Hello and welcome to B W B Extra where we get to know c e o and founder of Axiom Robert Wesson.
A little better.
We hear how Robert went from backpacking in Australia to stockbroking in London, how his life was massively shaped by living through the tsunami and losing his dad both at the same time, as well as talking about future plans for Axiom breaking into North America.
Let's sort of wind the clock back a bit and we left you, I think having done two years in Thailand, moved to Australia, got a sort of first job in banking.
How come you're back here doing what you're doing?
How did we get from there?
Dear you?
Well, do you want the real story or do you want the Yes.
Yeah, definitely involves a woman, a gun, and a dog.
No involve.
So in the old days, this has now changed, thankfully.
So in the old days in Australia when you're under 30, you got a holiday visa or a working holiday visa for one year.
Fine.
You could only work for one company for three months.
If you wanted to have your second year visa, you had to go and do three months worth of fruit picking or like, you know, non sort of office based roles in cities.
So, very long story short, tried it a few times, varying different degrees of success.
Um, it was pretty hideous actually.
My experience was, was pretty poor, you know, involving sort of, Hey, it's very hard.
Yeah, I mean, just to give you a flavor, so I was out in the middle of, in Mildura, which is sort of in between Adelaide and, and Melbourne, sort of outback.
It was 55 degrees, you know, the sort of the locals were was and the farmers were nicking you lunch.
There was no water.
You were sort of bust from this hideous sort of hostel.
Uh, into the middle of nowhere.
And basically I had to stand behind a tractor that was unraveling tar paulin from the year before that had been stuck in a, in a barn with sort of snakes and rats and stagnant water and all sorts.
And you had to, every meter is all day, so you get to sort of step sideways, every meter, wrap a sort of 50 cents coin to your thumb and pull the tar paulin over the vines and stick a nail in it to sort of protect it from the sun.
But you're doing this all day for no money.
And it was, and it was terr, terr.
And then in the evenings they had a big problem with ab aboriginals and.
There's lots of racism and it was pretty hideous really.
And anyway, so I met this farmer and he said, oh look, pay me $500 and I'll just sign your paperwork for you.
So quite a lot of people did it.
And, and I, uh, I followed suit and then, you know, anyway, I got a phone call from the farmer a few, a few months later saying, oh, by the way, mate, I've been investigated, you know, I've been busted, expected a phone call from, so are you?
Yeah, basically.
So I dunno if there's any, uh, double, you know, I don't get in trouble for this, but, uh, anyway, so I, I had a girlfriend.
Stock sheet of limitations has probably gone by now.
So I, I'd applied for my second year visa.
I had a girlfriend.
I was working for a stockbrokers in Sydney, or God, what a switch.
Stockbrokers to that.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I went back to art.
So they got re-employed by the same business, but for in a different role.
And, um, anyway, so I was, you have your sort of Visa portal on the, on the website and you sort of, you wait for it to sort of tick through.
It's like an Amazon sort of delivery thing.
Yeah, and I got this phone call, so I said to my girlfriend, I'm really sorry, you know, that's it, you know, I'm off type of thing.
So actually applied for my New Zealand visa.
My brother was living in New Zealand, so I got my New Zealand visa and I planned and booked a fly and was gonna.
Leave my girlfriend, go to New Zealand, you know, thanks a lot.
And then over the Christmas period, I was in my office and I was talking to some bloke that was just starting his visa application.
I said, look, I'll show you the, the platform I logged online.
And it said, approved.
I said, oh wow.
So apparently I've, I've got my Visa, I'm not going anywhere.
But I was told that cause it was a Christmas period and they have various quotas.
So per week you have, you know, people from the, in the back, you know, hostels.
You meet people that worked in the department up in Queensland or whatever.
And this could be all complete bullshit, but this is what the rumor on the street was, let's say.
And then they have certain round of quotas you have to investigate, you have to push through, whatever, whatever.
And we think because of the time of year, I think it was just luck and they just went off.
You know, you are in the bucket of get on with it.
So anyway.
Anyway, so I, I ended up staying.
And then I worked, uh, in banking and it was June, 2008, so the market crashed.
My plan was to stay, get a Visa sponsorship, you know, get sponsored.
And I was working for a firm and they said, right, you know, you have to, we can't sponsor you anymore because the, the, the market's crashing and all the Australians are coming home.
