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What does it really mean to take control of your financial future?
Train Your Wealth is the podcast from JPA Financial Planning, designed to make financial planning feel clear, relevant, and grounded in real life.
Through relaxed, honest conversations, the series explores how people think about money, from career transitions and major life decisions to long-term planning and performance mindset. Drawing on lessons from professional sport and high-performance environments, it examines what it takes to build, manage, and sustain wealth over time.
This isn’t about quick wins, jargon, or one-size-fits-all advice. It’s about asking better questions, thinking long term, and building a plan that works for you.
With a strong focus on women in business and sport, the podcast offers a practical perspective to help you feel more confident, more in control, and better prepared for what’s ahead.
If you want your financial planning to feel less complicated and more meaningful, this is the podcast for you.
Subscribe now and join us as we explore what it really means to train your wealth.
“JPA Financial Planning Ltd is an Appointed Representative of and represents only St James's Place Wealth Management Plc (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) for the purpose of advertising solely on the Group's website at www.sjp.co.uk/products.”
00:00:00:09 - 00:00:19:28
Chris Dawes
Welcome back to JPA Train Your Wealth podcast episode two. And this time we're going to speak to Charlie, Roland's ex-professional footballer. Now in the finance world as the business development manager.
00:00:20:01 - 00:00:22:17
Chris Dawes
For.
00:00:22:19 - 00:00:29:02
Chris Dawes
So welcome back to JPA Train your wealth. And as I say, we've got Charlie Roland. Say welcome Charlie. Your turn.
00:00:29:07 - 00:00:32:22
Charlie Rowlands
Thank you. Yes, it's a near. Let me get away with it, though.
00:00:32:24 - 00:00:39:02
Chris Dawes
But the good news was you sat in the background and watched that one. And I know you said to be going. Oh, yeah, I'm happy with that now. Now I get.
00:00:39:02 - 00:00:45:03
Charlie Rowlands
It. Yeah. I was actually really excited. Come away from watching Christie his episode and thought, that sounds like a lot of fun, actually.
00:00:45:04 - 00:00:58:28
Chris Dawes
So brilliant. Which is the whole idea, is that we're literally going to be chatting. We've got points that we want to to cover on, but where this goes, nobody knows. Which is probably less scary with you than Chris because Chris Scott could go anywhere.
00:00:58:28 - 00:01:03:19
Charlie Rowlands
So he does that to himself. So yeah, you don't worry about that, right?
00:01:03:20 - 00:01:20:17
Chris Dawes
I'm going to start with that. For me, I think the most exciting part, I guess, and this is the right phrase for me to use. You are an ex professional footballer. Who for. And when did you start.
00:01:20:20 - 00:01:42:19
Charlie Rowlands
Gosh yeah. So I, I've played for a few professional clubs. My time it kind of that is slightly different for women's football. You obviously don't get paid a huge amount as anything at all, even in professional clubs, which is where the kind of conversations I had with Chris came from, and that he was quite shocked, the financial situation of players that are elite athletes.
00:01:42:21 - 00:02:03:12
Charlie Rowlands
But, to answer your question, the clubs I played for, the most recent club where I ended up retiring was Bristol Rovers. I was at Swindon Town, obviously local here. Great club. Forest Green Rovers and Cheltenham Town as well. So more clubs in a golf bag some say, but I enjoyed my time at all of them and I just enjoyed playing so much.
00:02:03:12 - 00:02:19:17
Charlie Rowlands
I loved being an athlete and that is what I envisioned I would always do. So a big thing. Again, my conversation with Chris, it was about that transition for me into finding my feet in the corporate world, in something that sort of gave me that same fulfillment.
00:02:19:19 - 00:02:41:03
Chris Dawes
Yeah. And and I am going to come back into the football side because I want to sort of pick into that a little bit more, because that's an area that I know people are to. I don't know what you get up to. And so I want to go into that. But picking up on the point you made that, first of all, that transition into the corporate world, the professional, financial advice of all things.
00:02:41:05 - 00:02:54:16
Chris Dawes
A you've made a point there that it was having that help of being able to do something now that the football is no more. What made you select financial?
00:02:54:18 - 00:03:22:20
Charlie Rowlands
It's really I think it kind of selected me because I, I found out about JP through an advert for a job listing, and I was looking at something in operations. I thought that's where my skill set, if I had worn outside of playing football, would lie. I'm quite methodical. I enjoy structure, you know, I think it would have been for me something that I would have liked to have got my teeth into creating processes, looking at departments and how they run and things like that.
00:03:22:23 - 00:03:49:11
Charlie Rowlands
And finance was just because it was the sector that Jfk8 were in. Yes. So I spoke to Jim and we had some initial conversation, and when I sat down, she asked about my CV and sort of my skill set, and I spoke to her about playing football my whole life and my character more so than anything I've done in finance, because I didn't have any experience and I was open about how, you know, I've never worked in this sector before, but I've got great shoes.
00:03:49:11 - 00:04:10:12
Charlie Rowlands
I love to learn. I really want to, you know, come in and have a go. And she went home and spoke to Chris and said, I've just met the female version of you. And so Chris then got in contact and said, I actually think you would make a really good financial advisor. And one day that should be the aspiration.
00:04:10:19 - 00:04:35:05
Charlie Rowlands
And so what would you say it's coming in? We'll kind of create a role for you around developing the business, for tailoring to the network you have in terms of women in business and women in sport. Chris found a kind of a gap in the market for that particular set of people where he thinks they're completely undervalued, kind of not looked after financially in terms of their planning and advice.
00:04:35:07 - 00:04:50:17
Charlie Rowlands
And thinks that I had the kind of personality to build that network of people, gained my qualifications in financial planning and advice, and then hopefully go and do what Chris does. But for my little niche of those people that I know and I want to help and kind of give back to.
00:04:50:20 - 00:05:13:19
Chris Dawes
I love that. So I mean, I've got to be so careful because all of this is just sparking so many questions and thoughts and ideas. But trying to keep it on track with exactly what you said there. This is great because this is not just a job now, which, as I understand it, the BDM role, the business development role was not what you you went for in that interview.
00:05:13:20 - 00:05:28:06
Chris Dawes
No. So it's what they've created for you because they can see those skills in you. But with a longer term development plan for you that's got this objective, because obviously there's a lot of training involved to be a finance, that's got to be wonderful for you.
00:05:28:07 - 00:05:44:22
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. I mean, that's what like, I can't thank Jim and Chris enough for the way that they kind of have invested in me in terms of that. I put a lot of effort, of course, into trying to showcase myself to them and show them that I had the attitude. I was willing to kind of help them try and build their company up.
00:05:44:22 - 00:06:17:21
Charlie Rowlands
And I think that their thought process with me is that they see the value in what I can bring. In terms of, for Chris, this new sort of revenue stream with the new market, but also the fact that I think he's gone kind of blank sheet of paper, tell me what you want to do for a couple of years, because in, you know, once you've qualified and know that you've got the skill set to do, you know, the proper job, which again, there's probably not many places you can go to that would allow you to do that kind of step by step and help me nourish in my career, which I think I kind of
00:06:17:21 - 00:06:37:18
Charlie Rowlands
had, a false start because I spent so long in an elite sport. I didn't never go and gain experience in corporate sectors. I'm not a corporate person. I don't have the corporate lingo. I'm not used to be inside a desk all day. And so they're very accommodating for the fact that, you know, I don't I don't understand that kind of lifestyle.
00:06:37:24 - 00:06:41:06
Charlie Rowlands
And they know that, you know, I'm learning, which is great.
00:06:41:08 - 00:07:03:18
Chris Dawes
But one of the biggest things that I got from the get go from Chris in particular, and in episode one of this, is that I really think it came through, is that the ethos in the company set from Chris is that it's not about these predetermined. This is what should happen. This is what you how you need to behave.
00:07:03:18 - 00:07:11:06
Chris Dawes
It's like, actually this is about the clients. This is about delving into them and what do they need. And it's it's very personal.
00:07:11:09 - 00:07:39:13
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. For sure. And I think again, that's the initial conversations I had with Chris. He the feedback he kind of gave was that he was just so shocked at the real needs of people that have come from a background like they have from elite sports, and being a woman in professional set ups. The kind of advice that they would need to give is not what Chris would have gone into the initial conversation with that kind of person, thinking ahead of like, what kind of problems are they going to have?
