Brett Campbell (00:00)
Welcome to another episode of Future Learners. I’m your host, Brett Campbell, chairman and CEO of Euka Future Learning. And I am writing solo today. Well, actually not solo because I got two amazing special guests joining me here tuning in from Docklands, Victoria. We have the amazing Brent and Maverick. Gentlemen, welcome to today’s show.
Brent & Maverick (00:20)
Thanks for having us, Brett. It’s great to be here.
Brett Campbell (00:22)
Very excited about this one. I came across you guys probably several months ago, actually been following the journey of yourself Maverick and, you know, as a bit of an entrepreneur myself, I’ve certainly gravitated towards what you guys are up to and what you’re doing and looking forward today to really be able to get into the story of homeschooling for yourselves, what that’s looked like, the trials and tribulations and everything in between. You know, we can’t speak enough to the families who have gone through the journey.
because the value that you’re able to share for prospective families who are sitting there now, you know, we’re recording this and we’re leading into Christmas and, you know, January, February is the biggest time of the year when it relates to homeschooling. Parents are sitting there over the Christmas break considering, geez, what do I do? Should I take homeschooling? Should I not? I’ve heard about it, you know, and they’re trying to make these decisions in life. And, you know, I always say is, you know, I think every child deserves an education and education is different for everyone.
So really looking forward to diving in today and having a bit of a conversation with you guys. So let me first kick off with the question of where did the initial thinking of homeschooling start? When did that sort of come into the mind, Brent, from yourself?
Brent & Maverick (01:37)
Yeah, like when did it actually start? mean, I know for me personally, I went through traditional schooling and I found the later years, year 11 and 12, extremely challenging where I wasn’t interested at all in chasing good marks. I was chasing footy and girls really. So, and then I noticed when I did finish with a very low T, I used to call it back then that I walked away from the education system feeling pretty disempowered. So whether or not the opening from my perspective was in
Not necessarily my DNA, but through my experience and that cascaded down through to Maverick after he’s followed and watched my journey through, you know, how I, what I apply my stuff to doing like in a work perspective. I know, like when, like when did it come up for you and like, was. Yeah, I think it was probably the start of year 10, midway through year 10. I wasn’t really enjoying school very much. I’ll spend six hours a day there and I felt like I wasn’t getting anything done.
I was sort of just doing my work to pass all the classes, wasn’t doing any more, wasn’t trying to work hard or anything. And so I just thought I was wasting my time. So then that’s when the conversation really started, wasn’t it?
Brett Campbell (02:44)
That’s
actually that resonates obviously very, very closely with me. I mean, I didn’t make it out of grade 12. I actually got asked to leave at the start of it because I was just annoying my friends because I was like, is I didn’t do I think something you said Maverick was you were you found you weren’t getting value out of it. You could have gone through it. You could have continued on. You could have hung out with the boys and hang out and do what you got to do. But, you know, it was something that you realize you weren’t getting value. So was it more of a you Maverick who brought the
conversation up or was it you Brandon go, Hey, what about homeschooling? Like what was that? Like when, that sort of arose?
Brent & Maverick (03:20)
It seems like so long ago now. I think it was probably just a pretty mutual. We just started discussing it. Yeah, yeah. I don’t know whether I’d seen any ads or I’d heard about it. I felt like through my… I’ve invested a lot in my education post-secondary schooling, like in areas of interest and what I’m passionate about so that I grow and level up by…
the things aligned to my values and where I wanted to get to, right? So it made like a made natural sense once I first heard of homeschooling and the amount of time that I’d spent with Maverick growing up, which was very hands on father, that if we could complement what we what I slash we were doing and how we’re living our lives. And I wouldn’t say ticking a box. However, I think it’s still important for the youth to complete school. I think there’s there’s an element that
complete something is a good thing like it and it’s not to say don’t complete things or walk away from things that are no longer serving you, definitely not. However, if you can complete something around a traditional pathway as well as also exploring your passions and interests, then it’s a nice way to approach it. And I’m not like, I don’t want to speak for your mom, however, she’s a bit more conservative in her approach. However, the homeschooling model, it really took into consideration the entire family
family’s interests and so that everybody could jump on board and get behind it and I think Mav had to lead it and I think it made it easier for Mav to lead it with the support of both mum and dad, if that makes sense.