So the government stopped non-essential visas.
So they said, go back to London and six months time we'll send you back to Sydney.
You know, no problems.
Left kicking and screaming.
Absolutely loved Australia.
You know, loved everything about it at the time.
If you'd just said to me then that you never would, you hadn't have been back in the last sort of 12, 15 years, I would've said, you're crazy.
Six months came, came round, and then my boss said, you wanna go back to Sydney?
And I said, no thanks.
I, I quite like London and quite like living in, in Europe again.
And that was 15 years ago.
Can you see a long-term goal now?
Can you see, you know, or you know, do you have a, a, a sort of something you really want to achieve or, I think I've come to the, to sort of a realization that if you're lucky enough to be
able to give your trip, your kids the gift of travel and, and the gift of sort of freedom of movement to a degree or as much as you're allowed to, then I would love to work to a point where I'm.
Giving my family the opportunity to discover the world, see the world have opportunity.
So the kids will have, or, or the older two do have dual citizenship.
Sammy will have dual citizenship.
You know, travel is, my kids might turn around and go, dad, we hate it.
We wanna stay an eing.
But that's up to them.
You know, I, I, I'm, I'm pretty, pretty pro shit can happen.
Shit can happen too.
It could be handy, you know?
No, no, exactly.
And I, and I think yeah, you're giving them the tools to do whatever they found.
Yeah.
Get the hell out of England.
Leave us alone.
Well, I mean, we, we, yeah, tra travel's important and, um, being able to sort of have a life where I.
Travel is part of that, I think is, is great.
What's the, uh, biggest problem facing your business?
Well, the biggest problems, uh, my business I think is we're being spread too thin.
You know, we've built a, a, an excellent team of, we, we have a frictionless workforce because we rely very heavily on our regulated partners for a lot of the, the sections of the business that require compliance, you know, it, whatever.
So the idea of our business is we wanted to have a streamlined, And, and minimal headcount.
So yeah, being, being spread too thinly and, and not being able to sort of replace with, with high level talent is probably a pretty common problem.
Pretty common problem.
To be fair, it's part of growth too, cuz you can't, if you hire loaded people, you don't have the work, then they're inefficient and they don't have anything to do.
I wouldn.
Yeah.
I I would rather, I would rather not do that.
And we are in the most currently hopefully hiring one or two, you know, very senior, um, people within Union Canada.
Well, what do you think the problem.
The problem all with getting high level kind of people.
We've, the business has been merged for three years, but I've been doing this pushing 20, or certainly sort of 15, 20, you know, so the network has existed long before Axiom has been around and, and I think that we've been very successful.
We've obviously hit a bit of a niche.
We're growing very quickly with scaling it through JVs, et cetera.
So for us, it may be more that people look at you and go, well, you know, is this, are they the real deal?
Do you know what I mean?
It just starts up.
Yeah.
And that's where I think, you know, maybe that, and again, that's where from a, from a, a sales perspective being introduced to our clients is the key.
Because we are introduced by people like Andy, by the British government, by the trusted the trust introduction, these guys, it works like, yeah, it, it does.
I'm not joshing you kind of thing.
Yeah.
Regularly.
I'm having to sit there.
Yeah.
And yeah, it's exactly right cuz the positioning of an accountant or lawyer, it's, I, because I have to say things like, Shares.
Yeah.
Do you know what I mean?
I'm not getting commit, I'm just telling you It's okay.
You know, and they're still, they're still nervous about it.
It's almost like you need to get, you know, you must have to repeat yourself all day.
It's almost like we need to get Warren Buffet to make a video or something.
Well, not, yeah.
But I think once people understand around the sort of the, the, the, the reg, you know, I always say that, Once people get their head around the fact that their T's and C's are with the regulated entity and their funds are safeguarded by Barclay's, everyone's much happier with Axiom's involvement.
Axiom's involvement is the conjugate between the client and the regulated partner.
We are here to sort of foster that relationship and, and put time and effort into it that the bank doesn't do.
What are you most excited about for your business growth of North America?
JVs, you know, really taking this to sort of, you know, we have some pretty large corporate as clients, but again, I mean, I, I think we're building that credibility
that we are sitting at a, a bigger table now and, and being able to genuinely look people in the eyes and say this work, we will add value to your business.
