Anthony Denman:
We’re at the rustic Australian barbecue and you get cornered by someone who you don’t know, who’s lovely, right? And they want to know what it is that you actually do for a living. How would you answer that question?

Aidan Anderson:
My pitch at a barbie would be I run a business that is a publishing and media house and it is our job to find the most beautiful homes in Australia, New Zealand, and North America. And we go in and we shoot it both photo and video and we showcase it to our audience of over four million members and celebrate the design and the people behind it. That’s my barbie pitch.

Anthony Denman:
If it was me and I was the person asking that question at the barbecue, my first question would be, how the hell do you find said beautiful homes?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, it’s a good question. I think 10 years ago when the business started, I was constantly chasing it on the front foot, reaching out to architects, designers, reaching out to homeowners and desperately trying to get into these homes. But I think over the years and as the business and brand has built, we’re getting 100 to 150 emails a week of people saying, “Look at this home,” whether it’s on this side of the globe or the other, “and can you come in and shoot it?” So we get sent a ton, which is brilliant, but I always say that the best of the best homes by the best of the best architects, we work hard to get there and we build that relationship and it’s always a privilege shooting a Peter Stutchbury home or a Kennedy Nolan home, but we’re always on the front foot with studios and firms like that.

Anthony Denman:
Virtus sola nobilitat, are you familiar with that Latin phrase?

Aidan Anderson:
I am. Yeah. Correct me if I’m wrong, because I know you know this, but to virtue alone is to be noble, the College of Knowledge motto.

Anthony Denman:
Virtue is its own reward.

Aidan Anderson:
That’s right. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Is what it means. And just for those people listening, that is the Waverley College motto and we were both fortunate or unfortunate enough-

Aidan Anderson:
A bit of both.

Anthony Denman:
… to attend that school.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
And I must say that the old school tie isn’t the reason we’re here. I didn’t reach out to Aidan and say, “Look, I went to Waverley college. Let’s do a podcast.” That just came up in our pre-podcast, which having both grown up in the eastern suburbs.

Aidan Anderson:
That’s right. And it’s a proud time to be a Waverley boy at the moment as well because for the first time in I think 22 years we won the athletic CAS carnival two weeks ago.

Anthony Denman:
No way.

Aidan Anderson:
So the group chats with me and all my friends from school are going off at the moment with quite a bit of pride. It’s good.

Anthony Denman:
Do you have a great deal of school spirit?

Aidan Anderson:
I think while I was there, definitely. I feel like the school, especially in a sporting sense, is very patriotic, but I think once I left that it drifted away. But interestingly, my closest friends now are still all my Waverley schoolmates as well.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah, okay.

Aidan Anderson:
So while we’ve lost that school pride, like our friendship circle is still incredibly tight.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah, same. I’ve got like a handful of lifelong friends and we all went to school together.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Can I say, just getting back to virtue is its own reward, and I’ll just give you the blurb from the school website. The college crest is a symbol of our history and values. Our motto, virtus sola nobilitat is inscribed beneath the crest and translates as virtue is its own reward. These five words remind us to be motivated by fundamental goodness, not by glory or rewards. So the question is, what is fundamentally good about what you do?

Aidan Anderson:
I think what’s fundamentally good about what we do here at The Local Project is, and I didn’t realise we were on this mission until like halfway through the life cycle of the business. But I realised that what we’re really doing is we’re actually normalising design quite a bit. And I feel like looking at design and architecture when I entered the industry as a chippy 10 years ago, it kind of felt like it was for the incredibly wealthy, the people buying beautiful homes in Bronte or Tama, it did feel in its own way, a little bit elitist to me, looking from the outside.
And what I think and the beauty of social and digital media and us having millions of followers is that we’ve helped normalise it a little bit more where we have young university students to lawyers to people working in cafes who are coming up to us on the streets or emailing us and just saying, “We love what you do.” And that’s the thing that I am most proud of in addition to celebrating the people behind the design is that you can be Joe Blogs down the road and love a beautiful home and aspire to have one or just appreciate it and it’s not just for the wealthy, the elite. And that’s the goodness that I think that we do as a business.

Anthony Denman:
Do you remember like when you were a young child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Aidan Anderson:
When I was a year, like before I started working on a building site at 13, 14, and this was just over the summers, I think I actually wanted to, as most kids do, be a sport athlete. I was big into my sport and that’s definitely where I got my competitive edge from. But my best mate, Jesse, his old man is a chippy and he used to work on the best of the best homes in the eastern suburbs and every summer he used to drag us on site and we’d get paid $7 cash an hour to lift bricks and mix some mud. And it was on these sites in the middle of Tamarama looking out to the ocean where I’d be like, “This is crazy. This is so interesting to see this home coming together.” But it was also really interesting for me to see the homeowners and watching them come on site, speak to the builders and watch their home being created. I think around 13, 14, 15 for me it was like, okay, I think this whole construction home design, I think that’s one of my passions.

Anthony Denman:
How did you go then from working on homes to creating furniture?

Aidan Anderson:
Well, I think that was the catalyst because it was like, even though it was only summers and December, January on site, when I finished school and knew I was too impatient for university, I was like, “What can I do to immediately get me out there running my own business, doing something that I love?” And although the bare basics were done on site when I was younger, the transition into making, designing furniture, doing fit outs and whatnot, it was a relatively smooth process for me because I was familiar with that.