Brett Campbell (05:03)
Yeah, mean, that’s that’s pivotal, right? Is is having the support of your parents is is always a nice helping hand, of course, you know, but at the end of day, to your point, you Mavs got to be the one who shows up and and whether it’s ticking the boxes or just doing the work and getting through is the main thing. I believe that the biggest one of the biggest things that you know, when I’m speaking with parents who have made that transition into homeschooling and even parents now who are considering making transition into homeschooling, it’s the the emphasis that they
put on actual mainstream schooling itself. Like it’s this be all end all and it’s like, oh my God, you can’t. Like when I was getting kicked out of school, I thought my life was over for whatever reason. Oh my God, I didn’t think I’d be a kid who got kicked out of school because I wasn’t a bad kid. But I was like, what am I going to do with my life? And I went and got an apprenticeship and fast forward decades and I’m here talking to you guys. But it’s the emphasis and the feeling that we have of going, oh my gosh, this is a really big decision.
saying that to downplay the enormity of the decision. But for you guys, was it something that just felt, it felt really right and you’re really excited about it? Or was it like you had this idea and maybe we could transition into homeschooling? Was it like really nerve wracking for you guys? What was the sentiment around it when you were working through the process of making the decision? Or was it a, all right, we’re doing it. Let’s sign up next week.
Brent & Maverick (06:27)
Hmm, man. Well, yeah, I think there was a few discussions about it just to decide what I should do. I feel like it all came about because we saw there was an opportunity for me to work for dad and then we found out the pathway that we could do it for. And it was definitely to go through homeschooling because everyone wanted me to finish my year 12, just so I have that certificate if I needed it. Yeah. So yeah, it was a few conversations. Then we decided that this is the way to go. Yeah, it happened very organically. That’s for sure.
Brett Campbell (06:54)
Something you said there that resonates, if I needed it, right? And I say that because when I did my apprenticeship, it was a four year apprenticeship, I was a cabinet maker by trade. Day one, I knew I wasn’t the thing I wanted to do. And my mom said to me, she goes, do it so you get the certificate in case you ever need it, right? And this is those beliefs that we have about systems in general, not just the schooling, it’s like throughout the entire world in many cases, whether you’re looking at the financial system or you’re,
health system, et cetera, is we’ve got these belief patterns around it. So would you say it was a fairly, fairly smooth, once you started finding out a little bit more information about it from day one, you’re like, this is the right decision or was it something that you had to learn to grow and uncover whether or not this was for you or not?
Brent & Maverick (07:43)
I remember when Mav spoke to me and he said, Hey, I found somewhere I can do homeschooling. Cause we put the emphasis back on him to the discovery around exploring the options of what providers to choose. And that he said to me, I remember this part actually quite vividly. He mentioned to me that he’s found a place that we can do homeschooling through. And it was Euka. And then he said, it takes care of everything that I need to take care of in terms of requirements, in terms of what we want to get, get out of it. And then at that point,
it was kind of like we jumped on a call with one of the onboarding team within Euka and it was really, it took a lot of any potential, I don’t know, I wouldn’t say stress or anxiety or angst, any uncertainty out of the decision would be the right way to put it. And it seemed to cover all bases quite comprehensively. And so once Mavid led that part, then it was like a no brainer and.
considering that I’ve been investing in the kids future at a private school in the Southeast of Melbourne and the fees to go were like, yeah, quite significant. I was like, hey, this is great. Let’s put that money towards other interests and passions so that you can explore that with everything that we’ve got, as well as also completing the traditional pathway as well. So once Mavid made that decision, once Mavid gone and led,
and found it and then reported, well not reported, but came back to me and his mum was kind of like tick tick and it was like all systems go and I was quite relieved actually to be honest that we found a pathway.
Brett Campbell (09:18)
What was a couple of things that you had a misconception about homeschooling that once you sort of started and got on board, you’re like, oh wow, this wasn’t true. Like this is what I, a belief I held previously and now it’s changed quite considerably. Did anything like that pop up for you?
Brent & Maverick (09:36)
What do you reckon? I’m not sure nothing that I can really think of.
Brett Campbell (09:39)
What
about, what about let me lead you somewhere with it, because these are the biggest misconceptions that most people have is, yeah, how are you going to socialize? You’re going have no friends and you’re going to be an outcast.
