Belinda [00:00:01]:
Well, hello, Robert, and welcome to the sport coaching podcast.
Robert [00:00:05]:
Hi there.
Belinda [00:00:07]:
I'm very excited to have you on. It's been a long time coming because your story is a little bit different. I've just gone through your fantastic bio, so let's get started with today's show. I'd love to know, can you share a pivotal moment or experience from your childhood that instilled in you that ethos of do your best today and enhance us that tomorrow? What's the mantra mean to you?
Robert [00:00:28]:
Yeah, well, this is something that really formed from an early childhood, really, with my parents as we're growing up, three younger brothers and older sister for me, had the great fortune of really having marvelous parents who gave us a lot of love and independence at the same time, which is interesting, right? Nothing came on a plate and everything was earned. Work well here, get that. Do a share of the house chores. Win that.
Belinda [00:00:58]:
Robert. I'm just laughing going, yes, well, that's.
Robert [00:01:03]:
How it should be, but that's the way. Yeah, it doesn't happen all the time, obviously, in all families, but certainly it didn't ours. There was no pivotal or main eureka moment that got us onto this sort of do your best today stuff, but lots of them in a way that showed the more we put in, the more we could achieve. That said, there was no pressure or punishment for lack of result. We were loved and our mum and dad provided active leadership and sort of led by example, which was important. I think we're always encouraged to get in, have a crack, if not succeeding at first, try again and again. And I think encouraged to join that journey with all the experiences as well. Often my dad would say, what have you learned today?
Belinda [00:01:53]:
Yes.
Robert [00:01:54]:
So with my competitive spirit at an early age, I came to know and depend on the saying, which I learned many years later. But this is what guided me, is every day is a school day, which I like. It's one of my favorite. All of which added up to that wonderful guide. Do your best today and enhance it tomorrow. So there's a lesson here for young parents, I reckon, as well as teenagers and young adults in life. Always strive to be and do the best you can. And the evidence is it certainly pays off with great achievements.
Belinda [00:02:29]:
Fantastic. I love it. Thank you. We've opened up with the wrap up today, so normally end up on the show with some words of advice or wisdom, but we're now starting with it, so I love it. Now, Rob, you did serve some time the australian army and service in the special forces. So how has that helped shaped your approach to challenges and achievements, both in military and in life?
Robert [00:02:53]:
External yeah, well, it's an interesting and probably an obvious question in a sense. A lot of people would assume that that's where it came from, in a sense. But you might say that my approach was already shaped by my upbringing in a country town and outdoor know, outstanding team activities, know, cubs and Boy scouts and sporting teams of AFL and cricket and basketball and school swimming and athletic competitions and all that, such like. I grew up in the country, which is a fantastic thing, as you know, coming from where you are. And I was interested in history and the championship ethos from an early age, too. So in a way, I was almost groomed to be a field soldier. I was in the habit of setting goals through those early years, and in my fifth year in high school, I actually joined the army reserve in Adelaide. And so I was an infantryman in the mortar section of a historic battalion, actually a Gallipoli battalion in Adelaide.
Robert [00:03:59]:
While still going to school, other guys were out there playing whatever they played, and I was humping 3.5 inch mortars around the place in the exercise. As a young kid, I knew from my observation and studies that the Vietnam War looked like it was drawing to a know for Australians. And so I decided to join the regular army to at least have a chance to get there before it finished. Boy stuff, right? So the army became a pathway for me to confirm that approach or shape that I already had from my child in teen years. It became a pathway. It enabled me to operate in the best way. My parents, who were divorced at that time, both wished me well and encouraged me, as always, if you're going to do it, then do your best at it. So while in the reserve there, I found out about an outfit called the Special Air Service Regiment and that it was the hardest, and therefore, in my mind, the best to try and get into.
Belinda [00:05:08]:
Are you crobin?
Robert [00:05:10]:
And decided, in line with my philosophy and chosen pathway, that that was where I needed to be and to aim at. So the result was that I joined the army actually straight from school when I was 17 and a half, was taken in early for selection into the regiment for whatever reason, and was fully badged operator there by 18 half just a year later. And I was the youngest badged soldier in the regiment and was the youngest soldier, actually, as a patrol scout in my squadron in Vietnam War service at 19 and one month. So I was out there ducking and weaving up in the jungle there by then, and I was highly trained by that time so as to your question, Belinda? My military service, which was over 21 years, mostly in special operations, actually confirmed and developed my approach to an increasingly higher level as I've gone through my life. So it's a real fantastic springboard for me for later in my life. So you can do a lot worse than tread the path that I trade. Yeah, it's really about the pursuit of excellence for me, certainly that's what the SAS is all about, the pursuit of excellence. I reckon one of the things that I like about what you do at motivate training is to work well with younger clients and also their parents, in many cases, obviously, to encourage them to start early.
