#awinewith Julie Castle
MEET Julie
Julie is the Founder of Struber.
Find Julie here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
Julie, thank you so much for being here on Hot tv.
Julie Castle (00:11):
Love being with you, Dani. Anytime, baby.
Danielle Lewis (00:14):
So good. So good. All right, let's just dive straight in because I know you and I are talkers, so we'll have trouble raining this in. Don't rain it in though. Don't worry it in.
Julie Castle (00:24):
We'll have to have alarms at different points being like, yeah,
Danielle Lewis (00:27):
That's right. Oh, so good. It's lucky we don't have wine today, otherwise it would just go, I
Julie Castle (00:33):
Know tea, I saw you have water. I have tea. So we're fine.
Danielle Lewis (00:37):
We're very professional today. I love that so much. So let's start by telling everyone who you are and what you do.
Julie Castle (00:43):
Okay. Well, I'm Julie Castle. I am the co-founder and managing director of a professional services consultancy called str, named after my maiden name, and a long line of family working in the infrastructure sector. So if you imagine anything where it's roads or utilities or highways or any asset that's being delivered for the community, whether that be something social or something economic, we get involved in those projects. So we get involved in the early government or developer and financier phases when they're planning them. We help build the community goodwill and trust and interest in the project. We position the companies that actually want to tender to win them, and then we get those people through the construction phase and using the asset in operations, whether that be buying tickets, going on a tram, or whether that be using tolls on a road or whether that be them piling into a new hospital and benefiting from the new ways that healthcare can be delivered in Australia. So that's us.
Danielle Lewis (01:37):
Oh my God, that's fucking crazy into this space. Oh
Julie Castle (01:42):
My God,
Danielle Lewis (01:43):
How this happen.
Julie Castle (01:45):
I feel like if you're in the infrastructure world, you kind of understand what this is, but everyone outside the infrastructure world is a little bit. Is that a job?
Danielle Lewis (01:52):
That's a thing.
Julie Castle (01:54):
A lot of money. I think there's like 250 billion getting spent in infrastructure in Australia, and there's a lot of people involved. A lot of money gets spent making those projects happen. So that's where we are. But how I got into it originally I finished university, look, I didn't concentrate that hard at school, Danny. I think we've had these stories in our previous relationships, but I might've pushed the boundaries a little bit at school and was trying to find my way. Funnily enough, I found a role in communications and most of the time I got in trouble at school was about talking in class.
Danielle Lewis (02:24):
Oh my god, match made in heaven
Julie Castle (02:25):
Organizing events and distracting people from their schoolwork. And so that led to a career. But look, originally started in PR and media working for politicians and then found my way into these media and government relations roles, and I got onto a project when we moved over to London in 2007, I was placed there to help with an announcement for a big project, and it was Crossrail, which is the biggest engineering project happening in Europe at the time. It's now open, which is amazing across my career, seeing that project delivered and that was it. I was like, hang on a minute. I grew up on a building site with my dad, which I can tell you about another part of this interview. And now it all kind of came together. And so that then led to this infrastructure addiction and really the skillset of just working with people to make that magic happen. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (03:13):
Wow, that is so impressive. How did you bridge the gap though? So obviously being the naughty kid in school, studying comms, getting into those roles, what was actually the leap like going from employee to deciding to start your own business? How did that actually happen, that transformation?
Julie Castle (03:34):
Yes. I think I've always had a little bit of entrepreneur in me. My mom and dad laugh I think from a very young age where other people would fill in their, we used to have those really old school little folders that our parents used to carry around for us and put our little artworks in and our examples of things. And we'd write on the front This year I want to be and an astronaut or a doctor or whatever, and I, I want to be a boss. So that was a thing from the start. Oh, that's so cool. And that was really cute. My parents, I grew up growing in a family where we ran the small business from home. My parents had a building company called STR Constructions in North Queensland in Cairns. And so I saw them grind and find work and deliver that work and employ people and help those employees deliver their own dreams to their families.
