[Podcast] Brad Smith – Founder of Braap Motorcycles

In this episode I talk to Brad Smith – founder of Braap motorcycles.

Braap – that has to be the best use of onomatopoeia in a brand name I’ve heard.

Brad founded BRAAP at the age of 19 by traveling to China to find a manufacturer for his idea of a simple customisable design.
He visited 50 factories hunting for one that would bet on his vision. As luck would have it the 50^th factory agreed and with investments from two Frenchmen he met earlier in the week while traveling, the journey began.
He’s now competing with Yamaha and Honda as a reputable bike company in Australia, fulfilling his dream of providing affordable dirt bikes to get more people into racing and more riders on bikes in general.

Here are a few things brad and I talked about.

Routines and rituals.

Having a Monday sales call has been crucial in measuring and driving growth at Braap. Much like a stand up, Brad runs his meetings in rapid fire – reviewing metrics fro mthe previous day, goals for the day ahead and what they will work on improving that day.  They’re hiring a specialist to get structure into their meetings and to get them outcome focused.

BHAG and story vs. hard metrics

Brad is a big believer in BGAHs but also urges everyone to focus ultimately on the next 90 days and what they can do to improve. It’s a step from following his dream and building a business around his passion for motorbikes – into a profitable business that’s thriving.

We talk about his parents and the standards that they set and also how he holds himself accountable through a core group of focused friends. He also talked of his advisory team in Texas. Much like a Mastermind – Keith Cunningham runs their 10 member chairman’s council for a week each quarter – and it’s brutal.

Numbers on the wall. Forget the story – focus on the outcomes and results.

Of course it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t talk digital!

Brad talks a little about how they measure results from social media to sales. Leads are collected through a social sales teams – piped warm into his CRM. We wrap it up with an understand if the power of both a good story and some opinion beating data.

I hope you enjoy it and I hope I get a chance to bring you more interviews in the future.