Robert [00:06:42]:
It's hard to be focused enough for the path when you're young, but it is the championship way, if you are fortunate enough to see it. Note that a very significant portion of world champions, as you well know in many sports, started their process as children with the help of family and friends. The people, like the guys in the Formula One, for example, the champions of the world, all of them started carding and all this from an early age, being helped by people around them, in particular, their parents, obviously get started. I'm not saying it's the start for everyone in Formula One, but it wasn't. It seems to be that an early start. To be a champion at the top, you've got to learn a lot of stuff and stick at it for a long time.
Belinda [00:07:34]:
Yeah, I think it's a shame. I shouldn't say it's a shame, but I don't think they teach the kids around about army or anything like that now in schools. Not that my kids are quite younger. Do you know if they do now? I know obviously it's very different back in time from now to them, but, yeah, I don't think they really talk about it.
Robert [00:08:00]:
Yeah, it's a bit of a worry in a sense, but I think people still. A lot of the old things been going on for thousands of years. The older people say the young people are not like they used to make them and they'll be no good now, but they generally always step up to the mark if need be. So I'm strategically confident, so to speak, that they'll work out all right, but times change here and there. But by and large, to me, not everyone's suited for a military career. Right. Not everyone's there. But I would say that the military is interesting because it gives you benchmarks, it gives you accountability, it gives you this ethos of not quitting.
Robert [00:08:49]:
And you see that in young people today. Unfortunately, a lot of people, they find, well, this is a bit tough. I think I'll move on to another thing now. In fact, I was reading the other day and a good word came out of that where a guy who was obviously back in history, World War II, sort of middle of last century, sounds ancient, doesn't it? And he was calling it stickability. There was a lot of stickability then, and I think that's a good word. And I think if we can get this across to our young competitors these days, stickability, not everything's going to work out all the time, and you've got to keep on looking at your goals and going towards them, win or lose along the way. So stickability is a great word, isn't it?
Belinda [00:09:45]:
Yes, I like it. I like it a lot. Now, Robert, after your fantastic career in the armed forces, what made you, or how did you get started in motorsports?
Robert [00:09:56]:
Yeah, well, this is sort of a bit of a long story, and some people, well, you transition out of cris, emergency management, to motorsport and all this sort of thing, but I didn't really. In sort of sense, that was sort of irrelevant, but it was an earlier story in a sense. So it's a bit of a long story, this, but I'll try and fit it all in. I was definitely a late starter to motorsport, competitive motorsport, and it came about by chance, really, after a longish and probably sometimes torturous road. I'd finished with the army after a fulfilling career, 21 years plus, and immediately got stuck in a business, mainly in sales and marketing, which actually was a good thing, in a sense, later. And then I doubled up into cris emergency consultancy with a close former military mate around the world. I found that this, working phonetically, although challenging, seemed to lack meaning, and I found myself gradually unraveling, in a sense, suffering signs and symptoms, or what, nearly eleven years later, in 2014, would be diagnosed as PTSD, largely emanating from my super busy and challenging military career and the experiences I've had through there, including active service. My extremely hardy, if I can call them that, coping mechanisms generally worked very well up to that point, but I felt, mentally, that I was sort of going out the back door, sort of a downward spiral, and a lot of people suffer from this, and it's a fairly normal.
Robert [00:11:42]:
Well, it's normal, but it's a very arduous experience. So at that time, I found an old Alpha Romeo in an advert, which was the same color and model as my very first Alpha Romeo that I had back in 1978 79. And it was an Alfa Romeo al feta GTV two liter coupe, which is an ivory color and it was a lovely car and my interest was sparked to do something with that, maybe restore know, give me something to do as I went out the back, you got to do so. Driven by my normal do it properly sort of ethos, I went to the Alpha owners club up in Brisbane there to get some advice and tips on restoration and how to do it properly. And what I found there was a good number of the members were of all sorts of ages actually racing around, racing their alphas around various tracks and having a great time doing it. And the old competitive candle sparked up in me and started to flicker again. And I thought, this is interesting. And my do your best philosophy took me over and I naturally asked myself, what's the hardest thing I can do as an amateur competitor without much money for damage repair? So the answer came back, well, probably road racing, I.