(04:17):
They weren't always great savers or great at maybe following the rules around how they delivered their work. So I think I saw that responsibility in business and the impact that can have on people's lives. Dad was obviously delivering physical assets. My mom was running the business that was back in a time where women were just housewives helping out. But I now look back and as entrepreneur now, I'm like, mom was the backbone making that business happen. The reason why my mom and dad have money in retirement is because of mom's amazing work. But my dad set the pace on the job site. He worked incredibly hard and I used to love spending after schools and school holidays on the site with him, mixing it with the boys. And I think that sparked something in me too around females and women in leadership. And I have a little joke I took about how they all had their testicles, but I knew I had my testicles and this idea around we've got something really ballsy in us women and now we live in a world where we can really throw that out there without fear.
(05:14):
And I think that's exciting. So there was something there from the start. And then when I had given birth to Luana, our first daughter, my husband, he was in sort of this place with his career. He was always agitating his bosses. And we see them now and they're like, thank God you guys have your own business now. Because Dion was a really annoying employee. He was always suggesting better ways to run the business and they're always the nutty professor strategy guy. And then, yeah, we had our baby and I wanted to get back into my career, but I didn't feel like I had the support from where I was working or where I could work to be a mom and a career lady. So that was the birth of str. So with a six month old baby, we're able to kick off the business and within a few months he hired our first employee.
Danielle Lewis (05:56):
Wow, what an incredible time too. Just looking after a small child and deciding to start a business. Why not? That must not have been stressful at all.
Julie Castle (06:06):
Well, you're not sleeping anyway and your mind's a little bit bit flight or flight, which I feel like also matches business. So it was fine. We're always a little bit hungry to succeed. And I think having a daughter too was like, well, I want to set her up for a better life. And then that also was a big foundation for the business, this idea that we could accelerate other women, women who were hiding out on the fringes of their career, who didn't have bosses that understood what they were going through. They were the breadwinner dad or the man in the organization. And we were actually like, well, we can show what a couple who wants to show equality and work together should be and can be. And we became this little safe haven for other amazing women reentering their careers or juggling children, but wanting to have amazing careers. And I figure we shouldn't have it all.
Danielle Lewis (06:54):
We bloody should have it all. And interesting you mentioned that hanging out with the boys on the job site. Has being a woman in infrastructure ever been an issue or are you just take it by the balls? Talk to me about that.
Julie Castle (07:09):
Well, I think it's interesting because I say one in 10 workers in Australia work in the construction industry or construction related fields, but ultimately we only have 12% of women in the workforce. So that's pretty amazing. So look, I never had an issue because I never felt, I think I am a feminist at heart and all of that, but I never felt that because I was always hanging out with the guys on site. There was this one woman she used to come and deliver the concrete pouring. And so I loved her. She was this sexy goddess in her king G dark damage and I think wow. And then you could see the men all distracted. We had to get them back focused. We're pouring concrete, we need to focus. But that was really my only female role model on site really. Obviously my mom was a role model, but it was still packaged up in the eighties and nineties as I'm a housewife sort of person.
(08:01):
And so for me, I think it has been hard for people and to see other people struggling and not getting the recognition they deserve or being dismissed through bias that, well, she's a woman with kids or she's a woman so she won't have it in her or whatever. And look, it's just a matter of time before more and more women get those chances. So yeah, I have never had that issue. I can swear just as bad as most blokes. It's quite interesting sometimes seeing that being pulled back now, which is great as well. But yeah, it was never an issue for me in the man's world, but I absolutely in our business it is a big focus to have our team members taken seriously. We have 85% women in our leadership team and female dominated organization. 70% of employees are female because we want to be that difference in the infrastructure industry. And so we pride ourselves on bringing those ballsy women in and making it happen. And if they don't have the confidence, they were never given the chance. We build that confidence and belief in them and say, it doesn't matter. This is our world. We've got to have an impact.
Danielle Lewis (09:04):
And talk to me, there might've been a recent recognition of such work in the industry through the Telstra Awards. Talk to me about that.