Anthony Denman:
So when you’re in the said house at Tamarama looking out to the view. Can I then take you from staring out to the Pacific Ocean to the Southern Alps of New Zealand as a fan of the show seeing the most beautifully designed homes in these incredulous natural environments has always been. And even today I think the homes that are showcased in those beautiful natural environments for me personally are the ones that are most compelling. When did you realise that by showcasing the most beautiful objects, because I mean the home in that incredible natural environment is kind of like the catalyst really. Because then from there it’s like, okay, well I’ve got the most beautiful home, so obviously the FF&E is going to look better. If the home looks best in that beautiful natural environment, then the FF&E is going to look even better within the home.

Aidan Anderson:
100%. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
So was there a moment that you kind of realised, oh my goodness, here is an opportunity to tell a story that hasn’t been told before in such a compelling way?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, I think there was definitely a few aha moments and like the beauty of being a digitally-based business is that we are heavily analytical, but I think that and looking at releasing these videos of beautiful homes in the South Island of New Zealand or the beautiful national parks of Australia, there was the analytics going, wow, okay, that video is doing complete crazy numbers. And lo and behold, it’s got an amazing landscape and story around it. But there was also this gut feeling off the back of it as well where again, speaking to people in the industry, speaking to people in the business or speaking to people wherever it might be, they so often come up to us and they say, “We love The Local Project videos. The landscapes are so inspiring.” And the landscape, that word just kept consistently coming up and they’re the most memorable videos.
And I think when we mix those both together between the analytical and just the gut feeling and hearing feedback from our audience and friends and colleagues, it was like, “Okay, let’s follow down this path because people are not just inspired by the home and the product in there, but clearly it’s surrounding and the local narrative around the home and house as well.”

Anthony Denman:
Why do beautifully designed homes look better or are more engaging and more compelling in beautiful landscaped environments?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, it’s a good question. I feel like, for me personally, it’s what I dream of. It’s like a beautiful home to me is this private sanctuary that almost feels like your own little edge of the world and I think everyone or a lot of people aspire to have that. Again, speaking analytically, New Zealand content, specifically South Island content performs almost three times better than our Australian content and that’s because these landscapes that we speak about are so consistent across New Zealand as a whole, even in North Island as well. So I think everyone somewhat inspires or is inspired or aspires to have something like that. And I guess even to add to that, it’s like whenever we use the word nature in a YouTube title, the viewership of that goes through the roof as well. So I think there’s this like deeply human connection to a beautiful, safe home, but also a connection to nature and its surrounding as well.

Anthony Denman:
Beautiful environments amplify beautiful objects. Why is that the case, not just for the house and the landscaping that we just talked about, but also for furniture, fixtures, and equipment in beautiful homes?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah. I think a big part of the answer to this question is like it always comes back to authenticity. And how we operate as a business is we find these beautiful homes where they’re an amazing landscape or not and we obviously look at the product that’s within. And rather than shoehorning and bringing in product and bringing whatever it might be and plunking it in this home unnaturally. What we’re doing by looking around and seeing this product is we’re going, whether it’s a beautiful dining table, whether it’s a handcrafted light, that has been authentically chosen by the architect, the interior designer or the homeowner. And what actually happens is that when you get an architect in a chair and interview him about the product that he’s put in here, it isn’t a sell, him talking about this beautifully handcrafted light. It’s actually becomes educational where it’s like, the reason why I chose this light for this setting looking out to the Pacific Ocean is because of X, Y, Z.
And you actually turn marketing into a form of education rather than saying, “Here’s this light we brought in two hours ago and stapled it to the roof, that angle is disingenuous, I feel. So that’s why I think we’ve been so successful as a business and from a marketing point of view is because we’re telling authentic stories about beautiful product that sits naturally in its environment.

Anthony Denman:
Is that what you mean by humanizing a design story?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, I think I mean a few things there. I think like humanizing a design story is actually not just celebrating the bricks and mortar of a home, but actually celebrating the people in their journey of how those bricks came together. And we always say like when we look at our most successful features and homes and houses, it’s not the ostentatious $50 million homes because they’re luxury and expensive. It’s actually sometimes the smaller apartments or sometimes it’s a house that doesn’t have a massive budget, but there’s been this really interesting story that’s gone through it, some challenges, some great relationships between architects and designers and homeowners. And it’s telling those human stories in addition to the beautiful design that actually makes a feature, get a million views as opposed to 100,000.

Anthony Denman:
There is no better way in my experience in marketing off the plan property, there is no better way to sell a design story than to firstly have that authentic specification. So in terms of the object, the home being the object within its context, firstly, which we’ve sort of touched on. And then the authentic specification of the FF&E within that home, but then having it explained by the person who chose the objects, whether it be the architecture or the interior design. So having that person who chose those objects, talk about those choices via video and the B roll, right? In your instance, you’re lucky because you’ve got obviously the things finished and you can stick a camera in there and get as many shots of it as you like. We could CGI and animation, we have to kind of create scenes. It’s very time consuming and costly. But we find that when we’re selling projects off the plan, if we’re able to overlay that design story with B roll of CGI and animation at home, that is the most powerful way to sell property. Is that what led you to on the market?

Aidan Anderson:
Yes and no. What actually led us to on the market is definitely a slice of that, but the reason why we launched that new vertical is that we filmed over the last nine years, maybe close to 700, 800 different homes across Australia and New Zealand for the most part. Again-

Anthony Denman:
Sorry, 700 or 800.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, that’s right. Yes. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Who does all that, that work?

Aidan Anderson:
These guys to your right, the whole team. Our team are very busy nonstop.