Robert [00:13:07]:
E. Tarmac rally with some track work or racing for testing at least. And then the next logical question came up. What's the hardest event within those parameters? This is my army sort of background, so what's the hardest thing I can do here? And setting goals. And the answer came back target Tasmania. So starting from 2003, I completed 15 majors in the national level of tarmac rally series in the next 15 years, including six target Tasmanias, which are big, major and expensive event right through to the Adelaide rally of 2018. In 2013, I was actually 6th in the Australian Target championship as a very non wealthy privateer. And after 2018 I haven't been able to do much.
Robert [00:14:04]:
In a sense. I got involved trying to put the team together with some other groups. It didn't work out actually. I paddled a sea kayak 2450 km down the Murray river and got back in time to be diagnosed at that time with stage four cancer, non Hodgkin's lymphoma. I thought it was hard, but I didn't know it was that hard. But I spent all of 2022 being diagnosed and treated and recovering from treatment from that. So it was a bit of a speed bump, you could say, in the life of. But the overall thing about the story, getting into motorsport, I found that competitive motorsport in particular, tarmac rally though, saved me and it had been saving me and that's what I took into the future for it.
Robert [00:15:07]:
And in fact, while I was on that kayak trip, I reinvented myself a little bit more and tried to set the team up properly. I guess a long answer to a short question there.
Belinda [00:15:19]:
No, I love it. I keep forgetting that I'm the interview and I'm supposed to be asking questions. I'm just like sitting here listening to your story. Thank you. So, yeah, you mentioned your tarmac rating and how that. Sorry, your rally rating as well. That has really helped with your PTSD. And you spoke about how you did some sales and marketing and that you have been trying to put a team together and we've been working together around a sponsorship.
Belinda [00:15:49]:
So how has your experience influenced your understanding of sponsorship and the business side of the sport?
Robert [00:15:56]:
Yeah, well, I'll just take it back. You're going to ask me a question which I thought was interesting. You mentioned that you'd like to mention it about my basketball coaching career, which I think fits into our overall story here. Just sideline on that. R1, quick. So in 1994, my daughter Brittany and some of her friends were in the Mount tambourine under twelve basketball team. They were one of eight teams in the Gold coast district and had been spectacularly unsuccessful. It came to my attention late in that season that they had not won one game in the whole season and they were nearing the end of that season.
Robert [00:16:41]:
Their individual skills was, on the average, really low. They had no reserves, they didn't have a coach or any coach, any coaching and they did not have any training as part of that thing. Right. So they were born for failure, so to speak. Two or three basketball mums took them down to the Carra Stadium on a rotation basis, doing the right thing with oranges and drinks and encouragement where they could. The result? Well, the girls were sort of happy to have a run around, but without any victory, they could only look at all the other flash teams riding over the top of them every week. I'm averse to that idea for my daughter, at least I thought, well, all right. So I offered to the parents to take up coach the girls to some modicum of activity.
Belinda [00:17:43]:
Have you played basketball before yourself, Robert?
Robert [00:17:46]:
Yeah, I'd actually played for army and I'd played through my teen years and some, and I played for army and I figured I knew enough to get started in the next season close by. So in 1995, the next year, the same girls, same small group of girls, we only had seven or eight girls from our small village to participate. Not a whole suburb that these other teams get their people from. Started rock bottom in the under 13 Gold coast series. They started there and by the end of the season, though, they were champions. So they went from rock bottom to champions in that one year. And it's a great credit to them for that much of their absolute joy and the absolute chagrin of their more accomplished adversary teams or competitive teams against them. They couldn't work it out, actually.
Robert [00:18:40]:
So, how so? Well, the five applicable benchmarks for my coaching program that year, and the reason why I include this answer here is because to me, it's the same in motorsport. So my benchmarks were these five things. Simplification, fitness training, determination and focus. So, simplification, fitness training, determination and focus. I figured the girls would take too long to learn the dribling and movement skills that their more accomplished competitors really were good at. So I simplified their game to a very strict pass and shoot game. So I said they weren't allowed to do anything, just all they had to do was pass and shoot, more like a netball style, because all the other teams were very flash, individual skills and they've been playing for a long time and so on. So they practiced these skills over and over and over again till it became like muscle memory.
