Inside the Challenges of SDA, with Tim Roberts

Tim Roberts, Tom Hitchcock, how are you? I’m well thanks Tom, how are you? I’m very good, I could see, so just, I don’t know if, well no people don’t see this. Before we start the episode as a countdown, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. You saw it at 3, that’s when you look back up again. And then we saw this little movement of glasses. That’s when we know Tim is ready when those glasses move. Very much so. Yeah, I’m as blind as a bat without them. So certainly yeah, we’re gonna make sure that they’re not sliding down the walls. That’s look and just so you know Tim Okay, so a lot of time when I speak to people on here I don’t know them until we meet in this for the first time. We do know each other quite well You are the first episode we’ve recorded this year You’ve taken it taking the credits of that I’ve done so low with me talking to myself Which are there a lot of me too much But you’re the first, unless you’re figment or imagination, we’ll find out at the end with the recording.

I’m here, happy new year. Happy new year to yourself as well. So how’s everything in your world, mate? Look, things have been, they have just started off quite busy. Quite positive actually in my world. So I am looking to 2026 in a bit of a positive light. Okay, positive because there’s traction for you, you are busy or things started to pay off from the groundwork that you put in? Yeah. I think a bit of column A, bit of column B. So there’s been a lot of leg work put into 2025 as a new B to the specialist disability accommodation space. And yeah, a lot of legwork and now some partnerships are starting to form, which is really exciting. And we are starting to get some traction and we are starting to move the needle and I’m learning lots.

So I feel like it’s it is starting from absolute scratch in 2025, not knowing how to spell SDA or what it even meant. I thought it was the seventh day Adventist Church. Apparently it’s also that to now having a bit more of an understanding of the space. I feel like I’m in a bit of a better position this year. Okay, so if we roll a year back then, how do you feel about 2025 in the middle of it? Did you, was you pulling your hair out, which obviously we’re both part of the BGA, was it worth a mention? Yeah. Yep. You know, you’re talking a tower of transition, okay? Yeah. There’s optimism which the counter to that is a bit of pessimism, there’s a bit of struggle. Yeah. than legwork doesn’t necessarily mean it’s plain easy to do.

So how did you feel mid-2025 then? I won’t swear because this is meant to be professional, but it was pretty rubbish, to be honest. There were certainly parts through the middle of the year that were really, really difficult. I think anybody that, you know, understands and knows the grind and is working in a system where referrals could be hard to come by or work can be hard come by and it could be a bit lumpy. You know you can feel like you’re pulling your hair out figuratively or imaginatively in my case and still not getting the outcomes. I guess the question you can sometimes ask is am I doing something wrong? You know am I missing something? And then there’s questions, there’s doubt, there’s all those sort of wonderful things that come to play.

So yeah, no, I would have to say that middle of 2025, certainly was feeling a bit down and it was certainly quite difficult. How did you, so for those that are listening that might find themselves in the same situation or for those outside of the sector that we’re both talking about, because it’s quite agnostic components there, how did you manage to dissolve those feelings of am I doing something wrong? How did you count on that? I feel like saying a joke, but I won’t. Look, I think if I’m honest, probably the best way to counter that was to reach out to colleagues and others in the industry who I felt were quite honest and real. You know, I had to take a bit of a risk with some of them, you know, where you try to be a bit open or share some of your struggles and they’re like, no, I’m fine.

Everything’s great. And you’re like, not the right person to talk to. That’s not helping. But being able to talk to some key people and go, hey, like, is it me or is this hard? And they’d be like, well, what are you doing? And you’d talk through your processes and they would either give you some feedback on areas that you could tweak a little bit more or encourage you to be maybe a little bit more persistent. But a lot of the time, the feedback was, it’s a tough industry. It is looking for a needle in a haystack. You are Central West. know, there’s not as many people in the Central West. It is naturally a little bit more difficult. And so actually, you’re doing a great job.

