News & Press — They Told Me, “You’re Not Enough Of An A**hole To Make It In This Industry”

Hailing from the Isle of Skye, a remote island off the Scottish Highlands, Nicolson seems unmoved by adverse winds – both on his native turf and in his adopted homeland down under. A relative outsider to the Australian construction industry, Jamie attributes his success to a village upbringing that gifted him the confidence, humility and social smarts to help him navigate the sometimes ruthless market. An entrepreneurial spirit who prefers to be in the thick of it on site, Jamie is also driven by a desire to change the rules of the classically misogynistic and ruthless building industry and pave the way for a better way of doing business with his organisation, Alchemy Construct.

Upon arriving in Australia in 2009 with partner and Alchemy co-founder Sarah-Anne Munro, Jamie worked as a Project Manager for a well-known construction consultancy business and found his humour and humility on site helped him forge connections. “At first, it was difficult trying to secure a job and it was a bit cliquey, I felt like an outsider as I was a backpacker in many eyes. The guys on site were using abbreviations I’d never heard and I either kept my head down trying to work out what the hell they were trying to say or played the silly Scotsman. But really it was exciting to be seen as fresh and the newbie – even though I had 10 years’ builder-side experience under my belt,” Jamie explains “The job market was a lot harder in Scotland. And there was a greyness about the place. At that time, The Great Financial Crisis had hit Europe, and Australia had managed to escape that. It used to be The American Dream, but it seemed like then it was The Aussie Dream. It felt like you were being given a real chance to prove yourself in Australia.”

After four good years on consultancy side, Jamie moved to client-side to work in construction management and led multi-million-dollar projects with one of Australia’s biggest universities. Despite project management being considered a step up the ranks, Jamie missed being out on site and decided it was time to start Alchemy. “I flipped the other way which is a weird thing to do. They call it ‘The Dark Side’ because it’s the risky side and you can get treated badly – you’re typically the bottom feeders of the market as builders. Most people go into project management to climb up the ladder, seeing it as more prestigious. But I see being a builder as going up the ladder. And I have always loved the tangibility to creating something physically.”

This move – that was seen to be backwards to most – yielded criticism from industry old-timers. “People quite literally told me ‘you’re not enough of an a**hole to make it in this industry’, that I was too nice to be a builder. But that’s the old guard – never mistake kindness for passivity. The nice guy doesn’t always lose; you can resolve most things by just being nice.”

Alchemy was born in early February, 2015. Twenty-two hour work days ensued, all while raising a young family. But the challenge of modernising the construction game motivated Jamie and his Alchemy cohort. “I just wanted to do construction in a different way,” says Jamie. “It was missing customer service, at times it was all about the money. I wanted to lead with empathy, to start something with a bit more passion for getting the job done – and to a high standard.” With a focus on social infrastructure projects that serve the community, the team have now completed over 1,000 projects including the redevelopment of the Famous Melbourne Town Hall, the building of the Royal Melbourne Stroke Unit, as well as the construction of many prominent education projects and community centres.

Thankfully the working days are shorter now due to Alchemy’s 70+ steadfast team -something which Jamie sees as a privilege. “Not hiring the right people was a huge downfall of mine in the early days, I hired for ability rather than personality. We treat the business like a family now – it’s all about relationships. Seeing the team we have now, getting excited about winning a new job, is brilliant. You’re not working for your own brand or your own business, as a leader you’re always working for the team, and to empower them to shine is the most rewarding part. Seeing it as their business, it’s not my business.”

Alchemy recently broke new ground by employing over 25% female staff members – over double the industry standard, and hope to increase diversity in their team with further CSR initiatives kicking off in 2022.

“The world is changing, people are speaking up. There’s Black Lives Matter, the Me Too movement; the power now is with the people. If we can start establishing that into an industry that’s not used to it, that’s a bit archaic, then we can change things a bit for the better. The building side of the industry has had this cut-throat, ‘lads club’ mentality and I’m passionate about changing that.”

Reflecting on what he might have done differently, Jamie admits that having some equity or a funder would have made things easier in the early days but that ultimately, he probably wouldn’t have learnt so much. “We started Alchemy by selling our car as they weren’t giving out loans at the time. Starting from scratch has made me more grounded, I’ve had to earn my reputation. We’ve hustled our way into a market that seemed impossible five years ago.”

Jamie concludes, “Running a business is like riding a bike, while spinning plates – and then you set the wheels on fire. There are always going to be things that knock you off course, it’s always competitive. But surrounding ourselves with the right people and inspiring a culture where just being kind to each other is the norm is what makes Alchemy resilient. If you don’t have empathy, you can’t be a leader in my opinion. It’s all about removing the ego and empowering your staff to take charge. Empathy is a superpower many leaders don’t acknowledge.”