Robert [00:19:46]:
I drove them crazy with it. I instituted training one afternoon after school per week and concentrated on fitness, sprinting and whole team passing, coordination and shooting as well as that. I drilled them in not letting go of the ball. This was quite funny, actually, to opposition hands, and I call it ball wrestling. So I get them together and they try and rip the ball off each other in training all the time. So that was a really good thing, because when I first saw them, the other teams were just taking the ball off them, out of their hands. And the girls are just nice and, oh, okay, they've got the ball now. But after we started training, no one took the ball off them.
Robert [00:20:25]:
By match three, they won their first. You should have seen their faces when they won. They started to win more and more consistently. They started to love being able to win their confidence as people grew. They won the grand final match over a very flash team with just by a few points over a team that had many more individual skilled players. They were delirious. It was an incredible grand final. The following year, I coached them again, actually the same girls, and they came runners up in the grand final that year.
Robert [00:20:55]:
The other teams were starting to catch up to them and they were very happy with their achievements, obviously. But incidentally, that year, 1996, I also simultaneously coached the new Mount tambourine under 14 boys team to a first championship.
Belinda [00:21:11]:
Oh, very good.
Robert [00:21:12]:
So the reason I sort of thought that might be a good one for you and your clients, many of whom are young guys and so on, is that those things, those benchmarks are pretty important, I think simplification, try and distill what the keys are to your game and concentrate on those key things. Don't just spread it out. So you're a jack of all trades, but master of none. That doesn't work when you want to win things. Fitness training, determination and of course, focus. And going back to the question you asked me before, what was the next question you wanted to ask me?
Belinda [00:21:57]:
The spout sponsorship. But I guess going back to what you're saying about those five pillars there, it's that exactly what you're saying, that it is relevant to motorsports as well?
Robert [00:22:07]:
Yeah, I think.
Belinda [00:22:08]:
Yeah, most definitely. So thanks for again bringing some wisdom to us. But it's around about having that whole package and not just being a fast driver with fast results or with great results. It is around about being able to still perform on and off the track, being able to consistently train and training not only physically, obviously on the track, but mentally as well.
Robert [00:22:34]:
Yeah, the mental side is so important. As you know, and you often mentioned this, I really love your training ethos there in terms of your points you bring out to your guys, and I'm sure that everyone follows, you will know it's the right path because they'll see results. I know another question before I get to the sponsorship one I know another question you asked me before, just when we're talking, was what drew me to motorsport, particularly the track and rally driving, et cetera, and some of the memorable moments. Well, as mentioned above, I was a late comer to the competitive motorsport. I'd driven many fast cars through the woods in my time, maybe illegally or not legally, Robert, but I enjoyed the technical and emotional challenge of it. But I was always super busy, not only with my careers, but also raising a family and so on through that time. So my very first, though, and last for a long time, competitive sport on wheels, was when dad entered me into the wakeery. I just get rid of that phone.
Robert [00:23:56]:
I should have switched it off. Never mind.
Belinda [00:23:58]:
That's okay.
Robert [00:24:00]:
I like to prove I'm human now and then. Leave my phone on. So was when dad entered me into the Wakeri Billy cart downhill race.
Belinda [00:24:11]:
Wow.
Robert [00:24:12]:
Going way back, dad made a rudimentary but strong and light, functional rope steered Billy cart for me. I think we had wheels, little wheels off a pram or something. And we trained on the country roads outside of Wakerie in the sort of upper river in South Australia there. And dad used to follow me along down the main highway in his family car with his athleta head sign on the boot, and me with one of mum's plastic bowls strung on my head as know I remember. And I entered alongside these other very flash machines, very fast, streamlined most of them with older drivers too. In the open junior class I remember the track was a winding, relatively steep downhill to maybe a bit over a kilometer in length. About a kilometer and a half in length I suppose, on the main town center to the banks of the Murray river. And it was all like an inertial, like a gravity feed race.
Robert [00:25:21]:
At the start of gun we took off and very quickly the rocket ships mostly crashed on the curbs and the corners it seemed with me and my very slow start, but building quick momentum, my cornering training paying off in a dog of determination sailed across the finish line in first place in the wakey Billy cart race. I was eight years old at that point.
Belinda [00:25:47]:
That's how you got the love becomes addictive, doesn't it?
Robert [00:25:55]:
I didn't go carting, but I went in the billy cart downhill. But that was good. Yeah, everything I can't describe as explain as in physics or scientifically, I call it a miracle. So that might have been one of them.
