July 24, 2025 • 43 mins
From premiership glory to private wealth... Ted Richards joins us for Episode 3 of From the Field to Finance!
A former Sydney Swans premiership player and All-Australian defender, Ted takes us on an extraordinary journey from elite sport to high-stakes finance. With remarkable candour, he shares the mindset shift that transformed his football career, becoming the best centre-half back in the competition through self-belief, visualisation, and mental resilience.
While playing AFL for 15 years, Ted was also quietly building a parallel path studying commerce and finance and preparing for a future beyond the field. That dual commitment coincided with some of his most successful years on the field.
Now Head of Melbourne at Wilsons Advisory, Ted brings the same discipline and competitive edge to managing wealth for high-net-worth clients. Ted applies performance principles from the locker room to the boardroom.
This episode unpacks how mental strength outweighs physical prowess, why preparation is the ultimate edge, and how success is best measured far beyond your first act.
Whether you're planning your next chapter, building your portfolio, or striving to stay sharp in a fast-moving world - Ted’s story is a powerful playbook for long-term thinking and reinvention.
Follow Ted Richards on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedrichards25/
Visit the Wilsons Advisory website: https://www.wilsonsadvisory.com.au/
Enjoyed the episode? Follow Finance Friends Podcast on Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok for daily updates and more inspiring conversations. Got questions or ideas for future episodes? Send us a DM @financefriendspodcast!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome back to Finance Friends, your personal
seat at the table with leadersshaping the financial world.
In this exclusive season wemeet with high profile,
incredibly successful athleteswho achieve the greatest heights
on the sports field and are nowdominating the finance world.
(00:44):
Today's episode we have TedRichards.
Played over 250 games for 16seasons for Essendon and Sydney
Swans, premiership player,all-australian centre-half back,
and he talks through hisjourney of being a football
player studying part-time,working part-time and his
(01:07):
mindset of being the best in thecompetition and how he's able
to achieve that.
And now he leads a team atWilson's Advisory, one of the
leading financial services firmsin Australia.
Listen in and hear his story.
Today we have Ted Richards.
Ted, welcome to the studio.
Thanks very much for having me.
Thank you for coming in.
You're a busy man.
(01:28):
You mentioned you're off to aconference in Adelaide during
the week.
Talk to me about thatconference.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, so I wear two hats in my role at Wilson's
Advisory, one of which ismanaging and leading the private
wealth team here in Melbourne.
I've got advisors, but theother hat I wear is I've got a
book of clients as well that Iwork with.
So over there it's probably abit of both it is getting out
and meeting some advisors overin South Australia, but also the
(01:56):
opportunity to speak in frontof some high net worth investors
about our thoughts on themarket and what we're doing to
position portfolios aroundcurrent events.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, so your role is head of Melbourne at Wilson
Advisory, so you look after yourown clients.
You're a financial advisor andinvestment advisor, is that
right?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yes, so yeah, I work with high net worth individuals,
families, family offices andnot-for-profit organisations.
I have a team where I've got acolleague we partner up together
and she focuses more on thefinancial planning component,
the strategic piece for clients.
(02:36):
I'm sure many listeners will befamiliar with that, but for
those not aware, what entitiesare we going to invest, what
cash flow requirements, whatliquidity they may need, and my
role is the investment piece.
So related to that is findingsomeone's risk profile, getting
(02:57):
the right asset allocationaccording to that and then, once
the asset allocation isdetermined, investing across
managed funds and directequities, both domestic and
global, to build out a portfoliofor them that meets their goals
and objectives.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
So you look at a client and every client would be
very different in terms oftheir needs and objectives and
their risk profile and whatthey're seeking to return,
thinking to return, yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
So there's a line that people often use for family
offices, but it's relevant forhigh net worths too is you've
seen one family office?
You've seen one family office?
A lot of high net worths havedifferent goals and objectives.
So for some of my clients rightnow it is investing for the
future generations and there isno need for the funds right now,
whereas there are others thatare in a similar situation that
(03:48):
actually are after the income,because, whether it's bank of
mum and dad and gifting somesalaries to the younger
generations, or it's the needfor liquidity to pay sizable
land tax that they may have ininvestment properties and
holiday houses, there'sdifferent goals and objectives
along the way and I helpposition the portfolio to ensure
(04:12):
that they can be met.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, and how often would you meet with your clients
to give them an update onwhat's happening on investment
markets and update on theirportfolio?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Yeah, well, speaking, certainly speaking frequently,
particularly if there are timesof volatility and depending when
this podcast may be listened to, depending what Trump may or
may not have said and thepolicies around that.
But, yeah, try to catch up withthem, monthly or quarterly to
(04:45):
check in with them.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
What are the?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
most important skills that are required in your job
at the moment, and did you learnsome of those skills being a
professional athlete?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, to take it back a step.
Yeah, a professional athlete.
My job was as an AFL footballer.
If you really want to take itback a step, a professional
athlete, my job was as an AFLfootballer.
If you really want to simplifyit, my job was to chase a ball,
chase a ball and try to get it,or protect the ball, go the
other way.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Or protect it and try and kick it.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
between, two sticks and on the other hand, if you
really want to simplify it, it'smanaging someone's wealth that
they've probably taken decades,if not longer, to accumulate.
So you know, on one levelthey're very different, but
there are some similarity lifeskills that I have taken from my
(05:42):
football career, such as hardwork, resilience.
And if I had to give a third,it would be around goal setting
and competitiveness.
So just to build that out a bitmore, as a private wealth
advisor, I know that part of myrole is attention to detail and
(06:07):
with that attention to detailcomes hard work.
My role as an advisor requiresresilience, whether it's
speaking with a client about thefact that the market has pulled
back and things out of mycontrol.
But the reality is we'rediversified, there's that.
(06:29):
But potentially I've gone infor a pitch and unfortunately I
haven't won that pitch havingthat resilience, but to know
that I've got to go again.
And that last one, I think Isaid, goal setting and
competitiveness.
The reality is, you know, as anadvisor or, sorry, as an
(06:49):
individual I like winning, butpotentially sometimes I go too
far with winning, Like a bit ofa tangent here, but like when I
get to an airport like my wifejust laughs in that, because
airports are often full ofqueues, I have to pick the.
My wife just laughs becauseairports are often full of
queues, I have to pick the queue, that's the quickest.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I'm the same.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
And I am furious with myself.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I hope you don't break the pack on the way
through?
No, no no, I don't, but I'mfurious with myself.
If you pick the wrong one, if Ipick the wrong one.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Not because it's cost me an extra minute or two, but
because I lost, and yeah.
So if you can harness that goalsetting and that
competitiveness for good, be it.
As an advisor and I want todeliver as much alpha as I can
(07:41):
for my clients I want to win asmany pitches as I can.
That's the good side, you know.
But there is a negative side tobeing competitive in that
there's a flip side to that coin.
Sometimes you just can't turnit off and you know when I was
playing and I'm not the only youknow sometimes you know you
have a bad loss.
You can't sleep that nightbecause you're just replaying.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
All these times when Nick Riewoldt or someone like
that might have kicked a goal onme and I just wish I had that
contest back.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So you talked about goal setting.
I want to bring it back to yourtime in football.
Did you have an individual planthat your coach would run
through with you, or is it moreat a team level?
Like, obviously you reached theultimate success of being an
AFL Premiership player.
Was that set by the coachingstaff or is that more you as an
(08:37):
individual, that you wanted toplay 22 games and you want to
play finals?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Yeah, so I was fortunate enough to play for 16
years, and five of those were atEssendon and 11 were at the
Swans and pretty much every yearthere is some form of goal
setting.
There is some form.
But I think where goal settingis different, where people fall
short often, is they'll eitherthink it or perhaps they'll
(09:06):
write it down and then it'llstop there.
So I can remember a goal ofmine in my first year of
football as a 17-year-old was tobe more confident when I play
on the field.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
What is?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
that.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Very qualitative, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
How do you do that?
How do you measure that?
So, over the course of mycareer, it was actually.
If we've got time, I'll tellthis story it was 2010.
I had a bad year of footy, sowere you playing at.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I was at the Swans.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I was at the Swans and we didn't get off to a good
start that year and I gotdropped, call it round two or
round three, and I actuallylooked ahead to see who the
Swans were playing.
