Honestly: Built The Hard Way

Seven On. Dream Built on the Off

How bloody applicable for the Central Highlands area, how many stories have we heard of small business being built on peoples rostered days off from the mines.

It comes with sacrifice though, missed family time, 14 hour days even when your supposed to be on the off but when you have a big family what are you supposed to do.

In this episode we get to meet Zadok and Lisa from McBurney Bros Contracting and how they are trying to build the dream on there 7 days off.

Definitely worth a listen if you think this is you.

This was supposed to be episode 7 but here we are.  Sorry a big week here at Cameo and Honestly: Built the Hard Way.

Dad Bods. Built the Hard Way Episode 6 of Honestly: Built the Hard Way.

This weeks episode is all about a man that had to rethink how he was going to tackle life.  Qualified Sparky to now running the most unreal community of Dads. Fit Dad is born and this how the founder Clayton has had to manage family life, work life and now his passion project that hopefully one day spreads further than the Central Highlands.

DADS with business this episode is for you and a reminder to make time for you and fill your own cup.

Babies, Beauties and Brooms

Three businesses. Three completely different industries. Three very different stages of the journey.

In this episode of Honestly: Built the Hard Way, Garth and Georgia from Cameo Cleaning & Co. sit down with Josey from Babi Collective and Katie from Highlands Cosmetics for a genuine conversation about what it’s really like to build and run a business.

With Josey still in the early stages of her business, Garth and Georgia a few years into the chaos, and Katie bringing close to two decades of experience, we get three very different perspectives on the same things — growth, customers, staff, family, community support, pressure, mistakes and figuring it all out as you go.

There are plenty of laughs, a few stories we probably shouldn’t tell, and some brutally honest moments.

But things take an emotional turn at the end when we ask the question we finish every episode with:

“What’s something you’ve honestly learnt the hard way in business?”

This time, the answers hit a little differently — and there are even a few tears.

No scripts. No pretending we’ve got it all figured out. Just four business owners at different stages of the journey talking about the good, the bad and everything they’ve had to learn the hard way.

This is Babies, Beauties and Brooms.

This episode of the podcast is a little different

Talking all about customers or customers interactions with businesses.

To be honest customers can make or break a business, good customers make you feel like your unstoppable and bad customers make you feel like your wasting your time.  Today we go through those stories and what we learn from them.  The first 15 minutes is just me ranting about how much I hate bond cleans.

Enjoy this one cause we enjoyed making it .

Episode 3: Growing Pains

Growth sounds great — until you’re actually living through it.

In this episode of Honestly Built the Hard Way, we get into the growing pains that come with taking a small business to the next level. More staff, more customers, more responsibility, more money going out the door — and somehow, less time.

We talk about the mistakes we’ve made while growing Cameo, learning to let go of control, knowing when to hire, dealing with the pressure of keeping everyone busy, and those moments where you wonder whether growing bigger is actually worth it.

Because growth isn’t always pretty. Sometimes it’s bloody uncomfortable — but that’s usually where the biggest lessons are.

This is Growing Pains — the stuff nobody really tells you about when your small business starts becoming something bigger.

Well, you’ve taken the first step. Congratulations — that’s the hardest step you’re going to make. Now it’s time for SHIT TO GET REAL.

You’re in the thick of it. You’re the one responsible for keeping the lights on and the doors open.

Our special guest today, Cassie from CQ Rural Traders, takes us through how shit got real for her and her business partner, Sam. She talks about their wins, their losses, and the moments that — well, let’s just say — eventually turned into wins.

We talk about the reality of running a business, what happens when things don’t go to plan, and what you learn when there’s no instruction manual.

Welcome to Episode 2 of Honestly: Built the Hard Way — Shit Gets Real.

For this episode Taking the first step come along with myself and the other owner and my wife to my own small business Cameo Cleaning & Co. 

We talk about what it was like for Georgia and I to take the first steps of starting our business and what we had to do to make it work.