Belinda [00:26:11]:
Beautiful.
Robert [00:26:13]:
Yeah, but it comes into a training and trying to focus on. That's why I think it's worth a mention. It's interesting part of the story in a sense in terms of what dad set up for me and things like that.
Belinda [00:26:26]:
I do too. And again, this is part of your story, this is like your how and your why and that's why you're here telling.
Robert [00:26:33]:
Yeah, I guess so. It all adds up, doesn't it?
Belinda [00:26:36]:
That's right. And one of the other wonderful things that you've done is set up veterans. Sorry. In motorsports program. How does it continue to recover to help with recovery process for veterans? Someone's after you.
Robert [00:26:52]:
Yeah, we just had a loss in the family so people are ringing me. Yeah, so sorry. So what was that question again? Sorry.
Belinda [00:27:04]:
So you set up that fantastic program called veterans in motorsports.
Robert [00:27:08]:
Oh yeah.
Belinda [00:27:10]:
And so tell us how does that help veterans and what's the program all about? And then we'll go back to the sponsor. Okay.
Robert [00:27:22]:
In 2006 in the target Tasmania of that year, I met a fellow ex serviceman from the two commando regiment. He was actually being wounded in Afghanistan, this guy, and been knocked around by explosions and things. But he was competing really well in his Datsun 260 Z, which was a great car for this sort of stuff. And was supporting and was supported by the sponsors of Legacy Australia who look after the children and widows of veterans who pass from those talks with him. I formed the idea that this would be a really good thing to do for recovering veterans, because it saved me in 2003, some years before, and within a year, I launched a mountain road racing team. And the long development and trial and error process of setting up a suitable, sustainable program began from that time. So it's taken me a long time to do. It's interesting, Porsche, I say this, and I'm not comparing myself to the Porsche Motor company, but Porsche Motor Company tried for 17 years to win Le Mons, and they didn't win it for 17 years.
Robert [00:28:37]:
And finally they won it. And after that, they became more or less the world's top sports car mark. So I guess that's for all our listeners. You can't give up too early. So, you know. So our target demographic, you know, for our program, which is called veterans into motorsport program, are younger veterans from all the three services, men and women, abled and disabled, who have some self motivation to recover from their physical and psychological injuries they've suffered during their service to Australia. So I've been on both sides of the fence, I understand these things, and it's a bit of a no brainer, in a sense, getting involved in the tarmac rally events at the national level as crew. So we get people to be navigators, crew chiefs, service crew guys and so on, and they come along to these national level events, which is actually run, in our case these days, by the ASA, people who run a terrific system for legislating and regulating rallies.
Robert [00:30:04]:
And this reintroduces these guys, as we call them, participants, to a very friendly, uplifting environment, mixing with like minded people, pursuing excellence in small teams. And that's just like the army was to them, or the Navy, or the air force was. That's what they remember from the countable area of that. So it's well documented, medically and proven to work beautifully this motorsport, for this purpose. There's a lot of things written on it. So that's what we do, and we're proceeding quite well at this stage.
Belinda [00:30:45]:
And have you been fortunate enough to get any grants or support from any governing bodies?
Robert [00:30:50]:
Yeah, well, that's probably, in our case, not yet. We've put in for this and that, and I got to say that getting support from government or institutions like public institutions, is probably the hardest target market, mainly because they take a long time, there's a lot of red tape. Everything's done by committees. It's got to be signed off against this and this and this and that and this and that. So it does take a long time. It's quite unwieldy, and you need a bit of a team to keep on pressing at it. But we never give up, so we're going to keep on that journey. But a lot of other targets are more viable, and you were talking about motorsport, sponsorship before, and this is a journey in itself, which I'm happy to talk about.
Belinda [00:31:52]:
Tell the story, Robert.
Robert [00:31:55]:
Well, it hasn't been easy securing sponsorships, I got to say, but the way I look at life is the championship path is always the most difficult path to tread. So if you want to be a champion, that's the path you tread, that's the way you go in every way. All the great things in history, in human history, were all actually thought to be impossible before they were attempted. Every one of them. You read in history, everything. Everyone said, no, that'll never happen. That won't happen. You can't do that.
Robert [00:32:36]:
You can't do this, you can't do that. It's an interesting thing, isn't it? But of course, that's what history is made of. Everything good has to come to the playing field for you to win. It's never all or nothing, though. It's like, oh, didn't work. Oh, well, that's it. Story over, trip over. Not in my world, anyway.
