon Hill.
Peter: I will stop saying it’s woowoo then. I think the critical thing is to and that comes back to we live in this realm of quantum physics where our thoughts create our reality, right? Because you can be stuck in a shitty house with no food and still be happy. It’s all about your perception of your mindset. Okay. But then, what we did then is what we made sure that every single week went into the real world with our thoughts and go, Okay, now we have to be realistic. How do we get the money? How do we get as much money as we can, and it’s a mix of that quantum in the real world, because you can’t just be a yogi sitting on a fucking rock. Say, I want to..
Joanna: Meditate and it will appear.
Peter: Yeah it is complete bullshit.
Joanna: Probably not gonna happen exactly that way.
Take action
Peter: So, so action was the third step for us. Yeah. But not just, you know, action. It’s like action. If you tell me that you want to do something. And a lot of people I’ve talked to they want to go and do this. I go, Okay, so, you’ve got eight hours you work, you know, you spend two hours with the kids or whatever. And what do you do for the rest of the night? Monday, Tuesday, I’ll watch the Netflix series. That’s bullshit. You’re not you’re not really interested in doing that. You know, you’re not really driven. That is not full purpose. No, it’s commit to your goals. 1,000%.
Joanna: So, so then taking that and working out the practical application of that, so you decided, Okay, we need to be clear about what we actually want. Want to make sure we’re very considerate about what we’re creating for ourselves in terms of business we’re going and going to think about what businesses align with that. And, you know, even if, I guess like the really practical side is well, that makes a lot of sense anyway, because if you’re going to be spending a lot of time doing something you may as well be bloody doing something that is enjoyable.
Peter: Exactly.
Joanna: And so then you take that and you go, okay, gym business, this sounds great. We want to do that it fits our values model. It also fits an economic model of business that we think we’ll deliver a strong return which makes our value of money, but we don’t have any money. So what what did you do? How did you get money?
Peter: Okay, so, after going bankrupt, I think we had about 70 grand of Kim’s money because I was bankrupt. It’s funny how the universe works. It was one random day I was laboring and went and saw a friend at a new gym in Anytime Fitness and we pulled up on my walk through it, and I just had this inspirational feeling this is it. Because I’d spent every lunch hour, every smoker, every single part of my day going, it’s going to come.
It’s coming in to find it. And I know I had no money, right. And I just want to walked in it was like a feeling of dizzy. So then I, I was lucky enough the owner was there. It was the first day was open, but one of the first times open in Australia. He saw me and I said can I have a word to you tomorrow with my wife? Can I bring it back here? Because you absolutely gave me some details and we came back and then within four days, we put our deposit down. And I said I’ve only got this much money, because Don’t worry about it. I’ll find you a deal. We’ll get the incentive to pay it but the least incentive to pay it and that’s exactly what he did.
Joanna: How did that work?
Peter: Well so you know, when you get a landlord the incentive? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I told him I said, I’ve only got 70 grand, and the franchise fee was like 35 Yeah. I said how are we gonna build it? Guys? Don’t worry about I’m this is what I’m good at. I’ll find you a property and I’ll get them the incentive to put the put the money in to do it. Right.
Joanna: And so you didn’t have to.. so you were committed for a period of time.
Collaborate with people who share your values
Peter: And then then we went we don’t have enough money. Okay, so we had enough to the fit up but we don’t have enough for the bank guarantee. We don’t have enough for the cash flow. Then we went okay. Who else do we know that we can collaborate with to give us some money to come in help us? And luckily it was Kim sister was in the PT industry and her boyfriend was there, and we brought them in. So it’s another step, guys, collaboration. Collaboration is critical. But you have to collaborate with people that have the same values as you. Very, very important. And so that’s how we got our first year. We didn’t make any money for two years. Nothing was thin. Yeah, and then it just snowballed from there.
Joanna: And so then you found a way to finance it, and now you’re living the dream. And then sometimes living the dream isn’t exactly what the dream was, right? Like working bloody harder than you’ve ever worked your whole life. But you’ve got a dream that’s propelling you.
Peter: And that’s the thing when I come back to the infinite energy, it’s different when you’re doing something thing you and your family. I’m not gonna lie, guys. I busted my ass. I was on the train. I didn’t have enough money to drive the car so I had to get on the train. took me an hour 20 minutes to get there. I had to leave at seven o’clock and get back at 920 sometimes I missed the freakin train stop and then not halfway down long gone so wouldn’t get the bed to 11 and, you know getting out for new baby help with the bottle feeding.
