Richard and Bernard Podcast Transcript
RICH:
Hey guys, it's Rich here. I've got a, actually a good friend of mine, Bernie Fionn as my special guest. So welcome to the Rich Mix, Bernie.
Thanks for coming on board, my friend.
BERNIE:
G'day Rich, it's great to be here.
RICH:
Awesome, you're a legend.
So I've known Bernie for many years. He's a local and a really good friend. I think we've known each other, we've been in the mountains now for nearly eight years now, coming up.
Can you believe it?
BERNIE:
Yeah, I think you and I went and looked at the same house and you had the money and I didn't. That's it. At least we're, we still kept in contact.
RICH:
So that's awesome. So look, tell me a little about yourself, Bernie. Tell me about your background.
When you finished school, what'd you get into? Tell me, let's go, let's go right down to the early days. And I, when I finished school, I mean, tell me about your background. Normally I'd start even earlier, but let's go there.
BERNIE:
At school, I wanted to be a car designer, but I also wanted to be independent and earn some money. So I got a job as a trainee production engineer in Penrith at Crane Enfield Metals. So it was a local job and that was great.
And being a trainee production engineer at that stage with that company meant that I got paid to go to uni, but it was six months work, six months study. And I started out working on the production line for six months, then headed off to uni at UTS in Sydney and continued on then working with the fitters and machinists and the drawing office. So I got to see a little bit of the business before I took my next step.
RICH:
Yeah, awesome. And that was, and you were living in the mountains at the time?
BERNIE:
Julie and I got married when we were 20, bought the land when we were 20 here in the mountains, only a couple of kilometres, actually closer to your place than mine. And Huxley Homes built us a little project home.
We borrowed money from St George Bank or whoever the predecessor was way back then in 1984. So, yeah, we had a great start, but it was partly based on that decision to get a traineeship rather than go to uni full time. Because I didn't want to be a poor student for four full years.
So there we were at three years in, we managed to borrow some money and buy a house and have what we thought was a big debt at that stage, which sort of proves to all the young ones out there that it must have been easier back in the day. Yeah, yeah, 100 percent, because we have so many different things that literally fill our cup now, isn't it, really, compared to what was available back then, you know. Well, we got time to sleep, you know, after 9 p.m. There was certainly no computers and mobile devices keeping us awake.
RICH:
That's it. I was on my BMX, you know, with ramps out the front, doing jumps off the kerb, you know, playing handball in the driveway, you know.
BERNIE:
You were probably doing that while I was setting up my first house because you were quite a lot younger than I am.
RICH:
Yeah, yeah, a few. Not that much younger. But I think we are in different decades again.
BERNIE:
That's it. Yeah, different figures. That means that you're 10 years younger than me, roughly.
RICH:
Yeah, yeah, roughly, yeah. But yeah, and then when you finished your traineeship, what did you get into after that?
BERNIE:
I didn't even finish it. I had a goal.
I wanted to design cars. I knew that I wanted to do industrial design and I wanted to be a product designer. So I'd cut out an ad when I was 19 or 20 for a job at Sunbeam Appliances.
And I thought that's the sort of job that I might get when I'm finished. Well, in the end, a few months later, I had that job.
Yeah. But the process was the automotive industry in Sydney was pretty, pretty light on by that stage. I think all of the car manufacturers in Sydney had shut up.
RICH:
What year was that, Bernie?
BERNIE:
Well, yeah, about 84. Before that, Ford at home, Bush had shut down and Leyland had long gone some years before. And Holden probably had a plant in Sydney as well, but they were all in Melbourne.
But Victor Lawnmowers were still being made and they were almost a car that had wheels and a motor and steel bits and cast bits and injection bits. So I approached Victor Lawnmowers and I ended up, I didn't realise at the time, but Victor and Sunbeam were all part of one company. So I ended up going in, enquiring about possible work with Victor and ended up being employed as a product designer with Sunbeam and then 12 years with Sunbeam Victor from age 20 to age 32.