00:07:39:13 - 00:07:56:15
Charlie Rowlands
What are their pinch points? They're completely different to what he was expecting, which then obviously he's really seeing now that there's a need for it, and he's really backing the fact that if we build something for them where they now know that someone, you know, a specialist in that area, they'll come.
00:07:56:17 - 00:08:20:00
Chris Dawes
Yeah. And I mean, we will go into this in more detail, without question, but just to sort of be set in the scene before I come back to the sport inside again is that. There's an interesting challenge, as I understand it, in elite sport for the men, especially in football, where they pay incredible amounts, that is not being managed properly in a lot of situations.
00:08:20:03 - 00:08:39:02
Chris Dawes
For you ladies in sport, it's even more important to be managed because you've not got the excess of of money there. And so it needs to be managed properly, because the whole point being is your career is now over in sport, and if you weren't doing this now, it'd be like.
00:08:39:04 - 00:08:40:14
Charlie Rowlands
What do I do? Yeah.
00:08:40:16 - 00:08:50:04
Chris Dawes
Yeah, this is about the advice that you wish you'd had whilst you were playing, whilst that money of whatever size it was, was coming in. How do I manage this?
00:08:50:10 - 00:09:13:29
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. Is the future is helping people. I would be in a completely different situation in my career had I had the advice and support we're trying to give those people now, well, I would have been in a completely different situation from the beginning of my career because I would have known how to plan. I would have known how to make sure that I'd set goals for myself financially, and not just so it as kind of that extra income stream.
00:09:13:29 - 00:09:37:06
Charlie Rowlands
A lot of the time you have to work alongside plan, because what you give them for plan doesn't cover your mortgage, you know won't pay your bills. So it's making sure that you get the most out of your money and kind of you're protecting yourself for if you want to keep playing for another couple of years, but you're not sure if you're going to get a contract, can we make sure that, you know you've got that leeway to go and find somewhere else to play, even if you're not getting paid properly?
00:09:37:12 - 00:09:53:11
Charlie Rowlands
Things like that. There's things that you don't know how to solve those problems because you're so focused on playing, you kind of just need to forget about all of that. So if you have the support out there to do that for you, that's where you're going to get the most out of yourself as an athlete. Yeah.
00:09:53:13 - 00:10:12:08
Chris Dawes
And I think it's good timing to say is that we're going to try we're going to be desperately trying to avoid two areas in this podcast. One is we're not going to get involved in the political debate of the difference in salaries between the two genders, because it's a it's a no brainer that one. But it's a thorny issue.
00:10:12:15 - 00:10:32:14
Chris Dawes
We're not going into that as far as I understand it, because we can't change it, can we? So it's out of our pay. Right. But secondly, equally, we're going not going to be given the exact advice on this show. It's about talking about there are things that need to be looked at. And we're going to be using you as a great example in this episode.
00:10:32:14 - 00:10:51:20
Chris Dawes
Over the other episodes will be picking into some specific points. So make sure you subscribe, get the notifications turned on so that you see when a new episode comes out. But the biggest one is that hopefully this is going to inspire people to go, I need to come speak to you. And the idea is reach out and you will go and meet with these people.
00:10:51:21 - 00:11:23:26
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, that initial conversation is just a real casual is a coffee, have a chat, speak about, similar situations, talk about their needs, their goals. You know, what they think that they maybe need advice with planning with, And, you know, we love being active. We love, you know, playing around golf, talking about it over the and it being, you know, that active way of it being more of a relationship building exercise about talking about how we can help each other and support them rather than it being, you know, I'm going to try and sell you this product.
00:11:23:29 - 00:11:50:09
Chris Dawes
Well, I know that in episode one, Chris made a key point that the products are actually, strictly speaking, certainly to be irrelevant. This isn't about you should have this product, actually. It's about what are you trying to achieve? Why are you trying to achieve that? Is it the right thing to achieve? Like for example, I'm trying to think now that it was a great example, that going right is my motivation to be mortgage free as soon as possible so that I can go off and do other things?
00:11:50:16 - 00:12:08:19
Chris Dawes
Or is it that I can actually grow my property size or portfolio or whatever it is? And I'm not bothered if I've got mortgages that well, then it's about looking again, right? What is it you really want? Why do you want it? It might not be that you need. I was going to say, and I said, is that the right word?
00:12:08:20 - 00:12:12:15
Chris Dawes
Yeah. Thank you. It's like, why why do you want to.
00:12:12:17 - 00:12:36:00
Charlie Rowlands
And that's the thing is, like with this particular set of people, in terms of women in sport in particular, the needs that we would be thinking of are completely different to those of you sort of Joe Bloggs that Chris would talk to you day to day in the conversations I've already had with some athletes that we've been working with at the moment are things like, I, a professional athlete, I'm on this contract, I own this much for two years.
00:12:36:00 - 00:12:54:17
Charlie Rowlands
I don't know what I'm going to earn after that. Yeah, but I want to have a family, so I need to say five. Yeah. If I'm in a same sex relationship, I know I need to put aside this amount. I know I need to then protect my family because what if I end up breaking a leg and I can't then play when my contract comes down for renewal, they won't give me a new contract.
00:12:54:19 - 00:13:10:06
Charlie Rowlands
You know, there's all those things, those problems that a Chris in particular was stuck with. And, you know, I never would have thought about all of those kind of things that they need to be aware of when planning that you don't have to think about when you're talking to the average kind of John Smith.
00:13:10:14 - 00:13:32:02
Chris Dawes
Yeah, yeah. Cool. So that's we're going to go into those details. And this is sort of set the scene of why you're here now, why you're perfectly placed to have those conversations. But equally I just love that whole bit that, that JPA, financial planning of sort of taking you on in this Bdsm role for now with this was you're doing all your qualification.
00:13:32:02 - 00:13:50:26
Chris Dawes
So at the moment it will be involving the likes of Chris with you to do all of those. So I just reached out, have conversation conversations. That's the given right. Let's get back into some of the core nitty gritty, that this conversational style content is all about. So Bristol Rovers, is that where I've met? I'm a Rovers fan, by the way.
00:13:50:26 - 00:13:59:23
Chris Dawes
I say that too loud, round, etc.. Swindon Town, Forest Green, Cheltenham who Rovers beat last.
00:13:59:23 - 00:14:04:16
Charlie Rowlands
Week I did, yeah heavily.
00:14:04:18 - 00:14:15:12
Chris Dawes
That's that's, that's some cool clubs in the you know not too much traveling around those with with those. So that hasn't interrupted but when what age did you start playing football.
00:14:15:14 - 00:14:34:00
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah I was really young. I was about four and I played with boys the whole way through my childhood. Up until I was about 11 or 12. So I played. All my mum's friends had little boys, so naturally on the playground at school. At school I was just get, you know, all the mums together. So then all the kids are together.
00:14:34:00 - 00:14:50:03
Chris Dawes
But how did you get on with that? Because my daughter, she's now 14. For a little while she thought she liked football. We got these lovely boots and all of the stuff and. But it was only the boys that she could play with and she found that they wouldn't pass to her. I don't think she was great, I'm not going to lie.
00:14:50:03 - 00:14:57:21
Chris Dawes
So I don't think it was her future. But these things stopped her. Even finding out wouldn't really pass to her at potentially tackled a little bit too hard.
00:14:57:22 - 00:14:58:01
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah.
00:14:58:07 - 00:14:59:22
Chris Dawes
How did you find that?
00:14:59:28 - 00:15:05:26
Charlie Rowlands
I think for me, I think that's what gave me the edge of being a half decent women's footballer, to be honest.
00:15:05:27 - 00:15:07:12
Chris Dawes
I you and I'll show you.
00:15:07:13 - 00:15:20:12
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah, I, I kind of relished the idea of the boys not wanting me to be good. So then when I was a bit better than them, you know, they eventually wanted me on their team over some of the other lads. That made me feel really good.
00:15:20:16 - 00:15:28:18
Chris Dawes
Because this must have been. And I'm only guessing, and I've lost track of time now when women's football wasn't a big thing, but it well.
00:15:28:20 - 00:15:45:09
Charlie Rowlands
That's again, I didn't have the option to play for a girls team because I want that one. Okay, so I was or if there were you know, I didn't know about them, they weren't accessible to me. And sort of nobody pointed out, you know, she's half decent. Maybe she should go and play for, you know, the local girls team.