It was tough. And but that, you know, I remember sitting on the train one time when I’ve just worn out just telling the universe to go get fucked. I said you are not going to beat me. I don’t give a shit what you throw at me. I’m gonna beat you and there is nothing that you can do about it. And it was really weird because within like two months, the gym started making profit for the first time. Yeah, and it’s like, I didn’t believe I mean can truly do believe that when you allow the ability for you to it’s like your next level. Yeah, when you can control that amount of money. To get to the next level. You have to show that you can control about money.
Joanna: So now we’re at the point where the gyms actually making money thank goodness because there’s a bit on the line at this point including your sister in law’s money. At what point did you decide what you’re going to do. Did you acquire another gym or was the next gym a Greenfield?
Peter: It was a Greenfield site okay because it was still new. We were the 30th gym open in Australia. Wow first we had like our friends told us we were stupid crazy. You know, there’s five gyms here already. So we got a lot of flack for that but when we just started to see it turn, we could see that there was momentum in it and we decided to pick up another one. We had just a little bit of cash but we knew if we hold on negotiated to not pay the franchise.
For a certain amount of time longer because you know new franchises It was early acts you know it was more flexible and then we bought that and then by the time that came up my mom had some money which she threw in we got that one going then we did did a couple more and that was just a snowball effect we kept our costs low like we didn’t live the fancy lifestyle. We didn’t have a new car. I had a second hand Sonata, Hyundai Sonata that everyone would laugh at me but you know when your banking 20-30 grand a month and you’re still driving behind your Sonata, you don’t give a shit? Yeah, and the trick is another big thing. What people don’t understand is they start spending it straightaway. And they don’t you got to reinvest that, you know, live off the base salary that you had, and just keep living off that for some time being to get that foundation strong.
Did you reinvest in business or Did you also reinvest in other things as well? No, we because we found that system that worked. We reinvested in the businesses. I feel like people what they do is they think the grass is always greener, I’ll go into developing or I’ll go into property now. I think stick with the system that works. And get it to a point where it’s really running well, that and for us, the big thing was freedom. Okay, so it comes back to our values. So I needed to make enough money to allow me to pay someone else to run oversee the gyms. And then me walk away. I walked away, but I’m on in a different way. So that was the main value.
Joanna: Yeah. And at what point between doing that first deal to get that first gym up until the point where you had was a general manager or whatever, someone to come in and take over the operations. How long did that take?
Peter: Five years. So we’re talking 2011 to 2017?
Joanna: Okay, all right. So around about six years, one of the things that I have witnessed is that there’s a few periods of real vulnerability for businesses, right in the beginning, as everyone knows, many businesses just don’t make it past the starting gates. So right in the beginning, and and then high growth is a really vulnerable face. Yes. And then in generally because the business is growing quicker than the foundations that support the business and we’re protected. And the other phase which sometimes occurs with growth, and sometimes not, is installing the general manager because most entrepreneurs, business owners have an idea of business, they want a business that runs itself so they can have the freedom
Peter: You know, okay. Yeah. And I think a lot of people over leveraged themselves as well. So then the lone veteran is the critic thing and if they set a system in place to not go over, say leverage of 40%, then they’ve got a buffer. So for me, what I’ve done is I’ve actually empowered the staff to take responsibility. I’ve set their KPIs around the turnover of the business. Yes, I’ve got multiple layers. And now and then what I’ve done is well put an area manager and not a general manager. Because what do I need a general manager for? You know, if I have an area manager that floats around, does the training but also works within the business. And he’s incentivized really well or she? Yeah. Then I find it’s a substance sustaining system. You don’t need to pay someone 200 grand to be toffee nose and sit in an office and talk talk down to staff when they should be working with staff. And I think that’s a big problem with a lot of companies that are too top heavy, right? whereas they what they should be doing is disruptive. All the extra profit a month does little managers in the style. And that’s what keeps the system working.
Joanna: And what controls do you have in place to make sure because when I see issues occur from perhaps the first time or the installation of someone that’s managing the business so that the founder owner can take a step back off, what can happen at that point is, if the systems aren’t strong enough, the business itself in the hands of someone else doesn’t perform to the same degree as when the owner founder is managing it. So what systems did you put in place to, to ward against that risk?