Keep doing what you’re doing. And it will come to fruition. And interesting, like Tom and I, we were chatting probably mid, probably a little bit over mid. And I was like, I don’t know enough what things are really quiet. And we were looking at other options and other things that could happen. And then literally, I think I came back from two weeks of leave and I had four, you know, referrals land in my lap and a partnership, you know, so it’s funny how, how those things can change in the matter of months. I’m going to take that as a recorded claim that Mr. Purple’s lucky charm. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I think, I think what you said, she said something that was quite interesting and it’s something that’s thrown around quite cheaply, Miss Unstood.

and there’s two components to it. The first part is authenticity. Okay, so I know if I go to speak to someone in a sector and I’m also feeling them out, see if they’re the right person to speak to, am I getting the facade, am I getting the truth? Okay, because I can only really engage with the truth, the facade, if I want the facade, I go to your website.

But coupled with it, so authenticity is there, it’s almost like it’s a sales technique, authentic buy from me okay but there’s perceived authenticity there’s like I’m being real but we know that’s not real as well as there’s a lot of cynicism and the next level to this and the way to I think to counteract that is vulnerability okay so if you put yourself in a position of risk where this could really backfire just a little bit again you could get caught that little bit of gave you give me that much harm. That’s vulnerability. Okay. And that’s genuine authenticity. And I think what you said you’ve done them is you put yourself out there, you made yourself vulnerable, not catastrophically vulnerable, but enough to then determine if someone was being authentic or not.

Brett, no, I think you have to be I think you pick on a good point. Vulnerability is is a key component. I think you have to be wise in that, which is something that you just mentioned, like, you’re not going to go, I’m going to be this vulnerable to get this much gain. That’s unwise. But, you know, being able to go, look, actually, you know, if someone went away and said, Oh, Tim’s struggling getting referrals, and, you know, he’s worrying about what he’s doing, it’s, it’s not going to blow me up in my professional career, right? But it is enough to demonstrate to the other person that, Hey, I am being authentic, I am being real, I am happy to share, you know, some of the challenges that I’m facing and I think that that does demonstrate that authenticity in that realness and you do build a deeper relationship and you get to know who you can trust and who you can work with and you know those where you kind of go nice to know you, nice to meet you, see you around the traps but that’s probably as far as we’re going to go.

It’s interesting so I think it’s a good technique to build up those connections So you know who’s your tribe, who is not. But you also risk of validating. I have some confirmation bias. Well, okay, we’re all in the same SHIT together. But does that solve my problem? No, it doesn’t. It makes me feel a bit better. But it doesn’t solve it. So what did you do to maybe solve those issues, to dig yourself out of that situation?

It’s a good point, because I do see that a bit, actually, in the industry, In particular where we kind of there’s a bit of all what is me. It’s really hard and everyone’s like yeah, it’s really hard Let’s go and you know Put on another event where we all get together and you know have morning tea and talk about how we’re gonna magically solve the problems And then we leave it three hours, you know less and without any any real momentum forward

