The Price You Pay
Host Natalie Cook, Olympic gold medalist and five-time Olympian, shares the inspiring and untold stories of athletes who face financial obstacles in their pursuit of becoming Olympian's and Paralympian’s.
Discover the sacrifices, challenges, and unwavering determination behind their pursuit of greatness.
Be inspired by their resilience and determination to turn their dreams into reality.
The Price You Pay
17: From Olympic Clay to Financial Play: Aislin Jones's Shooting Journey
Aislin Jones became the world's youngest Olympic shooter at age 16, qualifying for Rio 2016 in just four years instead of her planned eight-year timeline. Her journey illustrates the hidden financial costs of elite sport and the importance of mental wellbeing in athletic careers.
• Dad Dave introducing 12-year-old Aislin to clay target shooting, where her natural talent was immediately evident
• Meeting two-time Olympic shooter Lauryn Mark who became both a coach and lifelong mentor
• Qualifying unexpectedly early for Rio 2016 at age 16
• Taking time away from the sport after missing Tokyo qualification due to burnout
• The staggering $65,000 cost of preparing for Paris 2024, exceeding Ashlyn's annual salary
• Learning to fundraise through the Australian Sports Foundation, raising $41,000 to support her Olympic journey
• Finding balance between shooting, work, study, and personal life after returning to the sport
• Pursuing financial planning as a career to help future athletes manage their finances
• The absence of financial advisors in athlete support systems despite their critical importance
This episode brilliantly captures the psychological transformation Aislin experienced in her relationship with fundraising, shifting from reluctance to ask for help to seeing community support as empowerment rather than pressure. Her journey comes full circle as she now studies financial planning with a passion to fill the critical gap in athlete support systems, determined to help future Olympians avoid the debt traps that plague Australian sports.
Whether you're an aspiring athlete, a parent supporting sporting dreams, or simply fascinated by the hidden realities of Olympic journeys, this conversation offers invaluable insights into resilience, family support, and financial literacy in elite sports.
Become a part of our athletes' success stories: Whether its a personal donation, a corporate partnership, a round of golf, or simply by spreading the word, your support has the power to uplift our athletes and inspire countless others!
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My name is Luke Morrison and I'm from the Gurangy Gurangy mob and I wish to acknowledge the lands on which the Price you Pay podcast is being recorded, on the Meeinjin country. I feel the spirits of my Indigenous ancestors having my back as I step into the boxing ring. This podcast pays homage to the tradition of storytelling when it shares athlete journeys and wishes to extend its respect to all Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Nat Cook:Welcome to Season 3 of the Price you Pay podcast hosted by myself, nat Cook, five-time Olympian and gold medalist, alongside our superstar interviewer, sarah Sarah from Chatterbox Media. Through conversations with Aussie Athlete Fund recipients, the truth emerges of what it truly takes to reach the highest echelons of sport in this country. By introducing family and key members of the athlete's journey to the discussion, we uncover the hidden costs and barriers they face, while getting a sense of the impact it has on their communities. Indulge me as I take you on a journey of my legacy project that spurred the creation of this podcast and the need to share these amazing athlete stories. I created the Aussie Athlete Fund to provide our next generation aspiring to or wearing the green and gold with the financial skills, tools, networks and opportunities to take care of their financial well-being. I personally retired after 20 years, $300,000 in debt, two medals, no superannuation, and I don't want that for the next generation. I don't want them to continue to pay a price for the honour to represent our country. I'm most proud of the athletes in the Aussie Athlete Fund designing their own initiatives to fundraise. We show them a tool for their fundraising roadmap and then they go about finding the networks, finding the businesses asking people for support along their journey. They get to deal with rejection, they get to deal with success. They have a community, a connected community, so they know they're not alone in this process and I really love how they take ownership for their own journey and that is what I'm most proud of.
Nat Cook:My vision for the Aussie Athlete Fund in the short term is to grow the awareness of the fund, but also of these athletes journeys, to inspire businesses and individuals who have the means to connect with these athlete journeys. They work so hard on the track, in the pool, on the court, to represent this great country and we need people to back their journeys. We need people to get emotionally connected. So that's it in the short term. I need to raise funds, I need to grow awareness and I need to teach the athletes how to be responsible for their own fundraising journeys. In the next seven years, towards 32, I want people to know how important the green and gold athlete is for our country and how it not only inspires our next generation of athletes but our businesses and the whole country to lift, to be the best they can be.
Nat Cook:It's so important to share this podcast not only with our athletes, so they have a tool for their fundraising, to share their stories with people that might like to back them on the journey, but also so that people know the depth of effort that these athletes go to Not only the athletes, their family and friends and their supporting community to help them rise to represent all of us on a world stage. And I want people to be able to be inspired and motivated, like I am when I hear all these athlete stories, to want to help them fundraise and help them look after their financial well-being. So enjoy listening to the stories, pick one or two that you want to back in and make sure they know that you're supporting them. And now, with complete trust and confidence, I hand over the microphone, and I know that might be hard for you to believe, but I have to go out and fundraise for our athletes. As she continues the conversation, our star interviewer, sarah.
