Speaker 1: Appoche Production. Welcome to another episode of Brave Always, the
Speaker 1: CEO series. This series, we launch into the new world
Speaker 1: of brave leadership.
Speaker 2: Happy people create happy businesses.
Speaker 1: True emotionally intelligent leadership.
Speaker 2: I've picked up vomit once on our about our fourth
Speaker 2: flight and everybody thought, well, if it's good enough for him,
Speaker 2: I can do it Now.
Speaker 1: We will be joined by culture and leadership experts and
Speaker 1: some superstar CEOs who will courageously tell us the truth
Speaker 1: behind their brave leadership journeys. Welcome to another episode of
Speaker 1: Brave Always. Today, I am thrilled to be joined by
Speaker 1: the CEO of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, Travis Alt.
Speaker 1: Travis has had nearly thirty years at the helm of
Speaker 1: some of Australia's largest sporting institutions during some of the
Speaker 1: most turbulent times, a sporting fanatic and a hugely well
Speaker 1: respected leader for his authenticity and energy. I am pretty
Speaker 1: pumped to have you on here today, so welcome Travis.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having memro. I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Travis. In my experience interviewing people of your professional calub
Speaker 1: there's this lovely little link which often is like humble beginnings.
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's what I've experienced, that sort of
Speaker 1: shakes how they ended up leading later in life. Now
Speaker 1: I know you were born in Tatura, Victoria, small rural town.
Speaker 1: I think it's like less than five thousand people. When
Speaker 1: I googled what's Tatura famous for a little pub appeared.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming it's more than that. Is it? This famous
Speaker 1: little pub is there?
Speaker 2: It's got three pubs. It's had three thousand, six hundred
Speaker 2: people for as long as I'm sort of know, which
Speaker 2: means I don't count very often. They're very humble beginning.
Speaker 2: It's very fortunate. But I grew up in a small town,
Speaker 2: was raised. You know, they say it takes a village.
Speaker 2: I was raised by the Tatura community, very grounded upbringing,
Speaker 2: very fortunate. I never sort of missed any opportunities or
Speaker 2: without anything. But my parents are still into Tura. Yeah
Speaker 2: I get back there. Yeah. It was a very sporting,
Speaker 2: very outdoor upbringing, and there's a lot of that still
Speaker 2: in May now. It's particularly in my leadership.
Speaker 1: Did you always envisage leaving like? Was it I'm never
Speaker 1: going to stay here?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: Did you have grand plans quite young to say I
Speaker 1: want to get out of here and get to the
Speaker 1: big smoke.
Speaker 2: Maybe, I mean I my definition of the big smoke
Speaker 2: when I was into Tura was some smaller than Melbourne.
Speaker 2: No one felt really big when I was a child,
Speaker 2: and so I actually went to university in Bendigo. Three
Speaker 2: thousand people to a sixty or seventy thousand people was
Speaker 2: a much more palatable step than going straight to Melbourne.
Speaker 2: And so I went to the University at Latrobe in
Speaker 2: Bendigo allowed me to come back on weekends and play sport,
Speaker 2: and it was nice stepping stone for them. What was
Speaker 2: the big smoke some years after that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, I mean I feel for me in particular.
Speaker 1: Always having a strong male role model when you're younger
Speaker 1: is a big part of helping people shape how they
Speaker 1: grow up. Who was yours? Was that your dad? Was
Speaker 1: it somebody else in the community. What did they teach you?
Speaker 2: Certainly my father to some degree, he taught me a
Speaker 2: lot about hard work, hard work and being relationship focused.
Speaker 2: I've got an older brother three years older than me.
Speaker 2: He probably paved the way for me and I still
Speaker 2: talked very regularly and look up to him and what
Speaker 2: he does in his career, and so probably him, as
Speaker 2: much as anyone, is sort of the person that's shaped
Speaker 2: me very early on. You always want to be like
Speaker 2: your older brother, and I tookaly wanted to be that,
Speaker 2: but also that the local football club, local cricket club.
Speaker 2: As I was sort of coming through the ranks, you'd
Speaker 2: always have people go to take you under their arm.
Speaker 2: And developed a lot of friendships and great memories through
Speaker 2: playing football. But I was never going to create a
Speaker 2: career through playing sport right And in fact, I never
Speaker 2: really had ambitions of working in sport. It just wasn't
Speaker 2: a natural pathway that was in front of me. I
Speaker 2: saw of fell into it, which I'm sure we'll get to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well, I was going to say, and then
Speaker 1: you decided to become an accountant. I actually find it
Speaker 1: really funny. There's so many CEOs of interview who always
Speaker 1: sat as accountants, and so I'm trying to figure out
Speaker 1: is that like you just had a passion for numbers,
Speaker 1: or is this like some long term strategy that you
Speaker 1: know you're going to end it at the top and
Speaker 1: you need to start off as an accountant.
Speaker 2: I think it's the thing you do when you don't
Speaker 2: know what you want to do is that it was
Speaker 2: for me. I didn't really know what I wanted to
Speaker 2: do post doing Year twelve or post university. So I
Speaker 2: thought having a really good grounding in finance was going
Speaker 2: to be important and it would open up more opportunities.
Speaker 2: And then I knew were available at the time, and
Speaker 2: so I went off and did a Bachelor of Business
Speaker 2: at the Trophy Bendigo and it's always been a good grounding.
Speaker 2: I went and worked in a chartered accounting firm. That
Speaker 2: was my first opportunity. I was there for three or
Speaker 2: four years and you love it, I did. I love it.
Speaker 2: I think it was a really good background. I worked
Speaker 2: in audit and so the beauty of or it was,
Speaker 2: yes fully faces a bit. The beauty of order for
Speaker 2: me was that you get exposed a whole lot of
Speaker 2: different businesses and so you work on different things all
Speaker 2: the time. And that's how I got my first role
Speaker 2: at the Essiden football Club. I was their author. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I was really fortunate. I worked from the large
Speaker 2: charter of the canning firms in Melbourne. I've got sent
Speaker 2: to London for a while to their sister firm for
Speaker 2: someone from Tatura that was a big move and it
Speaker 2: was a great experience. Came back and you got approached
Speaker 2: to join the Essendon Football Club and so I thought
Speaker 2: why not? And that's how I ended up in sport.
Speaker 2: So when people say, hey, did you get in sport?
Speaker 2: Tell me the pathway to get in the sport. I'm
Speaker 2: not the person to talk to you in terms of
Speaker 2: how I got into sport. I sort of fell into
Speaker 2: it and there have been there ever since.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, okay, there you go. You did play a
Speaker 1: number of key roles during your tenure at the NFL.