Anthony Denman:
That’s a lot of work.

Aidan Anderson:
That’s not even including the production stuff that we’ve just shot white label.

Anthony Denman:
It’s a lot of editing.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, it’s a lot. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Oh my goodness.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah. But we were looking at these 800, 900 homes, whatever it might be and we started noticing that a lot of these beautiful homes that we’d shot and featured, they were going on the market within two to three to four years after us featuring it. And the reason we found that out is because real estate agents, developers, and homeowners were emailing us saying, “Hey, Aidan, you did that beautiful video of our home three years ago. Can we please get access to that footage because we’re just about to put it on the market and we’d much rather use this video footage, which tells our story, our narrative, and moves through the space beautifully than the real estate photography,” or whatever it might be.

Anthony Denman:
Or you’ve just validated my point.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, exactly right. So that’s exactly it. It was off the back of that and getting so many taps and just saying, “Can we access it?” We’re going, “Hold on, look at this. Look at this pattern that’s happening.” If we create a vertical which celebrates homes that are designed and considered and are on the market, essentially all we’re doing is doing what we’re doing anyway, but we’re just putting a price tag on it saying, “This is on the market for 11 million,” and pointing back to the developer or the real estate agent. So it’s exactly what we’re doing just with a slight little twist on it as well.

Anthony Denman:
Is there a criteria for said homes? Do they have to tick a number of different boxes?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, the boxes are, it needs to be considered and designed. And it needs to go through our editorial team for them to review and make sure it’s a curated selection. I think as soon as we start pushing it and accepting homes that we wouldn’t feature authentically on the platform already and we just cash grab, that’s when we’ll lose relevance and it’ll lose its power. Our big marketing spiel is that we are creating a platform similar to REA or domain, but it is so curated that if you’re featured on this platform, it’s actually helping increase the value of it. Because it’s given the TLP certified tick of this is a beautifully designed curated home that would feature editorially anyway.

Anthony Denman:
I like the abbreviation TLP. Why did you call your business The Local Project?

Aidan Anderson:
So that was the name of my furniture fit out chippy business before I started publishing. So just by some coincidence, Aidan the chippy was working under The Local Project and we beautifully transitioned into the publishing world that we’ve created now.

Anthony Denman:
Why did Aidan the chippy choose The Local Project?

Aidan Anderson:
It’s funny because I had this little tiny workshop in the industrial area of Botany, literally just up the road and I had knocked it together and it was just kind of some plywood, little tiny box and I was just looking at it. And I was just like, there’s something about, and I’ll send you this photo, it’s hilarious. It’s got TLP at the top, spray painted in black and I’ve done some, it’s a funny photo. But for something I was like, this is just, I’m here, it’s a project I’m working on. I’m trying to build a business of being a chippy and I’m here in a local workshop with a bunch of other creatives with their own little tiny shops around. It just kind of rolled off the tongue a little bit and I locked and loaded it.

Anthony Denman:
And the URL was available.

Aidan Anderson:
It was, luckily. Yeah, it was. Well, I guess, yeah, and even the Insta handle, but again, Insta only had just started so I was pretty lucky to get on the front foot early.

Anthony Denman:
Have you second guessed that name since?

Aidan Anderson:
Never. No. We get so many compliments on the name and they’re like, “Walk us through the decision of why you went this.” And it always baffles them when I’m like, “That was me as a chippy.” Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah, a chippy. I mean, carpenter.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Is that a terminology that’s used in North America, chippy?

Aidan Anderson:
No, they use millworker, which is-

Anthony Denman:
Millworker.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, it’s a mouthful, I think. No, I use the word chippy in America and they just stare at me blankly, unfortunately.

Anthony Denman:
How’s that going, that international expansion?

Aidan Anderson:
It’s good. Yeah. It is doing really, really bloody well, which I’m so happy and proud about. But the biggest thing about our success in North America and the US isn’t because we’re over there filming homes in LA and New York. Yes, that’s a part of it, but the reason why we’re so successful in the US is because the US look to Australia as industry leading in design and architecture.

Anthony Denman:
Why? Did they really?

Aidan Anderson:
They 100% do.

Anthony Denman:
And why? Why is that?

Aidan Anderson:
I think the honest down the barrel answer is we’re a lot more tasteful here. I think the US is the land of excess and this is a very broad blanket approach to it and obviously there is some beautiful work there, but-

Anthony Denman:
I know. I’ve been to TJ Fridays.

Aidan Anderson:
Oh, you have? Yeah, great. Well, you know the land of excess, right? And I think it’s a classic example of that wealth and money does not equal taste. And although there’s $100 million, $80 million homes everywhere you look, I’ve walked through those homes and I would much rather live or spend time in a beautifully considered Melbourne design home where you think about it, like Melbournians, for example, they spend so much time indoors, they don’t have the beautiful weather that we have here in Sydney. They’re so much more considered of their interiors and spending time in there and you can see it in the design and you can see it. They’re pushing the budget, they’re being considerate of every single little detail and I just don’t think the US is at that level to be honest with you.

Anthony Denman:
So you are saying that Melbourne is more design savvy than Sydney.

Aidan Anderson:
I did absolutely not say that because I’ll get my head ripped off. I kind of did say that. However, no, I think Sydney and Melbourne have their differences. I think there’s so much bloody talent in Melbourne, but Sydney is better. No, I’m kidding.