It was like the bottom threeteams the next few weeks and I
knew straight away we're goingto smack those teams and it's
(09:59):
going to be very hard for me toget back in for a while.
So I worked my ass off andeverything like that and I was
out of contract, which made meeven more nervous.
I got my way back in and at theend of the season I had an okay
season and fortunately I wasoffered a one-year deal which
got me an extra contract.
(10:20):
But I can remember thinking atthe end of that season I've got
to do things a bit differentlythis year.
And around that time I read abook called Good to Great, which
I'm sure listeners will befamiliar with, and in that book
there's a couple of themes thatI stole which, when it came to
goal setting, I really utilized.
(10:41):
One was this I love thisparable through the book about
the hedgehog and the fox.
For those not familiar withthis, the fox tries to be good
at everything and that's what Iwas trying to do as a footballer
.
I was trying to be good ateverything, whereas the reality
is that's very hard, if notimpossible.
There's only, you know, the0.1%, 1% of people that can do
(11:04):
that.
The more sensible strategy isto try and be the hedgehog.
That's good at one thing andthat is, you know, for a
hedgehog, it's rolling up into aball full of spikes and you
know what a fantastic defensivemechanism.
So you're probably wonderingwhere am I going with this.
Anyway, I decided I was goingto, instead of trying to be
(11:26):
someone that could play everyposition, I'm going to try and
be the best centre-half back inthe competition.
No, sorry, I'm not going to try.
I am going to be the bestcentre-half back in the
competition.
And related to that throughoutthe book.
There's a big hairy, audaciousgoal theme that runs through the
book and I decided my big hairy, audacious goal theme that runs
(11:47):
through the book and I decidedmy big hairy, audacious goal, my
BHAG would be, is I'm going tobe the best defender in the
competition.
So I set that down and wroteabout it.
And why this is similar,related to the earlier answer I
gave, is that when I was 17, Idid goal setting and I wrote
down have more confidence inmyself, believe in myself more,
(12:08):
and that's where it stopped,whereas when I wrote down I'm
going to be the best defender inthe competition.
I kind of had a bit of a waythat I was going to do that, and
that is I'm just going to tellmyself that I'm the best
defender in the competition overand over every day.
I'm going to visualize myselfbeing the best defender in the
(12:29):
competition every week before Igo and play.
To be honest, at first Istruggled a bit with it because
I'm like it wasn't that long agoI was playing in the twos.
I'm on a one-year deal.
There's so many reasons why Iam so not the best defender in
the competition.
But I controlled my self-talkand I just went over and over it
(12:52):
again and what ended uphappening was when I went into
games, I was like I'd seen thismovie before.
I was like I believe I am thebest defender in the competition
.
I'm going to go out there andI'm going to dominate.
And I ended up having the bestyear of football of my career
and we won the premiership, gotall Australian and my career
(13:15):
really took off from there.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So you changed your mindset, yep, and your mindset
was from being a I I want to begood at everything to I'm going
to be the best defender in theleague and I believe in that
outcome.
And were there certain say, themechanics of it?
Was it your speed?
Was it your ability to jump andspoil?
(13:41):
Was it your physicalness?
Were there some metrics, somemechanics behind that?
You really focused on and setgoals there.
Like you know, bench presscertain amount in the gym.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah, I did reflect on myself as well.
If I am a defender, so if I amgoing to be the best defender in
the competition, how do Icompare to the other good
defenders in the competition?
At the time?
That was the likes of MatthewScarlett, darren Glass, ben
Rutten, and I've kind of did abit of an audit.
(14:11):
Well, how do I compare to those?
And one thing I picked up issimilar height, similar speed,
but they're bigger and strongerthan me.
In a one-on-one against NickRiewoldt, jonathan Brown,
whoever, pavlich, whoever wasthe best at the time.
That's where they were reallygood at.
So I did focus in spending moretime in the gym, made a bit of
(14:34):
a pact to myself I wouldn't doanother goal-kicking session
again, because so often we alljust kind of go out there and do
it's hard not to.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I know that's what you do.
As a kid, I know.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
It's a bit of fun.
But I was like it makes so muchmore sense for me to get
someone just to kick high ballsat me and I practice smashing
them away as far as I can, andfor me to practice snaps from
the boundary 20 metres out.
Anyway, that's a bit of atangent.
But yeah, I did do an audit ofmyself, spent more time in the
(15:08):
gym, put on some size, got mystrength up.
But, to be honest, if I had tokind of pinpoint to one area, it
wasn't the physical attributes,it wasn't the mechanics, it was
more mental.
And I am of the view right now,even though I've been out of the
(15:29):
industry for a while, every AFLteam and if you're not an AFL
fan, like every professionalsporting team they all have hard
pre-seasons.
If you try and do a harderpre-season than someone else,
maybe you might be able to get a1% or 2% advantage here or
(15:51):
there.
But where I do think advantageslie in competitions
professional sportingcompetitions is the mental side.
There are teams that go outthere on the weekend and are far
more confident in their ownability and the team's ability
to win than others.
Now I'm not sure when thispodcast is going to be released.
Whether at the time ofrecording, you look at Hawthorne
(16:12):
when they run out or BrisbaneLions and they look from the
outside to me, they are veryconfident they're going to win.
And at the time of recordingmaybe if you're a Carlton fan
you won't like to hear this, butsometimes I look at that team
run out and go.
It does appear from the outside.
You're worried about theoutside noise.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yeah, it's hard not to see that from when you're
watching the game, the playersand their mannerisms and simple
things Like I coach a socialmen's football team.
If you want to have a kick toit, we've got room for a couple
more than Richmond Central'sthirds.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Okay, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
But you know it's the same right.
It's very much you know.
You head up as a team.
We're in it together.
Let's go out there and let'sgive it a crack, let's believe
we can get this done and we won.
When I coached a couple ofyears ago we won the grand final
.
Yeah, there's a real mindsetthat we can go out there and
we're going to win every singlegame.
And you know, it just makessuch a difference to you as a
(17:16):
player if you've got that levelof confidence.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, yeah.
The more widely I readthroughout my career, it wasn't
whether it was Agassi's book andthe struggles that he had in
believing with himself, or booksabout the All Blacks and what
Richie McCraw does before a gameto prepare himself in terms of
(17:46):
blank sheet of paper beforeevery game to prepare Agassi.
He has the self-doubts beforeevery game, but he goes through
a routine.
Whilst he shaves his headbefore every tennis match, he
starts the process off with thewhat-ifs and over the course of
the next hour, he controls hisself-talk and goes out there and
goes I can win now.
(18:07):
So yeah, I am a big believer inthe mental side, whether it is
related to football or it isalso related to your work and
your KPIs, goal setting,resilience, the markets.
Whatever it is related to yourrole.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yeah, because let's talk about your role now because
you need to be resilient andfocused.
You know, if markets do comeoff substantially, stick into
that goal, because it's easy toget caught up in what the media
is saying about markets droppingoff and lose sight and then,
you know, end up selling at thebottom Yep, and then miss the
(18:45):
bounce Yep.
So you must be spending a lotof time educating your clients
around.
You know, sticking to theinvestment strategy.
We've got the diversificationin place to ensure they're not.
You know, making the wrongdecisions at the wrong time.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, so that's.
There's soft skills thereempathy, but I guess the life
skills from football is the factthat these calls and these
conversations, they need to bemade.
You need to get out there.
Part of it is an update, theother is to reinforce the
(19:22):
conversations that we had whenthese portfolios were set up,
the conversations that we hadwhen these portfolios were set
up, ensuring that the clientsare invested appropriately for
their risk profile.
They're diversified and oftenit is just a reminder that
they're on track to achievetheir objectives and goals.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And do you have much to do with the AFL at the moment
?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
The AFL.
That's a very broad church, yesand no.
So I'm involved in the PlayersAssociation.
I sit on the AFL PlayersAssociation Investment Committee
, so that's a part of theindustry.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
What does that involve?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
What does that involve?
Okay, so part of a player'ssalary is put aside each year
for their retirement fund andthat retirement fund whilst
they've accumulated that, thatgets invested and that grows
over time, and then, when theplayer retires, they'll receive
(20:31):
distributions from that for aset period of time, depending on
how long they played for.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
So it's effectively like a superannuation fund for
players.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, yeah, but it's to assist with the transition,
as opposed to retirement whensomeone's 60, 65.
