Chris Judd: The Mindset of an Outlier - From AFL Legend to Investment Powerhouse

**Chris Judd** (0:03)
I was drafted to West Coast at 18
I had this moment when I first went over there where the West Australian wrote something nice about me.
And I remember going, oh, that makes me feel good. And I just thought, I don't want to outsource this to a third party who's got a different incentive structure than mine. And so I decided from then, I was going to avoid any footy media. The only way you could do that in Perth, because West Coast was so heavily featured in the West Australian paper, was to read the FIN Review. As an 18 year old, half the things I was reading didn't really make sense. And then after six months, most of them started to make sense. I at least knew what they were. And then, you know, you fast forward three or four years later and you're looking for something meatier to read than the FIN Review.

**Aleda** (0:42)
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Empowering Leaders podcast. At Aleda, we are passionate about inspiring connections and creating a world of collaboration. Our signature program, Aleda Connect, curates groups of five to six leaders from diverse backgrounds in sport, industry, social venture and the arts who come together to learn, to connect and to collaborate. The Empowering Leaders podcast is proudly brought to you by Victoria University, where cutting edge sports and exercise science facilities like heat chambers, performance labs and altitude environments mean VU is ranked seventh in the world for sports science. VU, uniquely you. If you enjoy listening to the Empowering Leaders podcast, be sure to subscribe and please, if you have a moment, we would love you to leave a review so we can reach more listeners and empower more leaders.
Our guest today is remembered as one of the greatest Australian rules footballers the game has ever produced. Premiership captain, two-time Brownlow medalist, Norm Smith medalist, captain of both the West Coast Eagles and Carlton Football Clubs, a six-time All-Australian member of the Australian Hall of Fame. Very few players played the game like Chris Judd was able to play it from the youngest age. But what makes Chris Judd's story even more compelling for me is his second career might ultimately become just as significant as his first. While many elite athletes spend years searching for purpose after the sport, Judd quietly immersed himself in the world of investing. He worked as an analyst, becoming a serious student of the markets, and in 2023 founded the Serity Macro Fund, built around identifying long-term structural trends and investing with patience, conviction, and independent thinking. Today, the fund has grown substantially and has consistently outperformed the benchmark by almost 10% per annum year-on-year, earning Chris enormous respect in the Australian investment community.
Very few people become recognized as leaders in two completely different fields. Chris Judd is one of the rare ones. Judd, good to see you, mate.

**Chris Judd** (2:35)
Luke Darcy, thanks very much for having me on the show.

**Aleda** (2:38)
Are my numbers correct? It's a great start to your fund and you must be pretty proud of that.

**Chris Judd** (2:44)
It's been a good start. First couple of years were exceptional. Last year, we still beat the benchmark but not by as much as the first two. But we're really pleased with the start, pleased to have the support of our investor base. And I think it's a really exciting time to invest.

**Aleda** (2:59)
It's funny, mate, I sit across and it feels like a distant thought, your world of playing sport for a living as remarkable at it as you were. But when you look at the traits that allowed you to be good in that, or better than good in that part, have they helped you in this world of investing?

**Chris Judd** (3:17)
Some of them have, yeah, and you're right. I mean, you'd be the same.
That mindset you have as an elite athlete, where it literally feels like life and death every day, feels very foreign looking back on it now in terms of a professional sporting sense.
But you do pick up some lessons along the way. You know, certainly I feel like the best teams in football and the best players are generally doing something different in their preparation and hence why they're getting different outcomes. But being different alone isn't the key, because also the worst players and the worst teams are doing something different that isn't working. But those outliers and having that conviction to do something different is very important. That's the same with investment markets. It's very rare you get an investment that, you know, 10 Xs and that's an investment you sit down at the dinner table and you feel really proud talking about. Because if you do and everyone around the dinner table nods in agreement, you know, a lot of that value is already in the price because markets are forward looking. So, you know, that resonates a little bit. You know, the chase for short-term comfort is something that all people require and professional athletes are no difference. And generally, the things people are doing in sport that are different that others aren't doing, the things that are uncomfortable in the short-term, but beneficial in the long-term. And that's very much the same in investment markets. You know, funds are measured day to day or month to month, and there's a drive for funds to be sort of perfect and to smooth out volatility. But in today's world, taking a slightly longer term view, we think, is a real edge. And that sort of correlates with professional sport and markets as well. So there are a couple of things that jump out.