Initially as a product designer before I'd finished my first degree, which was engineering. And as soon as I finished my first degree, I went and enrolled in a Master of Science in Industrial Design at New South Wales Uni.
And by the age of about 25, I guess, I'd finished both degrees and was in management at Sunbeam Victor. It was a really interesting place with about a thousand employees and every manufacturing process that you could imagine they were doing on site. So it was a fantastic place to learn.
And it also was tumultuous given that manufacturing was on the decline. There were five full changes of ownership and 12 directors in 12 years.
RICH:
And at the age of 25, how many kids you had at the time then?
BERNIE:
One or two at 25.
So I first came on at 23 or 24. And by age 32, Julie and I had five kids. So that's when I left Sunbeam.
There was another round of restructuring. I had the option to either stay as a project manager, which would have been largely working on importing products from China or take a redundancy. And I figured that 12 years in one place was long enough.
RICH:
Hang on, that's about how long we spend at school.
BERNIE:
So it was time for a change. I left, started a business called Tactical Solutions, and I was really trying to focus on strategic planning.
But I did not have the context or the confidence or the well, maybe the skill to pull that off. And the skills that I did have were more in demand in-house rather than outside. So within about 12 months of leaving Sunbeam, I was design and development manager at Siebel Furniture, which was another iconic manufacturing business.
And I knew quite a few people in the design community and a lot of the good ones had been through Siebel Furniture and had been design managers there. So here I was, I was design manager at Siebel Furniture, which was fantastic. I had a pencil in my hand solving design problems again with the team.
And always there was a team, you know, because I was a manager at age 24. And I guess that happened because I had some skills in communicating and leading. And even as I say that, I go, well, you know, they weren't that good, my skills, but at least I must've had some to get through.
Once you're in those jobs, you've just got to keep developing those skills again and again. So Siebel Furniture was two years there. We were designing a whole range of furniture that was going into various facilities for the 2000 Olympics, amongst other things.
But with, you know, one wife and five kids at home and school fees and that sort of thing, and a mortgage and interest rates going up and down that had been up to 15%. It put the pressure on to generate enough income to feed the family. So that prompted me to change industries completely.
So that was a complete pivot. Then at that time, you decided to go, you're pretty much capped at what you could physically do. Well, the next, all of the people I reported to at that stage were from interstate, you know.
So my next promotion out of that role would have been into a role that might have been in Brisbane or Melbourne. And I wasn't about to take that step. So I changed careers completely and went and joined AMP as a financial planner.
At the time, you know, I was trying to work out, and I deal with lots of suppliers at different businesses. And I already had two degrees, and I knew that you didn't have to have a degree to earn good money. And I was trying to work.
I was never chasing fantastic wealth. I just wanted to be strong financially. And to do that, I needed to earn a bit more income.
So I jumped into financial planning, because at the time, AMP had quite a well-structured training program. I was in an intake of about 10 people into a team of about 100 that were all employees of AMP. They were bringing them in from a range of different industries.
And we went through the diploma of financial planning. I did at least four subjects of that before we started, before we went and saw clients over 10 weeks. And then over the next few years, I continued to study part-time, finished that diploma of financial planning, and did a certified financial planners course through Deakin University to really get the skills to do that job.
Two years into that, I borrowed more than our mortgage to buy a register of clients and become self-employed. So that's through another broker and the agent that was finishing up or selling their book? Yeah, that's right. So there were financial planners coming and going from time to time.
AMP were brokering sales generally, and AMP Bank were financing them as well. So that combined with, I don't know, American Express credit card or something for the deposit, all of that commencement of that business was on borrowed money. And I can remember, I think I had to pay GST to buy it, but then I could get the GST back, which was going to help me pay off that credit card.
And the tight cash flow commenced at that point. But I was lucky it was in an industry where yeah, there was a structure around it. And it was not, it wasn't necessarily easy, but there was a formula you could follow.