This is to assist with thetransitions.
Let's say someone is luckyenough to pay until their early
30s.
This would kick in when theyretire and go for about a
10-year period to ensure that,as they're transitioning their
(20:59):
career, that they can meet theircash flow needs.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, so transitioning to their next
career.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yeah, yeah.
So there's that.
But other than that, like I'mvery much a fan of the Sydney
Swans and still got a soft spotfor the Bombers, so I try to get
to those games and fortunateenough that through my time I do
get invited to the odd eventand I love getting along to
(21:28):
those.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Yeah, and what about the premiership reunions?
Yes, Is that the best as a pastplayer that's won a premiership
.
Yeah, because I know I'veplayed in a local footy team and
won grand finals and for methat's the most fun catching up
with the guys.
Very different, obviously aprofessional athlete, but still
catching up with guys that Imight not have seen for two,
(21:50):
three, four, five years.
And reminiscing that year thatwe won the flag.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Yeah, you're right.
So I played at Essendon forfive years under Kevin Sheedy,
and while Sheeds and I didn'tget along from time to time,
there is one thing that Iremember that he said and he was
right is one of the best thingsabout premierships are the
reunions.
I played lucky enough to playin three grand finals lost to
1-1.
That was 2012.
(22:15):
So we had our 10-year reunionin 22.
And it was kind of a bit likegoing back to the first day at
school.
You know, some of these guys Ihaven't seen in.
You know five, six, seven yearsand then within two minutes,
it's like you know, we're justplaying again.
(22:35):
Like the banter the abuse.
They're like HR would have beenvery concerned about some of
the conversation, but it waslike we're 22 again, you know in
the car rooms reminiscing andyeah, like, don't get me wrong,
part of it was you remember thiswin or remember something like
that, but more often than not itwas stories from.
(22:56):
It was the little things, yeah,the pranks.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah, yeah, the pranks, yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And that is certainly the camaraderie of working in
an environment like that issomething that I miss, but in
saying that, it is somethingthat I'm doing my best to foster
where we are at Wilson'sAdvisory and our private wealth
team there.
So, whilst all our advisorshave their own business that
(23:22):
they focus in on, I'm trying toensure that we've got a level of
camaraderie and an environmentthat people can kind of bounce
off and there is a level of teamsupport, just to ensure that.
You know, we all have our dayswhen it's harder to get into the
office, but I want to have anenvironment where you can feed
(23:44):
off the energy of the room too.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Fostering that positive culture.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yep exactly.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, no, that's great.
So we've spoken a lot aboutyour time as a player and also
your time as a professional.
Was there a time when you wereat high school as a 15-year-old
or 16-year-old where you thoughtI'm going to be a professional
footballer?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
I don't think there was a line in the sand where I
didn't think that and then allof a sudden I did.
It was more of a transition.
What happened was when I was 15, I got picked in the Victorian
under-15 team, which was asignificant achievement.
(24:27):
So that was where somethingprobably started to become a bit
more real and that's where Iprobably started to give up on
summer sports to focus in onfootball throughout summer.
And then I had a good year whenI was 17 and Cobb started to
(24:48):
want to catch up with me andcheck in with me throughout the
season and I thought possibly achance here.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And how much time do you because you're at high
school and obviously you'restudying how much time do you
allocate to studying versustrying to get better as a 16,
17-year-old, with the goal ofbeing drafted?
Yeah, I know, it's a long time.
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I don't think it was too binary.
You had to pick one or theother.
I had to make sacrifices alongthe way and certainly didn't
have the social life that someof my schoolmates had that year,
of the social life that some ofmy schoolmates had that year.
But I worked hard when I was atschool and around that and I
worked hard when I was on withfootball and I think it probably
(25:38):
comes back to some goal setting.
Which I touched on before is,yes, I did want to get drafted
that year but equally at thesame time I also wanted to do
commerce at Melbourne Uni.
So, yeah, it was going afterboth those goals pretty hard.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah.
So then you obviously selectedthrough the draft to go to
Essendon.
How far into your professionalfootball journey did you start
Like how many years in?
And you started to studyBecause you did a Bachelor of.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Commerce.
Is that right?
Yeah, so I started straightaway.
So I played footballprofessionally for 16 years.
For 15 years straight.
I studied, admittedly part-time,but it was only the last year
that I didn't study because I'dcompleted the Bachelor of
(26:30):
Commerce and the Masters.
But, yeah, part of the reasonwhy I studied and worked whilst
I played and there were yearswhere I was both working and
studying was like a fear offailure was like a fear of
(26:51):
failure.
Some people listening in mightbe aware of this, but I was
never comfortable that I'd haveguaranteed the career that I had
.
So I was always all in on myfootball and ensuring that I
would have a good career, but atthe same time, on the days off,
(27:12):
I wanted to spend that studying, just on the odd chance that if
I did get a tap on the shoulderand say, ted, you cut from the
squad, that I would havesomething to fall back on.
And I'm lucky to have parentsthat encourage that.
I'm lucky to have parents thatencourage that.
But I'm also lucky that when Iwas at Essendon, there were guys
that I looked up to at thatclub the likes of James Heard,
(27:35):
chris Heffernan, mark Bolden,scott Lucas and on their days
off.
They were premiership playersat Essendon.
On their days off they went andstudied or worked.
I was like, well, if it's goodenough for them, it's good
enough for me as a 17-year-old.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Well, I give you, you know, James Heard, the best
player in the competition.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah, if he's got time to study and be the best.
At the time he was going to JBWeir.
He'd done an engineering degreeand I was like, well, you know,
there's a quote by IsaiahThomas, and sorry for the
tangent here.
For those not familiar, isaiahThomas is this phenomenal
basketball player through the80s and 90s NBA basketball.
(28:16):
The line that he said is if allhe's remembered for is being a
successful basketball player,then he's failed with the rest
of his life.
I was lucky enough to playfootball until I was 32, 33.
Hopefully I can live until I'm90 plus.
I don't want the highlight ofmy life to be something that
happened when I was 32, 33.
(28:36):
I would love it if I've gotequally as exciting passions,
goals and challenges ahead of me, and that's what I'm pursuing.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, that's really insightful, and you talked about
working and studying whileplaying.
Can you share that journey withus?
You know, your first job as afinance professional Well, maybe
not a professional, but maybeas a finance intern, or maybe
not a professional, but maybe asa finance intern and talk about
(29:11):
that journey and how was itdoing your first job?
You know coming into the officeas a professional footballer,
but also, you know, sitting atthe desk and learning about
financial markets.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Yeah.
So I'd completed the Bachelorof Commerce and I didn't know
which way I wanted to go withthat and, as listeners are
probably aware, in a commercedegree you're doing management,
accounting, economics, marketing, finance.
It's a bit of everything.
So I started doing some workexperience at Citigroup in the
(29:43):
institutional research salesarea.
I'd go in once a week On my dayoff.
I'd get up at 6.30.
I'd be in the office probablyby 7.30, and I loved it,
absolutely loved it, and fromthere that gave me conviction
that I wanted to go ahead and doa Master's of Applied Finance.
So I think I started this in2011 or 2012.
(30:06):
On my day off we'd get one dayoff a week.
On my day off I'd go into thecity and work and through the
nights I'd study.
This is whilst being aprofessional footballer.
It was during those years Iplayed like I was flat out.
It was during those years Iplayed the best footy of my life
.
I don't know why it happened Ididn't have any kids but I do
(30:31):
think it was just I didn't havetime to worry about kind of.
What I might have done in theprevious game was just kind of
get on with it.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
And is it a bit like it's not all football make or
break like there is.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, I think part of it might be.
If I had a bad game I could saywell, you know, yeah, it's not
all football.
I've got an idea of what I wantto do next.
So live a bit in the moment andenjoy this, because the career
is finite.
Anyway, just to kind of closethat out, I think it was in the
second year of working atCitigroup in institutional
(31:05):
research sales.
So you're on the sales sidehere.
You're speaking to fundmanagers, Hedge funds, yeah,
yeah, yeah, about research, thatat the time Citigroup had
purchased what I was getting.
