Every year, there’s an event that runs to raise money for zero2hero, the mental health charity. The zero2hero cape2cape CEO Trek runs 135 kilometres along the Cape to Cape Track, from Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse at Augusta to Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse at Dunsborough. This year, 16 business owners took the trek and raised $300,000 between them.
We sat down to chat with Chad Djulbic — a plumber who now runs Jewelbic Brothers, a Perth construction and renovation company — who took the trek with seven friends and colleagues. They called their team Cape to Grape and raised roughly $150,000 for zero2hero.
This is his story.
What made you sign up for the trek?
It all started with a conversation over dinner with a mate.
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“I was out for dinner with Nic Osboine, and he was telling me about the trek, and I was like, this sounds like something I want to do and be part of. Then I looked into it more, and looked into zero2hero, and I thought it was definitely a good cause and a good challenge as well.”
Nic had already pulled the rest of the team together. “He sits on the boards of a couple of charities and is always raising money for one of them,” Chad commented, saying he was the last of the seven to sign up.
A couple of people Chad has known over the years have died by suicide, which gave the cause a personal connection for him. But it wasn’t the main reason he chose to do the trek. A big part of the appeal was who he’d be walking with.
“To be able to take five days off with other business owners who are friends, most of them are probably in the same position as me with always being busy and needing to get work done, and it’s not an easy thing to get away,” he said. “You’re talking to them a lot during the trek and learning about what they do and how they’ve done it, and their struggles and everything like that.”
How did your team raise $150,000?
If you’ve ever participated in a charity event or tried to raise money, you’ll know how hard it can be to raise $5,000, let alone $150,000. It takes a lot of planning, work, and leaning on those around you.
For Chad and his team, that included running some in-person events, complete with entertainment and auctions, to help reach that figure. One of those was a comedy night at the Jewelbic Brothers headquarters in Osborne Park.
The comedy night was meant to be a client event for Jewelbic, planned for later in the year. But when Chad signed up for the trek, they moved it up and turned it into a fundraiser. We were there, and it was one of the funniest comedy nights we’ve been to in Perth.
“I think we’ll do another one like that again, and try and improve from it each year, because that was definitely a good night,” Chad said.
Nic ran the other big one at his place in Subiaco. He filled the walls with paintings from sip-and-paint nights, plus a set of comical AI images Chad had made of the team on the track, printed off and ready to auction.
“He called it the shit art show, which was pretty funny,” Chad said.
“The rest came from the team pushing all their suppliers, friends, clients, and everyone else to donate. We’ve all got a very good network, and we’re really happy with the way everyone got around it.”
What did you learn out on the track?
Days started around 6:30 am and finished between 4:00 and 5:00 pm, usually with a few stops along the way. A lot of those stops turned into lessons. Ricky, one of the group, is a leader in a forest conservation community, and knew the country they were walking through.
“Ricky would just stop us and explain all the different trees and how long everything’s been here, and how unique Australia is with that, especially that part of Australia, which is really interesting,” Chad said. “And how their tracks are kept up by certain people in different areas, which I never knew about.”
zero2hero used the stops too, walking the group through what its programs do and what they’ve done for young people over the years.
Before the trek, everyone filled in a questionnaire for e-colours, a personality profiling tool, and the results were handed out over dinner one night. Chad came out red-green.
“When we got together and put everyone in their groups, it was like everyone was perfectly placed. I think it was pretty funny,” he said. “And then we did a bit of a brainstorm on it all and sat together and go, why are we all reds?”
What should business leaders be doing about mental health?
“We definitely need to try and speak to our employees more and make sure they’re going okay. I suppose there’s a big learning curve for that and how we approach it, especially with different types of people. Some people aren’t going to open up at all, and we have to just try to work out ways to make them open up if they are struggling.”
Chad thinks almost every business owner has been touched by it somewhere, and that it’s harder for young people now than it used to be.
“Everyone, through their life, someone’s affected by it. I would say it would be very rare if they’re not,” he said. “I think the youth mental health is worse these days due to social media, and I think suicide rates are higher as well because of that.”
“As you get older, you kind of understand it more. When you’re younger, you’re in the trenches with it, not knowing how to control it. So mentoring those young people, or even as a CEO or as a director, it’s trying to understand and notice those points when people are struggling, and how to deal with it at the right times.”
“Every person’s got that slight difference, where you’ve got to treat them slightly differently and understand how to do that, which is a learning curve. I don’t think anyone ever gets it right, but you’ve got to try. The more information we get on that, the better for us to lead and make the right calls for those people and assist where we can.”
What would you say to someone thinking about doing the trek next year?
“Probably train more than I did,” Chad joked. “I had about two training sessions. But 100% give it a go. It was amazing. I would actually do it again.”
“I would recommend it to anyone of any type of fitness. I think I was the youngest one there, probably at 39,” Chad said. “The first day was a struggle a little bit, but then after that, once you got your groove, everyone was doing well. You don’t get left behind. The guides are amazing. It’s definitely once in a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing you can do and support such a great cause.”
Find out more about registering for next year’s trek at zero2hero.
Credit to the full team of trekkers
Cape2Grape team
| Nic Osboine | Osboine Investments |
| Chad Djulbic | Jewelbic Brothers |
| Robert Slowey | Opra Projects |
| John Bain | Opra Projects |
| Simon Browne | Longreach Recruitment |
| Bryce Varley | Showscreens |
| Evan Campbell | Westralia Lifestyle Resorts |
The rest of the trekkers
| Wilf Chambers | Wilf Chambers British Car Sales |
| Steve Gliosca, Urbane Projects | Urbane Projects |
| James Thompson | Roof Ninjas |
| Jeff Robson | Access Analytic |
| Brendan Chaplyn | Altrad |
| Matthew Jones | Create Homes |
| Sean Breen | FSC |
| Anthony Russo Battagliolo | PKF Perth |
| Adrian Rorbach | Brooks Hire |