RICH:
Yeah. Do you feel like it was a big gamble or a risk back then? Like, would you do that now again, if you think about it?
BERNIE:
Yeah, I would again. And at the time, it didn't feel brave, it felt essential.
Okay. Yeah. It was like, something's got to change.
I've got to do something. What else am I going to do? And so yeah, so jumped in on that. And my father had run an accounting firm, one of my brothers was a partner with him.
That business had stopped sometime previously, but meant that it was sort of in the family, that business had done financial planning. And I knew as a customer, how important financial planning was.
Here's some tips for you and anyone who's listening. The first tip is spend less than you earn. And that's a tough one for some people, especially if you're not earning enough.
And you've got to either spend less or earn more. But spend less than you earn. And then the other side of it was all the insurances that we did at that stage.
And as much as they're expensive, it's that balance, what can I afford and what... So I was a good customer, so it made it easy for me to sell the insurances. And it's planning ahead for the future. I am a planner, I am a designer, I am a thinker about the future.
So all of those things fitted in quite well with that financial planning profession. And it is complicated and I could work it out and many couldn't. And it's a business where people want advice and they want to find someone that they can trust.
RICH:
And that's really hard in the business world, especially if you're handing over your money to other people. How do you know whether you can trust them or not?
BERNIE:
And if they say, trust me, then you're probably even less likely to. And A&P was a really, a very trusted brand back then.
Because I used to work for A&P as a high-rise building engineer at Sydney Cove there and get a level five, I think it was, and you get like the awesome meal for free, free lunch. And it was pretty cool. They really looked after their employees and their agents, I think, as well.
Yeah. It's really fascinating to see how it's evolved over the times and in recent years, they've sold their insurance business. So A&P is not an insurer, which is how it all started.
But if you look at the analogy of, say, NRMA and all of these old mutual societies, there was something nice about them. But along the way, a lot of people got wealthy out of them in one way or another. Maybe not so much the NRMA, I don't know.
Certainly my experience at A&P, because it's selling products as part of providing advice, for me, it was really important to separate those two things and provide advice that was completely focused on my clients. But there was still opportunity for some people in the past to just sell the product, sell the product, without thinking about the real needs of the client. So a lot of that, they've tried to change that through legislation.
And whilst that has probably helped, it's also introduced a whole lot of regulations and compliance work that doesn't add any extra value. But hopefully it does keep the overall process more transparent and keep a few people more honest.
RICH:
How long you were there now in that period of time as an agent? And what was your next step?
BERNIE:
Well, I think I was a financial planner for about 17 years in total.
They had a good run. Yeah. But along the way, when I borrowed the money to buy the register of clients, the deal still wasn't that good.
You were better off as an employee, rather than running your own business, unless you're building an asset. And that's why I took the plunge. So then, once I borrowed that money and had a base of clients to build on, and I would service those clients and try and provide them with broader advice rather than the one or two products that they may have had, over 11 years, we built a business.
So at its peak, I had a full-time operations manager. I had a full-time financial planner working for me as well. So there were two planners, one operations manager, and then a team of part-timers who were providing that ongoing customer service.
And when I appointed that operations manager, I wanted to make sure that I retained them. And if you're in a small business, and if I'm the boss and I'm not listening, for example, what is that employee going to do? So I, at that stage, appointed a board of advice. So I had a number of advisors.
One of them was my brother, who's a chartered accountant. So I asked him to chair my board of advice. Another one was my bookkeeper, who is an accountant.
Another one was my business coach, who I used to meet with once a month. Well, now every three months, I've got them all together. And myself and my operations manager would go and meet with the board of advice.
So they're a direct line to the board, and the board could advise me. And the bookkeeper, by the way, came into the business, sat at one of the desks, did the pays every week. So he was very approachable and relatable to all of the staff.
