In this episode, she takes us on a colourful journey from New Zealand to Australia. From feuds with the bank over forklifts to rundown shops and a million-dollar deal, Fisher shares her lowest lows and highest highs. Indeed, what may seem like just a $5,000 forklift was actually the catalyst that propelled her to success in her riveting property journey. Discover how her unwavering belief in herself helped her turn her life around through investing!

Timestamps:
00:01:12 | From Gardening To Property Development
00:02:10 | A Knack For Adventure
00:07:12 | A Day In The Life
00:10:13 | The Early Years
00:13:04 | Experience>Education
00:15:25 | The Shift To Property
00:18:46 | A Leap Of Faith
00:21:26 | Starting Up
00:22:44 | A Run-In With The Bank
00:26:54 | The Forklift
00:28:05 | Standing Her Ground

Resources and Links:

My business partner said to them, ‘So what is in your mind? How do you believe that people actually succeed? Like, what is the difference between succeeding and failing in property projects in industry?’ And they turned around and said ‘Simple’. They said, ‘it's the people that believe in it, are the ones that actually succeed’. And as you know, I've lived by that for a long time. If you don't believe in it, don't waste your time. 

 

This is Property Investory where we talk to successful property investors to find out more about their stories, mindset and strategies.

 

I’m Tyrone Shum and in this episode, we’re speaking with Property Inc. Founder Melissa Fisher. A successful businesswoman and developer, she gives us insight into the dedication and passion required to transform a gardening supply side-hustle into a business empire. Plus, she unveils a story of how an ugly conversation with a bank led her to buying a forklift!

 

 

Tyrone Shum:  

Fisher is a successful businesswoman through and through, and she gives an overview of how exactly property became an integral aspect of her career. 

Melissa Fisher:  

I have been in business for a very long time, and I say more years than I care to actually admit. I had my first [business] when I was 21, which [is] a very pivotal point in my life. And I've been in business for myself ever since. 

So property hasn't been a forever thing. But it's certainly been an integral part of my entire journey. So now I still run multiple businesses for property tech platforms, property developers by nature, I coach students in property. I- that keeps me fairly busy as the other life I have [is] a commercial pilot's license. I love flying. I love getting out, and doing adventurous things. I certainly love being out in nature, enjoying sunshine, and, and all those wonderful things that go with life as well.

Tyrone Shum:  

Though many of us may have dreams of climbing mountains and exploring nature, Fisher is someone who has followed through on those dreams. 

Melissa Fisher: 

I love hiking. So a few years ago, and I say a few years ago now: it was 2019. So pre world events, I will hike to Kilimanjaro as a preload in a couple of weeks over in Africa. Absolutely incredible experience. So [I] love the Saturday morning walks to go and get coffee, which might be a 12k, walk right to the Let's climb a mountain and experience what that's all about. 

So I've done it in many places across the world, I'm great. Getting out and experiencing different locations and doing it on foot, it's just a very, very different way to do it really allows you to immerse into the whole experience of why you are going to places and culture and nature and all of those things. So that is a great time to get out of your head and back into you know, the other the other they have that other side of life.

It was... it's seven days from start to finish. You can do it in five. But seven days from start to finish, we wanted the entire experience. And the reality of it is what they do is they start teaching you to do everything slowly. And it's quite interesting because I'm very busy. So I'm going all the time for the first couple of days, it is just doing everything at a very slow pace. And you don't really appreciate why until you get to the peak. And it's because you can't do it any other way but at a slow pace.

So they really are teaching you and priming you to be able to achieve what it is: getting to the top. And also acclimatized due to the lack of oxygen that's that's going on. So the first few days were very slow. They take you to a point where they're doing blood checks constantly, just blow up blood oxygen checks to make sure that you're going to make the top successfully healthy, and be able to get back down again. amazing views you get super well looked after. Like by nature, they're beautiful people, but they make sure you're very well looked after. You're very healthy the entire time. Some like I said stunning, stunning views. 

Fisher was not keen to settle for mere 'stunning views'. Just like in her career, she was determined to make the most of her hiking experience.  

