Powerful And Unpolished

Good day everyone. Welcome to Powerful and Unpolished. I'm Tim. I'm your host and I am. Incredibly excited and delighted. Uh, I have a new friend that I'm gonna introduce you to today. His name is Callum Gracie, and Callum is a new friend that's from Australia. And so we're gonna explore, um, not only. A little bit about him and, and his world down in Australia, but I want to give you his bio.

And so first, before I say the bio, I wanna say hello Callum, thanks for joining us today. It's great to be here, Tim. Thank you for having me, mate. Awesome. I just want to go over Callum's background in business. So Callum, he founded the, uh, auto Media, a digital marketing agency helping Australian service businesses and e-commerce brands.

Turn their websites into 24/7 lead machines using SEO Storytelling and radical honesty. Callum's first cut. Well, he first cut his teeth on building teams when he launched Baker Boys Band into Queensland without, they had zero presence at the time, and so he was going head to head with the established competitors and carving out market shares through, uh, people first leadership.

And I love how you have this in your bio. It was people first, leadership and unmatched hustle. That's a key element. My friends unmatched hustle. There's a passion there. There's there's something to that. That's one thing that really stood out to me. Callum, um, now at Automed. He leads a growing team, a, a, a remote team, actually anchored in trust, transparency, system building and alignment.

Proving that strong culture isn't about type, isn't about hype. It's about how you show up when nobody's watching, and whether you're willing to put your people's needs above your own. That says a lot. Wow. It's nice to hear that sent back, like, oh, who's this guy? Yeah, who's this guy? God. Geez. Lemme know if you, if you, if you find him.

It sounds wonderful. I know. That's great. You, you on an intro, you show up Great. On oh, on paper. No. Um, at least that's the, that's the case. No pressure now. Well, but you have that, you have that passion, you have that, you know, you, you have that follow through and to, to have these ideals. Um. They're not just sound bites.

That's one reason why I was really looking forward to having you on the show today. So let's kind of dig in. We're gonna banter back and forth as our leader, our listeners usually know. We, um, we learn about Callum's business, but we also learn about his life and how they influence each other and how they, um.

Build upon one another, and Callum has a big focus on culture. So I guess my first question to you, Callum, is what is it that drew that, that ended up driving you to culture that, that, that really stood out for you, that that was an important necessity and uh, an important ingredient in what you're doing?

That's a really good question, Tim. So look for, for me, culture is, it starts with you. Um. Just being the best version of yourself. Uh, I've worked for many different companies, um, and, and what I've come to learn is, is just through my experiences, comes down to the people and how they're treated. And when you feel genuinely, uh, cared for within a, within a work environment, you are so determined to.

I guess show, not show your vulnerable side, but know that they've got your back and you're going to produce your best work. Uh, so I've always lived by that. Um, take care of your people, inspire them. It starts with you and, um, be it, yeah, I think that's sort of the start of leadership and general genuinely care for people.

That's awesome. Yeah. The leadership aspect, we're, we're, we're gonna go there, here in a little bit. Um, I want to ask you. How did you launch, um, when you were in Clean Queensland? How did you launch with no traction? How was your, how did you build that culture? How did you, how did you lead from that, that position?

Yeah. Okay. So going, actually going back a step before I, I, I launched the Baker Boys band, which is just to give you an understanding of what that actually is, it's not just a band, it's actually a marketing agency based from New York. Uh, and what they do is they have a collective. A collection of, of musicians, artists, photographers, videographers in every state.

So in Australia, in each state, there's probably over, over 300 artists on the, on the books. And, uh, so they can do multiple events in one night. So I studied music, uh, and education at university. And from there, I. Was able to join this amazing band that at the time was paying so well and I thought, oh, this is so cool that you can just work with so many great musicians.

So I got on board, I had to jump on board with that, and I got on board as a trumpet player and sax player. And I was performing at, um, lots of different weddings and events. And then I was given, um, the opportunity to. Actually start managing the Baker Boys band here in Canberra. Now, whilst I was doing that, Tim, I was a, uh, secondary school teacher teaching music.

So I was Mr. Gracie, uh, for some time, um, no longer. I love that, Mr. Gracie. That's awesome. Yeah. G time, not free time. That's, no, that's, that was a, I can't, I can't take that, uh, that statement, but, um, yeah, so anyway, I, from there, um, I was able to build the, the Canberra team. Got that happening. Got that up and running.

We became the best. Um, in terms of KPIs. Yeah, that's the one thing big companies do like to track in terms of actual booking numbers and, and conversions. We became the best performing state in the country, um, from inquiry, uh, through to, to actual bookings and, uh. Yeah, we were able to, to find ourselves in a fantastic position, uh, in Australia, uh, in, in Canberra.

And I was actually then given the opportunity to, uh, launch, uh, the Baker Boys band in Queensland. So at that time, it was a tough time for me with, with, with, I guess with life, um, school. I, I was a teacher at a, at a school. I was, I, I felt like I, I needed to, to, to do something different. Um. I was given the opportunity to go to Queensland, but um, with my now wife who was I was with then, um, we weren't married then, but, uh.

I thought I can do this. So, so I actually ended up going up without her and we were, um, separate for some time to get her up off the ground because it was based on performance, based on a commission structure. And, uh, obviously Brie had to, um, hold the fort and, and create to her. She's such a beautiful person.

