We had a great turn out for the very first Stage by Stage Show Live with guests; Gordon Noble, Rory Kennedy, Alistair Fisher and Adam Hall. 

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Introduction

International Rally Co-drivers Rory Kennedy, Gordon Noble and I share some advice, tips and strategies gained over 40 years of competing on well over 1,000 car rallies between us.
We came up with 16 detailed actions, which if followed could make big improvements not only in your rallying, but a lot of them are equally relevant in other sports, business and life in general.

Rory Kennedy

Rory is from Letterkenny in Donegal, seen by many as the mecca of Irish rallying. He started out at the same time as me in 1979. We met very shortly after that and have been great friends ever since. Rory worked his way up the co-driving ladder to become Irish hero Bertie Fisher’s full-time co-driver in 1990.
Together they won 4 Irish Tarmac Rally Championships, with 19 major international wins along the way, in a partnership that lasted 15 years.
He then spent two years competing regularly alongside Alistair Ginley in the World Rally Championship with some top ten finishes.
Next up, he became a double British Rally Champion with Mark Higgins to close of the first part of his career.
The second part is ongoing, where he regularly competes with Garry Jennings, the highlight of which was a win on his home event, the Donegal International Rally.

Gordon Noble

Gordon is from Omagh in Northern Ireland, and over the years has co-driven
Kris Meeke, Niall McShea, Alistair McRae, Mark Fisher, Rory Galligan, Trevor Cathers, Garry Jennings, Rory Kennedy (yip – you heard me right) and more recently Alister Fisher to name a few.
Like Rory, he’s had great success all over the world right up to World Championship level.
He was a factory co-driver for the Peugeot team in the British Rally Championship and with Trevor Cathers won the Group N title in both the British Rally Championship and the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship for two consecutive years – the double double.
His skills transferred easily to the rally organisers role and he was the Clerk of the Course for Ireland’s round of the World Rally Championship as well as Northern Ireland’s round of the European Rally Championship.
You can see now the wealth of experience these top men have and why I was really looking forward to getting them to share their secrets for success.

Learning notes

Between the three of us, we came up with 16 key learning points and suggested actions. If you’re serious about upping your game, do something, do anything no matter how small to start the momentum. Remember you won’t get fitter by just looking at your bicycle…

Here are Rory’s suggestions: –  

1. Do as many rallies as possible with a variety of drivers, the goal being to get selected for a driver or co-driver academy. That experience will help give you confidence. Talk to the organisers of all rally academies or award schemes to fully understand what skills, knowledge and attitude you need to win. Ask previous winners what they think made them stand out.

2. Do all you can to meticulously prepare for rallies, with the attitude of being at least as good as everyone else if not the best.

3. “feed confidence into your driver (or co-driver)” Help them with their self-belief

4. Rory described how his experience in running marathons showed him that the body is stronger than the mind at times. Don’t allow that inner voice to hold you back.

5. Remember how important all team members are, and that everyone should be aiming for the same goal. Rory told us how his incredible success with Bertie Fisher was down to meticulous organisation, having the best resources possible, including your tyre partner, gravel crew, etc… Aim to partner with the best driver or co-driver in the best car, run by the best team that you can realistically afford.

6. Remember what Rory said about the detailed study of pre-event paperwork, including regulations, maps and roadbooks. Looking for anomalies will force you to pay attention. Remember to respect all rally organisers when asking your questions.

Gordy’s top tips included: –

7. Collaborating with another co-driver to carefully look at all details. This is particularly useful in drawing up an efficient recce schedule.

8. Communicate clearly with everyone in the team, the co-driver is the link.

9. Make sure you, your driver and team have shared ambitions and goals.

10. Think outside the box. Gordy gave great examples of Mark Fisher pioneering the use of a primitive in-car camera and recorder, as well as creative interpretation of the rules to not only gain an edge, but to psychologically get one up on your competitors, even before the rally starts.

11. Gordy also mentioned the accumulation of marginal gains which has been associated with the huge improvements in British Cycling. Small gains tally up to a sizeable advantage.

12. A final tip form Gordy is to think ahead about all potential scenarios. His experience as an acclaimed and respected World Rally Clerk of the Course, is a great asset in that area. He started out marshalling for his local motor club. Never underestimate the learning from that and you’ll be doing your bit to contribute to the sport along the way.

Trevor’s learning

13. My key learning from this episode, is to recognise that your biggest competitor is not the car in front or behind you, it is in fact the one inside your head. The one who chips away at your self-confidence or makes you panic when things go wrong.

14. A simple equation I learnt from The Inner Game of Tennis by Tim Gallwey covers this: – Performance is your potential – any interference. Understand where that interference is coming from and learn how to quieten the mind

The goal is to be in the zone where everything is effortless. The only way you’ll arrive there is to get into a state of relaxed concentration. Trying hard does not help.
I‘ll be covering that in future podcasts and blog posts. Be sure to keep an eye on stagebystage.com/blog

15. I also highly recommend all co-drivers learn the fundamentals of coaching if you truly want to help your driver perform to the best of his potential. I suggest you buy the coaching bible; Coaching for Performance by Sir John Whitmore.

16. My last tip is to stretch yourself by tracking down and asking the very best people for advice. Accept it as a challenge, you might feel nervous, but this will massively help your self-confidence. Make sure you do what they tell you and report back on your progress regularly. They may even become your mentor. This will transform your career.