The night of, we left about 11 o'clock at night to do the last part of the hike and they ask you what you wanted. And I'd said to them I want sunrise so I want to be at the summit for sunrise. They said ‘Yeah, you and everyone else’. Okay, let's see. So 11 o'clock at night you are rubbed up with everything you've possibly got with you. Because it is cold down to minus 18 degrees is what it comes down to. So it's cold. 

It's a very different type of cold. It's not a measurable bleak cold at all, but it is - be very prepared. We take bottles of hot water with us because they don't stay hot for long. They don't stay with [me] for long either. So [a] very specific process to make sure that you can remain hydrated getting up there. Because like I said, you've got ice and no time. So [at] 11 o'clock it was sunrise when we made it to the summit. The most heavenly view. 

And it's really interesting because flying [to] a lot of places you see [the] sunrise many times out the window of a plane. There's nothing quite like the achievement of actually climbing to that altitude. And still being able to breathe will be incoherent because we learn alot about about oxygen levels from flying. So we're very conscious of what [we] can actually do to get there and actually experiencing sunrise under those circumstances was just incredible. An incredible experience. I took us for the four days from start to finish to get there a lot faster going down. 

So, [on a] particular day, you only come down to a point and then it's just rest for the rest of the day, get the oxygen happening again, look after yourself. And then it's only two days to actually do the rest of it. So an incredible experience. I recommend it to anyone to try. It really does. If you struggle getting out of your head, go and do it. You have no other option. And it's a great experience with the culture over there as well how they see things - different perspectives on life. A lot of levels. So yeah, it was incredible. Incredible. 

Tyrone Shum:

To those of us listening at home who have always wanted to climb a mountain, perhaps this is our sign to finally say: I’m going to go out and do it. 

Melissa Fisher:  

That's what I like to hear. That's actually what I like to hear. Obviously, life's about experiences. So rack them up, absolutely get out there and enjoy it. And that's one that I've just...it'll always be a highlight of life, that one. Just for  many reasons. But yeah, you've really got to push yourself. You really push yourself to, to achieve it. So yeah, it's great on a lot of levels.

With no moments to spare, Fisher makes the most of each and every day—especially her sunlit hours.  

Melissa Fisher:  

I get up early. I'm absolutely an early person. And I love that. So I have a routine that I go through personally, every morning as far as a little bit of journaling and, and defining what life is actually about. Defining what it is that the days actually look like for me. And then it is at pace. That is, I do exercise, so it's either walking or it's gym every single morning. And then it's into the day. 

And realistically, I have multiple teams, various businesses, so it's on calls with them, supporting them, making sure they got good direction. And then when there'll be plenty of meetings, to go along their projects to look over their feasibility to check through. So we're irrelevant to how much or how little we have project wise going on. Believe me, there's never a day where there's nothing to do. There's research on new areas as councils to speak to, the State Government to speak to, and then the day is done. 

Of course, Fisher is only human. And just like the rest of us, she needs time to recompose herself from her busy life.

Days —some days —  I just block a day out to say there's no meetings, there's no phone calls, it's now back into the solid. [It] might be research: a day of going through a new area and, and seeing you know what's actually happening or a day of mapping out what's going on with [the] State Government, what their future plans are, and then how we can integrate with some of those things. 

So sometimes, [I] really do have to block out big chunks of no times because they get consumed with meetings and demands and emails and all of those things. Yeah, so busy days, but they're very rewarding days. I love it. It's very, it's very people oriented. Yeah, so it's a lot of time talking. But a lot of time, a lot of time around people as its brand. This is property for me as it's a people game. So yeah, I do spend a lot of time out there and amongst people and get to the end of the day, and eventually I'll take a little bit of wind downtime. 

Probably the hardest part of my life is the wind at the end of the day. Because like I said, they'll always be something to do so have to be very conscious about saying, ‘Stop, shut it off [that] other side of life’. There's other things to do. Summertime, I love [it] because we have daylight savings. So it extends the day out, it can be a light walk, and it's still daylight in Victoria. And these sort of things, it is a bit more of a struggle.

