Michelle Cirson (00:32)
Hello, welcome to the final tricks of your trade podcast. hopefully some of you listening are actually sad that I won't be podcasting on this channel anymore. ⁓ But I will still be podcasting. So I'm to take you on a little journey about why the change and what's happening with my tricks of your trade podcast. I want to start by saying thank you to everyone who's actually listened to my podcast because
⁓ It takes guts to do this. You have to put yourself out there and sometimes you risk that there could be like clips of you online with people doing nasty commentary over it and if any of you have listened to my earlier episodes I've had some pretty controversial views and tried very hard to be an advocate for subcontractors on things that I don't think are fair in the industry.
⁓ so don't worry, there's much, much more where that is coming from. ⁓ but my goal has always been to try to help as many subcontractors that I possibly can in the industry. And in order to do that, I have to grow our reach a little bit. So I want to take you on a little journey about why the change, why are we no longer going to be the tricks in your trade podcast and where I will be going from here with the podcast.
So, look, I have to take you back down memory lane about why my business started in the first place. And back in 2015, I was working on a project in Brisbane for a builder. I was a builder CA and I had just finished my law degree. It was very close to finishing my law degree and I got deployed to be or seconded to be a paralegal in a law firm. And at that time,
There were industry people who were very disappointed that I was no longer going to be a builder's CA and were trying to push me away from going down the legal path. And they would say things to me like, Michelle, the industry doesn't need more slimy construction lawyers. What they need is good bloke people like you who will actually try to get people good practical outcomes, build better buildings. And you're so passionate. You know, why are you going to be a lawyer? Somebody's going to steal your soul and you won't be the same person anymore.
And I was worried about all those things happening as well. And I had just spent many, many years studying to be a lawyer. So it's really difficult for me to come to grips with possibly not becoming a solicitor and instead staying working for builders. But what also happened at that time was that I was really scared of heights, like cripplingly scared of heights and
When you're a builder CA, you have to be able to climb the scaffold. You can't get away with not being in high places as a builder CA. So I was struggling with that as well. I also knew that I could possibly make a difference because I was crazy enough to be passionate enough to do things for free. And I had this unwavering energy for trying to make things right in the construction industry. thankfully I was really inspired by a few people who
think are industry leaders who helped me find a good balance in terms of becoming a lawyer, but also not losing sight of who I was as an industry person. Now, just to circle back, did, spoiler alert, I did end up going to work for a law firm, but I hated it so much in the first 12 weeks that I resigned twice. So I had gone from driving my single cab
tray back ute to site at 6 a.m. every morning and opening up with a site manager and talking on my mobile phone to all the subcontractors who were going to be on site and what we were doing and we had a really good community of subcontractors who I think I had good relationships with and then I went into this ivory tower of lawyers where I didn't even have a window in my office and the only way people could contact me was through the desk phone.
So my soul did pack up and leave for a little while. I was really depressed. I was sort of like, this is no way to have a career. I'm on the sidelines. I'm not in the thick of it anymore. And you don't have that job satisfaction of actually building buildings. So I lasted 12 weeks and I resigned. And then I went and had some interviews with some builders to see if I would be another builder's CA, but that didn't work out.
Because everywhere I went for interviews, I realized that all the builders were struggling with all the same things and they ultimately would require me to short pay the subcontractors and be the one to tell the subbies that weren't getting paid or be the one to admit to the contract so that the subbies wouldn't be paid. So while this was all playing out, I had a little bit of time off and I was
driving around Brisbane visiting some subcontractors that I had made friends with. And one particular subcontractor took me on a job site. He's a demolition subbie. Took me on a job site in one of his machines. It was talking to me about what I should do next. And he said to me, if you go and help builders, it will be a real shame because you have a unique perspective on the industry to be able to help the subbies. You... ⁓
somebody needs to help the subcontractors, Michelle, can't just go and become a builder's lawyer. And he talked to me, he had a particular matter at that time where a builder was bullying him pretty badly and I helped him with that. And the advice that I gave him wasn't really legal advice. It was about the leverage that he had over the builder because of the commercial implications of what would play out if he didn't do what the builder needed him to do. So. ⁓
I didn't even need to give him legal advice. I was not actually an admitted lawyer at that time. I was giving him commercial advice about what buttons to push that would get him an outcome and how to frame it so that it didn't create an all out war. ⁓ That guy got an outcome and very quickly he was like, hey, can you do my contract admin for me with my builders for a while? So started helping that guy, started helping another subcontractor with his contract admin with builders.