I hope that has been useful. Thanks to Rory and Gordy for all their input and to you for listening.
Remember to subscribe to the show which means you will automatically receive the next episode.
If you could take a minute to write a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in me being able help as many people as possible.
Sharing the show’s details on social media is also a great help.
If you’d like to get in touch, our email is info@stagebystage.com
Follow Trevor and Stage by Stage on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/taagnew (@taagnew)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tagnew01 (tagnew01)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stagebystagefb
That’s all for now, until next time, stay safe and take care.

Introducing The Stage by Stage Way (#1)

 

Intro

 

It’s essentially a chat show with my guests being a mix of successful and high performing people.

 

I’ve always been fascinated by high achievers and what makes them so successful. I’ve spent an enormous amount of time over the years, researching and talking to such people, in order to improve my life in some way. This is a continuation of that journey. If that sounds interesting to you, I’d love you to come along for the ride

 

With a focus on what makes a winning mindset, my goal is to get my guests to share any advice, strategies, tips etc… which we can all then use to improve our lives.

 

Just to let you know, the first few episodes will be quite niche, where I’ll chat to people who have been very successful at the highest level in the sport of rallying. They are also very good friends of mine and the perfect guinea pigs for me to practice my new podcasting skills on.

 

In time, I want to cover a broader spectrum of success, by inviting guests from other sports, business and community life.

 

All new

 

So why a podcast?

 

Well, I’ve always been a big fan of them, the first one I ever listened to was The Ricky Gervais Show and that was over 15 years ago. I regularly listen to about a dozen, across different genres, so it’s very exciting to be able to launch my own show

 

It’s a whole new experience for me and it feels very odd at this point. It’s definitely a stretch for me – I’m well out of my comfort zone because as well as this podcast, I’ve also set up a Stage by Stage YouTube channel, where at times, I’ll be talking into a camera on my own, so there’s a lot of learning for me and some serious trepidation

 

With that in mind, in time, I’ll probably listen back to the first few episodes and ask myself what the hell was I thinking? How naïve was I…???? But I’m fine with that. You see, I want to do the best job I can, but I’m not searching for perfection. That usually leads to procrastination, I’d rather take action.

 

Good enough is fine to start with. I’ll hopefully improve as I go. I clearly feel that my guests and I have got something interesting to say and I hope you do too, and that you come back for more and tell your friends to do the same.

 

Either way, I have decided to produce half a dozen episodes and if you tell me you like them, I’ll be very happy to do some more.

 

The worst-case scenario will be that you think they’re rubbish. I will of course be pissed off at the time, but at least I’ll know I have given it my best shot and will have no regrets about trying. Another box ticked.

 

About me

 

So, let me tell you a bit more about myself and Stage by Stage. At the end of 2005, I decided to finish my career as a Professional Rally Co-driver. I started aged 14 way back in 1979 in Northern Ireland. During the last 9 years as a co-driver, I got very well paid to do my hobby and travel the world. I met some fantastic people, some of whom are still my best mates. It was an incredible time.

 

In the end, I felt I’d achieved all I could, and decided to try something else. It was tough working out what to do, I mean how do you? But in the end, I felt I would get the most enjoyment by taking the coaching skills I had used and developed with rally drivers and apply them to business

 

Since then, I have been teaching thousands of people how to maximise their potential and understand what it takes to perform to World Champion winning standards.

 

The vast majority of my work has been in the automotive industry, with Porsche GB and Audi UK being my biggest clients.

 

About Stage by Stage

 

Stage by Stage is also the name of my performance coaching business, and the name alludes to my previous life as a Rally Co-driver.

 

A World Championship Rally is made up of competitive sections called Special Stages. So, you start an event and work your way to the finish – Stage by Stage. The same method is good practice in achieving your goals. Have a target, add some milestones and then you achieve your goal.

 

I have to give credit to a good friend Gary Savage who suggested the name about 20 years ago. I only got around to using it in 2015 for a rally coaching blog. Later that year I set up a new performance coaching company and called it Stage by Stage

 

Stage by Stage mission

 

Over the last few weeks, I have been doing a lot of thinking of what I want to achieve over the next 5 years. Ultimately, I want Stage by Stage to be a medium, where people can share their success stories, in order to motivate others to take action on their dreams and goals. That could be a Facebook Group, or a community hosted on our website

 

The icing on the cake would be, for someone to take the learning from one of our shows, do something with it, prove it had improved their life in some small way, and then share your story. That would make me very happy.

 

Process

 My plan is to release a new show every 2 weeks around Friday lunchtime in the UK. Once I’m able to gauge the workload better I’d like to be able to have a weekly show.

 

I also want to document my journey especially my learning. For example, how easy it is to start a podcast. How easy is it for a 56-year-old to learn new social media skills in order to promote a brand? That learning may be useful to some of your as well.

 

Finally

 I hope this has encouraged you to listen to the first show. If that’s the case and you find it helpful, make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss any future episodes.

 

If you could take a minute to write a review, that would be much appreciated since it will help me reach out to even more people. Sharing the details on social media is also a great help.

 

Stay up to date by regularly checking out my blog at https://www.stagebystage.com/blog

 

If you’d like to get in touch, our email is info@stagebystage.com

 

Follow Trevor and Stage by Stage on:

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/taagnew (@taagnew)

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tagnew01 (tagnew01)

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stagebystagefb

 

That’s all for now, until next time, stay safe and take care.