Julie Castle (09:13):
Well, you're hot off the press, Denny. It's perfect. I glad we've got the schedule. Oh look, we actually had it on our list of kind of things to do. And in business you have these kind of things you want to do around externally promoting yourself. And we're both in fields where we are often promoting our clients externally. And it's like we used to joke as kids, it's the builder who can't finish his own house often don't get to your own PR and communications and marketing. So look, it was fantastic. We were able to commit some time and resources into our team and go for a couple of things. Actually over this last financial year around Great Place to Work, we achieved Australia and New Zealand accreditation for great Place to work and made their national top 20 lists, which was amazing. And that's all around how your people feel at work, what do you do to support them and what your culture is. And that's a huge amount of services we offer to our clients now. We take culture really seriously. It's our number one KPI. We measure it every week. We have an app that we use and we're very dedicated to that. And then we went as well for the Telstra Business Awards and it's such a long process, God, they run best of business. So professionally I don't think I realized how much was going to be involved. And even at the probably
Danielle Lewis (10:24):
A good thing that you didn't know what you're for. Yeah,
Julie Castle (10:27):
Exactly. So yeah, we won, which was so exciting. Earlier this year we won the Queensland Best of Business awards for accelerating women. We started the business in Queensland, which was fantastic. And then the National Awards were in the second state. We started our business, which is in Victoria when we did our expansion. And so the National Awards, we didn't win, but an incredible business gynecologist doctor who is doing incredible work with international and refugees and women in war and migrants and some of the things that women suffer in that sexual health space. I was crying in her speech. So we were very happy to miss out to her. But it was amazing to go all the way to nationals, have this beautiful now Telstra business, best of business community and also get recognized like that and really have to tell your business story in a different way. So accelerating women was a great category for us to be recognized in.
Danielle Lewis (11:23):
Congratulations. I mean it is interesting you say that. Yeah, you spend so much time championing your clients and making sure they're okay that sometimes we forget to reflect on our own businesses and putting the time into those awards is so satisfying. You mentioned the process, it forces you to reflect on what you've actually done,
Julie Castle (11:46):
Agreed, and then what you're doing. You sometimes even think programs that you've got that have been born out of caring for a team member and realizing that's a scalable problem for everyone or whatever, and then you realize that you can pay yourself against the big four advisory firms and other companies who are doing way more revenue have way more, I suppose certainty of their scale because of how long they've been around. And you really have some comparable policies and systems, which I think is just fantastic. So yeah, we're really excited. I think one of the things I love is the promotion. So when team members are announcing that they're pregnant to our organization or they're coming back within their first year, they're getting promoted and pay rise, which is again unique. And also we've never had a pay discrepancy. I look at those, I cry at International Women's Day when we are still talking about these things and I'm like, why are
Danielle Lewis (12:37):
We still talking? Why are we even talking about this? Yes. Why is this an issue? Oh my god,
Julie Castle (12:44):
It is. I don't want to be talking about these old stuff. We've got new problems to solve.
Danielle Lewis (12:48):
Oh my God, yes, you are preaching to the converter. It's so true. But
Julie Castle (12:53):
Don't worry, Denny, I've got your love notes. It says we've got this, so it's going to be fine. It's going to be fine.
Danielle Lewis (12:58):
We do. I was just talking to somebody else about funding women issues and I was like, you know what? I just think we have to sort this out. Women, we just have to come together and we have to solve these problems. I think that that's just how it's going to be
Julie Castle (13:12):
A thousand percent. And it's amazing. I think in Australia we were a big country, but there's still, the community size is probably not there on mass, you know what I mean? To create this new center of gravity. But I love Dion, my co-founder and husband and father of my kids. He's always listening to international news a lot more than me. I'm quite nationally focused, but he's so broad in his thinking and I hear these amazing American investment companies and these financiers, these bold women who are actually going out and hunting women, entrepreneurship and women problems that I think in the next 10 years we hopefully will be a much better world.
Danielle Lewis (13:49):
I hope so. I hope so. I know. So I'm putting it'll be the good news, the good vibes out into the universe. Yes, absolutely. Oh, it's so good. But tell me then, so because you've mentioned a couple of times now, what is it like working with your husband?
Julie Castle (14:05):
I know it's funny, a lot of people will say because obviously STRs our brand and it's own brand now it's beyond us. And then obviously I have my name Julie Castle, which is my married name and then Dion Castle. And people are like, are you guys like brother and sister or whatever? I'm like, no, my husband and wife. Because no one can imagine working with your husband. It works for us. And Dionne and I in other lives, Denny too, we are just each other's yin and yang. We've always want the best out of each other. We're each other's biggest critics, absolutely, but also the biggest champions. And so I think in the business we've always had each other's lanes, we know each other's strengths and we really put each other under pressure to deliver to those strengths and where we've got weaknesses. Fortunately, they're almost polar opposites.
