Latest / Difference Makers Podcast / Caitríona Jennings, From PwC to World Records

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Caitríona Jennings, From PwC to World Records · Difference Makers Podcast

• 0:12
  Sinead Donovan: Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, whatever time of the day it is that you are tuning into this episode of Difference Makers Discuss.
• 0:20
  Sinead Donovan: I am Sade Donovan and I am here with yet another amazing charged accountant As we chat.
• 0:26
  Sinead Donovan: Two chart accountants across the globe, uh, for the difference they have made in various aspects of life.
• 0:32
  Sinead Donovan: And believe me, it is going to be a banger.
• 0:35
  Sinead Donovan: Today I am here with Katrina Jennings.
• 0:38
  Sinead Donovan: Katrina is a fellow Irish woman and a member of Charter Accountantss Ireland.
• 0:42
  Sinead Donovan: That is where the similarities probably end because, um, Katrina is gonna tell us in her own words, but I'm just going to give you a little bit of a teaser.
• 0:50
  Sinead Donovan: Um, she's in the aviation field and the trading desk of, of, of aviation, which is in itself a, um, very interested to hear about.
• 1:00
  Sinead Donovan: But Katrina is, um, excelling in the sporting world as well as the professional world.
• 1:04
  Sinead Donovan: Um, an Olympian representing Ireland, um, a marathon runner and gone up to endurance running, and most recently, the new world record holder for a hundred miles.
• 1:15
  Sinead Donovan: Yes, audience.
• 1:16
  Sinead Donovan: You heard it a hundred miles.
• 1:17
  Sinead Donovan: Running in, I'm gonna look at it now.
• 1:19
  Sinead Donovan: 12 hours, 37 minutes.
• 1:21
  Sinead Donovan: And four seconds, Katrina, congratulations.
• 1:23
  Sinead Donovan: First off, but please fill in the gaps of everything that I've talked about there, your profession, your sporting achievements, and just how you balance it all.
• 1:31
  Catriona Jennings: Hi Shana.
• 1:31
  Catriona Jennings: Well firstly, thank you so much for having me on the podcast today.
• 1:35
  Catriona Jennings: Um, I. And yes, I guess when I think you did a really good job of summarizing it.
• 1:41
  Catriona Jennings: Um, I think maybe the blanks, maybe, I suppose, um,
• 1:46
  Sinead Donovan: where'd you start?
• 1:47
  Sinead Donovan: You started in
• 1:48
  Catriona Jennings: pwc, am I right?
• 1:50
  Catriona Jennings: I started in pwc.
• 1:50
  Catriona Jennings: I studied law and accounting at college.
• 1:52
  Catriona Jennings: I had, um, I loved, um, accounting in.
• 1:55
  Catriona Jennings: When I was in secondary school and I knew that that was something I would be interested in, but I also really liked English and um, I thought maybe a career that could potentially either go down the road of law or accounting was one that would be suitable for me.
• 2:08
  Catriona Jennings: Um, I ended up in tax in pwc where I trained to become a chartered accountant and also tax advisor or charter, um, tax advisor.
• 2:18
  Catriona Jennings: And, um, I then after, well I, I guess I moved up through the ranks in pwc.
• 2:26
  Catriona Jennings: As you know, it's quite a structured, um, escalation of your, your career progression.
• 2:31
  Catriona Jennings: And during that time I also.
• 2:33
  Catriona Jennings: Was quite active in the world of sport, and it was during that time in p WC that I qualified for the Olympics in 2012.
• 2:41
  Sinead Donovan: So, so, so just take the step, the, the sports you started in, was it triathlon?
• 2:45
  Sinead Donovan: Is that It
• 2:45
  Catriona Jennings: was triathlon, yeah,
• 2:46
  Sinead Donovan: that's, yeah.
• 2:47
  Catriona Jennings: I, I swam as a, at a very young age and um, really did all sports as a kid.
• 2:52
  Catriona Jennings: Just loved sports.
• 2:53
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 2:53
  Catriona Jennings: My entire family was just very sporty and I started doing triathlon in my early teens, well, actually probably around 12 or 13.
• 3:01
  Catriona Jennings: Okay.
• 3:01
  Catriona Jennings: And.
• 3:03
  Catriona Jennings: Competed for Ireland as a junior.
• 3:05
  Sinead Donovan: Wow.
• 3:05
  Catriona Jennings: Uh, moved to college and continued triathlon, but I suppose my time was a bit more limited, so I focused on running then.
• 3:12
  Catriona Jennings: Okay.
• 3:12
  Catriona Jennings: And particularly when I moved to Dublin to start my first job with pwc, running was really the sport then that I kind of just focused on at that stage.
• 3:20
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 3:20
  Sinead Donovan: So you, you, you qualified for the Irish Olympics for 20.
• 3:26
  Catriona Jennings: 12.
• 3:26
  Sinead Donovan: 12,
• 3:27
  Catriona Jennings: yes.
• 3:27
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 3:28
  Sinead Donovan: And, but, but, but tell us a little bit about on that journey to qualify.
• 3:31
  Sinead Donovan: I mean, you were, you were churning out pbs again, I'm gonna look'cause this nearly blew my mind.
