Welcome to Home Building Like a Boss, the podcast dedicated to helping first home buyers in Perth  build their dream home with ease and excitement.  I'm Jamie, your host and go to building broker.  Are you ready to feel empowered, in control and excited about your building journey? I'll help guide you with expert advice, insider tips and tricks and real life stories to help you navigate the confusing world of home building.

Tune in as I take you on the journey to building your home like a boss. 

Today, I am joined here with Maddy. And we're going to do a little intro episode to get to know Maddy, which is a little bit very overdue, actually, not just a little bit overdue. Because Maddy started over 12 months ago with us.  We've done a couple of episodes together, but nothing about getting to know Maddy.

So that's what we're going to do today, since we're doing it with Jake and Mim. Why not? So thank you for joining me today, Maddy. Thank you for having me. Tell us a little bit about you and your background and how you came to join the team. Oh,  goodness.  Okay. A little bit about me. I love watching paranormal videos.

Anything about ghosts, I'm right there with you. So just a little hot Tidbit about me obsessed with coffee. Yep. Um, and fam,  just get a little bit of coffee. I used to come from a residential builder background. So I've been in pre start before for a couple of years. Before that I would be in interior design.

I'd be in lighting. I'd be in luxury furniture. You name it. I have. I've been there. So I'm sort of an all round person. So perfect. You didn't make your journey very smooth, but yeah, so just lots of, I'm really interior design orientated. So that's what you'll get a lot from me during this whole process.

Amazing. And how did you come to join the team? Okay. Long story short, had a quarter life crisis.  . I had, as we all do, as we eventually, eventually, I had, um, some health issues and a lot of revelations one year. And I had just randomly quit my job. And then your ad came up, I think it was maybe two  months after I had quit.

Yeah. And I thought, I'm gonna give this a try, just a little shot and just see what happens. And then I think it was like. Two days later, we had our coffee chat and then I was on board and that was, the rest was history. So, and now we're 18 months later, I know, and I'm part of the furniture.  Not going anywhere. 

Absolutely not going anywhere. Lockdown loaded. Sorry guys.  What is your role within the team and what do you enjoy most about it? Well, my main role is You've got a lot of hats. I've got  Maddie in the middle is what I like to call myself. I'm I basically do a lot of everything in the business, so I'm here to mainly help clients from point A to point B, so Once you hit that pre con side of stuff, I'm there and I'll be right there all the way until handover.

I also do your pre start prep meetings. I'm the really fun person who goes to helping you pick your colors and talking about your home and what are you excited for also getting down to the nitty of, okay, what's your budget? I'm here to give you some reality checks, humble you a little bit, but also be your bestie.

So I've got many, many hats, but that's a lot of what I do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we can chat about more about our pre start prep consults in another episode, and we can kind of dive into a little bit in depth on what they entail and what clients get out of that. Yeah. What do you enjoy most about your role?

Oh, the pre start prep meetings for sure.  I mean, I enjoy everything, but that gives me a lot of joy. Yeah. Yeah. That makes her part. It makes my heart happy, especially when the clients walk out of here and they'll send me a message afterwards and they go, Oh, I feel so good now. And I'm like, yeah, goodness.

I've helped. Like, yeah. I've helped a little bit on your journey. So yeah. So good. The best part. A lot.  What is something that you're proud of from your time here? How many people I've helped in a different way to then what I would have been able to have done with a builder. It's more in depth. I get to be really upfront and honest, which I like.

I like the transparency that I can do with my job, which will then help a lot of people have a really good fulfilling experience with their builder and just aiding them on this huge journey. It's. It's big, sentimental, lots of value attached to it. So to be able to provide them a good experience in that part has been the best thing and seeing it physically, like seeing it on their faces and written on their messages and all that, that's been the best part.

So good and very different. Working directly for a builder. I guess a little bit how Jake spoke about in the previous episode, he's experienced something very similar working from a big volume builder and coming and working at a small and like broker independently, that's very client focused. There's a huge difference.

Oh, apples and oranges. You cannot compare. What motivated you to pursue a career in the building industry? I had just transitioned back to Perth from Melbourne, so I was working as an interior designer for a high end residential sort of, I would say interior design firm there,  and very different kettle of fish.

So  it is super hard to find interior design jobs. In Perth, unless you know people. So being from Melbourne, I wanted a little bit of a break from that sector of my life. And it sort of happened by chance, me getting in with this builder.  I came on as a trainee and that didn't expect much from me. And the next, you know, I've been, I was there for nearly four years.

