PODCAST LIVE: Protecting Your Financial Future, Diane Watson

What would happen to your business if you couldn't work tomorrow? This question haunts financial advisor Diane Watson, who has witnessed countless entrepreneurs, particularly women, face devastating consequences after failing to plan for unexpected events.

In this eye-opening conversation, Diane shares powerful stories that will make you rethink your approach to financial protection. From the woman evicted from her home just seven days after her partner's unexpected death to the business owner who had to cut cancer treatments short to keep her company afloat, these real-life scenarios illuminate the urgent need for proper planning.

With over 30 years of experience advising entrepreneurs, Diane dispels harmful myths about money management, particularly those affecting women. She explains why the shift from employment to self-employment creates new vulnerabilities and offers practical guidance on establishing essential protections. Her passion for this subject led her to found She Can Prosper and write a book dedicated to empowering women financially.

The discussion covers critical topics including wills, power of attorney, insurance options, and retirement planning strategies. Diane emphasizes that financial capability has nothing to do with mathematical skill, anyone can learn to manage their finances effectively with the right support. Most importantly, she warns against the dangerous "I'll do it next year" mentality that leaves so many vulnerable.

Whether you're just starting your entrepreneurial journey or have been running your business for years, this conversation delivers concrete advice that could save you from financial disaster. Don't wait until crisis strikes—take action today to protect everything you've worked so hard to build. Your future self will thank you.

Diane Watson Book is on my bookshelf

Visit her website here

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Chapters

• 1:06 Podcast Introduction and Welcome
• 2:09 Meet Financial Advisor Diane Watson
• 6:55 Gender Gap's Impact on Entrepreneurs
• 9:10 What Business Owners Often Overlook
• 12:12 Financial Protection for Women
• 14:18 Importance of Savings and Planning
• 18:33 Audience Questions and Real Stories
• 25:34 Taking Action Without Delay
• 28:37 Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Transcript

Donna Eade: 0:33

You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. I am so glad to have you here for this episode Now. Some of you who are listening at the time of execution will realise that this episode is a little bit late, so my apologies for that. However, this is the final episode in my live Mindset and Action event series and we have the fantastic Diane Watson on the show today Now. Diane was on just before Christmas. We did a couple of episodes together then and, my goodness, you loved hearing from Diane, so I know you're going to enjoy this episode as well. Let's listen in to my conversation with Diane Watson. Diane Watson, come down to the stage, join me, take off your microphone and remember to eat it, please.

Diane Watson: 1:49

Like that, like really close. Yeah, I'll do that.

Donna Eade: 1:52

Okay, so okay, let me find the questions for you. Okay, so this is a big topic the money topic and I'm really excited to bring Diane on to talk about it. So, Diane, why don't you introduce yourselves and tell everybody a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Diane Watson: 2:14

Okay, so I'm Diane Watson. I've lived in Yorkshire for 40 years, but I'm originally from Lancashire, so I'm a Lancashire girl and I'm a career financial advisor. I'm actually retiring from my day job, as I call it, at the end of April. So just a little bit about my story. I went back to train as a financial advisor when my children went to school and I've always worked equally with men and women, mainly people who run their own businesses or people who are self-employed. In the early 90s, I was usually the only female self-employed person in the room, but it's so lovely that so many more women now running their own businesses, which brings its challenges from a financial perspective. In 2018, I sold my company and I now work within the business who bought my business.

Diane Watson: 3:15

I've always been passionate about women and money, because I've experienced so many instances in my career where women have really really put themselves in very vulnerable situations, and very early on in my career, I was introduced to somebody called Pam and I went to see her and she had lived with somebody for many years.

Diane Watson: 3:39

She changed her name.

Diane Watson: 3:41

Her partner had gone out into the garden to mow the lawn and he died unexpectedly, and seven days after he died, she was evicted from the home that she'd lived in with him, and I always remember her saying to me this isn't't what Ken would want.

Diane Watson: 3:57

If I'd known that I wasn't protected as a cohabitee, things would have been different, and that story has been around in my financial planning world my whole career, and so in 2020, unfortunately, as COVID hit I decided that I would try and give something back, and I set up a new business which is called she Can Prosper, and the aim of that has been to rally it's really a rallying cry for women, to encourage and educate them to make sure that they don't end up in the same situation that that Pam was in, and so we I've been working on that for five years and it's something that I'm going to be taking forward at the end of April. I've published a book in 2023, which is all about taking women on a financial journey. We've got some incredible women who shared their stories, and I'm just about to qualify as a as an NLP coach, so I'm going to be doing some work with women around limiting beliefs, around money and all the things that I've learned during my career.