• 3:36
  Sinead Donovan: Your PB at a marathon 2 36.
• 3:38
  Sinead Donovan: Is that right?
• 3:38
  Catriona Jennings: Correct, yes.
• 3:39
  Sinead Donovan: Gosh.
• 3:40
  Catriona Jennings: So during the time when I was.
• 3:42
  Catriona Jennings: Um, training to qualify for the Olympics.
• 3:44
  Catriona Jennings: I was working full time.
• 3:45
  Catriona Jennings: Um, I think as a chartered accountant, everyone can probably, um, sympathize with, you know, you start your first job, but you're also studying, so you become very good at organizing your time and making sure that you have allocated the right amount of time to whatever you're actually focused on at that moment.
• 4:02
  Catriona Jennings: And to me, running was just another one of those items that I needed to fit in or wanted to fit in, I guess.
• 4:08
  Catriona Jennings: So.
• 4:09
  Catriona Jennings: When I qualified, I continued just to be as, um, you know, I suppose disciplined with my time as I had been.
• 4:17
  Catriona Jennings: And I was training at a pretty high level, but also I didn't want it to impact my career because that was also equally important to me.
• 4:25
  Catriona Jennings: I ended up being incredibly.
• 4:28
  Catriona Jennings: Just organized at the weekend so that I planned ahead for the week and you know, that would include making all my food for the week, preparing all my outfits that I was going to work, to work, dropping them into the office.
• 4:40
  Catriona Jennings: You know, I was, I was kind of regimental in what I prepared for at the weekend to make sure that I was allowing myself the time to train, but also to work during the week.
• 4:50
  Catriona Jennings: And, uh, then I qualified for, I, well, I achieved the qualifying standard in the RDA marathon in April of 2012.
• 4:59
  Catriona Jennings: And at that point I had a chat with the guys in pwc and Okay.
• 5:02
  Catriona Jennings: They very kindly let me take some time off work so that I could focus on the Olympics.
• 5:08
  Catriona Jennings: Um, so I trained full-time then from probably, I think it was early May until.
• 5:14
  Catriona Jennings: After the Olympics in August.
• 5:16
  Catriona Jennings: So that was great.
• 5:17
  Catriona Jennings: But interestingly, I suppose I had done a lot of the work to actually get there when I was, when I was also working full-time.
• 5:24
  Catriona Jennings: And for me, that just suited me well because I think there was something nice about.
• 5:31
  Catriona Jennings: You know, knowing exactly I was, as I said, organized that I knew exactly what I was going to do.
• 5:35
  Catriona Jennings: And when, of course, you know, you get a curve ball Mm, you, you, you're working on a project, you have to work late.
• 5:40
  Catriona Jennings: So you do have to adapt your best mid plans, but at least you're kind of following a structure.
• 5:44
  Catriona Jennings: That, for me, just worked really well.
• 5:46
  Catriona Jennings: And
• 5:47
  Sinead Donovan: pwc were very good in the way that they en enabled you.
• 5:50
  Sinead Donovan: Juggle, juggle things.
• 5:51
  Sinead Donovan: You, you said
• 5:53
  Catriona Jennings: they were When I qualified.
• 5:54
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 5:54
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 5:54
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 5:55
  Sinead Donovan: So yeah, so, so, so forgetting you had study, you had lectures, you had all that.
• 5:59
  Sinead Donovan: So, gosh, fair, fair play to you.
• 6:01
  Sinead Donovan: Um, sorry, I have to pick up on one comment you said there, you dropped the outfits into the office.
• 6:05
  Sinead Donovan: That's 'cause you ran into the office.
• 6:06
  Catriona Jennings: Yes, I used training.
• 6:07
  Catriona Jennings: Sorry, that was part of my training.
• 6:09
  Catriona Jennings: Oh, brilliant.
• 6:09
  Catriona Jennings: And I would run in and run home or you know, you're trying to, I suppose, ma, maximize your.
• 6:14
  Catriona Jennings: Time in your day.
• 6:15
  Catriona Jennings: So I was, uh, and back in those days, you know, running now is huge.
• 6:20
  Catriona Jennings: It's completely, um, exploded in Ireland and you often see people running into work with little backpacks on back.
• 6:26
  Catriona Jennings: Though in those days it was very rare.
• 6:28
  Catriona Jennings: You didn't really see people running around with bags on their shoulders.
• 6:31
  Catriona Jennings: So, you know, I was probably a little bit strange to, to some people that would be observing.
• 6:36
  Catriona Jennings: But, um, yeah, like, and, and, and, you know, while I would run in sometimes with a backpack.
• 6:41
  Catriona Jennings: It does impact your stride.
• 6:43
  Catriona Jennings: Okay.
• 6:43
  Catriona Jennings: And I just didn't, I was very conscious of being injury free.
• 6:47
  Catriona Jennings: So for me it was important to just allow myself the, to run, the time to run as, yeah, as free as I could.
• 6:53
  Sinead Donovan: Okay, so let me, uh, there's so much that I wanna cover here.
• 6:55
  Sinead Donovan: So let me get the sport, um, bit out, uh, uh, at first, and then we'll, we'll come back to the profession, if that's okay.
