It is hard to believe that Joel Jensen is only 32 years old. He has already built a large successful building business with a strong positive reputation which continues to grow. Joel has a love for the city of Lismore, a love of building, a love for his work family and a deep love for Britt and their four children. Joel sat down for a chat about his life.

I was born at Lismore Base and grew up in Modanville. Dad's still out there and later on, mum ended up in Lennox Head so I went between the two places.

Dad was born in Sydney and mum was born here but both went to school at Richmond River, that's where they met.

My grandparents are actually from Denmark. When the war was on, my fafa bailed because there was a bit of shit going on and he wanted a better life for his family. So, they got on a boat not knowing where they were headed and got off the boat in Newcastle or Sydney and ended up in one of those immigrant camps.

He had a strong work ethic and appreciated that Australia took him on. He started working in the steelworks in the '50s I think. Then they came for a drive up this way as they knew some people up here, they were a very tight-knit bunch off the boat.

So, they moved up and bought a piggery out at Whian Whian, Doroughby. That's how dad ended up up here. And then my mum's side are Hutley's so they had the butcher shop at Dunoon. The Hutley's are everywhere. Mum was there with nan and pop.

I went started primary school at Modanville and then finished primary school at Wyrallah Road. When mum and dad split up, dad was at Modanville and mum moved to Lennox, it just ended up being in between the two, sort of in town. So, I did most of my primary school at Wyrallah Road and then high school at Lismore High.

I finished my Year 10 certificate and started my apprenticeship the next day. I had already been doing work experience and knew what I wanted to do. That was with Kerry Witchard. He's still on Dunoon Road, he's an old-school local quality builder who's been around the traps for ages. He'd done his time with R&B who used to be the other big building company way back in the day in town. So, I did my apprenticeship with Kerry.

I started at the bottom, you know, sweeping and cleaning and picking up, just helping the trades. But Kerry and his two sons Jason and Matt, who were also tradies there, also taught me. They were always teaching and putting in a lot of effort into me. They were really good. They didn't just use and abuse me. Edda and Kerry are my aunty and uncle and Jason and Matt are my cousins so it worked out good.

I started when I was fifteen, hadn't quite had my fifteenth birthday yet so finished my apprenticeship and worked with Kerry until I started on my own. I always wanted to one day do my own thing. I just always loved building. Even when I was a kid building cubby houses, I've always done woodwork and always done metal work.

But to be honest, I don't even think I put a mark on my paper for my Year 10 certificate. I'm pretty sure I just signed the bottom and handed it in because I knew I was out, I already had my job.

I've always just loved it and I think you've got to in this job. In every job you have to love what you are doing but I think especially in building, you're not going to produce quality work and get the client relationships either.

Me and Britt got together when she was young too. She was 16 and I was 17 when we got together. Britt was from Maclean so she went to school in Grafton.

We met when we were about 10 and 11 when our families used to go camping at Brooms Head together every Christmas. Then when I got my Ps, I was thinking about her and I hadn't been to Brooms in a few years and I just sent her a message and asked if she still about. So, I drove down one weekend to see her and we hit it off. We have been together ever since.

I was still in town and used to travel down arvos or weekends as she went right through to Year 12. When she finished year 12, she moved here with me and went to Southern Cross Uni studying teaching in early childhood. That's when we got our first place, our first rental. Our first one was this little shack on Dalley Street and then we got another one in Hunter Street and then we ended up buying our first place in Dibbs Street.

I was about 20 at this stage and I wanted to go out on my own but I didn't know how to get the money behind me so I was working heaps of extra hours, whatever I could do on weekends trying to make more money. Then I was sitting in the pub one day with a mate of mine who had just got a job up in the mines, and he was back in town so we were having a beer and I said that sounds good and he says "do you want a job, Joely?"

Back in those days if you got a job in the mines you had to basically win a golden ticket. I said, "Yeah, that'd be great." It was a good way to get some cash behind myself and start the business. He jumped on the phone, rang his boss and said, I've got a mate here who's a chippy and I know you love tradies up there. And he goes, yep, I'll flick him through his itinerary. So, he got off the phone and he said to me, "You've got a job Joely."

This was done in about 15 minutes having a beer at the Rous. He said, you wanted it didn't you? And I said yes but I haven't asked Britt and haven't even told me boss and he's like, "Oh, you got your flights next week."

So, I went home and told Britt who said she'll support and then I had to go to Kerry which was really hard. I did ask him, I didn't just tell him and I said look, this is what I want to do, it's two weeks on two weeks off. If you'll let me, the two weeks I'm home I'll still work for you to give back. He was brilliant. He said this is a great opportunity.