Sarah Maxwell:Today we sit down with the world's youngest Olympic shooter to attend the Rio Games in 2016, Aislin Jones. It was at a gun club in Victoria where a father finally lets his 12-year-old daughter take a shot at a clay target and, before you know it, they are enlisting the coaching skills of two-time Olympic shooter Lauryn Mark and creating an eight-year plan to the Tokyo Olympics. Ashlyn recalls watching the Olympics when she was in year six and saying to herself how cool would it be if I could do that one day. The dream was well and truly lit and Ashlyn ended up making the Olympic team in four years, rather than the eight-year plan, and at age 16 became Rio's youngest shooter in the world. And at age 16, became Rio's youngest shooter in the world. But when she narrowly missed out on her Olympic chance in Tokyo 2020, she decided to take some time away from the sport before coming back and qualifying for Paris 2024.
Sarah Maxwell:Aislin's career highlights that it is never a straight line. Joining us in our conversation today is Dad Dave, who is now her personal coach and has been pivotal in ensuring she set up the fundraising pathway to get her to Paris. It was a no-brainer for him that if you're a skeet shooter from Australia, you'll need funds to make the journey possible. I'm really looking forward to hearing how these two have crafted a shooting career that has already spanned more than 13 years, and I have this sneaking suspicion that there's more to come. So you two are, your sights, well and truly in position to get this party started?
Dad Dave:Yes, Yep, let's go.
Sarah Maxwell:Okay, that was my gun analogy. That came from watching movies and not really knowing gun analogies. So you know, just be kind, be kind.
Dad Dave:I don't have any beach volleyball analogies, so you went up on me.
Sarah Maxwell:I know, but you're just going to want to say things about bikinis, so you know we'll just leave that behind, Deb, won't we? I?
Dad Dave:was not actually.
Sarah Maxwell:You weren't. Oh sorry, I take it back. I take it all back, but I do look. I really wanted to start the conversation by acknowledging that you've just come out of a huge Olympic year, competing in Paris last July, and congratulations for that. We heard just in that introduction that it's not a straight line, so qualifying after missing out is a big deal in my book. So tell me a little bit, Aislin, about recovery, what it looks like in 2024 and and you know this year in particular, and are you already aiming at new targets?
Aislin Jones:Yeah, so last year obviously was hectic between um olympic selections and then we very quickly went from olympic selections straight into preparation for the olympics once the team was announced um. So it was sort of just go, go, go all year and then like it all just comes to a halt. Well, I guess I went back to work, so like normal full-time hours and everything. But it was nice to have some consistency and a consistent income after the Olympics. I did have a holiday after the Olympics where I got engaged to my fiancé, jack he proposed, which was really special and yeah, it took some time away from the sport.
Aislin Jones:I didn't really shoot for the rest of the year, which was really nice. And then we have had two competitions already this year which I have been to. But I'm just trying to take this year not as full on as last year, just trying to work a bit more, get a good chunk of my degree done because I'm still studying part time and obviously just lower the shooting expenses to be a bit more manageable for the next little while and also just to have a bit of a break, like it's hard to keep going for four years and I think that break for me particularly, is important to be able to wind it back up again, like for the next cycle.
Sarah Maxwell:Yeah, well said, and I love that your fiancé Jack is just right on line with the cyclical behavior, like he knows when to do the asking, in perfect alignment with your break. So that's beautiful. I like when everything's in line like that. Now we can hear dad laughing in the background. So welcome dad laughing in the background. So welcome dad to the call. We really appreciate your perspectives and you've been patiently waiting over there, so I want to you know like. Have you take us back to the shooting days? What was it like having a young whippersnapper of a daughter hanging around the club impatiently waiting for her chance to shoot? What was that like, having a young whippersnapper of a daughter hanging around the club impatiently waiting for her chance to shoot? What was that like when she first picked up that gun at age 12? And was there a talent? Was there clarity that there was talent straight away?
Dad Dave:yeah, I think there was, you know, and I was. I hadn't had a great long period in the sport before that myself, like it was something that I came to later in life. I shot as a teenager. And then you know and I hadn't had a great long period in the sport before that myself Like it was something that I came to later in life. I shot as a teenager and then had 10 or 15 years away from it.
Dad Dave:So I joined the gun club for a different social outlet outside of work and if Lynn was nursing at the hospital and there was something on out there, then you know the kids had to come with me to the club for the day and you know they'd follow us around and push the button to release targets and try and find whole targets that they could break against trees and do all the sorts of things that kids do.
Dad Dave:And then one day we offered her a go and you know she took to it, you know, kind of like a duck to water, um. It wasn't long after I bought a um, I bought what's called a 20-gauge. It's a smaller shotgun than a 12-gauge like she uses now. It wasn't long after she got that that people around the club were sort of looking at her ability to hit targets and going, oh that's kind of impressive for somebody who's nearly smaller than the gun they're holding. I even had people say we'll see her at the Olympics one day and it was one of those sort of throwaway lines. But you know, it turned out they were 100% on the money.
Sarah Maxwell:Is there anything about her as a young girl that didn't surprise you that she was taking so well to this sport?
Dad Dave:She was always very in Lauren's words, she was very coachable, so she was always very good at following an instruction or taking on board the advice that people gave her and then putting that into practice without needing a whole lot of repetition to get it right. So when I first messaged Lauren, lauren was still overseas 2012, must have been London, and you know, I think it was one of those Telstra hero messages or something that you know you used to be able to send to athletes, you know, and Lauren and Russell were going through their own thing at the time.