• 7:01
  Sinead Donovan: Sure.
• 7:02
  Sinead Donovan: Because I'm really interested to hear about your, your, um, your profe the professional life.
• 7:07
  Sinead Donovan: So you, you qualified for the Olympics.
• 7:09
  Sinead Donovan: Um, the Olympic race didn't really go to plan, did it?
• 7:12
  Sinead Donovan: And, and was, I don't want to dwell on that.
• 7:15
  Sinead Donovan: I think there was.
• 7:16
  Sinead Donovan: You kind of got learnings from that and built up a huge amount of resilience, I'm guessing.
• 7:21
  Catriona Jennings: Absolutely.
• 7:21
  Catriona Jennings: I mean, yes, it didn't go to plan.
• 7:24
  Catriona Jennings: I ended up picking up an injury in the weeks leading into the race itself.
• 7:28
  Catriona Jennings: Um, it was plantar fasciitis, which is a ligament injury, and one which, you know, I would've been sure at the time, WI would've been fine running the race with, because it would just warm up as I ran and I just deal with it.
• 7:41
  Catriona Jennings: The consequences afterwards.
• 7:43
  Catriona Jennings: But as it turned out, I got a stress fracture in my foot as a result of kind of compensating for that original injury.
• 7:51
  Catriona Jennings: And that came about during the race itself, which was a nightmare to be fair.
• 7:55
  Catriona Jennings: And um, it turned into.
• 7:59
  Catriona Jennings: A really negative experience for me at the time, unfortunately, and took me quite a while to really come to terms with that race.
• 8:07
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 8:07
  Catriona Jennings: And that experience.
• 8:09
  Catriona Jennings: But when I did, I started to see the positives, and now I can look back and see the positives.
• 8:13
  Catriona Jennings: But absolutely as you said, I can really see the, the huge amount of resilience that I showed and just being able to adapt and pivot when something wasn't going right.
• 8:25
  Catriona Jennings: I knew what my ultimate goal was, and that was to finish the race and.
• 8:29
  Catriona Jennings: Even though it wasn't as I had planned or expected, I was still able to deal with what was thrown at me on the day and, you know, ultimately still get, achieve the goal maybe in a slightly different way.
• 8:41
  Catriona Jennings: But I do believe that if I had have dropped out of that race.
• 8:46
  Catriona Jennings: It would've been a lot more difficult for me to come to terms with it because at least I was able to say, but I got, I did finish.
• 8:52
  Catriona Jennings: You know?
• 8:52
  Catriona Jennings: So I think for me that was, uh, that was powerful and, um, yeah, I can, I can see the benefits of it now, even though, as I said, it took quite a while to get
• 9:00
  Sinead Donovan: there.
• 9:01
  Sinead Donovan: Took, it took quite a while now.
• 9:01
  Sinead Donovan: And, and, and I can imagine that, and when, when you do look back on that, okay, so one of the learnings is that you absolutely kind of grafted it out and finished 'cause you knew that you kind of had to, was, was there other learnings?
• 9:14
  Sinead Donovan: I mean, was there.
• 9:15
  Sinead Donovan: Was there an element that you maybe shouldn't have started the race or
• 9:19
  Catriona Jennings: No, because I did believe when I was at the start line that I would be fine, that I'd get through it.
• 9:23
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 9:23
  Sinead Donovan: So it was just a real unfortunate incident.
• 9:26
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 9:26
  Catriona Jennings: Oh
• 9:26
  Sinead Donovan: my goodness.
• 9:26
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah, and I mean, I have to say.
• 9:29
  Catriona Jennings: Going, if, if I was to turn back the clock, knowing what I know now, would I have run it or not?
• 9:34
  Catriona Jennings: I think I'd still run it because ultimately I can, I can say I'm an Olympian.
• 9:37
  Catriona Jennings: I think if I, you know, if, if I didn't, it's a once in a lifetime chance.
• 9:42
  Catriona Jennings: Of course, we all hope to get there again, but you have to take your opportunities when they're in front of you.
• 9:46
  Catriona Jennings: And um, yeah, I think it would've been very hard for me to actually say, no, I'm not going to run this.
• 9:51
  Catriona Jennings: Because being an Olympian was a lifelong dream and actually achieving that was.
• 9:58
  Catriona Jennings: Very important to me, you
• 9:59
  Sinead Donovan: know?
• 9:59
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah, no, uh, it's amazing.
• 10:01
  Sinead Donovan: And, and gosh, WeDo, do you have the tu.
• 10:03
  Catriona Jennings: Oh, no,
• 10:03
  Sinead Donovan: no,
• 10:04
  Catriona Jennings: no,
• 10:04
  Sinead Donovan: you won't.
• 10:05
  Sinead Donovan: You're not gonna get the five rings to two.
• 10:07
  Catriona Jennings: I always said I would only e ever get the Olympic tattoo if I was ever going to get one, but then I chickened out of even that.
• 10:13
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 10:13
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 10:13
  Sinead Donovan: Okay, well, we'll, we'll come back to that one.
• 10:15
  Sinead Donovan: Um, so then, sorry.