She was able to, um. Hold, hold everything down, I guess financially, and allow me to go off and spread my wings and try and make something wonderful up in Queensland. So then got to Queensland. Um, there were, there were other agency style models, um, very similar to the Baker Boys band that I was up against, um, that were, had already been established.

So as you could imagine, they all have their own posse. There's only so many musicians in a, in a, in a circle. And, and I guess they hate it on the enemy that's coming in, um, which was the Baker Boys band. Um. So, yeah, I had to start from nothing. I didn't know anybody had to, I guess, try and navigate myself to make people understand that, that what we're trying to do is something fantastic, to provide an amazing service for, for artists to come on board and, and get booked up and to fill their calendar.

So yeah, from there I was able to build, um, build the team, uh, and then within. I was doing that for about four years, five years. And within that time, we were able to go from nothing to the top performing, um, state in the country. Um, and it's, it's clearly a testament to our incredible team and what we're able to build and the trust that came from, I guess, those wonderful relationships.

Um, there's a lot of, um, competition. Up in that space internally with music missions and artists and egos. And when you're dealing with creatives, they can be, you know, a bit difficult at times. Um, but look, being able to just stay true to your values, true to your core, be transparent, always be honest, um, and set, set the tone.

I think it starts with you and, and it, it sort of, they'll look at that as leadership and I think if you, um. Yeah, make people, allow them to feel safe and, and supported and, and in, in line with your mission and what you're trying to achieve. If you're genuinely there with a served mindset and you're wanting to do this to help people, they will catch onto that and they will, they will appreciate it and they will give their all.

And that's really the foundation of being able to build such a wonderful team. And that's where I guess, the idea of culture came for me. I mean, it came in at high school when I was teaching at, um, at, at a high school as well. Um. Culture is everything. I mean, kids will look to teachers to, to trust them and, and, um, yeah, it's, it, it, it, it just starts with you and, and yeah, I guess I was lucky enough to be able to have such a, I guess my, my sort of aura sort of resonated with staff and students, which was terrific.

And, and it made my life a lot easier. What was your, what was your biggest, and you, you may be, we may be talking about it right now, but what was your biggest aha. As you were growing and this thing from nothing, like you said you hadn't, you had, you know, zero play in the field right at that time, and you had to get people invested.

Was there an aha that really kind of stood out to you somewhere along the way? That's like going, or was it, was it culture? Maybe it was culture. It was the small wins. Mm, small wins. Like don't think big, like have your vision, have you have, but just go find your people. Um, and. They will, they will come, they all talk.

And, and if you sort of find one good person that leads to another good person, that leads to another wonderful person, it leads to someone else. Um, but it also goes the other way, which sort of goes down the path of challenging, um, challenging people. And, and, um, yeah, I dealt with that too. It was really good to sort of, and I, I, I really understood early on that if you attract good people, they will attract good people.

But it comes from you. You need to be a really good person. Uh, I would, and doing it for the right reasons to them. Be able to scale your, your operation with other like-minded individuals. Um, so my aha, aha moment, it's not so much aha moment. It was more I was extremely proud. Extremely proud, especially when.

When I moved on from Baker Boys Band, they're still going strong and they still keep in touch with me. Uh, and, and they're still just absolutely killing it up there, uh, without me. And so it's, I guess it's a testament to how we built a foundation that was set to scale, to set to last that you do not need me.

You do, do not need me. It's actually the people that made it wonderful. So credit to the Baker Boys band. If anyone is getting married, uh, and they need a, a wonderful, uh, crew, then it's uh, they are rock solid. Yeah. Australia one too. That is so, and that's that, that's the heart of leadership right there. I mean, you know, we, uh, I'm gonna play with this a little bit.

So we, we'll, well, part of the reason why I think we, we resonate with each other is 'cause we do talk about culture and we do believe in leadership and we do believe in accountability and possibility and creativity. In my book that I launched this year, one of the awarenesses around it is around, um, working the spectrum.

Understanding that everything is virtually in a spectrum, in some form. So when we talk about leadership, one thing that often stands out to me and I see it, I don't, I don't know how it is over, uh, in your country, but here in the States, it's pretty prevalent that, you know, we're good people, we're good people, even though we're stepping on each other to get ahead.

There's sort of that culture that's part of, as long as you get ahead and you're successful and you haven't done too much damage, then you're, you know, I mean, I'm just calling a spade a spade. That's how it is. And it's because one thing that often happens that I notice in our culture is we talk about leadership, but leadership is based on results, based on these results.

And it's like, no, when I think of leadership, I think of. Real leaders create people to replace them to, to, to surpass them, to go on. I mean, that's real leadership. That's, that's character. Uh, with awareness of ego and stepping away from the ego and you know, kind of that sort of leadership over here. When I talk about working in the spectrum, you have leadership and then you have a boss.

We have a lot of bosses. We have a lot of people who are in a position of leadership, but they really are. It's about them. It's not about the organization, it's not about the impact. Um, even though that's the, the, the catchphrase or, or the soundbite. It's really, there's, there's, you know, when you find a good boss in this culture over here, I'm like, oh, thank God.

Here's somebody who's really showing up. Bringing humanity to influence, if you will. Um, do you run into any of that at all over there? I mean, I, I know we're dealing with human beings, so human beings are. Human beings no matter where they are. But do you notice that at all over there? Well, firstly, you've got a book.

Oh yeah. How cool is that? Yeah. Uh, inner Wisdom, outer Impact, leading your life from the inside out, my friend. You're gonna have to send me a link to that. That sounds fantastic. I've got the audio book. Uh, I think the audio book, we're, we're, we're right on the Verge, and I think it's gonna come out here in the next, uh.