I kind of reflect on what Ilearned that day and what was
happening was I'd go and meetwith these fund managers and I
(31:29):
had a really interesting day,but all they wanted to do was
talk to me about football and Iwas like I'm not actually
learning, Like I'm not actuallylearning a lot here.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
You're teaching them about footy right Well, I'm just
having a chat about footy.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
So it was after two years of doing that that I
decided I need to get over thebuy side, which is just jargon
to say, listen, I need to workunder a fund manager as an
analyst, studying stocks tolearn.
So I approached a fund managerIf I could work under him.
He was a gun and I did that forfour years.
(32:04):
I thought that was the path Iwas going to go down to be an
analyst.
But an opportunity to join awhen my footy career ended, an
opportunity to join a startup inMelbourne, was too good to
knock back.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
So it took a real pivot.
So that's a funds managementstartup.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
So yes and no.
So it's a robo-advisor.
Now that's a term that many inAustralia won't be familiar with
or aware of, but a robo-advisorprovides digital investment
advice, so some will be familiarwith this.
(32:44):
But to provide compliantinvestment advice in Australia,
just because of regulations andcompliance, it is very expensive
and the Royal Commission hasonly made that even more
expensive.
So there's somewhere betweenonly 10% and 20% of Australians
that can afford advice, which isquite sad.
We built something to target,let's call it, the mass market
(33:08):
that can provide someone, let'ssay, that may have inherited
$50,000.
We could provide them withprofessional investment advice
from recommendations, statementof advice, execution,
rebalancing, et cetera, andreporting for something around
(33:28):
$10 a month, which is a greatsolution.
And, yeah, very proud to saythat that business was bought
out by NAB.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Yeah, okay, I didn't know that.
Yeah, that's great.
And then you obviously.
Now you ended up at TedWilson's advisory.
So what advice would you give ayoung football player that
might have been drafted, say,2025, in their first year of
football, their mindset is Iwant to be a 250-game player,
(34:00):
premiership player, the best anda half back in a competition.
What would be your advice tothem?
You know, obviously thinkingbeyond football, because it may
pan out that way and may not,but even if you do have that
successful career, like you said, you've still got 60 years of
life.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Yep, there's so many different ways I can answer that
, from advice you know, relatedto, you know, football career,
to investing, to careerdevelopment.
I'll approach it from aninvesting angle first and you
can let me know if you want totake it anywhere from there.
(34:38):
But I think if you're luckyenough to leave the game with a
home, with a house, then what afantastic opportunity that
football's given.
The reality is that footballers, which and they are just a
portion of Australians in thecommunity, so many of
(35:00):
Australians and I'm puttingfootballers in this category too
see property as a pathway towealth.
So there are footballers outthere that you know they might
have been lucky enough to get ahome deposit, get in the
property market, and thenthey'll go listen, let's get
another home, let's get anotherhouse, let's get an investment
house.
So the first piece of advice islet's say listen, if you're
(35:22):
lucky enough to get a home,let's start thinking about
diversifying, because if yourcareer is cut short I don't know
you do need a year or two andyou need 50, 100k or something
like that, you know, just tohelp you transition to the next.
You can't sell a bathroom.
Yeah, you need a level ofliquidity that can assist with
(35:43):
that.
And also, you know, you don'twant to put all your eggs in one
basket.
We've seen, you know,throughout Australia, different
states perform differently atthe same period of time, whereas
we're recording this inVictoria right now Probably
market hasn't done too much downhere for a while it's gone
(36:05):
backwards the last couple ofyears.
Yeah, yeah yeah, I won't go downa bit of a can of worms.
There's different reasons whypeople may or may not have
thought of why that's happened.
Yeah, but part of which is landtax and related items.
So I've kind of deviated there.
But I'd speak about thebenefits of diversifying and
(36:26):
having a level of liquidity inthat portfolio.
So you know it should it be,but it also can diversify.
But then you know there's also,if you want to go down the path
, you know recommendations andadvice around career development
and career paths, which I'dspeak with them as well.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah, and any advice.
I've spoken to a fewex-football players that have
come to me, or ex-rugby playersthat have come to me and say you
know they want to look at goingto finance.
I know, when they're 32, 33,had a very successful career as
a sports professional, butthey've done nothing during that
(37:03):
period and I say, well, it'squite challenging because you
know you're competing against,ultimately, a graduate.
You know, and if you can getsome experience along the way
while you are in yourdevelopmental years of your life
and you know, your late teens,your 20s, try and do that.
Would you recommend that aswell?
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Yes, but I'd probably want to take it back a step
because sometimes people willuse that exact sentence you said
I want to get into finance andto change a word in that
sentence.
If someone came to me and saidI want to get into sport, I kind
of go like all right, can youjust break that down a bit more?
(37:45):
One why do you want to get intoit?
What are your strengths?
Is there an area of sport youwant to get into?
So finance is such a broad term.
That can be and I'm on the spothere.
But everything from someonesitting behind a computer screen
(38:06):
10 hours a day punching outmodels and discounted cash flows
, which is very much needed by apart of the industry and for
potentially an introvert, theywill love that.
They will love thisproblem-solving ability.
And at the other end of thespectrum, it could be someone
(38:27):
that never looks at a computerscreen and they're in a
distribution businessdevelopment role just getting
deals done, and they might begeneralising here an extrovert.
They do a lot of lunches, theydo meetings and everything like
that.
They have budgets that theyneed to hit and they're very
(38:48):
good at sales.
That's another end of the areaof the industry.
So if someone did say to me infinance, I'd probably say what
are your strengths?
What draws you to the industry?
Often it is I want to be paidwell, and I'll go give me a bit
more than that, because I thinkyou'll get bored pretty quickly
(39:10):
if that's your only motivation.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah, there needs to be a bit of purpose and drive.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Yeah, I don't know if people listening in are
familiar with the Japaneseikigai how they frame up that
way of thinking about what youwant to do and the reasons why
you want to do it, but I thinkthat's a great place to start.
Yeah no, that's great.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
And then you tell me about Athletic Ventures.
Oh yeah, so I'm not toofamiliar with Athletic Ventures,
but it seems like you and a fewother sporting people are a
part of this.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
Yeah, so I can't lay claim to.
It's Matt DeBoer, former AFLfooty player with GWS Giants and
the Freo Dockers.
That is the brains behind itand, along with his business
partner, matthew NBA basketball,former NBA basketball, matthew
Dell of Dover.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Is he retired officially Because he played for
Melbourne United this year,didn't he?
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Yeah, yeah and I saw a LinkedIn post that went out
today which thanked people forhis time at Melbourne United.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
So, anyway, I'd love to get him on the podcast as
well to wishlist, maybe an introfor you would be nice.
All right on the podcast it'son the to wish list.
Maybe an intro for you would benice alright.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Well, so Matt yeah, he's the brains behind it.
I think he recognised there is abit of a war to get access to
the best private investmentopportunities.
Let's call it a Canva or a GYGif they need to do a funding
round, there is a queue ofprivate equity firms queuing up
(40:53):
to be able to participate inthese deals Because, by nature
of being private, they're notlisted on the stock market where
there is an exchange for anyoneand everyone to be able to put
a bid on the price and getaccess to the deal.
So Matt, in his wisdom, came upwith the idea and said well, you
know, if we built a communityof current and former athletes
(41:17):
that all have audiences andnetworks, we might be able to
get in the front of the queuefor the value add that we can
provide that a private equityfirm in Collins Street,
Melbourne or, you know, circularkey of Sydney or wherever it is
(41:37):
, won't be able to provide.
So you know, for anydirect-to-consumer business like
Guzman and Gomez, whichAthletic Ventures did
participate in, they could havepicked any private equity firm
they wanted to receive capitalfrom.
Why they decided that AthleticVentures would be part of that
(41:58):
is because Guzman Gomez, whilstit being fast food.
It is healthy food.
Athletic Ventures is a networkfull of professional athletes.
There is an obvious crossoverthere with you know, if you can
have Stephanie Gilmore, PatCummins, Toby Green chomping
(42:22):
away on a Cali burrito whilstthey've invested behind that too
, it's definitely alignment.
Yeah, there is a real brandalignment there.
So, yeah, so I'm part ofAthletic Ventures.
I think they're doing greatthings, but nothing more than a
silent investor as part of thatcommunity.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah well, that's really insightful.
Thank you for sharing, and thatmight draw us to the end.
I've really enjoyed the chat,ted, so thank you very much for
coming in.
Thanks again, ted.