• 10:16
  Sinead Donovan: So marathon wasn't then long enough for you, so you just decided let's keep on adding kilometers and.
• 10:23
  Sinead Donovan: You kind of, you kind of ramped up and, and I know you got a podium finish at the a hundred K world champs.
• 10:28
  Catriona Jennings: Yes.
• 10:28
  Catriona Jennings: In 2022 I was third hundred K.
• 10:30
  Catriona Jennings: Mm-hmm.
• 10:31
  Sinead Donovan: My goodness.
• 10:33
  Sinead Donovan: And then November last year, a hundred mile.
• 10:36
  Sinead Donovan: World record holder.
• 10:37
  Catriona Jennings: Yes.
• 10:38
  Sinead Donovan: Talk us through that.
• 10:40
  Catriona Jennings: Well, yes, I guess I had been, as you say, ramping up the distance for quite a while, and I do think it was partly because of that experience in London that a friend of mine said to me afterwards, he was into ultra running and he said, I know you should be.
• 10:53
  Catriona Jennings: You would be a great ultrarunner because we know you have the engine and now we know you also have the Headspace or the mental capacity for it because it is one of those.
• 11:02
  Catriona Jennings: Types of events where it's not just about the physical element, it's also hugely mental.
• 11:08
  Catriona Jennings: So I had, I, my first, my first ultra run was a 50 K in 2019, and I was ramping up ever so gradually since that, I also thought that a hundred miles was, um, a crazy distance before I ran it myself.
• 11:21
  Catriona Jennings: But now that I've run it, I can look back and say, actually it wasn't that bad.
• 11:26
  Catriona Jennings: But of course I had done like really, really, um.
• 11:31
  Catriona Jennings: Perfect preparation, I guess for once.
• 11:33
  Catriona Jennings: You know, it is difficult to, to be able to say you had perfect preparation for anything, but on that occasion I had really good preparation, both physically and mentally.
• 11:42
  Catriona Jennings: I'd prepared quite a bit as well for, you know, the mental side of the race, knowing that I was going to be out there on my own for 13 hours.
• 11:49
  Catriona Jennings: Or thereabouts.
• 11:50
  Catriona Jennings: And knowing that, you know, you have to deal with your thoughts, you have to deal with, um, how you're going to deal with curve balls or any sort of thing that's thrown at you on the day.
• 11:58
  Catriona Jennings: So preparing for that was a huge part of it, as well as the physical side.
• 12:02
  Catriona Jennings: And yeah, I think I just, um, and also you, there's a fair bit of luck involved I think when you started stand on a start line and everything just has to go well.
• 12:13
  Catriona Jennings: Small things like, you know, you, you trip over a. Something on the ground and then you twist your ankle and you're gonna be out, you know?
• 12:20
  Catriona Jennings: So there is a lot of luck involved, but I, I was really, I was fortunate enough to get to the start line feeling really healthy, really strong, and having done a really good block of training.
• 12:29
  Catriona Jennings: So I was very confident going into the race and luckily then I was able to execute as planned and got the record.
• 12:36
  Sinead Donovan: It's, it's unbelievable.
• 12:37
  Sinead Donovan: I mean, the, when you think of the time and you know, the time that you're running and, and let's put this into perspective, the pace that you are running.
• 12:45
  Sinead Donovan: What, what, what was that, that a hundred mile at that time is that's, that's what about a far four and a half Kilomet, is it?
• 12:53
  Sinead Donovan: Or
• 12:53
  Catriona Jennings: 5 4 42 per kilometer, or 7 34 per mile.
• 12:56
  Catriona Jennings: A
• 12:57
  Sinead Donovan: kilometer.
• 12:58
  Sinead Donovan: I mean, I can't run one kilometer in that, nevermind whatever it is, a hundred.
• 13:02
  Sinead Donovan: And I
• 13:03
  Catriona Jennings: know you can't, you need, you're
• 13:05
  Sinead Donovan: being mum.
• 13:05
  Sinead Donovan: But, but look, it's, it's, it's, it's amazing.
• 13:07
  Sinead Donovan: But you mentioned there about that, the mental strength.
• 13:10
  Sinead Donovan: Mm-hmm.
• 13:12
  Sinead Donovan: Um, and, and you know, you, you might go to some dark places in, in endurance races.
• 13:17
  Sinead Donovan: I mean, how do two questions, how do you deal with that?
• 13:20
  Sinead Donovan: Some, some, some athletes have a mantra, some, you know, kind of have a, kind of a repeated.
• 13:25
  Sinead Donovan: Phrase that they use when they get there.
• 13:26
  Sinead Donovan: I've read.
• 13:28
  Sinead Donovan: Um, but the second question is, do you think you're someone's born with that or do you think it can be taught?
• 13:35
  Catriona Jennings: So you're, to answer your first question, I didn't, luckily I didn't get to a dark place because I was so well prepared.
• 13:42
  Catriona Jennings: And also I was constantly reaffirm, reaffirming positive thoughts.
• 13:47
  Catriona Jennings: Okay.
• 13:47
  Catriona Jennings: In my head, when I was running, I just kept reminding myself, this feels good.
• 13:51
  Catriona Jennings: I feel great.