Dad Dave:There was some PR about, you know, whether they could stay together in the village and all this sort of stuff. And you know, I didn't know Lauren from a bar of soap but I thought what was going on, with Eddie McGuire waiting in and all sorts of things, was pretty rubbish. And she's American, um, and I just I sent a message saying you know, um, ignore, ignore all the Australian tall poppy syndrome. You know, just go and do what you got to do. And I was really surprised. I didn't expect it, but she answered and then we started a dialogue about you know what my, my interest was, and I explained that I had a daughter who wanted to shoot and she'd been watching the Olympics. And Lauren said, well, when I get back I want to meet her. And that's how it all started.
Sarah Maxwell:Oh, there's some goosebumps moments there, like a lot of courage from you just to take a chance like that and then her to respond to I'm sure she was receiving lots of messages so for her to somehow sift through and feel that there was something different there. Yeah, just you kind of do feel that with this story, that there's some sort of like destined moment going on here, ashlyn, and so from your perspective you know other people were noticing you, but can you give us a sense of what it was like to break that first clay target and how that set off this path of competing for more than a decade now?
Aislin Jones:Yeah, I think it's one of those feelings that you can't really describe until you've done it and I've been really fortunate, obviously, to have that experience myself and continually that's all I'm trying to do is just break targets, like target after target, and miss as little as possible, but the at the beginning, particularly, um it's, it was just so much fun, like I think, getting the like visual reward of like seeing that target explode, meaning you'd, you'd set yourself up right, you'd made a good move and everything felt good and it broke um and then I like learning and improving at things.
Aislin Jones:I've figured this out with a sports like along the way, but like that's one of my key um, like whys of why I do things and it underpins pretty much my whole life, like I'm just there trying to get better at whatever I do and improve myself and so doing that through the avenue of clay, target shooting, and like learning how to okay, I hit that one, can I, can I hit it again and then can I do another one.
Aislin Jones:That's a little bit harder and, um, getting that reward of the target breaking, it's just the best feeling and, like, honestly, a little bit addictive um. So at the start I just loved it, I loved doing it with Dad, I loved going to the gun club. And then it started as it got into competitions and stuff. It would be a couple of days off, school here and there, and I loved school, don't get me wrong. But I loved being away and travelling and competing as well and yeah, it kind of just snowballed, I guess, and I did, in the back of my mind, have that dream of maybe one day going to the Olympics and I think that just kind of pushes you to see how far you can go.
Sarah Maxwell:Absolutely. There's so much good stuff in that and I can't wait to make a parallel later when we talk a little bit more about your study um, even just your work and the ways that what you do with shooting is like translating in different areas of your life. But dad mentioned, you know, two-time olympic shooter Lauryn Mark responding to that message. So what was the importance of that relationship for you early on?
Aislin Jones:um, I was just really excited to meet Lauryn, like I'd watched the shooting on tv and um, and I think I did a dress-up day at school, you know, I was in grade six.
Aislin Jones:So, like time of the Olympics best time to be at school, because it's like always activities around it. You get to watch it at school. They have a dress up day, dress up as your favorite, like athlete, and so, like I dressed up as Lauryn Mark. I had my new shooting jacket on that I'd not long had and I, dad, sent me to school with like a homemade, like cut out essentially of a shotgun, which I don't know how they let me into school with that, but they did.
Aislin Jones:Um, so many thoughts on that. That's awesome, um, and yeah, so getting to meet Lauren and, I guess, work with her with what level she'd competed at, having been to the two olympics, like um, I think I was like a little bit awestruck at the beginning and she was so amazing, like I felt so comfortable, like immediately, and um, I think you're right, like it's probably just one of those things that maybe felt like it was meant to be. What that has blossomed into for us is more than a coaching relationship and like she's somebody that I can pick up the phone to now and call for it was like boy advice, like when I was younger, and like she's somebody that I can pick up the phone to now and call for.
Aislin Jones:It was like boy advice, like when I was younger, and like, um, just literally anything like work advice, career stuff, um, she's such a key person in my life and in my like key um inner circle, I guess, of people um. So yeah, sitting down with her at the beginning and like we mapped out that eight year plan and I think the confidence that she had in that she could help get me there like really spurred me on for that.
Sarah Maxwell:Yeah, like good on her for giving you that scaffolding for what was possible in that career, like almost like a pathway for you to follow. And, of course, when someone's realised her own Olympic dream and knowing she's crafting it for you there was a side to that. Yes.
Dad Dave:I guess Lauren and I had different conversations to the ones that she was having with Ashlyn. Lauren didn't sugarcoat it. She said to me that Ashlyn was incredibly coachable, that she believed she could go wherever she wanted in the sport if I could resource it. And that was highlighted after the first coaching session, where the gun the smaller shotgun that we'd got Ashlyn to start off with. You know, at the end of the first coaching session or halfway through it, lauren said to me well, you know, if this is going to continue, the first thing that has to change is that gun, because it doesn't fit it.
Aislin Jones:I got to try Lauryn's gun at the end. Yeah, because that's the other thing. She's left-handed and I'm right-handed but turns out left eye dominant. So I started shooting left-handed from like nearly, almost the beginning. So I got to try a gun at the end of that session and realized that I was ready to go from a 20 gauge up to a 12 gauge, which involved a new gun.
Dad Dave:Yeah, that meant yeah, yeah, trip to baretta on the way home, and you know what is the cost? Oh, that was an introductory level, so that was two and a half grand um like all of a sudden you're 12, yeah. For a 12-year-old.
Sarah Maxwell:You're a 12-year-old and you know having my daughter come through sport, the minute they get something over $300, you're like you don't have anything over this amount of money and you know, like I can't even imagine trying to tell her that this is $2,500.