Next week or two. So will you send, you send it over to me, mate? Uh, nothing beats an audio book in the car. I'm driving to many meetings and it's, I love, I love, um, yeah, I love being able to listen to, I'll send that. I'll, I'll set you up. I'll set you up. Absolutely. So you've, you've, you've touched on a few really cool things, Tim.

Um, culture is, it's invisible until it's broken. So you need to build it through actions and not words. I truly believe that. Mm-hmm. Amen. Yeah. Amen. Absolutely. It's, yeah, it starts again, it starts with you. Um, now you talked about that competitive nature and a me mentality and it's, it is everywhere. I, I think it's just the human being, everybody.

I mean, including us. It is always about, well, we need to make sure we are okay. And that's okay too. That's great. You've always gotta, you know, you do need to put yourself first. You do need to take care of yourself. You do need to, uh, provide for, for your lifestyle and for your family. But, uh, one thing that, that is really clear to me, and, and this is, this is I guess through experience, uh, and time, uh, and I guess maturity is there's a lot of competition.

Everybody's fighting and will do whatever it takes to win sometimes. But when you, but again, that is that take mentality. That is what's in it for me. How can I be, how can I get this that I want that and I'm going to use people to get what I need so that I can win and do it under a company name and. But when you then flip that, and this is, and I've heard this before and it just resonated with me, and I wish I could just say who it was.

It was a book I read and it was amazing. And it talked about having a serve mentality. And when you have a serve mentality, it changes the mindset. It changes your mindset, it changes your, um, the mindset of even, even your clients. They, they, they know, they feel it. You can, there's this certain, um. Feel that, that, that comes with that, which is just absolutely amazing.

Um, and from being able to have that give mindset and mentality, you are just trying to be the best version of yourself. Do the best thing you, you can do in the space that you are. I just happen to love digital marketing, so how can I help people through that space? Same as pastors in a church. They wanna share their message and, and, and share the, their faith and, and get that, um, get that message out there.

That's because they're so passionate about that and that is their give mindset. It can be in any industry, but at the, at the, once you, once you understand that mindset and that giving nature, what goes around, comes around and you will win because people wanna, people are really attracted to that as well.

And, um, I think. One, actually, one really great story, this was just the other week, was, uh, one of my biggest competitors here in, in Canberra, and I won't say who they are, but they are very successful and, and quite big, quite intimidating actually. Um, but that being said, we are extremely competitive. For our, for for who trying to yeah.

Provide value to our clients of what we can do and, and who we can be with. But there is that mutual respect as well. And one thing that came from this, and I think this is what makes a great leader, is that trust in your competition, knowing that they're doing it for the right reasons. And I knew that when I got a phone call from the, from the CEO that was in trouble because their, one of their largest, uh, clients website got hacked.

And, and that is almost a crisis point. And this is where we put our competition aside and we work together as human beings to help people. And I'm very grateful that we have an amazing team at Automed, including some, some of the best developers that I've ever worked with and we're able to take, take that.

Issue and be able to provide some help. And we're able to do that and we're able to send it for the team. And we got on board. We got behind it, we were ab, we've got some AI experts in the team, we've got amazing developers. We're able to come together to figure out just how they've been hacked, just what they've done, and being able to present that to him with a solution on how we can fix it and he's going to fix it now and again, with that comes this.

We're we're fiercely competitive. We do have respect for each other, and I wish him and his clients all the best because I'm going to do the best I can for my clients. Um, and that's why yeah, I'm always happy to sing their praises and, and I'm not scared to just do my best and know that I'm doing all I can do and, and they can do what they can do.

And. If, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. Um, I'm just trying to, to build something great over on my side, that's common. I'm really too worried about what's happening elsewhere. Well, the fact that, I mean that it speaks volumes about who you are at Callum and not only who you are as a person, but as a business, as a culture, as, uh, someone 'cause competition.

See, it's, it's so interesting. This is, this is why I love the work that, that I do, which is. When you really play with words, when you really play with concepts, there's such, there's so much on the spectrum to explore and, you know, this concept of, of competition. Oh, competition is good competition, but it's competition that is integris competition that has, uh, a character in it, not just a a, I mean.

A win at all costs isn't, I don't know that that's really competition as opposed to a, a suicide mission. We're going to destroy you or we're gonna destroy ourselves. Trying to destroy you. Right. And push them. Yeah. I mean, you know, an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind, right? So it's that aspect of here's someone where you went to bat for your, your competitor, and it's because you had respect for them.

They have respect for you. And they thought of you at a time of crisis, which is really, really nice. Yeah. It, it, it speaks volumes about who you are and yeah, I love this stuff because this is the stuff that you hear about and people oftentimes they, oh, that's wishful thinking, or that's, you know, high-minded kind of thinking or whatever.

And it's like, is it what, what, what if. Being a good person and creating a culture of support and integrity was actually your foundation and all of the other stuff. I mean, and like you said, we all, we all step in it. We, I, I'm guilty. I, I've stepped in, I have awarenesses, and I'm telling you sometimes I'm like going, gosh, why did I do that?

I can't believe I did that. Right. We're all human beings. We're all going to make mistakes. It's when we justify. Toxicity for results. And when we allow ourselves the opportunity to say, wait a minute, there's something in me, there's something in this connection. That's why I was looking forward to this, this podcast with you today, because just feeling that vibe.