• 13:52
  Catriona Jennings: I'm on pace.
• 13:53
  Sinead Donovan: So subconsciously you were doing that.
• 13:55
  Catriona Jennings: Pretty much.
• 13:55
  Catriona Jennings: Okay.
• 13:55
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah, anytime my thoughts drifted, I. Intercepted them and made sure that I was being positive.
• 14:02
  Catriona Jennings: Of course there were periods where I was just thinking of nothing because it's a long time.
• 14:06
  Catriona Jennings: But anytime I was like, oh, how am I feeling?
• 14:09
  Catriona Jennings: I would just say, I'm feeling great.
• 14:10
  Catriona Jennings: Uh, you know, my heart rate is low.
• 14:11
  Catriona Jennings: I was just being very positive with myself.
• 14:14
  Catriona Jennings: Um, and secondly, it is absolutely.
• 14:18
  Catriona Jennings: Something that you can adapt.
• 14:20
  Catriona Jennings: I don't believe personally that you're born with it.
• 14:23
  Catriona Jennings: Maybe, you know, you're, I, I, I actually, I think you can use whatever life experiences you have and adapt them in a positive way to, you know, shape your thoughts and to.
• 14:37
  Catriona Jennings: Effectively kind of try and control those voices in your head in a positive way.
• 14:43
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 14:43
  Sinead Donovan: So you, you do believe that it's something that people can, can, can teach themselves Absolutely.
• 14:48
  Sinead Donovan: Or read up about.
• 14:49
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 14:49
  Sinead Donovan: That's interesting.
• 14:50
  Sinead Donovan: And, um, final question on sporting before I, I transcend into, into professional'cause I do think there's a huge crossover
• 14:58
  Catriona Jennings: for sure.
• 14:58
  Sinead Donovan: Um.
• 15:00
  Sinead Donovan: Is there any, is there any takeaway tip or technique or is there a book that you would recommend that people read for this mental strength?
• 15:06
  Sinead Donovan: Because I think like mental strength in all aspects of life is so important.
• 15:13
  Sinead Donovan: Maybe there's not, but
• 15:14
  Catriona Jennings: it's hugely important.
• 15:15
  Catriona Jennings: Yes.
• 15:15
  Catriona Jennings: And.
• 15:16
  Catriona Jennings: I am trying to think.
• 15:18
  Catriona Jennings: I think I read a lot of sports biographies and autobiographies.
• 15:23
  Catriona Jennings: Okay.
• 15:23
  Catriona Jennings: Um, I think I've kind of had a little mesh of all of those and taken like small bits of various different pieces, you know, of what I've read and tried to use them.
• 15:33
  Catriona Jennings: So there's no one book as such that I could say, but I think that, um.
• 15:39
  Catriona Jennings: I think you can certainly, if you know you have a big event or something that you're focused on, be it as you say, to do with work or sporting, I think you can prepare for that by allowing the same amount of time that you would to write a project, for example, or, you know, if you, if you actually sit down, take the time and visualize and prepare for it.
• 16:01
  Catriona Jennings: I think that's hugely beneficial and I think that's really the big.
• 16:06
  Catriona Jennings: Learning that I would've taken from this experience.
• 16:08
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 16:09
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 16:09
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 16:09
  Sinead Donovan: So visualize it.
• 16:10
  Sinead Donovan: And yes, some people, some people kind of say that that's manifesting.
• 16:14
  Sinead Donovan: I think people can call it whatever they want, but visualizing is, is, is good.
• 16:18
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 16:18
  Catriona Jennings: I mean, the way I see it is that you, when you visualize something, your brain thinks it's done it up before.
• 16:23
  Catriona Jennings: So when it gets to the point of doing it, it, it doesn't freak out.
• 16:26
  Catriona Jennings: You're kind of prepared.
• 16:27
  Catriona Jennings: You have the tools that you need to deal with it.
• 16:29
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 16:29
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah.
• 16:30
  Catriona Jennings: And it doesn't seem like, um.
• 16:32
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah, it's, it feels comfortable with it because you know, you're, you, it thinks it's done it before.
• 16:39
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 16:40
  Sinead Donovan: Um, look, immense.
• 16:41
  Sinead Donovan: Immense, um, congratulations.
• 16:43
  Sinead Donovan: Have the Guinness Book of World Records contacted you?
• 16:45
  Sinead Donovan: Will you be in it?
• 16:46
  Catriona Jennings: No.
• 16:47
  Catriona Jennings: I believe the way the Guinness Book of Records works is you need to tell them before you are going to set a record, and then they need to show up and.
• 16:54
  Catriona Jennings: Whatever.
• 16:55
  Catriona Jennings: Oh, no, but I mean, it's like
• 16:56
  Sinead Donovan: I know a good auditor that could sign off that you did it.
• 17:00
  Catriona Jennings: That's really bad independently.
• 17:02
  Catriona Jennings: Um, no, but I think it will be recognized by the, the World Athletics Okay Association, which it's more important.
• 17:07
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 17:08
  Catriona Jennings: To me it is.
• 17:09
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 17:09
  Sinead Donovan: Fair enough.
