David Baker has built a following by doing something most people in the construction industry do not bother with. He takes council projects, back-costs them, and puts the numbers online for everyone to see. What that costs, what it actually should cost, and why the gap between those two numbers matters. It has made him one of the more interesting voices in the NZ building space.

David is the founder of Rapid QS and he joins Jason at the ShedlifeNZ Studio for Episode 9.

A lot of the conversation is about content and how he got started making it. He was not a social media person who decided to get into construction. He was a QS who decided the public needed to understand what their money was being spent on, and started putting videos out to explain it. He talks through how that started, what he has learned from doing it, and where it has taken Rapid QS.

The back-costing stuff is worth hearing in detail. David walks through his process and why he thinks accountability in public spending matters. He is not ranting for the sake of it. He has done the actual number work and he explains what he sees in those projects and what it tells him about how the construction industry prices work in New Zealand.

But the episode goes well beyond QS stuff. David also talks about his personal story. There was a period in his life where he got into serious debt. He is open about how that happened and what it took to get back out of it. That part of the conversation is real and worth listening to, because it is not a cleaned-up version of events. He explains what discipline and consistency actually looked like when things were hard, and how those habits carried across into the way he runs his business now.

If you work in construction, own a business, or have ever wondered how council projects end up costing what they cost, this one is for you.

Listen to the full episode on all major platforms

[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0L91djs-1k)

[Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/72KnBcFkM1r3xm2YyVujJR)

[Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shedlifenz-podcast/id1857464528)

[iHeart Radio](https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shedlife-nz-308999038/)