Jack Hingert and Stefan Mauk are perhaps best known for their exploits on the field, but the duo are making quite the impact off it as entrepreneurs.
The former Brisbane team-mates both run their own businesses, with Hingert starting a nappy bags business called ‘ONE NINE’ with former A-Leagues player Isaka Cernak – while Mauk launched ‘The Inner Game Journals’ – a journal tailored for athletes to better ‘understand themselves’.
Both players got the ball rolling on their respective businesses through courses ran by the PFA, who encourage Aussie footballers to have a side hustle and provide players with a number of options to explore interests outside of the game.
On this week’s edition of the Players Pod, Hingert gave an insight into where his business name came from, but also weighed in on the importance of athletes having something else to focus on outside of their respective sport.
In season 2022-23, you can listen to Robbie weekly on his new KEEPUP podcast – The Players Pod, with Robbie Cornthwaite. This week he chats to Brisbane Roar defender Jack Hingert and former A-Leagues midfielder Stefan Mauk. Listen below or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
“I wear number 19 at Brisbane Roar and before I went to Brisbane, Isaka (Cernak) my business partner wore the number 19 jersey for for Brisbane Roar as well,” Hingert told The Players Pod.
“That’s kind of the story behind our name (ONE NINE). We thought it would be cool to obviously have a name that was kind of meaningful to us as well, and a bit of a story behind it.
“It’s been something that I really enjoyed doing.
“I can’t stress how important I think it is for footballers and athletes to have something else going on outside of their sport. To keep you sane… I think it’s important have something to get away from football as well and for things like when I did my ACL.
When you’re out of the game for a long time. Having something else to keep you busy and something else that you can focus on as well. So I think it’s extremely important to have something else going on.
Mauk empathised with the challenges Hingert has faced with a business still being in start-up mode, but also noted how it has helped him take his focus away from football, particularly in some of the more difficult moments after a match.
“It’s gone really well. I think it’s just over three years where I’ve been doing it and it’s something that started mainly during COVID, was when I had the time to do it,” Mauk told the Players Pod.
Similar to what Jack said, having something outside of football, the older I’ve gotten the more I’ve realised that it is really important because if you don’t switch off then you can replay that bad pass or that missed shot at goal 10,000 times before get you to that next training session and it can be a pretty pretty big downward spiral if you get into that negative headspace.
“It’s great to have something that’s taking up my time and I’m enjoying doing but any business needs money to run and to grow it. So that’s probably my next stage in 2023 goal is to turn over more money so I can employ people to help grow it.
“At the moment, I’ve got my mum doing the orders at home actually so that was a bit of a challenge and getting her. Luckily she’s retired, she’s not working so she can do that in the morning.
“But that’s all part of I guess most startups they start in the garage or a shed or something. So hopefully it’s a good story one day when the business is growing, and a lot bigger than I can tell totally about that.”
