[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, the team owners, pro drivers and more. You'll 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, I've often been asked why I started Motorsport Prospects. I founded Motorsport Prospects after hearing the same question time and again from drivers, aspiring drivers, their families and advisors. Who can I trust?
Very simple question, not always a very simple answer. Many have struggled to find reliable guidance, so I created Motorsport Prospects to help them make informed decisions. The professionals I feature on this podcast represent that trust. Quality drivers tell me it's really hard to find these days, especially now, 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 what your clients goals are make all the difference.
So, kind of to help you out, 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
[email protected] so let's get started.
My guest today is Sylvia Schweiger. Sylvia is a motorsport marketing Advisor with over 20 years of experience helping global brands navigate, invest and grow through Formula One, MotoGP and the wider motorsport ecosystem.
Now, welcome to the podcast, Sylvia. Thanks so much for being on. I know it's been a long time coming. We've talked quite a bit on LinkedIn and you are, you are a force of nature. Some of the information, all the information you, you provide on LinkedIn is, is always amazing guidance.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: Hi Mark, thank you so much. I'm so happy that we finally are here and happy to, to chat and have this conversation with you. It's been long time so I'm very happy to be here.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Yeah, me too.
So as I was mentioning, it's very simple, this podcast is one question. Well, actually two. One at the beginning and one at the end.
And basically my question to you is based on your extensive 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?
[00:03:03] Speaker A: You know what, I was listening carefully about your intro and there's so much that resonated with me and specifically you talk about reputation, informed decisions and reliable people.
And, you know, I was like, oh my God. This is the part of my answer straight away, because my first advice would be be careful about the people that you are surrounded with, yourself with.
Especially, you know, when you are a younger driver or rider in the early stages of your career.
These kids are focused, they should be focused on just driving and go out and have fun at the beginning in a way. But we know that motorsport can be quite expensive and it's hard to get support, so kids and their families are just trying to find people that support them and usually they tend to believe to everyone or tend to trust anyone and everyone that is around themselves, them and then and the team.
So I would say be very careful and try to understand who are the people you want to work with and that you want to surround yourself with.
Sometimes, you know, you have your best friend that is just managing your social media or your marketing campaign or the commercial proposal.
And I do understand that family and friends are the people that are the closest to you and maybe they are those that can help and support you, but sometimes they are maybe not the best one for the specific job and role.
So I really would say try to understand who you want to be surrounded with, the values that you share, they should be aligned with the values of that, of these people and try to do some kind of research and try to understand who these people are, what they have done in the past, who they have worked with, what they believe in, if they are trustworthy. So try to really understand who you are bonding with.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: That's almost a perfect commercial for motorsport prospects, because that's literally what I'm trying to do in that. Because you're absolutely right.
Unfortunately, there are people in the industry, like any industry, I suppose, who are there who tend to get rich and yet the people they're supposedly helping don't seem to get any further than when they first started that relationship. So, yeah, I agree, it's absolutely.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: And especially, you know, sometimes, especially in the, in the early stages of, of a driver or a rider's career, parents, they, they haven't got a clue, they don't know what to do, they don't know what to trust. They, they sometimes and most of the time need to have to support their kids and maybe they don't have the resources to do that. So they try to get and gather all the information and the support they can.
But still, again, you should try to make informed decisions, try to understand who are the people that you want to be surrounded with. Because it's in the end of the day what I'm saying. I know it can be a bit stretched, but what the kids or the drivers, what they do on track is obviously very important, but what they represent and they do off track, their values, what they, their beliefs, what they do in their spare time outside the track is very important as well. I remember very clearly a client that has always been very, very good in spotting talents. And he told me once, you know, what I do before investing, this is a big.
Before investing in a driver or in any type of sports personality or athlete, I try to go and watch them from the behind the scene, what they do with their families, what they do with their friends, how they speak, how they behave when they are not on track.
Because they need to be aligned with my brand, with our brands, in terms of values, behaviors, what they stand for, their beliefs. So and, and I was totally aligned. I thought that it was so right. Because it's not just what happens on track, what happens outside the track is very, very important. Now more than ever with social media and all the content we share, drivers and riders are. Brands are not just athletes that perform on track. They are a bigger, they represent a bigger world. So not just the track, but the off tracker activity as well. So it's very important that who is managing and supporting them in all in everything from the legal aspect, the social media, marketing, commercial, everything, they must be aligned with the kids or with the driver and the family and the values.
I always try to understand who is the person that is behind the helmet, behind the visor, not just the guy or the person that is driving.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: That's actually very well said because that kind of goes beyond the concept of everybody says you need to be authentic. Authenticity.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: But they just use that term and they don't really expand on it. And authenticity is who you are as a person, what your beliefs, your morals are.
Some people might say, well, what does that have to do with racing? But that has a lot to do with racing.