So it really introduced this flat structure with a higher authority than me, so we could get it all together. We would definitely do offsites to create a strategy, review that strategy every six months, and in a smaller way every quarter. And that's reviewing it with the staff.
So I certainly enjoyed that. And one of the best things for me was a lot of stress comes from workplaces where your values don't align with the organization's values. Well, in my case, because I was the boss, my values were the organization's values.
So I'd never had that stress. There was certain stress of, okay, many fortnights, I'd put my pay back into the business to pay everyone else, just for a week or two, cash flow issues. And then we were running at this sort of stable level for quite a few years with an interest only loan on the register of clients.
And IMP had given us notice basically that when that turns up, we won't do interest only, it will be principal and interest. So I had to find about five grand a month that I didn't have. And the only way to get that was to downsize the number of team, which I didn't really want to do.
And it was around that time or not long after that we ended up selling to a larger practice anyway. Yeah, which already had the infrastructure. Yeah, that's right.
I mean, I mentioned I'd set up a board of advice. There'd been another change along the way there. I had a HR consultant on the board.
And then in addition to sitting on this board meeting each quarter, she would do one-on-one coaching with the operations manager. So it introduced some diversity, male, female, different perspectives. And again, coaching support for my operations manager.
So my board had advised me to sell the business. And my initial response was, I don't like that advice. I want to keep.
Why don't I put this board together again? Exactly. And I've appointed them. I could say, no, bugger off, sack the board.
But I listened. And I got a little bit of extra advice from outside. And the advice was sound.
And it certainly turned out to be that way. So I sold the business. And because it was part of that structure, it was still running quite well at that stage.
I was able to choose between three different offers that all were happy to pay full price and employ me. So it was a remarkable outcome of, if you think about many other people in business, borrow money, start a business, build a business, sell it. To have three offers all at the same price at the end is a good outcome.
So I was very, very pleased. And I've been very lucky with many things. And in that case, there's been a combination of strategic... You've created that luck.
I was about that combination of strategic decisions. But there have been strategic decisions with advice. But then ultimately my decision.
And yeah, I acknowledge that there's been a lot along the way as well. So we sold at the time. And I say we, Julie and I were both directors of that business.
Julie did not work in the business. . And, but we sold that business. And then at that stage, it did leave us debt free, which was fantastic.
Yeah. But not enough money to retire in our early 50s. So since then, I've been trying to work out what the hell I should do to earn money.
RICH:
So, okay, let's talk about something major that happened in your life. Obviously, a couple of things with Vinny CEO Sleepout. How did that come about? Obviously, it's massive.
BERNIE:
It's a household name now. It is. And, you know, I mentioned luck and strategic decisions.
But A&P Foundation were the catalyst for that event happening. So as a financial planner, A&P were making strategic decisions about their foundation and charitable works. And they decided to give money to charities through the financial planners where the financial planners were actively involved in good charitable work.
So I tried to get some of A&P's money to Vinny's, because, you know, I knew Vinny's, I knew it was a great organisation. I thought maybe strategically that, you know, those people at Vinny's with grey hair might be good financial planning clients. Yeah.
Turns out most of them got no money anyways. So yeah, anyway, it was for one reason or another, it was a cause that was important to me. And, you know, I grew up in Penrith and, you know, it was in a great family where we had money to do things and get a bigger house and all those sort of things.
But where we grew up initially, you know, across the road and over the back fence was all housing commission. And a lot of those people were doing all right. And occasionally you'd see people who were doing it tough and Vinny's would be there to help them out.
So, you know, like I say, I've been blessed with this great family. And what that gives you often is a peace and a sense of peace of mind that, you know, if you really do fall on your backside, there will be people there to help you. And along the way, you've probably got help without even realising it.
So Vinny's was great charity. A&P was handing out money. I said, all right, get some of A&P's money to Vinny's.
That initially started by getting involved in fundraising dinners.
RICH:
Yeah. What year was that then, Bernie?
BERNIE:
It would have been about 2003 or something like that.