Robert [00:33:00]:
So much study, patience, perseverance and persistence and so steely focus on your set. Goals are required year after year after year. That's the goal for you. Don't think, oh, well, I'll give it a shot, and if it's over in one year, well, I'll go and do something else. Play marbles or something like that. So, in a sense, I think the mindset is very important with this. In a sense, every knockback brings you one step closer to your goal. That's the way you should think.
Belinda [00:33:30]:
Yes.
Robert [00:33:31]:
Because if you learn from those knockbacks, you're going to be better and better and better and better. It's sort of a bit like practicing on a racetrack. The more you practice, the better you get. The quicker you get, the more safe you get, the more stable you are and so on. As long as you don't give up.
Belinda [00:33:50]:
That's right.
Robert [00:33:51]:
So the team motto, our team motto for mountain road racing is on the back of my race cars and on the back of my tow cars. And it's always too soon to quit.
Belinda [00:34:00]:
I like that.
Robert [00:34:01]:
That's our team motto. It's always too soon to quit. I put up there, so I look at it every day and that keeps running. For young people, this is where their parents and family can help with encouragement and guidance, because young people, by and large, are obviously impatient and they want things to happen yesterday. Yesterday, that's right. And with your kids, probably the same thing. They say, are we there yet? Are we there yet? But the last thing I'd say to you this on, you must be ready to also reinvent yourself, which is important. You need to modify and change your methodology, if necessary, to fine tune it, which is exactly the same as you do when you tune your go kart, or your car, or your motorbike, or your running shoes, if you're an athlete.
Robert [00:34:59]:
So this will come if you constantly study and learn more. The other thing I'd say regarding sponsorship is that. I think it's. The thing is that the first thing is, it's a relatively expensive undertaking to indulge in motorsport. So when I looked at it first, funding was the key that brought me naturally to this best practice. If you want to find funds other than your own, you must realize securing sponsorship and support is a business. And I noticed that you emphasize this a lot over and over again, more so as each year goes by with your messages to your clients, to your listeners and viewers. So I reckon that's a real good thing that you do, because it's nothing but a business, in a way.
Robert [00:36:02]:
So, a lot of people in motorsport are self funded because they find that running the business side of it is beyond them, or they don't like it, or they don't have the wherewithal or the study to understand that. So, as I didn't have much money outside of my own family requirements, I immediately started to study sponsorship and the business of motorsport when I started right back, and I've been doing that now for over 22 years. Every day is a school day for me, so I'm more than happy to talk to you and learn from people like yourself and other people all the time. One thing to stand out about sponsorship is that help comes in three tangible ways. Right, finance, services and products. But all of them boil down to money, right. Service and products are both about money. They're just provided by other people.
Robert [00:37:00]:
If they don't provide them, you've got to buy them with money. So they're very valuable. In fact, just about all of my early times, all of my help was in the form of services and products, which I would have had to purchase myself if I didn't have that help from people who understood what I was trying to do and like what I was trying to do. And you've just got to communicate, communicate, communicate and follow up and follow up and follow up. And all of us, we don't do that as well as we should, including myself. So that's a real key thing. But service and products are nothing to be sneezed at, because you're going to have to buy them.
Belinda [00:37:38]:
That's right.
Robert [00:37:41]:
Money, hard, cold cash, if you don't have that being provided. But I treasure all of those things. I'm very grateful. And I've learned that with sponsorship, really, the bottom line is, what can I do for those people supporting me? What can I do for that sponsor? How can I help them with their business? How can I help them get more people to buy their gidgets or whatever they're selling? How can I help their staff? Can I come and talk to their staff about this and that? It's sort of like I'm their sponsor for service and products, in a sense, for those sort of things. How can I help them? A lot of people think I'll put the logo on the car, mate, give me some money and I'll be out of here. That'd be good. Thanks very much. See you later.
Robert [00:38:37]:
But that doesn't cut it. Most people in business, they need some sort of return on investment. So the boss might be saying, this is a great idea, and the accountants in the back room with the abacus, with a calculator going, yes, but, boss, what's in it for us?
Belinda [00:38:54]:
That's right.
Robert [00:38:55]:
And they're often the ones that decide whether they're going to output anything for you. So the business is the business is the business. I think young people, obviously, hopefully their parents or their guides or whatever, can be the regent, so to speak, with that, until the juniors can come up and start speaking to the people themselves as well, on their behalf. So that's what I've learned over many years, and luckily I learned it early. Been quite fruitful for me, really.