Dad Dave:Well, yeah, that didn't even come into it. It was going home to Lynn that night and saying oh, by the way, we stopped at Peretta on the way home and there's a new shotgun.
Aislin Jones:Oh my gosh.
Sarah Maxwell:And that's it right, depending on what sport you play and the equipment, like price gauging. That is such a good story, dad. Actually Thank you for adding and keep doing that is. That is such a good story, dad, actually Thank you for adding and keep doing that. Keep jumping in and adding because you're right, like Aislin's having conversations with Lauren from the athlete perspective, and then here you are, behind you know she's offering advice and telling you, basically mapping your eight year plan from a funds point of view, but interestingly, you qualify early, right, so this is a big part of your story. So, rather than the eight-year plan, you know Ashlyn, you decide, no, I can do this in four years. So you qualify for Rio. How do you adjust when all of a sudden, you'd always had your sights on eight years? Here you are, four years, like. Give me a little bit of comparing and contrasting of you qualify early for one so unexpected and then you miss out on the expected one. So give me a little bit about the mindset differences between those two olympic runs yeah.
Aislin Jones:So there was a lot in that, like those two four or like four year gap, um. And I think the key part was coming into Rio with no expectations, like the selections for it, with no expectations. I wasn't expected to make it. Yes, I was a contender, but it was like go and shoot the selection events for experience, because in four years time you'll be doing this for the real deal, kind of thing um and I knew I was competitive, like I'd just uh, gone to my first senior international event, like at the beginning of the year, and done well for what was expected.
Aislin Jones:But yeah, I had nothing riding on, I had nothing to lose, and so I came in and I won both of the selection events. And the selection policy was different back then to what it is now, as it changes sort of every olympic cycle, um. But I got a letter um, I was at my grandparents um in marimbula and I got a letter saying that I'd been selected for the team. And I like couldn't, couldn't believe it. It was like my dreams just came true.
Sarah Maxwell:Like you're off to rio, um, that year you don't know, when you did the shooting, that result you didn't realise that.
Aislin Jones:oh wow, until that letter came, yeah whereas now, like, the selection policy is like it's clear cut, it's on points Like you know, if you finished in front that you're going. Basically, so, yeah, then having that first Olympic experience like completely eye-opening. I was at year 10 at school, like, yeah, just being able to absorb that whole experience and like everything. It was just so special, um. And then I guess the next four years were year 11 and 12 at school and um, continuing shooting, continuing going to world cups and improving, but different levels of business support. And then I guess 2019 was my first year out of school. So I wasn't committing to like getting a full-time job, I was just doing a casual job and focusing on shooting to make the Tokyo Olympic team.
Sarah Maxwell:Sorry, a little interrupt here. Ashlyn, in this, like those three years that you're discussing here, did you feel a monkey on your back, a little bit like the pressure now, like I'm an Olympian, I've got to make the next Olympian like what was your sort of mindset?
Aislin Jones:it was probably more, I think, the 2019 year, because 2018 was also Commonwealth Games um, and I I don't remember really feeling it then.
Aislin Jones:I think it was 2019, when I kind of committed more because I didn't have school anymore to go to um, it felt like shooting was my main thing, um, so I guess that kind of felt like it put more pressure on it because I was like, well, that's the main thing that I'm focusing on and doing um.
Aislin Jones:And so when that didn't go well, it mentally took probably more of a toll than previously because I had other stuff going on. It didn't feel as important. And so I traveled a lot in 2019 and I definitely felt it coming into the Tokyo selections and I was also probably a little bit burnt out because I had been doing this for so long and travelling and everything else and it just kind of felt like it all came to a head and I didn't have the mental toolbox to deal with that at that point. But I've learnt so much from that experience about what's important, what's not important and then the actual part of missing out on that Olympic Games I think has really shaped me into who I am today and how I approach this Olympic cycle, not important um, and then the actual part of missing out on that olympic games, I think has really shaped me into who I am today and how I approached this olympic cycle thank you for sharing that, because sometimes we don't love revisiting that stuff.
Sarah Maxwell:You know it's like oh, can we just pretend that never happened? However, especially for young athletes, it's like the remembering that those failures wrong word, but not making it can really help you, drive you to a new level of thinking and mindset and approach. That it's like you actually didn't really know what that was like until it happened to you. So it's nice for you to be able to share that. I mean, you're living it now. You showed that, hey, I'm a different person now. Look what I can do, I can qualify now. But I think that again, like sharing that when it's not probably your favorite story and, on that, when I'm gonna ask this to dad actually, like when Ashlyn decides to leave well, she didn't leave the sport. Take some time away from the sport. Um, how did she say that to you and how did you relate to one another? Because you were so engaged in each other's lives. You know, coach, athlete, parent, child dynamic the whole thing was going on yeah look, it was it wasn't unexpected.
Dad Dave:You know we've spent so much time together traveling. You know, hours and hours and hours in the car driving to sydney and newcastle and melbourne, and you know, all over the place going out of coaching we've. One of the great things that's come out of it is the relationship I have with both my daughters is so good because, you know, renee shoots as well. She's, you know, gone to junior world championship level. So we've I've done this twice, um, but the when when we first started this journey, you know we were traveling to frankston from home every weekend to train it was unsustainable and we bought my mom actually bought a pair of traps that we could put in at a club down here, to upgrade a club down here to olympic level with the machines that throw clay targets.
