Latest / What the Flux / In Conversation with Grant Hackett, Australian Olympian and CEO of Generation Development Group

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In Conversation with Grant Hackett, Australian Olympian and CEO of Generation Development Group · What the Flux

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Speaker 1: This is what the flux. I'm Larissa and it's Wednesday,
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Speaker 1: the eighth of July. Here are the three biggest news
0:10
Speaker 1: stories for today. For our first story, Microsoft is slashing
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Speaker 1: four thousand, eight hundred jobs, including some of its Australian staff,
0:17
Speaker 1: in the latest round of global layoffs. The layoffs mainly
0:20
Speaker 1: impact Microsoft's Xbox division, where three two hundred jobs will
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Speaker 1: be hit. For our next story, and Thropic, the company
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Speaker 1: behind Claude AI, is racing to lock in Australian data
0:31
Speaker 1: centers and a copyright deal to train its AI here
0:34
Speaker 1: ahead of a one point three trillion share market listing.
0:37
Speaker 1: The deals with make Australia and Thropic's second home outside
0:40
Speaker 1: the US. And for our final story, Wisetech Global, the
0:44
Speaker 1: twelve billion dollar ASEX listed software company, is getting a
0:47
Speaker 1: new chairman. Billionaire founder Richard White has stepped down after
0:51
Speaker 1: media reports that he's being investigated for human trafficking allegations,
0:55
Speaker 1: which he denies. Now over to you Justin and Brett.
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Speaker 2: Thanks Larisa, today with We're excited to be sitting down
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Speaker 2: with Grant hacket oam three time Olympic gold medalist, one
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Speaker 2: of Australia's most iconic athletes and now a CEO shaping
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Speaker 2: the future of wealth and retirement outcomes for millions of Australians.
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Speaker 3: Fox Fam you'll probably remember Grant dominating the fifteen hundred
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Speaker 3: meter freestyle for over a decade. He won the gold
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Speaker 3: medal at Sydney two thousand Olympics as well as Athens
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Speaker 3: two thousand and four.
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Speaker 2: My favorites that unbeaten in the fifteen hundred meter freestyle
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Speaker 2: event from ninety six until two thousand and seven.
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Speaker 3: Now, after retiring from sport in two thousand and eight,
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Speaker 3: he entered the business world, working across banking and financial
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Speaker 3: services and eventually becoming CEO of Generation Life, the specialist investment,
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Speaker 3: bond and retirement income business, and more recently stepping into
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Speaker 3: the role of group CEO of Generation Development Group. Now,
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Speaker 3: in that time he's helped grow the business from a
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Speaker 3: relatively niche player to one with billions in funds under management.
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Speaker 3: Grant Hacket, Welcome to What the Flux.
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Speaker 4: Thanks you guys, appreciate you having me on. No worries.
1:53
Speaker 4: How was that?
1:53
Speaker 2: It was?
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Speaker 4: Solid interest, good energy. Label makes me tell it thinking
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Speaker 4: of it all the stuff.
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Speaker 2: That Granted, Let's start from the beginning. Tell us a
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Speaker 2: little bit about your childhood. Where were you born, where
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Speaker 2: did you grow up, and did you always love swimming?
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Speaker 4: Not always, to be honest, for me, I followed what
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Speaker 4: my brother did, So I was born on the Gold Coast.
2:15
Speaker 4: My dad was a detective, so we got transferred around
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Speaker 4: Queensland quite a bit. And it wasn't until we were
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Speaker 4: up in far north Queensland, in a place called in
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Speaker 4: Asphal my brother did a surf race. He finished third
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Speaker 4: and he got beaten by two girls, so he wasn't happy.
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Speaker 4: I asked to do swimming lessons, and so he went
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Speaker 4: off and did swimming lessons and I'd get in the
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Speaker 4: public lane and just muck around. There was a big
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Speaker 4: gap between us. Mum had cancer in between, so there's
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Speaker 4: nearly seven years in terms of age gap. So you know,
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Speaker 4: he was ten, I just turned four, and so I
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Speaker 4: was bouncing around and funnily enough, he became state surf
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Speaker 4: champion within six months. And yeah, it's a lot of
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Speaker 4: people don't know this, but he was actually Kieren Perkins's
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Speaker 4: number one rival when they were growing up. They were
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Speaker 4: first and second and everything in the pool. And then
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Speaker 4: I sort of came around to a little bit later on.
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Speaker 4: But yeah, and for me, I was doing a few sports.
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Speaker 4: I love surf, life saving, I was playing rugby and
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Speaker 4: also doing swimming. And the reason I really went for
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Speaker 4: swimming was because in nineteen ninety three we won the
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Speaker 4: Olympics for the two thousand Games, and so I was like,
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Speaker 4: I'm doing that sport because I want to go to
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Speaker 4: the games in my home country. So that's what really
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Speaker 4: drove me to swimming. And I think my love over
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Speaker 4: time really developed. It wasn't at first. I think it
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Speaker 4: was as I got better and you got good at it,
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Speaker 4: and do you think, geez, I can really do this, well,
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Speaker 4: I think you start to fall in love with it.
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Speaker 4: But I was always in love with the Olympics. Yeah, fascinating.