You will always perform better with people that are aligned with who you are than with people that are not.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: Absolutely.
And you know what, even when I'm on track, I spend most of my time in meetings or in the media center where the riders in MotoGP for instance, they come to have their media debrief and their interviews and stuff. I tend to notice everything.
I was in Valencia a couple of weeks ago and I was reaching out for the fridge to take a bottle of water. And a very famous rider came after me and I was like, would you like a water? He was very, very kind.
We spent a couple of, you know, we just chat for a couple of seconds, but it was polite, it was friendly, I mean, you know, just a nice guy. And he didn't, he didn't have to show off or to do anything special, but I noticed it. So he said, yes, thank you. He opened the door for me.
So it was very gentle, very kind. It's something you need to consider. How is the person behind the scene, not just in front of the camera or on track, how they speak with the people they work with? It's very important because, I mean, there might be very moments of tensions, of, you know, we just see a part of what is happening on track and inside the garages, but there are tensions, there are down moments, there are difficult moments, how they react with the people that are in the garage with them, sponsors, media, guests, it's very important. So every time I sit down with a prospect or a client and they ask me for, you know, guidance with, with picking and choosing a driver, we take everything into consideration, not just the result on track. It's, it's not, it's not, it's, it's important. Of course it's important, but it's not the most important thing. There are especially, I mean, my view is always from a marketing and a partnership perspective. I'm not a, a technician, I'm not a journalist, I, I, of course I care about what happened on track, but what happens outside the track is even more important for me.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: And you brought up a really good point. It's.
People behave. It's easy to be a very magnanimous person when you're winning. It's to be friendly, but it's when you're not winning, when you run into obstacles.
That is usually the true measure of who a person is, how they treat people when things aren't going well.
And it's a really interesting observation that you take all that into account and especially in your. So in your role, you're dealing primarily with marketing and working on sponsorships, is that correct?
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So basically I, I give consultancy to any type of brands that want to invest in motorsports, trying to match them with the best fit in the motorsport industry, that is very, very wide.
You know, one driver or one rider might be good for a specific brand, but might not be the best fit for another brand. I'm an independent professional, so I'm not forced to sell a product. I always, when when drivers or teams reach out to me saying can you support me in, in selling my, my driver?
It's not what I do. I know the market, I know who the drivers are.
I support brands in aligning and in closing a partnership with the best fit in the motorsport industry.
Maybe it's this specific rider and not the best performing one on track because of the values, what he represents, the territories, he's strong in so many aspects, not just what, what happens on, on track.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: That's really interesting. So it really is a 360 degree kind of look at who the person is.
Now Sylvia, if anybody wants to see what you're doing, get a hold of you, what is the best way to get in touch with you?
[00:14:15] Speaker A: I guess LinkedIn is definitely, we know that a platform. I quite, I'm quite, let's say vocal.
Yeah, I'm very present on link so anytime just drop me a message or a comment or whatever, I'm always there and yeah, I try to reply to everyone. It's pretty hard. I'm not good in replying to anyone but I'm trying, I'm trying to do
[00:14:44] Speaker B: my best and I will put up your LinkedIn information on the show notes. So if anybody and I can speak from experience, this is how I got to know Sylvia. It's through LinkedIn, through reading her posts. And her posts are very, very informative and so I'll, you know, you like them and then I would make a comment just like a lot of other people and she does a great job in replying. So you will learn a lot about sponsorship, about motorsport and quite honestly, I always say that motorsport is a microcosm of life. What you do and what happens in motorsport can be easily applied to what happens in life. So when we talk about values and moral, you know, that is beyond motorsport. So you will even learn a little, couple of little things about life in general. So highly recommended that you connect. I'll put that in the show notes. Thank you so much. Mark, it's been wonderful having you on the show. I really, it's been a long time coming and I'm so happy. But I have one final question for you.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: The classic is if you can pick one track, what would be your favorite track, either current or historical.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: I would say, if I may, I would pick Monza for Formula one. You know, I'm Italian so I have to go with Monza even if I like Imola because I mean I, I lived for so many years in Bologna, I went to Imola so many times. But Monza is a classic, is one of those tracks that defines motorsports. So if you think about Monza, you think about, you know, the Formula One race per se, and if I pick another one in MotoGP, because I work a lot in MotoGP as well, I would say Jerez de la Frontera because it's the first race, the first European race, let's say. So the first race of the European leg and the passion and the motorsports community there is really unique and it's impressive. You've got, you got there and you have this sea of motorbikes everywhere. It's, it's a, just a, an open air party for motorcycles and, and passionate about motorcyc.
So here it's, it's, it's one of my favorites as well.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Oh, that's good to know because I am dying to go to a MotoGP race. I've never been. I love watching it, but I, I definitely want to go, so I will keep that on my, on my bucket list.
Well, that's it for this week. I really appreciate Sylvia being on the show.
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.