RICH:
Yeah. Where we got started with the fundraising dinners. Yeah.
BERNIE:
We had some great dinners, you know, and we'd raise maybe $30,000 with 10 of that coming from A&P. So we'd have to work out what the ticket price was and we'd get auction items and we'd do silent auctions and live auctions. And we'd have entertainment like, you know, Peter Garrett or Arne Doe or Monica Trafiga as a singer or Deborah Conway.
So, you know, we had James Valentine as an emcee. We had Karl Stepanovich one year as an emcee.
RICH:
So in that first year, how much did you raise? In those dinners?
BERNIE:
I reckon for all of those dinners, we'd raise $20,000 to $30,000 year after year with a couple of people at the dinner.
RICH:
Yeah. So since then to now, how much have they raised?
BERNIE:
Those dinners, well, we stopped doing them at one stage. Now we're the sleep out altogether.
Yeah. The reason we stopped doing them, I guess, is because they were hard work. So in 2006, I was at one of the organising committee meetings.
My kids were doing sleep outs at school because sleep outs are not new. I didn't invent them. And I was going to other events, you know, that Penrith Economic Development Corporation might have been running CEO dinners and that sort of thing.
And I just started those words in February 2006. Yeah. Wouldn't it be easier to have a CEO sleep out rather than a CEO dinner? I know.
Well, you end up eating too much and so much to organise. Yeah. So Lisa, who was in the room, Lisa Bright said, Bernie, stop it with your crazy ideas.
We've got a dinner to organise. So we sort of buckled down and focused on the next dinner, which turned out to be a pretty good one. But I went back to my office and spoke to Nicole Dent, who was my operations manager at the time.
And she said, well, it could be a good idea. Ask two people. And, you know, one was my cousin, Tony, who was at Macquarie Bank at the time.
And one was my business coach, Philip, who was coach to many CEOs. So I asked both of them over the next few weeks. And they both said that, yeah, this could be a good idea.
And they were two of about eight people who attended the first event in 2006 on June the 21st, winter solstice, the longest night of the year. We slept out in the stadium at Stadium Australia. And we raised about five grand from that.
Yeah. The intention there was that, you know, if you're going to pay 200 bucks for a hotel room, well, don't. Sleep here and pay 200 bucks to Vinnie's.
Yeah. So already we'd broken that sort of connection between spending money and getting value. Yeah.
Because at that stage, the ticket price for the dinners was under $100. And people, they wanted value for their 100. Yeah.
Here, we were saying pay 100 or pay 200 or pay whatever you'd normally spend at a hotel. Yeah. And we will make you uncomfortable.
Yeah. And we'll not entertain you. And we'll make you think how lucky you are every other night of the year.
And one of my good mates who was there, Brendan Mullins, he packed up his sleeping bag. And he since told me, he said, well, you know, that's just we've done that. That's the last time we'll do that.
Yeah. Well, he's been back to about six or eight of them since. Yeah.
And has been a great supporter of the event. So, yeah. So there was only a handful of people at that first one.
The second year we raised about $35,000.
RICH:
Yeah. It's a big jump from five grand.
BERNIE
Absolutely. And there was one donor who gave about $30,000 that year. So that person did not.
Yeah. Wow. Would we have kept going? I don't know.
But that person did. So we'd raised about five grand, about $35,000, about $40,000 in year three. Year three was really hard.
And then $620,000 in year four. That's a massive, massive jump. Massive.
That was all in Sydney. And then the year after the $620,000 in Sydney, it went national and it raised $2.9 million for those.
So since then it's continued to grow. The first year after its first national year, it was then copied around the world in places like New York and Canada.
More recently, it's been held in South Africa and it still gets held. There's a separate charity called CEO Sleepout UK, which continues to run CEO Sleepouts over there. Yeah.
RICH:
That's awesome. How good is that? You've got to be proud of that. Oh, yeah.