Anthony Denman:
No, it’s funny that there’s an element of truth even like me born and bred Bondi boy. And let me tell you, I grew up in Bondi, it’s very different to the Bondi today. And it’s funny actually because everything you said sort of resonates with me so much. We’re doing this project. In fact, maybe I will mention it to them whether it’s absolutely right for on the market. It’s up between Tamarama and Bondi, it’s like MHNDU, like beautifully designed.
So you’ve got that context of a beautiful building form, like a building in the round, I guess you’d call it, with the open space around it. But just texture being more important and tone and restraint. So Kirsten Stanisich has done the interiors and she’s like ex-Melbourne, St Kilda girl and she’s massive on restraint. But it’s not just Australia, I mean, almost at the Eastern Seaboard. Do you do much in Western Australia?

Aidan Anderson:
Not as much as we’d like. A little bit. Yeah. We do a little bit, but not as much.

Anthony Denman:
Okay. So it’s not just the Eastern Seaboard, particularly in New Zealand.

Aidan Anderson:
A ton.

Anthony Denman:
All right. What is it with New Zealand? What’s going on there? Do you think it’s just because of… And you talked about the analytics coming back and telling you about how people are really interested in you. Do you think it’s maybe because the environments are so spectacular that it just kind of demands the right design? But some of the stuff that you’re doing in North America too, like some of the homes that you’re finding there, I’ve seen some episodes recently which really again showcase like really beautiful, thoughtful design, but that is restrained, right? Can I take you back right to the very beginning, you personally, right, you found the homes and conducted the video interviews?

Aidan Anderson:
No, no I’ve never conducted the interviews actually, but I used to, when I first started, it was just me and an iPhone. So the very first, The Local Project, the publisher post was me in that workshop in Botany taking a photo of this guy called Nathaniel, next to his bookcase. That got me so far to maybe 5,000 Instagram followers and then I was like, “Okay, let’s leave it to the professionals and try and get in some photographers.”

Anthony Denman:
So how does Aidan the chippy, because now you’ve got also the local production, you’ve got your own brand and marketing agency, the whole story keeps evolving. How does Aidan the chippy recruit these professionals in those industries without having that experience?

Aidan Anderson:
I guess one of the brilliant things about building a community and that’s how it all started is that you’re connected with so many people through messages and comments and building relationships and whatever. And the best story and example I can give is Pablo Viega is probably one of Sydney’s best photographers. We use him for 90% of our work here. We fly him internationally, nationally and use him a lot. I met Pablo nine years ago when he sent me a message and he was a nurse at the time.

Anthony Denman:
A nurse.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah. And said, “Aidan, hey, I’m thinking about doing a bit of photography. Do you want to meet up for a coffee and let’s chat about potentially working together? I’m keen to get some experience.” And I’ll never forget, I drove out to Manly where he lives. We had a coffee for 45 minutes. He’s an absolute gentleman. He’s one of the nicest, most down to earth guys you’ll ever meet and we agreed at the end of that coffee. I’m like, “Hey, let’s find a couple of spaces that you can shoot or a home or whatever. Let’s have a crack.”

Anthony Denman:
Did he have a portfolio or anything like that?

Aidan Anderson:
No. No, no, no. Honestly, he just said, “Hey, listen, I’m thinking-“

Anthony Denman:
What made you feel that he was going to be able to visualise these environments that you care so much about?

Aidan Anderson:
I don’t know. I got along with him. It was just like an instant connection, great guy. He was like, “Trust me, I’m trying to do my best here.”

Anthony Denman:
Without any portfolio work.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah. You got to remember that nine years, I think I probably had again, 5,000 Instagram followers, like TLP was at its infancy. I was also saying to him, “Trust me, I’ll do your work justice as well.” So it was a mutual agreement and we had a crack and-

Anthony Denman:
There must have been something though about him, the way he dressed, spoke, or carried himself. I mean, there must have been something that gave you that he could handle that.

Aidan Anderson:
Honestly, just connection and-

Anthony Denman:
Intuition.

Aidan Anderson:
Intuition. Yeah. And energy, for lack of a better word as well. He was just a passionate guy. He told me what he was planning to do and vice versa and we just said, let’s-

Anthony Denman:
So what was the very first project he photographed for you?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, that’s a good question. I should have a think. I’ll have to think back. I can’t remember off the top of my head. I cannot remember.

Anthony Denman:
Do you remember the very first house that you featured on The Local Project?

Aidan Anderson:
I do actually. Yeah. It was Tom Robertson Architects who actually designed this studio here and he was in his first year of creating the studio and I had reached out to all these other top dog architects and designers saying, “Hey, this is what I’m doing. This is what I’m trying to feature.” And I think, of 30 messages I sent, Tom was the only one to reply.

Anthony Denman:
So you didn’t get nos, you just gotten that radio silence.

Aidan Anderson:
Just nothing, crickets, yeah. But Tom was like, “Yeah, of course. I’m trying to build up my brand. Here’s a couple of photos,” and posted that. And yeah, that’s another story where I met him nine years ago and he’s a brilliant architect based in Melbourne now kicking goals there front and center.

Anthony Denman:
Do you remember the first house you ever videoed and did the whole human and design story thing?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, it was actually a suite of sustainable residences down in Melbourne called Nightingale, designed by Breath Architecture and I had saved every penny to engage a production studio based down there and they charged me, I think, three grand or something, which was so, so much money for me back then. And I remember engaging them saying, “Let’s do a two-day shoot for three grand. Please, can we whip together this story about this designer, Jeremy, the owner of Breath, how he’s come up with this idea of sustainable housing,” and we did it. We shot over two days. The video came together and that was like this moment. I remember releasing that and the story of Jeremy of the home, of the residences. Even though we had 10 YouTube subscribers, the impact that that video had of like human-to-human connection of hearing Jeremy’s story, seeing him walk through the space, that was the light bulb moment going, “Holy shit, video and telling stories like through this medium is a complete game changer.”