It's been a pleasure hearingyour story from a successful
professional athlete to asuccessful finance professional
and leading a team in Melbourneat Wilson's Advisory.
(43:05):
So thank you, thanks very muchfor having me Cheers.
Thanks for listening this week.
Stay tuned for our next episodeand keep up to date with us by
following the Finance Friendspodcast on Instagram and TikTok
Plus.
Connect with us and our guestsover on our LinkedIn page, all
(43:25):
linked in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Disclaimer this podcast exists for informational
and entertainment purposes only.
The personal opinions of thespeaker and guests do not
represent the opinion of theparty.
If this recording containsreference to financial products,
that reference does notconstitute advice nor
(43:47):
recommendations, and may not bereliable.
Welcome back to Finance Friends, your personal
seat at the table with leadersshaping the financial world.
In this exclusive season wemeet with high profile,
incredibly successful athleteswho achieve the greatest heights
on the sports field and are nowdominating the finance world.
(00:44):
Today's episode we have TedRichards.
Played over 250 games for 16seasons for Essendon and Sydney
Swans, premiership player,all-australian centre-half back,
and he talks through hisjourney of being a football
player studying part-time,working part-time and his
(01:07):
mindset of being the best in thecompetition and how he's able
to achieve that.
And now he leads a team atWilson's Advisory, one of the
leading financial services firmsin Australia.
Listen in and hear his story.
Today we have Ted Richards.
Ted, welcome to the studio.
Thanks very much for having me.
Thank you for coming in.
You're a busy man.
(01:28):
You mentioned you're off to aconference in Adelaide during
the week.
Talk to me about thatconference.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, so I wear two hats in my role at Wilson's
Advisory, one of which ismanaging and leading the private
wealth team here in Melbourne.
I've got advisors, but theother hat I wear is I've got a
book of clients as well that Iwork with.
So over there it's probably abit of both it is getting out
and meeting some advisors overin South Australia, but also the
(01:56):
opportunity to speak in frontof some high net worth investors
about our thoughts on themarket and what we're doing to
position portfolios aroundcurrent events.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, so your role is head of Melbourne at Wilson
Advisory, so you look after yourown clients.
You're a financial advisor andinvestment advisor, is that
right?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yes, so yeah, I work with high net worth individuals,
families, family offices andnot-for-profit organisations.
I have a team where I've got acolleague we partner up together
and she focuses more on thefinancial planning component,
the strategic piece for clients.
(02:36):
I'm sure many listeners will befamiliar with that, but for
those not aware, what entitiesare we going to invest, what
cash flow requirements, whatliquidity they may need, and my
role is the investment piece.
So related to that is findingsomeone's risk profile, getting
(02:57):
the right asset allocationaccording to that and then, once
the asset allocation isdetermined, investing across
managed funds and directequities, both domestic and
global, to build out a portfoliofor them that meets their goals
and objectives.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
So you look at a client and every client would be
very different in terms oftheir needs and objectives and
their risk profile and whatthey're seeking to return,
thinking to return, yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
So there's a line that people often use for family
offices, but it's relevant forhigh net worths too is you've
seen one family office?
You've seen one family office?
A lot of high net worths havedifferent goals and objectives.
So for some of my clients rightnow it is investing for the
future generations and there isno need for the funds right now,
whereas there are others thatare in a similar situation that
(03:48):
actually are after the income,because, whether it's bank of
mum and dad and gifting somesalaries to the younger
generations, or it's the needfor liquidity to pay sizable
land tax that they may have ininvestment properties and
holiday houses, there'sdifferent goals and objectives
along the way and I helpposition the portfolio to ensure
(04:12):
that they can be met.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, and how often would you meet with your clients
to give them an update onwhat's happening on investment
markets and update on theirportfolio?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Yeah, well, speaking, certainly speaking frequently,
particularly if there are timesof volatility and depending when
this podcast may be listened to, depending what Trump may or
may not have said and thepolicies around that.
But, yeah, try to catch up withthem, monthly or quarterly to
(04:45):
check in with them.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
What are the?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
most important skills that are required in your job
at the moment, and did you learnsome of those skills being a
professional athlete?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, to take it back a step.
Yeah, a professional athlete.
My job was as an AFL footballer.
If you really want to take itback a step, a professional
athlete, my job was as an AFLfootballer.
If you really want to simplifyit, my job was to chase a ball,
chase a ball and try to get it,or protect the ball, go the
other way.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Or protect it and try and kick it.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
between, two sticks and on the other hand, if you
really want to simplify it, it'smanaging someone's wealth that
they've probably taken decades,if not longer, to accumulate.
So you know, on one levelthey're very different, but
there are some similarity lifeskills that I have taken from my
(05:42):
football career, such as hardwork, resilience.
And if I had to give a third,it would be around goal setting
and competitiveness.
So just to build that out a bitmore, as a private wealth
advisor, I know that part of myrole is attention to detail and
(06:07):
with that attention to detailcomes hard work.
My role as an advisor requiresresilience, whether it's
speaking with a client about thefact that the market has pulled
back and things out of mycontrol.
But the reality is we'rediversified, there's that.
(06:29):
But potentially I've gone infor a pitch and unfortunately I
haven't won that pitch havingthat resilience, but to know
that I've got to go again.
And that last one, I think Isaid, goal setting and
competitiveness.
The reality is, you know, as anadvisor or, sorry, as an
(06:49):
individual I like winning, butpotentially sometimes I go too
far with winning, Like a bit ofa tangent here, but like when I
get to an airport like my wifejust laughs in that, because
airports are often full ofqueues, I have to pick the.
My wife just laughs becauseairports are often full of
queues, I have to pick the queue, that's the quickest.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I'm the same.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
And I am furious with myself.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I hope you don't break the pack on the way
through?
No, no no, I don't, but I'mfurious with myself.
If you pick the wrong one, if Ipick the wrong one.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Not because it's cost me an extra minute or two, but
because I lost, and yeah.
So if you can harness that goalsetting and that
competitiveness for good, be it.
As an advisor and I want todeliver as much alpha as I can
(07:41):
for my clients I want to win asmany pitches as I can.
That's the good side, you know.
But there is a negative side tobeing competitive in that
there's a flip side to that coin.
Sometimes you just can't turnit off and you know when I was
playing and I'm not the only youknow sometimes you know you
have a bad loss.
You can't sleep that nightbecause you're just replaying.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
All these times when Nick Riewoldt or someone like
that might have kicked a goal onme and I just wish I had that
contest back.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So you talked about goal setting.
I want to bring it back to yourtime in football.
Did you have an individual planthat your coach would run
through with you, or is it moreat a team level?
Like, obviously you reached theultimate success of being an
AFL Premiership player.
Was that set by the coachingstaff or is that more you as an
(08:37):
individual, that you wanted toplay 22 games and you want to
play finals?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Yeah, so I was fortunate enough to play for 16
years, and five of those were atEssendon and 11 were at the
Swans and pretty much every yearthere is some form of goal
setting.
There is some form.
But I think where goal settingis different, where people fall
short often, is they'll eitherthink it or perhaps they'll
(09:06):
write it down and then it'llstop there.
So I can remember a goal ofmine in my first year of
football as a 17-year-old was tobe more confident when I play
on the field.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
What is?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
that.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Very qualitative, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
How do you do that?
How do you measure that?
So, over the course of mycareer, it was actually.
If we've got time, I'll tellthis story it was 2010.
I had a bad year of footy, sowere you playing at.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I was at the Swans.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I was at the Swans and we didn't get off to a good
start that year and I gotdropped, call it round two or
round three, and I actuallylooked ahead to see who the
Swans were playing.
It was like the bottom threeteams the next few weeks and I
knew straight away we're goingto smack those teams and it's
(09:59):
going to be very hard for me toget back in for a while.
So I worked my ass off andeverything like that and I was
out of contract, which made meeven more nervous.
I got my way back in and at theend of the season I had an okay
season and fortunately I wasoffered a one-year deal which
got me an extra contract.
(10:20):
But I can remember thinking atthe end of that season I've got
to do things a bit differentlythis year.
And around that time I read abook called Good to Great, which
I'm sure listeners will befamiliar with, and in that book
there's a couple of themes thatI stole which, when it came to
goal setting, I really utilized.
(10:41):
One was this I love thisparable through the book about
the hedgehog and the fox.