BERNIE:
Oh, yeah. And, you know, as I said before, on the other issue, there's a bit of luck and a lot of strategy, you know, and a lot of it listening to teams of people and teams of people doing a lot of work to make it happen. Yeah.
RICH:
And I just want to let everyone know that mate, Bernie knows everyone. If you want someone, Bernie's got their number.
BERNIE:
Yeah, look, it's not true, but I know someone who does.
RICH:
And out of that, you were fortunate enough to become an OAM as well. And what year was that? Look, I'm not sure what year it was. It was a few years ago now.
BERNIE:
And, you know, it's a fantastic honour. Yeah. You know, you don't take a lot of people don't take a lot of notice of those sort of recognitions.
And it looks like there's a lot of people who do receive them. I haven't done the statistics, but it's not about just waiting for waiting your turn and you'll get one. Apparently, I've not nominated anyone else and I've not followed through the process, but it is an arduous process.
And there's a lot of checking by committees to make sure that, you know, it's legit. So you can't just get your mate to put in a nomination and hope that it pays off. Yeah, hope for the best.
It's not like you've got business awards. And what I've been asked, I've been asked before about it. And, you know, obviously, it was never the motivation at all.
You know, you don't even think about those sort of things. But it's been a great honour to receive it. Yeah.
And I did receive it after my mum and dad had passed away. And I know they would have been very proud. Yeah, that's my dad had received an OAM.
For the work that he'd done with the community over the years.
RICH:
Yeah, fantastic.
BERNIE:
And but what it does do, it sort of then allows you to open a few more doors to pursue the cause even further. Yeah. So that's a good thing.
RICH:
Yeah, that's fantastic. All right. More importantly, most importantly, let's talk about cars.
Because putting everything aside, you're a hardcore car enthusiast like myself as well. Yeah. And you always go on your Facebook, you know, one minute you hear one minute, you're all over the place.
You hear they're everywhere, you know. So you're doing a lot of you do a lot of drives. What are the few drives that you do through the year?
BERNIE:
Well, there's not a lot of structured drives, but I do enjoy driving.
RICH:
There's no doubt about that. The four wheel drive one. What's the other one you do? Yeah, well, actually, yeah.
BERNIE:
OK, that one's every year. So yeah, the Beyond Bitumen Rally. Yeah.
My brother, Peter and Trish run the Beyond Bitumen Rally through this charity car events. Yeah. And they do that really in memory of their daughter who lost her life to suicide around 20 years ago now.
Yeah. So so rather than, you know, be a victim of those circumstances, they're doing something about it to help other people. And I'm absolutely certain they have saved lives through doing it.
Yeah. So through so far, mainly regional New South Wales and a bit of Victoria every year, at least once a year, the Beyond Bitumen Rally happens. And just this last year, we've had about 100 cars.
And and, you know, one of the highlights is a dinner that happens on a Sunday night where there's about 300 people and sharing the journey and sharing the conversations, you know, each and every one of those cars. There's someone who's been touched by depression or mental illness in one way or another. Yeah.
And that group of people engages with people out in the community. Yeah. In conversations.
RICH:
Yeah. So it's become a very big fundraiser for Beyond Blue. Yeah.
BERNIE:
And because it's my brother and his wife that that have started it, it's very much a family affair for us. Yeah. And all of my brothers and all of my sisters have taken part in one way or another at different times.
So, yeah, it's and, you know, cousins and things as well. So it's the group of people is a lot bigger than that. Yeah.
RICH:
That's fantastic. So I'm going to actually put the links to that as well as Vinny's and even your business. So tell us about your business now, Fionn.
Well, before I do, I want to ask a question about other car rights. Oh, yes. Tell me.
BERNIEl
So every couple of years, one of my schoolmates, Brendan Mullins, I mentioned his name earlier. Yeah. So he's got an old Valiant and a couple of other fellas have got Valiants and one of my other mates has got a 62 Ford.
So we get together and, again, do a bit of a country drive.