Empowering staff
Peter: Look, I think what I’ve done is to empower the staff to talk up, okay, because a lot of people, a lot of big companies, I find the person that’s doing the work or Doing the sales doesn’t get heard up the line. And they’re your frontline soldiers. You don’t listen to the lieutenant at the back. It’s the guys at the front that are getting shot at that you need to listen to. They’re not always right. And they don’t have an understanding of the whole picture. Okay, I get that. But I think when you lose sight of those frontline soldiers, that’s when the whole business can get lost. It can you can be putting your energy into the wrong area. So you’re wasting money. And I think that’s inevitably it creates a bad culture. And with a bad culture creates bad sales or a bad system, bad processes. I think if you give the ability for people to speak up and come up with great ideas, every single human being is a vessel of creativity. Now if you allow them to be heard, and as a boss on continuously saying I fucked up. And my biggest role with my staff is you put your hand up when you make a mistake, we fix it. If you don’t put your hand up, then you’re in trouble. And I care if you make a mistake I tell that to them. Yeah, just don’t make it two or three times in a row and then you’ll get sacked.
Peter: If their heart is trying to do the right thing and make a mistake. Why would you bring them down or you know, lower their ability to be creative? Why would you stop fueling creative juices to improve the business?
Joanna: I love it. I love it. I look I completely I 100% agree with you. You have many philosophies that I really believe in. And another question of course, I have a million and but this particular question relates to franchise versus not franchise God alone. So firstly, what made you decide to go for a business that was franchised rather than starting up something,
Why choose a franchise
Peter: It was systems and processes, that’s it. Because like you said, it all comes back to systems and processes. I wanted something that I didn’t have to create. My wife was an operations manager. And that was one of her key criterias so system from processes with franchise
Joanna: Yep. And clearly the model worked for you because that’s what you’ve continued. You’ve continued to open up or or acquire
Peter: They don’t work for everyone. And I always I’ve been egotistical and thought I could open one up everywhere and it hasn’t gone as well as I thought it was going to go. Don’t get me wrong.
Joanna: What are the bits that didn’t go right?
Peter: Not truly understanding your market feeling that just because you’re successful and I see this a lot, subways this net, just because one goes good in one area and you understand your demographics. Where the store is placed in the rent, you know, is is, you know, it’s it’s a holiday area, it’s not a holiday area, you know, for me going in and being too optimistic and not coming back to the data. So me and Kim a very, very critical about the data. It’s just like a lawyer. Yeah, you’ve got to go through everything specifically. And a lot of people don’t want to do that work. And as an owner, it should be a one page data item monthly for you to review everything. But then if you’re going to do a new venture, and that’s where all your energy goes. Yeah. And you’ve got to be willing to say no, it’s not worth the risk. There’s got to be a line drawn in the sand to say no. It’s a lot easier to lose it.
Joanna: And I’ve just got to say a massive thank you. There’s so many things that you’ve talked about today that I’d Just think, a really fundamental and this discussion went in a whole heap of directions.
Peter: Sorry about that.
Joanna: No, I love it. No, I really love it. I think it’s absolutely fascinating. And, you know, massive kudos to you for making it through tough times. And developing a mentality that saw you through, you know, because of victim mentality can be a really damaging thing, you know. And there’s so many things in business you can’t control but the one thing that you can control is your thought process and you’re just a testament to how that can play out. And I just think it’s a really good point for people to stand back. And you know, as I said, right before when we’re talking about it, of course, we’re in this this period of massive uncertainty and massive loss for many have our listeners, many business owners, but that can be an opportunity for serious reflection about what it really is that you’re building and why and how maybe you can build a better the second time around.
Peter: I agree. And look, I’ve done it. I’ve done it in six, seven years. So everyone listening, it’s not impossible, you know, have hope and don’t give up and have drive. That’s what me and Kim are trying to do. We’re trying to create with our mentoring group. The main people we have a mum and dads that have tried to invest in lost money and they’ve got kids all they want is time back. And so we’re getting people to collaborate together, teach in every process we’ve learnt. Okay, from the fundamentals, we share everything with them. And that’s how drive our drive that’s how our way to give back, sure we charge them, but that’s because it needs to be an equal transition of energy.
Joanna: And and I mean, it’s your time, you’ve got to value your time. Because if you don’t value your time, who will?
Peter: Exactly. And that comes back to the way you are treated, if you treat yourself highly valued, you are highly valued. And the people on the course will listen to you will listen to you. So simple as you go to a $50 course no one goes, they won’t want something that’s for 50 bucks. But if you got a 1500 dollar course you go and you’re going to rock up, and I’ll be on time.