I I'm gonna jump off on a, on a question because there, there's a lot of directions we can take. This first place I'm gonna jump off is, so with you being a musician. Right. Playing in the band and having your creative experience, how much of that creativity do you think has influenced your awareness of leadership, your ability to be successful?

I think it comes with life lessons, um, and you as a person. So I'll tell you, Tim, so I've got A-D-H-D-I say it's a disorder. I don't think it is. I actually think it's quite a, a superpower and how you can channel it with it comes its challenges. Um. Do. It's, there's, again, a very creative mind. Um, but there's a lot going on in my mind too.

Um, and life. Life happens. Life throws beats you around a bit. You learn, you get hurt. Um, you bounce back. You, you, and I think the end of the day, you are in control of, of, of, of you and, and, and your actions and what you can do, not so much what can happen to you, uh, throughout, throughout life and, and for me.

One great superpower with A DHD is my ability to absolutely hyper-focus. Being able to say, that's it. We are doing it, and we are going there. And through that, I've been able to knock down some incredible doors, even starting with, um, even to where I've landed to today. It was all because of like, life happens for a reason.

Things happen for a reason to get you to where you are today, and you are meant to be where you are today. And you can choose where you want to go tomorrow as well. Um, and so, yeah, I, I was going somewhere with that classic A DH adhd. Well, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna join, join with you. So, um, I, I, I saw in your information that you had a DHD and all this, and, um, I love your approach to.

Because I, when I was growing up, it was considered, I was labeled learning, uh, learning disabled. And then, you know, later on it would be dyslexia and A-D-A-D-D and a DH, all this kind of stuff, right? And we all, for the longest time I saw it as, you know, I, I'm learning disabled. I'm learning disabled.

Because I was, that's what I was told constantly. And then I realized, I'm not learning disabled, I just learn differently. But to change that mindset, to change that approach. And what I realized is, you know, in what you were just sharing, I, I believe personally that we are, we are divinely guided that we have these natural gifts and sometimes our biggest lessons aren't fun.

They're not things that we like, they're not things that we love and, and quite honestly, they feel like a curse to us. But if we can actually build a relationship with it, peel off the label aspect of it and realize, this is just how I experience, this is how I process this is, you know, and so what I say is human beings are sensitivities, their sensitivity machines, their sensitivity gifts, and if they build the relationship with whatever, whatever issue that they're struggling with, right.

They will realize that they're learning other ways to embrace life. They're learning other ways to accomplish, they're learning new ways or different ways to process their world, which is why some of your greatest creative people in the world that are highly revered, they, they didn't process like everybody else.

It was, you know, this kind of, they had to learn how to work their word, how, how to work their tools, their, their. Their skill. And I say for the people who are still struggling with whatever label that you're dealing with, if you're struggling with it, what is it trying to teach you? Because somewhere in there you have some sort of relationship that nobody else does to it, and it can be a gift instead of a curse.

But until you build that relationship with it, it's gonna feel like a curse day in and day out. Does that, does that, I mean, does that resonate at all? You got it, mate. I mean, look at us right now. Look what we are doing. Yeah. How cool is this? Yeah, I mean, again, this is, uh, something that is definitely outside of my comfort zone and it really is, you know, with a DHD comes chronic anxiety, massive anxiety.

Um, we are very sensitive human beings, but with that comes great empathy too. Um, and understanding in people and. Um, our minds like it's, I wouldn't change it for the world. Like, yes, I, I, I've had my challenges and it's been, been quite tough, but being able to also leverage this amazing trait, um, there's a lot of good that comes out of it.

And I mean, we are some of the, I'd always say to any company if there's anyone that's interviewing and they, and you and you hear anywhere that, or he says that they've got, uh, yeah. A DHD or dyslexia or autism, they're on the spectrum. They are going to absolutely, they're gonna be, they could be one of your biggest assets.

Um, if you can channel that and understand them, um, and, and really hone into their true skillset. Um. Because, yeah, they bring such incredible things to the table. A key element to that too, though, 'cause I wanna make sure that I'm, I'm like you. I just wanna bring power to people and process, you know? 'cause we can create a whole new world as we show up.

And the one thing is, is in my book, there's a section in there where I talk about the labels. The unfortunate thing about labels is people will get labels and then they start reinforcing the labels. I did for years. I was dyslexic. It's what it is. You just gotta deal with it. It sucks, blah, blah, blah.

Right? And so if you're dealing with someone who's so justifying their labels, then you're, you may not get out of them what you could get out of them, but if they are willing to be open to growing themselves and discovering what's what their gift is, I'm with you right where you're talking, which is. You are gonna get things out of them that you couldn't even imagine.

And that's, that I think is an, an important aspect to culture because here in the States, what I see is there's a lot of these startup businesses and these startup businesses. It's like, you know, started in somebody's garage or you know, some small office or whatever, and then all of a sudden it's on fire.

And what got 'em there was, wow, they had this culture, they, they had this belief system. And, you know, over here, I I, they say that, you know, sometimes what causes businesses to fail is they grow too fast. Right? And I know of, just off the top of my head, a couple businesses where they really built on culture.

I mean, they blew up, but one thing that kept them, uh, still successful was they, they maintain their culture, but once they got so big, they. Sort of gave into the process the system, right? And so the concept culture became a concept. It became a soundbite, it became a, you know, a pitch phrase for the business.