Brent & Maverick (09:49)
Right. Yeah. That one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’m like, I’m like the introvert extrovert. So when I’m working extrovert, when I’m like in my own time, very introverted, like deep thinker, um, like to spend time with myself, I enjoy my own company. Mav’s the most social person other than his mom, probably that I know when like, um, Mav you speak for yourself. However, the amount of groups and the friendship circles that he’s got outside of school, but including everyone he’s gone to school with a primary school and secondary school at
wasn’t even a factor and I think explain our but explore other interests in the busy life that we’ve all got. I think that’s one thing that actually homeschooling actually opened up yet a potential miss potential limiting belief or misconception about it all is that they need socializing. Yeah, kids need socializing. There’s more than one way to socialize and more on one way to skin a cat. Now, what do you reckon like your yeah, yeah. But in year 10, was
hanging out with mates outside of school. Like my main group of friends didn’t even go to the school I was at. So it wasn’t really a problem leaving school. I still had mates at school, which I talked to occasionally, but my main group of friends was outside of school. And a lot of them were actually leaving school to go get apprenticeships anyway. And so I didn’t ever think it would be a problem hanging out with them a fun time. I still hung out with them almost every weekend. So yeah, it’s good.
Brett Campbell (11:10)
Yeah. And that’s definitely an advantage of being more that secondary senior school age. Cause you know, if you’re coming from traditional schooling, then yeah, you would, you would hope that you’d have a network of friends or, or, you know, a few people that I, when I was younger and it’s, changed dramatically. Now I look at my nephews and their groups of friends, they got like group of 30 mates. And I’m like, my gosh, I could, I couldn’t handle that many. I, we had our tight three or four mates back in the day and we’d bounce around from group to group, know.
So this whole emphasis on you’re not gonna be socialized, you I always say that you actually now get to choose who you hang around with. You’re not sort of put in an environment where you’re like, gotta sit next to this person for the next.
Brent & Maverick (11:51)
That’s good, that’s good. Yeah, that’s true. Yeah, very much so.
Brett Campbell (11:56)
So let’s talk about the, I’m interested, cause one of the exciting things that homeschooling offers and the way in which we’ve created Yucca and the program and so forth is for ultimate flexibility, right? One thing that I loved about, know, when I first came across you guys was, yeah, you’re over in Bali, you’re surfing, you’re going to concerts, yeah, and you’re fitting in school, right? But that comes down to flexibility. And a lot of parents think that you have to run your school.
or run your homeschooling like you do at school, like it’s a nine to three situation. Talk to us about how you guys, and definitely open that it’s obviously fluid, how did you first set up your structure of making sure you’re getting through the learning?
Brent & Maverick (12:39)
Well, I think I sort of just took it on mostly just did it. I was sort of old enough to be able to manage it all myself. I found that the program was actually easy to look through and do all the work through. I was just pretty much just working during the days when I had gaps, I’d do the schoolwork and if I had to get anything done, I could just do it after school pretty easily.
Brett Campbell (12:57)
So how long would you say on average you’d spend a day?
Brent & Maverick (13:04)
maybe one, one, one and a half hours, one to two hours a day. But that would be with gaps between just doing it when I can in like, when I have breaks. So.
Brett Campbell (13:13)
and you still managed, the workload itself wasn’t enormous, you managed to sort of get through. There would have been days, I’m sure, where you might have spent a little bit more time. There’ll be days where you probably didn’t do any, right?
Brent & Maverick (13:25)
Yeah. Well, yeah, I found the workload was good. When we went to normal school, like I found it was pretty similar amount of work, except you’re not doing all the riff ruff, waiting for the teacher to talk, waiting for people to be quiet, moving class to class. It pretty much just compresses the whole school day into just the learning part.
Brett Campbell (13:43)
And that’s the beauty, like we recommend anywhere that sort of again, baseline 90 minutes to two hours is you can be done with your day and then you can focus on the rest of it. So were you working, so your old man had you up probably the crack of dawn, right, working.
Brent & Maverick (13:57)
yeah, exactly, cracking the whip! Cracking the shits!
Brett Campbell (14:02)
You’re want to
work, you’re up at 6am boy every day. So what else, what did you uncover through the working and then schooling? What do you find your sweet spot was? Because you would have trialled a narrative a few different ways of operating. What was the utopian outcome where you landed on how you could get the best out of, you know, still working, but also your schooling?