(14:50):
And so we joke a lot. I get to be the Elton John and then he gets to be the songwriter. There's these ultimate partnerships all the time. And yeah, we try and make it work. I think we have this language around stay in your lane or I've got this. And we just kind of giving each other cues all the time to make sure we don't overreach. But at the same time we always say two heads are better than one. And so if we can come together on something, we're always able to do something excellent out of it. So yeah, we've never had a problem. We met when we were 18, we were married by the time we were 25. From the moment we met, we knew we were going to be together. So all that kind of other relationship stuff that people have to go through, we just haven't had to do it. So I hope that continues into our old age as we intend. And yeah, we actually really enjoy working together. And because of that, that actually gives me a lot more bandwidth to be an amazing career woman because dad lets mom shine and that's what our girls get to see. So it seems to be to our advantage.
Danielle Lewis (15:51):
That is so incredible. And I mean it is interesting. I think a lot of people can't imagine working with their partners, but when it works, it works so well. And I do love that figuring out what each other are great at and letting the other person shine, but also holding each other to account. Like you said, you were going to take this, I'm going to treat you. We work together. So
Julie Castle (16:15):
Exactly. I love that you have some rules. You've got to have some rules around nights or particularly, not so much nights but weekends around switching off. But that's quite funny because some of my, I suppose best friends in terms of that handful of great people I get to be with all the time is work people. So you're sort of like, oh, there's a story about, and these might be people on our leadership team who I like glue with and in partnership with, and Dan's like, you can't tell me that story. I'm like, but it's not about work. And you're like, oh. So sometimes that sucks because you're trying to actually let your work life bleed into your personal life, but you've got to try and keep that separation. The curtain goes over,
Danielle Lewis (16:50):
Someone once gave me this great piece of advice, they were like, okay, so you're both business owners, so therefore you're obsessed with your business. So of course it's going to be difficult to have that separation. They're like, when you want to talk about business stuff in personal time, always keep it strategic. So the exciting stuff, the big picture, the vision, the new exciting projects, any of the, that employee was a bit of a dick today. Leave all that stuff, all the admin stuff, never talk about in personal time. But if it's the exciting strategic stuff, then let it bleed. And that's kind of
Julie Castle (17:25):
Energy
Danielle Lewis (17:26):
From that.
Julie Castle (17:27):
You're so right. And it is, it's often that the Friday night wine where that little last integration, but we are quite rigid. And again, we do a lot of workshops and facilitation and culture stuff with leadership teams in the billion dollar projects we work with and we've got ground rules and in our leadership team and even just that talking about people, it's not going to help. You know what I mean? Talk to them. And so I think you're right. Once you kind of deha yourself from the crap that can come into leadership conversations, which shouldn't be there. But I love that. I'm going to put it into my love notes for female founders. Just going to note that down Friday night strategy is okay.
Danielle Lewis (18:04):
Absolutely. And if you have a wine in your hand, everything is fine.
Julie Castle (18:08):
I feel like that is a theme. I'm quite disappointed we didn't do wine time. I know.
Danielle Lewis (18:12):
Okay, we'll have to do a repeat next time.
Julie Castle (18:16):
Wa, I'm coming to you. We're drinking wine.
Danielle Lewis (18:20):
I know. I want to take this on the road and actually have it in person. Have the wine, do the thing.
Julie Castle (18:26):
Yeah. Amazing. I've got I think they
Danielle Lewis (18:28):
Could get out of control though.
Julie Castle (18:30):
Yeah, exactly. I've got to hook you up with some other of your similar crazies in other states to just get that power. Because I think that you do so much around having those conversations with female founders and really unlocking them. And it's just amazing when you can create that snowball effect. So you on the road makes beautiful sense. Denny.
Danielle Lewis (18:46):
Look, if all I did for a living was talk to amazing women, I would be so happy.
Julie Castle (18:52):
I've seen those smart career and business pivots you've done over the years. You're still getting to where you want to be.
Danielle Lewis (18:57):
Oh, I'm getting now. It's You're amazing. So
Julie Castle (19:00):
You're amazing.
Danielle Lewis (19:02):
Oh God. So good. So let's talk about team. So how big is your team now?
