WELCOME AARON!
We have such an interesting episode for you today. Rebeka and Kribashini settle in for a chat with a like-minded guest who is just as passionate about the building industry as they are.
Our guest is Aaron Kyle, Founder, and Director of Build Hatch. A platform dedicated to helping people and sharing stories about life in the building and construction industry. Aaron talks about his background in the construction and mining industry, and what led him to the decision to study law as a mature-aged student. He tells us how he now works to help troubleshoot and mitigate disputes in the construction industry.
IN THIS EPISODE OF THE BUILDHER PODCAST WITH AARON KYLE
Aaron talks about the types of issues he deals with as a construction lawyer. He describes how his experience in the industry has given him a great perspective to understand where both clients and builders are coming from. He talks about the importance of communication, valuing relationships, and having the right attitude to resolve issues as they arise.
Rebeka and Kribashini share with Aaron how the BuildHer community works. They describe the courses we offer and how we’re all about equipping women to navigate the not-always-straight-forward building industry. Aaron talks about workshops that he provides on-site to help get everyone on the same page prior to construction. We also touch on how the residential and commercial industries are so different from one another.
We cover a few topics in this one. Aaron’s wealth of experience and passion for the industry gives us a spring in our step. If you’re interested to know a bit more about what’s happening on the builder side, and some of the challenges that builders and trades might be having, this episode is definitely for you.
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If you have a topic or question you’d like us to cover, contact us here.
TOPICS WE COVER IN THIS BUILDHER PODCAST WITH AARON KYLE:
- [2:00]: How Aaron started working in the construction industry with a goal to move into property development. After 12 years, he had gone through many ups and downs and decided to study law, which is when Build Hatch began.
- [3:50]: Aaron’s projects ranging from residential and commercial, civil works, infrastructure, hospitals and large commercial projects
- [4:25]: How going back to study law as a mature student was the hardest thing he’s done but he really enjoyed meeting the people and how this impacted his family
- [6:00]: How Aaron’s experience enables him to have the perspective of someone who’s been in the industry and knows how much impact a challenging client or builder can have on the project
- [7:00]: How lawyers are trained to think differently to remove the emotion from a situation. Construction law is niche but has so many moving parts and it’s about having the right attitude and understanding people as much as possible.
- [9:10]: How there’s always something that can go wrong and being involved in a lot of projects gives you the knowledge to equip yourself. Aaron loves working with people behind the scenes.
- [10:50]: How having experience in foundational roles such as contract administrator and quantity surveyor helps you understand the full story of the build and how this experience helped Rebeka save $34k on the Rathmines project
- [12:45]: How people often ask questions about budget and the basics of planning their project and how we go by the ethos of project management by design
- [14:00]: The types of things we talk about in the 20-minute consultation to determine whether someone should build. We then work to educate people on what they need to know through our course, which they may not be told.
- [16:15]: How there are different people for different projects and so many variables to each project
- [15:50]: How the BuildHer community works, why we don’t do referrals but teach our women to be independent and do a tender analysis.
- [17:30]: The different courses we offer and how we have a lifetime membership for our members. How the members benefit from the BuildHer community, the flexibility of what’s being taught and the supplier discount list
- [20:00]: Our beautiful new book, and how learning about what’s involved in the building process will help you avoid so much heartache in your project
- [22:00]: Building is imperfect and it’s about having a customised and specific strategy to work through any issues that arise
- [23:40]: How in our BuildHer course, we speak to people developing for-profit to learn how they are actually doing it. It’s about sharing knowledge and looking at strategy
- [25:20]: The range of people in our course and how we work with everyone to guide them through the whole process to produce a great product.
- [26:50]: How we learn from past projects and that each relationship brings a different variable into the mix. There isn’t anywhere that says exactly what you should do, which is what BuildHer is about.
- [30:00]: Construction law can be extremely complicated. You can control the site and budget to certain extents but you can’t control personalities which is why it boils down to relationships and the fundamentals.
- [32:20]: How building is a very stressful time as people as dealing with large amounts of money, managing working relationships and how the impact of Covid has added extra pressures
- [33:40]: Our fortnightly Q&A where we discuss issues that come up throughout the projects, the importance of not bringing your baggage to a disagreement and how we work with our members on contingency planning.
- [36:00]: How Aaron facilitates tender workshops to identify the risks of a project and how to mitigate them prior to commencing construction
- [38:30]: How every builder’s experience is different and no one knows everything. Running a workshop would help to get everyone on board, build trust and gain knowledge
- [40:25]: So many things boil down to communication and how builders need to apply a unique perspective to managing each client. Aaron shares a story of a control freak client and how it was affecting the builder’s management of the project.
- [43:00]: How contractual or financial disputes arise from something that happened in the past that could have been avoided. The residential and commercial industries could learn a lot from each other.
- [45:30]: How residential standards and expectations are very different from commercial which is why communication, understanding and putting a weekly meeting in place is important.
- [48:40]: There’s a fine balance to understand how the industry works. Tradespeople are busy on the tools all day and don’t always have the time or capacity to respond to emails or provide quotes.
- [51:00]: Working on a construction site is so foreign to a lot of people. BuildHer helps overcome this.
LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Aaron’s Website: https://www.buildhatch.com/
- Aaron’s Podcast: https://www.buildhatch.com/build-hatch-podcast
- Buy our book! BuildHer, A practical guide to building and renovating
- Check out our resources page here and book your free 20min consult here
- BuildHer Collective on Instagram
- Build Like A BuildHer Program – Learn How to Build Your Dream Home the Right Way!
- The DevelopHers Masterclass Program – Women Building for Profit!
- Facebook Communities
We have several Facebook Groups at BuildHer Collective.
MEMBER ONLY FACEBOOK GROUPS
BHC DevelopHers Circle and BuildHer Collective Members Only – these are closed groups for women who are doing our Build Like a BuildHer course or who have joined our DevelopHers Inner Circle.
FREE FACEBOOK GROUP – JOIN US!
Anyone is more than welcome to join our Women who Design, Decorate, Renovate & Build group. You will note that it’s a closed group but ask to join and if you’re into building and renovating, this is such an amazing and supportive FREE community, so come on and join in the building goodness!