Brent & Maverick (14:32)
Um, I don’t really understand what you’re saying there. Yeah, I can, I can help a little bit. think, you know, Mav, Mav’s great, like really independent. Um, and probably, uh, a little bit more independent that I gave him credit for initially as well. And initially I like, I’ve been really, really hands off and I’ve got to give credit to Mav and also his mom is that I never really got too involved with the actual process of his homeschooling, like other than checking in with him.
Hey, how’s your schooling going? You’re getting everything done? Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. And I took a pretty lenient approach at times where I was pretty hard at times being a dad, like a 48 year old dad brought up in the 70s and 80s, a school of hard knocks and rocky movies. And the life back then was like very different to what it is now in society, very different.
At times I was like quite hard on him, but at the same time I was like just backed right off and allowed him to find his own rhythm and flow. And you know, there was times when Maverick had to say to me, he goes, what were you doing when you were 17 dad? Or what were you doing when you were 16? I’m like, yeah, he’s kind of got me there. so that was a good thing. He’d had enough of me like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, yeah, then he’d ask me that question. go, you know what? He’s got a point because where was I at that age? So I took a.
then started to like pull back. However, at times you needed to kick up the bum, but then you pull back and allow him to find his own rhythm and cadence with what he was doing. So does that answer the question? Yeah.
Brett Campbell (16:05)
Yeah,
absolutely. What would you enjoy most about homeschooling now? What did you enjoy about it most if you had to share some?
Brent & Maverick (16:12)
Yeah,
it’s 100 % the flexibility of it. The fact that I could do it from anywhere, anytime. When I was at normal school in year 10, I’d get a couple VCE classes and I actually failed those classes. Not because I wasn’t getting good test results, but because I just didn’t pass the attendance rate, the 80 % attendance rate. So the fact that could go do work from Bali, do work from anywhere and do school from anywhere, it just worked really well. It was great.
Brett Campbell (16:36)
Yeah, that’s amazing. And what would you say surprised you most Brent about the homeschooling experience?
Brent & Maverick (16:45)
What surprised me the most, how much it enabled our relationship, how it enabled our family. where me and Mav’s mum are no longer together. So we went our own different separate ways six years ago. And I wouldn’t say it helped bring the family not together, but just it was a lot more enabling like to accommodate for everybody’s needs and lifestyles. And there you go.
The most surprising thing was the way it enabled our lifestyles and each of our individual needs as a family. Even though we may not all be together, it was very enabling and allowed to, it took everyone. I don’t think it was a directly because of Euka, however, Euka definitely enabled it. And then we maximise the possibilities and the room and space it gave us as individuals as well. So probably one of the most very rewarding things about it, to be honest.
Brett Campbell (17:41)
Yeah, it’s the biggest benefit and it could also be the biggest Achilles heel for some families as well, because you have to have the autonomy to create the lifestyle that you want. you’re having a job nine to five and you got Monday to Friday and yeah, you got your one date night on a Thursday, maybe from seven till nine. It’s like when you live a life of structure, when you have no structure and you have to recreate your structure, it can be quite overwhelming for many people. But for those who, you know,
sit down and architect what their plan’s gonna look like. You do open those doors and those adverse sort of effects that you don’t know are gonna be a benefit end up being a benefit. I bet it’s brought you guys closer together as a father and son. I mean, I’ve got a daughter, three and a half. The more time I can spend with her, the better in my eyes because when she’s 18, 19, she’s gonna be out and about and I’m probably not gonna see her as much.
How would you say it’s changed your guy’s personal relationship?
Brent & Maverick (18:42)
Should we punch on now? So I’d say our relationship’s really real and really authentic. Like, there’s some days where we’re just like, we just need to get away from each other. But there’s some days where like, know, like, like hugging each other and laughing and integrating with members of the community and like in business in the city and meeting lots of different people. I know for me personally, when…
A lot of families I know are going through challenging times and families look different than what they did 20, 30, 40 years ago. And there’s a bit more like division within families. And I felt like there were some years missing there where we had a tradition, we had a week on, a week off arrangement, 50, 50s were going through a separation and divorce. And then I felt like I’d had lost time with my kids and not being able to see them every single day. then when,
When you could came along and then they’ve started homeschooling, started working together. I really felt like I was making up for a lot of lost time and any father out there who really values relationship with their kids and being a leader and leading by example for me, was, I was like, okay, this is really good. This is good for nourishment of my soul and my spirit. However, also to be able to, you know, lead by example and teach math, how to do life as well. He’s got, he’s got to figure it out for himself. However,
through the trials and tribulations of my life, I’ve been in lots of trials and lots of lessons learned. School of hard knocks and yeah, being able to pass that knowledge on as well in such a, what I believe is a really valuable time in a young man’s development in their teenage years as they’re coming into being a young adult. I was really grateful for that time. All that time we got to spend together. So we’re mates sometimes, we work together sometimes, we’re business partners and then there’s times where we’re like,
Maverick say something like to say something to me like, can’t we just be like dad and son and like just do stuff together without having to think about work. And that’s probably something I’ve learned as well, where it’s kind of like, don’t need to be messaging him at 6.30 in the morning about work stuff. I’ll kind of hold off and then I’ll, message him a little bit later on. So it’s been great to be honest. Yeah.