For those not familiar withthis, the fox tries to be good
at everything and that's what Iwas trying to do as a footballer
.
I was trying to be good ateverything, whereas the reality
is that's very hard, if notimpossible.
There's only, you know, the0.1%, 1% of people that can do
(11:04):
that.
The more sensible strategy isto try and be the hedgehog.
That's good at one thing andthat is, you know, for a
hedgehog, it's rolling up into aball full of spikes and you
know what a fantastic defensivemechanism.
So you're probably wonderingwhere am I going with this.
Anyway, I decided I was goingto, instead of trying to be
(11:26):
someone that could play everyposition, I'm going to try and
be the best centre-half back inthe competition.
No, sorry, I'm not going to try.
I am going to be the bestcentre-half back in the
competition.
And related to that throughoutthe book.
There's a big hairy, audaciousgoal theme that runs through the
book and I decided my big hairy, audacious goal theme that runs
(11:47):
through the book and I decidedmy big hairy, audacious goal, my
BHAG would be, is I'm going tobe the best defender in the
competition.
So I set that down and wroteabout it.
And why this is similar,related to the earlier answer I
gave, is that when I was 17, Idid goal setting and I wrote
down have more confidence inmyself, believe in myself more,
(12:08):
and that's where it stopped,whereas when I wrote down I'm
going to be the best defender inthe competition.
I kind of had a bit of a waythat I was going to do that, and
that is I'm just going to tellmyself that I'm the best
defender in the competition overand over every day.
I'm going to visualize myselfbeing the best defender in the
(12:29):
competition every week before Igo and play.
To be honest, at first Istruggled a bit with it because
I'm like it wasn't that long agoI was playing in the twos.
I'm on a one-year deal.
There's so many reasons why Iam so not the best defender in
the competition.
But I controlled my self-talkand I just went over and over it
(12:52):
again and what ended uphappening was when I went into
games, I was like I'd seen thismovie before.
I was like I believe I am thebest defender in the competition
.
I'm going to go out there andI'm going to dominate.
And I ended up having the bestyear of football of my career
and we won the premiership, gotall Australian and my career
(13:15):
really took off from there.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So you changed your mindset, yep, and your mindset
was from being a I I want to begood at everything to I'm going
to be the best defender in theleague and I believe in that
outcome.
And were there certain say, themechanics of it?
Was it your speed?
Was it your ability to jump andspoil?
(13:41):
Was it your physicalness?
Were there some metrics, somemechanics behind that?
You really focused on and setgoals there.
Like you know, bench presscertain amount in the gym.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah, I did reflect on myself as well.
If I am a defender, so if I amgoing to be the best defender in
the competition, how do Icompare to the other good
defenders in the competition?
At the time?
That was the likes of MatthewScarlett, darren Glass, ben
Rutten, and I've kind of did abit of an audit.
(14:11):
Well, how do I compare to those?
And one thing I picked up issimilar height, similar speed,
but they're bigger and strongerthan me.
In a one-on-one against NickRiewoldt, jonathan Brown,
whoever, pavlich, whoever wasthe best at the time.
That's where they were reallygood at.
So I did focus in spending moretime in the gym, made a bit of
(14:34):
a pact to myself I wouldn't doanother goal-kicking session
again, because so often we alljust kind of go out there and do
it's hard not to.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
I know that's what you do.
As a kid, I know.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
It's a bit of fun.
But I was like it makes so muchmore sense for me to get
someone just to kick high ballsat me and I practice smashing
them away as far as I can, andfor me to practice snaps from
the boundary 20 metres out.
Anyway, that's a bit of atangent.
But yeah, I did do an audit ofmyself, spent more time in the
(15:08):
gym, put on some size, got mystrength up.
But, to be honest, if I had tokind of pinpoint to one area, it
wasn't the physical attributes,it wasn't the mechanics, it was
more mental.
And I am of the view right now,even though I've been out of the
(15:29):
industry for a while, every AFLteam and if you're not an AFL
fan, like every professionalsporting team they all have hard
pre-seasons.
If you try and do a harderpre-season than someone else,
maybe you might be able to get a1% or 2% advantage here or
(15:51):
there.
But where I do think advantageslie in competitions
professional sportingcompetitions is the mental side.
There are teams that go outthere on the weekend and are far
more confident in their ownability and the team's ability
to win than others.
Now I'm not sure when thispodcast is going to be released.
Whether at the time ofrecording, you look at Hawthorne
(16:12):
when they run out or BrisbaneLions and they look from the
outside to me, they are veryconfident they're going to win.
And at the time of recordingmaybe if you're a Carlton fan
you won't like to hear this, butsometimes I look at that team
run out and go.
It does appear from the outside.
You're worried about theoutside noise.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yeah, it's hard not to see that from when you're
watching the game, the playersand their mannerisms and simple
things Like I coach a socialmen's football team.
If you want to have a kick toit, we've got room for a couple
more than Richmond Central'sthirds.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Okay, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
But you know it's the same right.
It's very much you know.
You head up as a team.
We're in it together.
Let's go out there and let'sgive it a crack, let's believe
we can get this done and we won.
When I coached a couple ofyears ago we won the grand final
.
Yeah, there's a real mindsetthat we can go out there and
we're going to win every singlegame.
And you know, it just makessuch a difference to you as a
(17:16):
player if you've got that levelof confidence.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, yeah.
The more widely I readthroughout my career, it wasn't
whether it was Agassi's book andthe struggles that he had in
believing with himself, or booksabout the All Blacks and what
Richie McCraw does before a gameto prepare himself in terms of
(17:46):
blank sheet of paper beforeevery game to prepare Agassi.
He has the self-doubts beforeevery game, but he goes through
a routine.
Whilst he shaves his headbefore every tennis match, he
starts the process off with thewhat-ifs and over the course of
the next hour, he controls hisself-talk and goes out there and
goes I can win now.
(18:07):
So yeah, I am a big believer inthe mental side, whether it is
related to football or it isalso related to your work and
your KPIs, goal setting,resilience, the markets.
Whatever it is related to yourrole.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yeah, because let's talk about your role now because
you need to be resilient andfocused.
You know, if markets do comeoff substantially, stick into
that goal, because it's easy toget caught up in what the media
is saying about markets droppingoff and lose sight and then,
you know, end up selling at thebottom Yep, and then miss the
(18:45):
bounce Yep.
So you must be spending a lotof time educating your clients
around.
You know, sticking to theinvestment strategy.
We've got the diversificationin place to ensure they're not.
You know, making the wrongdecisions at the wrong time.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, so that's.
There's soft skills thereempathy, but I guess the life
skills from football is the factthat these calls and these
conversations, they need to bemade.
You need to get out there.
Part of it is an update, theother is to reinforce the
(19:22):
conversations that we had whenthese portfolios were set up,
the conversations that we hadwhen these portfolios were set
up, ensuring that the clientsare invested appropriately for
their risk profile.
They're diversified and oftenit is just a reminder that
they're on track to achievetheir objectives and goals.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And do you have much to do with the AFL at the moment
?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
The AFL.
That's a very broad church, yesand no.
So I'm involved in the PlayersAssociation.
I sit on the AFL PlayersAssociation Investment Committee
, so that's a part of theindustry.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
What does that involve?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
What does that involve?
Okay, so part of a player'ssalary is put aside each year
for their retirement fund andthat retirement fund whilst
they've accumulated that, thatgets invested and that grows
over time, and then, when theplayer retires, they'll receive
(20:31):
distributions from that for aset period of time, depending on
how long they played for.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
So it's effectively like a superannuation fund for
players.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, yeah, but it's to assist with the transition,
as opposed to retirement whensomeone's 60, 65.
This is to assist with thetransitions.
Let's say someone is luckyenough to pay until their early
30s.
This would kick in when theyretire and go for about a
10-year period to ensure that,as they're transitioning their
(20:59):
career, that they can meet theircash flow needs.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, so transitioning to their next
career.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yeah, yeah.
So there's that.
But other than that, like I'mvery much a fan of the Sydney
Swans and still got a soft spotfor the Bombers, so I try to get
to those games and fortunateenough that through my time I do
get invited to the odd eventand I love getting along to
(21:28):
those.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Yeah, and what about the premiership reunions?
Yes, Is that the best as a pastplayer that's won a premiership
.
