Shows / The Good Builder Podcast
The Good Builder Podcast
This week in home building news! Catch up with Az and a colourful array of guests, to hear about who's killing it, who's innovating, and who's getting into strife in the world of new home construction.
Episodes
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #361 | Beyond Colour: What Builders Should Know About Pre-Painted Steel | Jason Voglis from Selection Steel
All painted steel looks the same on the rack. According to Jason Voglis, it doesn't perform the same. "When you actually break it down and you look at the…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #360 | The Weight of Being a Builder | Jordan Rogers from J3 Built
What does it really take to be a good builder? And we're not just talking about building great homes. Every now and then, a conversation comes along that…
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The Daily Dose #359 | What We've Learnt From Meeting Builders Across Australia
We've spent the past few weeks travelling through Victoria, New South Wales and the Gold Coast, meeting builders, visiting businesses and hearing what's really…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #358 | $6 Billion in Building Estimates: What AI Still Can't Replace | Haydn, Price A Plan | Live from TPB
AI can help builders produce estimates faster than ever. But when your margins, cash flow and reputation are on the line, who's checking the numbers? Recorded…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #357 | The Good Builder at TPB: How Baihn Construction Is Using AI to Win More Work
We're taking The Good Builder Podcast on the road. In this special series recorded at The Professional Builder Summit, Az sits down with builders from across…
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The Daily Dose #356 | Sydney Home Values Are Falling. So Why Are Approvals Speeding Up?
Sydney home values are falling, but the NSW Government is pushing ahead with faster housing approvals and new measures to get projects off the ground. In this…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #355 | Why More Staff Doesn't Always Mean More Profit | Cheyne Hall, Build Launch
Growing a building business should mean more opportunity, more profit and hopefully a little less pressure on the owner. But as many builders have discovered…
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The Daily Dose #354 | Why Busy Builders Go Broke (And What the Best Builders Do Differently) | Mark Vasalo & Paul Hogan
Being busy doesn't necessarily mean you're running a healthy building business. In fact, chasing more sales, taking on the wrong projects and carrying too much…
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The Daily Dose #353 | Do You Really Know Who Your Building Business Is Designed For?
Most builders can tell you who their customer is. But there’s a big difference between knowing your customer and actually designing your business around them…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #352 | What Actually Makes a Good Builder? | Ben from Stroud Homes Brisbane North
What actually makes someone a good builder? For Ben from Stroud Homes Brisbane North, it isn’t simply knowing how to build a house. It’s knowing how to bring…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #351 | The Blueprint for a Good Builder | Alex Palazzolo, ATLI Building Co.
What actually makes a good builder? For Alex Palazzolo, founder of ATLI Building Co. in Melbourne, the finished home is only part of the answer. A quality…
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The Daily Dose #350 | Protect Your Energy. And Give Off the Right One.
Does the energy feel a bit off at the moment? There’s a lot weighing on people. Cost of living, government decisions, what’s happening in our communities…
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The Daily Dose #349 | Before the Contract: How Canibuild and Stylemaster Are Rethinking Preconstruction
What happens before a client signs a building contract could be one of the biggest opportunities for builders to improve their business. Site feasibility…
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The Daily Dose #348 | What Actually Makes a Good Builder? Mitch Thompson on People, Standards and Building a Business That Lasts
What does being a good builder actually look like when you strip away the systems, processes and business jargon? In this episode of The Good Builder Podcast…
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The Daily Dose #347 | Construction Insolvencies, Rising Concrete Costs & Queensland’s $174B Pipeline
540 construction companies entered voluntary administration on a single day in August. It sounds catastrophic. But there’s an important detail buried…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #346 | Why Australia Is Losing Bricklayers And Why More Apprentices Won’t Fix It | Andy Shaw
Australia needs more bricklayers. But according to Andy Shaw, simply putting more apprentices into the system won’t solve the problem. Andy is the founder of…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #345 | Sacked Before the Ambulance Arrived: Carrick from HazardCo on What Site Safety Really Costs
At 23, Carrick was installing aerials when the ladder slipped out from under him. He fell two storeys onto a concrete driveway, broke vertebrae in his back and…
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The Daily Dose #344 | The Pulse Trial Results Are In: Faster Fixes, Team Visibility and an Industry Benchmark
Most builders only find out a customer is unhappy once it has already cost them. At the end of the build, in a Google review, or in the dreaded Facebook…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #343 | James Drever: How QA Build Became the Fastest Growing Builder in Queensland
James Drever started as a chippy on the coast. Today he is CEO of QA Build, the fastest growing builder in Queensland, running more than 15 live projects…