Anthony Denman:
What was your role in that? Were you the DOP? Were you the executive producer or were you just some sort of shy kid standing on the sideline shitting himself for about three grand?

Aidan Anderson:
Literally all of the above. I’ll never forget. I remember sitting and doing Jeremy’s interview and Daniel, the DOP, who was shooting, he had set up one of the client cameras where you’re sitting there, you’re looking through it and I remember him asking, “Aidan, are you happy with the frame? What do you think about this?” And I’m going, “I got no idea.” Just the confident nod, just like absolutely no idea. And that was the very first video, but it worked.

Anthony Denman:
The confident nod.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah. Yeah. But it worked a treat so it was awesome. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
What is the biggest sliding door moment you’ve encountered in your career to date?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah. There’s two moments that come to mind. The first one is the day we released that first video, which I just explained and that was just a game changer. But similarly, it was the first day we released our first print magazine, which is almost like at the other end of the spectrum, right? And a lot of people, I remember telling them, “We’re going to release a print magazine. We’re going into print.” And so many people were like, “You’re crazy, Aidan, print is dying. What’s going on?” But we knew as a business that print in our world of design and architecture and the tangible holds so much importance where metrics isn’t relevant. It doesn’t matter if a video or an Instagram post is going to get six million impressions. There is something so important to architects, designers, and creatives to have something physical that people can tangibly flip through and read and take a silent moment to go through.
I remember releasing our first print magazine in DENFAIR in Melbourne in 2019 and handing it out for free to these people going, “Oh, I really hope people like this.” And I always say off the back of that, that is when we matured from a blog, an Instagram page to Aidan the chippy with a small team around him doing Instagram posts to a publisher. That’s when in so many people’s eyes we changed as a business where it’s like, “Oh, these guys are pretty serious. They’ve got the digital strength, but they’ve also got the print side of things.” And it’s not just any print magazine. It’s a 400-page, may as well be a coffee table book.

Anthony Denman:
Any spelling mistakes in that first book?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, riddled with them, riddled and a printing error and everything. But you look at that first magazine and I’ve still got one lying around that the key thing that when you see it, it’s longevity is the one word I would use to describe it where it’s going to sit on someone’s coffee table for three years, not flip through it and chuck it in the bin a week later.

Anthony Denman:
So coming back to the confident nod, print production, graphic design, really it’s a whole nother discipline. It’s a completely different, same neighborhood but like different planet almost in terms of creative development and process. So how did Aidan the chippy recruit the right team to pull that together? And were you involved in selection of stock, size of it, the binding methods, the entire production process? How involved were you in pulling that one together?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, pretty deeply involved. I remember sitting down with my graphic designer at the time, Kathleen, and I was probably 23, 24, and she was 20, 21. And I remember turning to her and saying, “Let’s put together a 400-page magazine.” And her response was, “Okay, cool. Where do we start?” I think the beauty of that journey was like we were so blindly naive that we kind of just, it was the blind leading the blind, making it up as we go. But she was ambitious and ready to kind of sink her teeth into something she’d never done before. And for me, it’s like I did have that tactile background from woodworking and chippy and everything and I kind of just veered down the path of let’s reach out to a printer, let’s get some reference magazines and books that we want to go through. And let’s just essentially what we’re doing online with building a community and celebrating design, let’s just put that in a print format.

Anthony Denman:
How many books have you produced since that?

Aidan Anderson:
So we’re up to issue 20, which we’re releasing in March next year. So 20 magazines over, I think it’s been seven years of publishing it will be. And then we’ve released, we’re coming up to our third hardcover book as well and it is one of the most profitable sides of our business as well. Yeah. Honestly, print is such a key revenue driver for us and that’s again, it talks to the tangible and it just talks to beautiful objects in a home that can sit there. People love putting them, placing those objects there and they also love that moment of quietness of flipping through a magazine rather than being digitally connected and plugged in the whole time.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah. There’s something again, I think it’s coming back to that kind of DNA, like just that tactile experience that’s rooted in the very kind of ancestral part of our being. Print and paper and scrolls and text. They’ve been around for a long time. In fact, we’re the opposite. We went from print to digital showing my age. But to this day when we producing digital media, I still like the brochures of what really kind of… And the selection of materials, and the embellishments on those materials, and the fabric, and debossing, and gold foiling and all those sorts of things. And then seeing that final product that I still shit myself, you know what I mean? When you open it up, because once you’ve done it, I mean digital, you can rectify any problems pretty quickly, right? No matter what they are. But once you’ve printed something, you’ve just got to live with it.

Aidan Anderson:
There’s no return. Yeah, exactly right.

Anthony Denman:
Do you still shit yourself when you open up a brochure nowadays?

Aidan Anderson:
A little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I’m a lot more confident in our design team rather than just Kathleen and I all those years ago, but mistakes happen, right? The irony is only 0.001% of the readers will actually pick it up and notice, but it is the readers that matter. It is the architect or the interior designer who looks at every single detail. But yeah, to answer that question, absolutely, yes.

Anthony Denman:
Do you have a favourite home? How many properties would you have published, whether it be digital or print in your career to date, roughly, do you know?