 It's cold, so it's okay to be inside. So it's okay to keep doing things. So [I’m] a little bit more conscious. As far as I pick up a good book, at the end of the night, then it's a wind-down, pick up a good book, shift out of the headspace of all things business and property and into a little bit of new news or, and that's someone else's journey. I love reading. I love reading biographies and autobiographies and sort of things. Yeah. 

I do love busy days, especially when they're productive. You know, when you're actually... when you've got a purpose behind what you're doing and you love it. Being busy is... it's not the end of the world.

It is safe to say Fisher’s determination was practiced young. Constantly on the move, Fisher was able to adapt to her rapidly shifting life and invest in her own future.

Melissa Fisher:  

I was actually born in New Zealand. Right? So I was born in a little town called Dineen, which is right down the south in New Zealand. And my parents and my father way back then was a builder. So going back quite a few years now, he was a builder and when they came over to Australia to build my uncle's house. So we shipped. They packed us up as kids and they bought us out here for 12 months while my dad built my uncle's McMansion, we called it at the time.

It was great, and we loved it. It was a very different climate, a very different everything. So we did our 12 months at school here, and then we went back to New Zealand. Mum and Dad then went to work on selling everything and getting rid of the house and packing us up. And then we shifted back over here. 

Oh, we live in. So I was brought up again. They went from small country town to small country town, though. So I was actually caught up in a little town called Lake Gildan. So very small town, very big lake. So needless to say, I got into water sports as a kid. That's what we did. Summer doings was water skiing, swimming and horse riding. That was what Eldon was all about in those days, so absolutely loved, it could not think of a better place as a kid to actually be brought up that has a huge amount of experiences and opportunities. 

From that perspective. Not a lot from a work perspective, for sure. But it really applies to everyone, you everyone. I say you couldn't get away with anything. But it was also one of those places where there was never any concern about being able to walk to a friend's place or go and do something. It's a very, very great environment as a kid to be brought up. We learnt that... we learnt a lot. 

Early in age, we also learnt to work early in age as well. So that supported our habits because skiing and stuff is not cheap. So you learn to earn these things, which was great. I couldn't fault it. But I left there early when we shifted from New Zealand over to Australia, the school systems there are different. So you start all earlier over there. So it meant that when I finished school here I was still young.

 I was only just turned 16, packed up from like Gildan because again, very little job opportunity and shifted to Melbourne. So we're talking a town of 300 in the middle of winter, which was 1000s during summer because it's very, very tourism based at the time so to Melbourne, which was a very interesting, very interesting contrast to say the very least. But again, another incredible, incredible step in life, to be able to step out of a little country town and experience [the] big city. [I] started my first job in an accounting firm. So that served me well.

Tyrone Shum:

Maybe a more common experience than society lets us believe, Fisher shares her thoughts on the value of education - or perhaps the lack thereof. 

Melissa Fisher:

When I left school, I left school because I didn't get a lot out of it. I was good at school, I had no problem with that. But I really got nothing out of it. I wasn't feeling as though I was heading in a direction or I was achieving anything and, and I was working as a kid. My mum had gone and she had bought a cafe, a little restaurant so they were doing business. They were doing their things. 

And at that age, I was looking for a whole lot more. So needle and foot whether it be unfortunate or not. And I said, I don't live with regrets because I've got out to experience life and I certainly learnt from that. I didn't go on to university. I didn't want to get educated, so I decided way back then  that life was about experience and I'll learn on the run was pretty much the attitude around it. And believe me, I learnt on the run. But I did. I left, I got a great job. 

That was [what] my mom had said to me: 'You're not leaving school unless you got a good job to go to'. Right. Find a good job then. So way back then, this was [when] I left school and I had a job as a Girl Friday at an accounting firm. Because while they have this expectation of me doing more things, filing and collating paperwork, I'm just like ‘show me where the tax returns are’. So let me work this out. And I was always very intrigued and curious about how things worked. 

But also went, 'just let me have a go'. So I spend an amount of time with them and I probably would have been one of their most annoying employees. I've done my job, give me yours. Let me have a look at this. And it was great. I loved it. It was a great experience. And I went on to various other small jobs like that until the age of 21, where I started my own business in... it was a garden supplies [store]. Again, in a small country town and Gippsland which is east of Melbourne. Garden supplies and [then] turn[ed] that into a garden supplies, building supplies and transport business. 