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The Daily Dose #342 | Why Has the Building Market Gone Quiet? Plus Bathla, Tiny Homes & Ausbuild
Why does the building market suddenly feel quieter? Builders across Australia are reporting slower enquiries, longer decision times and clients holding off on…
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The Daily Dose #341 | The Bathla Collapse: What Subbies and Suppliers Need to Know Now With Insolvency Expert Chris Baskerville
This episode belongs to you. When the $3.4 billion Bathla Group collapse hit, we emailed every builder and tradie in our community and asked one thing: what do…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #340 | AI and Marketing for Builders with Vinnie Vecchio (The Professional Builder): Fill Your Pipeline 12 Months Ahead
Every builder is being told AI will change their business. Vinnie Vecchio is one of the few actually showing them how. Vinnie leads the coaching team at The…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #339 | Johno The Plumber: Saying What The Industry Won't
He's one of the fastest growing construction profiles on Instagram, because he's saying what most of the industry won't. Johno The Plumber (real name Robert…
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The Daily Dose #338 | Where Did All the Prompt Engineers Go? 4 AI Features Builders Are Already Paying For
Two years ago, prompt engineering was going to be the six-figure job of the future and blokes were buying Mac Minis to run AI agents next to the drop saw. Both…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #337 | Leigh Storr on Building Australia's Most Trusted Solar Company and What Every Builder Can Learn From It
What does it take to become the most awarded and highest rated solar company in Australia? Not a secret. Just turning up for customers after installation. This…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #336 | Everyone Loves Floor Heating. Almost Nobody Quotes It With Rick Florence
Floor heating might be the most loved feature in a home that almost nobody asks for — and once the floors are down, it's too late. This week Az sits down with…
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The Daily Dose #335 | Who's Actually Advising You? The 5-Minute Check Every Builder Should Run
Builders are being approached from outside the industry more than ever. Coaches, planners, consultants, software reps. All of them want the same thing: access…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #334 | Solar and Batteries in New Builds: The Margin Builders Are Missing, with Gary Higgins of Halcol
Solar and batteries are on nearly every new-home wish list, and hardly any builders are putting them in as standard. Az sits down with Gary Higgins, owner of…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #333 | Goop Guys GM Mark Sutton on Protecting the Investment, Franchise Growth & Australian Manufacturing
Mark Sutton has just stepped into the GM role at Goop Guys, the surface protection business builders rely on at handover. He's spent his career in hardware…
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The Daily Dose #332 | 3 (or maybe 5) things builders can implement overnight to grow their business
Az runs solo through the small, low-cost moves he's watched actually shift leads for builders — no bigger ad spend required. First, 3D walkthroughs and…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #331 | Matt Hope on Wattle Court, Thirteen Weeks And The Builder You Choose
Az sits down with Matt Hope, founder of Wattle Court, on building a franchise brand that is bigger than the person who started it. Hope has run building…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #330 | The Right Person For The Job | Alex Harris (Wattyl) and Bec (Adapt Modular)
Alex Harris from Wattyl on the couch for the first time, and Bec from Adapt Modular back for a second run. They join Az to talk about what the construction…
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The Daily Dose #329 | The Love Bomb, The Fluff And Three More Red Flags
Az unpacks five red flags to watch for before entering a business partnership. As The Good Builder has grown, the partnership approaches have grown with it…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #328 | Josh Tyrrell: Ten Years, 250 Homes. The Journey From Builder To Businessman
Josh Tyrrell signed with GJ Gardner Homes at twenty nine, opened in October 2016, and has since built around 250 homes across Warragul, Drouin, Morwell and…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #327 | Xero Economist Louise Southall on Productivity, Cash Flow and Why Construction Is Holding Up
Construction is one of the strongest performing sectors in the Australian economy right now. Louise Southall has the data to prove it. Louise is the Xero…
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The Daily Dose #326 | Marketing for Builders: Where to Actually Start | Paul Viva Digital
Most builders were never taught marketing. For most of the last decade they did not need to be. Orders came in, the phone rang, and whatever budget existed…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #325 | You Can Teach Anyone to Build a House with Rod Gibbs from Bold Living
Rod Gibbs has had three jobs in construction. He has done almost everything inside them. He started out tiling, switched to carpentry, and served his…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #324 | Care Factor is the Whole Job With Phil from WD Constructions
Phil runs WD Constructions in Melbourne. He started in 2018 with one week of work at a mate's house and a first child on the way. Six years on he has never…
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The Daily Dose #323 | Your AI doesn't know your business. The 10-minute solution for you.