Donna Eade: 5:12

I love that, and a copy of the book is in all your goodie bags for you to take home. So, thank you, diane, for that. Um, I want us to. I want us to talk about this, and the reason I think that it's important is, like with all things, like my podcast has four pillars planning, productivity, audience building and mindset. And I think this really comes into the mindset part of it what we think, feel and do about money, and I think we all have our own money stories.

Donna Eade: 5:43

But I think one of the things is it's quite a taboo subject and it still is, even in this day and age. We still don't really want to talk about the numbers and things like that. But I think, aside from the numbers, what Diane is preaching here is even more important. Um, so that is why I wanted to have this conversation. So, just like I think we need to spend more time on our health and well-being, which is why I brought the cats in. I brought diane in to talk about this topic. The cats meow, did you like that? I called them the cat sessions. Um, diane, how does the gender gap affect us as entrepreneurs and business?

Diane Watson: 6:22

owners.

Diane Watson: 6:23

Well, I mean, it affects us more than ever now because so many more of us are running our own businesses.

Diane Watson: 6:28

So lots of us have moved away from employment, where we have all the lovely benefits that people have, who work, work for big corporates or in the public sector, and it's made us more vulnerable than ever, because I talk to women every day who are not in the least bit thinking about their own situation, what might happen if they can't work, how that might impact on their family life, on their partners.

Diane Watson: 6:55

So in many ways, we are more vulnerable now than we've ever been, as more and more of us, you know, set up our own businesses. And usually what happens in my experience and hopefully you can all think well, that's not me we embark on a journey of running our own business and we don't always think about some of the things that we need to put in place, because our business is new and we're getting it off the ground and we'll think about that later, and then, unfortunately, things happen, you know, which can make us incredibly vulnerable. So part of the challenge is to try and help both male and female but obviously, particularly for me, women understand what the sorts of things they need to think about and put into place.

Donna Eade: 7:41

Yeah, yeah, and it is. It's a two-way street because, you know, men will find themselves in this situation as well, possibly. But um, yeah, it is, it is. Women are notorious, notoriously not the ones generally in charge of certain things. You know, from that, from the patriarchal society that we are moving away from, it has been the men that have been in control of everything, which is why I know you've said, a lot of women that you've connected to through your work have found themselves in these situations, which is why you're so passionate about bringing it to women. But it happens to men as well. So, as business owners, oftentimes when we think about money, our focus is how much are we bringing in, how much can I spend, what do I do with the surplus? And those are the kind of questions that we are asking and focusing on. So what are the things that we're not asking that we should be?

Diane Watson: 8:37

So typically we're not thinking about the things that I would want people to address, which is what happens if something goes wrong. You know what's going to happen to my business, what's going to happen to my? You know my personal financial situation. I mean, typically one in two of us will get a cancer diagnosis in our lifetimes a cancer diagnosis in our lifetimes. So any vulnerability around being ill, being unable to work, is something that I'm really passionate about trying to get women and men to address, because, unfortunately, if you read the book, you'll see there's lots of stories of women in there who have had serious illnesses and who have been very vulnerable because they haven't done anything about putting those things in place.

Diane Watson: 9:19

I mean, just as an example, I have a lovely client who I went to see. She said you need to come and see me at home with my husband. And when I went through the things that she needed to do, he he was very clear we're not doing that, she doesn't need that. I can sort the will out. And she got. She got cancer and I see her regularly and she said if only I'd listened to what you said, I wouldn't be in the situation that I've been in, where I had to go back to work sooner than I should have done because I didn't put those things in place.

Diane Watson: 9:54

So I think, when you've experienced a lot of that and obviously based on what you were talking about this morning, you're so keen to help people at least understand what they ought to be thinking about doing. And you know we are our biggest asset. I mean, we all insure our cars, we insure our homes, but you know, without our income whether it's a combined income or individually you know we can be put in very perilous situations if something happens to us, and I'm sure you've got them down here. But we have a charity called Maggie's and they build centres near oncology units around the country and I'm very connected to the one in Yorkshire and during the last cost of living crisis they were telling me that people were cutting short their treatment, who were running their own businesses because they felt they couldn't take any more time off work, and for me that is such a sad situation for anybody to find themselves in it's it's.