But if you went and talked to the people in the business, they no longer embodied the culture. But the one thing that I noticed, and, and why I love what your, your approach is, is when you are really engaged in the healthy relationship with culture. The people that you are working with and who are working for you will go to the umpteenth length because they love their job.

They love their work, they love what they're creating. They, they will amplify what you have to offer exponentially. All that. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it, to add to that, it's these c these this talent, this team that you are doing. There's always someone you're trying to find. People who are better than you, they're so passionate about that, those expertise that you are just looking for.

And, um, one thing that we really do, uh, at Automed is we really celebrate, um, our team for, for trying to break the system, trying to innovate. Um, and, and sometimes we'll fall flat on our face, um, and it'll be a, a very costly exercise. But the biggest thing is it doesn't matter whether it's we fail or we win.

It's, we are going to celebrate either way. And, uh, it's either gonna be for the win or it's gonna be for a lesson. Either way, we are gonna be learning something. And, and, um, that's something that again, you, you can't get that if you tap on that. You need to be able to, to, like, I'll have async meetings with my team every week and we just talk about them.

How are you feeling? You know, what, what challenges are you facing? What are you doing? How's your workload? What you've gotta make sure that, that we are in this flow of, of, of creativity, but, but passion and this, we're, we're moving towards a goal. And yeah, you've really, I mean, you've gotta, you've gotta set the benchmark too.

Um, you've gotta sort of, we've got a mission and we're moving forward. We're not going backwards, but, um, you've gotta give, give space and give room for your team to fall flat on their face, but they know that you've got their back. And when you've got their back, everything's gonna be okay. Yeah. When you're, when you're, uh, growing and failing forward, you're still growing a hundred percent.

Yeah. A hundred percent. Yep. Some of the biggest lessons and pivots have been from our biggest failures. Um, and where we've started, even just throughout digital marketing agency, where we started, where I thought we're going to be, is completely different to where we are now. That's purely based on the incredible people that we've been so lucky enough to work with.

I, I, I just wanna ask you this. So since your expertise and your passion is in digital marketing, what is it that you commonly see people in their businesses or these businesses that, that you want to help? What do you see that they're, they're missteps. What are th what are common things that they're misstepping?

Because I think that would help some of our entrepreneurial listeners. Yeah, that's a really, really good question. The first thing I think about with the power of ai, now it is at everyone's fingertips and you really gotta leverage that. It's not going anywhere and just tap into it. Um, any service-based businesses, there is guaranteed to be some form of return work that.

You could so easily take that. So many, um, business owners miss and I'll give you an example, actually two examples. One was, uh, my mechanic that was having a conversation with him just would've been a couple of months ago now, and he was telling me how times the times are times are tough. Callum, um, I, I'm, I'm not sure what's going on.

We we're really, the phone isn't ringing nowhere near as busy as, as we should be. Um, it's quite scary. We're only booked, you know, a week in advance. Um. Yet I was booked in to get my pink, pink slip, yellow slip, a slip that we need in New South Wales so that we can keep our car on the road each year. Now, that is a mandatory thing that we need to do every single year.

Now, as a business owner, the first thing I asked him is and, and it just came to me straight away and look again, this might be the A DHD creative brain thinking outside the box. But what was going on for me was you have got. A thousand plus contacts, emails and phone numbers, and you know exactly the date that their car is gonna be required to be, be booked in.

Um. And as soon as I flagged that with him, you could just see, he's just thinking like, oh my goodness. Of course there are systems, there is software available that anyone can do. Just do a quick Google search and watch a couple of YouTube videos and have a quick DNM with good old chat GPT and go back and forth and it will give you what you are looking for and it'll give you options to open up that door.

There are such amazing automation tools out there that you literally, it takes your, uh, it takes your database. You just pop in exactly what you need with their date and it'll automatically loop it in for them to, to rebook their thing that following year on repeat. And that's something that a lot of business owners miss.

And the same with a cake shopper that I'm building their website, the first thing I thought is of is they know the birthdays of all of the year. They a thousand cakes they've done and they know whose birthday's coming up. And so they really should be reaching out through an email campaign that's free.

To say, Hey, your birthday is coming up. Here's, here's a $10 voucher. Um, this is what you had last year. Hopefully you absolutely loved it, which I'm sure you did. Um, we'd love to take care of you and, and, you know, purchase now. So those things as a business owner, there's, there's a lot of low hanging fruit out there.

Um. And I mean, I post marketing tips. I try to every day on my social media to, to help business owners, especially service-based businesses who aren't quite at that point where they can invest heavily into their, into their marketing spend. But there is so much in SEO digital marketing that people try and complicate, but it's actually very easy.

So I think it's important to try and break that down for, for business owners to know that they can do this and they'll be able to see a massive increase, especially in their local SEO and their Google business profile in getting phone calls. So yeah, check out my Instagram at Automed and um, hopefully there's something in there that, a few nuggets of gold that will help you.

Yeah, definitely move your way up. So, yeah, so say that one more time. I wanna make sure that our listeners, um, if this is something that pertains to you, check out Instagram, automed. Yeah, so Auto media automed, um, agency, I think is the, is the Instagram handle, but it's pretty easy to search if we are an SEO agency.

So it should be pretty easy to find if there's type auto, anything to do with me or Automed or Canberra or anything like that. Well, and I just for our listeners, so, and my dyslexia, um, auto is spelled OTTO, not a UTO, so yeah, exactly. Maybe it's my accent. No, no, actually quite honestly. Um, it, I, I, I don't think it's your accent.