Yeah, because I know I'veplayed in a local footy team and
won grand finals and for methat's the most fun catching up
with the guys.
Very different, obviously aprofessional athlete, but still
catching up with guys that Imight not have seen for two,
(21:50):
three, four, five years.
And reminiscing that year thatwe won the flag.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Yeah, you're right.
So I played at Essendon forfive years under Kevin Sheedy,
and while Sheeds and I didn'tget along from time to time,
there is one thing that Iremember that he said and he was
right is one of the best thingsabout premierships are the
reunions.
I played lucky enough to playin three grand finals lost to
1-1.
That was 2012.
(22:15):
So we had our 10-year reunionin 22.
And it was kind of a bit likegoing back to the first day at
school.
You know, some of these guys Ihaven't seen in.
You know five, six, seven yearsand then within two minutes,
it's like you know, we're justplaying again.
(22:35):
Like the banter the abuse.
They're like HR would have beenvery concerned about some of
the conversation, but it waslike we're 22 again, you know in
the car rooms reminiscing andyeah, like, don't get me wrong,
part of it was you remember thiswin or remember something like
that, but more often than not itwas stories from.
(22:56):
It was the little things, yeah,the pranks.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah, yeah, the pranks, yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And that is certainly the camaraderie of working in
an environment like that issomething that I miss, but in
saying that, it is somethingthat I'm doing my best to foster
where we are at Wilson'sAdvisory and our private wealth
team there.
So, whilst all our advisorshave their own business that
(23:22):
they focus in on, I'm trying toensure that we've got a level of
camaraderie and an environmentthat people can kind of bounce
off and there is a level of teamsupport, just to ensure that.
You know, we all have our dayswhen it's harder to get into the
office, but I want to have anenvironment where you can feed
(23:44):
off the energy of the room too.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Fostering that positive culture.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yep exactly.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, no, that's great.
So we've spoken a lot aboutyour time as a player and also
your time as a professional.
Was there a time when you wereat high school as a 15-year-old
or 16-year-old where you thoughtI'm going to be a professional
footballer?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
I don't think there was a line in the sand where I
didn't think that and then allof a sudden I did.
It was more of a transition.
What happened was when I was 15, I got picked in the Victorian
under-15 team, which was asignificant achievement.
(24:27):
So that was where somethingprobably started to become a bit
more real and that's where Iprobably started to give up on
summer sports to focus in onfootball throughout summer.
And then I had a good year whenI was 17 and Cobb started to
(24:48):
want to catch up with me andcheck in with me throughout the
season and I thought possibly achance here.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And how much time do you because you're at high
school and obviously you'restudying how much time do you
allocate to studying versustrying to get better as a 16,
17-year-old, with the goal ofbeing drafted?
Yeah, I know, it's a long time.
No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I don't think it was too binary.
You had to pick one or theother.
I had to make sacrifices alongthe way and certainly didn't
have the social life that someof my schoolmates had that year,
of the social life that some ofmy schoolmates had that year.
But I worked hard when I was atschool and around that and I
worked hard when I was on withfootball and I think it probably
(25:38):
comes back to some goal setting.
Which I touched on before is,yes, I did want to get drafted
that year but equally at thesame time I also wanted to do
commerce at Melbourne Uni.
So, yeah, it was going afterboth those goals pretty hard.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah.
So then you obviously selectedthrough the draft to go to
Essendon.
How far into your professionalfootball journey did you start
Like how many years in?
And you started to studyBecause you did a Bachelor of.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Commerce.
Is that right?
Yeah, so I started straightaway.
So I played footballprofessionally for 16 years.
For 15 years straight.
I studied, admittedly part-time,but it was only the last year
that I didn't study because I'dcompleted the Bachelor of
(26:30):
Commerce and the Masters.
But, yeah, part of the reasonwhy I studied and worked whilst
I played and there were yearswhere I was both working and
studying was like a fear offailure was like a fear of
(26:51):
failure.
Some people listening in mightbe aware of this, but I was
never comfortable that I'd haveguaranteed the career that I had
.
So I was always all in on myfootball and ensuring that I
would have a good career, but atthe same time, on the days off,
(27:12):
I wanted to spend that studying, just on the odd chance that if
I did get a tap on the shoulderand say, ted, you cut from the
squad, that I would havesomething to fall back on.
And I'm lucky to have parentsthat encourage that.
I'm lucky to have parents thatencourage that.
But I'm also lucky that when Iwas at Essendon, there were guys
that I looked up to at thatclub the likes of James Heard,
(27:35):
chris Heffernan, mark Bolden,scott Lucas and on their days
off.
They were premiership playersat Essendon.
On their days off they went andstudied or worked.
I was like, well, if it's goodenough for them, it's good
enough for me as a 17-year-old.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Well, I give you, you know, James Heard, the best
player in the competition.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah, if he's got time to study and be the best.
At the time he was going to JBWeir.
He'd done an engineering degreeand I was like, well, you know,
there's a quote by IsaiahThomas, and sorry for the
tangent here.
For those not familiar, isaiahThomas is this phenomenal
basketball player through the80s and 90s NBA basketball.
(28:16):
The line that he said is if allhe's remembered for is being a
successful basketball player,then he's failed with the rest
of his life.
I was lucky enough to playfootball until I was 32, 33.
Hopefully I can live until I'm90 plus.
I don't want the highlight ofmy life to be something that
happened when I was 32, 33.
(28:36):
I would love it if I've gotequally as exciting passions,
goals and challenges ahead of me, and that's what I'm pursuing.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, that's really insightful, and you talked about
working and studying whileplaying.
Can you share that journey withus?
You know, your first job as afinance professional Well, maybe
not a professional, but maybeas a finance intern, or maybe
not a professional, but maybe asa finance intern and talk about
(29:11):
that journey and how was itdoing your first job?
You know coming into the officeas a professional footballer,
but also, you know, sitting atthe desk and learning about
financial markets.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Yeah.
So I'd completed the Bachelorof Commerce and I didn't know
which way I wanted to go withthat and, as listeners are
probably aware, in a commercedegree you're doing management,
accounting, economics, marketing, finance.
It's a bit of everything.
So I started doing some workexperience at Citigroup in the
(29:43):
institutional research salesarea.
I'd go in once a week On my dayoff.
I'd get up at 6.30.
I'd be in the office probablyby 7.30, and I loved it,
absolutely loved it, and fromthere that gave me conviction
that I wanted to go ahead and doa Master's of Applied Finance.
So I think I started this in2011 or 2012.
(30:06):
On my day off we'd get one dayoff a week.
On my day off I'd go into thecity and work and through the
nights I'd study.
This is whilst being aprofessional footballer.
It was during those years Iplayed like I was flat out.
It was during those years Iplayed the best footy of my life
.
I don't know why it happened Ididn't have any kids but I do
(30:31):
think it was just I didn't havetime to worry about kind of.
What I might have done in theprevious game was just kind of
get on with it.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
And is it a bit like it's not all football make or
break like there is.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, I think part of it might be.
If I had a bad game I could saywell, you know, yeah, it's not
all football.
I've got an idea of what I wantto do next.
So live a bit in the moment andenjoy this, because the career
is finite.
Anyway, just to kind of closethat out, I think it was in the
second year of working atCitigroup in institutional
(31:05):
research sales.
So you're on the sales sidehere.
You're speaking to fundmanagers, Hedge funds, yeah,
yeah, yeah, about research, thatat the time Citigroup had
purchased what I was getting.
I kind of reflect on what Ilearned that day and what was
happening was I'd go and meetwith these fund managers and I
(31:29):
had a really interesting day,but all they wanted to do was
talk to me about football and Iwas like I'm not actually
learning, Like I'm not actuallylearning a lot here.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
You're teaching them about footy right Well, I'm just
having a chat about footy.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
So it was after two years of doing that that I
decided I need to get over thebuy side, which is just jargon
to say, listen, I need to workunder a fund manager as an
analyst, studying stocks tolearn.
So I approached a fund managerIf I could work under him.
He was a gun and I did that forfour years.
(32:04):
I thought that was the path Iwas going to go down to be an
analyst.
But an opportunity to join awhen my footy career ended, an
opportunity to join a startup inMelbourne, was too good to
knock back.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
So it took a real pivot.
So that's a funds managementstartup.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
So yes and no.
So it's a robo-advisor.
