Success stories

from HVAC&R Nation Summer 2021-22

Lighter Side

AIR TIME

The Rawson brothers, Shane and Brad, recently racked up their 50th episode of the Air Conditioning Podcast. HVAC&R Nation editor Mark Vender spoke with Shane about the art of conversation, the industry, and hanging up the headphones.

Mark Vender: How does it feel to reach the big five-oh of podcasts? Shane Rawson: To be honest, we never expected to get to 10 episodes! Brad and I thought that we would be just entertaining ourselves, sitting in our makeshift studio talking into a microphone, and wondering why anyone would want to listen to two blokes having a couple of beers and talking HVAC! We were absolutely staggered when we saw the downloads starting to come through, and the support that we received in response was so encouraging and supportive, it truly blew us away.

MV: It’s pretty amazing that you have done this on top of your usual business, personal commitments, and through COVID-19. How did you do it!? SR: It has been difficult at times, I’m not going to lie. Anyone who has dipped their toe into podcasting, maintained a website, social media and so on, will vouch for the fact that there is a fair bit of work, time and expense that goes into putting it together.

The biggest challenge of course, is during the peak seasons when there’s never enough arms and legs – as our listeners will attest to. It’s 40°C-plus in the shade, you’re absolutely cooked, and you finally get to head home, your mouth drooling over your steering wheel at the thought of an icy cold beer in hand. Feet up when you hit the couch, and the last thing you feel like doing sometimes is editing an episode.

Not only is there editing, but show notes, updating the website, sending out invites, putting relatable questions together, social media promotion. etc. And of course, there are also costs associated with putting it together in terms of media hosts, website hosting, domains, blah, blah, blah ...

Having said all of that, the satisfaction of finally getting it uploaded and live, and receiving positive feedback is euphoric.

MV: What were you hoping to get out of this project when you first started it, and did you achieve your goals? SR: The reason we decided to jump into podcasting, wasn’t because we like the sound of our own voice by any stretch. In fact, like most, we cringe at the sound of hearing your voice played back! It was simply

Through their podcast, Brad (left) and Shane Rawson have helped build Australia’s HVAC&R community.

The support that we received in response was so encouraging and supportive, it truly blew us away

because when I first started listening to podcasts, about seven years ago, I was curious to see if there was much relating to the HVAC industry. And at that time, there wasn’t much around, particularly in Australia.

We decided it would be a great idea to start a conversation and invite guests onto the show that we could potentially learn from and share the information with our listeners – if there were to be any! We confessed right from the beginning that we were not the gurus of the industry, but wanted to speak to the experts so they could impart their experiences and knowledge onto us, and our audience.

We also made the conscious decision to not mention our own business, Morphett Air (shameless plug), because we knew that would be the nail in the coffin. We would have come across as being cheesy and salesy, and that’s not the reason we got into it in the first place. We have always tried to be as impartial as possible, and I believe we earned the respect of our listeners because of it.

MV: What are some of the important things you learned along the way? SR: We honestly learned from every single guest on the show – from those who are smashing it globally with their corporation-style businesses, to the single fridgie getting about in their van, making a living and giving it a crack at running their own business.

The biggest take-away for us though, has been to not underestimate or undersell what we do in this industry. You will always find someone who will do it cheaper, and to avoid the “race to the bottom”, we should be selling our acquired skills, our knowledge and the years of experience without having to discount what we do. I believe that discounting our pricing to simply win jobs only really devalues our own self-worth.

I remember hearing a story of an old barber who has been working in the same shop on the same street for decades selling men’s haircuts for $30. Out of the blue, another young fella decides to open up a barber shop right next door, with a huge sign that smugly reads, “Men’s haircuts, $15”. The original barber was at first dismayed by what he had seen, but thought deeply about how he would respond. The old barber finally decided to change his own sign out the front of his shop to read, “We fix $15 haircuts!” Love it.

We’ve also learned that a solid and growing business is built on the foundation of having processes and procedures in place for every single role in the business. We have spoken to many highly successful people from Australia and the US about where they started and how they grew their businesses successfully, and the underlying theme was the processes and procedures that they implemented dramatically changed their businesses.

We have taken this advice with our own business, and, working with business mentors, are slowly implementing processes and procedures ourselves. It’s not as easy as you would first think, but the results I’m sure, will be everlasting.

MV: Any favourite episodes, moments or guests? SR: There have certainly been some memorable moments and guests for us. In fact, all guests have been memorable for one reason or another, and we hope that this has been the case for our listeners too. So, it’s difficult to single out, to be honest.

What I will say though, is that throughout the episodes, when Brad and I have our little mindnumbing chats at the beginning of each episode, we often briefly discussed the rising numbers relating to COVID. And now looking back at those episodes, it is incomprehensible to see where we were back in Episode 12 (May 2020). The numbers at that stage were 4.9 million cases worldwide, and a mere 7,081 cases in the whole of Australia, which at the time was extremely alarming. Fast-forward to today, and tragically, we’ve had as many deaths globally, as we had worldwide cases back then. The vaccination merely seemed like a figment of someone’s imagination and a lifetime away. We certainly didn’t expect to see it approved and rolled out as soon as it was.

Some of our memorable guests on the show have included Tommy Mello (author of Homeservice Millionaire), Al Levi (The 7-Power Contractor), Ellen Rohr (a business makeover expert), Gil Cavey (HVAC Uncensored podcast), and Michael Steckler (CEO of Tradify). And we were truly fortunate to have been invited onto his podcast Behind the Tools, as well as a stack of others.

The only feedback and comments that we received were encouraging and supportive

One of the stand-out connections that we made, though, was with Andy and Angela Smith from Lifestyle Tradie. We enjoyed their infectious enthusiasm, thirst for success and their values so much that we joined as members, for our own business. Andy and Angela – and their unbelievable team – are absolutely dedicated in helping trade businesses to systemise their businesses to run more smoothly, more profitably, and with the end goal of freeing up more of our valuable time to spend with family and mates. At the end of each episode, we would finish off with some light-hearted fun “get to know your personality”-type questions in a segment we called “Keepin’ it Cool in the Hot Seat”. This is where we would fire short, quirky questions at our guests to get their shortest possible answer, with a set time on the clock. It was always a segment to look forward to because our guests could relax, and their answers often had us in absolute stitches! It really brought out a side to them that we otherwise wouldn’t have seen during the interview. MV: How would you describe the Australian HVAC&R community? SR: My first response would be “supportive”. Well, that’s what we experienced, anyway. Out of the nearly 50 episodes now, I can honestly say that we have not received any negativity, negative comments or negative feedback from the very beginning. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere, but we never saw it. The only feedback and comments that we received were encouraging and supportive, and we couldn’t be more grateful to our loyal listeners. They are a bunch of absolute bloody legends.

MV: If you were Prime Minister for a day, what would be your first command? SR: Sharpen up the licensing for our industry, keep the voice of reason burning for its people, reassess the protection of the trade, and let’s look at a fairer system and options when it comes to fridgies acquiring electrical licences. And finally, make every weekend a long weekend … and I’m spent.

(Mic drop). ■