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Speaker 3: And obviously as time evolved, you became a professional athlete,
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Speaker 3: and swimming is definitely one of those sports where you
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Speaker 3: really have to love the training. So did you love
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Speaker 3: the grind early or did that come later? And were
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Speaker 3: there mornings when you just absolutely hated that alarm?
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Speaker 4: I do love the grind, and I think any sort
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Speaker 4: of success you have to because the success is like
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Speaker 4: a blimp on the radar, like when you win a
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Speaker 4: medal or an event, but really nine to nine percent
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Speaker 4: of the time you're either training and in business you
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Speaker 4: really focused on strategy and trying to execute that and
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Speaker 4: trying to grow the business and work with people, get
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Speaker 4: the right people on the team. And I hated the
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Speaker 4: early morning, So yeah, I was up at four forty five,
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Speaker 4: Like I eat that a more of a late night
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Speaker 4: person rather than get up early. And it was rough.
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Speaker 4: After you've done you know, sixteen k the day before,
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Speaker 4: plus you know, ninety minutes in the gym, then you've
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Speaker 4: got to get up and do that all again. So
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Speaker 4: four forty five was tough. The pain, though I used
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Speaker 4: to I used to welcome that because that was a
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Speaker 4: part of being a distance athlete and knowing how to
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Speaker 4: push through that and persevere and do that consistently was
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Speaker 4: one of probably the key successes, you know, that really
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Speaker 4: drove my career. And you know, if you want to
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Speaker 4: be a fifteen hundred meet a freestyle swimmer, you've got
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Speaker 4: to be able to put up with pain, and in
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Speaker 4: business you got to be able to put up with
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Speaker 4: pain and difficult times too. So it taught me a
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Speaker 4: lot of good lessons that I could transfer from the
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Speaker 4: pool into business.
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Speaker 2: And clearly that grind worked for you. Olympic gold medal
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Speaker 2: was Commonwealth Games medal, as World Championship golds. Is it
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Speaker 2: one particular race or moment that really stands out for
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Speaker 2: you when you think back to your career now.
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Speaker 4: There is, there's probably a couple. I mean winning in
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Speaker 4: two thousand, I mean Karen Perkins was my hero to
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Speaker 4: be frank like, I had his times as an age
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Speaker 4: grouper for every distance up on my wall incredible. I
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Speaker 4: was trying to beat those times every single year. And
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Speaker 4: then here I am with my hero turned rival and
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Speaker 4: we're at our home Olympics. He's won the last two Olympics.
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Speaker 4: In this race, he's trying to do what Dawn Fraser
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Speaker 4: did by being the first male to win three in
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Speaker 4: a row in the same event. And he's in lane four.
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Speaker 4: He's swimming the fastest since he broke the world record
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Speaker 4: six years ago. He did his fastest time in the
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Speaker 4: heat in six years. And I'm in lane three and thinking,
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Speaker 4: I feel like the boy who shot Bambi. To beat
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Speaker 4: this guy because he was so loved in Australia, and
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Speaker 4: to have that moment and to win, and for him
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Speaker 4: to finish second and swim really well. It wasn't like
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Speaker 4: he was finishing his career on downward trajectory. It was
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Speaker 4: the fastest he'd swim in a long time in that
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Speaker 4: particular race. So Yeah, that kind of had all the ingredients.
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Speaker 4: And probably the other one that I think really stands
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Speaker 4: out two thousand and four, because I was really sick
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Speaker 4: that year and I got mona and I actually had
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Speaker 4: a partially collapse lung in that race. So to push
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Speaker 4: through the pain of that that was yeah, and get
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Speaker 4: the result and actually broke his Olympic record in that race,
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Speaker 4: which I had to to win, Yeah, because I had
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Speaker 4: an American who broke the American record by eleven seconds
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Speaker 4: that day. So they're probably the two big ones that
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Speaker 4: really stand out for me.
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Speaker 3: I think that there are some weird rituals and superstitions
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Speaker 3: and routines that go on. Did you have any or
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Speaker 3: did you witness any?
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Speaker 4: There's plenty. There's probably two things of de vulge. One
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Speaker 4: is people think it's like this individual sport, but they
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Speaker 4: only see that final bit of execution the whole time.
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Speaker 4: It is really a team sport, and it's a team
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Speaker 4: sport with both male and female. It's not like a
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Speaker 4: football code or something like that where you just predominantly
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Speaker 4: males or just females. We all work together, you train together,
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Speaker 4: you eat together, you travel together. You know, you're always
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Speaker 4: with each other. You just race individually the other one,
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Speaker 4: which is quite interesting. I remember one time at a
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Speaker 4: meat my fingernails were quite long and I cut them.
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Speaker 4: And because you'll feel for the water, you're so in
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Speaker 4: touch with the water. I like dived in and I
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Speaker 4: started doing my stroke and I felt it run straight
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Speaker 4: over my fingers and I was like, I've lost a
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Speaker 4: little bit of catch of the water there. So I
7:09
Speaker 4: used to stop cutting my fingernails three weeks out from
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Speaker 4: a minute, just to have that little bit of extra
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Speaker 4: water because every bit, yeah.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you reckon that makes a difference. Or that was
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Speaker 2: just in your head like it would.