00:15:45:16 - 00:16:07:03
Charlie Rowlands
It wasn't until I joined secondary school. So about 1112. And at school I was playing in, in my sort of classes and the teacher said, we need to tell someone about you and you need to go and do something. So at that point that the local club that they had contact with was Forest Green and they said, you know, would you like to offer her a trial?
00:16:07:03 - 00:16:14:17
Charlie Rowlands
She's really great. We'd like you to have a look at her. And I went for a trial over the summer then and joined the academy and that team.
00:16:14:21 - 00:16:15:08
Chris Dawes
Okay.
00:16:15:15 - 00:16:42:20
Charlie Rowlands
And so that was in it had been under, fourteens then, and I stayed with Forest Green all the way through to Under Sixteens. And when I turned 16, they offered me a contract with the ladies first team straight away, which is obviously brilliant. Yeah. And I took my opportunity there. That was the. That was more of a shock to me than playing with boys in terms of I remember my first training session and kind of getting the ball at my feet and someone just smashing through the back of me.
00:16:42:23 - 00:16:43:08
Chris Dawes
Oh, wow.
00:16:43:09 - 00:17:00:13
Charlie Rowlands
And I kind of was not used to a proper tackle. It was, you know, under the under 16 girls that we put a tackle in, but you didn't necessarily fly in with a strong slide tackle. And suddenly I had grown women just like taking me out. And I remember them kind of saying, you know, you need to get up.
00:17:00:13 - 00:17:20:28
Charlie Rowlands
So that was won't last. Yeah, yeah, this is it. Now you're here on that season at 16, my first season, the ladies football, we won the league and I was the top goalscorer the league. So you know from there it kind of all just projected. I went on the season after that to go to the Costa a cup in Sweden represented England and things like that.
00:17:20:28 - 00:17:34:05
Charlie Rowlands
So it just kind of snowballed into a career that I kind of came out of nowhere. But yeah, I enjoyed it. It started at such a young age with boys and then grew into the game as a young woman. So yeah, I loved every second.
00:17:34:07 - 00:17:40:07
Chris Dawes
Time it was, was this when the Lionesses were starting to get attention, or was that after that.
00:17:40:15 - 00:18:06:17
Charlie Rowlands
I would say I was in women's football when the Lionesses started to get attention. I remember quite vividly watching them on telly, on like the red button, like in the middle of the night. In a world Cup game. And it being really exciting to me, but I remember thinking, why is no one else interested? I was interested because it was football and it was my country, and I used to love watching the men's games with my dad and my family and things like that.
00:18:06:17 - 00:18:25:08
Charlie Rowlands
But no one gave the same attention to the women's team at all. I mean, I think the average person then wouldn't have been able to name a player, you know, maybe Kelly Smith or someone who was the captain and got a bit more press. But nowadays I'm pretty sure you could probably name the starting 11 from. Oh, you know.
00:18:25:10 - 00:18:36:10
Chris Dawes
I tell you what, last last summer, me, my wife, my daughter went over to to Tenerife and whilst we were there was the final. Yeah. Is that the euros?
00:18:36:10 - 00:18:38:17
Charlie Rowlands
Yes.
00:18:38:20 - 00:18:59:04
Chris Dawes
And we actually made a point of finishing our dinner at the restaurant so that we could get down to one of the sports bars on the seafront. Yeah, to watch the game packed like we were. We were already outside the bar getting served out there, looking through the other confronted thing, packed, going nuts and all of that.
00:18:59:04 - 00:19:15:04
Chris Dawes
I mean, I was there going, this is brilliant, this is how it should be. And I tell you what you make. I know we're talking about you in football, but I will bring it up. You've you've made a key point of mentioning that your assistance is to people, women in elite sport.
00:19:15:07 - 00:19:15:24
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah.
00:19:15:27 - 00:19:20:12
Chris Dawes
The Rugby World Cup over here was massive last year as well.
00:19:20:12 - 00:19:42:08
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. And I mean that's the thing I think women's sport in general, regardless of the sport, is it's just growing rapidly and it's getting a bit more respect and people are starting to invest in it and watch it grow because it is naturally it's going to start catching up. And yeah, rugby again is something that some of the athletes I've been working with it heavily from the rugby scene.
00:19:42:09 - 00:19:44:02
Chris Dawes
Is that professional for women?
00:19:44:04 - 00:20:10:28
Charlie Rowlands
It is, yeah. They get it's a different kind of situation to football in that they're given contracts through things like the governing bodies for the sport. So like if you're an international athlete, you get a contract through the RFU. Yeah. And it's a very similar situation that a lot of those girls are expected to train full time, sometimes starting at sort of in the middle of a working day, but need to also work a job to make sure they can cover their mortgage and their bills.
00:20:10:29 - 00:20:24:02
Chris Dawes
Home is still not right there then. Yeah, yeah. And I guess there lies the key point there. Well, I said we're not going into excessive detail is that that's a point you've kind of gone I can't change that. We disagree with it and hope that the the evolution continues.
00:20:24:06 - 00:20:25:04
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah, definitely.
00:20:25:06 - 00:20:39:19
Chris Dawes
But and it needs to it really does. But what you are able to help or you know, look at with them is to sort of give them that secure footing that their future is taken care of and that they can focus on that elite sport.
00:20:39:20 - 00:20:48:19
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. And so then as it evolves, they don't need to worry about that. It's it's a job to kind of watch what it's doing and make sure that we plan and adjust things for them accordingly.
00:20:48:21 - 00:21:09:15
Chris Dawes
And that's why. And again, I'll make the key point that Chris made in episode one, the reason why it's called JPA Financial Planning, rather than a lot of them called wealth management, which has this connotation that goes, oh, I'm not I wish I was wealthy, but I'm not. So there's no point me speaking to you. It's like, no, no, no, it is not about that is financial planning.
00:21:09:15 - 00:21:21:15
Chris Dawes
It's wealth management to sort of make sure that you have enough wealth around you in your future. Sure. But it is about don't second guess whether you should or shouldn't be speaking to you guys. It's like, definitely.
00:21:21:20 - 00:21:42:06
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. And I think that's again, the industry of elite sports. Even for women. There's a bit of a stigma around getting financial advice and support, because really, those that come to you come because they assume, you know, these girls are earning massive money, they're going to invest a certain amount of money with us is going to make me a lot of money, but they don't realize that that's not actually the case.
00:21:42:09 - 00:21:55:05
Charlie Rowlands
So then, you know, it's a little bit difficult because you can't trust those people that are coming to you and saying they're trying to help you, but actually, when they realize you're not a high net worth client, suddenly the agenda changes as well. Yeah, yeah.
00:21:55:05 - 00:22:05:27
Chris Dawes
I mean, because, you know, you said about investment and all of this, it's like, no, no, no, it could be as simple as stability. Yeah. Because it can include things like mortgages. Yeah. Pension.
00:22:05:27 - 00:22:14:17
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. I mean, and that's another thing. You're not really planning for retirement when your plan is focused on, you know, running your feet into the ground as long as you can.
00:22:14:17 - 00:22:17:03
Chris Dawes
It sounds like it's too far away. I'll worry about that tomorrow.
00:22:17:03 - 00:22:36:26
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. And you know. Oh, is your club paying into a pension for you, or should you be looking at setting yourself up for retirement and making sure you put a pension in place for yourself if you're not and things like that mortgages, you know, is someone going to lend to you not knowing if you're going to have a career in a couple of years, or what are you going to be earning when you stop playing and have to get a normal job?
00:22:36:27 - 00:22:38:10
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah, a normal being.
00:22:38:14 - 00:22:40:28
Chris Dawes
Yeah, I know, yeah.
00:22:41:01 - 00:22:51:17
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. So, you know, mortgages, pensions, all those things. And then just the normal everyday life things of saving, you know. Yeah. Putting things aside for having a family, buying your first house, things like that, which.
00:22:51:17 - 00:22:59:28
Chris Dawes
Again, Chris made a point. There isn't always wrapped up in something glossy. It could be actually. No. Just put it into a savings account, something simple as that.
00:22:59:28 - 00:23:17:11
Charlie Rowlands
And just having the structure of us, you know, they don't need to worry because we've gone right. This is what you need. This is your plan. You're sorted now the same way that they have a coach for their fitness. You know, you need to be able to run the Bleep test this at the end of the season. Don't do this test.