RICH:
Last year?
BERNIE:
No, two years ago. I don't know, time flies.
RICH
And you took the Ute. You took the Ute.
BERNIE:
I've taken the Ute.
So I bought a 1966 Falcon Ute. Basically the same as a car that I owned when I was 17 for a year or so.
And we were in Tasmania. So we did a lap of Tassie, drove across on the Spirit of Tasmania.
The other guys shipped their cars down there. Yeah. And in October this year, I'll be heading over to Adelaide with the same.
So that's good. It's again, it's a good break. It's a good way to catch up with old mates.
Some of these guys I started playing football with and went to school. I was in under sixes. No, no, I was in under sevens twice.
Yeah. I had to repeat under sevens, but that was because there was no under sixes.
RICH:
That's awesome how you can, you know, the friendship for such a long period of time. And in going out and doing these kind of things, so good for your mental health as well, isn't it?
BERNIE:
Especially. Yeah.
So you, back to your other question, but now you've raised mental health. Yeah. So along the way, all the good bits are on Facebook.
So if you want to, you know, if you want to see how much fun I'm having, all the good bits are there. Yeah. But from a mental health point of view, I'm very, very lucky that if I've ever had depression, there hasn't been a deep depression, you know, very, very lucky in that sense.
But definitely, I have suffered from anxiety a lot over decades, in different ways. And, you know, sometimes when you've got responsibilities, you suffer from that, and then you just push on anyway. And sometimes, you know, the doctor can help you with, you know, diagnosis or treatment, like, you have a few weeks off, which I've certainly done at times, I don't know, 10 years ago, I probably had six weeks off over 12 weeks.
Yeah. And it was probably just burnout. The self diagnosis was adrenal fatigue.
And the adrenaline was pumping, especially when I was financial planning. Almost every first meeting was like a job interview. Very stressful.
And some people handle job interviews, no problem. And some people find job interviews really stressful. Yeah.
And, yeah, so I was doing, you know, five or six job interviews every week, trying to build the business. So adrenal fatigue, burnout, manifests in different ways. And then ultimately, about four years ago, I hit the wall, I was CEO of Blue Mountains Economic Enterprise, and I gave eight weeks notice to say, I've got to stop.
So I needed a break. It coincided with COVID hitting. I in the background already had started Fionn strategy and design.
So I have a consultancy. And what do I do in that business? Well, I work with leaders to develop strategies for sustainable positive impact. And those words roll off the tongue easily for me now, because I've thought about it a lot about what is it? And it is in fact, what I've done in all of the jobs that I've had.
Yeah. I don't create a strategy for you. I develop strategies with leaders.
So I work with you to develop a strategy. And to have sustainable impact, you've got to have a sustainable business model. And, you know, the CEO sleepout is an example of something that is sustainable.
I don't want to do a flash in the pan, which has impact now and then disappears. And to do that, you need a team of people with good systems and procedures to make things sustainable and, and build upon, you know, earlier strengths. And that's my mindset.
And I've got a range of clients from time to time that come and go. And it's range from Western Sydney University to email solutions and consulting to well always a foundry to Ben Felton, who's the fastest blind man in the world. You've got to interview, if you haven't talked to Ben Felton.
And everyone should check out blindspeed.com.au. But yeah, I've worked with a whole range of different people. So I'm having this really rich journey. Rich is a word you love.
I know that. But I'm having this really rich journey. And today's interview is part of it.
Yeah. And, yeah, I'm still trying to work out what I want to do when I grow up. Yeah.
RICH:
Sorry, I'm the same.
But whatever it is, it's going to have something to do with cars.
BERNIE:
Yeah. And in fact, in the last month, I've started a new company. So I will be building an electric classic vehicle and watch the space and see what happens.
RICH:
In the garage? That means something has to get out of the garage there.
BERNIE:
No, this is why I've started a new business, because I'm building this car through a business. Yeah.
