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RedZed’s sponsorship of reigning NRL premiers the Melbourne Storm goes far deeper than a logo on a jersey. Their relationship is built on a shared passion for having a go and a commitment to achieving against the odds.
It is easy to forget that the footballers and coaches, the medical and fitness staff and many of the senior administrators in a professional football club are all self-employed.
Angelo Klidomitis, RedZed’s head of customer experience, says a commonly held belief is that the self-employed population is just comprised of tradies.
“It is a very narrow view of the world,” he says. “But when you consider the data, there are more than two million self-employed people in Australia, from writers and athletes to architects, physios, photographers and mortgage brokers. Every facet of Australian society is captured in the self-employed space. Including tradies!”
“Wherever you look, someone has started a business and taken a punt that others may have scoffed at or considered too risky. Self-employed people are essentially entrepreneurs. What appears from the outside like a decision to go it alone is, in some cases, not really a decision at all,” says Mr Klidomitis.
“In many instances they had no choice – they wanted to achieve something, and they had to do it themselves. There was simply no other way. They were forced to innovate or take a chance to build something themselves so that they could achieve their ambitions. It is that spirit and commitment to finding a way to make things work that really appeals to us,” he says.
“RedZed is a business that was founded by a group of people who had the same desire to solve the problems that they themselves had experienced being part of self-employed families. They were passionate about solving problems and making a difference in people’s lives but found it challenging to achieve in the financial services environment that they were in. Like the 2.1 million other Australians faced with the same challenge they took the plunge to go it alone and RedZed was born.”
Defying the haters
Many self-employed people have thrived against the odds and defied the haters.
Melbourne Storm have done the same thing, says Mr Klidomitis: “The Storm are a Melbourne club, in a city obsessed with AFL they have somehow over the course of more than 20 years they have been able to build and maintain a winning club - irrespective of changing circumstances and challenges that would cripple other organisations. They have cultivated the most passionate and loyal fans I have ever seen, and their culture is so strong and stable that players from other clubs come to the Storm because they know they will become better players and more rounded individuals. They look after their community, which we saw firsthand through the onset of the pandemic last year. Today, the Storm are one of the most successful sporting organisations in Australia.”
It is this ethos that RedZed admires in the Storm and in the thousands of self-employed Australians it finances.
Working closely with brokers has always been a core part of the RedZed philosophy.
“Brokers are self-employed, so they get it,” Mr Klidomitis says. “They also know from experience that the sheer size of the big banks means that their structure doesn’t allow them to help many self-employed customers. Even though they may want to, they just aren’t set up that way,” he says.
“The self-employed Australian is who we understand. They are our kind of people. We can look at a self-employed application and decide pretty quickly if it’s a deal, and we then we have a single minded focus to turn the application around quickly because we understand that to someone who is self-employed getting access to the finance they need can be the difference between taking advantage of an opportunity and missing out.”
Quick chat with Justin Rodski, CEO Melbourne Storm
What does the partnership with RedZed mean to the club?
The Storm are proud to be the team of Victoria, and like RedZed, we are a young, Melbourne-born organisation with a proud history of success.
We share common values, we are aligned on our objectives, and we pride ourselves on creating and capturing value for each other through our relationship.
We see RedZed as a leader in their field, delivering value and opportunity to the self-employed, just as the Storm do for our members and fans. This is a key part of why our relationship is such a great success.
What key things would you recommend to self-employed people to enable their ambitions?
People who work hard, stay motivated and build resilience are the ones who will succeed. Just like our players, they will have their bad days, but will still continue to show up everyday and work hard to achieve their goals. They will try and try again.
You may get knocked down, but it’s about how quickly you get back up and pursue your dream. Tough times won’t last but tough people do. RedZed are there for their customers, like the Storm players are there for each other. No one exceeds without the other.
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