Speaker 1: From COO I think it was an incident as well,
Speaker 1: and then obviously the inaugural CEO at the Gold Coast
Speaker 1: Suns to CFO and GM at d AFL. So now
Speaker 1: that you've left the world of football, looking back, what
Speaker 1: did it teach you about great leadership?
Speaker 2: Lots? I think sport is a wonderful environment to learn
Speaker 2: about leadership, learn about team, learn about social license, about
Speaker 2: the role that you play that exists beyond what you
Speaker 2: directly think your day to day job is. And so
Speaker 2: if you think about from a working in clubs is
Speaker 2: quite different than working at the AFL. From a helper perspective,
Speaker 2: working at both clubs taught me a lot, probably maybe
Speaker 2: in some cases different things because of my role. My
Speaker 2: first sort of foray into AFL was Esthmate Football Club,
Speaker 2: very successful, big club. You get to see athletes coming
Speaker 2: together as a team and achieving incredible things and some
Speaker 2: of the things that sit within that leadership. We had
Speaker 2: Kevin Sheedy as our coach for twenty five years, incredibly
Speaker 2: successful coach, and I learned a whole lot from how
Speaker 2: he went about leading the team. It's the best example
Speaker 2: you'll get a high performance, high performance environment. These guys
Speaker 2: are trying to get better every day, they're getting marked publicly,
Speaker 2: there's a big spotlight on them. So from an understanding
Speaker 2: how teamwork works, the importance of culture, that was really important.
Speaker 2: So my transition was I was at the Essenmon Football
Speaker 2: Club for eleven years. I had been approached to be
Speaker 2: a successor to the CEO, Peter Jackson, who's been there
Speaker 2: for some time. I thought, given that I'd sort of
Speaker 2: fallen into the role that I was in, that I
Speaker 2: should probably go through a process somewhere to hone my
Speaker 2: interview skills. The role came up to be the CEO
Speaker 2: of the Gold Coast Suns, and I thought, I'll jump
Speaker 2: into that process. It would just be good experience for me.
Speaker 2: I had no really intention of moving too Queensland, but
Speaker 2: I thought, it'll just make me think a little bit
Speaker 2: about who I am, I'm good at when I need
Speaker 2: to get better at what skills I have, And it did.
Speaker 2: I went from a long list to over a period
Speaker 2: of time, a pretty short list. And as I've got
Speaker 2: down to that short list, it's sort of dawned on
Speaker 2: me that what of incredible experiences would be to really
Speaker 2: step outside my comfort zone? Strange It would be much
Speaker 2: easier probably stay at the Essident Football Club. There's one
Speaker 2: hundred years of history, there's a whole framework that you
Speaker 2: operate within, there's a big supporter base. But I decided
Speaker 2: towards the end of the interview process for the Gold
Speaker 2: Coast Suns that I really wanted the job. Sort of
Speaker 2: built this plan that I thought that it would be
Speaker 2: exciting to execute. It would completely take me out of
Speaker 2: my comfort zone. I hadn't been a CEO before, so
Speaker 2: not only would I be a CEO, but in a
Speaker 2: new organization, in a new in an area that hadn't
Speaker 2: had it so forty ten before. And so I tell
Speaker 2: us a bit about me, probably that I like to
Speaker 2: step out of white culport zone.
Speaker 1: And getting that vibe.
Speaker 2: It's probably where I learned best and perform best. And
Speaker 2: so I was fortunate enough to get the role. And
Speaker 2: so Gold Coast was a bit more about learning about me,
Speaker 2: learning about leadership in a setting where I have a
Speaker 2: truly blank canvas. And so that was a wonderful experience
Speaker 2: of sort of five or six years of setting up
Speaker 2: the Gold Coast sons.
Speaker 1: So like, I have to ask this because I mean, one,
Speaker 1: I think that's great in terms of listeners, like go
Speaker 1: for interviews that you don't even think you're going to
Speaker 1: get as part of the experience. I mean, obviously you
Speaker 1: don't know what's going to happen. A lot of people
Speaker 1: don't do that right. They want to be completely lined
Speaker 1: up and ready for the job. Okay, we've got to
Speaker 1: talk about this thing. Obviously I read online you like
Speaker 1: being nervous or you enjoy it, which comes with this.
Speaker 1: You know you love putting yourself at eat comfort zone.
Speaker 1: From a neurological perspective, the brain doesn't often like that naturally,
Speaker 1: right in at the anytime things are different from familiarity,
Speaker 1: the brain goes ear reject that. So how have you
Speaker 1: hacked this? It's just like you just were born with
Speaker 1: an ability to go anything that feels different, uncomfortable, challenging,
Speaker 1: I gravitate towards or is this something that you go
Speaker 1: through with some inner narrative that makes you do this?
Speaker 1: Because it's actually not that common.
Speaker 2: Now, I've asked myself the same question, because it's not
Speaker 2: always you know, sometimes I put myself in a positions
Speaker 2: I want to do. It is and Gold Coast was
Speaker 2: an example of that. I'm not sure why that is
Speaker 2: the case. I do know though, that I thrive in
Speaker 2: those environments. Okay, I thrive in an environment where there
Speaker 2: is uncertainty, where I feel like I'm being stretched. That
Speaker 2: was the best example of that Gold Coast. It also
Speaker 2: occurred when I left the AFL. Yes, I stayed in sport,
Speaker 2: but I knew not much about the sport. So I
Speaker 2: always look for those opportunities and I think it's satisfying,
Speaker 2: it's invigorating. It really tests me, but I enjoy it.
Speaker 1: So where do self doubt play in your life? Travis? Then, seriously,
Speaker 1: at some point you could have gone as it's actually
Speaker 1: a very good idea. Am I going to fail? What
Speaker 1: are people going to think?
Speaker 2: Yeah? It exists in my life, Absolutely it does. I'm
Speaker 2: a big believer in reflecting. Okay, not in any great
Speaker 2: formal way, but you know, often when I make a
Speaker 2: big decision, or I need to make a big decision,
Speaker 2: I often want to spend a bit of time just
Speaker 2: reflect on how when about that decision I made? What
Speaker 2: I do it differently when I was at the Goldco Suns,
Speaker 2: we knew there was going to be a tough start.
Speaker 2: The way when I'm building the team is that weren't
Speaker 2: going to win very often early on, hopefully built some momentum,
Speaker 2: and so I remember early days we'd have a staff
Speaker 2: maning every Monday and we'd have a difficult game on
Speaker 2: the weekend and get it in front of the staff.
