Riders Lounge Podcast partners with only the best brands, services or people possible.
Here is the short story: I love working with these brands and the Riders Lounge Podcast wouldn’t be growing without their support!
I can’t thank each of them enough!!!
The long story:
Complete IT Management
Lakes Networking have supported me from the very beginning.
Jason Brown, the CEO of Lakes Networking and Grand Poobah of the Hoobie-Doobie-Tribe has been my entrepreneurial mentor since I was in primary school.
Not only putting some logos on my bike, I have worked with Lakes Networking since they began (and even before when Jason had other computer businesses)
Jason was teaching me how to build computers and fix them. I ended up helping when I was about 13 or 14 years old. Going around to friends houses on behalf of the business to fix hardware or software problems.
I then started some programming, and did a little bit with an old program Jason created called ASME, which he built for a motorcycle shop funnily enough.
My plan was to go into IT at University, until of all people, Jason told me it was a bad idea. We had just been through the Y2K issue where for about 5 years, programmers all around the world were running against the clock to reprogram everything so planes wouldn’t fall out of the sky.
But in 2001 when I finished High School, there was going to be a natural over-supply of computer programmers.
So Papa J told me, if I wanted to do it.. expect to be in for 5-10 years of pain, battling for a job. So I gave up on the IT world and went to Uni looking to be a Physiotherapist (didn’t work!) and then Business Degree.
Then as I finished my Business Degree, I decided after 6.5 years of University… if I could live like a bum and studying, not having fun. I could live like a bum and ride a dirt bike. Enter FMX!
As I travelled the world, performing and now hosting events, I still rely on the security of having Lakes Networking looking after all of my online/computing needs!
If I’ve ever needed anything, a pick-up from the airport, borrow a car for an event, a new laptop or fixing something which I have broken, Jason and the Lakes Team have been there.
Lakes look after my emails, laptops, phones, contracts, online storage and any software or hardware issues.
See, I told you that I only work with people I trust!
This is quite funny, but I won my first German FMX Competition at the FMX Flight Club in Biberach, 2015.
The trophy was actually a beer bottle encapsulated in hard plastic + we were given a nice 5 Litre Mini-Keg of Beer.
At that point in time, I had only been living in Germany for a year, and certainly never expected to end up living here full-time.
Of course you know, I’m about to tell you the brand of beer that was part of the Flight Club trophies was Rothaus which is based in the Black Forest region of Germany (yeah.. you would have heard of a ‘Black Forest Cake’… same place). The competition in Biberach, naturally was in the Black Forest region as well.
So I have had that trophy in Germany to remind myself of the good times and when I took it back to Australia on my last visit for safe-keeping and memories when I’m an old man, I was pretty stoked on the brand Rothaus.
Also, throughout my career riding FMX – I never cared for being sponsored by an Energy Drink company. Of course, probably not having the talent either! But what I was most interested in, was to be sponsored by a German Beer Brand! How cool would that be, to have a Beer sponsor on my helmet, and have pallets of beer turning up at my house every month. Unbelievable!
Unfortunately, that simply isn’t possible.
Motorsport and Alcohol. They don’t go together. And I respect the rules, and I agree that we need to be socially responsible to not encourage any form of Drink Driving or other bad driving behaviours on public roads.
So, having a beer sponsor when I was riding professionally wasn’t going to happen.
Enter the Podcast world!
I sent a very simple email off to Rothaus, explaining that I’m out of action with injury. I probably won’t be riding FMX again – but that I am starting a Podcast and would they be interested to help me get this up and running.
I treasure my first ever German FMX Trophy as their Rothaus Tannenzaepfle Beer, and would they be interested to support this new idea.
About 1 week before the very first episode went online, I had the best reply from Mathieu and the Rothaus Brewery from the Black Forest Region! Mathieu loves listening to Podcasts and liked the idea of this Podcast. I’m not riding professionally, we’re just talking about interesting people who do awesome things on motorcycles and other action sports!
This is also the reason we are talking about the Alcohol Free version of the Tannenzaepfle of beer. As an Aussie, I would never have thought this to even be a ‘thing’!
However, I am really getting into the Alcohol Free Beer, not just for the obvious reasons like wanting to have the taste of beer but without alcohol and not stress about driving home from somewhere.
But the day-to-day aspects that it’s so much tastier to have an alcohol free beer when I’m riding my pushy (bicycle for those non-Aussies) in the forest. Or simply having a cold drink instead of soft-drinks or juices.
So I can’t thank the Rothaus Brewery and their Tannenzaepfle range of beers enough for their support. It’s those types of support that you never forget, but also give you the confidence to think ‘this is a good idea, I’m going to make this Podcast work!’