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Speaker 4: Make a small difference, Yeah, definitely, Like you get so
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Speaker 4: attuned to the water in terms of holding it. It
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Speaker 4: was really funny my son. I got four kids, and
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Speaker 4: my son who's six, he's quite interested in swimming. He
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Speaker 4: just really enjoys it. And he wanted to see a
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Speaker 4: video last night and my wife goes, oh, what's different
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Speaker 4: about your stroke? And I actually showed her because she
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Speaker 4: has no clue. It's just like I was watching you
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Speaker 4: guys swim really fast and that's it, and I said,
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Speaker 4: I'll watch my elbow, you know, snap as I go
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Speaker 4: into the water. And she goes, oh wow, I really
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Speaker 4: notice that difference to you compared to the other guys
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Speaker 4: in the lane. And the other thing is I said,
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Speaker 4: see how there's no bubbles, like you're moving so quick,
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Speaker 4: but I put my hand in. There's no bubbles that
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Speaker 4: come with it because you don't want any air to
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Speaker 4: take down because obviously the more water you catch, the
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Speaker 4: more you got to travel along the top of the water.
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Speaker 4: So it does get really specific, and yes, every bit
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Speaker 4: cans amazing Grant.
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Speaker 2: I think what's interesting for a lot of athletes, professional athletes,
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Speaker 2: they're so focused on their career that they can't think
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Speaker 2: outside of their career, and so they end up whether
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Speaker 2: they decide to retire or they're forced to retire for
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Speaker 2: whatever reason, and like, shit, what do I do next? Yeah,
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Speaker 2: I feel like you were the opposite. You started planning
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Speaker 2: for your post sporting career quite early. How did you
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Speaker 2: think about that and was that something that always came
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Speaker 2: to you or did someone give you a bit of
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Speaker 2: a wake up call on that.
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Speaker 4: Yeah. I don't think I've ever said this on a
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Speaker 4: podcast before, but when I was a five year old,
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Speaker 4: I used to say, I want to be an entrepreneur.
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Speaker 4: I was, ay, yeah, I was always interested in business,
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Speaker 4: Like yeah, I'm sure, yeah, yeah, maybe I could have
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Speaker 4: said it, but no, I was. I was always interested
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Speaker 4: in business, so, you know, and my dad had quite
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Speaker 4: a few business friends and that were really successful, and
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Speaker 4: I'd always ask questions like I was really interested in
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Speaker 4: it from a very young age, and it wasn't It
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Speaker 4: wasn't like I wanted to make a heap of money
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Speaker 4: or I just wanted to be successful in that field.
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Speaker 4: And you know, the commercial side of that was really interesting.
9:07
Speaker 4: I loved financial markets, So as a teenager, I was
9:11
Speaker 4: into trading shares. As soon as I know, won some
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Speaker 4: prize money, I've got sponsorship in sport, I was, I
9:16
Speaker 4: was investing straight away. So for me, I was always
9:19
Speaker 4: very interested in it. I was probably more interested in
9:21
Speaker 4: that than I was swimming, even growing up. Yeah, and
9:24
Speaker 4: so for me, I was studying commerce law through my
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Speaker 4: swimming years. I've done my MBA. I've always interested in
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Speaker 4: learning and trying to understand you know, financial markets and business,
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Speaker 4: and you know where you learn the most is where
9:38
Speaker 4: you meet people who have been successful who know that
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Speaker 4: you know the sort of the trials and tribulations and
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Speaker 4: errors and challenges. And you know, for me, if I
9:45
Speaker 4: ever get the opportunity, which I've been fortunate enough through
9:47
Speaker 4: sport to meet some business people or you know very
9:51
Speaker 4: sort of you know, big leaders or corporate leaders across
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Speaker 4: Australia or internationally. That's one of the things I just asked,
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Speaker 4: how did you do it? What did you prepare? What
9:59
Speaker 4: are the good times bad times? You know, how do
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Speaker 4: you run your team? And I'm always learning that. So yeah,
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Speaker 4: for me, I was always very interested in that side
10:06
Speaker 4: of things because my dad always said to me, you
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Speaker 4: retire to something, not from something as an athlete, and
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Speaker 4: it doesn't matter how successful you are, you know, financially,
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Speaker 4: if you could retire for the rest of your life,
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Speaker 4: do you want to sit in the exit lounge for
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Speaker 4: fifty years? And I'm like, no, thanks, like that would
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Speaker 4: be horrifying to me playing golf five days a BA.
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Speaker 3: So we've seen a number of ex professional athletes really
10:28
Speaker 3: excel in the business world, and something we often think
10:31
Speaker 3: about and talk about is is there something special or
10:34
Speaker 3: is there an unfair advantage that former professional athletes have
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Speaker 3: that make them so successful in the business world.
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Speaker 4: There definitely is, because you have learned all of the
10:44
Speaker 4: I guess characteristics in reality of what it takes to
10:48
Speaker 4: be successful across discipline, teamwork, commitment, being in competitive environments,
10:55
Speaker 4: knowing how to lose and get back up, which is
10:57
Speaker 4: a really big one. So if you're learning all of
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Speaker 4: these things from a very young age, it definitely gives
11:02
Speaker 4: you an advantage going into the next part of your career.