Speaker 2: And so we are exactly where we need to be,
Speaker 2: where exactly where thought we'd be. We've got all LEAs
Speaker 2: steps in place, but know what we're doing, It'll be fine.
Speaker 2: Because I needed them to believe where we are going.
Speaker 2: I remember ginning in my car driving home, thinking, Holy help,
Speaker 2: are we where we need to be right now? Am
Speaker 2: I doing this the right way? What could I do
Speaker 2: differently and better. But I needed to project that self confidence.
Speaker 2: You need to be real and authentic about where we are.
Speaker 2: But also your role as a leader is to make
Speaker 2: sure that people have confidence and where we're going. And
Speaker 2: so there's no doubt sometimes sort of behind the wall
Speaker 2: a but you sit back and question yourself. I actually
Speaker 2: think that's quite healthy. I'm actually comfortable that I don't
Speaker 2: have self doubted accept that it paralyzes me, but I
Speaker 2: certainly have self doubt that keeps my feet on the
Speaker 2: ground because when you're leading in sport is a lot
Speaker 2: of scrutiny. There's sort of low barriers to entry for
Speaker 2: people to provide their opinions about how they think you're
Speaker 2: going with your role, and so if you wanted to
Speaker 2: jump online in any important time, particularly in my role
Speaker 2: at the AFL, I had a lot of people telling
Speaker 2: me how to do my job, although I haven't done
Speaker 2: a very good job. And so there's a real balance
Speaker 2: between having some people around you that you rely on
Speaker 2: to give you feedback, being able to do that yourself,
Speaker 2: look yourself in the mirror and have pretty honest conversation
Speaker 2: with how you're going, but not then sort of extending
Speaker 2: that to listen to every voice that's coming through just
Speaker 2: his noise, because then you will start to paralyze yourself.
Speaker 2: And that's been the sort of learning for me over
Speaker 2: a long period of time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing, there's a bit of ted Lasso in there
Speaker 1: around the positivity. I remember talking to a friend of
Speaker 1: yours who was part of their Goldkos Sons and he
Speaker 1: would lose it every time you guys would lose a
Speaker 1: game like freak Out, And I was thinking, well, in
Speaker 1: your position, like did you sit there on Saturday nights
Speaker 1: and Friday night's going, oh God, can't lose this one?
Speaker 2: You have those, I mean, that's sport. Being a leader
Speaker 2: in sport in some ways, your job is to keep
Speaker 2: things calm's highest people think they are, the lows is
Speaker 2: not as low as they are, and to have a
Speaker 2: consistency in terms of how you're leading that isn't necessarily
Speaker 2: attached to how you went on the weekend. And so
Speaker 2: I think one of the things I've developed over twenty
Speaker 2: five plus years of working in sport is the ability
Speaker 2: to sort of remain calm when everything else around yous areen.
Speaker 1: But I love that. So you mentioned before about authenticity,
Speaker 1: So I wanted to touch on that because in my
Speaker 1: Brave model of leadership, the A is authenticity, which for
Speaker 1: me I defined it as I'm going to choose the
Speaker 1: opportunity to connect over the chance of rejection. Right, and
Speaker 1: you being in such a high profile public role, there
Speaker 1: has to be some challenges with being completely authentic at times,
Speaker 1: so saying exactly what you want to say, showing your emotions.
Speaker 1: Do you feel that there are times where you were like,
Speaker 1: I'm not being as authentic as I want to because
Speaker 1: I can't.
Speaker 2: There's a difference between not being authentic as opposed to
Speaker 2: not being able to share all the information you might
Speaker 2: want to share. So I'd like to say that I
Speaker 2: would be authentic pretty much all the time, and sometimes
Speaker 2: that is by saying that, actually, sorry, I can't answer
Speaker 2: that question. I can't share that information. And so it's
Speaker 2: a really good question in the sense that you're always
Speaker 2: a balance between being really honest with people without being
Speaker 2: able to telling everything they want to know because people's
Speaker 2: livelihoods are involved, or there's sensitive information that you can't
Speaker 2: share at that point in time. That happens a lot,
Speaker 2: particularly in my AFL role. But if you can stand
Speaker 2: up in the most difficult times and share that information,
Speaker 2: whether it's with your staff or whether it's with the media,
Speaker 2: to be able to say, hey, I know that you
Speaker 2: would like to help this information. Some of it I
Speaker 2: have something that I don't Some of the stuff I
Speaker 2: have I can't share with you. I'd found over time
Speaker 2: that that builds a bit of trust that tends to
Speaker 2: be accepted in the context of sort of authenticity.
Speaker 1: You might have been the first one to say that.
Speaker 1: I think it's a very big lesson, and authenticity is
Speaker 1: sometimes saying actually can't give you that information, versus pretending
Speaker 1: or going down some other pathway. I think that's when
Speaker 1: people get it wrong. You can say I don't know
Speaker 1: or I can't tell you. There's a great takeaway for people.
Speaker 1: So obviously, over this entire period of career, can you
Speaker 1: think of one particular time where you felt really exposed
Speaker 1: and vulnerable.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think my experience of leading to Gold Coast
Speaker 2: SUMS was a bit like that, because you're building everything
Speaker 2: with scratched But probably the better example is during COVID,
Speaker 2: during the pandemic, when my role at the AFL was
Speaker 2: running finance, running broadcasting, running fixturing, and I've seen the
Speaker 2: club relationships, which puts you right in the center for
Speaker 2: better or worse of all the issues will trying to
Speaker 2: solve during COVID. So I just felt a huge sense
Speaker 2: of responsibility. Initially, that's responsibility was to keep the game going,
Speaker 2: to make sure that we could pay our people and
Speaker 2: the clubs could pay their players and staff, that we
Speaker 2: could continue playing week in week out. That responsibility quickly
Speaker 2: shifted from that to a sense of responsibility because people
Speaker 2: were looking at football and other forms of sport for
Speaker 2: a sense of hope because I were locked in the
Speaker 2: homes all day and so the ability to at the
Speaker 2: end of a day turn the television on and watch
Speaker 2: their team play was something more than just that. And
Speaker 2: I was getting that feedback pretty early on during the
Speaker 2: pandemic that please keep the game going because it's the
Speaker 2: one thing that is a bit of a showing light
Speaker 2: for us at the moment. And I felt that sense
Speaker 2: of respon's ability before. And so that was probably the example
Speaker 2: where it's like I've got a job to do here.
Speaker 2: That is probably one of more important jobs that I've
Speaker 2: ever done in my career.
Speaker 1: In terms of dealing with that. Was the certain things
Speaker 1: you did in your life to help you manage that stress.