Donna Eade: 11:02

It's a big one, it really is, and I think it's. It's so sad that we have to think about these things, but we do, and that's why it's important to have the conversations, because, as much as you know, it'd be nice to just talk about how much money are we bringing in and how much can I spend, and all of that good jazz. These are the things that we don't think about and they can cripple us, like literally cripple us. So is there anything different between being a woman who is married and a woman who is single? Is the advice different in terms of what we need to be thinking about and looking at when it comes to those options?

Diane Watson: 11:39

I mean, I guess if you're a single person, then you are the only breadwinner in your family, so you do need to be really, really careful that you are protecting yourself, need to be really, really careful that you are protecting yourself. But equally, in most married or cohabiting relationships, and especially if there are children involved, one or other of you being unable to work is is can be catastrophic, particularly as often happens, the person who isn't well needs caring for by the person who is able to work. So it's really about sitting down and and making sure that you understand all the things that can. You know all the curveballs that can be thrown at you. I mean, I know we're talking focusing now on illness, but you know I'm also passionate about people having wills, about people making sure that they've got shareholder agreements if they're in businesses with other people.

Diane Watson: 12:26

Most people do none of these things and they have no clue about what might happen, and I'm sure lots of you here today have got children. I did a talk in Hertfordshire in January and we did a show of hands how many people had actually got wills, and I think about a third of the women in the room put their hands up. You know, if you have children and you don't have a will, you leave issues with regards to what happens to your children and they were really shocked. You know, a lot of this is just about making sure that you understand, you know the what-ifs, the things that might happen, so they don't give you a problem yeah, absolutely all right it's incredible, and.

Donna Eade: 13:06

But the thing and one of the things I want to point out and and I know this because of people in my network who, um are will writers, um is that a will is important, even if it is not about it's not about just dying, is it? That's there is I can't remember what it is. Anybody wants to shout it out? Please do, um. But if you are taken ill and you can't look after yourself, you have to have given somebody else the rights to make those decisions for you, and it needs to be somebody you can trust. So it's not just about what happens with all your stuff when you leave this mortal coil. So it's really important to have those things, and I don't think enough of us think about it at all, like, or we do, but we think, oh, that's not going to happen to me, it, that's not my time of life, I can wait, I don't need to think about that. So I think it's really important to consider it. Um, what do you want women to focus on when it comes to their money?

Diane Watson: 14:02

I want? Well, I want them to be very clear about what they're spending, very clear about where they where they're heading in terms of their business, but also you know if they're we try. Very clear about where they're heading in terms of their business, but also, you know, we try and help clients plan an exit or a retirement, whenever that is although I know we were talking about whether retiring is a good idea or not. I want people to be more women and men, to be more understanding of the journey that they're going on. And you know, if you start doing things when you're very young, you don't need to do anywhere near as much. So you know, I think sometimes people feel overwhelmed with money. They feel it's something that they haven't got their head around and that maybe it's too late to do anything. And it never is. If you start early enough and you do small things, then it does make a huge. It makes a huge difference. So I think trying to help people understand um, a lot of people say I'm not, I'm not really good with money, I don't really understand money. We all can. We just need to put some time in to, to work through those things and to make it easier to to understand. I mean, I have a challenge because I think that there's a connection with women and maths. I think a lot of women don't think they're very good at maths and therefore they spill that into managing their own financial affairs.

Diane Watson: 15:18

My mother was the eldest of nine children. She was very poor and my father was also very poor. My father was a joiner. He was very militant. When I was growing up as a joiner he was very militant in the when I was growing up as a child. He was always on strike and my mother decided that she didn't want to rely on a man to keep us financially secure. So she went back to college and she trained to be a teacher and she, you know, was very much of the opinion.

Diane Watson: 15:46

So the messaging I was get was getting as a child was very much around the fact that a man's not a plan. You need to make sure that you sort your stuff out, don't ever look at your dad. I mean, my dad was a very lovely man, but you know, in terms of the finances my mum took over and that messaging in a lot of homes is not there for girls. So they grow up thinking if they hear things like you know men sort money out. If you want anything, go and ask your dad or whatever. They grow up very disconnected from the idea that they can be responsible for their own financial well-being. And then when you add into that things like this misconception that lots of young girls have that they're not very good at maths and therefore they won't be very good at managing their money, it it makes it much harder, and it's just not true, because I'm not very good at maths and I've been a financial advisor for 31 years, so you can get your head around it.