• 17:10
  Sinead Donovan: Fair enough.
• 17:10
  Sinead Donovan: Uh, well listen, many congrats and we'll come back to what you're gonna be looking forward to, um, from a, uh, an athletic, uh, performance, um, towards the end.
• 17:19
  Sinead Donovan: But talk to me a little bit about your professional.
• 17:21
  Sinead Donovan: I mean, I know you're a very proud.
• 17:22
  Sinead Donovan: Charged accountant, which, um, I'm thrilled about.
• 17:25
  Sinead Donovan: And, um, you, you actually have moved into an area in aviation, which is fascinating.
• 17:31
  Sinead Donovan: So you're actually on the trading desk.
• 17:33
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 17:33
  Catriona Jennings: So what I do at the moment is I buy and sell aircraft that are currently on lease to commercial airlines.
• 17:38
  Catriona Jennings: They're owned by our company.
• 17:40
  Catriona Jennings: And, um.
• 17:41
  Catriona Jennings: Certain department within the company would have put those aircraft on lease to airlines.
• 17:46
  Catriona Jennings: And then, um, I'm like the, I'm part of the team, which is like the secondary market, if you like, where we, we trade them with other leasing companies, mainly based in Dublin, but also throughout the world.
• 17:59
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 17:59
  Sinead Donovan: And was that always your goal or was, was your journey as a charged accountant?
• 18:04
  Sinead Donovan: Did it just kind of.
• 18:06
  Sinead Donovan: Enable you to get there.
• 18:07
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah, it certainly evolved.
• 18:08
  Catriona Jennings: I didn't, I didn't actually know about aircraft leasing when I was deciding what to do when I, you know, finished when I did my leaving cert.
• 18:14
  Catriona Jennings: And even when I finished college, um, I think the Chartered accountants enabled me to get there for sure.
• 18:21
  Catriona Jennings: I can honestly say I wouldn't be sitting where I am today without it, because I trained as a tax advisor and I, I was also a charter accountant, but like the bulk of my career was spent in tax and.
• 18:35
  Catriona Jennings: While it's a really interesting field, it's also fairly narrow in a way, and particularly with aircraft leasing, while it's absolutely key to every transaction that is carried out, because our business is global and you need to look at the tax throughout the world.
• 18:50
  Catriona Jennings: So it is actually, it's a crucial element.
• 18:53
  Catriona Jennings: It's, uh, you don't really have the direct customer facing role where, um.
• 19:01
  Catriona Jennings: You know, it's, it's, uh, it's slightly, you, I suppose it's slightly, I, I hate the term back office to be perfectly honest, but I suppose it could be viewed as more that than kind of the front office side of it.
• 19:13
  Catriona Jennings: So in order to transition for me.
• 19:16
  Catriona Jennings: I was looking at ways, it was a big step for me.
• 19:18
  Catriona Jennings: I ultimately wanted to get into a marketing role and it was a big step for me to try and, you know, bridge the gap.
• 19:24
  Catriona Jennings: So I sat back, looked at my qualifications, and looked at where I wanted to go, and the Chartered Accountants qualification just jumped out at me as being like the key to get to getting there.
• 19:32
  Catriona Jennings: I mean, of course then it took a lot of, um, it still took.
• 19:36
  Catriona Jennings: But that was definitely, I wouldn't, I don't think I'd have been able to transition out of the tax role without the Chartered accountants role.
• 19:42
  Catriona Jennings: Um, it was much broader.
• 19:44
  Catriona Jennings: It enabled me to, um, move into a risk role where I was analyzing financial statements.
• 19:49
  Catriona Jennings: I was out meeting the airlines, dealing directly with the customer and, um, understanding their business.
• 19:55
  Catriona Jennings: But it was because of that qualification that I had that, you know, gave me the skillset that I needed to do that.
• 20:00
  Catriona Jennings: And then ultimately, that let me move into a commercial role.
• 20:03
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 20:04
  Sinead Donovan: Isn't that lovely?
• 20:05
  Sinead Donovan: 'cause I could almost pick up there as you were talking, that you were using your, kind of your, um, visualizing almost the end goal and how you could get there.
• 20:11
  Sinead Donovan: So I mean, there definitely is the crossover of a mindset.
• 20:14
  Catriona Jennings: Absolutely.
• 20:15
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 20:15
  Catriona Jennings: And, and I do think that's, that's part of the key, knowing where you want to get Yeah.
• 20:18
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah.
• 20:19
  Catriona Jennings: Because then you can't find the tools that you already have, but maybe you don't realize unless you know where you're going.
• 20:24
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah.
• 20:25
  Sinead Donovan: And kir this crossover between sport and business, um, it's, uh, so I'm involved in a foundation, which is to try to encourage, um, girls in particular to stay in sport.
• 20:34
  Sinead Donovan: And there's huge statistics that show, you know, like the, the, the, the, the vast majority of, um, female CEOs for example, have, um, been involved in competitive sport.
• 20:45
  Sinead Donovan: What, what, what's your thoughts on it?
• 20:46
  Sinead Donovan: I mean, what has your sporting achievements or your sporting endeavors brought to your professional life?