00:23:17:13 - 00:23:37:24
Charlie Rowlands
You know do these workouts and it will give you a step towards getting there. It's the support that they have. They didn't have to worry about going home and thinking how do I get myself fit. You got someone that that gives you the plan does it for you. So, you know, we're trying to create that atmosphere of financial fitness coaching, where we're just trying to help them be financially fit for their future.
00:23:37:24 - 00:23:41:02
Charlie Rowlands
As much as you invest in your physical self and your mental self.
00:23:41:03 - 00:24:02:07
Chris Dawes
And one of the things I've learned over the years is that that includes I'm going to use a mortgage as the most obvious example to use. It might not be that you're getting a mortgage right now, but there is a financial financial fitness assessment kind of thing and and a plan of action. It goes okay, this is what we need to tackle over the next six, 12, 18 months.
00:24:02:10 - 00:24:05:12
Chris Dawes
That will then put you in that position. That goes wallet.
00:24:05:12 - 00:24:26:02
Charlie Rowlands
Well, yeah, I mean, and even speaking to, you know, Jacob, our mortgage advisor is brilliant. And I've gone to him with questions about, you know, some of these girls are going to be on a contract where are people going to lend to them if they then don't get another contract in two years, and he's done all the work behind the scenes to make sure I know the lenders that well, I know the lenders that won't.
00:24:26:04 - 00:24:39:10
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. So again, this thing's just taken off their plate. They don't have to worry about, you know, I don't want to go to someone who then will turn me down because of this. Jacob's got all of that in his toolkit and they just completely you know, he'll do all that work for them.
00:24:39:12 - 00:24:43:27
Chris Dawes
Yeah. Perfect. And that's the whole point, is that JP has got the experts in the different areas.
00:24:43:27 - 00:24:44:23
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah.
00:24:44:25 - 00:25:02:28
Chris Dawes
And even now, whilst your officially on your training program for the, for the financial advice coming directly from you, he's like it doesn't make any difference. You're the figurehead. Yeah. With these people because you get the background and you then using the team. Exactly. JP financial planning is a team that you do. And that's all of that.
00:25:03:00 - 00:25:28:03
Chris Dawes
I just love it because it must it must just give you such a passion every single day of knowing. It's all too easy to try and go, oh my God, accountants. You know, it's boring. You just talk numbers, but it's like, no, no, no, no. This is about people's future, people's stability. People able to follow their dream. And at sporting career, these are the things that motivate you every morning, I can tell.
00:25:28:10 - 00:25:46:18
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. And I think that's what it is, is that I don't feel like I've stepped into this corporate world where it's all about numbers and, you know, KPIs and metrics and all of that. You know, I don't feel that every day, my day to day is about Chris is just gone, you know, go and make a difference. And, you know, we'll back you the whole way.
00:25:46:24 - 00:26:01:01
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. And that to me is I couldn't ask for any more from my, you know, job where I want that to be about helping people that were in the situation I was in. And now I'm being given this toolkit to go and do that. So that's brilliant.
00:26:01:04 - 00:26:05:00
Chris Dawes
Which I can see is a passion that comes from the company with from Chris and Gemma. Yeah.
00:26:05:03 - 00:26:06:11
Charlie Rowlands
Clearly they understand.
00:26:06:11 - 00:26:16:18
Chris Dawes
We can help you now. I've got some and he's got the nod because yeah, they wouldn't have the background knowledge to know where to go. Plus there's the credibility, you know, you, you've lived, slept and breathed that well.
00:26:16:18 - 00:26:35:23
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. And that's the thing I think having those conversations with me as opposed to one of the other advisors, you know, we could send one of our, you know, very highly trained, high knowledge advisers to them. But if it was me and I was a player and a bloke in a suit and tie came and tried to tell me what it was like to to be a women's footballer and the understands my struggles.
00:26:35:23 - 00:26:50:12
Charlie Rowlands
I'd be a bit like, mate, come on. Yeah, yeah. Whereas, you know, you send someone that understands because they were there. It was them. You know, I've lived it. It was my experience as well. You know, there's a little bit more credibility there that, you know, I do actually understand what you're trying to talk to me about.
00:26:50:12 - 00:26:58:02
Charlie Rowlands
And I know the feelings. I know what I would have wanted if I was you as well. So let's try and together build something that will help you out.
00:26:58:05 - 00:27:07:08
Chris Dawes
I can see that there's a whole angle as well. We'll we'll stay focused on the elite sport. But I can see that there's a whole angle of of women in business in general as well.
00:27:07:09 - 00:27:31:09
Charlie Rowlands
I think that's again you're I think there's very similar transferable skills between those, elite athletes as a woman. And I'm running your own business because you have that similar attitude of, you know, I'm often the only woman in the room. I'm often the, you know, I have to work twice as hard to get what I want. Then, you know, my counterpart and I think, know in that they are going to have similar struggles in terms of access to things because of being a woman.
00:27:31:12 - 00:27:52:22
Charlie Rowlands
That, again, was the motivation behind kind of trying to join those two networks together because they're very similar. People make sense, and a lot of the time these elite athletes will turn into women in business that end up with high achieving, high earning careers because you have those skill sets. So, you know, yeah, actually the determination, you know, you've got that charisma of a hard worker.
00:27:52:27 - 00:28:00:02
Charlie Rowlands
So naturally as a woman in sport, nine times out of ten they're going to end up in a higher and in decent level good sector.
00:28:00:04 - 00:28:29:08
Chris Dawes
Because the discipline that you have to have, the living with a structure, it's like kind of, oh, well, yeah, that kind of lends itself. I mean, I think back into the days the people that I saw succeed in business, were those that have got a military background. And I have the reason why I'm saying that as there's a similar principle, isn't it, that you had training at these times you were supposed to eat or not eat these these things?
00:28:29:11 - 00:28:43:14
Chris Dawes
And, you know, everything was was about structure and goals and achievements and dealing with successes to keep going, failures to go again. And everywhere you go. Yeah, that's kind of what we need in business.
00:28:43:15 - 00:29:10:15
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. I think that, like, you hit the nail on the head on all those those things I think is that main. You have this overriding sense of not being afraid to fail. And I think that's a massive thing for business, being a business owner, but also asserting yourself into sort of a, a strong sort of senior position. Coming from a background of no corporate background, you need to be someone that isn't afraid to give it a go and know that if I fail, you just kind of get up and try again tomorrow.
00:29:10:16 - 00:29:20:10
Chris Dawes
Which I guess again with sports. And I've always thought it's amazing how in any sport that you do this in front of however many people happen to be watching it.
00:29:20:14 - 00:29:21:07
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah.
00:29:21:09 - 00:29:23:12
Chris Dawes
And it's going to include you're going to make mistakes.
00:29:23:12 - 00:29:24:11
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah, yeah.
00:29:24:12 - 00:29:41:19
Chris Dawes
And you have to take that. I mean, if I trip in the street walking along and there's two people in the road, I'm like, oh my God, I'm mortified. You know, they've just seen me do it. Yeah. You're now doing all of this stuff in front of hundreds and thousands, tens of thousands, you know, take your pick of what it is.
00:29:41:19 - 00:29:45:11
Chris Dawes
Yeah. You've got to have a mental resilience for that alone.
00:29:45:12 - 00:30:15:17
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah, definitely. And I think that's something that is probably the biggest turning point for women in sport at the moment is the crowds are getting bigger. You're getting more attention through sponsorship, through, you know, people on social media watching you all the time. And you've got to be aware of making sure you don't let that get to you at all, which is going to be the the transition that I think in sport in particular, they're going to need to up the ante on trying to help people deal with that mentally, but it's part of if you make it at the top, you've already got it in you.
00:30:15:23 - 00:30:22:06
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. Because you know you're always doing it day to day. Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, as long as you do your best and be fine.
00:30:22:09 - 00:30:38:01
Chris Dawes
It's good to hear that, though, isn't it? Numbers are going up because that's what then of course drives the revenue that it's making, which then can hopefully start addressing the some of those points with a bit of luck, because obviously the money doesn't come from nowhere. Yeah, exactly. At the end of the day, good to hear that the sponsors are involved.
00:30:38:01 - 00:30:52:17
Chris Dawes
Social media, that's that's a whole area. It's it's so cool. But what did a day today like for you when you were a player. What did that. And I guess the most logical one is we talked once you went senior pro.