Joanna: Oh, absolutely. And so tell us just really quickly, as you mentioned, you have taken a number of people through a bit of a coaching program, what is it that is the outcome that you think are leading them to.
Peter: What we’re leading to so we’ve aligned up all their values with.. and not everyone got in, by the way. So we’ve picked specific groups that are ready emotionally and the ones that we thought were just on the borderline. We we’ve tried to get him to do some work on themselves. Yeah. So we’re linking all these people because coming back to collaboration, don’t be scared to collaborate, if you’ve got the fundamentals, right, okay, because that was the stepping stone for me. Okay, I needed help put your hand up, ask, create a vision.
So that’s what we’ve done with these people in, but we spent five months traveling last year. You know, we’ve had like, a holiday off, like, you know, we got to Whistler we got to this was six weeks, and we’re so it’s been a while to this that. So for us our freedom, that is freedom, then is time and it was just by coincidence that people were attracted to that through our Facebook and Kim’s coaching business. And Kim was like, well, why can’t we do that for someone else? Why can’t we do that for a group of people. So we’ve got a couple of families around Australia that are in the process of it. We’ve got a contract to purchase their first business, which is really good, and I’ll look at getting 26% return on investment annually
Joanna: 26% return annually. That is huge,
Peter: That’s without me improving it. So I’m sitting back and I’m looking at items and going, there’s 20-30 grand, I can change straightaway. So there’s opportunities out there, but they could never do it by themselves. Hmm, yeah.
Joanna: Sorry. This is where the lawyer in me feels like I just must need to say, by the way, this is not financial advice. Make sure that you get tailored advice in relation to your own circumstance.
Peter: Hahah Oh yes, I am not a financial adviser.
Joanna: Yes, hahah Just throwing it out there, the lawyer in me. But possibly you’re looking at you know, that you can get these 26% return
Peter: It’s over that but we’ve low balled it with our basic numbers, but look, anything could happen. You know, it could They could go down to… But even if it goes down to 15%, or 12% imagine if it just goes up from 26 to 12, who gives a shit, it’s a great investment, you don’t get that. And then it’s all about compounding that money. So what we’re teaching is to compound that investment into the next investment, then that will compound into the next one. And then they always mums and dads will start to get the freedom of the hours that they wanted to spend time with the kids. That is more powerful than having cash in the bank, the vision of the freedom to have with your family or whatever your new baby or dog or cat, whatever. That is the vision that needs to be used. get passionate about that.
Joanna: Peter I love the passion. I just absolutely love it. Look, you have been incredibly generous with your time today. As we have learned time is extremely important to you and you’ve got some sounds like some really good barriers and filters around that. So I’m glad that you relax them a little bit.
Peter: There are invoices. I have calculated my day away. It’s $3 a day.
Joanna: You’re worth more, you’re worth more.
Peter: I know I am. Hahah
Joanna: Look, it’s been an absolute joy speaking to you.
Peter: I agree it was beautiful.
Joanna: I think this is a really important message not to harp on to it, but we’re in a hard time. Even businesses who are making who were doing well through this period. And there’s a hell of a lot of our listeners who aren’t, by the way, but for all business owners, it’s just, you know, I just think the one important thing to take out of today, there’s two, number one, getting real with understanding what it is that you actually want to be creating. Because business can be so busy can it? you know, and you can just get so caught in the doing that you forget to stand back and just work out where it is that you had intended.
Peter: Yes. And if you’re not there, cut the arm off, move somewhere else.
Joanna: Make hard calls. I think that’s the thing right at this moment. And the importance of making hard calls while keeping really clear with where it is that that you’re actually going but you know, there’s a lot of things in what you’ve talked about that require, you know, you didn’t then just sit back and meditate from a mountaintop you took serious action, and you found ways to make it happen. And you know, there was risk in what you did and it could have all gone to crap, but I feel like you’re the kind of person who just would have got back up, dusted yourself off again, and let’s try the next plan.
Peter: It’s not like a wave we go up and down, we go up and down. Sometimes we get smashed.
Joanna: Oh Peter, I’ve loved it. I hope you feel that this has been a useful investment of your time as well and I know our listeners are going to absolutely love it. Look, I have a feeling there might be a whole heap of people who want to follow you guys on Facebook and see what you’re doing next. How do people find you guys?