Looking back on her upbringing, Fisher looks at the impacts that her father’s job as a builder may have had on influencing her own interest in property development. 

You know, we want to get to that 'where do you start in property?'. We'll all have reference points. But as you're under, you actually really stop and think about where property actually had an impact on my life over my lifetime. Like I said, my dad being a builder actually would have had an impact at the time. And certainly it's given me [the] position to leverage from over time, that business, a massive milestone into what the industry actually looks like, from a different perspective. 

Certainly, definitely getting to know trades and how they operate and all of those sort of things way back then. And pricing, we've priced up many, many jobs so, so a long time ago, I learnt a lot of those things, didn't implement them for a lot of years, but certainly learnt a lot about it back then. But I left when I left that job, I took that position [in] that small business and went into transport. So I spent quite a few years in transport and the transport industry at a trucking company. For a while I drove trucks. So another... quite funny. I did. I drove trucks for quite some time. It was... I say it was a milestone in my life. 

I remember you know, ever being that child where someone says to you, what are you going to do when you grow up? With absolute clarity, I was going to be a truck driver or a barrister. Saw something like that in there as well just to mix it up. But a truck driver or a barrister and I always find that recollection quite amusing. Because I did. I went in and I drove semis for a while. 

We had our own tip trucks and quite a few contracts for a long time. Absolutely loved it had [a] great impact in the industry. That made a lot of sense. Logistics make sense to me and a lot of it is numbers-orientated. So I've had a lot of fun, met a lot of people [and] made a lot of new friends out of it, like I said, at various different projects along the way. I managed other businesses for people. I've got to restructure some of their businesses through that industry.

So it headed [towards] me. It just did, it steered me in a direction.

Coming up after the break, Fisher reveals the frustration she felt that led her to start her own company…

There's more to life than this is... more to experience. And it'd become quite frustrating. To the point that I have that attitude [that] says, 'Well, if I can't find it somewhere else, I'll make it myself'

The obstacle that almost ended it before it began…

So it's like, how am I going to make this happen? And so he sat there and he said to me, 'You can't borrow money'. 

She teaches an important message of self-belief and determination that we can apply to our own journeys of success.

Because you're never ever going to get the results you want if you don't back yourself. Absolutely. All the way. 

And that’s next. I’m Tyrone Shum and you’re listening to Property Investory.

Tyrone Shum: 

Fisher never wanted to settle. Not sure she was willing to take the paths life offered, Fisher recounts the process of paving her own way. 

Melissa Fisher:  

It's very interesting. Because thought process wise, while I was looking at what jobs are out there [I] just go: this is just not great. This is because I left school because I wasn't getting anything out of it. I just had this great need,  this desire, hunger for [more], and I wasn't finding it. And even through the jobs that I'd had done, there's more to it than this. 

There's more to life than this is... more to experience. And it'd become quite frustrating. To the point that I have that attitude [that] says, ‘Well, if I can't find it somewhere else, I'll make it myself'. That's just it. So it's like, okay, this particular small town where I'd ended up shifting out of Melbourne to go 'Wow, okay, there's an opportunity'. 

And I have no idea how I'm going to do this because I have literally no idea about any of that, except I enjoy being outside, I enjoy the garden, I can talk to people. So I've got an understanding of how these things can work. I've had an amount of business understanding through watching my parents and then the accounting firm that I was at. 

This, it's very much business orientated, their clients. So what was fine, have a go? What's the worst that can happen? Anyway, and it did well, we did quite well. I learnt a lot on the run. I learnt a lot about the actual structure of business, what works, what doesn't work, the challenges that you've got to overcome, and we're in a time then where interest rates were 18[%]+. 

Three per cent over interest rate and an overdraft. So you factored it in. It was what it was at that point. And luckily enough for me, I knew no different. I didn't have other reference points to start seeing this. And this is too hard. So it was a great thing. Leaning in at that point in time was great because I learnt a lot out of it. Learn how to overcome challenges in a business that was small at the time and allowed me to play around with it, grow things, see where it went. 

