Steve Glaveski, resident of Yarraville, author, podcast host, business owner of Collective Campus

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Steve Glaveski, resident of Yarraville, author and podcast host, business owner of Collective Campus

My folks moved to Australia in 1971. Dad was one of seven siblings, and he was the only one who decided to fly the nest from what was then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He caught a boat from Genoa, Italy to Whyalla in South Australia, with few assets, little education and zero command of the English language.

Mum joined him a year later, and when she couldn’t find eggs at the local grocery store, she’d draw a picture of a chicken and egg for the shopkeeper! After a couple of years, they moved into a share house with my uncle in Seddon, adjacent to Advieh.

Mum and Dad worked and saved up in that house, and shortly thereafter, bought a weatherboard home in Yarraville. Back in 1973, this was worth a few thousand dollars.

Like many others, they came here for a better life. Yugoslavia was a socialist country, with not many opportunities or financial freedom. After the fall of the White Australia policy, Australia created concessions to welcome migrants. Many took the opportunity, and laboured in factories, roughing it out with two jobs, ultimately to provide for a better future for their children.

Mum had a Grade 8 education, and Dad only had a Grade 2 education, and they had been pulled out of school to work in the wheat fields. I found it fascinating how Dad demonstrated opportunism, manifesting in him being the only one of seven to move here.

He invested most of what he earned. Whether it was property or shares, Dad would teach himself things, and ask lots of people lots of questions, and in order to learn just how you turn one dollar into two. I think I inherited some of his personal attributes.

In 1981, they bought in Sunshine West in one of those old brick houses that were ‘state-of-the-art’ back then. They wanted to sell our home in Yarraville; it would have fetched about $30,000 then. However, they weren’t able to find a buyer quickly. One day, someone asked if they could rent the property. Dad agreed and it’s been in the family ever since.

Yarraville was an industrial, working-class suburb. It isn’t the hip, gentrified, cool place it is today. A lot of people, particularly the Europeans who moved here in the 70s, sold up in Yarraville and moved to Sunshine or Keilor. Financially it wasn’t a great decision, as Yarraville has boomed in the last ten to fifteen years.

My eldest brother Sasho passed away in 1983 from Leukemia. He was in Year 8. He had gone to Kingsville Primary School and was in what was then Ardeer High School. Mum used to tell me stories about him being ambitious and athletic. He’d sit out on the porch, look into the stars, and think ‘One day I’m going to do stuff that’s never been done before.’

I was born in Footscray in 1983, a month after Sasho died. Mum and Dad already had my middle sister Lidia by then, and I’m the accident boy. In the first few years growing up, Mum was always wearing black and was in mourning. It was a challenging environment to grow up in.

I was in the public school system and went to Ardeer South Primary School, and later,  Sunshine College. This is something I am proud of. I wasn’t planning to become a business person, and grew up wanting to play in the NBA. Unfortunately, despite winning an U14s MVP award, I didn’t grow tall enough. At least, that’s the excuse I tell myself and I’m sticking with it.

As I grew up, I developed a passion for heavy metal music, and played in a band called Stentorian, which translates to ‘loud and powerful’. I spent my teen years playing music and dreaming of becoming a rock star, but deep down I retained the values my dad had instilled in me. I focused on my studies, and keeping up with the western suburbs theme, went to Victoria University in Footscray Park, pursuing a business degree.

I’ve always had challenges thrown my way. In Grade 1, I had to wear a brace on my left leg as I suffered from Perthes disease. It was my Forrest Gump moment, which made being six years old very ‘fun’. Life always threw curve balls at me, and it’s how I choose to respond to adversity that counts. I’ve always found ways to push forward.

My first job was at Dun & Bradstreet. There’s an interesting story as to how I got the job. As I was into heavy metal music then, I had really long hair. I was rejected for every job I applied for. One day I decided to cut my hair, and the first interview I went to with short hair was at Dun & Bradstreet. A few months later, I asked my manager whether I’d have gotten the job if I had gone into the interview with long hair. I was told, without any hesitation, ‘No.’

There wasn’t much of a process in my business unit then, and the internet was just taking off. Without systems and guidance, I was surfing the net a lot. Two years in, after repeated warnings, I was taken into the Director’s office. With my heart pounding, I was let go. For most of my life, whether it was playing basketball or playing gigs, I’ve always achieved what I set out to do. This was the first time I felt rejected, and I took it really hard. I had to push back tears in the office.

I got a gig in a call centre in the CBD while I figured out what I wanted to do. While I was walking to a day of drudgery on Collins Street, I would see many corporates looking important, carrying what seemed to be important paperwork, and it challenged my ego in a way. I thought ‘surely these people aren’t smarter or better than me.’

It lit a fuse, and I realized I had to make myself more marketable. I ended up pursuing a Masters in Accounting. I know, how exciting!

