5 Leadership Lessons for Tradies from Andrew Hopkins of Hopkins Construction

Guest: Andrew Hopkins

Episode: Season 1, Episode 6

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Andrew "Hoppo" Hopkins is a Melbourne carpenter, business owner and content creator who's spent over eight years leading trade teams while building an online presence that shows the real side of the construction industry.

As someone actively role modelling a positive trade industry, here's what Hoppo's learned about leadership in construction.

Lesson 1: Build Self-Awareness as a Leader

Hoppo grew up with a strict, "it’s this way or the highway" model of leadership, then carried that same black-and-white mindset into his own business until it started costing him good staff.

Losing a couple of solid tradies was the wake-up call. A friend pointed out he was trying to turn every apprentice into a version of himself.

One apprentice who DJ'd on weekends wasn't chasing landscaping glory, and Hoppo had to learn to meet him where he was.

"I never had it until about a year and a half ago," Hoppo says of real self-awareness. "Now I'm really self-aware of my feelings, my emotions, not blowing up, and just thinking about things." And it’s made him a better leader.

Lesson 2: Adaptive Leadership is Essential in the Trades

A DISC personality test with his lead foreman was a genuinely humbling experience for Hoppo. The two of them were wired completely differently, and it took real effort to learn how to work with someone who processed information so differently to him.

He learned his supervisor just needed a couple of quiet hours each morning before he was ready to engage, something Hoppo, a naturally high-energy person, had to consciously make space for.

"Leadership to me is setting a level of standards and values, and not only setting them but implementing them, and recognising that people are on different levels and need to be led in different ways," Hoppo says.

Respecting the difference is what made the relationship work.

Lesson 3: How to Close the Divide Between Boss and Crew

As Hoppo's team grew to around ten people, he noticed a wedge forming between himself, as the leader, and his team, as his crew. His crew had their own group chats and their own world. He was increasingly seen by his new team members as the boss who didn’t understand what a day on the tools looked like, even though he'd once been there himself.

His solution was what the team started calling "ride around days with Hoppo", inviting individual employees to shadow him for a full day off the tools, starting at the factory at 5:30 am, through back-to-back calls and meetings, and all the problems that came up throughout the day.

"It was sort of my weird way of them building respect for me," he says. "This ain't all beer and skittles, this is it." His team developed greater empathy for his challenges, which gave Hoppo a chance to get to know each person better.

Lesson 4: Building an Authentic Online Presence as a Tradie

Hoppo's social media presence started almost by accident. He was passionate about painting construction in a positive light, and he simply liked talking and figured he'd talk to his phone instead.

Showing the full build process resonated with people in a way he didn't expect, and eventually brands started sending him free product, which he found genuinely strange at first.

What's kept the following loyal, he says, is that his audience calls him out the moment it stops feeling real. "There's a couple of times that I've tried not to be me, and I felt crap, and people have gone, 'That ain't you, mate, we follow you,'" he says.

That accountability to his own audience to stay authentic has kept the page grounded.

Lesson 5: Navigating Fatherhood as a Tradie

Becoming a father left Hoppo feeling genuinely useless in the early months. He couldn't breastfeed, couldn't settle a baby back to sleep, and found himself compensating by working harder instead, telling himself that earning more was how he'd show up for his family.

He now sees that as a trap many fathers fall into.

The turning point was closing the business entirely and spending seven months travelling around Australia with his kids.

"Don't fall into the trap of feeling like you've got to be the hardest worker," he says. Really, what his family needed was his time and support at home.

When talking about his kids on the podcast, Hoppo shared: "Now we're best friends. We have the most amazing relationship.” A shift he credits directly to choosing time over the appearance of working hard.

Hopkins’ Advice on Everyday Leadership

Hoppo points straight at the basics for apprentices: "Rocking up on time, using your manners, showing appreciation, looking your boss in the eye. You're not gonna be the best chippy on day one, but if you do those things, that's where you build a leader."

He teaches his own young sons the same lesson, right down to a proper handshake.

Catch the full conversation with Andrew Hopkins on Tradies Who Lead for more leadership lessons for tradies, out now wherever you listen to podcasts.