00:30:52:17 - 00:31:20:12
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. So I guess again you had to work alongside playing football. So the main thing for me would be kind of planning my life around the fact that I needed to be at trainings. If I didn't, I didn't play, but I also needed to be in a job where they were willing to let me do both because, you know, some jobs you could try and say to your manager, listen, I play football at a very decent level, which means I need to leave a little bit earlier than most because I need to get to training.
00:31:20:20 - 00:31:38:07
Charlie Rowlands
I have a full day of training and then, you know, I might be in a bit late. We've got to travel away for the weekend for this game next weekend. I want to be in on Monday morning as early, and some workplaces will just outright refuse to acknowledge the fact that they'll think it's kind of the same as just the hobby that your other colleagues have.
00:31:38:07 - 00:32:00:07
Charlie Rowlands
You know, you play puddle, whatever. It's not that. And this is the same, but they don't understand that it's actually a career. And I think that for me was find in those workplaces I could work where they understood, which resulted in me finding jobs in things like elite sports environments. I worked for football clubs and they then understood because that's what they were there to cater for.
00:32:00:09 - 00:32:19:00
Charlie Rowlands
So it meant that I had to often leave work a little bit earlier. I'd be eating my dinner at my desk at sort of 3:00, because I needed to make sure I was fueled ready for training. But then I have to travel an hour, hour and a half from my workplace to train and do a full sort of training session with the girls, do our analysis sessions.
00:32:19:00 - 00:32:46:29
Charlie Rowlands
You know, you had to kind of manage your own recovery sometimes because I couldn't be there an hour before to get my massage or to be in the rehab room. So I needed to make sure I was looking after myself at home. Yeah. And then on the weekends, it was all about game day. You know? Nothing else ever filled my weekends other than the main thing was that Sunday at 3:00, we're going to kind of go to war with each other and I wasn't even worried about going to work on a Monday.
00:32:46:29 - 00:32:59:15
Charlie Rowlands
It was flew in circles. You got stuck in and you know you are the part of your career. I was just there to feed you. You felt was in your home and that your passion was playing football with your mates every weekend.
00:32:59:18 - 00:33:03:05
Chris Dawes
Okay. How many days a week would you be training.
00:33:03:08 - 00:33:12:24
Charlie Rowlands
So wide on the level that fluctuates. What? So when you're the higher end of the tiers, you're doing 3 to 4 days. Wow.
00:33:12:27 - 00:33:16:00
Chris Dawes
And I say wow. More from trying to charge.
00:33:16:01 - 00:33:36:20
Charlie Rowlands
A normal full time career. Yeah. So you're looking at normally your normal pitch sessions, strength and conditioning sessions, analysis sessions. And then of course, you know your game days on the weekend as well. But it's some clubs try to accommodate the fact that they don't pay you quite as well as others. So you need to work by shift in training towards the end of the day.
00:33:36:24 - 00:33:49:26
Charlie Rowlands
So maybe start training at all 5 or 6 p.m. so that at least gives you a chance to work in the daytime. Some clubs are just out. Well, you know, we train when we train and you need to find a job that works around it or, you know, find another club.
00:33:49:28 - 00:34:06:12
Chris Dawes
Yeah. Which I guess is a tricky one. Both sides of that coin, isn't it? Yeah. What were the expectations and pressures on you? And I don't know whether we look at that purely from the sport inside, but, I mean, we've been touching on the expectations and pressures. Life.
00:34:06:14 - 00:34:07:10
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah.
00:34:07:13 - 00:34:14:12
Chris Dawes
That's a given. But from, from a sporting you know, it was given your all winning things.
00:34:14:14 - 00:34:51:29
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. I think it's the expectations part. That's where it really comes into what we're trying to build. Because you're expected to be a professional and you're expected to behave as though you know your this is what you're doing and this is your life and your career, but then not necessarily understanding. But I also have to go and work shifts so that I can, you know, provide for my family or I can pay my bills or you know, that's where there's a gap and where there needs to be more support for the athletes in terms of the expectations on them to have sort of any financial freedom at all, while giving everything they can to stay
00:34:51:29 - 00:35:09:07
Charlie Rowlands
in the career. A lot of women now having to choose between you kind of get into a crossroads where you have to choose between staying in the sport or building a career and a life for yourself, which is how I felt. So I gave it up and said, I'm going to go find a high earning job. Great. You know, I want to work hard.
00:35:09:14 - 00:35:26:14
Charlie Rowlands
I've given my everything to football. I've done everything I wanted to achieve. I just need to now go and apply myself in a different set to make some money. You know, have a family, you know, buy my first home. And I knew I couldn't do that in playing football and I had to make that really difficult choice.
00:35:26:14 - 00:35:31:05
Chris Dawes
And you believe that that could have been very different if you'd had the advice 100%.
00:35:31:05 - 00:35:35:28
Charlie Rowlands
If I had spoken to Chris while playing, I'd still be playing now. Wow. Yeah.
00:35:36:01 - 00:35:45:09
Chris Dawes
Which kind of my next question was going to be, when did you realize football wasn't to be forever? So the reality is it didn't need to have stopped when it did.
00:35:45:10 - 00:35:46:02
Charlie Rowlands
No. And I think.
00:35:46:02 - 00:35:50:28
Chris Dawes
Now, well, I don't know. I'd say you're not going to answer if you want to, but how old were you when you did stop?
00:35:51:00 - 00:36:13:01
Charlie Rowlands
Oh, I was 24 TS. Yeah. So prime. Yeah. And I mean, that is, you know, where you kind of some players that's where you kick on and go, can really work really hard now. And if you've got the capacity to which I just saw, I didn't I felt like I was sacrificing, having a really great career by, you know, because I was flourishing.
00:36:13:01 - 00:36:39:11
Charlie Rowlands
I was I was working hard at trying to build a network so that when I retired, I would be able to get into a good eye on a job. But I was missing opportunities because I had to also give to football. And then at football, I was missing giving my all to that because I was also trying to juggle building a corporate career, and I just felt it wasn't fair on myself to then end up retired at football, but at the bottom of the corporate chain.
00:36:39:13 - 00:36:46:27
Charlie Rowlands
And then it wouldn't have been verified. You know, I've been in an office all day going, I wish I was playing football, so it's real, real difficult.
00:36:47:03 - 00:37:08:14
Chris Dawes
I mean, it's not a direct parallel, but I can almost see it where you see, sometimes you suddenly see whether it's a coach or even a manager or whatever, or even a ref. I've seen this a lot as well, you know, officials. And you go, oh my God, they're too young to be doing that. And it was because they've had a career and an injury, generally speaking.
00:37:08:16 - 00:37:29:24
Chris Dawes
And you sit there and go, yeah, but that means they're perfectly positioned to be able to assist. And that is where you've gone as you've gone that that dream has got to come to a premature end. But it's not wasted. I've got so much to give because of what I left there, what I've experienced and therefore what we can do that fair.
00:37:30:00 - 00:37:50:13
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah, 100%. And I think it applies to everything I do now. I stopped playing, but I knew I wanted to give back to the sport, be active. So I did my refereeing qualification. Yes, I referee in the men's pathway now, which is completely different atmosphere to women's football, but I'm still active. I'm still using all of those things like the discipline, my knowledge of the game and things like that all week.
00:37:50:13 - 00:38:14:14
Charlie Rowlands
And I'm doing my best to progress in that. And it's something that you can manage alongside having a career. Yeah. And then again, I noticed as I grew older these qualities and characteristics I've gained from playing a sport my whole life perfectly suit a corporate environment like finance or in a particular thing, someone like Chris and the business courses.
00:38:14:14 - 00:38:21:13
Charlie Rowlands
Bill. Yeah, the character I have seemed to align so well with what Chris wants to say for the people that work for him, which is, you know.
00:38:21:13 - 00:38:33:25
Chris Dawes
I got that already and I get it even more after this one, I have to say, is no question, what was that transition of when you then went, I'm retiring from football.
00:38:33:27 - 00:38:55:05
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. I think the most difficult thing for me was the loss of the social side of I, all of my lifelong friends I've made off from playing football. I went to school, I went sixth form, I went to university, and all of my lifelong friends are my best friends are from the people that I saw every day playing football.