Aislin Jones:Yeah, so you know and that's not a small investment.
Dad Dave:I think that was probably 15 grand for the two traps when Ashland was about 14, I think we were at the time and mum had no issue with doing it. But the one thing she, you know, she specifically said to Ashland was and she said it to Ashland first and then she said I've said said to Ashland was and she said it to Ashland first and then she said I've said this to Ashland is, if this stops being fun, stop, there's nobody, nobody is going to regret the investment. Um, you have to. You have to do what's right for you and you know it was quite clear to me during the Tokyo, yeah, during the Tokyo selections, particularly when we were up at Newcastle for the first of the two selection events and we'd driven up there, leaving home middle of the bushfires in East Gippsland with ribbons tied to taps for friends to turn sprinklers on.
Dad Dave:Ashlyn had broken up with her first long-term relationship. I think. The dog got diagnosed with lymphoma. We had a lot going on and we really probably didn't necessarily know whether we were going to have a house to come back to afterwards. But the selection event wasn't optional. So we went and Ashlyn was showing signs to me then of burnout and it became about trying to get her through that series rather than necessarily expecting anything at the end of it. So when she said she wanted to take a break, I was quite happy about that and I said to her just put the gun in the safe, go and do something else. Don't take it out until you want to, and if you don't ever want to, that's fine.
Sarah Maxwell:What a beautiful wow. It's actually prescriptive. You know, it's beautiful for family to hear this, that this these are critical comments, um, that you need to share that. If it's not fun anymore, if this is not what it started out to be, stop and we're going to love you no matter what and accept you and yeah, like your goodness doesn't depend on your performance.
Dad Dave:No, I actually said to Ashlyn I think it might have been the second selection event I said, you know, she said she had a bit of a teary moment and she was not in a great place. And I said look, I know we've talked about this being fun. I said, but nobody is out there to have fun at the moment. Everybody is deadly serious about trying to make a Tokyo team, so it's allowed not to be fun a bit. But what we were talking about on the whole after Tokyo and or missing out on Tokyo, was you know, if it's not fun, full stop. You know there is nothing that you're enjoying about this at the moment. You know at that point you have to stop, otherwise you're just grinding yourself into the ground to try and satisfy other people's expectations largely.
Sarah Maxwell:It's funny. That's a very good analogy grinding yourself into the ground and the difference between when Ashlyn talked about how much she loves improvement, versus the same twist, but one's grinding you down and one's building you up and understanding that distinction, you know, between burnout and um. I don't even know what the other word is, not resilience, but like when you're actually um, not excited, exhilarated.
Dad Dave:Yeah, exhilaration is very different and there's a problem in a lot of sports in Australia too that you know the Southern Hemisphere's season is diametrically opposed to the Northern Hemisphere. So you know your World Cup and World Championships, you know, come to an end, you know, late year in Europe and the northern states of you know the US or whatever. But then we start with our nationals and our selections and everything. So she went, I don't know, six or seven years. There really wasn't a break. You know it was, it was rio, and then it was two years to com games and you know world cups and everything else. And then as soon as we were back from com games, it was right, okay, it's into, you know who's going, who's going to tokyo. And so it just didn't stop. It was relentless.
Sarah Maxwell:And I think, even just hearing both of your experience now, what you can now share with others in terms of planning periodization, like how important and why you guys are doing it different and that is a question that I had for you Dad, when she decides to come back what kind of adjustments and changes were made from what you'd learned in the previous cycle?
Dad Dave:um, we went back with a pretty soft start. You know like she came down home, um, for a couple of days, bought the gun with her um. We went out to the club, set some targets and I said, just go and shoot around and see, see how it feels, um and you. She shot three rounds and she shot a score that when she started would have been, you know, probably put her in a final in fifth or sixth spot. So I said, well, you know, you haven't forgotten how to do it. So there's not. You know this is we need to polish here, not to necessarily start from scratch. So it was. I think we just built into it gently. You know there was, there was, no, there was nothing that we really had riding on it that year. One of the.
Dad Dave:If there's a good thing about what's happened with the commonwealth games, it's the fact that you know, for commonwealth countries, athletes are going to get a bit of a break. There's a mental health benefit because you're not going. You know you've opened up to four year cycles now, not, you know, two year cycles, um, for the sports that are still in. That's great for them. There's a lot of funding comes for junior development from commonwealth games and I think what's happened with the commonwealth games is an absolute tragedy. But you know, I think there are benefits. You know clouds and silver linings, um, so yeah, we just we started soft, you know, did a bit of work down home and then, you know, she started seeing lauren again and you know lauren and I worked pretty closely together for the next few years and you know, built up to well, obviously, to how she performed to get into the paris team and I did a lot of work too, um, with a sports sack, whilst I actually wasn't shooting.
Aislin Jones:Um, that was really encouraged and supported because I knew that even when I was gonna come back it, I needed to do a lot of work, like internally, on changing like that relationship and thought process around shooting and um, we worked really hard on my autonomy and like it's got to be what I want to do.
Aislin Jones:There's always things you don't want to do that come with anything job, work, sport but like around making it like my plan, this is what I want because, yeah, that was what was really important. So, like when I came back I knew I needed I couldn't come back in the same headspace. Like I had to do the work in between to come back and give it a real shot.