11:04
Speaker 4: I think where it's gone wrong for a few athletes
11:07
Speaker 4: is almost that the commercial side of sport. Now you
11:09
Speaker 4: can make so much money it almost stops you from
11:12
Speaker 4: getting another skill or transferring that. If you look back
11:15
Speaker 4: probably twenty thirty forty years when people were professional athletes,
11:19
Speaker 4: when they retired, they didn't really have anything. They were
11:22
Speaker 4: just doing it for the love of the sport and
11:23
Speaker 4: the challenge. So they go into business and you know,
11:26
Speaker 4: you could look at a lot of the Wallabies pre
11:27
Speaker 4: ninety five before it became a professional sport, and they're
11:31
Speaker 4: all super successful. They're all surgeons, lawyers, CEOs, business owners.
11:35
Speaker 4: So I think you definitely get those characteristics of high
11:39
Speaker 4: performance and how to deliver outcomes by being an athlete,
11:43
Speaker 4: but you have to be motivated in the next field,
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Speaker 4: and sometimes the financial aspect can stop that from happening,
11:49
Speaker 4: and I think that's where people can get a little
11:51
Speaker 4: bit lost.
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Speaker 2: Obviously, being in the sporting world, which everyone loves and
11:55
Speaker 2: around the Olympics, there's so much publicity and attention on you. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: and being now of a public company it might not
12:01
Speaker 2: be to the same extent, but there is definitely a
12:03
Speaker 2: lot of attension as well on you. Do you find
12:05
Speaker 2: that difficult periods in the business world are equally as
12:08
Speaker 2: difficult as in the sporting world, or at a different there.
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Speaker 4: Equally is challenging to me at a personal level because
12:15
Speaker 4: I deeply care. I really care about the business. I
12:17
Speaker 4: really cared about what I was doing in sport and
12:19
Speaker 4: trying to achieve. I think you're not in the newspaper
12:23
Speaker 4: as much. You might be in the AFR here and there,
12:25
Speaker 4: but when you're on the front page of the newspaper
12:27
Speaker 4: with things that are speculative or that, that's very difficult
12:30
Speaker 4: as an athlete and you know or things are made
12:33
Speaker 4: up around your competitive rivalry with Kieran Perkins. I remember
12:36
Speaker 4: going into Sydney and I was a teenager when I
12:38
Speaker 4: qualified for that team and they said I might as
12:41
Speaker 4: well be American because everyone will be cheering for care
12:44
Speaker 4: in any way. I was like that that hurts. My
12:48
Speaker 4: grandfather fought the Kakoda trail. My dad's a detective, like
12:52
Speaker 4: I've had people really serve this country in my family
12:55
Speaker 4: and I'm so proud of it. And to the journalist's credit,
12:58
Speaker 4: she actually said sorry to me about that article, which
13:01
Speaker 4: was really nice. And I actually felt really support out
13:03
Speaker 4: the Olympics by all Australians, which was nice. And yeah,
13:06
Speaker 4: so for me, there is a different sort of pressure
13:08
Speaker 4: that comes with that extra media exposure. But you are
13:11
Speaker 4: exposed as a public business when your people go how
13:14
Speaker 4: do you manage to report quarterly? And then you know
13:16
Speaker 4: you've got to have different flows at different times in
13:19
Speaker 4: the business in terms of its success, and timing can
13:21
Speaker 4: be an issue. And I said, look, I like it
13:23
Speaker 4: because it keeps you so accountable, like you are on
13:27
Speaker 4: the whole time. You have to produce the results. There's
13:30
Speaker 4: no periods where you can sit there and actually go, oh,
13:32
Speaker 4: you know, it's okay. If we're having a bit of
13:34
Speaker 4: a rough run at the moment, we'll get ourselves out
13:36
Speaker 4: of it. You're like, no, I've got to be proactive.
13:38
Speaker 4: What are the things I need to do and execute
13:40
Speaker 4: on without panicking, you know, making the right move. So
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Speaker 4: I like the exposure as a person. I don't like
13:47
Speaker 4: publicity too much because I'm private, Like I'm just naturally
13:50
Speaker 4: a private person and my wife is like that too.
13:53
Speaker 4: But you know, you have to take the good with
13:55
Speaker 4: the bad with that sort of position.
13:57
Speaker 3: So let's chat a bit about gen Life. You rose
14:00
Speaker 3: to the CEO of Generation Life initially and now you're
14:03
Speaker 3: the group CEO of Generation Development Group. How do you
14:06
Speaker 3: explain what the company actually does to someone who is
14:08
Speaker 3: not in finance.
14:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was actually doing both the roles pretty much
14:13
Speaker 4: from two thousand and I think October twenty eighteen, and
14:16
Speaker 4: then it got too big to be CEO of two businesses.
14:21
Speaker 4: So you've got what our business is. So I'll talk
14:23
Speaker 4: about the structure and then I'll talk about what we do.
14:26
Speaker 4: So obviously, in the area of financial services, we're ASX
14:30
Speaker 4: listed business called Generation Development Group GDGS. The ticker underneath
14:34
Speaker 4: that is three businesses with three separate CEOs. One is
14:38
Speaker 4: Generation Life which has a thing called an investment bond.
14:41
Speaker 4: Now that structure is just the most tax effective structure
14:44
Speaker 4: outside of superannuation, so it's just a legal structure and
14:47
Speaker 4: you can choose your investments in there. So all the
14:50
Speaker 4: various asset classes like a net wealth where you've got
14:53
Speaker 4: a lot of optionality, not quite to the same extent
14:55
Speaker 4: because it's obviously a platform, but you can choose that
14:58
Speaker 4: mainly Financial Advisor lad. We've all also got a Lifetime
15:00
Speaker 4: Innuity which is great for people in retirement they want
15:03
Speaker 4: to access more of their Social Security or sent ale
15:06
Speaker 4: ink entitlements because you get discounts on they think called
15:09
Speaker 4: the assets and the income test to get more age pensions.