00:38:55:07 - 00:39:05:17
Charlie Rowlands
They, a lot of people will say they met their friends at school and, you know, they stay in touch. But I don't talk to anyone I went to school with because when they were out playing in the evenings, I was at football training.
00:39:05:17 - 00:39:06:04
Chris Dawes
Of course.
00:39:06:04 - 00:39:12:09
Charlie Rowlands
And when they wanted to go to a house party and drink on a Saturday, I was at home eating chicken and rice, ready for my game.
00:39:12:09 - 00:39:14:13
Chris Dawes
Or could be, you know, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:39:14:13 - 00:39:36:05
Charlie Rowlands
So, you know, I had to sacrifice a lot of that stuff and you gain that back tenfold in the friendships and the relationships you make at your club. So then I was worried, you know, what am I going to do when I don't have social interaction every evening at training and get to have a laugh with my mates on the bus on the way to the game at the weekend, and you really do miss that.
00:39:36:05 - 00:39:42:05
Charlie Rowlands
But it doesn't just stop there. Still my friends, we still have a great laugh and now we can have a few beers and go.
00:39:42:08 - 00:39:44:08
Chris Dawes
Yeah, yeah, it's not quite as strict. Exactly.
00:39:44:12 - 00:40:02:20
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. And yeah, we'll play golf together. And I think I always thought that the place I worked at, I was so worried I would end up in a place that I would sit there and think, oh, I hate being here because you're all just corporate. You all just want to have the small talk and then sit at your laptops all day in silence.
00:40:02:22 - 00:40:09:24
Charlie Rowlands
And then obviously I found JP and you know, I'm in the office and we have great banter. I feel like I'm in a changing room sometimes.
00:40:09:27 - 00:40:10:26
Chris Dawes
I can imagine, you know.
00:40:10:27 - 00:40:28:13
Charlie Rowlands
Having a great time. But similarly to football, when you know that you need to get your work done and you have to turn it on and you step on the pitch, it's no longer banter having, you know, a laugh and it's serious. We're here to do a job. And that's again at JP. They have such a good balance of, you know, we've all got a job to do.
00:40:28:14 - 00:40:34:09
Charlie Rowlands
We know that we're very good. We can all get it done, but we've all got characters and we have a laugh and they're my friends.
00:40:34:12 - 00:40:48:06
Chris Dawes
I love it because I've just seen that analogy as well. Is that yes, it was all the social, the banter, everything like that. But then when think about any sport, doesn't matter what the sport is, doesn't actually even matter what gender is on this one is that then suddenly game time, game face bang.
00:40:48:09 - 00:41:08:04
Charlie Rowlands
Set foot on over the white line. You know it's a completely different. You end up shouting, swearing, screaming at each other because you demand more from each other and you want more. And I think it's important also in a workplace to have that relationship where you can demand more from each other and you want your peers around you to kind of raise their game because that makes you feel better, makes you feel good.
00:41:08:06 - 00:41:13:08
Chris Dawes
I know that you've been with me on setting all of this up. Yeah, yeah series. Yeah, definitely.
00:41:13:12 - 00:41:15:24
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. I'm a bit of a star in that I.
00:41:15:25 - 00:41:22:25
Chris Dawes
Yeah, but what was hardest practically to the change or mentally the change.
00:41:22:27 - 00:41:30:03
Charlie Rowlands
Oh that's again really difficult because I think again I was so concerned about staying active.
00:41:30:06 - 00:41:32:03
Chris Dawes
Yes. I've always thought about this. You know.
00:41:32:03 - 00:41:48:08
Charlie Rowlands
You go from training three, four days a week to kind of being sat there. And I think you initially have this euphoric, oh this is great. I can just sit and watch the telly and then you put on a bit of weight and you go, oh, I better get back in the gym. Yeah. And then you have to find something that you.
00:41:48:10 - 00:41:59:16
Charlie Rowlands
I don't think I ever before I'd thought the thing that normal corporate I guess people feel where they go to work all day and then go, cannot be asked to now take myself to the gym.
00:41:59:17 - 00:42:01:19
Chris Dawes
So I've got. Yeah.
00:42:01:21 - 00:42:21:24
Charlie Rowlands
It's it's a struggle and I get that now. Whereas before I couldn't wait to finish work and I was itching to get out and start running and kick a ball and have a ball at my feet, whereas I don't have that same passion for now, having to make myself get out there and be active. Really? Yeah. So that's that's a completely different mental and physical struggle.
00:42:21:24 - 00:42:24:12
Charlie Rowlands
I'd say that very much 5050 for me.
00:42:24:14 - 00:42:34:25
Chris Dawes
So it's not a it's, that's not a, a passion and a discipline that carries over necessary. Because I've always been told that if I can really get myself going to the gym, yeah, it becomes addictive.
00:42:34:27 - 00:42:50:28
Charlie Rowlands
I'd say it's definitely still a discipline because I make myself. And I think if you weren't from a background where you had the ability to tell yourself, no, you go in, yeah, yeah, and you get up and you do it and you go, and when things are hard, you do want more because you want to beat yourself. Yeah, yeah, that is in you.
00:42:50:29 - 00:43:07:15
Charlie Rowlands
And so whether I'm doing that gym or whether I'm playing tennis with my missus, I still want to beat her and I still want to make sure I, you know, if she wants to. Oh, I can do an extra mile. I'll do two. And it's, you know, you always have that in you, regardless of if it's for fun or if it's competitive.
00:43:07:15 - 00:43:25:19
Charlie Rowlands
But I think it's definitely it's, it's more of a task because I've gone for a whole day at work on my desk, and now I have to get myself up for go into the gym. Whereas before the work was just a little side task. And the main thing I was doing that day, everything I did was ready to go.
00:43:25:19 - 00:43:43:03
Chris Dawes
It's very important. Yeah, I mean, I know I, I, you wouldn't know it looking at me now, sadly, but, that's why I make that comment is I get that corporate trap in reality, but I used to be, a national level swimmer when I was younger, and I was training twice a day, actually, during the week.
00:43:43:09 - 00:43:57:29
Chris Dawes
And it's at its heart height, and I'm competing everywhere on the weekends. I could eat anything, actually. Although we were disciplined, I could actually anything. And I wouldn't put at the grammar.
00:43:58:00 - 00:43:59:12
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah.
00:43:59:14 - 00:44:07:24
Chris Dawes
Then you stop and you forget, but that doesn't apply anymore. And suddenly you do. If you look at it, you suddenly blow up.
00:44:07:26 - 00:44:20:00
Charlie Rowlands
Yes. And that's, that's the thing is, you have to be so much more mindful about your own physical activity, whereas before that wasn't you didn't ever have to think about it because you were always doing more than you needed to be to maintain yourself.
00:44:20:04 - 00:44:35:29
Chris Dawes
And there's this irony, and I don't know why I've gone off on this tangent, but I'll wrap this one up. But the, is that you kind of assume. Yeah, but if I'm going and doing all this physical exercise, I'm going to be exhausted. But actually, you've got less energy if you're doing nothing 100%.
00:44:35:29 - 00:44:55:20
Charlie Rowlands
And I find that now, you know, on a weekend, if I get up on a Sunday, I know I haven't got football. I'll be thinking I could sit in front of the telly, you know, it's raining. I'll have a cozy day in, you know, order something for breakfast and sandwiches that day. But the best thing to do. Because then I'll be snoozing on the sofa and I'm like, oh, I'm so tired today.
00:44:55:23 - 00:45:09:16
Charlie Rowlands
If you get out, you know, go for a walk, take the dog out, you know, go for a quick jog. Anything crazy, you know, go play plug. Go play golf. Yeah. And that then it does energize you and it gives you that, you know, you've just done something that you didn't want to do for the mind.
00:45:09:18 - 00:45:15:10
Chris Dawes
Tricks itself, doesn't it? It goes I'll just chill out. But then you got to have a nap to get over your sleep. Yeah.
00:45:15:10 - 00:45:32:05
Charlie Rowlands
And I think that's what I don't have is that I am constantly if I'm sat down, I'm constantly thinking about the next time I'm going to move. And I think that's from that. You know, I was always waiting to go out and do something physical. So now if I'm at home, you know, I get home from work and in the evenings I can't just sit in front of the telly.
00:45:32:12 - 00:45:43:13
Charlie Rowlands
I have to go and. Right, let's go to the driving range. Well, let's go for a run or let's go for a walk. You know, my lunch break when I'm working from home, I'm running up my lunch break because I'd rather do that than sit and watch a telly for half an hour.