Speaker 2: I think we'd all give examples of what we did
Speaker 2: during the pandemic that didn't didn't work for me is
Speaker 2: very obvious, but it worked out pretty quickly that you know.
Speaker 2: The things that put me in a position to lead
Speaker 2: well is I need sleep, We've got to eat well,
Speaker 2: I need exercise. And so a couple of those got
Speaker 2: taken away from me really quickly during the pandemic. Were
Speaker 2: working pretty silly hours, like a lot of people were exercised,
Speaker 2: were difficult, and so I put myself in a hole
Speaker 2: pretty quickly, and I needed to then try and at
Speaker 2: least get two of those back together again and put
Speaker 2: myself in a position where I can make myself available
Speaker 2: to lead. That was sort of the key pillar is
Speaker 2: how do I get myself right first? Because we were
Speaker 2: asking a lot about each other during those times, and
Speaker 2: there was a lot of stress, and then it became
Speaker 2: a bit about team. There was a small group of
Speaker 2: us who realized on each other. There was displays of
Speaker 2: vulnerability during COVID that I've not seen before. We really
Speaker 2: got into each other's lives, were in lounge rooms every
Speaker 2: day on teams goals, and we got to see first
Speaker 2: hand the impact of the pandemic on people's personal lives,
Speaker 2: and so I have a sense of connection with maybe
Speaker 2: half a dozen people through that period that is much
Speaker 2: deeper than you would normally have in any normal work
Speaker 2: setting that still exists today. You know, there's times that
Speaker 2: I felt really vulnerable. There's times also when I was
Speaker 2: probably my st rewarding part of my career.
Speaker 1: So after twenty five years and leadership roles, you obviously
Speaker 1: had your site set on the top job at the AFL,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people had bets on
Speaker 1: you getting that role, and I think it was pretty hard.
Speaker 1: Youous twelve month recruitment process that you went through, and
Speaker 1: then obviously you did miss out on the role. So
Speaker 1: resilience for me is key when it comes to great leadership.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously bouncing back is one thing, but also
Speaker 1: preparing yourself for the obstacles. So I'm interested to know
Speaker 1: how did you prepare for a twelve month recruitment process
Speaker 1: and all that came with, And then I guess how
Speaker 1: did you process the disappointment of it not happening and
Speaker 1: bounce back from that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think I did prepare for a twelve
Speaker 2: month that's probably more than that if you're going to
Speaker 2: put yourself in a process to be the CEO of
Speaker 2: the AFL, and you know it's going to come with
Speaker 2: some scrutiny, and scrutiny wasn't something that was foreign to me.
Speaker 2: I've worked in footy for twenty years and so I
Speaker 2: knew a lot about being judged publicly on a regular basis,
Speaker 2: and I had a tight group around me that would
Speaker 2: support me through that. I probably thought, there's a three
Speaker 2: or four month process coming up, but I'm going to
Speaker 2: come into some scrutiny. I just need to focus on
Speaker 2: what I can control. But then it became much longer.
Speaker 2: I think one of my strengths because of the roles
Speaker 2: that I've had, is I'm quite resilient. I can generally
Speaker 2: decipher between what's real and what's noise and the voices
Speaker 2: that I care about. What starts to impact you is
Speaker 2: when others close to you are impacted. And so when
Speaker 2: you start to find and what got a bit more
Speaker 2: difficult towards the end of it is you'd find that
Speaker 2: you know, whether it's your family, close friends, you could
Speaker 2: see that they were probably out of care for me.
Speaker 2: But starting to be impacted by starting to engage in
Speaker 2: what was going on social media, and that was the
Speaker 2: time I was like, oh, this is a bit bigger
Speaker 2: than me, and I just need to be careful of
Speaker 2: what I'm putting others through. It was difficult because I
Speaker 2: hadn't really invested in getting the role. You have to
Speaker 2: do if you'ren apply for all that, you have to really
Speaker 2: invest in as a long process. I'd enjoyed my time
Speaker 2: at the AFL and credible twenty five years in the AFL.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't change one thing, but you saw it going
Speaker 2: knowing that you know, as they guarantees. So when I
Speaker 2: found out I didn't get it, I quickly dusted myself off.
Speaker 2: The guy got the role, Andrew Dillon. He's a post
Speaker 2: friend of mine. You wouldn't find a better person. I
Speaker 2: was equally happy for Andrew to get that role. Spend
Speaker 2: there for a long time and you'll do a really
Speaker 2: good job. And so up against tough competition, you got
Speaker 2: to accept that. The question for me was sort of
Speaker 2: what now. That was a good question because I had
Speaker 2: convinced myself I wanted to sort step into that old
Speaker 2: leadership role again. One thing about a twelve month process.
Speaker 2: Is you spend a lot of time thinking about what
Speaker 2: you bring to the table, what you love, what's your
Speaker 2: environments worked for you. I was pretty sure coming out
Speaker 2: of that process that I wanted to step back into
Speaker 2: a CEO role.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, okay.
Speaker 2: And I could have stayed in the a fil industry.
Speaker 2: I could have stayed int the AFL, could have went
Speaker 2: back to running a club. Those opportunities are putting in
Speaker 2: front of me. And then the opportunity to become the
Speaker 2: CEO of the Australian Pre Corporation came up. In fact,
Speaker 2: it came up about a month or two before the
Speaker 2: af process. And I had said to the transparent, I
Speaker 2: had said to the recruiter, I am twelve or fourteen
Speaker 2: months into a process here. I'm not going to hedge
Speaker 2: my bets now. So as much as running the strain
Speaker 2: Gold pre is a very attractive proposition, thank you, but
Speaker 2: no thank you, because I don't want to hedge my bets.
Speaker 2: I'm a sort of all in guy and I'm all
Speaker 2: here now. I didn't get the role. I got a
Speaker 2: phone call from the recruiter. It become very public quickly
Speaker 2: till after day or two I've got a phone call
Speaker 2: to say, hey, bad news for you, good news for us.
Speaker 2: We want you back in the process. The process hadn't
Speaker 2: been completed, and so I jumped in at the back
Speaker 2: end of this role. And it's another example stepping out
Speaker 2: of my comfort zone. It would have been much easier
Speaker 2: for me to stay in the AFL industry, but this
Speaker 2: was a different role and had opened up other opportunities
Speaker 2: and it tested be a game. It put me in.
Speaker 1: And also, I think exactly what happened to you in
Speaker 1: the process for the Goldcrows Sons, the process and going
Speaker 1: through the interview helped you realize, actually, I do want
Speaker 1: to be a CEO, and I can't then go back
Speaker 1: into something that's different. I have to ask, you know,
Speaker 1: we all know you can't have it all supposedly, what's
Speaker 1: the you have to pay for success?