And pretty soon I had regular clients that were needing me one or two days a month. Now, I had no intention of starting a business, no intention whatsoever of starting a business at this time. All I needed was an income. I wanted to start a family. My husband and I wanted to have kids. We ⁓ had applied for a job with master builders, actually, and I'd gone all the way through the interview process and didn't end up getting the job.
which I found out the day that I didn't get that job. found out I was pregnant with my first daughter, which was really exciting. So what ended up happening was I needed to get an ABN and I didn't know what my business was going to be. It wasn't like I just woke up one day and went, I know I'm going to have a business doing this. I didn't work out, you know, what would be my core services, who would be my target audience. ⁓ you know, I didn't have slogans. I didn't have a vision or a mission statement or any of those things.
So I started my business, I needed an ABN and because these subcontractors had been asking me to help them with their contract admin, I thought that I would just be doing ABN services for subcontractors to do their out the back of the day dockets and payment claims and things like that. So I reached out to a family member who I have my brother in law is in the construction industry and I have a niece who was very good with ⁓
drawing and creative design and I asked if they could design me a logo and I said to them like I think maybe it'll be something like pulling a rabbit out of a hat maybe it could be a hard hat or something like that and I'm gonna share with you what she came up with for me because ⁓ it was very very cute so this was ⁓ this is the logo that was inspired by a drawing she did ⁓ for me
which I've hold very dear to my heart. But as you can see, the trading name tricks of your trade was pretty cutesy. I didn't think, I wasn't thinking in terms of I've been in business for this many years and I need to be perceived by people from the outside as a professional operator or things like that. I just wanted something fun that subcontractors would relate to and where it could be a little bit clever in terms of a play on words.
So, ⁓ so that was my original logo was all the way back in 2016 or 2017. I had that one done up and tricks of your trade really has served me as a very good business. I've had two daughters while I've been working in that business. ⁓ We've done all sorts of consulting work from ISO projects to garden variety contract admin, dispute resolution meetings, helping people with adjudications, all sorts of types of things.
But what's happened is when I became a solicitor, I ultimately went out and became a solicitor and I did my supervised practice. And now I have my own law firm called Subcontract Illegal. What has happened is the brand name Tricks of Your Trade is a little bit too cutesy and not as professionally positioned as the sophisticated services we provide today.
And that's because we've evolved. don't do done for you contract admin anymore ⁓ as a service myself. If I'm doing services, it's providing legal advice through my law firm or doing really complicated commercial advice ⁓ on a particular matter. really our team does provide quality and safety advice now. ⁓ We do contract admin systems. We will do ISO alignment projects and things like that. ⁓
but Tricks of Your Trade is not the type of brand that you can go to a building site, have on your shirt, Tricks of Your Trade, and the builder will take you seriously. So the services that we've evolved over time are now of a kind where we need to be able to represent our subcontractors as a professional service that elevates their positioning with their builder. And ⁓ our brand name, Tricks of Your Trade, just...
doesn't do it anymore. It's pretty sad for me because back in 2023, beautiful friend of mine, Jillian Hamilton from Manage Damage said to me, why are you still using that logo? You need a new logo. It's really a bit too cutesy. And I was like, what? And I was really offended at the time, but I took her advice and then we evolved to this version of our logo, which was a lot sleeker.
and a little bit more modern and look at the end of the day it still has the brand name Tricks of Your Trade there so it still is positioning in terms of something that's a little bit too cutesy and not really to be taken seriously. So I wanted to share that with you as the evolution that we had with Tricks of Your Trade but I've come to a decision, very difficult decision just in the last few weeks that
I think it's time that we move away from the trading name, Tricks of Your Trade, because it doesn't align with the professional services that we provide. And now, Tricks of Your Trade is a business. If you look at that ABN, at end of the day, all of our business names or our businesses are really just a bunch of numbers on the ABR lookup that we trade out of. And so this ABN also has a trading name called Suppy's Toolbox. And that is because over time,
⁓ when I had my second daughter and COVID came along, all of the admin systems and security payment compliance systems that I'd been using while I was helping subcontractors with their admin, I had developed a library of resources that were suited to subcontractors' businesses. And I received a grant from the Queensland government to digitise my services in the best way I could. ⁓ And in that process, I...
had a supplier that used a software called Kajabi and the supplier built the library in our Kajabi system with the Subbease Toolbox. So that is how the Subbease Toolbox was born was we had library of resources that we use to assist subcontractors with compliance with security of payment and managing their builders contracts so that they get paid on time. So we developed that into the Subbease Toolbox.