What did I do look I do think that there are some universal truths out there. So where there is an element of you just have to keep putting in the work. And there are some tried and true measures and tried and true practices that you can do. I think there was an element that we knew that the work was going to come and we knew that we were going to get there. And we knew that because if you if we did the work, was going to come and that’s quite vague. So what did I do? I knew in my industry I know that a lot of my work is going to come from people that are, you know, who have major, you know, concerns around their functional capacity and the ability for them to do things. They have very severe or significant disabilities. And we know that those individuals typically are connected to hospitals. We know that they’re typically connected to specialist support coordinators. We know that they’re typically connected to carers and providers who do high care or complex care. So we know that there’s some of the key relationships we need to build with. We know that we need to be talking to those people, the councils, all of those people that put those really important infrastructures in place and that if we could demonstrate that we could be trusted. You know, our viewpoint was that whenever anybody looks for a home, it’s a huge deal. Moving house, finding a new place to live with its renting, purchasing, whatever is massive. So, and that’s for me, that’s for you, that’s for anybody, you know, that is doubly, triply, a thousand times so for someone who doesn’t necessarily have the family supports or the community around them or the financial backups or these other sort of safety nets in play. So for an individual with a significant end or, you know, extreme disability, looking for somewhere to live, you know, is a lot more complex and not as straightforward as it is for general population, for lack of a better term. So I realised that we had to be patient and we had to be trusted and that building that trust takes time because you know you’re dealing with someone’s long term livelihood, the foundation of where they’re going to get their support, where they’re going to live their life, where they’re going to realise their dreams, where they’re going to strive for their hopes and live the life that they hope to live. That’s something that I don’t think can be rushed and so I think holding that in my back pocket as a truth was probably helpful because it meant that yes I was doing the work, I was building the relationships, there was some seeds being sown but that was going to still take some time and I believe that now that we’re starting to build some trust and see that we are a safe place, we are considerate and thoughtful and ethical.

a lot of that trust building work that’s taken 12 months to do and all longer is sort of, we’ve got, there’s a foundation there now. Okay. I think you walked into my trap there Tim. So when I was listening to you, I had my own observations of what did and didn’t work for you. Okay, I think persistence is one of them that’s worked for you. So, you know, every now brings you closer to a yes, And I know can take differentiation forms, but if it isn’t transacted yet, it’s still or not. They could love what you’re doing, but if it hasn’t happened, it hasn’t happened, okay? So that only kicks in if you’re tenacious and you don’t

give up, okay, which is what you said you did there. But the truck component’s massive and this comes back to where people are struggling in a sector. So if we form a bond, we’ve got a business to have a mindset. Okay, I’m struggling with this, I’m struggling with this. Setters really difficult. I can’t get referrals. Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t. That’s a lovely Chai latte. Okay. Yeah, we’ve been there, done it. You know? And what’s really happening, okay? So we know that referrals are not as happening as frequently as they used to. Things have shifted somewhat. So there’s a BDM struggle there, okay? Which basically means KPIs not being hit, freshers on these people. And then the issue is you have with this, is these BDMs start to manipulate influence and push a referral before it’s correct time.

Okay, so you’re saying you mentioned hospitals. People don’t go to hospitals for choice, it happens. And we need to be reactive at the right time. We can’t force them in hospital. And what have you? What force the circumstance, okay? Which, and that’s where the trust comes from. So if you’ve got an employer who’s patient and understands the nature of the beast, then you’re absolutely right. It will happen when it’s ready, okay? And that’s where the trust is at. But if you push those and make these happen, make them mind up now, we’re better than them, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. All those things just to hit your KPIs, slash targets, then the trust has gone out the window. Well, short term thinking, you know, I think it’s that abundant mindset versus a scarcity mindset.

It’s a, you know, is it based out of fear or is it based out of abundance? You know, scarcity is fear that there’s not enough, fear that there’s never gonna be enough, fear that there’s a scarce resource. We’re not going to be able to get the referrals. Therefore, I have to grab and hold on to everything I possibly can. And you know, at whatever cost or ethical standard, let you grab it from, you know, some more than others, or you have an abundant mindset, which is actually, you know what, it’s a huge scheme. There’s plenty of work, right? And there’s work for the right people in the right areas at the right times. And that might mean that we don’t grow at 10 times every 12 months for the next three years, right? But it might mean that we put the work in and in five years time we grow by 100 times because we’re in the right position, right? Or it might mean we never grow. You never know, right? It’s business.