Speaker 2: It's a really good question. I think sport demands a
Speaker 2: lot of you, and so if you're in a leading sport,
Speaker 2: it's not a nine to five thing. It's sort of
Speaker 2: your life. I know that, particularly early on in my
Speaker 2: careers when children were growing up, I wasn't there from
Speaker 2: as much as I would like either, whether I was
Speaker 2: physically there or not. I think when you are in sport,
Speaker 2: you're surrounded by it all the time. There's an expectation
Speaker 2: you're on all the time, and so I think if
Speaker 2: you had your time again, I think as more mature
Speaker 2: person now I might do that a bit differently. I
Speaker 2: don't give a chance to do that, but that's something
Speaker 2: I thought about that it owns a lot of you,
Speaker 2: and I gave it a lot back, and you need
Speaker 2: to if you're to be successful.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to a quickly that empathy, which
Speaker 1: I think is like a superpower quite frankly, and probably
Speaker 1: the one thing most leaders struggle the most, and kind
Speaker 1: of fully understanding that ability to hold space for people's
Speaker 1: emotions and not necessarily fixing it. It's often widely known
Speaker 1: that males can struggle with expressing their emotions more than women.
Speaker 1: How did you find that in the AFL. Is there
Speaker 1: a culture of suck it up, don't talk about it?
Speaker 1: What did you see shift over twenty five years in
Speaker 1: that space?
Speaker 2: Yeah, go back a step. That's certainly how I was
Speaker 2: raised a boy growing up in the country, work hard,
Speaker 2: suck it up with any issues, toughen up a bit,
Speaker 2: and so I certainly started that way, and I've seen
Speaker 2: things change during my time at the AFL incredibly in
Speaker 2: terms of the expectations around being vulnerable or the accepted sorry.
Speaker 2: The diversity of workforces now in all forms has changed things.
Speaker 2: When I reflect back on my career, I think early
Speaker 2: on in my leadership journey, I was incredibly judgmental. I
Speaker 2: had views of things that this is how things needed
Speaker 2: to be and it wasn't really The one thing that
Speaker 2: changed that is my daughter has a disability, which was
Speaker 2: born with a disability, and so I had this sort
Speaker 2: of moment where it's like, it's not actually like black
Speaker 2: and white, and it gave me a totally different perspective
Speaker 2: on the world. And so going from someone who's judgmental
Speaker 2: and you know, look for the people that look a
Speaker 2: bit more like me and lead a bit more like me,
Speaker 2: to look for the person in the corner who's not
Speaker 2: necessarily engagement has something to offer. And so I would
Speaker 2: see more possibility and opportunity in people that I did previously.
Speaker 2: And so it wasn't directly shaped by my career, was
Speaker 2: more shaped by my personal experience. And I think empathy
Speaker 2: now notwithstanding sort of where I came from, is probably
Speaker 2: one of my strengths, and sometimes it's a strength overplayed.
Speaker 2: I get feedback sometimes that, you know, when I'm making
Speaker 2: really tough people decisions, I just want to give someone
Speaker 2: a chance. I really do. I want to try and
Speaker 2: see if we can find a way to get the
Speaker 2: best of them. Yeah, and sometimes it doesn't work. But
Speaker 2: I do know when it doesn't work, and I have
Speaker 2: to have those conversations that I don't enjoy that I
Speaker 2: know that I've given them every chance, and that just
Speaker 2: comes from a deeper place that's been my chow.
Speaker 1: I love that. That's beautiful. Yeah, and you're right, I'm sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: having experienced those challenges that you daughter would have gone through,
Speaker 1: you'd have a whole different perspective, all right. So in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three points the CEO role of Australian Grand
Speaker 1: Prix amazing. So while still in sport, a completely different
Speaker 1: ball game. I actually started watching the Netflix for me
Speaker 1: and I ended up becoming obsessed with it, like it's
Speaker 1: really fascinating to me, like in my head. And I
Speaker 1: think it's because my boys were watching it and it
Speaker 1: was a bit like, oh, this is going to be
Speaker 1: cars going around a circuit to be honest, and then
Speaker 1: you start watching it and you're just like, this is
Speaker 1: a whole nother thing, Like it's a massive teams thought,
Speaker 1: like it couldn't get more like down to the pet changes.
Speaker 1: It's competitive, like insane competitive. I mean, we've watched Ricardo
Speaker 1: and all this kind of stuff happened. Like if you're
Speaker 1: not top of the game, you're out, Like it's just insane.
Speaker 1: You said first of all that you weren't particularly like
Speaker 1: huge into motorsport. I didn't know a ton about it.
Speaker 1: So what have you learned in this space of time
Speaker 1: that you've been here over twelve months?
Speaker 2: And when it comes to the sport, like you, I
Speaker 2: was introduced to the sport with any depth anyway through
Speaker 2: Drivers Survive. I live near the circuit and so we've
Speaker 2: been quite a number of times. Yeah, but it was
Speaker 2: actually my wife who would say to me, Hey, when
Speaker 2: you finishing work, this next episode of Drive Survives out
Speaker 2: and watch what's happened to you. And so that's how
Speaker 2: I had some knowledge of F one and there working
Speaker 2: is of F one. But when I stepped into the role,
Speaker 2: one of the things I'm really clear about through my
Speaker 2: interview process and when I first spoke to my team
Speaker 2: is I don't know much about motorsport. I don't know
Speaker 2: much about F one. I know a little bit about
Speaker 2: how sport works and how you create product and connected
Speaker 2: with a fan base and commercialize it. I've done that
Speaker 2: for a long time, but I'm going to need to
Speaker 2: rely on you for your motorsport expertise. And having been
Speaker 2: in the AFIL industry for twenty five years, you don't
Speaker 2: know the answer to everything, but you know how to
Speaker 2: get the answer. It's like everything's one or two phone
Speaker 2: calls away, like I know who to call to work
Speaker 2: out that thing. I remember early days leaving work thinking
Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to this question and I
Speaker 2: don't know to call. You feel pretty vulnerable at times,
Speaker 2: and so I had a completely different mindset stepping into
Speaker 2: this role that I had. I didn't give enough respect
Speaker 2: to the industry to come up with the speed with
Speaker 2: how the industry works. A bit of the history was
Speaker 2: really important. I felt like to respect the history of
Speaker 2: the organization and the sport. So I've done a lot
Speaker 2: of reading, a little bit of travel to other events
Speaker 2: to try and understand F one, and we do the
Speaker 2: Moto GP down of Philip Ailin It's been a lot
Speaker 2: of time with people. We're very fortunate we have Mark
Speaker 2: Webber as the past F one driver on our board,
Speaker 2: and we have Doing as a five time world champion
Speaker 2: Moto GP writer on our board, and I've been incredible.