Most builders open an AI tab, type into it like it's Google, close it, and get back the same generic content everyone else is posting. Hard hat emojis. Crane…
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The Daily Dose #322 | Zoning, Pathways And Pipelines: Reading The State Housing Targets
Az runs through the week that was. Every state is quoting a big housing number. Queensland says 100,000 homes. New South Wales says 150,000. Victoria says…
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The Daily Dose #321 | State of the Land: Queensland Doubled, Victoria Didn't
Two states. Same data. Same method. Queensland doubled and Victoria did not. That is the headline from the first State of the Land reports, and it is close to…
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The Daily Dose #320 | The biggest problem with communication is thinking it happened
Most builders treat a communication breakdown as a people problem. Dan Okart says it is a clarity problem, and it starts at the top. Dan from A Thousand Feet…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #319 | Aaron Applefield: Mindset, Stoicism and What Actually Makes a Good Builder
Aaron Applefield has worn nineteen different hats in twenty years at Brett's. Ask him what he does and he reframes the question. His core, he says, is simpler…
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The Daily Dose #318 | Winter Sucks giveaway, Pulse goes live, and Dreamworld's master plan gets the nod
A big week at The Good Builder. Az runs through three announcements and three headlines moving the residential building industry right now. The announcements…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #317 | Leadership and Culture: What's Really Breaking Builders with Dan from 1000 Feet Deep
Burnout. Staff churn. Chasing defects. A team that only works when you're standing over it. Dan from One Thousand Feet Deep says none of those are the real…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #316 | The Only Franchise in the QLD Top 100 That Grew: James Stroud on Kaizen, Quality & Listening to the Client
While the rest of the industry went backwards in FY26, Stroud Homes was the only franchise in our Top 100 report to grow — in both revenue and numbers. So we…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #315 | The FAFO Tax: Why Cheap Paint Jobs Cost You Twice
Brendan and Hayley Kelly have spent two decades building XP Finishes into one of the Gold Coast's most respected finishing trades — named Trade Business of the…
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The Daily Dose #314 | Fewer Homes, More Money: The QLD Top 100, a Land Report Sneak Peek & Why Customer Experience Wins Jobs
Fewer homes, more money...that's the Queensland building market in one line. In this Monday episode, Az runs through what's just dropped, what's coming, and…
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The Daily Dose #313 | Michael Hopkins: Why Australia Is Decades Behind on How We Build Homes
Australia tends to think it has home building figured out. Michael Hopkins isn't convinced. A bricklayer by trade, Michael learnt the trade in Wales, worked…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #312 | Building homes like cars: Pryda's Truss House, with Adam Dawson from Pryda
Every builder is up against the same question right now. How do you build more homes, faster, without dropping quality or blowing the margin? This episode…
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The Daily Dose #311 | Fewer Homes, More Money: Inside the Top 100 Queensland Builders Report
The Top 100 Queensland Builders report dropped on Friday. Most builders will scroll past the first 30 pages to see if they beat the bloke down the road. This…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #310 | Margins are won or lost before the job begins with Owen Chambers
Most builders think margin disappears on site. Owen Chambers says it disappears earlier than that. Owen joins Az from The Professional Builder, the coaching…
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THe Daily Dose #309 | Builders say quality. Customers say communication. With Increase Construction
Builders think their customers care most about build quality. Customers say it is communication. Az and the team from Increase Construction dig into where AI…
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The Daily Dose #308 | 1 July: Every Change That Hits Your Building Business
A new financial year lands on 1 July, and it brings more than the usual housekeeping. In this solo Monday episode, Az runs builders through every change…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #307 | The Youngest Builder in NSW, 30 Years On | Brad Acheson Stroud Homes Dubbo
Brad Acheson had his builder's licence before his 21st birthday. Possibly the youngest in New South Wales at the time. He spent the next two decades building…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #306 | The Builder and the Designer: Where It Works and Where It Breaks With Vicky Cutler
Most builds get into trouble long before anyone picks up a hammer. They get into trouble in the design. In this episode of The Good Builder, Az sits down with…
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The Daily Dose #305 | What Do You Do That Only You Can Do? With Dan from A Thousand Feet Deep
Most leaders stay flat out doing work that someone else on the team could do, while the work only they can do never gets touched. That gap sits at the centre…
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The Daily Dose #304 | Your People Are the Business | Julie Bolitho on Hiring, HR and Workforce Planning
Ask most builders who runs their HR, and the answer is "me." That's the problem. In this episode, Az sits down with Julie Bolitho, a recruitment and HR…
The Good Builder PodcastThe Daily Dose #303 | Honesty Builds the Business | Matt from Vanstyn Constructions
Matt was never the classroom type. He left school without much love for books or essays, and for years he moved through job after job trying to find his place…
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The Daily Dose #302 | Why Builders Get Stuck Wearing Every Hat With Josh Pierpoint
This week Az is back on the Monday couch with Josh Peapoint from Elevate Estimating. Josh has just returned from two weeks in Bali with his family. No phone…