Dad Dave:And the other thing too was that you know when you did come back, you know, like the first thing that happened well, covid happened straight after Tokyo selections. Ashlyn came home. You know I was doing some work on one of the young guys from you know the club's guns to fix a problem for him, and his mum said to me what's Ashlyn up to?
Dad Dave:I said well she's got some free time now and she said do you think she'd be interested in doing some quoting for us? And I went home and pitched that to Ashlyn. And Ashlyn reacts to ideas thrown at her like that with resistance at times. But I gave her some time to think about it and I said, look, they thrown at her like that with, you know, resistance at times. But I gave her some time to think about it and I said, look, they'll have systems and processes and you know they'll teach you what to do and you know. So that's, that's turned into the start of her working life for her, like she's now been doing that for um quite a while.
Sarah Maxwell:She's their senior estimator. It quotes in financial planning or no so?
Aislin Jones:it was a window and door company got it, got it another company, yep but, um, you know, if you look at the.
Dad Dave:So she started doing that, worked out what she wanted to do for uni, you know, met jack, bought a block of land. All of these sorts of things happened over the next 12, 18 months and then suddenly shooting becomes this much of your life. Instead of this much of it, you know like it's she achieved some balance. You know, instead of just being entirely focused on one thing, it became a much smaller part of who she is, because you know part of the part of what she said, you know, in the, in the discussions around the tokyo selection stuff, you know, when she was sort of going well, I don't even know why I'm doing this, i'm'm doing it because I've always done it. I don't know any different. That's not a performance motivation conversation. So when she came back with much more balance, I think she would agree that. You know, things were much better.
Sarah Maxwell:Anything that can bring that perspective. Hey, of like, when you said, knowing that it wasn't who she was, it was something she did and that there was some balance in that. It's an incredible story in terms of that journey. And I know, ashlyn, that fundraising like the money part of things, because there you were buying a block of land, starting some work, starting to get some money in, maybe you, you know, moving out from home and all these things I know dad was always sort of lining in with this no-brainer fundraising plan that he had. But what did you have to overcome within yourself when it came to fundraising?
Aislin Jones:Yeah, so I was really lucky that, like through the 2016 and even the 2020, like period, I really didn't have a whole lot to do with the fundraising and sponsorship side of things. Dad largely managed that for me and I could just shoot and, yeah, then coming into this Olympic cycle, like you said, I was living at a home, so like I was much more in tune with the finance side of things and what things cost and how much I needed. And it became quite an important factor to me was to come up with a plan on how we were going to fund last year's preparation into the Olympics, how we were going to fund last year's preparation into the Olympics. And because I knew that would take a lot of mental load off me if I knew that I wasn't scrounging to find money to go to the next domestic selection event or time off work, how was I going to pay my bills, like if I didn't have money coming in? And so I knew that was something that I needed to deal with beforehand rather than like as it was happening, um, and to do that, I also had to kind of um compromise a few like thought processes within like myself, um, because it's a hard thing to ask for help, and the last experience I had with that was me adding pressure on myself because of other people supporting me, and that's nothing that anybody has ever said to me. That was something that I just created myself.
Aislin Jones:So, um, dad had a really, really good chat with me before we posted the fundraising link, um to the ASF page about, like, how it was gonna go or what we were looking to do, and I'd never done that sort of thing before, asking individuals to donate and I didn't know how I felt about asking for money. And I can't remember exactly what you said, dad, but it was along the lines of, like, people will see the link and people are only going to donate if they want to support you and it's not like for any reason in particular, they don't need anything back. They're just happy to support you on your journey because they like who you are, what you stand for and what you try to achieve. Like you're not making anybody do anything. It's's their choice Huge.
Dad Dave:Yeah.
Sarah Maxwell:What a good lesson, because you can hear inside of your prior experience that you had framed out the story in your mind is if they give me this, I owe them that. And your discussion, dad, about hold on a second. Let's give them a choice, because that's what happens in your head, right? You create this story and you're already choosing for people. Oh, they're not going to want to give because of blah, blah, blah, you know. And so fundraising is really interesting for what it brings up.
Sarah Maxwell:It brings up things in other people, but what it brings up for you as an athlete and being able to, like you say, ask people for help without that ledger that says oh, if, if they, they do this, then I like almost like you're keeping this secret ledger of how many people you owe and if you get out of balance and you're not going to be able to pay them back. And it's just this whole mind. It all happens in your mind.
Dad Dave:Yeah, it does.
Dad Dave:And you know, in the prior to probably prior to the ASF platform, you know the motivation for small businesses in East Gippsland to tip in.
Dad Dave:You know small amounts, larger amounts, whatever it was, was because they wanted to help, but it was sort of there was a transactional aspect to it.
Dad Dave:Like you know, we would offer them things like social media and stuff like that in return, because we always approached that side of it, the fundraising as a two-way street street, like it's not just okay you're paying for a sign on the boundary of the footy oval where you really don't know whether you get anything back from that. You know if you're happy to help ashlyn, then you know we'll do some. You know promotional sort of stuff and look that you can never measure what they get out of that social media stuff. But certainly for um, the car dealer that had their logo on the side of her car for the better part of three years, we know they sold some cars out of it because we know who bought them. But to move to a completely altruistic method of fundraising where you're giving people the absolute choice whether they're going to help or not and it's actually in the terms and conditions that they can't expect something in return. That was what got Ashlyn across the line on it. It was a big shift for her.