Peter: Look, that’s my wife. I think I sent Marie a link to my wife’s Facebook . I am not a massive fan on the digital side of things. Probably because my wife has banned me. But uhhh…
Joanna: Actually, I’m pretty dark on social 100% honest. Usually, it’s not me even if it looks like it’s me, just anyway, let me not get started on social media.
Peter: It’s Kim Lloyd and we’ve set up a link for our infinity team and whoever cares to join. I think Marie’s got it there. I don’t know what you do with it. You know, it’s Kim Lloyd from Noosa. She’s such an amazing, amazing, amazing woman. And she changes people’s lives. So if anyone out there needs to reach out, even for a chat, even if they want to have a chat with me and there are business in there. You know, I’m happy to spend time with someone as long as they’re not in that victim mentality, and they just want some support and want to chat. I’ll be happy to speak to him one on one as well. As ways for giving back and just remember guys, I’m not making any money at the moment as well. My businesses are closed. Yeah. Also, I’ve set up systems in play. I have a big war chest.
Joanna: That’s I mean, that is just amazing. And you know, and I love that this whole discussion, you know, is coming from you who is a gym owner. As we spoke about just before, like, if you have yourself set up well, this is what takes out businesses.
Peter: Exactly.
Joanna: So it’s about then finding a way that you can have a business that can sustain these times, I guess.
Peter: And just one last finishing thing. Everyone needs to do their numbers, the data is the critical thing. You need to know exactly your numbers. A lot of people invest, but they don’t work, the investment out to work out how much it actually cost them, you know, or your taxes or your repairs or your interest rates, etc. You know, that’s inflation, like add it in.
Joanna: And sometimes it’s also for the reason that you can, that red flags will be raised that tells you when you need to get rid of assets or investments before they pull you down.
Peter: That’s exactly what I’ve done previously. Now, because I went through that bankruptcy experience. I see It Like you said, the red flag system. Now your data shows you see that data tweak month to boom on the market. Let’s get rid of it. First buyer comes up, flick it off. We’re about 30-40 grand, you can make that money up later, or do you want to lose the 6-700 grand investing?
Joanna: That’s such a good point. It’s such a good point. But you need the data you need to know to be able to make those calls. Absolutely love it. In our show notes. We’ll put links through to all of that stuff that Kim has sent us. I love this Peter, these discussions rocked. I think our listeners will absolutely love
Peter: As long as I touch one person. That’s all that matters.
Joanna: Oh, many more than that many more than that. Now look, you go have some of that fabulous, free time you’ve built.
Peter: Thanks Jo.
Joanna: Right that’s it for this episode of Talking Law where we talked of course to Peter Lloyd all about his experience in having a really difficult upbringing, but being able to take some of the learning from not even having finished school from having also a business that ended up in bankruptcy to now having been able to build not just the business, but also the life of his dreams through business. I hope that this discussion has inspired you.
If you are having a really tough time in your business at the moment, maybe you’ll find that some of the things that Peter and I talked about might give you a new lens for which to look at your business and your business model as it is right now and ask yourself some hard but critical questions and look if you’d like to reach out to Peter or his wife, Kim, Kim Lloyd then just head over to our website at talkinglaw.com.au or just check out your show notes because we’ll have a link straight through to Peter and also to Kim’s Facebook page and other social media pages as well, if you would like to connect with them in person. Now through our website at talkinglaw.com.au you will also be able to download a transcript of this podcast episode.
If you’re one of those people who just loves the detail and likes to see it written down. There, you’ll also be able to find details of how to contact our lawyers at Aspect Legal. If you would like help with any of the items we covered today, we have a number of great services for businesses to help them not just in times of trouble, but also to help them fortify and protect their business to set them up for growth into the future so that when issues hit the business, it’s less likely to have the impact of tearing the business down at our website.
You’ll be able to contact our lawyers at Aspect Legal for a free discussion about your business or about any issues or concerns that You might have in mind at the moment well that’s it. I’m so grateful for you for listening into this podcast today. I really enjoyed recording it. I hope you enjoyed listening to it. And if you did, maybe you might consider heading over to your favorite podcast player and after you’ve hit subscribe, perhaps you might want to leave us a review, we’d be ever so grateful. But that’s it thanks again for listening in. You’ve been listening to Joanna Oakey and Talking Law a podcast that is very proudly brought to you by our commercial legal practice Aspect Legal. See you next time.
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