15:12
Speaker 4: So that helps a lot of Australians and then you
15:14
Speaker 4: know you're not going to run out of money. But
15:15
Speaker 4: you also get investment choice with that product. You can
15:17
Speaker 4: choose your investment as well, so if you want to
15:20
Speaker 4: be with a black Rock or a Vanguard or a dimensional,
15:22
Speaker 4: you know we're investment agnostics, so you can choose your
15:24
Speaker 4: investment again, Advisor Lead. The next business that we have
15:28
Speaker 4: is called Lonzec. So Lonzek is a research and ratings business,
15:32
Speaker 4: So it's qualitative research of financial products and super funds.
15:36
Speaker 4: So effectively, for someone at home, they might have heard
15:40
Speaker 4: like the credit rating agencies like S and P or Moody's,
15:44
Speaker 4: this one is for financial products and it's the market
15:47
Speaker 4: leader in that space. Why is that important? Well, for
15:49
Speaker 4: financial advisors, they need to understand all the products out there,
15:53
Speaker 4: they need to understand the various risks. They've also got
15:56
Speaker 4: to give the client the right information when they're constructing
16:00
Speaker 4: statement of advice. So Lonsek is one of those gatekeepers
16:03
Speaker 4: to distribution because obviously their research is a very very
16:06
Speaker 4: important part of that will continue to broaden that business
16:09
Speaker 4: out to be able to help the wealth management industry
16:12
Speaker 4: to avoid some of the fraudulent activity we've seen from
16:15
Speaker 4: the likes of First guard In and Shield, etc. So
16:17
Speaker 4: we take that responsibility very seriously. The next business is
16:21
Speaker 4: called evidential managed accounts. Now managed accounts is are separately
16:25
Speaker 4: managed accounts. They're called financial advisors predominantly use these. They
16:29
Speaker 4: sit across all the platforms. What is it? It's another
16:33
Speaker 4: legal structure to invest through. Why is it good for
16:37
Speaker 4: a financial advisor? Creates a lot of efficiency within their business.
16:41
Speaker 4: Why is it good for a client. A client gets
16:43
Speaker 4: their own cost base. Now what does that mean in
16:45
Speaker 4: Layman's terms? It means you're not buying someone else's tax liability.
16:48
Speaker 4: So if you buy into a managed fund that's been
16:50
Speaker 4: running for a long time and it's been growing, it's
16:53
Speaker 4: got tax liabilities that sit in there. However, with a
16:55
Speaker 4: managed account, you could invest in the same asset class,
16:58
Speaker 4: but you have your own cost base, so you know
17:01
Speaker 4: you're starting basically from a zero tax position. And also
17:04
Speaker 4: there's a lot of efficiency inside the portfolio there because
17:07
Speaker 4: what the asset consultants do they put together the portfolios
17:11
Speaker 4: for a financial advice practice. They've got all the different
17:14
Speaker 4: strategies that sit there, so you can have high growth
17:16
Speaker 4: or you can be all the way down to defensive,
17:18
Speaker 4: and so you sort of choose your adventure depending on
17:21
Speaker 4: what your risk profile looks for that client. So we
17:23
Speaker 4: set those up for a lot of self licensed practices.
17:26
Speaker 4: We do it for dealer groups which have a lot
17:28
Speaker 4: of advice practices in there. Trying to keep it in
17:30
Speaker 4: Layman's terms. So and that business has grown a lot
17:33
Speaker 4: because it's been such an efficient structure for financial advisors
17:38
Speaker 4: and the outcomes that can deliver for clients are ultimately
17:40
Speaker 4: better and so we've seen that grow from probably a
17:43
Speaker 4: forty fifty billion dollar sector seven or eight years ago
17:46
Speaker 4: now to almost a three hundred billion dollar sector and
17:48
Speaker 4: financial services and set to double over the next five
17:51
Speaker 4: years as well. So that's our group. We've gone from
17:54
Speaker 4: when I first joined in twenty seventeen we managed to
17:57
Speaker 4: be exact six hundred ninety four million dollars getting close
18:00
Speaker 4: to forty billion dollars now. So yeah, we've had a
18:04
Speaker 4: huge amount of growth over that.
18:05
Speaker 2: Period, unbelievable.
18:06
Speaker 3: Here in Australia, we talk a lot about superannuation, we
18:09
Speaker 3: talk about retirement, but we sense that many people still
18:12
Speaker 3: feel unprepared for income later in life. So how do
18:16
Speaker 3: you see the future of wealth and retirement evolving over
18:20
Speaker 3: the coming years.
18:22
Speaker 4: There's no silver bullet on any of this. I think,
18:26
Speaker 4: you know, when someone goes into retirement, I kind of
18:28
Speaker 4: look at four parts of the puzzle for it. One is, okay,
18:31
Speaker 4: what is your superinnuation and obviously converting into an account
18:34
Speaker 4: based pension, Then what is your guaranteed piece of that?
