A collaboration between a New Zealand civil construction company and Kiwi double-scull Olympic gold medallists Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors has shone a light on what it takes to be successful, whether in civil infrastructure construction, rowing on the world stage, or in life.

Boatmates Brooke and Lucy were the toast of New Zealand after pipping the reigning Romanian Olympic champions to the post at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics to secure gold – making history as the first crew of mothers to win an Olympic rowing medal.

Their ‘Mums in a Boat’ video series, created with Schick Civil Construction, follows Brooke and Lucy as they interview Schick staff to understand what makes them successful in their roles and how they got started in the industry.

Our team at EPIC caught up with Brooke – one half of the dynamic rowing duo – to unearth some of her elite sport learnings and to hear some of the parallels she has picked up from spending time with people working in the civil construction industry.

Set clear goals

Brooke says setting clear goals is as important in Olympic rowing as completing civil infrastructure projects.

“What we learned from talking to the managers and Schick staff is that everyone has a goal that they’re working towards, which is the same in sport.”

Without clear goals she says reaching the Olympics would not have been possible, and the same goes for anybody building a career, or a key piece of infrastructure, for that matter.

More is achieved together

Brooke says having a strong team working together is vital to performing at an elite level, and the same goes in many other areas of life – including civil construction.

“In rowing we have coaches, physiologists, nutritionists, strength and conditioning coaches, everyone’s pushing you towards achieving your best. In the civil industry you have this big project, this big end goal, and it takes every single person to play their part to get there.

“It doesn’t take just one person to build a road – like it didn’t take just us to win that medal, there was a massive team behind us.”

Stay open to learning

To reach rowing excellence requires dedication to self-development and learning new skills, in the same way as civil infrastructure roles involve picking up new skills and becoming competent in handling different processes and operating a variety of machines, Brooke says.

“We saw that people in the industry are constantly learning from the people around them. In our sport we had Eric Murray, Hamish Bond and Mahé Drysdale who have set the standard and we’ve learnt about operating at a high level like them.

“It seems like in the civil industry, you might come in at an entry-level role but you can learn from someone on bigger tools than you and push yourself to develop.

“When you have good team of people around you it’s easy to get the best out of yourself. From speaking to the staff at Schick everyone’s happy to encourage each other, have a go at things, and learn.”

Self-discipline is a superpower

Civil infrastructure roles often require dedication to get on site early in the morning and form a team so work on a project can carry on.

Likewise, Brooke says waking up at the crack of dawn to train can be a challenge, but being disciplined helps her get out of bed and out on the water, as does not wanting to let Lucy or the wider team around her down.

Trust the process, and each other

If there’s one key thing that helps her perform at the ultimate level, it’s trusting the process and trusting the team around her. She says this was clear when her and Lucy returned to start training for the Paris Olympics after both becoming mothers.

“We weren’t at the level we were at before, but we knew where we wanted to get to, so we had to trust the process, trust our coaches, and trust our team that the work we were doing was getting us in the right direction.

“Because we did have full trust in our team and everyone around us, it definitely made it seem possible … we had a lot of trust and a lot of faith in what we were doing, so by the time we had to perform we had a lot of confidence.

“I think there’d be strong parallels to civil construction where you’re working on a project where you do need to trust your team and trust that there is a plan in place for a reason with everyone playing a part in that plan.”

For now, Brooke says she and Lucy are “catching their breath for a minute” before getting back into training, with the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles 2028 a possible opportunity to go for gold once again and maintain their position as the world’s best in their class.

Mums in a Boat: The story behind the series

The Mums in a Boat video series was driven by Schick Managing Director Pat Peoples and CEO Scott Brownlee, who both have rowing backgrounds and recognised values in Brooke and Lucy that are essential to success in civil construction roles.

The series was filmed last year and can be viewed on Schick’s LinkedIn page, providing powerful inspiration for people looking for lessons in leadership and success.