Donna Eade: 16:41

Love that, love that. Ok, so I had a couple of questions come in for you. Is there a certain percentage of our income as business owners that we should be put in a way for retirement?

Diane Watson: 16:54

I mean there is no specific percentage, but you ought to be doing something, and I think it's about sitting down with your advisor and working out what is affordable for you to do, but not not to do anything you know.

Diane Watson: 17:09

So you know, work out what you can afford to commit.

Diane Watson: 17:11

I mean, we're at tax year end this week, so you know, most of our clients in the last two or three months have been looking at what they've, what they've got in their business or what, if they're self-employed, what they know, what they've drawn and what, therefore, they can afford to put aside.

Diane Watson: 17:28

Having said that, if you can do something on a regular basis because when people get to the end of the tax year, there's always something that they can spend their money on so if you can get into the habit of doing small, regular amounts and then maybe topping up at the end of the year, but just having this idea that you'll rely on something in the future, like I mean, who knows whether the state pension will exist in the future in any event? But on something in the future like I mean, who knows whether the state pension will exist in the future in any event? But you know, we just we don't know, we don't know. I mean, you know, I've just started drawing my state pension, but um, you know, just making sure that you are committed to putting something aside is the important thing okay.

Donna Eade: 18:06

So the other question was consider, let's take it that with a pension sorted and that that's all growing lovely, if we have a spare hundred pound a month chance to be a fine thing, um, what would you suggest we do with it?

Diane Watson: 18:22

so I'm a great believer in in accruing assets but also paying off debt. So I would try and encourage my clients to reduce mortgage debt but also save as well. So going exclusively for one strategy rather than another, in my opinion, is not the right thing to do, and interest rates at the minute are higher than they have been. They're nowhere near as high as they were in the 90s. But I would say do something of both. So build capital via a pension or an ISA or a savings account, but also try and manage your debt down at the same time.

Donna Eade: 18:58

Brilliant. Have we got any questions from the audience? Carly Catherine's coming to grab her mic.

Carli Wall: 19:06

Thank you, diane. I've read your book and lots of the scenarios, um, where the things have happened are. A lot of the women are would have been great to put the advice into place before, and sometimes you don't realize that you need the things until it's too late with your. So you're giving advice to people and you've already said you know you've had that occasion where the husband's like, no, no, she doesn't need all of that. How do you deal with this?

Carli Wall: 19:35

I think this is something that we probably have in similar ways in our own businesses, when we can see really clearly what somebody needs and they're like, yeah, you know what, I'm not going to do it, um, and it can eat away at us or we just have to let it go. How do you deal with that? Because you can see so clearly what they need and you know the outcome if things don't go well for them and they'll be like, oh, it will never happen to me maybe. How do you deal with that? Do you carry that or do you try and highlight to them, or do you just have to let it go?

Diane Watson: 20:05

I think telling stories is really helpful. So I think when I'm talking to women let's say female clients and that we're having that conversation, then I try and share a story with them that might help them see themselves in that position, because that is the most powerful thing that you can actually do. I'll give you another example, and I have used this in the last couple of weeks. So when I published the book, we have a little petrol station in my village that they fill your car up for you, and I always say that if we don't use it, we lose it. And Louise is the girl that fills my car up and I gave her a copy of the book and in October last year she came out to fill my car and she said to me I've got breast cancer. I read your book and I didn't bloody do anything. Now I'm sharing that story with other people because we all think that these things won't happen to us, but they do. So I think when you can share a powerful story that resonates to something that you're trying to help people make decisions on, it does make a difference.

Diane Watson: 21:10

Lots of my colleagues in protection, as we call it, I'm passionate about life insurance and critical illness cover. Lots of my colleagues aren't. It's a much harder sell than helping people put me into their pension, and for me it's the bedrock of everything that we do for people. You know, if none of that's in place and something terrible happens, you know you really are a shit creek without a paddle. Um. So I think if you're passionate about your message, you need to find a way of telling and sharing the story in a way that people can buy into and engage with that that's good.

Carli Wall: 21:45

That's great. Sharing the story is a good example.

Trudie Avery: 21:48

Thank you go for it trudy

Trudie Avery: 21:56

if you wanted to make investments like, but have no clue. Where do you even start with that? Where do you go to get any information that can help?