18:38
Speaker 4: Are you going to purchase a lifetime annuity? And what
18:41
Speaker 4: risk profile can you have around that do you want
18:43
Speaker 4: to have that attached to a balance fund or do
18:45
Speaker 4: you want to be CPI linked. Like, there's a lot
18:47
Speaker 4: of different products depending on who you are and the
18:49
Speaker 4: balance that you have. You then want to look at
18:51
Speaker 4: age pension. Every Australian, you know, eighty five or eighty
18:54
Speaker 4: percent of Austlians who can access some of the age pensions.
18:56
Speaker 4: Some people can self ensure, you know that quite wealthy,
19:00
Speaker 4: but a lot of people can access some or all
19:02
Speaker 4: of the age pensions. So it's determining how much of
19:05
Speaker 4: that can I get my hands on. I've paid taxes
19:08
Speaker 4: for forty years, I want the government to give me
19:09
Speaker 4: something back. And then, of course, you know, the sort
19:12
Speaker 4: of last requirement around all of this is what am
19:15
Speaker 4: I doing with my non superassets? What sort of income
19:17
Speaker 4: do I need to produce with these sort of four
19:20
Speaker 4: parts of the puzzle to be able to efficiently spend
19:23
Speaker 4: my money through retirement. You know, I've got to make
19:25
Speaker 4: sure that everything transfers in the right way from an
19:27
Speaker 4: estate planning point of view. I've also got to do
19:30
Speaker 4: that tax effectively too when I transfer those assets. So
19:33
Speaker 4: there's a lot of considerations, and look, we're doing a
19:36
Speaker 4: lot of work around this, and I know the likes
19:38
Speaker 4: of Netwelson, some of the other big brands in Australia
19:41
Speaker 4: in financial services are trying to help solve this. And
19:44
Speaker 4: it's not one brand, it's a combination of all of
19:48
Speaker 4: these things. And it's having really sound financial advice that
19:51
Speaker 4: is going to remove what is the anxiety and stress
19:55
Speaker 4: of going into retirement because most people, if they've planned
19:58
Speaker 4: okay and they saved pretty well, they can have a
20:01
Speaker 4: fantastic retirement. What we're trying to do as service providers
20:05
Speaker 4: or product manufacturers, let's remove the stress. Great.
20:08
Speaker 2: At the end of all that podcast, we do the
20:10
Speaker 2: Flux five. It's five questions we ask every guest on
20:12
Speaker 2: the show and we get a whole range of weird
20:14
Speaker 2: and wacky answers. So just quick fire answers. Whatever you
20:17
Speaker 2: think the first.
20:18
Speaker 4: Quo comes to mind could be dangerous, let's do it.
20:22
Speaker 2: So, if you weren't leading generation development group and weren't
20:25
Speaker 2: a professional swimmer anymore, what's the job that you'd like
20:28
Speaker 2: to secretly and not too secretly try.
20:31
Speaker 4: I would love if I wasn't an athlete as a swim,
20:34
Speaker 4: which is I'd love to be a Formula one driver.
20:36
Speaker 4: I'm six with six and a hundred, so it's never
20:40
Speaker 4: going to happen, right, Like, I'm never going to be
20:41
Speaker 4: a jockey either, but that would be one of the
20:44
Speaker 4: coolest jobs on the planet. And I've always liked cars.
20:47
Speaker 4: That's always been my sort of thing, so I'd love
20:49
Speaker 4: to do that also, probably if I was thinking more
20:51
Speaker 4: corporate career. You know, I just admire some of the
20:54
Speaker 4: stuff that's been achieved in Silicon Valley, Like it would
20:56
Speaker 4: be really cool to develop one of those businesses and
20:59
Speaker 4: really watched, like the way the world transforms in terms
21:02
Speaker 4: of what you've done and how that impacts people's lives
21:05
Speaker 4: daily in a good way. Of course, we've also seen
21:07
Speaker 4: the negative effects of some of the social media side
21:10
Speaker 4: of things, but it'd be pretty cool to develop something
21:12
Speaker 4: that globally that could have a huge impact, you know,
21:15
Speaker 4: and do something that's pretty funky in Silicon Valley. So
21:18
Speaker 4: I'd I would have loved to have done something like
21:19
Speaker 4: that if I could have.
21:21
Speaker 3: Is there a leader that has inspired you most, either
21:24
Speaker 3: inside the business world or outside the business world.