• 20:52
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah, I, I think I read a statistic recently that something like 94% of CEOs, I think it
• 20:56
  Sinead Donovan: was, it was over 90%.
• 20:57
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah.
• 20:57
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah.
• 20:57
  Sinead Donovan: It's
• 20:57
  Catriona Jennings: crazy that that actually sh, it shocked me in one hand, but then I thought of it and I realized it didn't shock me because I think sport, and, you know, whether it's an individual sport or a team sport, it teaches you.
• 21:12
  Catriona Jennings: About hard work, about the importance of teamwork regardless, you know, of whether, if you're, if you're in an individual sport, it may be an individual sport, but you definitely have a team behind you that are supporting you and helping you.
• 21:23
  Catriona Jennings: Mm-hmm.
• 21:23
  Catriona Jennings: Um, and it, it shows you, you know, when in most sports you're focused on a goal, whether it's to win the county championships or win a race, or, um, you know, I think it teaches you how to.
• 21:41
  Catriona Jennings: Work hard in order to achieve something.
• 21:44
  Catriona Jennings: It teaches you resilience because oftentimes you fail.
• 21:46
  Catriona Jennings: In fact, you know, you probably lose more than you win, but it teaches you how to, you know, pick yourself up, analyze it, analyze where you fell down, where your mistakes were, invoke ways that you can change that or try and, um, you know, self-analyze in order to proceed and, you know, uh, succeed as well.
• 22:06
  Catriona Jennings: So I think, um.
• 22:08
  Catriona Jennings: I think there are huge, yeah, there's definitely huge crossovers and um.
• 22:14
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah, I think it lets you, it almost enables you to try and fail because you know that failure isn't necessarily the worst.
• 22:23
  Catriona Jennings: That, that thing that can happen because you can come back.
• 22:26
  Catriona Jennings: It's not the end of the world.
• 22:27
  Catriona Jennings: Yes, you might be disappointed, but you will survive and life goes on.
• 22:30
  Sinead Donovan: That's nice.
• 22:31
  Sinead Donovan: That's a nice perspective.
• 22:32
  Sinead Donovan: I like that.
• 22:34
  Sinead Donovan: Uh, 'cause quite often we, we only judge people by their successes.
• 22:38
  Sinead Donovan: Whereas actually it's, it's, it's where maybe you haven't succeeded that you learn the most.
• 22:42
  Catriona Jennings: Absolutely.
• 22:42
  Catriona Jennings: And we judge ourselves by our success too.
• 22:44
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 22:44
  Catriona Jennings: And we're our own worst critic critics.
• 22:46
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 22:46
  Catriona Jennings: And I feel like, particularly when I reflect on my own career, I did take chances that.
• 22:52
  Catriona Jennings: I think they were, they were fairly brave.
• 22:54
  Catriona Jennings: Chances that I took, or risks that I took, there were calculated risks, but there were certainly risks.
• 22:59
  Sinead Donovan: Mm-hmm.
• 23:00
  Catriona Jennings: And I, I do believe that having taken risks in my sporting life and knowing what it might be like for them to not work out kind of helped me to say, well, like, so what?
• 23:13
  Catriona Jennings: I, that race mightn't have gone very well, but it gave me the skills that I needed to, you know, maybe focus on a different type of race or, you know, you can kind of, um, problem solve.
• 23:23
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah.
• 23:23
  Catriona Jennings: Or try and pick some positives out of a negative situation.
• 23:27
  Catriona Jennings: So.
• 23:28
  Catriona Jennings: Then when it came to my professional career, I think it enabled me to realize that it was worth the risk.
• 23:34
  Catriona Jennings: And if it didn't work out, then I would figure it out.
• 23:36
  Catriona Jennings: But I still wanted to give it a shot knowing that it wasn't,
• 23:40
  Sinead Donovan: and in fairness, our professional training as as charged accountants, I mean, we, we, you know, we talk about risk, we talk about mitigating factors and, and all the rest.
• 23:46
  Sinead Donovan: So I mean, as you are, you know, we kind of, in our jobs almost calculate the.
• 23:52
  Sinead Donovan: The, the, the strength of a risk, if you know what I mean?
• 23:55
  Sinead Donovan: Yes.
• 23:55
  Sinead Donovan: Or how, how so, yeah.
• 23:57
  Catriona Jennings: SWAT analysis or Yeah,
• 23:59
  Sinead Donovan: yeah, yeah.
• 23:59
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah.
• 23:59
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 23:59
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 23:59
  Sinead Donovan: Um, gosh, that's fascinating.
• 24:01
  Sinead Donovan: Um, we're, we're coming up on time.
• 24:02
  Sinead Donovan: I could, I could talk to you all day.
• 24:05
  Sinead Donovan: Um, but l looking forward, I mean, we're in Q1 of 2026.
• 24:09
  Sinead Donovan: Um, do you set goals?
• 24:11
  Sinead Donovan: Do you set
• 24:14
  Catriona Jennings: I don't really anymore.
• 24:15
  Sinead Donovan: No.
• 24:15
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 24:16
  Catriona Jennings: No, I try to.
• 24:17
  Catriona Jennings: Change practices.