It's up to you whether you want to do it or not, that's fine.
But, you know, I'm very excited about really taking this product and pioneering the product range to the larger corporates and saying, this is helpful to your business.
And now a quick word from our sponsor, business Without Bullshit is brought to you by Ari Clark, straight Talking Financial and legal advice since 1935.
You can find us@ariclark.com.
What's your, um, biggest fuck up?
If you reshape the question a little bit, you know, what, what has been a fuck up in your life and, and therefore what have you learned from it then?
I mean, I was in the tsunami in 2004.
That's why I ended up in, I was only meant to be in Thailand for one year.
I ended up staying for two years because I was working at a school and, and helped rebuild the community and getting kids back in the water as a swimming coach, et cetera.
And then my dad passed away.
What was his name?
His name was William.
Big up.
William.
Yeah.
And he, uh, he died of a heart attack in the gym, changing room.
You know, and I think what I learned from all from those things was that life, life does change very, very quickly, very quickly, you know, for, for the tsunami, uh, uh, life change, because this great big wave came that no one knew was coming, and then my mobile phone rang.
My little brother rang me from university and, and he said, you know, dad's dead.
You know, and you, when you hear those, that phrase on your mobile phone, your life changes forever is I think I was 21 or 22 or whatever I was.
And I think understanding, or at least me trying to understand, you know, I said life changes quite quickly, but, you know, and I think the positives that came from it
was how you, how I then shaped, hopefully shaped some direction in my life because of the experiences that I've had, which are pretty heavy experiences to have under 23.
You know, the tsunami was, if the tsunami hadn't happened, I don't think I'd be sitting here.
And I think if my dad hadn't died, I don't, I don't think I would've Well you wouldn't be sitting here.
No, I don't think something, my life would've gone on a very different path.
I mean, I wanted to be a bar owner in Thailand and, and do sports journalism, you know, genuinely.
And the tsunami changed.
Yeah, the tsunami I changed cause I, I stayed in two years in, in Thailand instead.
And you know, I think your understanding of just everything from religion to sort of how people dealt with, with trauma Yeah.
How, you know, how grief really affect guilt.
I mean, guilt was horrendous for, for many years.
You know, ultimately, you know, I was an 18 year old bloke living on the beach that was getting drunk most nights.
And, and I, you know, happened to, to, to, to fly to Coasta movie the day before the tsunami happened.
And, you know, I missed it.
You know, basically I lived in p I lived in baton, I had a flat in baton.
Ah, okay.
So you happened to be go leave the area.
Yeah.
Me and my friends, we, we, we basically decided to go, we were in the pub and we decided we won't have Christmas in Pouquette cause we live in Pettet.
We'll go to KOMO instead in komo.
Yeah.
Cause it was Boxing Day, wasn't it?
Boxing Day I was in, my ex-girlfriend rang me on the beach and she said, you know, I said, happy, happy birthday.
Oh, happy Christmas.
And she said, where are, she?
Said, I'm on the beach.
She said, what are you doing on the beach?
Get, and I had no idea what she was talking about.
And we went out and we saw it on the tv and we were like, oh my God.
Actually we were the first people to fly back into puke.
We actually were allowed to fly back in that night.
The guilt because your friends were there, or, well, Gil, guilt, because I think you realized that, you know, there.
But for the grace of God, I mean, it's just like, yeah, I mean, I, my, my relationship with spiritualism, my relationship with sort of, you know, trying to think, is there, you know, I was from a little village in Kent
that like playing cricket and, and having the occasional pint, you know, Being in the tsunami and being in, you know, he's like waking up in, you know, in a war torn country, you know, there was dead bodies everywhere.
There was devastation everywhere.
You know, kids that I taught that were four and five had died.
You know, we had children that were at the school that'd lost everyone.
Parents, sisters were orphaned, you know, and then I was sitting, hanging, well, hang on, you know, why was I as an 18 year old?
You know, essentially span this, like, you know.
Yeah, absolutely.
And again, you know, that seriously shaped, you know, my thinking on life and understanding of life and what I kind of, you know, those, those experiences were pretty, you know, pretty full off.
I think.
I think what, um, you can take from that, and I, I would say, say to anyone going, because everyone goes through shit is life.