It's, it's just over here. I'd be like going, I thought he said it was auto and I'd be thinking of a car. Right. Auto car. I never thought of that. It's funny you say that because I did a, I did a little post on my story today and my auto captions literally wrote auto media. Oh. So it's funny. So yeah. People do think I say No, it's Otto, the name.

Yeah. I named it after my son. So that should, hopefully it's named after your son. After my son. Yeah, that is cool. My son was born a week, a week after it was, uh, the company name was registered and I felt bad because we've got a daughter named Gia. So I thought, well, what else do I love? And I love ai and so I thought we better start up an AI, um, company to try and help businesses.

And so we registered Gia ai, so we've got Automed and now we've got Gia ai. So we're not gonna have any awkward conversations when they're in the tent. There's no favoritism here, right? There's no favoritism here. They both, they both have their beautiful place. How old are they? So one's just over one. So, and, uh, GIA is about to turn three.

Wow. So very young. It's, uh, not a, not the best time to start your own company and, you know, be growing at a, at a, at a ethically fast rate. Um, but no, I'm loving every day and I'm very, very blessed. Very lucky. That is, that is, wow. Bless you. Bless you. Bless them for, uh, because I, you know, I mean, everything in life's relative, right?

No matter where you are, there's gonna be reasons or things that you're gonna either have to stretch, step over, shut down, you know? Um, one thing I do know personally, my own experience as well as being around a lot of entrepreneurs is we get caught up in. And our process and what we're trying to put together that we, we forget or don't even realize that we've drifted into the weeds that we're, you know, and so that's why having, um, your insight, Callum, having your insight and, and wisdom and your business is an asset.

It's one of those things. And just so that everyone knows, um, I'm, I'm gonna ask this question, but I, I want to make sure. You can also help people over here in the States with their business because it's all over the, over the system, over the internet, over. Correct. It's foundational. Yeah. It's everywhere.

Yeah, it's everywhere. And, and the tips, if you just implement, they're, they're very easy. That's what that has been. The biggest, I was able to, when COVID hit and I lost everything as a musician and an artist, I lost all my gigs, all my income, thank goodness I had teaching. So I was able to go back to relief teaching to make, to be able to pay the bills.

But I thought, all right. I lost all my gigs as a trumpet player and a sax player. Well, what can I do so that people need me? So I said, all right, I'm a DJ now. And because I worked for an amazing marketing agency who were very, he heavily invested in paid advertising, but I was able to work very closely with the New York team.

And, um, they flew me over to work with them multiple times, which I was very, very lucky. And I got to understand the power of digital marketing. Um, and then when COVID hit, I lost everything I thought, all right. What can I do? I'm a DJ now. That way you can't get rid of me. You need to have me at your wedding.

Uh, and then I just got absolutely obsessed. Uh, it was, it was an, a pure obsession, especially at lockdown stages where all you could do is stay indoors. So I just got fixated on SEO and I was able to implement and build my own website and get it from zero to a hundred thousand in less than 12 months. Um, and it's just continually just sitting there.

Um, getting leads. It's, it's building, it's, it's a lead magnet, which I love, but it's, it's done in a way that, yeah, it's digital marketing and SEO is, is just the foundation of an incredible, um, you know, marketing strategy. But it's extremely powerful when implemented correctly. So, yeah, so if you can just do the foundations, that's, that's gonna be enough for you to start seeing significant results.

And that's a, that's the key element there is it's, um. You know, and this is why I wanna highlight stuff. I really wanna support you in this. Uh, the reason why I wanted to say that you can help people here in the States as well as in your country of Australia, is that you have that reach. You have that ability, you have that access.

I, you know, sometimes people be like, oh, well, you know, it was a good interview, but you know, column's over there, he can't. And it's like, no, really. He, he can, he, he's, he's really this tapped in. Um, and it's, it's part of that aspect of a lot of people talk about CEO, right? Or, or SEO, not CEO. Uh, they talk about SEO.

Yeah, I'm like going, wait a minute, wait there, that dyslexia going on there. But, uh, so, but they talk about SEO and there are some people out there that are gifted in SEO, but. Shop around, make sure that you, you, you interview and, and feel good and maybe you start out with one person doing SEO, but then maybe now column can actually help guide you into the next phase.

That's going to, that's going to start producing results that you don't have yet. It's not just about having more strategy. The one thing you know, and, and I think you picked up on this a little bit from my, uh, other podcast column, but. Um, this is really about service and getting things into application.

We deal with possibility. We wanna look at what is actually possible for ourselves, for our business, for our family, for our culture, for what, what is important to us? And if we're looking at what's possible, then are we open to growing and, and, and putting experience and, and exercise or practice into it to grow that.

And so, you know, Callum, with your, your background in SEO and your, your passion, I think that's, that's huge. So I want to go, I wanna go to this question real quick 'cause this is one that I think is, it's a big one. Um, what advice would you give to other founders of, of companies, other entrepreneurs trying to build a culture before they feel established?

That's a really good question. I think don't try and be the perfect founder. There is no such thing. Be the best version of you. Yeah. I don't think your team need a superhero. They just need consistency and, and a vision. Um, give back. Trust your heart and your gut. Stay true to your values. I think the best thing that I've been doing, or two things, one is building out my systems and processes.

There is no way we can scale or have the success that we have without amazing systems, um, put in place. Anything that's repeatable needs its own system. Uh, we need to know exactly, um, how you can go from point A to point B. Um, with, with no bottlenecks and, and and consistency every time. And that's how you can really scale.