Speaker 2: I'm sure some of the times when I ask questions
Speaker 2: are like, that is ridiculous question, but they humor me.
Speaker 2: And so I've had a coming up eighteen months now, right,
Speaker 2: eighteen months of just absorbing information. The first six months
Speaker 2: I really just say back ask questions. I made a
Speaker 2: commitment to the board that it wouldn't change too much
Speaker 2: in the first six months. I would just sort of
Speaker 2: make sure I knew enough before I did anything. I'm
Speaker 2: going to my second F one in forty days time.
Speaker 2: I feel like I've got a bit of a sense
Speaker 2: now of how it works, and if it doesn't work,
Speaker 2: this one's on me. So I've been there long enough
Speaker 2: and I feel like I can start to make a difference.
Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing. And I suppose like obviously that level of
Speaker 1: honesty and vulnerability to say, hey, I'm not an expert
Speaker 1: in this field. What kind of reception did you get
Speaker 1: from that being so honest about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, a bit of surprise, I think because historically leaders
Speaker 2: of the Grand Prix come from some a bit or
Speaker 2: a motors background and that had been suitable and done
Speaker 2: an incredible job. The past had done a wonderful job.
Speaker 2: I'd inherit an event that was doing really well, really
Speaker 2: well run. But the opportunity was to take learning from
Speaker 2: other sports, I think, other events that working how we
Speaker 2: grow and so I think for some of them it's
Speaker 2: a good question for them, probably, but for some of
Speaker 2: them it was quite refreshing to say someone's coming in
Speaker 2: not to tell me how to do my job, but
Speaker 2: how to focus on the role I have and how
Speaker 2: we create a bit of a longer term vision here
Speaker 2: and the right environment for people. And so that's been
Speaker 2: an adjustment for them.
Speaker 1: But I think that's very very true, is that. I mean,
Speaker 1: we all think the safety in someone who's known the
Speaker 1: industry for years, but the same token, then there is
Speaker 1: an element of, yeah, not letting people do their jobs's
Speaker 1: interfering too much, whereas that's not what you're here to do.
Speaker 1: You're just here to lead them in the best way possible.
Speaker 2: So there's no risk of me being a micromanager right now.
Speaker 1: No, it doesn't sound like it.
Speaker 2: Name can't because I don't know the details, and so
Speaker 2: I think they're enjoying the freedom of that. But it's
Speaker 2: also an obligation for me to understand enough about their
Speaker 2: roles in the industry that I can support them, challenge them,
Speaker 2: and provide a bit of direction.
Speaker 1: Have you sat in the car yet?
Speaker 2: I haven't sat in the F one car, And in fact,
Speaker 2: I'm probably a bit tall to sit in the F
Speaker 2: one cars. I wouldn't go out there. Generally that mark
Speaker 2: web is probably my light. But yeah, they're pretty tight
Speaker 2: in those cars. I've been in a supercar, certainly tested
Speaker 2: my courage.
Speaker 1: Now. I think it's widely known that culture is driven
Speaker 1: from the top, and you know, you've held many top
Speaker 1: positions that would have directly impacted the culture. Do you
Speaker 1: have like a you know, an approach to this, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, is it kind of very organic? Just you
Speaker 1: know Travis's character, I mean, you are a character. You've
Speaker 1: got some very strong positive leadership qualities. I can imagine
Speaker 1: naturally it would probably create a very trust built culture.
Speaker 1: But do you have particular strategies that you like to
Speaker 1: go into organizations and put in place, Like are you
Speaker 1: sort of like I need this to happen. These rituals
Speaker 1: are things that I just always do wherever I go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. And whether I've articulated them that
Speaker 2: way or a document or don't know, But I would
Speaker 2: say firstly that you have an enormous responsibility as a
Speaker 2: leader to role model what you want. And so there's
Speaker 2: that sort of saying. A friend of mine who was
Speaker 2: a bit of a mentor of mine says that what
Speaker 2: walks in the leader's runs and the teams, and so
Speaker 2: that notion. No matter whether you you like or know,
Speaker 2: people watching what you do, and they may believe what
Speaker 2: you say, but they'll always believe what you do. And
Speaker 2: so I'm a big believer that of sort of leading
Speaker 2: through standard setting what standard do you expect? And so
Speaker 2: the only want to do that is through communication. So
Speaker 2: I like, you know, my management team meetings to have
Speaker 2: conversations about how we're going, how are we leading, how
Speaker 2: you think we're going in terms of our values, and
Speaker 2: which ones we're doing really well at, which ones you
Speaker 2: think we can get better at, and so just making
Speaker 2: sure this room on the agenda for those conversations. I
Speaker 2: believe in sometimes you got to make conversations about where
Speaker 2: you want to go and which people are sort of
Speaker 2: on board with that, around your value setting. If you
Speaker 2: make exceptions of those things, then people will really doubt
Speaker 2: whether it's authentic and whether it's really what the organization
Speaker 2: stands for. And so it's about standard setting, it's about
Speaker 2: being consistent. You can't pick and choose. I think is
Speaker 2: really important. But I think the most important thing for me,
Speaker 2: it's something I'm very proud of what I left the
Speaker 2: AFL and I'm certainly seeing it here is the ability
Speaker 2: to crate, invite where people can be themselves. This notion
Speaker 2: of creating a culture that works for me is not
Speaker 2: really what it's about. We have a culture here, we
Speaker 2: had before I started. So it was really coming in
Speaker 2: and trying to understand what really works well for you?
Speaker 2: What is about this organization that you really love? You
Speaker 2: would like me to keep pushing along emphasizing, and what
Speaker 2: is that that you don't like? And how can I
Speaker 2: as a leader help with that? Rather than here, I am,
Speaker 2: this is my value set, this is the culture you
Speaker 2: need to have. It was a lot more trying to
Speaker 2: extract and understand as a leader, how can I give
Speaker 2: my people the best environment that I can, so they
Speaker 2: can bring all of themselves to work and collectively we
Speaker 2: can do something pretty special. I don't know if to
Speaker 2: ask your question, but.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful and I think it's such a thing because
Speaker 1: in order to let people be themselves right, they have
Speaker 1: to feel comfortable. And like I've done a lot of
Speaker 1: these kind of interviews and there are some where I'm
Speaker 1: not as comfortable as I am, Like right now, I
Speaker 1: feel completely comfortable. I'd probably go waffling down a trail
Speaker 1: with you because you make me feel that way, and
Speaker 1: it's interesting. Then what is it? It's non judgment, it's
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, there's vulnerability and openness and communication.
