Beth Mead and Lucy Bronze discuss finding their ‘why’ with PFS President

England footballers Beth Mead MBE and Lucy Bronze MBE joined Personal Finance Society (PFS) President, Carla Brown, for the final keynote session at the PFS National Conference on Thursday 13 November.

The session explored how the two Lionesses have overcome challenges through determination, resilience, and ambition, and how their approach to success in football can transfer in a business setting.

Carla Brown asked: “What's you're driving ‘why’ at the moment? How has it evolved over time, and how do you define success and what fuels you?”

Lucy Bronze: “In my early 20s I was so driven. I just wanted to win everything all the time … even being part of a team, my mentality was like ‘if I'm the best I can be, that's enough’ … [in time] I started to see my success in how I helped other people be better, and maybe that took away from me a little bit, but actually it made the collective a lot better. And now that I'm in my early 30s … if I have the opportunity, I would easily give someone else my time rather than use it for myself, and especially in a team sport environment. I think it's the most important thing because - it sounds horrible to say, but you're only as strong as your weakest link.”

Reflecting on how this translates within personal finance, Carla said: “I think that's something that we can do in our profession. You know, people who at the top of the game just give a little bit of time to people who are coming through. We can help elevate standards across the board.”

Carla’s keynote discussion with Beth and Lucy was the final session of the conference, which was attended by around 2,000 financial planning professionals, exhibitors, speakers and members of the media. The event was the largest financial planning event of the year, and has been covered extensively across trade press and social media.

Carla went on to ask: “You've both performed at the highest level under huge pressure. When you think about unlocking potential, what does that mean to you and how do you keep improving and striving for more when you're already at the top of your game?”

Lucy said: “Not cutting corners. I think unlocking potential is meticulously doing the things that you're supposed to do every day. I think you talk about high pressure situations and people always say ‘how does it feel to play in a World Cup Final or Champions League final? It must be so much pressure’, and I say ‘I've trained for that for 20 years. The last week, last month, all I've done is train for that moment. I've prepared myself to be the fittest, to understand the game, to understand what my role is in the team. So, if I step on that pitch and feel that it’s too much pressure, it's because I've not done the right things in the first place.”

On what keeps her motivated, Beth Mead said: “I love everything about football. I go home and I switch the TV on and watch a football game because that's what I love … When I go on a football pitch, I think about nothing else in the world. But none of us are perfect, I still want to be better. I'm doing my coaching badges because I want to learn more about the different sides of the game, and I actually look at football a little bit differently than just being a player. I can see it from a coach's lens, and I'll watch my clips back and [think] ‘next time, this needs to be a little bit better’. I think we're our own worst enemies and we're our own worst critics. Everything externally that [I] listen to, I've said it 10 more times to myself. So, what do you want to be better? What can you do? And actually, why did you start doing what you do?”