I do think that having that more abundant mindset of a cano, there is there is going to be enough out there, there is going to be enough work and there’s a shift because it means that you shift from thinking short term of crap, I’ve got to hit my KPI tomorrow, I’ve got to get the work in, otherwise I’m not going to have a job in three months or I’m not going to do this or we’re not going to hit out this target. I think there’s a risk that if that’s the mindset you play all the time, your relationships become fraught. There’s a lot of undermining, there’s a lot of competing against one another, there’s a lot of I’m better than that person and that person’s not as good as this and it gets quite gossipy. I think that only sets you up for short term success and long term failure, like to be honest. I think that you’re right, we do need owners that understand the beast and have an understanding of the long term play. There needs to be accountability like if it’s 12 months and there’s nothing else coming through the door, well then maybe we need to rethink our strategy.

But I do think that there’s also the responsibility if those in that BDM space or the referral space or ops space or wherever you find yourself to actually communicate back, you know, one thing I did was I’m like, I need X number of people. Therefore, I know that out of every 100 tours that I do or have every 100 applications, I know that only about 20% of them will end up getting the appropriate type of funding. I know out of that small proportion, you know, even smaller will actually move through into an apartment. And that meant that if I was able to extrapolate that out, I actually needed to have about 1500 to 2000 different meetings with different people in order to get the number of people through the door that by the end of the pipeline I had the referrals I needed.

So we extrapolated that. I was able to feed that back to my owners and say, reality is it’s not going to happen this year. And we were able to say, this is our target and we knew that every meeting we had was one step closer and was one less that we had to have and we learnt from the process. We learnt of where do we need to spend our time and our energy. You know, who are we? Who are the, you know, we kissed a lot of frogs and we hoped that some turned into princes. of princes, we knock on a lot of doors and hope that one opens and you find that then you nurture those princes and you find those doors and you keep them open. So yeah, you mentioned something there that’s quite a big one then is you’ve managed upwards correctly.

Yes. Okay, so a BDM for example, they will only force an issue, speed up to make things happen, of the skills they have if they’re feeling the pressure. Okay, like as you said, self-preservation, you know, if I don’t do this, if females I don’t have a job, my bills are not paid. And then it’s understandable. Is it a pressure they put themselves? Probably not. It’s from the organisation that they’re in. Correct. So the conversation needs to be had with the owners so they actually genuinely understand the situation they’re in. And that’s something you’ve just given really good example of and people do need to master the art of managing upwards because if you could articulate this and then also as you said hold yourself accountable this what we’re going to do we need hit this number I’ll do that number and this maths will kick in give or take all right

and then that’s justification for being forceful and manipulative is disbanded it’s gone there’s no reason to because it’s just on you yep and then I think it allows you like that was a starting point for me was you’ve got to manage up, you’ve got to manage expectations and I would say that if you’re looking at a new role in the industry, that’s something you want to chat with straight away. Like I remember one of my favourite bosses I’ve had, Ian McDonald, who’s now at CPA, Great Bloke, but we went back and forth probably four months, five months before I said yes to a new role. And we went back and forth on setting expectations of what we thought was realistic.

A&M brought what the company’s hopes and dreams were around budgets and what we were going to achieve and what things were going to look like. And I was a subject matter expert on the region and the area and the growing of a business in that space. And so I was able to come back and go, that’s off. That’s kind of, that’s a bit of a stretch. That’s this. And then we were able to sort of negotiate and go right. Before we even started, you know, what we actually thought was possible. And I think a lot of the time, if you find yourself in a thing where you’ve got these unrealist expectations, it’s like, well, you do need to manage up, you do need to communicate, you need to demonstrate that you’re happy to be held accountable and demonstrate where and how that and I think come together rather than UV them, you want to be looking at it as a UV, rather than the problem being between the two of you, you set the problem out here and and you attack it together as both employer and you know employed.