Julie Castle (19:08):
So we are just sitting just above 60 employees
Danielle Lewis (19:12):
And
Julie Castle (19:13):
Then we work with probably about 10 people contract through us regularly that might be on a particular mission for our business or with our clients. And then we have what we call is our taskforce, this pool of amazing freelancers. They might be living in country Queensland or in Thailand or whatever, and we kind of help build them in. So our community is quite large, which is really exciting. And we've been going through those kind of that stage of going from 10 employees to 30 to 60 and then trying to now push beyond a hundred. But the exciting thing for us is all the technology and digital changes that are coming and what do we need to do around automation and all the AI stuff and all the cool stuff going into our businesses to reinvent. What do we need employees to be doing when we need to be with our clients? What do we do to get our work done? One of the things we are really proud of is many years ago we set up a team in the Philippines and they threw a BPO there with us and we've got eight employees there. Some of them are amazing mom breadwinner superstars and others are just, we actually have all women, which is funny. We did have some men, they might not have made it. No, I'm just kidding.
(20:17):
Amazing. And so that's been really nice too. They've been a real bench strength for our operations of our business. But again, as part of their career progressions, we now get them involved in our client work and I'm really proud of that. I think the ability to do that international community but also enable those opportunities and they're incredibly intelligent, incredibly smart people and creating those opportunities for us and letting our Australian team do the things they like to do as well. It's been an awesome one. So I hope to see all that grow. I think our opportunity is to work across other time zones is also on the cards, so look forward to seeing more locations popping up in the future.
Danielle Lewis (20:53):
Good. And you talked about that decision when you had just had your first baby and you are going, I'm starting this business and then six months in, you've already got your first employee. It must feel like so long ago, employee number one to now 60 and talking about a hundred.
Julie Castle (21:13):
Oh my God.
Danielle Lewis (21:14):
How have you navigated? Surely there are a couple of teething issues along the way.
Julie Castle (21:18):
We had a, I think it was so nice, DE's part of the entrepreneur organization, eo and I think through the infrastructure associations and stuff and amazing entrepreneurs like yourself, I know, but also now the Telstra best of business community. It's amazing. You sometimes kind of get hard on yourself. You're thinking, oh my God, I've made one of my individual purpose in life is creating experiences that last a lifetime and now I have to add creating positive experiences to last a lifetime. Because unfortunately sometimes in business, the experience you might've created and what wasn't the perfect one, but your aim and intent always is. And I'm trying to be more conscious of that, but I think it hasn't always been easy. I think it's just learning to trust your gut. If there's doubt, there's no doubt when something's wrong, it's not going to get better with age.
(22:08):
It's not why. And so probably sometimes being a little bit too optimistic and hopeful and then having to make some tough decisions or seeing something in somebody more than they can see in themselves. I am incredible for belief in somebody. I'm like, Hey, great things happen in the uncomfortable zone and some people just don't ever want to be uncomfortable and that's okay. I forget that those people are there. They're not necessarily who I surround myself with, but so that's been a good journey. But we are really big now on our STR alumni and we talk really proudly about that. And it's actually really interesting. We've got five projects live right now with people who have left our business, gone on through relationships or gone on to their next step or we just wasn't the right thing for them at the right time. And that means a lot to us because that's, again, you're turning into that 10-year-old business next year and you're realizing it's your brand and your integrity and the things that you stand by.
(23:06):
But I also think we're very big on, we don't have that traditional vision, values, principles. We got rid of that. We're all around mantras and that ability to kind of chant repeatable statements, which really come into our wellness and almost a meditation state around energy is everything. Excellence is a habit, make magic happen, plant a tree, all these, we have seven of them and it's so nice and strength is in the pack and it's so nice because now if someone doesn't resonate with that on hiring, if they're out for me, not we, they're not going to fit. If they want to do BAU and get by and not innovate and stretch themselves, they're not going to get by with us. So that's been good. We've got an amazing talent director, Tanya, who's been with us since the early days and she's been learning with us, but she can spot STRs from a mile away and we are really happy our clients. I
Danielle Lewis (23:52):
Like that you call them STRs too. Yes, we have
Julie Castle (23:54):
Stru, bursaries, uba, rock stars. So that's good. That's so
Danielle Lewis (24:00):
Good. And
Julie Castle (24:00):
We're a bit of, I think a team member said to me in Melbourne recently, he was like, we're a bit of a cult. And I was like, we don't want to be a cult, but there's a feeling once you're in and what we're doing, there's a real strong belief system, which we're really proud of.
