Tony Wu is the co-founder of Weploy Group, which is made up of two businesses: Weploy CX, Australia’s largest pre-vetted customer service on-demand platform; and TalentTap, a SaaS platform helping service based SMEs with managing their workforce solutions
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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
I’ve felt like I’ve lived two parallel careers up to date. One being a very entrepreneurial journey, and the other very focused on sales & marketing.
In my entrepreneurial journey I started my first business at 18 (an online music streaming business) but unfortunately the days of dial up meant we were too early.
After that I’d founded a number of businesses ranging from online to traditional, some failing miserably and others succeeding in an exit. In my “professional” career I started on the phone in telemarketing, and then joined Telstra’s business team and helped enterprises with their ICT solutions.
After that I worked at MYOB helping their clients move from traditional to cloud, and finally running a business unit within a multinational Recruitment Agency.
In 2017 I co-founded Weploy Group after experiencing first hand problems within the recruitment industry.
Weploy comprises two businesses today; Weploy CX which is Australia’s largest pre-vetted customer service on-demand platform and TalentTap, a SaaS platform helping service based SMEs with managing their workforce solutions. My main focus within the group is to help drive the growth of these businesses.
2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
First thing I do in the morning is check my Oura ring stats to see how I slept and how my body is for the day. After that I take my two dogs (Brooklyn and Harlem) out to play or for a walk.
Then I read the AFR to see what’s going on. After that I normally check my Asana list to see what I need to do for the day, and check my comms to see if there is anything urgent requiring attention.
Once I’m across this, it’s pretty straight forward – I get to work. With WFH being the norm now I try my best to cook something for my partner and I at lunch, and usually try to switch off from work whilst eating lunch (normally either conversing with my partner or watching an episode of the Office) and then it’s back to work.
I try to focus on a pretty disciplined work/life balance so normally I’m done by 5:30, with some occasions needing a later night. Then it’s some kind of exercise, whether it’s a jog or me and my partner will have a jiu-jitsu session in our lounge room (sometimes I might switch this around and do this first and take the dogs out later).
If it’s been a really heavy day, I’ll turn on the sauna and just decompress for 40 minutes. From there we try our best to cook at home and we finish the day watching our favorite netflix shows.
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
Yes, we’ve always believed in flexible living so remote working is nothing new for us. It suits my life and routine really well as even when I’m meant to be working in the office I’m constantly out on the road or travelling so being remote feels very normal.
4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
For me it means that I am able to have time to explore and do things that aren’t related to my work at any time and not feel restricted. One of my other passions outside of work is jiu jitsu, so being able to train consistently is really important to me. Also things like being able to go and enjoy the sunshine.
It may not seem like much, but I’ve worked in places before where I’ve felt chained to the desk from sunrise to sunset, which was so poor on my mental health. I like to have the freedom where if I wanted to spend an hour outside playing with my partner or my dogs, I can.
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
I invested in a home sauna, which I feel has really helped me get through the Melbourne lockdown. Not being able to train jiu jitsu constantly was a big change. And things like running were great habits that I also picked up, but I needed to really sweat. Which the sauna helped with and made my body feel great. It also helps me deal with uncomfort as sometimes those last minutes really start to get to you, but holding through helps build that resilience.
6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
I recently read a book called Pachinko which I really loved. Regarding podcasts I listen to a16z, How I Built This, Joe Rogan, Nike Trained, VC:20 and Rich Dad radio show. I also listen to a lot of audiobooks whilst I run. Recent ones include: The Impossible First, Yearbook, Rich Dad Poor Dad, All the Harry Potter books and Can’t Hurt Me.
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
- Obviously the first one is the Weploy app.
- Oura Ring for sleep and health.
- Anylist for my weekly grocery shopping
- Audible for my listening whilst running
- Fin Review app for daily reading
- My infrared sauna
- My lifx light in the bedroom (like to turn it to low red at night to help better sleep)
- Asana for my to do list
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
For me, finding work-life balance is really hard because I love my work and I love the things I do outside of work, so balancing them actually becomes hard because I want to do more of everything.
I learnt the hard way going through things like burnout that too much of one thing can actually be harmful. So setting in place hard rules is really important. And finding ways to work smarter is an art. Sometimes working slower, actually means you work faster.
So take your time. Breathe and think about things meaningfully before pulling the trigger. And lastly, most decisions we make can be made the next day. So if you’re unsure, or feeling really smashed, take a night to sleep on it, it’s incredible what a night’s sleep will do for your perspective.
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