I love what I can do for business owners. I love that I've got this gift that can truly help people. Uh, and so for me it's more about. Trying to do the best work that I can do in my space that I'm most passionate about. And if that's something that people can chime into and plug into, then that's where this magic happens.

Um, and I think it's, yeah, it's a very, very good question. There's a lot that's sort of going on in my head that I don't really know how to answer. I'm gonna do a little recap though here real quick. 'cause I wanna, um, highlight this aspect is at the beginning when we asked about culture and what was one of the big ahas you talked about.

The little wins, like really experiencing and being with the little wins that the little wins actually mount up to big wins, right? Yeah, absolutely. And what I wanna highlight is, and, and correct me if I'm wrong because I don't want to overhype your business, but, um, when you're working with business owners and founders and leaders.

You not only know how to help build systems for them, you also know how to educate and, and grow their awareness with the system. Is that what I understand? Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. And that's, that's a key element is it's like, um, you know, I'm sure you're gonna have some clients or customers who are gonna be like, you know what, call 'em.

I just want this system. Get it set up and we'll get the people, you know, to figure out how to implement it. Um, but to be able to have you set up a system for someone and help guide and educate, because that's the other aspect is, um, that's why I wanted to highlight what your expertise is, is oftentimes when we are doing business, when we are founders and we are leaders, we're constantly looking for where are we going, what are we gonna be doing?

And the thing is, is we lose sight of. Kind of forgot where I was going with this, but we we're not having much luck here, are we? I know. I know. Squirrel. No, I'm like, well, and it's morning there for you, right? It's like It is. It is. It is. I need another coffee. That's all right. Yeah. Um, I know where, I know where you're going.

I know exactly where you're going. I look, it's. There's one sort of framework that I've, I've always sort of stood by, which I love, I call it my Noise Framework. Uh, and this is really helpful for founders. Um, nail Your why. You need to know why are you doing, why are you doing this? Um, because it is gonna be so hard.

And if you don't like it, there needs to be a really strong reason. Um. Own your presence is another really, really, really good one. You are in charge, like us being here today talking about this, this is owning our presence. Um, talk about what you do. Spread the word share expert knowledge. You are the best at what you do.

Have that give mindset and, and, and share. Share your word on how you can actually help businesses. In, in the area that you are and how they can do it themselves. Inject, uh, inject creativity, uh, and this is where the noise, N-O-I-S-E comes into play. Inject creativity, have fun with it, and ch like be a disruptor.

Have like, try and break things. Do things differently. If, if someone in your team comes up with an idea that you think, you know what, that is crazy. But my goodness, if we pull this off. Far out. Let's make this happen and celebrate it. And a couple of these times when this has happened, one of our team members has, has implemented a system or tweaked something that has saved 10 hours of, of, of time.

We are rewarding them with this. This is incredible. So, um, be creative, have fun, and, and inject creativity, not just through yourself or your business, but throughout the entire team, and really bring that home. Um, show your face and show your values. Is another really big one, being able to get out there and spread your word and, and, and be proud and, um, really show your values and be real to yourself.

Like, I mean, I, I, my team know that what you see is what you get, what you see, what you get. And I apologize in advance to them. It's, uh, sorry about that guys. But, um, I'm no superhero, that's for sure. And, and I've got my own struggles. We are all human. Um, but at the end of the day, it's just we need to take care of each other and, and, um.

If they're aligned with, with your values, they know where you stand on things, you've got a mutual respect, everything's going to be okay. And the last one, uh, which I is, is the ease, is earn trust through strategy. Actually put something in place. If you're not doing anything, you are, you're actually, if you're not moving forward, you are dying.

It's, as a business owner, um, you can't expect anything to change if you're not willing to make that change. So earn trust through strategy and back it up. So, for example, all right, we've spoken about SEO. Well, what is that? What, let's have a look at Callum's Instagram page. Let's take a look. Let's do a quick YouTube search.

Let's actually think about something, and that could be a strategy that could work for us, but like, like I said, um, earlier, Tim, is it's one piece of the puzzle. Um, it might be a strategy, might be okay. Social media. All right? I want to do three posts every week, um, or I wanna talk to one amazing podcast host once a month.

Set that goal and put that into place. And that becomes, that becomes your strategy that you are absolutely committed to. Um, and you will see, you will see results. I'm, I'm just trying to build an amazing system. I don't really, I'm not thinking about prospecting and trying to get new business. They are just coming naturally.

In fact, we're almost at the point where we want to be. Just slowing people down to say, hold up, hold up. Um, but that's purely because we're, I'm posting everything. I'm sharing what we are doing. I'm praising those small wins of my businesses, um, and the businesses that I'm helping. Um, a lot of agencies will try to, we, you know, hold that.

To them and do it quietly. Whereas I, I don't care. I want everyone to know how cool this business is and what they're doing and, and the wins that we are seeing for the business. And just, I think naturally people want, will, will gravitate towards who they resonate with and when they see authenticity, transparency, and they can connect with a much deeper level to know.

You know, Callum is, he is real, who, who talks about anxiety and depression. I like that. That's something that's, you don't talk about that. That's, oh, he is meant to be this big guy. This, you know, big successful guy that's so outspoken and confident where it's actually the complete opposite. Um, but again, I'm, I, I've got a mission here, Tim, and, and I'm, I'm excited to.