Belinda [00:39:35]:
Now, Robert, you talked about, obviously, what the veteran in motorsport program is, but what are some of the benefits?
Robert [00:39:46]:
Yeah, well, pretty much, as I was saying before, the benefits are that they. People who are trying to recover from these physical and mental difficulties, one of the things that they do is disengage from community. I call it bark. They lose their job or they can't fit into their job anymore, or they even lose members or their families or something like that, they start doing things like they're very negative about themselves, so they disengage. They go back into the bunker, basically, and they sort of disappear off the. Off the face of the planet in communication ways. And as a result, they don't do things well from them. They don't eat well, their nutrition is poor, they don't look after themselves in that respect.
Robert [00:40:48]:
They don't have friends, they don't communicate. So what this program does is allows them to come out in a very uplifting, friendly environment of motorsport, especially rallying motorsport, because people in rally are very friendly, as you'll find that they all help each other and it's very. Lots of camaraderie and so on, and they're all pursuing excellence. And so this is a great environment for these guys, these men and women, to be able to get into. It's also exhilarating motorsports. Good fun. We're a car country, so it's a very natural thing, in a sense, in Australia and places like Australia, and know where they drive a lot of vehicles around. That's a good.
Robert [00:41:45]:
So probably the best word that I like to use is the word engage. So it helps them engage back into the community. And by doing that, they say, okay, so life's not over then. Okay, this is an interesting thing. So this is what happened to me, in a sense. I know it works and it's not for everybody, but most people, they really love it when they get involved, and that brings them out of their downward spiral and stops them, and then they get an upward spiral, which is great.
Belinda [00:42:21]:
Yeah.
Robert [00:42:22]:
So it's a fabulous thing, really. And it's well known that motorsport, it's well documented overseas, in particular in the UK and America, is that motorsport and extreme sports are really good for these sort of recovery. So when people look at our program and the concept of operations, which I've written out and so on, it's a really good no brainer. In fact, our website is mountainroad racing. Au. So if any of your viewers would like to look at that and see what we're doing, that'll give them the full story. So, mountainroad racingoneword, au I've gone to the dark side of the modern side of au, not mountainroad racing. Au so that'll tell people everything, what we're doing and talk about what we're doing.
Robert [00:43:26]:
And that's in development all the time. So we're pretty organized. We've got our own psychology, sports performance psychologist on team, and medical advisory board, and various people in the advisory board, insurance and legals and all sorts of things. So there's a lot to it, as you know from what you've been coaching your clients on. And so finally, after all these years, we've been able to put together a sustainable program. It's a thing, really, and to me, it helps me, of course, doing something meaningful all the time.
Belinda [00:44:09]:
And it's a fantastic program. So congratulations on setting that up. A final question. So, looking ahead, what are your aspirations and goals for the Mountain road racing and the veterans motorsport program?
Robert [00:44:21]:
Yeah. Okay. Well, we've completed our set up year formally in 2023. So we've had our first inaugural tarmac rally, which is the national Australian Tarmac Rally Championship rally down at Lakes entrance in September, which is called the Snorry River Sprint. And we took a full crew down there. So when we go away, we go away with seven people per car. And we've got two gtas like mine, so I've got another guy, Yorick, who's preparing his GTA. So this year, where we are now, we'll be going away.
Robert [00:45:04]:
At least this is what our plan is at the moment, is to go away with two cars with same cars. Well, his is silver, mine's red, but the same livery. And also a total of 14 people will go away in a two car team. It's unprecedented in Australia, actually.
Belinda [00:45:26]:
Fantastic. Hang on, I've lost you. Hang on. You've muted yourself.
Robert [00:45:42]:
How's that?
Belinda [00:45:43]:
You're back. I was like, what happened?
Robert [00:45:47]:
I must have lent on my keyboard or something. I'll just take that out of the way. We'll have a two car team. That means we'll go away with 14 people on the rally. We're doing four of those rallies, so we help something in the order of about 48. 48 od people, veterans this year with a very substantial experience. So this is a really big bang for your buck sort of thing. And there's nothing out of pocket for those participants.