Speaker 1: So I think if you're modeling that at the top,
Speaker 1: it's no doubt that the culture will kind of form
Speaker 1: itself from that. How do you then ensure that the
Speaker 1: people that work for you are equally as passionate or
Speaker 1: share these same beliefs as you like? How't even sure
Speaker 1: that happens?
Speaker 2: That's the trick, isn't that? It is in a couple
Speaker 2: of ways. One is articulating really clearly what that looks like,
Speaker 2: so that the expectations are clear that no one can
Speaker 2: say how I didn't realize that you wanted us to
Speaker 2: do that or lead that way, or that was important
Speaker 2: for the organization. So having those conversations, we had lots
Speaker 2: of them. We've had lots of them in my first
Speaker 2: eighteen months, just to explore what it looks like. Because
Speaker 2: I think the transformation comes in conversation, So serving those
Speaker 2: conversations and not always easy conversations, but if you do
Speaker 2: them regularly, they get normalized. And so that has been
Speaker 2: part of it, a bit of feedback. And then what
Speaker 2: I do, as an example, is every three or four
Speaker 2: weeks in my diary is an hour with six to
Speaker 2: eight staff randomly selected, or I have a coffee with
Speaker 2: six to eight stuff okay. And it's a way just
Speaker 2: to keep my team accountable but the organization and to
Speaker 2: make sure I stay close to what's happening. As a CEO,
Speaker 2: sometimes you can become very removed actually what's going on
Speaker 2: in the organization. There's set questions. I asked, you know,
Speaker 2: what's changing, what's changing for the better, What do we
Speaker 2: need to focus more on? If you or me, what
Speaker 2: would you be doing? And it just ends up like this,
Speaker 2: It ends up being a conversation. But I get really
Speaker 2: valuable feedback because my team sees things, my direct reports
Speaker 2: these things in a certain way, and sometimes the staff
Speaker 2: don't see that way. And it's like gives the ability
Speaker 2: to go back in a very constructive way and say, hey,
Speaker 2: I know we think we're off heading in this direction,
Speaker 2: but my coffee catch ups telling me that we're missing
Speaker 2: something over here. It's very non personal. It's sort of
Speaker 2: like it's a bit of a barometer for me, and
Speaker 2: I find that really valuable. It's the best hour of
Speaker 2: sort of my month. It's their twelve months a year.
Speaker 2: It's the staff. I sort of building trust in the
Speaker 2: process that hate things are happening out of this, so
Speaker 2: I can see that things are changing when I offer
Speaker 2: my opinion. It's a long way to answering a question,
Speaker 2: which is I'm going to work really closely with my
Speaker 2: direct reports to understand how they're leading. And that's a
Speaker 2: one to one thing. That's not a group conversation because
Speaker 2: they all lead differently. Their teams have different needs from
Speaker 2: their leaders, but also then from beneath. It's just making
Speaker 2: sure that what I'm hearing and what they're telling me
Speaker 2: is validated.
Speaker 1: In that Kudos to utro It says brilliant, because people
Speaker 1: manage up very well, right, And we've seen this time
Speaker 1: and time again where you know, they'll tell you what
Speaker 1: you want to hear, but they're not reflecting you down below,
Speaker 1: and it does actually cause us massive block So I
Speaker 1: think that's a beautiful loop and it keeps everyone accountable.
Speaker 1: So I love that. So then what if and I'm
Speaker 1: just asking this more hypothetically back you said about the
Speaker 1: fact that empathy is a big thing for you and
Speaker 1: you keep giving people chances and that, So how do
Speaker 1: you deal with having those conflict difficult conversations? You might
Speaker 1: have to let someone go, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: they haven't performed. Is that something you're still struggle with
Speaker 1: or I.
Speaker 2: Don't enjoy it? And I would say, if you do,
Speaker 2: you probably a bit strange.
Speaker 1: I agree, you up being the wrong role.
Speaker 2: I don't like it. Often tell them when I have
Speaker 2: the conversation, I don't enjoy these conversations that it would
Speaker 2: be difficult for you. It's also difficult for me, and
Speaker 2: just been honest about that. I think if you're honest,
Speaker 2: I think if they can tell that you're also finding
Speaker 2: the conversation difficult, I need to go into those conversations
Speaker 2: knowing that I've given them every chance. Yeah, and they'veset expectations.
Speaker 2: What is unfair is if they say, I didn't know
Speaker 2: that's what you wanted from me. If you had have
Speaker 2: told me that, I would have done something different. So
Speaker 2: that to answer your question, I if I had to
Speaker 2: have a few of them over the years.
Speaker 1: It's more that obviously you're willing to right, it's willing
Speaker 1: to have those difficult conversations when you have to, when
Speaker 1: someone's not representing the values of the organization or you know,
Speaker 1: staying alone.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The thing for me is I find that they're
Speaker 2: easier if you're having them along the way. Yeah, Rather
Speaker 2: this big surprise conversation, I'm offering them conversations with someone
Speaker 2: to say, hey, I just observed the conversation or hoy
Speaker 2: in that meeting. Do you think we could have done
Speaker 2: that differently? Was your observation of it? It tends to
Speaker 2: be hopefully, if you're doing your job well enough that
Speaker 2: by the time the difficult conversation comes, they know why
Speaker 2: you want to catch up with them. They're like, yep,
Speaker 2: I get it. We've talked about this a lot. I
Speaker 2: might not agree with the decision but I see where
Speaker 2: you're coming from because we've talked about it before. Rather
Speaker 2: than this big moment of hey, I've been watching you
Speaker 2: for twelve months and yet I don't have things and
Speaker 2: now you're gone. That wouldn't sit well with me either.
Speaker 1: No, absolutely, I think it might be time for me
Speaker 1: to pose a difficult question for you. So I heard
Speaker 1: this question posed by a Harvard psychologist the other day,
Speaker 1: and I'd love to ask you this, Travis, Why should
Speaker 1: anyone be led by you?
Speaker 2: The first thing I'd say is that being a leader
Speaker 2: is an enormous privilege and it comes with enormous responsibility.
Speaker 2: The same professor will team that leadership doesn't come with
Speaker 2: a title. People can choose to be led by you
Speaker 2: or not. It could be their boss, it doesn't mean
Speaker 2: you're their leader. And I think part of it is
Speaker 2: if I start with me understanding the responsibility that comes
Speaker 2: with being a leader. You are looking after people's careers,
Speaker 2: looking after people's livelihoods. People when they come in through
Speaker 2: the door impacted being what's going on in their personal lives,
Speaker 2: and so I feel like I have that responsibility to
Speaker 2: make sure that I am caring environment for them, but
Speaker 2: also providing them enough challenge that they develop and so forth.