Aidan Anderson:
I reckon over 10,000 now going off the amount of Instagram posts we’ve done plus featured in print and everything, it must be over 10,000, which is a huge number. Although I don’t have a favourite I think one of the most memorable in the last couple of years is I went to Peter Stutchbury’s own home in South Avalon maybe about three months ago now. And Peter is an incredible architect. He’s an OG. He’s been around for so long. I always find it so interesting architects designing their own home because they have no client and they have no parameters they need to work in.
And just walking through this house and seeing this amazingly positioned home in South Avalon, which if he wanted to, could look beautifully out to the car park there in the ocean, he’s chosen to inwardly reflect it and create this protected shell and it’s like this cold concrete meets beautiful, warm, native timbers with this little scattering and flare of Japanese design where you know you walk through a Japanese sushi bar in Japan and you’ve got those little mats that come down, he’s got those all around. And it was just this like, you could see his mind coming together and just seeing all these amazing things plus his personal memorabilia, it was mind blowing.

Anthony Denman:
That’s so cool. And I think that reminds me of Nick Turner, he’s got a property in Kangaroo Valley and everything that we’ve talked about, top of an escarpment, beautiful landscaped environment, spent a fortune, like creating his own botanical garden around this house. And then got to design this house for him, for the way he lives and the way he wants to live in that environment. And yeah, I guess that’s the epitome of great design is not being constrained. You had 11 homes or something on YouTube or you done-

Aidan Anderson:
Or 11 subscribers back in the day.
Honestly, we started publishing video content on YouTube of course and it just instantly resonated with an audience and 1 subscriber went to 10, went to 1,000, went to a 100… Sorry, went to 100 to 1,000. Yeah, they unsubscribed, but we were just consistent.

Anthony Denman:
Was there one property that kind of really turned the dial for you?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, Bunkeren by James Stockwell Architects. It’s our most watched video ever.

Anthony Denman:
The Bunker, is it?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, the Bunkeren in Danish. Yeah, it’s called Bunkeren, but that’s Danish for the bunker.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah, okay.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah. And it’s exactly what we’re talking about before at the landscape. It is a beautiful home almost in the middle of like a national park just past Newcastle.

Anthony Denman:
Oh yeah, I know the one.

Aidan Anderson:
You know the one?

Anthony Denman:
Yeah. Yeah.

Aidan Anderson:
And concrete bunker.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, with the rock formations within that.

Aidan Anderson:
Spot on. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah. Oh yeah, that’s in Dudley actually.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Just north of Newcastle. Yeah.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah, that was the one.

Aidan Anderson:
We released that and just went ballistic. It just went crazy. People loved it. James is a great narrator. The location is insane. The rock formations, the furniture in there, it was like the perfect secret sauce all coming together plus a great YouTube thumbnail and title. And it just, I think it’s done about seven or eight million views now and continues to climb every day.

Anthony Denman:
Wow, that’s crazy. Yeah, no, they’re coming back to Nick’s place. I don’t know if you know, but there was this really significant bush fire down there through the Kangaroo Valley, it’s like a firestorm.

Aidan Anderson:
That’s right. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
He was actually in Sydney, right at the time when these three fires, I think it was called the Cowan Fire, these three fires started to merge to create like a mega fire and it was heading towards his house in Kangaroo Valley. And there’s that whole idea that one of the potential negative aspects of building in these natural environments, especially within Australia, is that you’re surrounded by bushland and that essentially obviously you could be engulfed by a massive firestorm. And there’s a lot of homes around his that are kind of just weatherboard cottages that are just spontaneously combust in that environment. So anyway, he was at home in Sydney because it’s not his permanent residence. A lot of people decide to either stay and defend or they decide to evacuate.
He actually made the choice to go into the fire to drive down from Sydney to get into the fire to defend his home because he was so confident that he built his home to withstand any sort of fire and had complete confidence that he could do that. And to cut a very long story short, when the fire department turned up at the next day, because all the surrounding people in all the surrounding homes came and stayed in his house for refuge. And when the fire department turned up the next day, they turned up with nine bodybags because they were that sure that there’s no way he could have survived that fire.
And he tells that story on the podcast, from my podcast about that entire journey, that whole moment in his life and he’s such a good storyteller. But the fact that he could build this beautifully-designed savvy home in that environment to withstand a firestorm of that magnitude, essentially it’s like a fire bunker, right?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
A beautifully designed fire bunker that withstood the enormity of that moment, which is just incredible. The fact that he had a solar array and batteries stored in a particular place where they weren’t affected by the fire, they’re able to keep the sprinkler system going. Any of that stuff fails and they die. It’s that simple.

Aidan Anderson:
It’s brilliant.

Anthony Denman:
Story that I’m-

Aidan Anderson:
I’m going to listen to that episode after this.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah, yeah. The Kangaroo Valley Firestorm.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah. He’s such a great storyteller.

Aidan Anderson:
That’s brilliant.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah. So drones. I want to talk about drones. We talked about humanising design stories and architectural commentary over the top of video of beautiful homes for capturing the environments in which those homes are built, especially New Zealand and the Southern Alps. There is no better way to do that than through drone photography. Was there a moment when you realised that or have you had much to do with drone photography?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah. Even in our very first video we started using drones and that was for sustainable apartments, just so you could get a feel of the locality and understand the density of different areas and how these apartments sat through. But I didn’t feel the full effect of drones and the power they had on telling a story visually until we started doing some of those more landscape based projects in country Victoria and Byron Bay and whatnot as well. Similar to when people come up to us and say, “We love your videos, we love The Local Project,” they always reference the drone shots as well. There’s something so instinctive about resonating with people, those beautiful shots where you’re just getting an understanding of the house, where it’s positioned, where it’s looking out to. And yeah, since day dot, we’ve always used them. I’m not super technical on the gear side of things, but I’m pretty sure we use DJI. Does that sound right? Yeah, it is?