Robert [00:46:21]:
Everything's funded and it's just a brilliant thing. So everyone will have their same livery and so on. So we embark on the first season of our two season plan. As the program, it's completely scalable. So the more money we get, the more veterans we can help. The less money we get, the less veterans we can help. So we understand it works, everything works, right. We got all our standing operating procedures squared away.
Robert [00:46:54]:
It's really good. It's just a matter of. So my job as team principal, I spend virtually all of my time apart from making sure the car is right to go. My car, the GTA 147 GTA, apart from making sure that's ready to go. Most of my time is spent in terms of sponsorship and raising funds, raising the budget so we can do this operation because we are completely not for profit. We don't employ anybody. We fly under the flag of the Special Air Service Association, Queensland Flag, which is a charity. They've run a know complete charity.
Robert [00:47:39]:
So every dollar we raise and so on, people can donate on our website directly if they think it's a good idea. They'd like to support the veterans and I'm sure there would be some people that love to do that so they can donate direct on our website, which would be most grateful for. So I spent all my time just raising the funds to do the operation. None of us are taking color tv sets home or anything like that. So we're 100% not for profit. Absolutely. Which is important to say. So after a couple of years, after the end of next year, I intend to sort of step back from the team principal role and try and have a succession process there where someone else can take that role up.
Robert [00:48:31]:
I'm rebuilding another classic, Alfa Romeo as a very exotic turbo Delta group four replicas. So I'll do occasional rally and things like that and obviously be part of the theme. But we'd be looking for a younger veteran to take over and keep it going as a legacy.
Belinda [00:48:55]:
With all those participants within the program. Someone would love to take over this, but like you said, it's long term. We've still got you on board for a few more years.
Robert [00:49:04]:
Yeah, well, I'll be around, all things being equal, anyway. We'll see.
Belinda [00:49:09]:
That's all right. So, apart from going to the website, is there anyone anywhere else? Sorry, you'd like people to follow your journey?
Robert [00:49:16]:
Yeah, so they can follow us on. I share everything on Mountain road racing and Facebook. They go to Mountain road racing, our business page on Facebook. We're starting to do this more and more, putting things on there. We're also on Instagram, but I'm still trying to develop that at the moment with our social media manager, Vicky. But they can also follow me on my Robert Kilsby on the Facebook, because I put everything on there as well. So they're very welcome to have a look at that and friend me up on there. That way they'll be able to see what we do, because that's what I do 24/7 I'm fully retired at not being retired, basically.
Belinda [00:50:16]:
That's right. And of course, all of those links to contact Robert and Mountain Road rating.
Robert [00:50:21]:
Yeah. My telephone number is on the website and they're quite welcome to ring me up and ask me questions if they'd like to. And certainly a lot of people of your listeners and viewers and even clients, they'll probably know people from the services who might be interested in what we're doing and like to participate in their own way or some shape or form. And we're in what I call the self hire, self fire business. So they can come in, they can do as much as they want to, they can leave whenever they like. We're into volunteers and more the merrier. And it's just a fabulous thing. People, once they get involved with this, they love it.
Robert [00:51:14]:
It's really good.
Belinda [00:51:15]:
It's a wonderful program and well done again, Robin, in setting it up, I wish you and the team all the very best for not only this year going forward. And don't be a stranger.
Robert [00:51:27]:
Yeah, well, thanks so much for inviting me on, allowing me to have some time here. You and I have known each other for a few years now, and ever since we first met, I thought that's terrific. I really like the path that you were on, going to where you were trying to get to, and you've really established yourself quite well and I think it's fantastic to see, and I intend to study more with you. I think you're worth every bit. So thanks.
Belinda [00:51:58]:
That we learn every day. We go to school every day. We actually met at school. We actually met in a course in Brisbane.
Robert [00:52:09]:
Yeah, that's right. I remember.
Belinda [00:52:11]:
With our friends from the brand builders. That's how I got engaged with Robert and found out about his. Fantastic. At that stage. It was a plan. Yeah. We've been in communication and working together ever since.
Robert [00:52:24]:
Which, again, a lot went under the bridge since I first met you. Of course, I've been up and down and all over the place, but with that focus, I'm still there and I'm now put something together finally, after all these years, after a lot of trial, and I'm happy for that. So that's good.
Belinda [00:52:44]:
Fantastic. Well, again, thank you very much, Robert, for sharing your fantastic story. Again, please race over and check out martinroadracing au and all of Rob's details will be in today's show notes.
Robert [00:52:56]:
Fantastic.
Belinda [00:52:57]:
Thanks so much. Bye.