Diane Watson: 22:07

I mean, ideally, you need to find somebody that you can trust. People do do it themselves, and I'm not going to be critical of that. Um, I think what disappoints me is that we all have our own businesses and yet often people say, well, I don't really need somebody like you because I can do it myself and that's fair enough. I think having a relationship with someone who who you trust, who is on your side, is really important and there's lots of places you can go to find somebody to do that and who has your best interests at heart, because ultimately, that's what you want. You want somebody who's there for you, who you know is giving you the best advice they can for you and not for themselves.

Marie - Louise O'Neil: 22:54

So that's what I would I would say, and marie louise um, last year I was pregnant and in in may I had a bit of a scare and it made me think about you know what if the worst could happen? We live in a modern age with lots of great medical advice and support, but, you know, giving birth has its risks and in my family I'm the main breadwinner. So at the top of my mind, as I was frantically trying to wrap things up before the birth of my child my second child, um, I wanted to make sure that if the worst would happen, that my husband wouldn't be like well, who are the clients? What do we do? What happens with the money? So I did take out critical illness cover and life insurance and I've continued it because it's like it's now done. It was on my to-do list for years and so I had that, that push pardon the pun to uh, to take that out.

Marie - Louise O'Neil: 24:00

Uh, we do have a will. It was one of the first things that we invested in when I got into do my business and networking. It's like, oh, I know someone who can do a will. So we've got a mirrored will, um, which encompassed and includes any future children, because at the time we just had the one. So we'll probably revisit that at some point, but um, yeah, I can tick that off. Do I get a gold star Diane you?

Diane Watson: 24:25

definitely, we get two, two gold stars for that, actually thanks I actually have a question.

Catherine Chapman: 24:33

That's all right, because I so I'm sat here listening to you and I'm thinking I'd love to work with diane, and then I'm starting the whole. Perhaps I'll do it next year when I've earned a bit more money, or or I can't afford her, or what, and I'm and I'm saying this out loud because I know that maybe in this room I'm the only one, but I know that on the podcast, I'm not going to be the only one that's thinking this, other than reading the book which I am halfway through, what's like step one Since this morning.

Donna Eade: 25:06

Bloody hell, you're amazing.

Catherine Chapman: 25:09

It's on my Kindle. Oh yeah, I forgot.

Diane Watson: 25:11

Yeah, I pre-ordered it I think the most important thing is to recognize that you need to take some action and there is no point keeping on keeping on delaying it, because literally none of us know what's around the corner. Yeah, you know, and I mean I'll give you another example. I went to see um a couple for lunch and one of their for lunch, and one of their colleagues, their lawyers, and one of their colleagues said to me I think they're going to tell you that they're having a child. They've been trying for a baby for ages. And I sat down, the guy was there first and he said I've got something to tell you. And I was really smiley and he said I've been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and he was 39. And she was pregnant with twins. Right, he's never worked a day since Now.

Diane Watson: 25:58

Before that, some months before that, when I said to them you've got a mortgage and you've got nothing to pay the mortgage off, they went and talked to their parents and their parents said you don't need what she's telling you to do, right, fortunately, they did do what I suggested, and thank goodness they did, because can you imagine? I mean, I don't know how old John is now, he's probably in his late 40s, but he can't work, you know, and for any of us to be in that. So I'm not a great lover of people saying I'll do it next year, I'll think about it then. You know, because you should be doing these things now because we just never know what's. You know, we could, we could, you know, we're all, most of us going to drive home tonight.

Diane Watson: 26:40

You know it's not just illness, you know, if you think about I always use the analogy of Kate Garroway's husband who got COVID, she didn't have a power of attorney, she couldn't access his money when he was ill all that time in hospital, you know, people have accidents, things happen in people's lives and I'm, you know, to try and encourage anybody to take action and do something rather than keep saying I'll do it next year. I mean, my kids are 37 and 35 and both married, both with children, but they've got wills, they've got powers of attorney, they've got life. And critical. I mean my daughter. If you read the book, my daughter talks about how she's always talking to her friends. You know, because they, a lot of them, are just so casual about everything and most of them have got children now because you just never know what can happen. You don't want to be one of those people who says I wish I'd done something amen to that right.

Donna Eade: 27:41

sorry, that's a bit depressing, but it's. But it's reality and I think if we all take that on board in this room and do something about it, make that phone call to the financial advisor, to Diane, like reach out to somebody and start that conversation and get it going, then we all don't have to be that story and that is amazing. So thank you, diane, so much for coming and speaking on the stage. Thank you, thank you so much.