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The Rural Bridge Podcast Podcast
Burnout, Bees & Building Something Worth Keeping with Tom Kerr

Burnout, Bees & Building Something Worth Keeping with Tom Kerr

The Rural Bridge Podcast vor 1 Monat

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1:07:08

For most people, success is the story of how much harder you were
willing to work. This is the story of what happens when hard work
is the thing that breaks you.

In this episode, Sam sits down with Tom Kerr, Tamworth
electrician and founder of TDK Electrical, and walks back through
the years that made him: the Wee Waa upbringing surrounded by a
family of eleven electricians, running multi-million dollar
construction projects at 27, building his own house after hours
with his partner Jenna to save the money, and the mental
breakdown that finally forced him to stop.

They talk about the couple of years spent climbing back, the
version of him that was doing everything he'd been raised to do
and paying for it in places nobody was looking, and Jenna who
held the line while he rebuilt. They talk about the bees, not as
a business but as the thing that made him slow down and
reconnect, and the quiet work of putting himself back together
before he went near the tools again.

They talk about starting TDK Electrical with ten thousand
dollars, nine years without running a single ad, and every
apprentice he's ever put on still working for him. They talk
about bringing two long-term staff on as shareholders while the
business is at its peak, why goodwill is worth nothing and
systems are worth everything, and doing the succession
conversation now instead of waiting until sixty-five to sell up
like most rural business owners do.

They talk about the head-down, work-hard, build-it-yourself
paradigm passed down through their fathers, the version of it
being broken in this generation, and what Tom has learned about
presence as the thing his daughter actually needs, structure as
what gives a business the right to outlast you, and slowing down
before something makes you.

Build what outlasts you. Do the succession conversation while
you're still standing. Family's the point.

Connect:

Instagram: @rural__bridge

Website: theruralbridge.com