And I started selling the Subbies Toolbox in 2020 as a shelf ready system of templates that people could buy. And back then I would sell them the templates and what would inevitably happen is they would get overwhelmed and they would come back to me and go, I don't know what to do. Can you help me with it? So we ended up evolving the Subbies Toolbox product into a membership so that
our subcontractors could become members of the Subbies Toolbox. They would get all of their resources updated as they needed to be in real time. They could have Q &A sessions with us two days a week. So we were never more than sort of 48 hours away from them being able to ask us a question. And they would get master classes. We have guest expert master classes. Now that is ultimately what Tricks of Your Trade does today. Tricks of Your Trade today doesn't
provide a whole raft of services that we used to provide. have the Subbies Toolbox membership and then we have Negotiation School, which is an online course for subcontractors to help them manage their builders contracts with their builders and negotiate better terms. So tricks of your trade, the trading name isn't really relevant anymore. The Subbies Toolbox is its own product and then any consulting services we do outside of that. ⁓
is separate to the toolbox membership. so that is the reason for the brand evolution. And let me show you, we did actually end up keeping our Subbies toolbox ⁓ logo to be have a nod to the original logo with the rabbit out of the hat, but it is very simple now. It really is just the Subbies toolbox. So just to take you the full circle on why we're effectively no longer going to be going to be doing the tricks of your trade podcast.
reason is the brand ⁓ repackaging for the business so that it's crystal clear and we don't have brand confusion out there. Is she negotiation school? Is she tell these toolbox? Is she tricks of your trade? Is she subcontract legal? ⁓ You know what? How can I work with Michelle? I don't know how to work with her or whether my thing is a legal thing or whether it's a contract admin thing. So we really want to simplify the way that our clients can work with us.
so that we can provide a really clear cut service and then make sure that service is provided really quickly to the best quality you can expect so that you can get better outcomes faster. moving away from tricks of your trade means that when I have my quality or safety ⁓ consultant who might need to go to your site, ⁓ he can have some of his toolbox services or something like that on his t-shirt.
or be a representative of your business, but there's ⁓ light hearted joking element of our business name. We are to be taken seriously. We are provided providing a sophisticated service and there's no grand confusion. So hopefully this helps you all understand where I'm going with the podcast because the last thing I really want to close out and tell you is that I have
still got very big dreams and goals for the industry. And in order to achieve those dreams and goals, I need to attract the attention of government, policymakers, legislators, industry organizations who can help spread the word and get traction, because there are some serious problems with the construction industry that have been going around in circles for a very long time.
I know there's no trust accounts in many states and territories. So some of you are listening to this might not necessarily understand what I'm talking about. But in Queensland, in my hometown, we have project and retention trust accounts for projects, private projects ⁓ in excess of $10 billion. And those trust accounts have serious problems where builders go broke before.
the subcontractors reach the end of the defects liability period. there is trust retention money to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars stuck in retention trust accounts. That is on my list of things to try to make inroads with the government to get a solution. We have several clients who've got hundreds of thousands of dollars stuck in trust accounts. It's just absolutely embarrassing and a real shame from a commercial perspective that those things are not being resolved.
I'm also working with a builder, believe it or not, out of New South Wales, who is not your average builder. This lady has very aligned values to me with the fairness and the commercial benefits of subcontractors and builders working together and working as a team in the industry rather than being
pitted against each other and the liability just being passed down the chain. So we are in a working group to try to get better contract terms in New South Wales. We've been meeting with the New South Wales Building Minister early next year at a roundtable to talk about how that might be moved forward. ⁓ There are also industry associations who have approached me to assist with having trade specific contracts for their trades.
and whether they can provide those contracts to their members. And then the other thing that is really important in the industry, ⁓ more so than anything, I think, is looking at the ways in which unfair contract terms can be unfair contract terms laws can be used to give subcontractors some kind of relief.
under construction contracts where they're heavily outnumbered or there's a big power imbalance. And one of the ways that I'm going to try my best to bring that to the forefront of government's attention is by doing a TED Talk. So 2026, I'm going to be pitching TEDx to let me do a TED Talk on coercive controlling construction contracts. already done my TED Talk.
on video and tried to get it over to TEDx, but I'm not having a whole lot of luck at the moment. So I've got a few things up my sleeve about how I might be able to make some inroads for that. And in case Mark Boris is listening to this podcast, I am hoping that I can get an introduction to be on one of Mark Boris's podcasts because from a commercial and economic perspective and a political
perspective, I think he's probably one of the people who has the platform and the profile to be able to bring to the forefront or at least make it a talking point about the coercive nature of construction contracts and how they're impacting the ability for people to have small businesses in this country. So ⁓ not to worry if you've been enjoying my podcast today, you will still have ⁓ lots of footage of me ⁓ committing career suicide. So they've been saying for eight years now.