Brett Campbell (20:54)
Great segue, I wanted to ask what is something you’ve learned from Mav through this journey?
Brent & Maverick (21:01)
Mmm, what’s something that I’ve learned for me?
Learn, I’ve probably learned that he’s a lot more capable than potentially what I’ve given him credit for at different times.
Yeah, and he has surprised me a lot in terms of how well he’s approached. He’s taken the responsibility for his education. Literally, Brett, like, and Maville agree, I’ve really never really said anything. I’ve asked him a few questions. How’s all your schooling going? He yep, it’s all good. I go, you’re on top of everything. He’s like, So I’ve been quite, he’s an exceptional young man. And I’ve got to say when.
people meet me and people meet Mav. I kind of say, yeah, go talk to Mav. He’s great. He’s like a way better bloke than me as a joke. And he’s a fine young man that he’s developing himself into. yeah, I love him with everything I’ve got. I always have, you know, so I’m not sure if that answers the question.
Brett Campbell (22:04)
Absolutely does.
You have relationships and there’s this stigma or hierarchy that you learn from your father or you learn from your mother. like, I mean, I learned more from my three and a half year old indirectly in many cases, but I learned so much from being a father and watching your child. And to your point, when you were saying that you probably didn’t give Mav as much credit,
Yeah, I was even when you’re saying that I’m like, from my perspective is I almost have that element sometimes even with anyone in my life, because I have such a and I want to try to tie this back to this was the if you think this might have been the reason behind it is it’s not that I don’t necessarily give as much credit. It’s just that I want to help as much as I possibly can. And sometimes that may come across as enforcing that.
Hey, I know, and this is how you should do it. Oh God. So there are multiple ways to achieve something, you know? So, Mav, I want to ask you, what have you learned from your old man? What’s he taught you over the last couple of years as you’re going through this journey?
Brent & Maverick (23:07)
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, Haves I think, I think he just taught me how to be an adult pretty much. He’s taught me how to work hard, how to do stuff, how to go to meetings, just literally everything that I’ve been doing with work, he’s literally taught it all to me. So it’s pretty good. I’m not really sure what else you’ve taught me. Like you’ve taught me a lot over my whole entire life, obviously. Yeah.
Brett Campbell (23:40)
So, guys competitive?
Brent & Maverick (23:42)
Yeah, very competitive. Yeah, we are. Yeah. Yeah.
Brett Campbell (23:45)
Do
you guys have a list of things that’s like, I’m better at this, I’m better at that?
Brent & Maverick (23:51)
He hasn’t knocked me off yet. No, no, no, he’s joking. I’m not, you know, in the era that we live in, the society we live in, it’s this whole entitlement thing and people get awards for participating. I’m like, the real world out there ain’t like that. Well, it may have shifted a little bit. However, it will normalize. The out there is like the world out there today is still harsh, a harsh world. And boys, men especially need to learn that.
And he’s got to earn the right to knock me off my perch and he’ll get there. And it’ll probably be through like a few more years down the track. I’m 48 now. I push myself to continue to maximize life and what I’ve got to contribute to the world. And he’s going to have to earn the right to knock me off my perch. And then when he does do that, he can push me around in my wheelchair and I’ll put my feet back and enjoy it for every minute I’ve got of it. That’s for sure.