Anthony Denman:
Sorry, the producers are nodding.

Aidan Anderson:
Yes. Yeah, good. Excellent. And we always have. I’ve seen other drones that are used where they’re carrying red cameras up on there, but it’s like the power that these little drones have and the quality of footage you can get anyway is insane. I will say, however, we have lost maybe a dozen drones to the good cause of capturing content.

Anthony Denman:
Did you really?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, just I remember moments in Japan and birds just coming in and crashing into them and just losing it to trees and everything, but it’s all worth it. So it’s play on.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah. There’s something really dramatic about it, even to this day, coming back to that Bondi, Tamarama project and I kind of just knew that instinctively that those, the cliff at the bottom, Marks Park and the beautiful sandstone undulations. And the fact that the design of the building was kind of referencing those undulations, right? But the drama, I think it is, right? The drama, because without oversimplifying selling property, it’s really about two things, right? It’s about where is it located and what is it architecturally? And the more compelling the storytelling around those two aspects and the narrative, the more compelling the entire production piece, right?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
So yeah, I feel like there’s still to this day, there’s no better way than to sell a location, a beautiful location than through beautiful drone photography, but we’ve never lost one.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, nice. Lucky you.

Anthony Denman:
Really. But the guy I use is like, he’s a surgeon, really good at flying those things and he’s like one of the first operators in Australia and I’m like, “Mate, I want you to be fearful that you’re going to lose this thing. I want you to be that close to the cliffs. I want as much drama as possible in bringing…”

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, it’s good. Turn it up. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. It’s got to be done, right?

Anthony Denman:
It does.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, he sounds like a great pilot. Yeah, we’ve lost a few to the cliffs and in the pond like Harbour Bridge around there, we’ve lost a couple of, but that’s okay.

Anthony Denman:
But there’s a difference between being a pilot, right? And that’s why it’s so tricky to find the right operators because there’s pilots and then there’s photographers. So to find operators that can do both I’ve found is really, really tricky that have the great eye, but also know how to fly those things and lose sight of them. You’re not supposed to, but they can lose sight of them and just looking over towards the production guys here and still manage to bring them home. Do you think like, honest answer, is it possible to create an equally compelling story for a beautiful home in a built up urban environment that doesn’t have those wonderful landscapes around it?

Aidan Anderson:
I think honest answer is yes. And again, it comes back to the people who are telling that story. Like I told you, Bunkeren is our most viewed project and that’s the classic landscape, middle of national park, et cetera. The second most viewed is a tiny little home just up the road in Surry Hills and the title of it is Architect Designs Home That is Three Meters Wide for Them and Their Family.

Anthony Denman:
Domenic Alvaro or-

Aidan Anderson:
It’s not Dom.

Anthony Denman:
Okay. Let me get down to Adam Haddow.

Aidan Anderson:
No, not Adam either. I feel bad because I forgot the name of… I think it’s Adele somebody or other, but she’s designed a three-meter home and it’s just the way she tells the story, brilliant. Going through the home is awkward and it’s just like telling that story is incredibly hard, but it just proves the point that yes, the landscape homes do incredibly well, but those interesting narratives and challenges do just as well as well if they’re told well.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah. Well, it’s almost the other extreme, isn’t it?

Aidan Anderson:
Literally. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
It’s like classic. Because I remember that, I think you did one for Domenic who had a four-level home on a postage stamp size piece of land.

Aidan Anderson:
That’s right. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
And I don’t know if you’ve ever done Adam’s, but I know he did something similar, but it just went crazy on materials.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, he went crazy. Adam’s home and I think that’s in Surry Hills as well. That’s a stunner. That’s a classic example of I’ve been knocking on his door for so long now and because he’s had so much press and so much love. Hopefully we get to shoot it soon, but I would love to get to get in there, be special.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah. Well, tell him I sent you.

Aidan Anderson:
I will.

Anthony Denman:
And he’ll probably send you away.

Aidan Anderson:
Okay. Yeah, lovely. Appreciate that. We’ll get him one day.

Anthony Denman:
I’m sure you will. Mentors, do you have any mentors?