Within the next week, I am driving to Moranbah just west of Mackay. I ended up on a drilling rig drilling for the underground mines. So we'd go through and drill and suck the methane out of the coal seam so that it was safe for the underground's to go in, and then they would take that back and then use that to power their equipment.

I did that for two and a bit years, fly in fly out so two weeks on two weeks off. We used to fly out of Brisbane and then drive back home. There were a few other blokes from Lismore, a few us mates that all went together. It was good, they put us all on one crew so we could share the driving.

I didn't want to waste the opportunity, so as soon as I got put on a salary and got my first pay packet, I said to Britt we've got to set ourselves up here so we've got to buy a house. Katrina Beohm had it on sale on Dibbs Street and I remember we walked in and I looked around and said I'll take it. I still remember saying to Britt, hey darling I just bought the house and she's like, oh, well, righto. We knew you know, it was the right thing to do.

Britt's a worker too. She was working two jobs at that stage as well plus uni. She comes from a hard-working background as well. Her mum and dad owned a butcher shop in Maclean, her grandfather owned the news agency in Maclean.

We had a game plan in mind. We started buying tools, we bought a tool trailer to get it all set up. And then while I was away, I'd work my shift through the day or night depending on what shift I was on and when I came back to my donga, I would measure jobs up when I was home for the two weeks and I'll do my quoting and that sort of stuff while I was up there. I'd win little jobs, you know, back then it was swinging doors or do a little deck or a landing or just little stuff here and there.

Then when I came home, I would do those jobs if I wasn't working for Kerry still and doing my own thing. I was just eager, determined and loved it, it was exciting.

I still had fun. We had a lot of good mates up there so we'd still get on the piss occasionally overnight and go back and do your thing in the donga. You wouldn't be doing it every night but most nights I was always doing something.

I got promoted up a fair bit and I was on a pretty good wicket on the drilling rigs and I was getting everything paid for, they paid for my flights, my food and I only worked six months of the year as that was the two on-two off. I remember coming home at one stage, we had bought a tool trailer, a ute and a few tools and work was really starting to ramp up. We had a waiting list already. I said to Brit, what do you reckon? Let's chuck it in and let's have a crack? We had $1500 in the bank and Britt, like she always does, said if you want to have a crack I'll support you.

I only ever went up there for the one reason was and that was to make the money because we didn't want to go into business with a debt. That was our one thing, we wanted to be self-sufficient. So yeah, we kicked off and then it just sort of exploded.

I was only 24 and being so young was an issue. I struggled with it a lot, especially because I was so keen.

The customer service side was my big thing, I wanted to do it a bit different. Tradies sometimes get a bad rep for not answering the phone or not calling back and I thought how easy is that, something that simple doesn't cost me anything and that can be my point of difference. So, I just made a solid effort that I never missed a phone call, or if I did miss a phone call and made sure it got returned or I left messages or if I was going to be late I made sure I told them. That was the spingboard I think.

It was just a really fun roller coaster but and then we started putting on staff. It was just me and my brother-in-law at that stage and and apprentice when Joshy Nichols "Bazza", who worked with me on the rigs too, a local boy, rang me and he said he was about to have a kid or just had a kid and said he wanted to come back to town. He was a chippy and he said I'm probably a bit rusty on the tools but give me a crack, and I'll pick it up again.

I was like yeah, bugger it Baz. I can't afford to pay you that much at the moment I'm struggling but as we start growing I'll take you with me. He said, yep, so he believed in me to and he's been with me ever since, he's still here today.

We had a really tough time early on. We were set up with a pretty ordinary bank that sort of stitched us up a bit. I'm getting a lot better at it now, but we never liked to ask for help. We like to do things on our own and learn. I hindered us at the start because we set ourselves up in a few silly ways just trusting people.

We got set up on a credit card system and so we were just paddling. Rather than having an overdraft for the business so we could buy materials and then get paid because we didn't have the cashflow as you don't get paid until you finish the job. You're paying all your trades and everything like that. It all went on the credit card.

I remember saying to Britt at one stage, is this worth it? The one stat that kept me going was I remember reading a thing that said, 90% of small businesses fail in the first two years or something like that, it's a massive start. And I remember that was my first goal, I'm not going to be that stat. So, getting that two years was my first aim.

I knew that I had to sort something out so I ended up getting a good mate of mine, Matty Barber, who also runs CNM Garage Doors and was coaching footy for Marist Brothers at that stage, he was giving me some advice and he said if you don't mind me asking have you got a good accountant? I said not really and he said bloody hell Joely, if you don't mind I want to take you for a meeting. If you don't like him, don't worry about it and if you do great.

So, he took me to a meeting with Max McLennan who was a well-known accountant with TNR and he was just about retiring at that stage. I don't know if it was a bit of a right timing or it was just meant to be but I became a little bit of a project for him I suppose. He took me and Britt under his wing. He then introduced me to Nigel Rumble at NAB, who is another great local man, he was head of Lismore Business Banking at that stage. Anyway, he looks what we were on at the other bank and helped get us sorted and got us set up and running properly.