Now that's a term that many inAustralia won't be familiar with
or aware of, but a robo-advisorprovides digital investment
advice, so some will be familiarwith this.
(32:44):
But to provide compliantinvestment advice in Australia,
just because of regulations andcompliance, it is very expensive
and the Royal Commission hasonly made that even more
expensive.
So there's somewhere betweenonly 10% and 20% of Australians
that can afford advice, which isquite sad.
We built something to target,let's call it, the mass market
(33:08):
that can provide someone, let'ssay, that may have inherited
$50,000.
We could provide them withprofessional investment advice
from recommendations, statementof advice, execution,
rebalancing, et cetera, andreporting for something around
(33:28):
$10 a month, which is a greatsolution.
And, yeah, very proud to saythat that business was bought
out by NAB.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Yeah, okay, I didn't know that.
Yeah, that's great.
And then you obviously.
Now you ended up at TedWilson's advisory.
So what advice would you give ayoung football player that
might have been drafted, say,2025, in their first year of
football, their mindset is Iwant to be a 250-game player,
(34:00):
premiership player, the best anda half back in a competition.
What would be your advice tothem?
You know, obviously thinkingbeyond football, because it may
pan out that way and may not,but even if you do have that
successful career, like you said, you've still got 60 years of
life.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Yep, there's so many different ways I can answer that
, from advice you know, relatedto, you know, football career,
to investing, to careerdevelopment.
I'll approach it from aninvesting angle first and you
can let me know if you want totake it anywhere from there.
(34:38):
But I think if you're luckyenough to leave the game with a
home, with a house, then what afantastic opportunity that
football's given.
The reality is that footballers, which and they are just a
portion of Australians in thecommunity, so many of
(35:00):
Australians and I'm puttingfootballers in this category too
see property as a pathway towealth.
So there are footballers outthere that you know they might
have been lucky enough to get ahome deposit, get in the
property market, and thenthey'll go listen, let's get
another home, let's get anotherhouse, let's get an investment
house.
So the first piece of advice islet's say listen, if you're
(35:22):
lucky enough to get a home,let's start thinking about
diversifying, because if yourcareer is cut short I don't know
you do need a year or two andyou need 50, 100k or something
like that, you know, just tohelp you transition to the next.
You can't sell a bathroom.
Yeah, you need a level ofliquidity that can assist with
(35:43):
that.
And also, you know, you don'twant to put all your eggs in one
basket.
We've seen, you know,throughout Australia, different
states perform differently atthe same period of time, whereas
we're recording this inVictoria right now Probably
market hasn't done too much downhere for a while it's gone
(36:05):
backwards the last couple ofyears.
Yeah, yeah yeah, I won't go downa bit of a can of worms.
There's different reasons whypeople may or may not have
thought of why that's happened.
Yeah, but part of which is landtax and related items.
So I've kind of deviated there.
But I'd speak about thebenefits of diversifying and
(36:26):
having a level of liquidity inthat portfolio.
So you know it should it be,but it also can diversify.
But then you know there's also,if you want to go down the path
, you know recommendations andadvice around career development
and career paths, which I'dspeak with them as well.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah, and any advice.
I've spoken to a fewex-football players that have
come to me, or ex-rugby playersthat have come to me and say you
know they want to look at goingto finance.
I know, when they're 32, 33,had a very successful career as
a sports professional, butthey've done nothing during that
(37:03):
period and I say, well, it'squite challenging because you
know you're competing against,ultimately, a graduate.
You know, and if you can getsome experience along the way
while you are in yourdevelopmental years of your life
and you know, your late teens,your 20s, try and do that.
Would you recommend that aswell?
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Yes, but I'd probably want to take it back a step
because sometimes people willuse that exact sentence you said
I want to get into finance andto change a word in that
sentence.
If someone came to me and saidI want to get into sport, I kind
of go like all right, can youjust break that down a bit more?
(37:45):
One why do you want to get intoit?
What are your strengths?
Is there an area of sport youwant to get into?
So finance is such a broad term.
That can be and I'm on the spothere.
But everything from someonesitting behind a computer screen
(38:06):
10 hours a day punching outmodels and discounted cash flows
, which is very much needed by apart of the industry and for
potentially an introvert, theywill love that.
They will love thisproblem-solving ability.
And at the other end of thespectrum, it could be someone
(38:27):
that never looks at a computerscreen and they're in a
distribution businessdevelopment role just getting
deals done, and they might begeneralising here an extrovert.
They do a lot of lunches, theydo meetings and everything like
that.
They have budgets that theyneed to hit and they're very
(38:48):
good at sales.
That's another end of the areaof the industry.
So if someone did say to me infinance, I'd probably say what
are your strengths?
What draws you to the industry?
Often it is I want to be paidwell, and I'll go give me a bit
more than that, because I thinkyou'll get bored pretty quickly
(39:10):
if that's your only motivation.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah, there needs to be a bit of purpose and drive.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Yeah, I don't know if people listening in are
familiar with the Japaneseikigai how they frame up that
way of thinking about what youwant to do and the reasons why
you want to do it, but I thinkthat's a great place to start.
Yeah no, that's great.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
And then you tell me about Athletic Ventures.
Oh yeah, so I'm not toofamiliar with Athletic Ventures,
but it seems like you and a fewother sporting people are a
part of this.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
Yeah, so I can't lay claim to.
It's Matt DeBoer, former AFLfooty player with GWS Giants and
the Freo Dockers.
That is the brains behind itand, along with his business
partner, matthew NBA basketball,former NBA basketball, matthew
Dell of Dover.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Is he retired officially Because he played for
Melbourne United this year,didn't he?
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Yeah, yeah and I saw a LinkedIn post that went out
today which thanked people forhis time at Melbourne United.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
So, anyway, I'd love to get him on the podcast as
well to wishlist, maybe an introfor you would be nice.
All right on the podcast it'son the to wish list.
Maybe an intro for you would benice alright.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Well, so Matt yeah, he's the brains behind it.
I think he recognised there is abit of a war to get access to
the best private investmentopportunities.
Let's call it a Canva or a GYGif they need to do a funding
round, there is a queue ofprivate equity firms queuing up
(40:53):
to be able to participate inthese deals Because, by nature
of being private, they're notlisted on the stock market where
there is an exchange for anyoneand everyone to be able to put
a bid on the price and getaccess to the deal.
So Matt, in his wisdom, came upwith the idea and said well, you
know, if we built a communityof current and former athletes
(41:17):
that all have audiences andnetworks, we might be able to
get in the front of the queuefor the value add that we can
provide that a private equityfirm in Collins Street,
Melbourne or, you know, circularkey of Sydney or wherever it is
(41:37):
, won't be able to provide.
So you know, for anydirect-to-consumer business like
Guzman and Gomez, whichAthletic Ventures did
participate in, they could havepicked any private equity firm
they wanted to receive capitalfrom.
Why they decided that AthleticVentures would be part of that
(41:58):
is because Guzman Gomez, whilstit being fast food.
It is healthy food.
Athletic Ventures is a networkfull of professional athletes.
There is an obvious crossoverthere with you know, if you can
have Stephanie Gilmore, PatCummins, Toby Green chomping
(42:22):
away on a Cali burrito whilstthey've invested behind that too
, it's definitely alignment.
Yeah, there is a real brandalignment there.
So, yeah, so I'm part ofAthletic Ventures.
I think they're doing greatthings, but nothing more than a
silent investor as part of thatcommunity.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah well, that's really insightful.
Thank you for sharing, and thatmight draw us to the end.
I've really enjoyed the chat,ted, so thank you very much for
coming in.
Thanks again, ted.
It's been a pleasure hearingyour story from a successful
professional athlete to asuccessful finance professional
and leading a team in Melbourneat Wilson's Advisory.
(43:05):
So thank you, thanks very muchfor having me Cheers.
Thanks for listening this week.
Stay tuned for our next episodeand keep up to date with us by
following the Finance Friendspodcast on Instagram and TikTok
Plus.
Connect with us and our guestsover on our LinkedIn page, all
(43:25):
linked in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Disclaimer this podcast exists for informational
and entertainment purposes only.
The personal opinions of thespeaker and guests do not
represent the opinion of theparty.
If this recording containsreference to financial products,
that reference does notconstitute advice nor
(43:47):
recommendations, and may not bereliable.
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