Certainly gave me amazing insights into collaboration, working with other businesses, projects that we got on, contracts that I got through that were just amazing. So great. It was a great sounding board, but it just came off the back of: there was not a lot of what I, in my mind, consider to be good work around that I was going to enjoy and want to spend a lot of time doing. So full of 'I can't find it, create it'.

Having learnt a lot from her youth, Fisher relays for us the small, first steps she took to start her own business. 

Melissa Fisher:  

That business started off being a small garden supplies [business] and then, pushing that out to building products and working with trays, you've got to deliver things. So we had a small truck at the time and that truck, you didn't actually need a truck license for. So that that was the start of yes, we got a couple of tracks. 

And now we pay a lot of money to get all of our products cut in. Can we actually do that cheaper? What does it look like if we had our own trucks and then if I have them, they're not running 24/7? Doing what we can do. So what else do I do with them? How do they actually support themselves and make money? So it was a constant. 

And then from there it was...well, there's the Princess Highway at the time [that] was being duplicated. So there was a lot of work happening on that highway. So we'll see, we know, we could probably pick up some contracts with them. And then, when that finishes, we'll put another driver on it. We can cut stuff into our yard. Let's see how this works. 

So it was... it was a snowball effect from wanting to service our own business to start off with. Yep. And then looking at: what else can we do with these? How can we actually expand this so it becomes more successful? Every step of it, there's always something to learn. 

Tyrone Shum: 

No business is without problems. Remembering her financial struggles in launching her business, Fisher shares the problem-solving strategies she had to implement to push through obstacles.

Melissa Fisher: 

You realise that that is what business is about. [It] is about solving problems. I remember, I remember when we first... when I first started that business, and we started getting things bought in on pallets, [we're] gonna need a forklift. And it's not like I had a huge amount of money. We started this business on nothing. 

So there was a need to negotiate things. We borrowed a forklift from the business that was next door to us. They were great. They were a machinery business, they had forklifts. They said 'No problems, just come and grab this one whenever you want'. And it was a really old heavy forklift. It made no difference to me. It did the job. It meant I didn't have to hand unload pallet loads of stuff and have cranky drivers because I'm taking too long. So from that perspective, okay, so I know I can use this, but I want my own. I don't want to be inconvenienced. If they're not open, what do I do? How do I actually, how do I work through this? 

So we go up to the bank, and back. Then we're talking $5,000 going to the bank, and I say to the bank, I need a forklift, and I can buy one from next door. It's $5,000. I'd never borrowed money in my life at that point. So it's like, how am I going to make this happen? And so he sat there and he said to me, 'You can't borrow money'. And I said to him, 'Why not?' And he said, well, he said 'First, $5,000 for a forklift'. He said, 'We need to see some sort of security. What are you going to give us, how are you going to pay it back?' And in my mind, I knew how I was going to do it. But I'm like: ‘okay, so I have to learn how to actually position this a little bit better clearly’.

Well, they're pretty painful. I've marched off with a no. Saying no is not going to work. How do I actually, how do I get past that? How do I find another way around it? And a little bit of a struggle to go, 'Well, who do I actually ask?'.  Because, in my mind, the time and still quite young so that the bank is what you know. It's... it was just what you're taught. That is what happens. No, it wasn't how it happened. 

But I did get a letter in the mail that said there's a credit. You could get a credit card and you can get this $1,000 credit card and I went well. $1,000 isn't $5,000 but it might be enough to have that, and then the bank [will] be able to give me the rest. Let's see what and I think I just became annoying to the bank eventually... He's just going, 'She's not going to go away', and again it was... it's those moments that are pivotal moments where you go 'wow'. It's this: a no is not a no forever, it's just a not like that or not at the moment. So where to from here? So that was, it was a constant that was. It was no different to 'I want a new truck'. 

Okay, so, so now how do we actually achieve it without having to jump through the normal hoops that we go through, which taught me a lot about negotiating, taught me a lot about speaking to other people, being able to ask for something and be okay that sometimes it's a no. Sometimes those no's come with another direction of you could go and speak to these people, you could try this. But it taught me a lot about collaborating. Because every challenge along the way, there was another business or another person or another opportunity that I got to play with. Work three things, work and achieve an outcome. 