Speaker 2: And so why should someone be led by me? Hopefully
Speaker 2: because they have someone who cares about them as an individual,
Speaker 2: have someone who takes an interest in their career. Sometimes
Speaker 2: that is or often that is not within the organization.
Speaker 2: Often you're encouraging people to think about roles outside the
Speaker 2: organization because it's best for them. It may not be
Speaker 2: best for the organization right now. Someone who While I'm
Speaker 2: strong on accountability, hopefully I'm equally strong on support. And
Speaker 2: I like to push the boundaries of it. I like
Speaker 2: to change things. I like to innovate, I like to
Speaker 2: test people. And I get enormous satisfaction when somebody you've
Speaker 2: worked with before goes off and gets an amazing role
Speaker 2: and you think you might have just played a really
Speaker 2: small part in helping get them to that spot. And
Speaker 2: if I ask others about what they think about all that,
Speaker 2: but it's something I think a lot about. It's something
Speaker 2: I think a lot about as my role as a leader,
Speaker 2: that it's not just a right, it's a privilege, and
Speaker 2: that I need to turn up every day one thing
Speaker 2: I do. I'm very intentional about how I show up,
Speaker 2: and so I will think on the way into work,
Speaker 2: what do my team need from me today? How do
Speaker 2: I need to show up? What's happening at the moment
Speaker 2: that might be important for them, that might influence how
Speaker 2: I show up. And I think that's important because that's
Speaker 2: the decision you get to make as a leader, is
Speaker 2: they will take cues from how I show up, and
Speaker 2: so what's happening in sort of broader enviru it's pretty important.
Speaker 1: Well, my last two Christians for you are I want
Speaker 1: to know because it's just so much in your life,
Speaker 1: so much in your mind. You're looking after everybody else.
Speaker 1: What keeps Travis up at night? Or does Travis sleep
Speaker 1: quite well? Oh?
Speaker 2: Don't sleep so well? All sleep better?
Speaker 1: Is your mind thinking? Is it what it is? Or
Speaker 1: are you one of those thing it is?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm up. It's not unusual for me to
Speaker 2: get up at the middle of night and write some stuff
Speaker 2: down or think through things. So I'm not the role
Speaker 2: model for this stuff. I can see the way you'll
Speaker 2: get me.
Speaker 1: I don't sleep at all, Like my brain goes crazy
Speaker 1: if it was wondering with someone that gives so much
Speaker 1: to others and there's so much considerations, like I was
Speaker 1: just interested, because often sleep is the time where you know,
Speaker 1: we can't wind it down and we're still thinking so
Speaker 1: much about other people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so for me. My wine downtime is exercise. Okay,
Speaker 2: I really liked exercise, and so if I go cycle
Speaker 2: a bit now, and so if I'm out with mate Psyche,
Speaker 2: I'm not thinking about work stuff. I am actually engaging
Speaker 2: with them and a bit of fun in the band, yeah,
Speaker 2: what I enjoy. So sleep is not that for me.
Speaker 2: I'll often be thinking about things, and so I can
Speaker 2: sort of go to bed with a head full of
Speaker 2: work and wake up with her for work. And so
Speaker 2: that's on why I sort of to do itet better
Speaker 2: at There's lots of things that keep me out at night.
Speaker 2: It's probably what motivates me, to be honest, I'm not
Speaker 2: one that sort of relaxes too much in a sense
Speaker 2: of personally or professionally. I always like the things I
Speaker 2: want to do differently or better, or things I haven't
Speaker 2: done yet, and that's probably just make yeah fair enough.
Speaker 1: And my last question for you is, let's cast your
Speaker 1: mind back to how old, shall we say, eighteen year
Speaker 1: old Travis, what's the best advice you'd give.
Speaker 2: Him from what you know now, I think the first
Speaker 2: one is just to take opportunities they come. My career
Speaker 2: hasn't been a straight line. I'm a big believer in
Speaker 2: sort of building the base, and so I've got to
Speaker 2: dis role with a whole lot of different experiences which
Speaker 2: hopefully help my sort of toolkit that I've got today.
Speaker 2: And so I'm a big believer that an opportunity might
Speaker 2: not be obvious, but take it if it comes. I
Speaker 2: remember when I was at university. I was two and
Speaker 2: a half years in. The guy I was living with,
Speaker 2: a very smart guy going to be very successful, came
Speaker 2: to me and said, one of the bigg accounting firms
Speaker 2: in Melbourne is offered me a job finished six months early.
Speaker 2: And it was really hard to get into accounting firms
Speaker 2: back then in the chartered world. That's this incredible world done.
Speaker 2: So I'm not going to take it. I'm going to
Speaker 2: finish my Uni right, And so went to bed, got
Speaker 2: out the next morning and I said to him, that
Speaker 2: doesn't make sense to me. You're going to do that?
Speaker 2: Can I speak to that person and see if I'll
Speaker 2: give me the job? Right? And he's like, oh, I know,
Speaker 2: Like that's a friend of the family and the guy's
Speaker 2: a partner, and I said, just let me have a
Speaker 2: chat to it. And that's how I got my first job.
Speaker 2: I rang up and said, I know you're going to
Speaker 2: give the job to Andy, but he doesn't want it.
Speaker 2: I want it. This guy's like what he said, coming
Speaker 2: to have a meeting with me. I went met with him.
Speaker 2: This is the twenty year old mate.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And so a bit of bolder said, a bit of
Speaker 2: just there's opportunity everywhere if you look for And so
Speaker 2: that's what I'd say to an eighteen year old is
Speaker 2: keep your eyes open. But I've been minded to watch
Speaker 2: in front of you. It might I'll be obvious the
Speaker 2: next step. But just take things and work out later
Speaker 2: how are you going to do them? And so I've
Speaker 2: had a career of being offered things in addition to
Speaker 2: my role, a new roles like yeah, Bugret, I'm going
Speaker 2: to do that and I'll work out later on holme,
Speaker 2: I actually I can do it. Yeah, And so that
Speaker 2: would be the number one piece of advice for me
Speaker 2: when I was eighteen.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, Travis. It has been an absolute pleasure talking
Speaker 1: to you. I'm so excited for your year and watching
Speaker 1: what happens. So thank you so much for taking the
Speaker 1: time to talk to me. It's been great.
Speaker 2: Thanks. I appreciate you having me all