00:45:43:16 - 00:45:53:26
Chris Dawes
Yeah, yeah, I get that. I may have already asked this, but I'm going to put the question out there. What did you not feel prepared for?
00:45:53:29 - 00:46:15:01
Charlie Rowlands
I think. The long and short of it is everything. I don't think I ever gave any of it any thought, which is where I think is where we can be helpful. I think I was so focused on playing now and what I was doing now, what I was earning now. I wasn't thinking, yeah, but in ten years I want to buy a house.
00:46:15:01 - 00:46:42:19
Charlie Rowlands
I thought, well, if in ten years I've got the money, I'll do it. Yeah, yeah. And you, that's just not how it works when you, you know, not planning for your financial future. And I think just not knowing what support was out there, I didn't even know that I could have gone and got myself a financial advisor by going downstairs at High Street and walking into a building I had no idea, or looking on a website and saying, you know, oh, I didn't know that these services are available.
00:46:42:19 - 00:46:45:20
Charlie Rowlands
So the normal person like you said, you think it's for the wealthy?
00:46:45:22 - 00:46:49:11
Chris Dawes
Yeah. The I want to go and invest in stuff. So no no no no no no it's not.
00:46:49:17 - 00:46:56:16
Charlie Rowlands
And they can help you with your everyday financial problems, financial goals. You know. Yeah. You don't need to be in money trouble. You don't need to have a surplus of money.
00:46:56:19 - 00:47:00:19
Chris Dawes
It's like going to the doctor for, for a health check or something, isn't it? And I just.
00:47:00:19 - 00:47:07:26
Charlie Rowlands
Think, I, I wish I had tried to coach myself financially as much as coach myself physically and mentally.
00:47:07:28 - 00:47:26:29
Chris Dawes
That external view takes away all your, I don't know what I wouldn't even want to say. Habits or what you think is important at that time. We've all got that. It will never happen to me or that's how it is away. How are you going to overcome that challenge that you know what could have sugar?
00:47:27:02 - 00:47:28:27
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah.
00:47:28:29 - 00:47:34:27
Chris Dawes
But you also know where their mindset is right now that they're kind of gone. It's fine. It's Aids. Is it right. Yeah.
00:47:35:00 - 00:47:50:03
Charlie Rowlands
Oh I think that's the goal for me is to help the how these women feel like I'm not trying to patronize them. The you know, I was, you know, when someone older than you says, oh, you know, that's why I've been around long day.
00:47:50:07 - 00:47:50:23
Chris Dawes
Yeah.
00:47:50:25 - 00:48:10:14
Charlie Rowlands
And I want it to be more about how these are things that should be a standard. And if you buy into it with me, everyone around us will start going, yeah, we should be doing that. But we need people to invest in that journey with us. Yeah. For it to have any effect. And I think that's the thing for me, it mainly was protection for me.
00:48:10:14 - 00:48:24:20
Charlie Rowlands
I think I now look at all of these women and say, you need to be protecting yourselves because something had happened to me. I was in a fortunate situation that I worked hard alongside plan. I know now that you can't do that because you is grow in.
00:48:24:22 - 00:48:29:12
Chris Dawes
The irony, isn't it? Yeah, that that means the time that needs to be given is going to be going along with it.
00:48:29:18 - 00:48:33:26
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. And as much as there may be pain, you're a little bit more now. I know it's still not enough. It's not.
00:48:33:26 - 00:48:34:12
Chris Dawes
Linear is.
00:48:34:12 - 00:48:45:25
Charlie Rowlands
It. Need to protect yourself. Yeah. And that's what it kind of I have the sense of wanting to make sure that they don't fall into the trap. That could have happened to me.
00:48:45:27 - 00:49:04:09
Chris Dawes
I mean, it's great because I've got even more questions here, but I think we've really been answering them as we go. What are the key things I mean, I know we've talked about investing for a rainy day and we possibly have covered this, but what tends to get overlooked financially? What's the biggest things that get overlooked financially?
00:49:04:12 - 00:49:25:09
Charlie Rowlands
I think protection in this case. So, you know, critical illness cover of course, things like that. You know, if you break your leg and you then cannot earn because your job depends on you being physically able, what are you going to do? You can't then potentially if your job outside of football is football coaching or, you know, things like that, you need to make sure that you're protected.
00:49:25:09 - 00:49:43:01
Charlie Rowlands
And that was never even suggested to me as an elite athlete at that level. No one ever came to speak to us to say, you know, you're an athlete, you need to make sure that you're protected. That was never a case. And if it did, it came from outside agencies that would message you on Instagram. You know, and.
00:49:43:01 - 00:49:44:02
Chris Dawes
You'd go,
00:49:44:04 - 00:49:46:18
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. Or you'd think like, oh, they just want more money.
00:49:46:19 - 00:49:47:07
Chris Dawes
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:49:47:08 - 00:50:05:00
Charlie Rowlands
So you, yeah, you kind of sidestep them like they would be in sharks. But yeah. Protection definitely. I think access to people that I would have loved to have had at my fingertips, like someone like Jacob to speak to about, oh, you know, I earn this amount of money now for this two years, I'm going to ask for this salary for my next contract.
00:50:05:03 - 00:50:13:03
Charlie Rowlands
Will I earn enough to buy a house or shall I keep runs in, you know, what are the markets doing things like that. Just having the knowledge of those people around you? Yeah.
00:50:13:04 - 00:50:17:11
Chris Dawes
No, absolutely.
00:50:17:13 - 00:50:39:16
Chris Dawes
I love this because, I mean, we don't need to answer this one, but I love the fact that I had a question. It said, what from football has helped you most in your career? Now it's you've made that so abundantly clear. Yeah. That that I love it. I love seeing that. And I often sort of think, do you look back and remember when you were playing and you had these skills, these disciplines?
00:50:39:18 - 00:50:44:03
Chris Dawes
Did you already know that these were transferable skills and disciplines?
00:50:44:05 - 00:51:13:17
Charlie Rowlands
I think I learned quite quickly that I the reason that I did always been able to do well academically. And when I was doing things like job interviews for stuff just for the part time work I had to do alongside football, the characteristics that people liked about me were the things I would because I was playing football, because I was wanted to achieve, and I had a can do attitude and positivity, and I was a leader and things like that.
00:51:13:17 - 00:51:28:19
Charlie Rowlands
And those are skills that people look for in the corporate world, that often people have to learn through life and through jobs, whereas I had learned them from the age of four, playing how to be robust against the lads or you then stepping in.
00:51:28:23 - 00:51:30:23
Chris Dawes
And then the women's first team. Yeah.
00:51:30:26 - 00:51:52:25
Charlie Rowlands
You know, learning how to have that maturity and the discipline of go into training when in the rain, in the cold and, you know, the view that. Yeah, things like that. You know I couldn't miss a day of training. It's more personality built in that then gave me a personality that I thought made me able to know when I go into a job and it's difficult and some people will struggle and kind of crumble.
00:51:52:27 - 00:51:54:08
Charlie Rowlands
I flourish in that sense.
00:51:54:15 - 00:52:01:04
Chris Dawes
I get that. Plus, being a top scoring striker, you're a glory hunter. Yeah.
00:52:01:06 - 00:52:12:27
Charlie Rowlands
I was only spoken about as a GPA, but my favorite thing is when everyone tells me I'm doing well. So because I come from this background, my job was to get it was really hard. But then I get exactly.
00:52:12:27 - 00:52:13:15
Chris Dawes
Yeah.
00:52:13:17 - 00:52:14:16
Charlie Rowlands
And so it's.
00:52:14:19 - 00:52:17:14
Chris Dawes
Been an onslaught and he's she's kept them all.
00:52:17:14 - 00:52:18:27
Charlie Rowlands
Out. Yeah. It doesn't matter.
00:52:18:29 - 00:52:21:21
Chris Dawes
You got to go. You're a hero. Yeah.
00:52:21:23 - 00:52:27:01
Charlie Rowlands
And I'm exactly the same with work. I mean, you can ask Chris, but I just I beg everyone to tell me how great I am. All right.
00:52:27:01 - 00:52:39:02
Chris Dawes
Yeah, I love that. That's really cool. And that was me being flippant with that as well. Last few things, because I'm conscious of the time, but, how does training translate into financial planning?
