Tradie turned endurance runner shares tips for success
Australian tradie turned endurance athlete Nedd Brockmann has set the bar high for the finance industry, sharing the tools that helped him achieve a great personal milestone while also helping the homeless.
The 24-year-old electrician from Forbes, NSW, captured the hearts of millions of Australians when he finished an almost 4,000km run from Perth to Bondi Beach last October in 47 days.
Brockmann was the guest speaker at a special webinar held on February 9, as part of Bankwest’s Connect Event series, which is designed to inform and empower brokers.
Nedd Brockmann (pictured above left) told those attending the Bankwest Connect event that he started running around the age of 20 and stepped up his running during the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon seeing that the Guinness World Record was 66 days, Brockmann said he asked himself “why can’t I do that as well?”
He set his mind on running from Cottesloe Beach, Perth, to Bondi Beach, Sydney, training for the equivalent of two marathons each day. After witnessing the number of homeless people residing in Sydney, Brockmann said his desire was to “change a whole lot of people’s lives”, setting a goal to $1 million for homeless charity Mobilise. He ended up raising $2.5m, with over $600,000 raised in the final day.
Themed ‘Get comfortable being uncomfortable’, Brockmann shared his experience, along with some of the tools he used to get through hard times, including discipline and commitment.
“It’s almost like I’m going to war each day … I would get stretchered out there before I would quit,” Brockmann said in the introduction.
Talking to brokers, Brockmann drew from the uncomfortable feelings he experienced during and after running, which included feelings of hunger, the wearing down of toes from sweat and expiration, swollen achilles, ankles and knees, and tendonitis in the upper body.
“We grow so much from the discomfort and that’s something I pride myself on is getting uncomfortable daily and seeing where I grow,” Brockmann said.
The importance of mindset
Brockmann said when he left school, his life had little structure or purpose. Six months into his apprenticeship, he felt as though he was going nowhere, filling his time with eating and drinking.
Upon looking at himself in the mirror one afternoon, he realised he needed to make some changes, so he put his joggers on and went for a 3km run. A desire to lose weight quickly became a catalyst for further change.
“All of a sudden, I’m starting to run 3km, 5km, 7km … I had this growth mindset all of a sudden,” Brockmann said.
The benefits of committing to his goal flowed through to other areas of Brockmann’s life, including his health and wellbeing. Brockmann said once he began to see the benefits, that motivated him to make further changes.
“Once I found what I was gaining from getting out and committing to something - consistently doing the thing I didn’t want to do - was this growth and desire to push myself to my absolute limit,” he said.
Brockmann’s daily routine consisted of waking at 4am, drinking 3.5 litres of water and training twice per day. He also read 10 pages of a book and undertook one random act of kindness.
“You’ve got to commit to one thing each day and when you nail that, you do the next thing,” Brockmann said. “All of a sudden, you’re just winning, winning and winning.”
Have a plan
Whether it is to double sales, employ more people or become the best broker in the state, Brockmann said one of the biggest tools to getting there is being accountable.
Prior to setting a goal and being accountable for it, Brockman said that having a plan is important - even if that plan changes on day one.
“I think the fear of failure is what gets people … they don’t want to put it out there and tell people what they’re going to attempt or achieve,” Brockmann said.
Cultivate self-belief and confidence
Confidence and self-acceptance are interlinked, Brockmann said.
Once people accept who they are, they can accept that they are the person in their chosen scenario, he said. Confidence also comes from repetition.
“We’ve all got our own flaws [and] imperfections, but they are merely what they are,” Brockmann said.
Brockmann said he had to accept that he could be the person who was going to run across Australia to raise funds. He referred to the stigma of tall poppy syndrome, where people think that others are going to pull them down, and the fear prevents them from moving forward.
“Once you accept that it is OK to be the best broker in central NSW … the best coach, teacher (or whatever it is) you can have the confidence and belief in yourself to do it,” Brockmann said.
Keep showing up
When things get tough, it is important to keep showing up (in other words, to be resilient), he said.
“When things get hard, we innately as humans fall into the trap of finding comfort…when it gets hard we throw the towel in rather than finding a way,” Brockmann said.
Brockmann said there were always going to be crossroads, and times where people may think they’ve made the wrong decision.
“If you can train yourself to keep showing up when times get tough, you will take that option of finding a way.”
Have source of inspiration
As the same daily actions can become monotonous over time, Brockmann said it was important to have a source of inspiration as fuel to keep going.
For him, his purpose was derived from people using him as fuel, the money he was raising - and the fuel he was giving himself when he showed up despite others thinking he couldn’t.
Routine
For Brockmann, having a routine meant that he was able to deliver on his goal, which meant committing to a 4am start.
“When 4am rocked up, I got six hours horizontal, but if I didn’t get to sleep that was OK because I’d wired my mind to go ‘it’s 4am: get up and go after it’,” he said.
Speaking at the start of the webinar, Bankwest general manager third party banking Ian Rakhit (pictured above right) reiterated Bankwest’s ambition to be the “best broker bank in Australia”.
This ambition translates to everything Bankwest brings to market, and through engagement with brokers on solutions, he said.
Bankwest has five areas of focus for 2023: investment in people (more BDMs on the road, support managers and credit coaches); investment in service; growing first home buyers, investors and self-employed customers; retaining customers and improving digital tools for brokers, Rakhit said.
Bankwest plans to launch a basic product that will go to 98% loan-to-value ratio (LVR), while improvements in investor lending will see Bankwest investor serviceability increase, he said.
“We have a fantastic couple of years, both in terms of business performance, customer output and broker awards,” Rakhit said.
“We’ve got a stack of stuff happening this year…you’re going to be very happy to stick with Bankwest and keep us on the consideration table.”
Brokers who missed the event can View the video recording here, using the password ‘BankwestBroker’. The Q&A is also available as a podcast. Both will be live until March 8.