Um, back up what I preach and here we are. I hate public speaking and we're speaking and I love it. And from this we're gonna get amazing snippets that we can share and, and spread our message to the world, which I'm really excited about. And the other great thing is you can take the transcript from today and you can run it through chat GPT, use AI to your advantage and get some thought leadership posts for your LinkedIn.

Um, and again, that's going to open up even more doors for you and you can do that across the board for your website, for website copy. Um. For your social media posts, thought leadership. There's so much good and value that comes from this, but just starts by just saying, you know what, this is what I'm going to achieve this month.

And this is, um, I, I want to add to what you're sharing because brother, we're preaching to the choir. You know what, I, I have much love for you. 'cause the truth is, is it's like much part of the thing about it is having gratitude. Having that, that, that true gratitude. And, um, I say it often, I actually said it in the book too, you know, we all, every single person stand on the shoulders of so many, like how we've learned, how we've grown, how we've struggled through, how we've overcome, how we've related, how we've, you know.

Been vulnerable. Like you talk about, you know, it, it, it's the aspect of, you know, who talks about anxiety like that. And it's like, and I've been working with people for a long time around shifting the awareness of, you know, I, I, I, you're, you're a musician. I'm an actor by trade, right? So I've been acting for 35 years.

And what I realized was, what if that nervousness. Was actually because that's how much you love and care, as opposed to, you know, oh, I'm not good enough. You know, once you start to reframe and, and regroup and, and come from a sense of gratitude, like, I really care this much. That's why it scares me, well then care that much, embrace that caring and why I went down this, this line of, of thinking was this is part of the gift.

Uh, I put together this podcast. I wasn't sure if anybody was ever going to listen to it. And I have people out of the blue going, yeah, I've been listening to your podcast and all this. I'm like, I'm, you know, and for me, I might go into my head, I go into my conversation and stuff like this, and it's like going, really?

And you kept listening, you know, or whatever, you know, I kind of joke around. I'm like, not gonna get back. I'm back. Yeah, I know exactly. But you know, we're, we're here to, to. Stretch to, to not be perfect. And um, and, and that's really part of what the gift is, is I put this out here in the world and now I have this new divine friend, you know, Callum Gracie, who's in Australia, who we're going to be in touch.

We stay in touch, you know, and, and support each other and, you know, refer out however we need to, because. I have absolute ultimate respect for this gentleman, which is why I was so excited to have him on the show today. And I wanna make sure that, that you have the opportunity. Callum, give us all of your, um, and I want you to say it a couple times, but give us all of your contact information so someone can find you.

I know you've said it before, but say it again so that they can really hear it clearly. Again, this, it's, it's your give mindset. It's, uh, it's right there, Tim, and that's why you're doing what you're doing and it's so, yeah, you're, you're inspiring mate. Um, and, and keep doing what you're doing. It's, it's, thank you brother, it's fantastic.

And yes, we will be keeping in touch. Yeah, I think you're wonderful. Yeah. So look. If those did wanna connect with me, LinkedIn is great. I'd, I'd love to hear from you and I'd love to hear if you have listened to this podcast, how there was something that you were able to resonate with. I'd absolutely love to hear that.

Um, Callum Gracie is my name, C-A-L-L-U-M, and Gracie is G-R-A-C-I-E. And. We run a, uh, well, I run a, a, a marketing, a digital marketing company called Automed, not Automed Auto. So it's not, don't think of a car, think of my son and auto, OTTO, uh, media, um, here in Canberra. And we are, our mission is to, to help.

Help businesses know that they can do this. They don't need to be paying tens of thousands of dollars, um, for their marketing. You can do this for free. It's, it's really not that hard. And, um, you know, I really hope that, that my, my message can help help people out there and just know that you, you can do this, and if you've ever got any questions or you're not sure of something like, please just hit me up and, and, and know you, you'll be okay.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And, um. Because there's so much richness and stuff for us to talk to. I mean, honestly, we could be talking for quite a while, right? We're going on like this, and I know you, you've, you've got work to do and you got a family, take care of all that kind of stuff. But, um, I do wanna invite you, I would love to have you on again and we can just talk shop.

We can just talk shop, we can talk live, we can talk philosophical, whatever. But anything that's going to inspire anybody out there who is. You're having a day, and maybe it's not a good day, but it's still your day. So make sure that you hang in there and know that tomorrow is also your next day, moving forward with possibility.

Opens up, opens up things that you probably couldn't even have thought of. Um, I never thought about writing a book because when I went into college, I had an eighth grade reading level, so, and I didn't have a need or a drive to, to write a book. But through life's experiences, through the learning and growing that I went through on my path, the book just kept coming to me and I had to write it, and I just put this out there to our guests that are listening.

Maybe it's not a book, maybe it's not anything tangible. Maybe it's just learning how to have a little bit more appreciation or gratitude for yourself or grace with yourself. That's what this opportunity is. This opportunity, this show is just really to realize that there is always possibility available and there is always drama and trauma available.

And the question is, is where do you choose to put your focus and energy? That's what will affect your world. Amen. So, I, uh, I, I wanna send you off. Thank you so much, Callum. Uh, much love to you and, um, to our listeners, if you found this useful, um, enticing, if you go, go research Callum, find him, he's on, you know, LinkedIn, he's out there in the world.

Uh, reach out to me if you want. I'll, I'll connect you and, um, until next time. We wish you all the best, much love to you. If you, if you did find something valuable out of the show, please hit a, like, give us a review and, um, we look forward to the next episode. Until then, cheers. You are helping a lot of people.