Drew Knowles

Drew Knowles returns (first appeared Ep 16) and this time it's deeply personal, Andy credits Drew with "practically saving my life" through 6-8 months of mental health coaching. Where Ep 16 diagnosed the construction industry's mental health crisis from the outside, Ep 41 is the inside story: Andy's transformation from 100-hour weeks barely seeing his family to a balanced life with team members and time for his kids. Drew introduces the concept of allostatic load (biological stress load) borrowed from engineering, humans are like buildings designed to withstand certain loads, and chronic stress without mitigation leads to breakdown. He also profiles the construction industry's personality gap: too many analytical/doer types, not enough relational "communication brokers" who can translate between silos.

Key Topics Discussed

• Allostatic load (stress as engineering concept). Hans Selye coined "stress" in the 1940s, borrowing from engineering. Just like a building designed for 200 years can crack in a Grade 5 hurricane, humans have a biological load capacity. Chronic stressors (psychological, environmental, physical) without mitigation cause breakdown, chronic illness, brain fog, temper, depression. "If you don't understand what stress is physiologically, you'll constantly get yourself into frazzled states."
• Personality types in construction. Industry dominated by two types: (1) analytical/data-driven engineer types who struggle to make decisions and go round in circles, (2) doers who just want to get shit done, follow processes, love systems. Missing: relational/high-EQ communicators who can read how decisions will land with people and broker communication across silos.
• Communication brokers. Drew's term for people who can translate between engineering speak and other functions. Example: two female engineers in Perth and Silicon Valley who became "engineer whisperers." Construction desperately needs these connectors. "Any construction business, finding those people who can be your communication brokers is such a valuable resource."
• Andy's personal transformation. Was working 100+ hours, barely seeing kids, heading for chronic illness or divorce. Drew made him book a midday movie date with his wife Para while kids were in daycare. Helped him adjust retirement goal from 40 to 45 to reduce pressure. Hired team members after being scared to delegate. "Drew practically saved my life."
• Building people like buildings. If you build people with the same accuracy you build a building, monitoring stress loads, building resilience, dealing with stressors, you'd have healthy, well-functioning team members. Root cause thinking applies to people too.
• Hiring for behaviour. Drew helped Andy and other clients (including Stanley the attention seeker) hire by crafting character profiles and using behavioural interview techniques rather than just technical assessment.

Notable Quotes

• Drew: "When you build a building, how many years is it meant to stand up for? 200 years. So how do they test that? The loading of the building. Stress. Same with the human organism."
• Drew: "We come from a cave person biological organism that has not evolved much for 50,000 years. We are still battling sabre tooth tigers, but the sabre tooth tigers are in our minds."
• Drew: "I would wish the conversation would be about the level of stress on these organisms and how we manage that load, then you won't have chronically stressed out people."
• Andy: "Drew practically saved my life... I was headed for chronic illness or divorce."

Guest Background

Drew Knowles, behavioural/performance consultant and coach with 25+ years experience. Started in health, wellness, fitness, moved to personal coaching in his early 20s. Public speaking, workshops, personal development (think Tony Robbins but less rah-rah). Works with construction/engineering industry through his company Influential You. Colleague Laurel McClay in Dunedin works in same space. Wrote 30 articles in M2 magazine ~10-12 years ago on stress and allostatic load. This is his second appearance (first: Ep 16).