Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: You're listening to the Motorsport Prospects podcast.
Hey, it's Mark from Motorsport Prospects and welcome to the Motorsport Prospects podcast. This is where we dive into the world of motorsport with the people who live and breathe it. From driver coaches and sponsorship experts to team owners, pro drivers and more. You're going to hear real stories, practical advice and insights you can actually use, whether you're just starting out or already chasing success on the track.
Now you know, people ask me why I started Motorsport Prospects, why I'm doing this podcast and why I founded Verified by Motorsport Prospects Designation and the directory.
And the main reason I'm doing this is quite simple.
So many people ask me who can I trust.
They do not know who they can trust in the motorsport ecosystem and they have no real data to back them up. So I created Motorsport Prospects in the Verified designation to help people determine who are the true professionals out there.
Now, the professionals I feature on this podcast represent that trust and it's extremely important that you come across as a trustworthy professional. So if you work with drivers or racing teams, building trust is one of the most important things you can do. Over the years, I found that being clear about what you offer, following through on your promises and genuinely caring about your clients goals makes all the difference. So, so what I've done is I put together some practical advice in a free white paper called the Three Essentials for Motorsport Business Owners, which shares simple ways to strengthen relationships, attract the right clients and grow your motorsport business. Naturally, you can find it in the show notes of this podcast and on motorsportprospects.com so with all that said, let's get started.
My guest today is Alexandra Sheeran. Alexandra has spent nearly 30 years inside international motorsport, working directly with drivers, teams, circuits and championships across Formula One, IndyCar, Formula E, the WRC and endurance racing. For the past 10 years, she has run her own communications agency, focusing on strategic and operational media relations, on site race communications and media coaching for drivers and team management.
Working worldwide in English, French and German, she brings a deep international network across motorsport media and key industry stakeholders.
Welcome to the podcast, Alexandra. Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Thank you for having me. That was quite an introduction.
Well, I mean, I want to say before we get started, it's great to have this motorsport prospect. Something's been long overdue and I'm very honored to to be a guest on this podcast and hopefully can help shed some light on my side of what I do.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Well, thanks so much and, and what your side does is extremely Important as we're going to find out.
So basically my, my podcast is always consists of one question and, and it's, it's, I always say the same thing. It's a simple question, yet it's quite complicated.
So here we go. Based on your experience and expertise as a motorsport professional, what would be the one most important piece of advice you could offer a current or aspiring race driver?
[00:03:44] Speaker A: It is a deceptively simple question.
My advice would be actually don't just focus on the driving, because being fast or even winning races is simply not enough anymore these days. You need to distinguish yourself from the competition who are all fast, because that's sort of a prerequisite of being a motorsport racer. So you have to come as a package and the package is obviously the racing. You learn how to race, you learn, I don't know, data analysis, talking to engineers. You also look after your body, you need to be fit, you need to be training.
Some drivers even look after the mental, like mental health, sort of mental strategies.
And then there is the communication side or pr, whatever you want to call it. And it's sometimes, or rather often also something that is neglected or maybe seen as a bonus or something. Oh, I'll do that later. But it's not a bonus. And it's vitally important to start your career because it will help you distinguish from other drivers.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: Right? And obviously motorsport is built on money, as we all are aware, and sponsorship. And I would think that your communication skills are critical in both attracting sponsors and retaining sponsors.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: It is absolutely, I mean, think about it, it's how you communicate with people. So you meet people all the time in real life and obviously also online, you meet journalists, you, you meet, I don't know anybody in the street. And as a potential racing driver or even as a well established racing drivers, when people recognize you, you portray an image or you want to build an image, you want to build a reputation. And it's very true that you, I don't know who said that, but to build a reputation takes years and to destroy it takes one sentence or one action. And that is very, very true.
And drivers accept very sort of willingly to, to, to train, as I said before, to sort of work on their driving skills.
But why do they take it for granted that communication skills is something that you just have, you don't, most people don't. And you don't get born with being a communicator. Some people, yes they are, they have sort of facilities talking to, to people, it's easy for them to talk to People, and some people are shy of the camera. They don't really want to talk, they don't want to give interviews. But both people exist and both actually carry risks, which is maybe something that sounds strange, but particularly if you like talking to people, the danger is very often there that you say too much or you say something you don't want to say or something you shouldn't say.
And on the other side, if you don't want to talk to, like, people, if you're rather shy, you just really want to drive your car, you need to learn how to.
How to communicate, how to show people who you are, because, again, this will differentiate you from your competitor and make a difference. Like when sponsor A decides, oh, shall I work with this driver or should I work with that driver?
They will look at the full package. And the full package is also communication. Obviously the social media, but also the traditional media, like giving interviews, talking on television, talking on podcasts, talking on. On video. So all of this is part of the package, and it's something you need to learn.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: And so, Alexandra, you run a communications agency.
What are the kind of things that you would work with, with a driver? What are the kind of services that you offer to help them train to become at least a bit more savvy in their media presence?
[00:07:49] Speaker A: I have, obviously you have, like, the full package where you look at the. The whole communication structure, where you work, where you look after their social media channels, at the content and things like that. But really a very important part is the media training or media coaching. Really, training is a bit word, and this is actually what it means is actually learning.
If you're a young driver, let's start there. If you're a young driver, it's important to understand the different opportunities, how to talk publicly.