Aislin Jones:And it even ended up being something so much bigger than I could have like realised. Like the impact that it had on me in a positive way because I wasn't stressed financially, like it was a lot of. We put a lot of work in and promoting it and doing various things and with the Aussie Athlete Fund and the million million dollar challenge and everything um. But I ended up going to the Olympics and just feeling like I had not added pressure but like I had all of these people that were on my team. It was like I had hundreds of people sitting in, were on my team. It was like I had hundreds of people sitting in the crowd that weren't actually there like supporting me. It was a really so cool, like really really special feeling um to know that like I had my whole community backing me and, like I love growing up in a country town because it is different um, it became like really personal um and was really Gosh, what a good, what a reframe.
Sarah Maxwell:Change of support versus pressure, or like owing people. And on that, when you had to create, you know, really get clear with your finances. What surprised you, ashlyn, when you started to write down how much this thing was going to cost? What about that process? Because now you're going to school as a financial planner, so now you're going to do this for other people. So what was your surprise when you started to create that plan.
Aislin Jones:My surprise was the amount and how much higher it was than I thought it would be once you started adding everything up, and that scared me because I was like that amount ended up being more than my annual salary.
Sarah Maxwell:Right Hence, this is really good for your future. By the way, this is why people don't want to write it down, because they're afraid of that moment. So how did you take the moment of oh my God. Into power?
Aislin Jones:I think, putting it all out in a budget.
Aislin Jones:And then I not only did the budget beforehand but I also tracked it during the year so that, like, because there is a difference between what you think something's going to cost and what it actually ends up costing there's always unforeseen things that come up or you and it's a tendency to lowball the amount, like it's easier to under budget like than over budget.
Aislin Jones:We factored in a contingency fee for the things that we weren't sure that we'd allowed for or were going to cost more or come up unexpectedly. And but I think I think doing it did give me power because I knew then how much I had to fundraise or get sponsorship for to cover those costs, because it wasn't like I was walking into the year not sure when I was going to run out of money, like I knew how much was going to be coming out later in the year, because I did it month by month and yeah, it's a scary thing to do and a lot of people don't do it for that reason, because but it gives you so much more control back over your own finances.
Sarah Maxwell:That was really good description there, because putting your head in the sand comes with its own amount of insecurity, because you're not sure and you've never written it down. There's always this impending when is it going to run out voice as well, which is stressful. So this is a really interesting conversation for young people to hear. Well, adults to hear, hear, let's be honest. Um, and inside of that, dad, what has the Aussie Athlete Fund, what's its contribution or impact been? Because clearly you were already in a fundraising conversation, so what was all that it played?
Dad Dave:I guess, to put it in context, um, you know the figure that Ashlyn probably had in mind that night when we sat down at the table and started to put figures on paper. You know she was probably thinking around the $30,000 mark and you know what we were looking at was her cutting her hours back at work. So that involved an income reduction. So it wasn't you know, it wasn't just outgoings for targets and travel and clays and shells and all that sort of stuff. You know there was some other real impacts that were probably going to be greater the fact that we worked out that she was going to need, if she went right through to the Olympics. She was going to need 12 weeks off work in the space of eight months and you know she had maybe a week and a half of annual leave in the bank at that point in time, so most of that time was going to be unpaid leave. Um, shane and juliet wood street windows were fantastic. They gave her the time off, but you know it was unrealistic to expect them to pay for it. So the figure ended up being closer to 65. So you know it was a pretty big target.
Dad Dave:Talking to Jack from the ASF really early in the piece because we'd signed up for an account with the ASF years ago. We'd just never done anything with it. And you know, I went to Jack and I said, look, you know, I need to know how this works a bit better because we've got a pretty big figure that we need to work on this year. And he had a really good conversation with us. But one of the things he said to us that resonated was if you need 30, don't put down 10 as your target, because then you end up Tell people what it's really going to cost, give people that understanding of what you're up against and then work towards that figure.
Dad Dave:And I know that's a little bit different to the approach that they took in the million dollar challenge, but it did actually work. You know, like we ended up with the two ASF campaigns before and after the million dollar challenge started, and the first one I think the target we put in was 30. And that was probably before we'd done the budget. I think the target we put in was 30, and that was probably before we'd done the budget. I think Then, once we realised what the budget was and got involved with Nat, with the Million Dollar Challenge, that was when we stopped that one. I think it had about 20, ashlyn will tell me 24 or 26 or something.
Sarah Maxwell:I looked at one.
Dad Dave:It was 25, so maybe that one Yep, so that was probably the first one. And then we started the. So maybe that one Yep, so that was probably the first one. And then we started the million-dollar challenge one and so in whole, you know the ASF as part of Ashlyn's journey was probably sorry phone going in the background, sorry. You know. Probably two-thirds of what she needed came in from the ASF all up.
Aislin Jones:Yeah, it was $41,000 roughly.
Dad Dave:Yeah, incredible. And there's literally no way that she could have gone to Paris without the ASF. It just would not have happened, and, to a point, probably without the million-dollar challenge getting involved as well, because we'd already learnt a hell of a lot about fundraising in the early part of the journey. The Million Dollar Challenge, you know, reinforced some of what we already knew, but it also gave us some new directions and taught Ashlyn some of the stuff that I'd had to learn along the way so she could take over. So that was.
Sarah Maxwell:Ashlyn's transition to fundraising understanding. So Dad had mostly been the primary and now, through the Million Dollar Challenge, ashlyn, you started to educate yourself. Is that what I'm hearing?