Um, integral part, but I would say  the building industry here is very different to anywhere else. Yeah. In Australia. So it's been a challenge in itself. And I started when COVID hit. So  it was. Stunned when they're crazy. Oh, frying pan into the fire. So yeah, baptized by fire. That was how I entered the industry.

Yeah. Good way to learn. Very. When you're not working, what are some hobbies or things that you love doing? I think everyone knows this about me, but reading and overconsumption of coffee is definitely my main, my main ones. We are like, my partner and I are foodies. We do love to go to all these cafes and restaurants when we can.

Oh, and walking my dog. Unfortunately, I have to get some of his energy out. Oh, he's guys. He's nuts.  He's absolutely wild. I love him, but  he definitely keeps you on your toes. He's. He's been put on this earth to challenge me in every single way.  But yeah, that's just a small gist of what I do, but it's very relaxing.

I like to switch off or try to emphasis on the try to try. Yeah.  What do you love most about working independently with a team of? Building brokers, or like as a building broker independently, I would say the relationships we have are just so much deeper, not only just with our clients, but with each other.

Like we're more than just colleagues. We're friends. We're confidence. We're here to be so supportive of everyone's journey, no matter where they are in the business. So if there's a new person on board, we're right there with them. Or if you've been here for. Two years, however long, like we harbor deeper connections with each other.

And I think that's really important in not only just building, but business. Yeah. So I would say it's the best part. Good team vibes. Good team vibes. Which then helps us help clients more. Oh, of course. And we always all do it together. You know, we might have a client, but then we're sticky issue, but the four of us work it out.

Go and implement it. Yep. It takes a village to build a house. A hundred percent. We're the village. We are the village. We are the village.  Can you share a recent experience where you helped a client overcome a challenge? What was the outcome and how did it positively impact the client's building journey?

Oh, I feel like I help a lot of people. So I've got lots of things in my head. I'd say one that would stick out for me would. The, I recently had a phone call from our lovely client, Kelsey. She was in a bit of a tears. Um, she got herself worked up over her selections meeting, coming up with me. And it was completely fine.

It was just, she needed that support from me to say, Hey girl, like you're going to be okay.  And we had a fantastic meeting. Um, we were there for a couple hours just getting every single idea out of her head, putting it on paper, discussing it, and she just left the meeting feeling so yeah. Accomplished with herself and she felt great after that.

So that was a huge win for me, seeing her physically relaxed in front of me. Yeah. At the end of the meeting, because it's. You can tell when people are a little bit stressed, they hold it in their bodies and I'm here going, okay, let's try and work this out. And then to see her be so relaxed after that.

Perfect. So good. And that's like how much of an impact the pre start prep consults make. Like if you had to go do all of that with your builder directly on the day. It turns into a disaster, like clients need that space to come in and ask questions, debrief. What the fuck do I do? What colors? And like, get all of that out in their head without getting overwhelmed and overworked.

And then going to pre start to actually execute it, but having a plan in place. Definitely. And I guess like, our meetings are not They're not formal, they're very informal. So I'm not really just here to sort of pick your brain. I'm your friend. I'm your best friend. I'm here to be your teacher, your storyteller.

I'm here to help educate you and not necessarily making these huge decisions, but helping you lead sort of giving you the best foundations possible to make the best decisions during pre start. So a lot of what I do, I'm here to sort of. Do it in your best interest, not just getting you to be like, okay, pick that color and move on to the next thing.

Yeah. And like I was the same during my process, I would stay up to two o'clock in the morning with all these ideas in my head and go, I need to get these out, but I've got no one to talk to. And I didn't have a person like me to just pick up the phone and be like, can you, can I ring you for five minutes just to get this off my chest?

So it's good to get the, to have someone there to actually expel all this sort of stress in your head out. So I'm glad I was that person for that. So that was a good win. Oh, it made me feel so good. Good. All right. And to wrap up our episode, if you had to describe our team slash company in three words, what would it be? 

I got Jake with this one too. You're gonna get me.  Innovative. Ooh. I like it. Versatile. Yeah. Like it. Approachable. Yeah. I like that one. So  innovative, versatile and approachable. Yeah. I like that. Yeah.  Very good. Well, thank you so much for joining me on this episode. You'll also hear from Maddie more as we do some more team and collab episodes.

So if there's any topics you would like to know about design or pre start, let me know. Flick them through and we'll hear from Maddie again. Yay. Thank you.  Thank you so much for tuning in to the home building like a boss podcast.  I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something new.  Remember you've got this and I've got your back until next time.

Stay inspired, stay informed and stay confident on your building journey. I can't wait to chat with you on the next episode.  Don't forget to check out the show notes for more information and free. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode of the Home Building Like a Boss podcast.