So that way back then they were amazing opportunities for me at the time, but very pivotable moving forward into everything that I do now. And it's...those are the things that I've never forgotten. When and now the  size of the challenge just changes. Okay, so when challenges happen now, you might have a COVID coming flying through. Those are the things that I remember that just go you know what, it's never a no forever. 

It's a... it's a check in to look at things differently.

Tyrone Shum:

Though Fisher did get the forklift, it was about so much more than just overcoming an obstacle for her. It is what success is to her. 

Melissa Fisher:

What my forklift was, was no, was that I was never settling. And I knew, I didn't know well enough back then. So, it was persistence that got that through. It was just sheer persistence of,  'okay, that didn't work. I'll try this. Let's go again'. So yeah, persistence definitely got me the result. 

But again, it's one of those things that ...that even now it is that ability to not give up too soon, that gets the best results, that actually sees things through. 

A very interesting conversation with a company we're working with on a project only the other day, and my business partner said to them, 'So what is it in your mind? How do you believe that people actually succeed? Like, what is the difference between succeeding and failing in property projects in industry?' And they turned around and said 'Simple'. They said, 'It's the people that believe in it, are the ones that actually succeed'. And as you know, I've lived by that for a long time. If you don't believe in it,  don't waste your time. That's right. It's not enjoyable, you've actually got to believe in what you do.

For Fisher, it wasn't smooth-sailing after her forklift dilemma. She reflects for us the importance of passion in your work and yourself as she overcomes yet another obstacle.

Melissa Fisher:

I...very quickly, my transport life was very much based around understanding the industry, being able to work with other businesses, the logistical side of it made sense. But being able to create great outcomes was incredible. We got a massive challenge as the highway was duplicated, where they were now going to cut off the service road to my little garden supply business. I thought, ‘that's not going to happen’. 

They did it in a way that they didn't engage all of the businesses to say 'this is how it's going to work'. They did put paperwork out, but unless you are in amongst all the right forums and everything, it can slip past quite easily, which I thought was a little bit frustrating. But that was okay. Eventually, it came to my attention that this is what was happening. 

And I said, 'well, no, it's not that that's not an option, actually, because that means that first I can't get my trucks in conveniently, and then my customers inconveniently either. So it wasn't just about me, it was about our businesses, because there was a group of us along them. So we had to go into a fight. And literally, you're now talking about people that design highways. Not just the bank over a $5,000 loan. 

Again, it was collaboration, it was being able to speak to the guys from Vic Roads and say, 'What do I do about this?'. Because, I don't know who to go to. And, I don't actually know how to fight that. But all I know is that I can't do nothing, because that's seriously detrimental to our businesses. And I'm also working on these projects. 

So now I've got a massive conflict that's going on. If I'm going to create something, I want it to be beneficial, not something that's going to damage our business. How did this come about? So we worked through it, the guys were amazing. They said, 'We can show you where the design faults are. And then you can actually go back with some information to present to them and [say] let's do this differently'. And I went, Oh my gosh, 'I love you guys. You're amazing'. So they worked through it with me. And then we got out there and we're measuring things. 

And so again, I learnt a lot about how they designed the players that are actually involved at that level. And then certainly how to get an inroad into  a meeting that is required and definitely about 'don't give up too early'. Because you're never ever going to get the results you want if you don't back yourself. Absolutely. All the way. Certainly got our service road and our turning road that we wanted. So we're super happy about that. Again, this is another one of those moments that throughout life is something that I can often reference to, to save against. 

In the next episode of Property Investory, Melissa Fisher explains how she overcame the biggest challenges of her business.

He's sitting there to go,' how the hell do we make it work? When do we give up on this?'. We went 'well, you know, your... giving up is not an option'. 

When to cut losses in business…

We auctioned it off, it went to an offshore investor, which is... that's probably the hardest part for me is that it didn't remain local. 

She teaches us a lesson on what everyone may need to hear when we are searching for success.

Because we can all sit there and go, 'I want. Why isn't it happening for me?' So sometimes you have to stop and breathe and say, 'Okay, so who do I need around me?'.

And that’s next time on Property Investory.