Brett Campbell (24:45)
Yeah. So I was telling the team the other day, was, I was in our swimming pool and we, we put my daughter in the pool from basically day one and yeah, she’s three and a half and she’s swimming, swimming freestyle. And she swims on like a whole length underwater of our pool. And like, she’s very water adept and she wants to race. She’s got this competitive nature and she’s like, let’s race that let’s race. And I never let her win a swimming race every so often. might slip on in, but you know, and she’s like, Oh, want to win. I’m like, that’s not how the world works, darling. got to actually.
Brent & Maverick (25:14)
So you gotta slip one in every now and
Brett Campbell (25:17)
Every so often. Yeah. Yeah. Destroy his soul, but you know, it’s, it’s one of those things. It’s a hard one because as a parent, you know, for myself, I want to be able to give everything to my child, giving everything is not giving everything in a tangible manner. It’s like you’ve got to, know, my, my mom used to tell me when I was younger, she goes, don’t touch the electric fence. Don’t touch the electric fence. I’m like, why? And I went and touched them and I’m like, okay, I get it now. There’s some things you just have to fall flat on your face with. Right.
Brent & Maverick (25:46)
Yeah.
Brett Campbell (25:47)
And
no matter how much you hear it from your mum or your dad, it’s you could hear it from a friend. You’re like, Oh, my friend told me this. And it’s like, I’ve been telling you that for years, but that’s life, right? You’ve got to figure it out yourself. got to figure it out yourself. So, man, what would you say to, to, you know, students out there listening to this or in a similar spot, you know, they’re, they’re 15, they’re looking at senior schools coming around the spot, grade 11 is coming up, grade 12, et cetera. What would you say to, to someone knowing that you were in that position?
you’re in that spot of deciding what sort of feedback or anything you can share.
Brent & Maverick (26:24)
Well, I think just to go for it. Like if you really can definitely considering going down this route and you’ve got a good plan to go with it, just go for it. reckon like there’s, nothing that I find that I’ve really regretted about doing it. Um, everything’s been positive and upside. I don’t feel like I’ve missed out on anything. I feel like I’ve actually gained more opportunities rather than lost them. And so I just think it’s great all around.
Brett Campbell (26:48)
Yeah, great answer. And what would you say Brent to any parents out there who are considering looking at it? What’s your thoughts?
Brent & Maverick (26:56)
Yeah, I think it’s important to always begin with the end in mind, not to sound too cliche. Have a loose plan, have something to follow and be prepared to show behavioral flexibility and adjust along the way because you might, because like what I always say to people, you don’t know what steps, like steps four, five and six are until you’ve taken steps one, two and three. So going with an open mind, be committed to what you’re going to do and just show that flexibility and adjusting along the way. And you’ll find if you’re not too rigid in your approach that you’ll end up
You’ll end up carving your own wave and finding your own path and it’ll probably end up where you want it to be or close to where you actually want it to be. So that’d be the piece of advice I could offer.
Brett Campbell (27:40)
If you had to describe each other in three words, what would those three, you have to describe each other in three words. What would you, I’m to go to you Matt first. How would you, how would you describe your dad? And we may need to lead into an intervention here, but we’ll see. How would you describe your dad in three words?
Brent & Maverick (27:57)
you
I would say proud. I would say.
hard and I would say I’m caring or loving probably. think just the those three words just because the way he’s taught me is quite hard but also he’s quite loving at the same time so I just think it that’s just the way he is so I think it’s good I think he works hard as well so that’s the way I describe to anyone I didn’t know him.
Brett Campbell (28:32)
Awesome. And back to you, Brent.
Brent & Maverick (28:36)
I’d
say incredible young man and then evolves to describe Mav in three words. Some of his characteristics I’d say he’s quite conscientious, he’s very conscientious, he’s intelligent and he’s getting there with being hard working. He’s not quite there yet however he’s getting there, he’s building his capacity, he’s doing great for his age so that’s more than three words, it’s three plus three plus yeah.
Brett Campbell (29:04)
Awesome. so what does next look like for you guys? I know Mav, you were just up here in the Gold Coast and yeah, you got to go, you went to Skoolies as well. So that I’m sure we won’t talk about none of that here, but I’m sure that was a great little trip. But what’s next? What’s after grade 12 for you guys? I know you’ve formed the partnership. So talk to us a little bit about that. I’m excited to hear more.