Within the space of a year, we were a totally different business. Max then passed us on to his son Andrew, who started his own business about the same time as us and I've been there ever since. We've grown together.

At the moment, we've got 20 on wages. I don't know how much we're pumping out, new homes, renovations, semi-commercial stuff. We are doing pubs, we've got contracts doing stuff with all the banks, police stations and service stations. It's pretty wild. We run four main crews now and I think our next start date is pretty well the end of this year.

I never had a dream of what I want to be or I never had any envy of look what he's got. Honestly, it was just that good people wanted to join us. As we started to get busier or a good job came up and I thought we can do that or I wouldn't mind having a crack at that, we're going to need an extra bloke and it just sort of grew. All local fellas and we use all local trades, all local suppliers, we just sort of created this family. It's really pretty special.

Some people say it must be a headache having that many staff. Honestly, it's not. They all not only have the company's best interests at heart but me and Britt. And not only that, they all want to do a good job because they're proud because a lot of them have been here to create it so it's their baby as well. They're proud to walk around in JJC shirt. We wouldn't be where we are without them.

Britt's finished her teaching degree and was just getting into the prac side and she fell pregnant with our first so that sort of slowed her up from the teaching side. She really wanted to be a stay-at-home mum to the kids, which I would love too. So we made the decision that she'd stay home and raise the kids. Then as the business started to explode, basically on the back of a bloody rocket, she had the kids at home and then she's taken over the books, so she runs the bank account, she does the pays, she pays the suppliers.

Britt starting coming into the new premises a couple of days a week and now she does three days.

In the early days, we didn't have an office as yet, we just worked out of our garage in Dibbs Street until we outgrew that because the neighbours starting to get the shits when we started to grow because at six o'clock in the morning we're loading trucks. It got to a stage where we had outgrown that. So, that's when we moved into Kevin Gava's shed in Snow Street, who's got Gava Bricklaying in town and another good mate who was a mentor when we started. I met him when he was President of the Marist Brothers footy club at that stage.

We set up a little office in there, that was our first little box with one room with one computer at the end. We were there till we got wiped out in the 2017 flood and then we moved from there to here. Wayne and Sally Sullivan rang me, we were doing all their work at the same time, and they said we've got this place Joely, can you come and fix it up? I said how about I rent it, I'll take it as it is now and I'll turn it into our own. And then it got wiped out proper this time, it went bloody over the roof.

We've got four kids. Nari is eight, Tallis he's five, Hayes he's three and Oaky's two. Yeah. That's it, we're finished. It's awesome, we love it but it's been a pretty hectic time and you throw in two floods and COVID and everything else but we're pretty proud of the resilient side and the network and how strong we were able to build the business that we're not reliant on anyone. So, through the hard times, we've never ever had to lay-off any employees.

Outside of work and the family, I'm back with Marist Brothers footy club again.

I started playing for Marist Brothers when I was 13 or 14. I only ever played for them so went through into seniors, 18's, reserve grade and first grade.

I had a fair trot of injuries, I don't know how many lots of surgery I'm up to, both knees, wrist, thumb you name it. I don't regret any of it. I met some lifelong friendships and even the success of the business has got a lot to do with the footy club as well through connections and meeting people and support.

So, now I'm on board again, me and Britt have sponsored the club for the last five years as well and then this year, I'm one of the assistant coaches for first grade. I'm going to try and do a lot like about head, strength, heart, passion, that sort of thing as silly as it sounds, but dedication and work ethic.

The main reason we've gone back and done it this year is for town. We want to win a premiership for town. So myself, Matty Barbers the head coach, and then Mick Davis and Mark Bellman all got chatting after the flood last year when Barbs rung us all up and said let's go and have a crack and try and win a premiership for town.

We've got David Mead who only last year was still playing and captaining his country and played NRL at the highest level. He was a local junior, went to school here, played for Marist Brothers. We have club stalwarts like Paul O'Neil, Lochy Perrin and Mitch Kraus that have been slugging away for years so it will be really special to to get them a premiership as well.

There is a really good vibe at the moment. They are all positive, training the house down, all full of energy, no whinging and no complaining. It's really been refreshing for me to be part of again, it's exciting.

Me and Brett have come back with different headspace this year, too. We can all say that last year was shit and I think I only just made it to Christmas, I was just about flogged out. We had a good break over Chrissy and we sat there and said, we're going to have a good year this year, we're going to enjoy it and it's going to be positive, good vibes.

We're all going to win this year, Lismore's going to win, Brothers are gonna win, JJC's going to win. It should be good. Good for town and good for everyone.