21:27
Speaker 4: There's a few people. I often look at different characteristics
21:30
Speaker 4: of different leaders, and I'm not just saying this because
21:32
Speaker 4: he's my chairman and my boss. But Rob Coomb was
21:36
Speaker 4: one that I really admired very early on, even before
21:38
Speaker 4: I worked for him. I just found he was so
21:41
Speaker 4: performance orientated, but so values orientated as well. So and
21:45
Speaker 4: I always say to the team, let's win, but let's
21:48
Speaker 4: win the right way. Like in sport. You can win
21:50
Speaker 4: like Lance Armstrong and do the wrong thing and you
21:52
Speaker 4: can win, or you can you know, win like a
21:55
Speaker 4: good friend of mine Michael Phelps, and do all the
21:56
Speaker 4: right things and do all the preparation and execution. And
21:59
Speaker 4: I found, and you know, winning with your values intact
22:02
Speaker 4: is one of the most important things, and I really
22:03
Speaker 4: align with that on Rob. So he's definitely a leader
22:06
Speaker 4: that I admired in terms of other leaders that I
22:09
Speaker 4: always look at, like I quite like Jeff Bezos. I
22:12
Speaker 4: think I watch a lot of his interviews, and just
22:15
Speaker 4: the way he approaches things and problem solving I really
22:18
Speaker 4: admire and I can't help it, you know. And of
22:21
Speaker 4: course I'm sticking more in the business world because is
22:23
Speaker 4: where I stick now. But Elon Musk, like I know
22:25
Speaker 4: a lot of people don't like him and because he's
22:27
Speaker 4: a very outspoken individual, but I can't help admire his
22:32
Speaker 4: commitment towards all of his brands. How are you CEO
22:35
Speaker 4: from so many different companies and so successful? And some
22:39
Speaker 4: of the things that I've heard from people that are
22:41
Speaker 4: quite close to him in terms of the way he operates,
22:43
Speaker 4: like I just see this guy. His mind is completely
22:46
Speaker 4: filled with what's required in the execution. He just cuts
22:49
Speaker 4: out noise, cuts out rest red tape and gets the
22:52
Speaker 4: job done. And I have a lot of respect for
22:55
Speaker 4: someone that can that can do that and create what
22:57
Speaker 4: he has. So yeah, so, and in sport, I always
23:00
Speaker 4: loved when I was growing up, I loved I'd feel
23:02
Speaker 4: like Pat Rafter because he just had such a nice
23:05
Speaker 4: way about him, such a humbleness, And it's hard to
23:08
Speaker 4: not like Jordan. You know, I was a kid growing
23:10
Speaker 4: up in the nineties and just watching what he was doing.
23:12
Speaker 4: He was like so dominant, and you know that at
23:15
Speaker 4: a personal leadership level, like he probably wasn't the ultimate
23:18
Speaker 4: team guy. You know he's going to be a team
23:21
Speaker 4: captain because he was very focused on his own career,
23:24
Speaker 4: but you know, in terms of his own personal leadership,
23:26
Speaker 4: dedication and ability to perform under pressure consistently, it was
23:31
Speaker 4: phenomenal and Grein.
23:33
Speaker 2: Is there a failure or setback personally or professionally that
23:36
Speaker 2: you look back on now and you're like, that was
23:37
Speaker 2: actually a really big turning point for my career.
23:40
Speaker 4: It's really funny, and this is quite personal. You know,
23:43
Speaker 4: I went through a very public divorce just given the
23:45
Speaker 4: nature of my sporting career, and that was extremely difficult
23:49
Speaker 4: because there is so many so much speculation and innuendo
23:53
Speaker 4: and lies and other things that you can't control. Right
23:55
Speaker 4: It's like a rumor that goes around about you that
23:57
Speaker 4: you go, how did that start? But you don't have
24:00
Speaker 4: control of it. But it put me in such a
24:04
Speaker 4: difficult position in terms of my mental health that I
24:06
Speaker 4: think I went out there and I did a lot
24:08
Speaker 4: of work on myself and I would have never done
24:11
Speaker 4: that work and really understood myself. What drove me? You know,
24:15
Speaker 4: I missed my kids. I had two children that were
24:17
Speaker 4: impacted by that situation, and so that was really really difficult,
24:21
Speaker 4: and I think it was the first time that I
24:23
Speaker 4: actually appreciated mental health. Like in my twenties, it was
24:26
Speaker 4: all easy, you know, I was thinking sponsorship, I was winning,
24:28
Speaker 4: and life was good. And then you go through that
24:31
Speaker 4: difficult patch and I never want to go through it again.
24:34
Speaker 4: But I learned more about myself and who I am
24:37
Speaker 4: and what makes me tick and what is important to me,
24:39
Speaker 4: and then did the work around that as well. So
24:42
Speaker 4: I think for me, I wouldn't change it for the
24:44
Speaker 4: world now, even though it was so tough, I think
24:46
Speaker 4: it's made me a better leader, a better father, a
24:48
Speaker 4: better partner. And yeah, I think it just created such
24:51
Speaker 4: a strong sense of humility. I'm not a person who
24:54
Speaker 4: gets to you know, you heard the results of our business,
24:56
Speaker 4: like it'll go up, it'll go down, but it'll hopefully
24:59
Speaker 4: consistently go on the right direction. But I never get
25:01
Speaker 4: carried away like downtimes. I'm like them their moments, good times,
25:05
Speaker 4: their moments as well. So you know, I sail in
25:08
Speaker 4: the middle quite a bit now, and I think it's
25:09
Speaker 4: due to a lot of that experience.
25:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for sharing that and slight change of paces.
25:15
Speaker 4: Is there one.
25:16
Speaker 3: Daily habit or ritual that really sets you up for
25:18
Speaker 3: the day ahead.
25:20
Speaker 4: It's funny, like I do like to work out, so
25:23
Speaker 4: there's that simming. No, I'll probably do swimming again one day.
25:28
Speaker 4: It's just it's time consuming. So for me, I've got
25:30
Speaker 4: a gym at home, so definitely, you know, work out
25:32
Speaker 4: or go for a run or something like that. So
25:34
Speaker 4: I find if I do that, I do the cold
25:37
Speaker 4: shower afterwards. So that's probably part of my daily habit.
25:40
Speaker 4: But the one thing that I do love that actually
25:43
Speaker 4: sets me up in a really good mindset, Like all
25:45
Speaker 4: of those things are sort of physical mental things for myself.