Okay, so Tim, you called yourself a DSME there. Okay, so that’s me, Subjects, My Experts. Okay. Before you as a DSME, okay, you’ve got some business activity now, which is clear to see. All right. Who was Tim Roberts in a former life before you become that self-proclaimed DSME? Oh look, where do you want me to start? I was a student, I was a bit of a prick sometimes, I was not married, I played sport, I partied a bit, you know, look there’s a lot, I was probably always quite entrepreneurial or quite ambitious. big goals. I did hope one day that I’d play in the Olympics for hockey. I painted the you know I think it was 2016 it was the Rio Olympics correct me if I’m wrong but I think that the math works there

and I painted that on my wall because that was my goal you know. So for always being quite ambitious I was fortunate enough that when I completed a degree in exercise physiology and I mastered in clinical rehabilitation. I was able to work as an exercise physiologist in a private clinic with optimum health solutions. Had a great time there, learnt a lot. Shortly after that, I got the opportunity to open up and be a part owner in a branch down in Galbin, which was crazy at the time. Me and my wife, we were 23, we packed up our little wife in Camden and moved to the southern highlands to live in a shack as we built a business. And I think that’s when I first started losing my hair. Early starts and late starts and you learn quickly the pressures that are on an employer rather than an employee when you’ve got to make sure that the rent gets paid and the electricity gets paid and the staff members get paid and the money is coming in and not sitting at 60 days or 90 days overdue or you know all more. So that was me I did that for a little while before I sold out. I had a child at the same time. I went to work to a couple of other larger allied health providers doing similar things so basically starting their business units in the sort of ACT Southern, Southern New South Wales space.

Took six months off to be a stay at home dad with my second child and my wife went back to work and I started a distillery during that time which was wild and a hell of a lot of fun like we made our own alcohol and we got to drink a lot and we got to have a find me and a couple of mates and that was yeah hell of a time. Got to do some ops work in plan management and work with accountants. Loved that time but accountants were a different breed of people and they were very gracious to have a crazy person like me work with them. But yeah, I learned a lot about focusing on the finer details and attention to detail which is I certainly one of their strengths wasn’t one of mine. Yeah and then yeah some more stints and some health space and some leadership roles and an MBA now which is finished which is great.

Two more kids, we have three boys now we’re in the SDA space so wild ride. You have to move into a boot soon, if you’re not careful. So your two awards here, ones for drinking and ones for being a prick. Were they the two? Yeah, they’re the big ones. Yeah. Yeah. No, look, I actually, I think it’s important to have good people around you. There were certainly times in my leadership experience and my time where I think you can get caught up. Something I’m talking to me personally, I got caught up. Sometimes you get caught up in the numbers and the results and the outcomes and you forget about the people. And I think there’s also times when you, you know, you focus all on the people and you forget about the fact that you’ve got to make a buck at the end of the day. And I think that’s a constant struggle, particularly when we work in a really volatile sector.

So I know that there was times where, you know, good friend of mine, you know, had a bit more experience came along to me and said, Tim, I’m going to give you some feedback. You’ve been a bit of a prick and you’ve been a bit unreliable and you’re losing the trust of the team because you’re not doing what you said you would do and you’re focusing too much on KPIs and on numbers and on performance and you’re forgetting the people and you’re forgetting the why we’re doing what we’re doing and that was hard to hear but it was really valuable like I hope that that was enough to sort of I think shift me away from a part that I was I was heading down where it was very, you know, numbers, numbers, numbers.

Some people that I have led in the years would probably say I can still be that way sometimes, particularly if the pressure’s on. But I’m certainly working towards trying to find a better balance in that space. And you can see that you’re self-aware. You’ve had experiences that serve you to this day. and probably a good person for people that are aspiring in their career to tap into and to be a mentor, that’s for sure. Now before we wrap up, I can’t knock this up, and I’m going to put the limelight on you to explain this. So both you and I have very little hair on the top of our heads. Yeah. We’ve found in members of the BGA and there’s a calendar that we’ve done which actually is your idea which I ran with.

So apologies to everybody else who involved with that. But for those, remember this nicely about the podcast. When you come to podcasts, we can be watching this 10 years down the line. Okay. It’s evergreen. And maybe we’ve been to Turkey in 10 years time and we’ve got it. other baneers, a false call pro up here. But assuming this people and this in the future, how would you explain what we’ve done with the bald guys’ lives? What is it?