By the end of 2007, I was turned down by all of the big four accounting firms. I realized I had to take a step back, so I applied for a gig in Government. I secured a role within the Victorian General’s Office, and I stayed with them for two years. This gig opened the door for a two-year opportunity in Ernst & Young (E&Y), subsequently opening the door for to a gig with Australia’s largest investment bank, Macquarie Bank.

For someone who went to public schools and mediocre universities, I eventually hustled my way into E&Y, KPMG and Macquarie Bank. I guess there’s an underlying theme of hustle, and learning not to take no for an answer. It underpins the philosophy I have now – every no gets you closer to a yes.

My first foray into business began while I was working in E&Y in Melbourne. I founded a heavy metal nightclub called Madhouse. Some nights we would get 150 people, pack out the place. Other nights we would get five. It taught me a lot about marketing and partnerships, eventually learning that if we partnered with concert promoters, we could host afterparties and pack the place out guaranteed!

While I was at Macquarie Bank, I would find myself looking forward to weekends on a Monday. I wasn’t fulfilled, even though the money was really good. In my free time, I identified an opportunity to establish an ‘Airbnb for office space’ type of platform. The business was called Hotdesk. I built a prototype, and for little more than $2,000, built a prototype. To get the prototype in people’s hands, I needed to get the word out, so I Googled ‘How to write a press release.’

I got onto Twitter and reached out to 100 Australian tech journalists. Of course, 99 journalists completely ignored the email, but one of them – a cadet journalist from the Australian – responded with interest. We caught up for coffee just outside the Macquarie Bank office while I was on my tea break (officially, I was ‘in a meeting’), and ended up having a one-hour conversation about my product.

That article dropped the following week and got the interest of a couple of private investors, and one of them ended up investing $156,000 into Hotdesk. That was my ticket out of the corporate world, and it gave me a few years to build that platform and to learn as much as I could about startups, sales, product development and most importantly, the mindset required to become a successful entrepreneur.

I think I was a few years ahead of my time, as the Hotdesk concept is immensely popular now, but while I had thousands of listings on the platform, demand back then was another story.

In 2014, as I was winding down Hotdesk, I had met Sean Qian, my eventual co-founder at Collective Campus. I realised I was better off taking what I learnt and pivoting my interests towards creating value within large organisations.

Our mission at Collective Campus is to unlock the potential of people to create more impact for humanity and lead more fulfilling lives. Four years on, we have worked with over 50 big brands globally, generating seven-figure sales, incubated and raised over $100 million for over 100 startups and just this week, we snuck into the Australian Financial Review’s Fast Starters list, making us one of Australia’s fastest-growing companies.

In 2015 Sean and I co-founded Lemonade Stand, a business school for kids. 50 to 60 per cent of jobs won’t exist in ten years’ time and much of what our kids learn today will become redundant. Through entrepreneurship, kids develop resilience, collaboration skills and critical thinking. We teach kids how to identify and solve problems, build prototypes, and how to pitch ideas. We have inspired almost 1,000 children across Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne, and despite everything I’ve done in business, this is one of the most fulfilling.

The best email I ever got was from an eleven-year-old called Alex, who set up his own business three months after the program.

‘Hi Steve, I finally got my business up and running. I’m selling inflatable water sports equipment and I wanted to thank you. Until Lemonade Stand, I never knew this was possible. You’ve opened up my eyes to so much opportunity.’

I ended up buying a paddle and put it up on the wall at Collective Campus as a reminder of why we do what we do. For my 100^th podcast, I invited him to join me. Here’s an eleven-year-old, earning $1,000 a month, and he gave me the motivation to continue Lemonade Stand. Kids anywhere can tap into entrepreneurship to empower themselves, be more confident and stop using social media as a surrogate for self-worth.

My podcast series Future Squared is currently at 289 episodes and sits on the Apple Charts. I’ve interviewed best-selling authors such as Adam Grant and Mick Wall, and it’s been an awesome learning opportunity. It’s expanded my worldview and opened a lot of doors along the way. It also gives me an opportunity to go deep on topics we normally don’t get to in the day to day surface level conversations we often find ourselves in.

All this stuff has culminated in my first book, Employee to Entrepreneur: How to Earn Your Freedom and Do Work That Matters.

My key takeaway for everyone is always be curious, and make friends with failure. In the last couple of years, I’ve taken up a few things. I’m taking up surfing and bought a motorbike. Every time I stalled at the traffic lights, I reflected on what I could do better. I enjoy riding, and it’s the same with surfing. I tried stand up comedy, in order to inject more humour into my podcasts, also to get even more comfortable facing adversity. The entire concept of getting into a room of people and making them laugh is incredibly confronting, but very liberating and empowering at the same time. I love putting myself in uncomfortable situations.

 

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