00:52:39:04 - 00:52:57:13
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. And I think that's something that I kind of touching on with the financial coaching, I think, I wish I had had set time where I went, you know, once a month on my football schedule, I'd go, right, I'm having deep tissue massage because that Aids may be able to play better. I don't have to think about, you know, my body recovering.
00:52:57:20 - 00:53:13:04
Charlie Rowlands
I've got it booked in. Someone's helping me do that. If I made sure I had, you know, a review of what my contract is doing every season, booked in every six months. You know, these are my plans for next year in my contract, then the next six months. This is the contract I've got. How does that this is for me.
00:53:13:06 - 00:53:34:03
Charlie Rowlands
It would be in my head. I wouldn't have to sit at home or the training ground here. And the girls talk about buying a house or having kids and think, oh, what am I doing with the money I've got? I know it's taken care of and it's I've got someone booked in that's going to advise me and give me that ongoing reassurance of, you know, whatever your situation is, we'll help you plan towards that main goal.
00:53:34:03 - 00:53:38:27
Charlie Rowlands
Like you said, whether it's being mortgage free, saving for a house, saving for IVF, whatever it is.
00:53:39:00 - 00:53:52:27
Chris Dawes
Yeah, no, I get that, I like making sure that some of these, we may be already covered. Do you see similar challenges in women's sport and business and what tends to get underestimated?
00:53:52:29 - 00:54:15:20
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah, that there are definitely similar challenges, which I touched on previously in terms of that, you know, too often not given that same access to resources support because, you know, you're the woman in the room. And I think the main thing to take from that for us is that these are very similar people. So you're going to need similar support and you should talk to each other.
00:54:15:22 - 00:54:35:24
Charlie Rowlands
And I think, like I said, a lot of these girls are coming out of playing football, are going to want to be around women in business that have that similar character to them, and they're going to want to work for people like that or learn from them, because they're also starting their own business and they want to talk about, you know, oh, what kind of stuff did you do, you know, how can you help me in my career now.
00:54:35:24 - 00:54:55:10
Chris Dawes
Especially if they're starting out, then, you know, for for a period of time things are going to be follow. You know, it's not going to be lucrative yet. And you're banking on the future and you're striving towards it. So I get that. Yeah. What would you tell someone going through a big career change?
00:54:55:13 - 00:55:03:00
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah, that is a great question. I think for me it's to plan ahead in terms of I again, I think.
00:55:03:02 - 00:55:05:14
Chris Dawes
The time for you to change.
00:55:05:16 - 00:55:29:24
Charlie Rowlands
I think know what you want from this transition, know why you're doing it, understand what you know are your base level needs from making this change. I think that for me is what I again wish I had done a bit more of is go into finding my first feet in the corporate world and I mean, I'm lucky that the situation I found myself in is perfect for me.
00:55:29:27 - 00:55:30:20
Chris Dawes
And I very different.
00:55:30:20 - 00:55:50:06
Charlie Rowlands
But it makes me realize, I think had I gone into DPA and it had been all the things that I hated, what would I have done? Yeah, yeah. You know, because you need a job, you have to earn your money, you have to pay your bills. And you know, you have to know what aligns with you. And be aware that you've got a very particular set of skills as a footballer.
00:55:50:06 - 00:55:52:15
Chris Dawes
It's a film that says.
00:55:52:17 - 00:56:09:22
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah, they got a copyright that and make sure that you are aware of that because they are going to help you. When you go for job interviews, use them to advantage, make sure they understand the cards you are. You know the abilities you have because there's jobs out there that think that that's a massive plus and they will let you flourish.
00:56:09:27 - 00:56:27:10
Chris Dawes
And equally, I would actually, add to that with if you were going it on your own, that that was the big career change, you know, especially with talking women in business and the like is make sure that those attributes that you really emphasize when you're in job interviews. Yeah.
00:56:27:10 - 00:56:27:25
Charlie Rowlands
Use them.
00:56:27:25 - 00:56:34:24
Chris Dawes
Your potential customers should be knowing about those skills, those attributes that that stands you out.
00:56:34:24 - 00:56:55:28
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. Use your personality. And you know, it's all about creating connections with people. I think that's for me. I wouldn't want to give advice once I'm qualified to anyone that didn't feel I had that connection with. They understood how I work. I understand what they want because it's all about that trust. And for me anyway, that's what I would want.
00:56:56:01 - 00:57:00:03
Chris Dawes
One lesson from sport that applies to money.
00:57:00:06 - 00:57:09:03
Charlie Rowlands
I think I would say. Oh.
00:57:09:05 - 00:57:39:13
Charlie Rowlands
I think again, it's that being prepared for me, I never went into a game not knowing the plan. You go in, you've got a game plan. You know, you know, when we sponsored so in the Wildcats, they asked us for a slogan. It's going on upstairs and board. And I said to Chris, it should be your financial game plan because you never when you're in a sports setting, go into a game training without a very sort of strict structure and game plan for what's going to happen.
00:57:39:16 - 00:57:43:10
Charlie Rowlands
And I don't think it should be any different for financially what you're doing.
00:57:43:13 - 00:57:49:04
Chris Dawes
Because there's even you're able to use the the examples of that doesn't mean, you know, everything that's going to happen.
00:57:49:05 - 00:57:53:04
Charlie Rowlands
And you'll make mistakes. Yeah. You sometimes the tactics mean you need to chop and change.
00:57:53:04 - 00:57:56:04
Chris Dawes
The officials are rubbish or yeah, whatever it was they go.
00:57:56:04 - 00:58:16:11
Charlie Rowlands
In your way. Yeah. You know the markets change the same way that, you know you go down. Yeah. It's just that you need to be prepared for having a plan and having people there around you that support you. I mean a football club, you're full of physios, strength and conditioning, you know, sports scientist. There's all these people there to support you to be physically able.
00:58:16:14 - 00:58:28:02
Charlie Rowlands
You kind of need that in your financial life as well. You know you get solicitors, you get you know accountant, the tax returns. So why wouldn't you get someone to help you plan for the future?
00:58:28:06 - 00:58:40:18
Chris Dawes
Yeah. Final piece them. What if you're now reaching out? People are watching. What do you want to appeal to them about? And how can I get in touch with you?
00:58:40:21 - 00:58:58:24
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah, I think the main thing for me is if you feel like you're in that similar situation and you can understand what I'm talking about, you're in that kind of category. Now is the time to come and speak to us, because we've got this product ready to go. I've got all the time in the world to be going out, taking you out, speaking to you about your problems and trying to fix them.
00:58:58:26 - 00:59:17:17
Charlie Rowlands
And all of the advisors are really keen on buying into this initiative at the moment, and they want to help and they want to talk to you. So get in touch. Obviously you can email us, you can pop in. We've got office in Salford and again, it's not just regional to the area we're in. We've got an office in London, we've got an office in Solihull.
00:59:17:17 - 00:59:29:03
Charlie Rowlands
You know, there's plenty of of places that will cater to all travel. And I just want women in sport and women in business in particular to know that that's my job. I'm here to help them.
00:59:29:04 - 00:59:49:06
Chris Dawes
And that's a key thing. So obviously JP is broader than that. But this is an area that JP I've decided to really try to provide the assistance. And you in particular lived it, breathed it well positioned, empathetic, all of the above. And don't think, oh, it's something I should do in the future.
00:59:49:12 - 00:59:57:02
Charlie Rowlands
Yeah. Get ahead of the game. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And that's what we're here for. So the support's there now. It's just time for people to come and use it.
00:59:57:04 - 01:00:17:07
Chris Dawes
Love it Charlie. It's been absolutely amazing. We could go on talking. Yeah. So many. And we probably will do over future episodes. Yeah. Thank you so much for this. Very open, very candid. I think it's been great fun and a real great insight. And I think that that people are going to be, much better off with you doing what you're doing now as well.
01:00:17:07 - 01:00:18:20
Chris Dawes
So thanks, Chris. Thank you for your time.
01:00:18:21 - 01:00:19:16
Charlie Rowlands
Thank you.
01:00:19:18 - 01:00:37:06
Chris Dawes
So thank you for joining us on JPA Train Your Wealth. I hope that was, interesting, entertaining all of the above. But most importantly, I hope it was helpful as well. And reach out and see how Charlie at JPA can actually assist you. We'll see you on episode three. Cheers.