Aislin Jones:Yeah, yeah, it was more me taking on that learning and like taking that active step, but then also giving me the realization that hey dad kind of knew like dad was pretty good, I was pretty lucky to have him.
Sarah Maxwell:You're like tick on dad. Dad's kind of clever.
Dad Dave:Well, you can take that all the way back to lauren saying if you can resource this, because I, I, you know, like you, look around sport, there's a lot of people in high-end sport who are, you know, coming out of private business backgrounds. Or you know 20 000 acre beef farms or whatever they're doing, there's not too many of them. Come out of a goat. You know two parents in a government job. You know you can't write off a pallet of shotgun shells against your tax for your farm, for pest control, or something I was going to say good luck to the government.
Sarah Maxwell:I'm not saying that stuff happens. That would be. You'd have a whole other world of it. Sorry, I was just going to say, though, Ashlyn, ask you whether what's been the advantage of you also coming into the fundraising understanding versus just dad knowing.
Aislin Jones:I think it was important for me to take on some of that responsibility and ownership too, just so that I have the skills going forward and know that, like dad and I make a great team, but like I'm a part of that team as well, like it's not I'm a bit older, like I'm a part of that team as well, like it's not I'm a bit older, like I'm not 16 anymore.
Aislin Jones:I need to take more responsibility for that side of things. Um, and like the thing that I was going to add on the million dollar challenge, like one of the things many things that I found that I loved about that was that it was a group of athletes who all had the same struggles, like different sports, different backgrounds, different upbringings, but we were all there trying to fundraise to support ourselves in sport, and I think that um community environment like just made you feel like really validated, like all of the hard parts about fundraising and the nose that you get, and like it's uncomfortable putting yourself out there, but we were all doing that together and that kind of made it feel less intimidating.
Sarah Maxwell:Yeah, well said and did. Were you already taking financial planning at the time? When did you actually start that course?
Aislin Jones:I started studying in 2022, so pretty much just as I was coming back to shooting. It was a complete 180 from what I thought I wanted to do.
Aislin Jones:I left school wanting to be a personal trainer in fitness and then, um, dad opened my eyes to the world of budgeting when I said that I wanted to move out of home, and I quickly realized that that was not going to happen when I thought it was. But what it did was gave me the realization that I was like okay, I need to start learning how to budget, like personally, so that I can afford things in the future. So, like dad, you did well there, because now I'm studying to be a financial advisor, but I know that's actually really interesting.
Sarah Maxwell:And as a last question on that what's your passion now for athletes and their financial futures? Because I know that now that you've sort of like opened that Pandora's box for yourself, you're starting to see how you could help athletes in general.
Aislin Jones:Yeah, I would love.
Aislin Jones:I think I realized through my experience in sport and the fundraising and the whole Paris Olympic campaign, finance for anyone, not just people in sport, but it's often a huge stressor, um and like, just because we're athletes doesn't mean that it's not a potential performance stressor as well, depending on if it's going good or bad.
Aislin Jones:And so I think I believe, strongly believe, that it is a large factor and it's something that can be addressed and managed with the right support. So my, I guess and I think especially off the back of doing Nat's challenge and what she's doing for young athletes in sport and trying to set them up financially as well the there is a gap in the performance support system where we've got a dietician, a physio, a sports psych, we've got a wellbeing officer, we've got a career advisor. We have all of these people here supporting us, but nobody to help us set a budget or learn how to, and that's they're teaching people to fundraise. But how do we take that money then to afford right now and afford our lifestyle in the future? Like thinking beyond. This year athletes aren't getting paid super, so there's so many consequences down the track that people aren't really considering, and I really think that it's just so important for everyone, but particularly athletes, to know how to manage that side of things and maybe have a financial advisor in their corner to help set themselves up.
Sarah Maxwell:Wow, I mean this is a very powerful conversation. I think I can see a future roadmap right now as you're describing it, and I feel like there's a lot more to this story. But I do want to say thank you to both of you for being so open. I think what you represent is it's not unique, but the way you're telling it is unique, and the fact that you've done it over so many Olympic campaigns and are going to continue to do that, I think makes it you're sort of like at the forefront of that story. So thank you so much, dad. You have to be proud when you hear some of those moments that you had that have now shaped Ashlyn. That's why we love having family on here, because I feel like it really rounds out the story. It really kind of comes full circle and puts it all together. So thank you so much for both sharing so openly.
Dad Dave:No, thanks for having me.
Sarah Maxwell:Thank you.
Nat Cook:Thank you for joining us on another episode of the Price you Pay podcast. We hope we've inspired you with the insider's look of the challenges faced by our aspiring athletes, the highs and lows of playing sports at such an elite level and what's possible when you're so devoted to your craft. It's our mission at the Aussie Athlete Fund to create a sustainable funding model to support our athletes for both their financial wellbeing and education for their own athlete economy. To be part of the journey, please visit our website at wwwaussieathletefundcom and choose how you would like to be involved, whether that's as a corporate partner, teaming up with an athlete in the Million Dollar Challenge or hosting your very own event to help raise funds. Choose your own adventure.
Nat Cook:Sharing the Aussie Athlete Fund mission, or even an episode, is how we grow and expand the reach we have in supporting these young athletes is how we grow and expand the reach we have in supporting these young athletes. Be part of changing the narrative. And one last thing press the follow button and rate us for Season 3 so these stories can travel further and wider. Be sure to join us next time for more captivating stories of triumph and resilience on the next episode of the Price you Pay.