Brent & Maverick (29:25)
Well, Mav went to, he did a, like again, he took a non-traditional path to school. He went. I didn’t go to the Gold Coast. Made my way, just went camping in Tokamal, just on the Maurya River. Yeah. So not to the Gold Coast, but it still enjoyable. It was great. So. Yeah. There was a few weeks that went, wasn’t there? Yeah, that’s right. Well, Mav’s been like in terms of businesses. So I’ve got a tech company, my third one, don’t know how I got back into it, but I did. Long story. So Mav’s been.
Brett Campbell (29:35)
cool.
Brent & Maverick (29:54)
really doing an inside sales support role and like learning about business administration from the back end the last two years whilst he’s been doing homeschooling. So he’s earned the right, he’s put in a little bit of financial capital of himself and also like through, it sweat equity, he’s earned himself 20 % equity in the business. And so he’ll be taking on more of a sales support and also a business manager kind of role, type role.
Whilst I lead the strategic growth of the business and taking on more of a sales and marketing focus. Whilst I also build out my other business, is like leadership coaching and business coaching, which my cluster, my roster of clients is starting to expand. so yeah, we look like we have a loose plan in place. I’d like to have a roll up strategy in the past. I’ve built and sold a couple of businesses through the grind of acquiring customers and building revenue with each customer. I’m like, Hmm, kind of done that.
I want to do something a little bit more strategic. My brain is a 48 year old things very differently to what it does. Did as a 28 year old and 38 year old back when I was 28, I thought I knew everything. and then as you get a bit older, go, Hmm, I know a lot more now than what I did as a 28 year old. However, I really know nothing at all. It’s kind of very hard. I think it’s very humbling.
Brett Campbell (31:07)
The more you know, the more you realise you don’t know.
Brent & Maverick (31:09)
Yeah, a hundred percent. so continuing to, continuing to provide pathways for MAV to explore what lights him up. For me, that’s as a leader, if you know, any of the entities that I’ve had, I’m always about allowing people to play to their strengths and find their own path. And so as a leader of a man, young man, and also a leader of multiple entities, allowing that, creating that space for MAV to find his flow and
venture where he wants to go. And if that ended up being not inside any of the businesses that I’m working on, totally fine. Maybe I’ll have my 110 % support. And if it is in-
Brett Campbell (31:49)
Now, mate, you’re good. You got your equity. We can do a deal and sell it back to your old man. It’ll be fine.
Brent & Maverick (31:55)
I’m setting up for my exit and my payoff. So yeah, that’s the focus now.
Brett Campbell (32:05)
Mav, what are you most excited for in 2025?
Brent & Maverick (32:10)
Just life, I guess. Finishing school and just being able to really go out to the real world, I guess. I’ve sort of had a bit of like a test run at it, but now I’m finally an adult, got my driver’s license, being able to do what I want. It’s just great. I’m really excited for it.
Brett Campbell (32:24)
Yeah. Yeah. How, how it used to feel when I was 18. My goodness. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. awesome gentlemen. Well, look, I really appreciate having this conversation with you and especially sharing your journey and what it’s been like for you. And obviously on behalf of Euka, absolutely, you know, honored to, be able to be a part of that and help you guys through that, that process. And you know, it’s, I know just
Brent & Maverick (32:31)
sense of freedom.
Brett Campbell (32:53)
with parents listening to this and hearing your guys story and you will absolutely go out there and inspire you already have. Obviously, you’re on channel nine the other night. Ma’am, I’ve got your TV appearance. you know, the future looks bright. So any final parting words that you would want to share with any of our families who are listening in on this from either of you.
Brent & Maverick (33:17)
You go first, Mav and then, yeah. just think if you’re really deeply considering going through homeschooling, 100%, just go give it a crack. You can always go back to normal schooling if you find you don’t like it, but I reckon that you won’t. It was really fraying, really open, really easy. And I think it’s just a great thing all around. So just go for it. Yeah. And from a parent’s perspective for me, I’m just so grateful that Mav ended up finding Yuka and the platform and the pathway that it provided for us is
father and son and also Mav in his education, maintaining that and continuing that social network with friends. And then his other obligations as a family, as a son to his mom and brother to his sister. Yeah, we probably couldn’t have done it without Euka without, yeah, like there’s been no real, there’s been no hiccups whatsoever at all in at all. been a fantastic process. So.
Thank you to Euka and all our team there and whoever’s behind the scenes building the platforms and doing all that thing has been fantastic. And to you, Brett, of course.
Brett Campbell (34:21)
Thank you.
Brent & Maverick (34:24)
Yeah.