We're all gonna die.
It's tough, you know, my dad brought me up that life is tough and, um, I think the thing is these things happen.
And just, you know, good and bad things will come out of it, you know?
Yeah.
It's, it's not, it's not like a bad thing's happen and everything's bad from there.
You know?
It, it, it, it's like losing someone If a lot of people love that person, everyone who loves them, they don't remember the bad bits.
They remember the good bits.
Yeah.
And they changed themselves and said, I'm gonna be a better human, you know?
Yeah.
And I remember the brothers at the time, I'm one of three boys, and, and we said, look, everyone goes through this at different stages of their lives, you know, every, every single person, you know, goes through this.
At a different stage.
Yeah.
Grief is very personal.
So we sort of said, look, as long as you're not being a massive dickhead, you know, grief is personal, so you're allowed to grieve in however way and we'll support you.
We won't, it's very difficult when people say, oh, you know, you should do this, and I did that.
And it's like, yeah, that's fine.
Thanks for the advice.
But, you know, he's quite personal, isn't it?
And, and you know, I think just being allowed to, to, to be yourself in those situations, but as you say to to know that, you know, life does carry on and.
What's your passion outside of business?
You said clearly sport of some of, yeah.
Well, I mean family.
I, I'm a, I I do love the boys and, and my wife, but uh, yeah, travel and sport.
So it's travel sport, then the family.
Yeah.
Solo traveling's.
Much better.
You are one of three boys and now you've got three boys.
Yeah, so I'm a very proud stepfather to the older two.
Ollie's nine, Archie's six, and, and Sammy is, uh, just over two.
But uh, but yeah, we are three boys, so yeah.
Fab, sport, travel, eating.
Being with friends.
Yeah.
What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
Well, there's a slightly rude one that my old man used to say, but, um, oh wait.
We do rude.
If you don't mind.
Rude.
Well, it's more just, you know, mind your Ps and Qs.
You never know who you're talking to, you know, have your shirt tucked in.
Just don't be a dickhead basically, you know?
And, uh, you know, I think that's, that's pretty solid in, in various forms.
Try and be the best version of yourself.
What advice would you give your younger self fly to Koosa me Christmas Eve?
Don't be a Crystal Palace fan.
No.
Um, are they doing badly?
Well, we're always doing some form of badly, but that's not the point.
Yeah.
I think just don't panic.
You know, I think, you know, you were talking about advice a minute ago.
You know, I think a lot of people do talk about being patient, especially in business and, and I think your twenties.
I had a great time, my twenties.
Traveled loads, drank loaves, loads of friends, you know, fantastic life.
But you know, it, it was probably a bit full on in, in stages.
And I think maybe just, just, just be patient, you know, life grows, life evolves.
Don't panic.
Calm down, keep tracking along.
Do the right things, right, you know, things fall into place.
And, uh, finally, is there anything you'd recommend anyone to listen to watch, uh, gut Health Podcasts?
Yeah.
Okay.
Is that your thing?
Yeah, I think, I think Gut Health's pretty, I think we're just starting to sort of go down a pretty interesting rabbit hole as a society on understanding gut health.
And I.
Yeah, I think it's pretty interesting.
Well, we, we, we are discovering all sorts of things like serotonins made in the gut, you know?
Well, absolutely.
Yeah.
And eczema.
My, my son Sammy has eczema and, and you know, we started giving him probiotics and stuff and I think that's made a difference.
And, you know, the gut is, I think we're starting to understand that the gut is a pretty serious.
Pretty serious bit of our body that we need to.
I, I read, uh, my brother did quite, my brother's quite a good, uh, a actor.
He probably should have gone pro, but anyway, another story.
But, um, he, he did this very funny thing he said me the other day, which is some speech from a theater, but the guy's like, I just can't believe it.
I'm just this.
Thing that carries around all the bacteria.
Like there's so many bacteria in your gut.
You're basically, and you could argue we are just, we, we are just for them.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah.
We're just a system which carries them around because there's like more bacteria in your gut than, you know, stars in the universe kind of thing.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
Two bit of, bit of listening on that.
So that was this week's episode of B W B Extra, and we'll be back tomorrow without finale for the week, the Business or Bullshit quiz.
Stay tuned.