⁓ or talking about these things in a really unvarnished, raw fashion to bring it to the forefront of people's minds that these things are still happening in construction, you know, coercive control, bullying, blue collar discrimination, unfair contract terms, unsurmountable amounts of risk that are being passed down to some contractors. I literally just got off a contract negotiation with a very, very big contractor.
who said to me, inclement weather is absolutely a subcontractor's risk. And this particular sub is going to be flying in and flying out with ⁓ employees on a roster as pretty much a labor-only subcontractor to a project where they have no control over the sequence of the work. So ⁓ what can I say? There really is a stigma and a perception in our industry that doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
The only way I can see going anywhere is if people start talking radically about common sense, commercial viability, and subcontractors stop tripping over themselves to sign up to terms because they're desperate for work. We really are coming off the back of a period post-COVID where we have seen the pendulum of supply and demand change hands so many times. If we can harness that and not forget
how quickly things changed over COVID in terms of who needed who and what we could get across the line. And I think we can use this momentum to actually get some laws changed and maybe have some standardized contracts for construction that are not 35 years old that don't even have GST clauses or even reference the Security and Payment Act. Just beggars belief that this has been going on for so long and nobody stepped in to do anything about it. And I don't want to get too far down the political bandwagon, but
⁓ Our Queensland ⁓ state government is so interested in walking back the B-peak and dealing with the CFMEU. They have demonstrated that they have the ability to make change quickly and to fix problems with legislation, but they're not choosing to fix the problems with legislation that relate to trust account money that is stuck, that belongs to subcontractors, where everybody in that scenario admits the money should be paid out to the subby.
So watch this space. I'm not going anywhere. I'm certainly definitely not giving up on the cause, but I am a little bit better at business. Now we are trying to be a little bit more cohesive in terms of how we present ourselves to the world so that we can be taken seriously.
by the important platforms and government organisations that will be the key to being able to advocate for subcontractors in the way that you guys need it. And that means that I have to get serious about business. And, you know, this isn't just a side hustle anymore. It hasn't been for many, many years. ⁓ It's crystal clear that the demand for and the need for subcontractors to have professional services.
so that you guys can hold your own with commercial builders is critical. In fact, I on a daily basis say to people, look, it's like curing famine in Ethiopia and everyone keeps having children. ⁓ There are an infinite number of subcontractors growing every day. And you guys actually from a ⁓ numbers perspective outweigh the number of builders in existence. And I just, still boggles my mind that
last year in March when I went to register my law firm, the trading name subcontract illegal was still available. And that just shows you, I mean, how many builders lawyers are there out there ⁓ who are happy to niche down and say that they'll act for builders or use that as some kind of badge of honour because they've all got big shiny builder syndrome and they're overlooking the fact that the volume of subcontractors in the industry and the calibre of businesses that these subbies have got.
are by far the bigger client base. But also if you've ever acted for a builder, will, it's acting for subcontractors is like a breath of fresh air. Subbies are so grateful for the help that they get ⁓ and they really take seriously what they need to do for their business. Whereas oftentimes if you have a faceless building corporation, you're not actually talking to the director or
it's a conglomerate of people or it's a joint venture or something like that. Really the only people whose interests in your immediate team matter for the lawyer are those people who are still paying your bills and whether they're happy with you. From a legal perspective, acting for subcontractors means that I can actually make a difference in the industry because a lot of you have family businesses and this is your own business and it's not
a shelf corporation or something like that that you've created so that you can trade in a different state or territory until you run out of subbies to rip off. So it's pretty controversial view, not the worst I've ever said. So just to close out, thank you very much for being following my podcast, listening to my podcast. I'm eternally grateful for you guys engaging. I genuinely hope that some of the information that I've put out there in the last five years has been helpful and
I have had that feedback from people that they've listened to my podcast and they've solved their problem. They didn't actually need to go and get a lawyer. They've got an outcome just by using the things that I was talking about in my podcast. So rest assured my new podcast soon to be announced will still be giving you that value in terms of listener content. You will still be getting the educational resources. In fact, I'm to be doing more public webinars next year.
so that we can help you guys actually implement some of these things and get some outcomes. And if you want to know where to find my new podcast, go to our website, www.subbistoolbox.com.au and you'll be able to see the podcast tab there. So we are in the process of the next few weeks of changing over our domains from tricks of your trade.com.au to subbistoolbox.com.au. ⁓
and you will be able to find us. doesn't matter which you type into your browser or if you've got us saved in your favorites, those links will still work. So thank you again. I hope to hear from you. And ⁓ if you could do me a favor, head over to my website, find my new podcast and subscribe so that you can stay in contact with me.
