It’s the same story every December:

Everyone’s tired, everyone wants a break, and somehow everything suddenly becomes “urgent”… even when it absolutely isn’t.

In this final episode of Season 1, I talk about the strange end-of-year ritual we all participate in, the non-urgent urgency. Why we do it, how it shows up in real businesses, and what we might do differently next year.

We cover the “bookend effect,” the habit of finishing instead of fixing, the emotional pressure to “finish strong,” and why January in Australia is actually a gift if you use it well.

A light, honest wrap-up to the year, with a few laughs, a bit of Aunty Donna energy, and a look at what’s coming in Season 2.

If you’re tired, cooked, or sprinting to imaginary deadlines… this one’s for you.

Are people in your team going over heads, or across the room? 

In small businesses, relationships matter. But how those relationships form, vertically (up and down the hierarchy) or horizontally (across the team), has a huge impact on how work actually gets done.

In this episode, I talk about vertical vs horizontal relationships, why teams quietly drift into unhelpful patterns, and how small shifts in “who you go to first” can change the whole rhythm of your business.

We’ll cover: 

• What vertical and horizontal relationships look like in real life
• The warning signs of “over-vertical” and “over-horizontal” teams 
• How owner-led businesses accidentally turn leaders into bottlenecks 
• A simple rule of thumb to decide when to go up and when to go across 
• A few questions to help you spot where relationships are quietly holding your team back

If your team feels slow, stuck, or strangely “stop–start”, this one’s worth a listen.

We’ve taken the full tour. Through the Time Furnace, the Rework Loop, the Silence Budget, and the Talent Skip Bin.

Now it’s time to talk about what happens next.

In this final episode of Inside the Waste Factory, Paul and Jase close the loop, unpacking why most businesses don’t fix the waste they see, what it takes to change that, and how to start noticing the quiet inefficiencies eating your time, energy, and profit.

You don’t have to burn it all down, but you do have to decide what stays, what goes, and what gets fixed for real.

🎧 Episode highlights:

• Why waste gets normalised (and how to break that cycle)
• The first step to spotting hidden costs in your business
• How to fix waste without chaos

🧾 Download the free guide — Six Hidden Costs to Watch For in Your Business

Behind the Time Furnace. Past the Rework Loop. Just near the skip bin.

No, not the one for old chairs and monitors, but the Talent Skip Bin.

It’s where good people get wasted.

In Part 5 of Inside the Waste Factory, Paul and Jase look at how capable, motivated people end up buried under low-value work, legacy tasks, and “busy” that doesn’t move the needle.

From over-management to misaligned roles and cultural ghosting, they unpack how talent quietly disappears from your business, and how to get it back.

🎧 If you’ve ever looked around and thought, “Why isn’t that person doing more of what they’re great at?”

This one’s for you.

They don’t complain. They don’t warn you. They just stop coming back. 

In this episode of No One Told Me This, Paul looks at what really causes customers to drift away, quietly, slowly, and often unnoticed until it’s too late. 

We talk about the subtle signs that connection is fading, the stories businesses tell themselves to avoid facing it, and why “busy” can be the biggest blind spot of all. 

If you’ve ever looked at your numbers and thought, “When did this start slipping?" this one’s worth a listen. 

🎧 A short, honest reflection on attention, connection, and why silence usually costs the most.

You’ve probably paid into it without realising.

Welcome to The Silence Budget - Part 4 of Inside the Waste Factory.

In this episode, Paul and Jason explore the quietest (and most expensive) department in any business: the cost of things left unsaid.

From fear and apathy to unclear ownership, they unpack why teams go silent, what it really costs, and how leaders can lower the bill.

🎧 If you’ve ever thought it but didn’t say it, then this one’s for you.

You know the job. You did it. Then you did it again.

Welcome to The Rework Loop – where time, trust, and morale quietly disappear.

In Part 3 of Inside the Waste Factory, we look at the cost of doing things twice (or three times), and why rework is one of the biggest hidden departments in any business.

From vague briefs and silent stakeholders, to handover fails and perfection paralysis.

Paul and Jason break down four common culprits behind the rework cycle. Then, we explore a few simple levers that can help teams break the loop.

🎧 If you’ve ever wondered, “Why are we doing this again?”

This one’s for you.

They say trust is the foundation of every team…

But what if it’s not?

In this episode of No One Told Me This, I unpack why trust, at least the emotional, vulnerability-based kind, might not be as essential as we’ve been led to believe. Especially in small and medium businesses, where the conditions for that kind of trust often just don’t exist.

Instead, I explore a practical alternative: Trustless Collaboration - Built not on feelings, but on four behaviours that actually make teams work:

🧱 Reliability

🔁 Reciprocity

🙌 Respect

🧗 Resilience

Trust me, you don’t need it.

(Or at least, not the version you’ve been sold.)

If this resonates, send it to a colleague. Or to the person in your team who always follows through.

🎧 Listen now on your favourite platform or at modestrategic.au/podcast

You can’t multiply chaos and expect order. Yet that’s exactly what happens when businesses try to scale without the right foundations.

In this episode of No One Told Me This, I dig into the four words that make scaling possible: repeatable, reliable, consistent, and scalable.

Why? Because without them, growth just multiplies chaos.

We’ll talk about:

• Why repeatable beats “just in your head”
• How reliability creates confidence under pressure
• Why consistency builds trust with your team and clients
• What scalability really means (and what it doesn’t)

If you’re aiming to grow, ask yourself: are you truly scale-ready… or just stress-ready?

Where did the week go?

This is Episode 5 of No One Told Me This, and Part 2 of The Waste Factory — a six-part mini-series exploring the inefficiencies every business pays for (but no one budgets).

In this episode, we step into the Time Furnace - probably the biggest department in the whole factory.

The place where meetings burn hours without decisions, where approvals stall in inboxes, and where priorities blur into busywork.

No smoke, no fire alarm, just time quietly disappearing.

You’ll hear real-world examples, irreverent commentary, and a few practical ways to spot the scorch marks in your own week.

Because your team might not be wasting time.

But something’s burning it.