25:47
Speaker 4: But I always try to breakfast with my kids and
25:50
Speaker 4: I always feel good afterwards, and I can see they
25:52
Speaker 4: feel good, you know, and everyone's starting on their day.
25:55
Speaker 4: So I think that collective energy sitting around the breakfast
25:57
Speaker 4: table is really important because I work quite like my
26:00
Speaker 4: youngest is too, so she's in bed by the time
26:02
Speaker 4: age home, and the next one is sick so he's
26:04
Speaker 4: in bed pretty early as well. So for me, that
26:06
Speaker 4: time is really really important, and I find I just
26:09
Speaker 4: I'm happy when I leave the house. Nice.
26:11
Speaker 2: Great last question for you, Yeah, what is the best
26:14
Speaker 2: investment you've ever made? And I know your head probably
26:16
Speaker 2: goes all the way to financial side. This could be money,
26:18
Speaker 2: it could be time, could be energy.
26:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's financially. You know, there's there's several different
26:25
Speaker 4: things that have worked out well, you know, even the
26:27
Speaker 4: business I'm in now. For investors, we've probably done fifteen
26:30
Speaker 4: twenty times their money with us. So those sorts of
26:33
Speaker 4: things are great. But in terms of I think just
26:35
Speaker 4: investing in myself for my own time and learning, I
26:39
Speaker 4: think that for me is really really important, and actually
26:42
Speaker 4: investing in other people. So I you know, I've always
26:45
Speaker 4: found myself in a leadership position, you know, whether it
26:48
Speaker 4: was on the sport or in business, and I think
26:50
Speaker 4: it's because I genuinely care about people see doing well.
26:53
Speaker 4: And I love to see people do better than what
26:55
Speaker 4: they think they could, like, achieve more than what they've
26:57
Speaker 4: ever imagined in their role or what they're you know, doing,
27:00
Speaker 4: and I love to support that. So for me, investing
27:03
Speaker 4: time in people because funnily enough, people come they could think,
27:06
Speaker 4: oh that's a lot of energy from you put into
27:08
Speaker 4: someone else, It comes back tenfold from your team and
27:10
Speaker 4: it actually drives you to be better. So yeah, investing
27:13
Speaker 4: in yourself to continue to grow, like, got to be curious,
27:16
Speaker 4: You've got to always I'm always looking at things to
27:19
Speaker 4: try and improve as well, and I think that that
27:21
Speaker 4: energy is very secular.
27:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, last one, I know, I promised that was the
27:27
Speaker 2: last one to a book, podcast, or anything TV show
27:31
Speaker 2: that you're particularly loving at the moment.
27:33
Speaker 4: Oh jeez, people prove get a bit of a surprise.
27:36
Speaker 4: I loved The Last Stranger Things. That was awesome, So
27:38
Speaker 4: I really enjoyed that. In terms of books, the three
27:43
Speaker 4: I would have beside my bed, I reread Good to
27:46
Speaker 4: Great quite a bit because I always love the metrics
27:49
Speaker 4: and there, and it just reminds me of things we
27:51
Speaker 4: should be trying to achieve in our business. So I
27:53
Speaker 4: really enjoy that Jim Collins book I've actually just read.
27:56
Speaker 4: I've read the Diary of the CEO. You can see
27:58
Speaker 4: I'm very focused on business, and the one I haven't
28:00
Speaker 4: started yet that I want to is Atomic Habits. So
28:03
Speaker 4: they are the three books that have sitting on my
28:05
Speaker 4: bedside table. And I've also got another one in my
28:08
Speaker 4: study that I've got to remove once i've which I've
28:11
Speaker 4: just completed the Diary of the CEO. And then I
28:14
Speaker 4: also podcasts. I listened to his podcast quite a bit
28:16
Speaker 4: because he's got quite a diverse set of people that
28:20
Speaker 4: he brings on there, and he's really good at drawing
28:22
Speaker 4: out some interesting information, you know, even just find I
28:26
Speaker 4: listened to a lot of the financial one oh one
28:28
Speaker 4: stuff on there, because I find we get so stuck
28:31
Speaker 4: in the world of finance, of our jargon and the
28:33
Speaker 4: what we do when I consciously listen to people that
28:37
Speaker 4: are giving one O one finance tips, because it's like, Okay,
28:39
Speaker 4: We've got to get back to communicating like that. Let's
28:42
Speaker 4: not be this sterile, boring financial firm. Let's be warm,
28:45
Speaker 4: Let's be engaging. Let's communicate the way people want to
28:48
Speaker 4: receive it, not the way we think it should be.
28:50
Speaker 2: Awesome, great, Hagett, Thanks so much for joining us on
28:52
Speaker 2: What the Fluxing Conversation. Looking forward to chatting in years
28:55
Speaker 2: time and seeing the business continue to grow.
28:57
Speaker 4: I appreciate your time. Thanks for having me on.
28:59
Speaker 2: Cheers Sam. We hope you enjoyed our in conversation episode
29:02
Speaker 2: with Grant Hacket. On Friday, we'll be continuing our deep
29:05
Speaker 2: Dive series looking at the decline of Australian retail over
29:09
Speaker 2: the past decade, as well as what this means for
29:11
Speaker 2: Australian retail into the future. Thanks for listening and we'll
29:13
Speaker 2: see you on Friday.