Danielle Lewis (24:12):
I do love that. I said that I think a couple of years ago I was like, I want to be a cult. I was like, I know what has a negative connotation, but I'm like, I want it to be, I want the vibe to be a cult like vibe.
Julie Castle (24:25):
Exactly. We don't want to end up on the news cult kind of.
Danielle Lewis (24:28):
That's where I draw the line
Julie Castle (24:30):
Award-winning cult. Yes, yes.
Danielle Lewis (24:34):
Oh, that's so good. And I just love that you said as well the Straba alumni because I feel like when you're smaller and you guys have, well outgrown this phase, but sometimes when you're smaller, I think it worries staff when you have staff turnover. But I love that one of the biggest philosophies I have is there will always be turnover. So if you can create these incredible experiences that is just now gateway to more customers because your champions end up in more businesses for future employees because if it's right, agree,
Julie Castle (25:09):
They'll come back.
Danielle Lewis (25:10):
Yeah, totally.
Julie Castle (25:11):
Hundred percent agree. Incredible. And we're interesting. We restructured the business over the last year. We've been talking about this kind of the shareholding bonuses and whatever. We've got the structure now to really bring up, and I'm absolutely conscious that there'll be someone who did junior years with us, accelerated their career, went on to something they might've wanted to spend an in-house project time versus the juggle of consultancy or whatever. And I am manifesting that some of those will come back to us one day and be a director of a new business unit or something and be able to become a business owner of a place which it's our life's work. And if it's going to be someone else's life's work, we want to share that with them. And we've got some amazing people who are racking up six, seven years with the business now, and we are really proud of that continuity and we're also proud of the opportunities of returning.
(25:55):
But yeah, I think you're right When you're small, and I think also you spend some time, if you spend time listening to the noisy, we call this the same in stakeholder world in infrastructure projects, if you spend all your energy listening to the noisy 5%, you're so inwardly focused. But if you spend time spending some time with the good people, or when I say the good people, the people who might be still feeling positive at the time or all your clients who adore you and their business success is based on your success, when you get out of that vacuum a little bit, you realize that actually everyone just wants us to do good. And overall, I'm doing my best, maybe not all the time perfectly, but I'm trying. And so yeah, you're going to make mistakes, but sometimes we're human beings, we're finding bees. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (26:44):
Totally.
Julie Castle (26:44):
And what's going on in someone's other life outside their work life. So yeah, no, I think you're right. It used to occupy a lot more of my dreams, I suppose in the old days. But now my job is to take carriage of what's going to be good for 60 people and more, and what's going to make sure that we've got a strong business that's sustainable and can realize its dreams. We've got a hundred year business planner and how infrastructure transitions and what our jobs will be in the future. And I'm out for that. I'm out for, this is not a business for my career, so I try not to sweat that small stuff anymore.
Danielle Lewis (27:17):
Oh my God, that's incredible. Because one thing I noticed as well that you talked about was innovation. How do we actually need to plan for the future? And I think for some business owners it is very easy to get stuck in the day-to-Day and the to-do list that never ends and the team problems or the market changes. But I love that you just said, I don't think I've ever heard anyone, especially of our vintage talk about the only person I've talked to listened to that talks about a hundred year business plan is my partner who's in mining. So they're hundred year plans.
Julie Castle (27:50):
But I was like,
Danielle Lewis (27:51):
How fucking incredible that you are talking about a hundred year plan for your industry and business.
Julie Castle (27:56):
Oh, well it's awesome. And I think also it came out of, Dion was spending a lot of time with this EO community and they did some time over in Asia and other trips and he said the only difference between those businesses and ours is they're planning to be dynasties. They're planning to be passed down and the wealth and the customer base and the brand strength and the ability to have impact on your employees because you've got the years on you. That's the advantage. And so again, our infrastructure, we're so focused right now on building roads. The reality is I can't wait till my Tesla will drive me. Oh my God,
(28:33):
I have so sick of dead time in the car and anybody who is not excited about that, sorry, I'm ready for the Jetsons. You know what I mean? And so what are these roads going to be? What are these roads going to be? They're going to become community spaces or places where we have markets and we actually bring people together versus create divides between lands or whatever. So I think that's really interesting and the information's all out there. And again, chat GGP will bring it to us even quicker. But ultimately, Dion's basically done this mapping of the cities and how everything will integrate. And we're like, why don't we just plan to always have our mind on the transitions in the industry so that we have to stay relevant through those phases. And if we plan long game, then you're not so shortsighted. It's not about the buildup to sell or it's not about the, we'll just make the next big 18 months of greatness, which happens in entrepreneurial world all the time. You're kind of like, well, we're in it for the long haul. So if it's a bit of a tough time, it doesn't matter. The future's still around the corner. And more importantly, if we can keep agile enough to adapt to what the future really is going to be, your strategy is ever evolving, which is kind of exciting.