Aidan Anderson:
I actually don’t, which is really, I guess, somewhat interesting. I’ve always said that although I don’t have mentors, I’ve never really been searching out for a mentor or mentors, but what I do have is an amazing group of friends that some are similar age, some are much older, some are younger, some are business owners. I would say 60%, 70% of business owners, the other 30%, 40% are just elite at what they do in their field. And I think this is what replaces the mentorship is that getting in a room or having a nice dinner and having a chat with these guys and girls. That’s kind of my form of mentorship from them and with them, where it’s like we’re talking about challenges from completely different industries. Whether it’s people related or process or even just a young that has filled the need for having someone to look up to and ask answers and questions from.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah. Yeah. No, that makes perfect sense. You’ve surrounded yourself with so many like minded individuals of various disciplines and design disciplines that you haven’t had the requirement for that. No, that makes a lot of sense. Sources of inspiration, okay? So The Local Project is a source of inspiration for many, many people, okay, myself included. Does the CEO, co-founder of The Local Project have any particular sources of inspiration?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah. I consume so much content on a day-to-day, whether it’s Instagram reels or watching YouTube videos or looking at other magazines. I’m so interested in what other industries and other publishers and what other YouTube channels are doing and how they’re communicating that I’m just, I find it educational and fun and interesting, but I’m trying to pluck out my favourite parts from each of them and apply it to our business as well. So just by nature of consuming all different types of content. And to be honest with you, the best evolutions of the business that we’ve had over the last five years, especially has been from other leaders around me, whether it’s our marketing manager or head of editorial, the most fun I have is when these people around me say, “Aidan, I’ve got this idea, what do you reckon?”
And then between their idea and little modifications I’ve seen from other industries or YouTube channels, we create these epic ideas and roll it out and because we’re a nimble business, we can move relatively quickly and launch a new vertical or a new hardcover book. So yeah, inspired by other pieces of content around me, but also my team around me too.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah, but there’s not one sort of thing. It’s a little bit like the mentor question really or the mentor answer really is that you have an abundance of input from all these different sources.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Is there a legacy that you’d like to be remembered for by future generations?

Aidan Anderson:
Not me personally, no. I think going back to the very start of our conversation, like if the business leaves a legacy of helping normalise design and helping leave a mark on the amount of people that can appreciate and consider and love design, I think that’s our job done. I honestly feel like that’s the legacy that we want to leave as a business.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah, that’s beautiful. Now you don’t have any children – lucky you. I do believe you’re… I shouldn’t say that. Still there’s parents out there. I mean, we talked about this. It is the most gratifying thing you can do.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah. So I’ve heard, yeah, don’t believe it yet.

Anthony Denman:
That old anecdotal piece of advice, which is so true, which is the harder things are the more rewarding.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, great. Can’t wait. No, I can’t wait.

Anthony Denman:
Sorry, Mrs. Anderson-to-be, I’m certainly not talking Aidan out of having children. In fact, when we had this discussion earlier, my suggestion was he should do it.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, that is true.

Anthony Denman:
So they may be on the radar, given you’re about to get married, of course. I can hear hearts breaking all over the North American, and New Zealand, and Australian landscapes.

Aidan Anderson:
Barely, maybe one. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
So if you had one piece of advice, a life lesson, you’re taking your last breath and you’ve got just one piece of advice or a life lesson that you would want to pass on to future generation, what would that advice be?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, it’s a very brutal and direct piece of advice, but it’s something that I learned relatively early on and it’s simply that like… And this is maybe… Oh, it’s not even just a business sense, it’s a personal sense as well, but I learned very quickly that no one’s coming to save you. If you want to succeed in life, whether it’s through business, personal relationships, or just day-to-day life and you want to do the best that you can, there isn’t someone who’s going to swoop in and save you and give you the answers. You’ve got to figure it out yourself for the most part. And I know it sounds blunt and brutal, but the sooner I realised that and switched my mind into, “Oh, maybe someone else can help me do this,” to, “Okay, I’ve got to get this done.” That’s when all the goals, again, both professionally and personally, started ticking off in my life.

Anthony Denman:
No, I love that. That’s like the burning the boats story.

Aidan Anderson:
I don’t know that one.

Anthony Denman:
Okay. So I wish I could be more articulate around this, but it’s one of those old world war stories if you like. And I’m not a fan obviously of war mongering and anything, but it was back in the day when various nations and tribes used to invade other countries in wooden boats with sails and oars and so this particular flotilla boats went to a place to invade it. And when they arrived, what they chose to do was to burn their own boats, which meant there was no way of them returning to their homeland unless they conquered the people that they were going to war with and use their boats to get back home.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, keep going forward. Oh yeah, that’s a good analogy. It’s even more brutal than mine, but yeah, no, I get it.

Anthony Denman:
Yeah, it’s a similar kind of notion. It’s like, if you’ve got no other recourse, if you backed into a corner and the only way out is you can’t look over your shoulder to find anyone else. You’ve got to find it within, I guess is what you’re saying.

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, well said. Yeah, spot on.

Anthony Denman:
Mate, thank you so much.

Aidan Anderson:
I really enjoyed the conversation. So thanks for the great questions.

Anthony Denman:
Such a great conversation. Is there any sort of final word that you’d like to leave?

Aidan Anderson:
Yeah, maybe not a thought, but maybe just like if there is, and I’m hoping there is a couple listeners out there that have supported us along our now 10-year journey as of March next year, just thank you. I look back and I love these conversations because I think about 10 years ago I was a chippy working in a coworking space in Botany to now sitting down with you speaking about that journey and talking about New Zealand and the US. It’s like it’s been an amazing journey and it’s literally off the back of the people, our audience and the team around me that supported me. So more of just a thank you.

Anthony Denman:
Do you have anything planned for a 10-year celebration?

Aidan Anderson:
We’re putting together a mini documentary actually just to tell this story so a bit more visually. So we’re piecing that together super excited and I’m sure our marketing manager, Cass, will want to throw a wild party or six as well around the world. So watch this space. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Fantastic. More of the designer savvy cocktail parties to come.

Aidan Anderson:
That’s it. Yeah. A few burning sausages I think that’d be my two cents on it. Yeah.

Anthony Denman:
Oh man, awesome.

Aidan Anderson:
Awesome. Thanks, Anthony.

Anthony Denman:
Thank you. Thank you.

Aidan Anderson:
Appreciate it.

Anthony Denman:
That was really good.

Aidan Anderson:
Cool.