Yeah, look, I’d start off with a bit of a joke. For some reason, there’s a lot of bold guys that work in the industry we work in, which is the NDIS. And there was a bit of a joke. Tom took a photo, I think, of four beautiful, beautiful bald guys and put it on LinkedIn and changed everybody’s name just to cause utter confusion and chaos, which it did. And out of that, it was like, why don’t we just do a calendar of all the bold guys in the industry. It’s a bit of a joke. And then it kind of got some legs and we were able to sort of gather a bunch of, you know, you know, quite influential bold guys across the sector. And we got together, we had some photos, some probably more candid and crazy than others. You know, there was a mixture of those that were a bit more on the wild side to those more conservative, but it was a place for everybody and I think the most important thing was that everybody gave their time. Everyone coughed up the money themselves to fund the calendar and to put their time and energy, you know, like Tom you put a hell of a lot of time in organising it and facilitating it.

You know, we had people, even people that aren’t bold yet, you know, like Penn from Able minds, one day you will be my friend as a business owner, one day you will be. But he you know he he took photos and he bought his puppy dog down. We had people like Ben who did all of the website and stuff like that free of charge. So we had a landing page and then everyone else has just spooked the hell out of it. Hopefully we might be at Building Bridges. That’s a bit of a cheeky cheeky throw at our friend Emmanuel. I’ll publish this quickly. And all of our friends and all of our friends are building bridges. We love you guys. But the purpose was is we wanted to be able to raise some money, raise some awareness and give back to a charity in need.

And so cheekily we got involved with HairAid and they’re jumping in, Tom, if I’m wrong here, but they’re a company or sorry, a charity that does two main things. One is they they donate their time to cut people’s hair that can’t afford haircuts, which I think is really beautiful. And then the second thing that they do, which I think is equally cool, is they teach people who don’t have the money or the resources to provide for themselves or to be trained. They teach them how to cut hair so that they can actually form micro businesses to be able to cut people’s hair and provide an income for them and their family. I think that’s sweet. And it’s kind of funny that a bold, bold guys are supporting a hair, a haircutting company, a charity, but it’s, yeah, it’s quite fun.

Yeah, the irony is not wasted on them. They’re actually booked up to do their version of this podcast pretty soon as well. And I think what I like about what we’ve done is that, I think I’ve talked about this openly, it’s a nice combo between a bit of banter and a bit of good will, which, you know, no one could argue of either those two things. But where we decided to direct any positive outcomes with the smaller causes, the ones that people haven’t heard of. So there are people having a little joke or our experience of us struggling to grow hair but there’s benefit for those. Now if we do this for a larger organisation and it’s going to get lost in, it’s going to be white noise, I love the fact that we can make quite significant impacts outside of any transaction with just eyeballs on that on the on the chance.

See, I think that’s wonderful. Believe me. No, I think it’s great. And, you know, looking forward to what us bold guys can do in girls. If there’s any bold girls out there that want to get involved, like the B, the BGA, G can stand for girl or guy. So any bold girls out there want to get involved as well. But yeah, typically we’re, you know, excited to see what we can do in 2026 and who we can help and how we can give back. Well, watch this space because I have big plans for this. We’ve got a meeting booked up for that and I’m quite excited. But as it stands, this show was about Tim Roberts. So thank you very much for your time, your input and conversation. And I’ll speak to you again soon, thank you.

Thanks Tom. Hello again, it is I am Mr. Purple. Thanks again for watching this video. If you like my videos, like what we’re trying to do here please subscribe if you haven’t done it already. The other thing that’s very popular right now is the t-shirts, the Mr Purple t-shirts. There’s lots of people wearing these at the moment. You can grab yours on our website copying this link below. So once again thanks for listening, we love your feedback, engage with us and speak soon.