Danielle Lewis (29:39):
I literally just wrote down the words plan to be a dynasty. So fucking cool. So I was just thinking about that, how much we do go, okay, what have I going to do this month or quarterly plan or yearly plan. It's like,
Julie Castle (29:54):
Oh my God,
Danielle Lewis (29:56):
That was just such a good moment for me. I was like, why do we put this cap on our dreams or potential a
Julie Castle (30:04):
Thousand percent? And also, let's be honest, if you're an entrepreneur and we've been bold enough to have a business or even employ somebody, what a responsibility. We all know what the weight of that is. Having to make payroll and manage payments in and clients not paying and all the fun of the finances, the money we talk about cash is king. We talk about culture as queen, but all those pieces that make business happen. And if you are stupid enough or amazing enough to get out of bed every day wanting to do that and put that to be your lasts work, don't make it something that's until you retire or how are you going to retire? Build it up so you can hand it over. I was talking to a client recently and he actually just happened to be working for this company at the time.
(30:46):
It doesn't have to be even passed on to your kids or anything. He just happened to be there at a time where this guy was like, I'm out. I've done as much as I can. They've come to an arrangement, he's taken over the business and now they're going from strengths to strengths, doubling in size and new. It's got this new vibe to it. So the business lives on, and I think our brands of our businesses should be aiming to live on whether we're grinding away at the head of the boardroom table or whether we're playing a cheer squad role. I think we should think bigger.
Danielle Lewis (31:17):
Oh my God, that is absolutely incredible.
Julie Castle (31:20):
Okay, you're throwing out your pants.
Danielle Lewis (31:24):
I'm canceling all my meetings this afternoon and I'm planning a dynasty. This is, you'll
Julie Castle (31:28):
Smash it. You're so efficient,
Danielle Lewis (31:32):
So good. Okay, we could talk all day, but let's wrap up with, so what are your thoughts on starting today? So you have been working your butt off for the last 10 years. You've seen the market change. You are an entrepreneur at heart. What if somebody wakes up this morning and says, I want to give it a go? Do you have any advice for somebody who might just be
Julie Castle (31:54):
Getting started? Oh my God. I think it sometimes just depends on the month. The advice you give. No,
(32:02):
You're like, am I feeling really high about this? Look, I think bold and belief, you know what I mean? Just think big and you can do it. The only difference between getting to where you want to is the work. And it doesn't have to be hard work and people sweating back, although you just do hard work. It's your blood, sweat and tears. You will. But yeah, just be bold enough and have the belief and go for it and put the hard yards in. We've had ideas of business partnerships with different people in the past and they just don't want to put the extra in. And that's okay, but got to go. So bold belief, I think it should be. I also think you should, particularly for the female entrepreneurs and even the males, it's like want to have it all. So don't put yourself into this little shoebox.
(32:52):
I think sometimes entrepreneurs, they kick off and they almost like they narrow themselves down to nothing already. Business is evolving so fast. You need to kind of keep a bit of a broad enough, find your white space in your specialty, but you need to keep a broad enough focus so that you don't become redundant two years later by the time you work out how to keep your business alive. And then I think, again, that team culture and trying to find those couple of great people to come with you if you're employing and keep them informed enough, maybe not enough. So they have to have sleepless nights like you sweating. But try and find those amazing followers to come with you and keep yourself in check. Don't let your email dictate your day. Do only the tasks that you can do. And I have to remind myself of that all the time because as things follow on behind you, you need to be focused because looking it to you for the next steps. So you better hurry up and get them. Yes.
Danielle Lewis (33:52):
Oh my God. Julie, you are incredible. Thank you so much for
Julie Castle (33:56):
Sharing
Danielle Lewis (33:57):
Your insights and wisdom with the Spark community. You.
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