Like, if you're looking at media relations, obviously you have written press, you have tv, you have radio, all of these new formats, podcasts, video interviews, etc. So you need to understand what is out there, how you present yourself on different formats. And even more importantly, what do you say?
You know, who. Who are you? What. What do you want? What.
How do you. What is your message? What is your target? And most like the young drivers just say, oh, so, oh, my name is so and so. I'm 16 years old and I want to be a Formula One driver.
Okay, good, let's start with that. But that's probably 95% of all young drivers gonna say that. So what is your story? Why do you. Why do you race? Why do you want to be in Formula one. And like, what is your, what is your reason behind all of this? How did you get to motorsports? You know, that that is sort of really a key, A key work, sort of defining the basics and the foundations really, of this. And then on the other side, when you are a more established driver, when the questions maybe become harder, when you are actually representing big brands, big teams, it's knowing how to answer uncomfortable questions or not to answer them, how to represent your team and that kind of thing. And surprisingly many drivers know this because nobody told them. And, and, and why should they know? You know, it's their job is to drive a car. If you sit me in the, in the Formula one car, I have no idea what to do, you know, so. Right.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Why is this any different than anything else? Yeah, exactly.
You know, is there. We all. We, you know, we watch Formula One, we watch IndyCar, we watch the WEC, and you always see the PR person hovering in the background during the interviews.
I guess my question is, is it still possible to be authentic and yet kind of, I wouldn't say toe the team line, but to be authentic and yet still not be so authentic that I might get into trouble?
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Good question.
It's the higher you get up on the motorsport ladder, obviously, the more difficult it becomes. If you are a young driver, the questions are very straightforward. And this is where you learn, where you train your personality, how to speak to people. And it's like any other skill, the more you do it, the better you become and the more natural you become.
And you know, and then you learn skills and you know how to.
Yeah. How to have a personality. And even now, today, you look at drivers and some drivers you're naturally drawn to because they are. Maybe they're smiling a lot. They have even like, maybe they don't like what they're doing or. Because nobody likes giving media interviews. And I mean, I have yet to find the driver who does, but still they live with it and they accept that, for example, this is a way to tell my story because if I don't do it, then the journalist will or the fans will or somebody else will. So let me tell that story. And yes, of course, you can be yourself and then within the lines of what is possible. But let's really, the hard questions or the questions where the sponsors or the team won't be happy again, they make out like 5% of questions. You know, most questions are pretty straightforward and. Right. Most journalists are not out to get. To get you that they just need to do their job. They need to get a story.
So, yes, you can be authentic, but you need to learn the tools that when something becomes tricky that you still can be authentic without sort of putting your job on the line or your team or anybody else.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: I like that what you said about you should be the one telling your story instead of letting others tell your story because at least you have somewhat control over the message.
So you have the communications agency for people listening, how would they get more information on what they're up to? I know that you actually have some great content on LinkedIn, so probably my first recommendation to people listening is to connect with you on LinkedIn. But where do people find more information about what you do at your services and how to communicate with you?
[00:13:19] Speaker A: On my website as well. So it's just my name, alexandra.com.
i have actually a blog section there where I talk about lots of different sides of pr, of communication, of media, training, of interviews, why it's important to communicate a little bit of things we touched on today. So that's probably a good way to start as well and just read through it and it, it answers a lot of questions and, and then obviously on the website as well, you find the sort of services I provide, but a lot of it is not on there. So it's, it's. Anything can be done. You can as do as little or as much as you like, but it's important to do something and it's also important to start as soon as possible because it's like with anything, you know, the sooner you start time, you have to learn it and, and the easier it becomes.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Right? So, absolutely.
So I will of course put the links to your website in the show notes as well as your LinkedIn.
I did lie. I have one more question, one last question I ask everybody and that is what is your favorite racetrack? Current or historical?
[00:14:34] Speaker A: Again, not an easy question.
And also I would have to differentiate if it is that if you, if it's the racing side of things or from a more like personal side because obviously I, I had the privilege to work in Formula one for many, many years. So I've seen a lot of race, been to a lot of racetracks. So from a racing point of view, I'm traditional, so I go for Spa or Suzuka because they're unique tracks, they are just, yeah, they're different and they most of the time are up for good racing.
And from personal side, I would say Bahrain because it's a track that I helped form 20 years ago or 22 years ago. Now in 2004, I worked for another agency. It was my beginnings of working in motorsports PR and I spent a couple of months in Bahrain actually helping to form the media center. So we looked at things from building the reception, finding the stuff, buying the TV sets, probably that has all changed. That has changed a little bit, obviously in 20 years. But there's a lot of personal connections there because a little bit part of the story.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Oh, very cool, really. Thank you so much, Alexandra, for being on the podcast.
Like I said, I strongly recommend for anybody listening to, follow or connect with Alexandra on LinkedIn, she offers a wealth of advice that, that you can definitely take advantage of. I'm always a big fan of where people offer and I hope I do that as well, where they offer actionable advice, little nuggets of knowledge that'll help you out. So for sure do that. Like I said, everything will be in the show notes, all the details when the podcast is released, so you'll definitely be able to connect with Alexandra.
That's it for this week. This is Mark from Motorsport Prospects, reminding you to stay fast, stay focused and keep chasing that checkered flag.
Thanks for listening to the Motorsport Prospects Podcast. For insights, advice and the latest news racers can use, visit motorsportprospects.com.