• 24:19
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 24:20
  Catriona Jennings: Because I feel like I do have, I have sporting goals within reason.
• 24:25
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 24:26
  Catriona Jennings: But I try to make them a little bit looser now than I used to because, um, I know where I would like to get.
• 24:34
  Catriona Jennings: Um, and I don't want to necessarily, I dunno, I don't want to.
• 24:41
  Catriona Jennings: Close myself off to other opportunities by just focusing, well, you know, I kind of like to keep it a little bit fluid, but, um, I like to, what I like, the reason I like to change practices is because, um, ultimately your performance will improve if you can change practices and you can, it's easier maybe to focus on the day to day than the bigger, um, goal down the line.
• 25:04
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 25:05
  Catriona Jennings: Um, so that, I mean, I do know what my goals are.
• 25:08
  Catriona Jennings: Okay.
• 25:09
  Catriona Jennings: Rather than like my bigger goals rather than, you know, the, the individual goals for the year.
• 25:14
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah.
• 25:14
  Sinead Donovan: I think, I think the way you answer that though, I would take that as a very mature way of setting goals.
• 25:19
  Sinead Donovan: Because I think certainly when I was younger it was very much, okay, I'm going to do X.
• 25:22
  Sinead Donovan: Yes.
• 25:23
  Sinead Donovan: And if I didn't do X, you'd failed.
• 25:24
  Sinead Donovan: I had failed.
• 25:25
  Catriona Jennings: Yes.
• 25:25
  Sinead Donovan: Whereas actually now it's a bit, it is a bit broader.
• 25:27
  Catriona Jennings: It is a bit broader.
• 25:28
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 25:29
  Catriona Jennings: And it's definitely maturity.
• 25:30
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 25:30
  Catriona Jennings: And I certainly was.
• 25:31
  Catriona Jennings: All on for the, like sitting down with my page and having my professional goals and my supporting goals every year.
• 25:36
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah.
• 25:37
  Catriona Jennings: Okay.
• 25:37
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 25:37
  Sinead Donovan: And I
• 25:38
  Catriona Jennings: just now I'm like, hmm.
• 25:40
  Catriona Jennings: I don't know if I necessarily.
• 25:42
  Catriona Jennings: See the benefit of that, like, I will certainly have goals throughout the year, but it, it doesn't for me.
• 25:47
  Catriona Jennings: I don't have to sit down on the 1st of January and set them.
• 25:50
  Sinead Donovan: Brilliant.
• 25:50
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah.
• 25:51
  Sinead Donovan: Yeah.
• 25:51
  Sinead Donovan: No, brilliant.
• 25:51
  Sinead Donovan: No, there's, that's, there's some really good takeaways there.
• 25:54
  Sinead Donovan: Um, and, uh, couple of final questions.
• 25:58
  Sinead Donovan: H how do you juggle everything?
• 25:59
  Sinead Donovan: Do you still run into work?
• 26:00
  Catriona Jennings: I
• 26:00
  Sinead Donovan: do.
• 26:00
  Sinead Donovan: Do you still bring your Yeah.
• 26:02
  Sinead Donovan: You bring your stuff in at the weekend, change them.
• 26:04
  Sinead Donovan: You run with
• 26:05
  Catriona Jennings: the backpack now?
• 26:06
  Catriona Jennings: I wore the backpack type.
• 26:08
  Catriona Jennings: I think, yeah, I mean, I'm not as organized at the weekends.
• 26:11
  Catriona Jennings: I like to enjoy my weekends too.
• 26:12
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:13
  Catriona Jennings: You know, it's very important.
• 26:13
  Catriona Jennings: I mean, it's a busy weekend and sometimes, you know, you just need to allow yourself to switch off at the weekend.
• 26:18
  Catriona Jennings: Um, I think in order to have that longevity in the career in my, you know, both careers as well, I think having a little bit of, you know, you do need to have the downtime or else it's just not sustainable
• 26:27
  Sinead Donovan: completely.
• 26:27
  Sinead Donovan: And I know when we talked previously, you were talking about trail running and getting into trail running.
• 26:31
  Sinead Donovan: Sure.
• 26:32
  Sinead Donovan: I'm sure you've started on that big time.
• 26:34
  Catriona Jennings: Yeah, I have a race coming up in a few weeks now, so that'll be the first test.
• 26:37
  Sinead Donovan: Okay.
• 26:38
  Sinead Donovan: Well listen, the best of luck, Katrina.
• 26:40
  Sinead Donovan: It has been an absolute pleasure talking to you and to, um, to sit in front of such a, a successful charge accountant, Irish woman and world record holder is an absolute privilege.
• 26:51
  Sinead Donovan: So thank you so much and uh, I really wish you all the best for 2026.
• 26:54
  Catriona Jennings: Thank you very much, sned.
• 26:56
  Sinead Donovan: No problem.
• 26:57
  Sinead Donovan: And thank you to you all who have stayed with us to the end.
• 27:00
  Sinead Donovan: Um, I have no doubt that there will have been takeaways from this episode.
• 27:04
  Sinead Donovan: And please dial in for the next episode of Difference Makers discuss.
• 27:09
  Sinead Donovan: Cheers now.