And I don't at the moment, I don't want to keep it. Yeah. I want to develop the skills and I want to be able to say, yes, I can design and build a vehicle.
Yeah. Initially, it'll be a replica Porsche, probably. 356. It's a good chance. That's the one.
Only because it's an amazing looking car. Yeah. And so we'll see what happens there.
But no, I've got enough cars. And, you know, you need a car for different occasions, don't you? Yeah, 100%. Yeah.
RICH:
What are you feeling with blue? You need a blue car, you know?
BERNIE:
That's right, which is exactly what Julie's got. You know, Julie needs a car. So she's got a Forester.
RICH:
Yeah. And I tell you, the Forester is a great car. Yeah.
BERNIE:
But the four other cars that I've got are all great in different ways. Yeah. But just so that it doesn't sound like I'm really wealthy.
Um, none of them are worth that much money.
RICH:
But they're awesome cars, really good cars. Including, you know, the 1990 Mazda MX-5.
BERNIE:
Yeah. And I know your wife, Rachel, loves them. Rachel loves MX-5s. Yeah.
But... So the 1990 MX-5, I bought that in 2001. Yeah. Started with A&P.
I've refinanced the house and tacked on a little bit of a loan to buy a car, because we only had one car, which was a Turaga. Yeah. So I bought the MX-5 in 2001, and I've still got about 395,000 K's on it.
So it's still going strong. And I'm sure it might be worth more now, but it would have been worth three grand, you know, a few years ago with the terrible paint that was on it. Yeah.
Through asking you a few questions, you put me in touch with a great painter. So I got very lucky with the price and the paint job. Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah. I mean, I can't sell the MX-5, can I?
RICH:
Yeah, no, no. You've got that forever.
You can't get rid of it. People used to pick on me that it was a hairdresser's car. Yeah.
RICH:
Yeah. And I'd say, get stuffed. She was an air hostess.
BERNIE:
Yeah. I did buy my MX-5 from an air hostess. Yeah.
I think she probably moved on to something a little bit more powerful. Yeah, something a bit cooler. Yeah.
RICH:
Well, can I tell you, I was very close to getting an MX-5 the other day. So someone wanted to swap my BMW 635 for an MX-5. Yeah.
A 99 model with only 60,000 on the clock. Yeah. Pure factory original.
Right. But he decided to keep it because it was pretty cool. Yeah.
So I like your model. I like the flip-up lights. They're pretty cool.
And the NA's are getting really rare. It's a good stock MX-5. It's pretty rare these days.
BERNIE:
They're all modified. Mine is completely stock except the non-genuine front right guard that I had to replace because the kids were learning how to drive on the car. Yeah.
And the radio. So I've got a hands-free head unit in it. Yeah.
RICH:
And it's a must these days anyway.
BERNIE:
Yeah, that's right. But I was on the track with it for the first time only in the last few months.
So I gave my mate a 60th birthday present, which was a voucher at Luddenham racetrack and a voucher which was in my car. So he said, well, I'm not going to do that without you. So I went too.
So we had a great day on the racetrack.
RICH:
Yeah, that's awesome. Well, I think you need to take off.
So I think we'll finish up, Bernie.
This is probably going to be a part one. We might have to do a part two. How do you stay married? What do you do with kids? Oh, my gosh.
BERNIE:
That's going to be a couple of episodes.
RICH:
That's going to be a series.
BERNIE:
Yeah. We should get under that. Yeah, no, that's awesome.
RICH :
Well, thanks so much, Bernie, for coming on. I really appreciate it. And I'm going to add all the links there, including the Fionn strategy and design, your business links, all the relevant links there for anyone can go and have a look at.
So if you need the services of Bernie, feel free to contact him. But yeah, thanks so much, Bernie. And I'll see you around the traps very soon.
BERNIE:
Absolutely. We'll see you soon. Thanks, Rich.
RICH:
You're a legend. Thanks so much, mate.
