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From Law Student to Chartered Financial Planner - Danielle Lecomber · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_03: Hi, and welcome to the Financial Planner Life Podcast, where we talk to professionals at varying stages in their career about what it's like working in the wonderful world of financial planning and financial advice.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: This podcast is proudly sponsored by Recruit UK, a recruitment consultancy specifically focused on the financial services.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: They have a niche specialism, recruiting, within the financial planning industry, so check out their website for the latest job opportunities, hints and tips, and blog articles.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: And today's guest is Danielle Lucumba.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: Danielle is a chartered financial planner.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: She's self-employed under Hall and Costello Wealth Management.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: She didn't always start out as a financial planner.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: Her career began as a power planner.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_03: So we dig deep into that role, what she took from it, and why she decided to move on into financial planning.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_03: She was nominated for the Women in Financial Advice Awards in 2021 and is a keen advocate to promote this profession to more women.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_03: She also has a social media account called Thought Provoking Finance.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: So be sure to check that out on Instagram as well.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: Danielle didn't set out to become a financial planner.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: In fact, she went to university to study law but made the transition into financial services when she worked out that law for her wasn't the right career path.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_03: I wonder how many other people are out there in the same position.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's a fantastic podcast, a deep dive into Danielle's career.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: I hope you enjoy it.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: Danielle, thank you for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: How are you?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: I'm very well, thank you.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: How are you, Sam?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: I'm really good.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: Busy morning again.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: I've managed to book a podcast on the same day that I've got childcare.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: So my daughter is currently outside the window again on YouTube.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um destroying her brain.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: The ever-juggling of childcare, well, life balance, they call it apparently.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's funny last week because I I did a post on it actually, and it did really well because I took my daughter.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: We went after the podcast recording.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_03: It was our it was our PC session, like our company PC session.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: So I have a PC every uh Monday at 11.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_03: And um the guys come over and we go out and we we do a session down the park.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: And she kind of joined us on that one.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: So we did a video talking about flexible working and being able to bring your daughter to work and how flexible it was, and you know that how things have changed.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: And it went down an absolute storm.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: People loved it.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: Guys, and I think I think a lot of guys relate to it because men tend to feel, I think, more anxious about wanting to look after their children during the school holidays or even things like wanting to leave work at a specific time to be able to pick their children up.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: For some reason, I suppose a lot of men over the years that have a real anxiety about that, especially when they're and the business don't seem to be as favourable historically towards men looking after their children as they are women.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree a hundred percent.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we don't have children myself, but but my husband obviously works in a corporate background.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, for him, it's very much, I think he feels a bit more of the pressure around, yeah, being kind of presentable and being in an office environment, and obviously, yeah, having and bless him, it's in the sweltering heat when it was, he's kind of door shut, every, you know, noise, no noises and things like that.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: And it is, it's about showing a sense of professionalism, but um I think it's becoming the barriers are down a little bit more now, um, which I think was one of the huge advantages of uh the pandemic in terms of you know, people connecting on a real level and realizing that there are some things that are unavoidable, but they shouldn't be frowned upon, actually.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: It is part of your life.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and fortunately for me, actually, you know, my clients want to know me.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um so a lot of our conversations professionally have always incorporated, you know, who we are as people, and and and as you do within your role, it's kind of getting to know people, which is the main reason why I absolutely love what I do.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, from a I think an industry and across all sectors and industries now, yeah, people are more, oh, yeah, uh having the conversations around what does what does work and home look like for you and and yeah, shaping that um and integrating that within work as well.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: So hopefully that's something that will stick moving forward.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I think as well, it's just that ability to share responsibility within the family unit, you know, historically what used to fall at the feet of of women, for example, like looking after children, it's no longer that way.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, as men and and women and couples, regardless of sex, are reliant upon a specific level of income, for example, now each have their own levels of responsibility to look after their, you know, the cost of their house and all that kind of stuff.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: So things like childcare needs to be spread out across both.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, a hundred percent.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's the age old, you know, kind of the insurance question, isn't it?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: And around kind of, I guess from a point of view as is two incomes coming in or one income from the main breadwinner, actually, the cost of having to replace the the kind of second spouse or or the kind of second person within the relationship.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Can you hear my dog?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's a dog, yeah.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: Even looking after dogs, flexible working, looking after dogs.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: That's fine.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: Dogs are welcome on the Financial Planet Life podcast.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I love that.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: What sort of dog is it?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh he is a pointer, so we didn't go, yeah, yeah.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: We went um well, I battled for about a year between a medium-sized dog, and yeah, when I first met my husband, he wanted a uh kind of Bernese mountain dog, I think was his original choice, which is a huge dog.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yes, we worked backwards and we've settled with a pointer, so kind of medium, but he's still on the larger side, I must admit.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we used to have I grew up when I was growing up, um, we had Vimaranas, used to breed Vimaranas, they're a gun.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Very similar, yeah, very similar to the pointers.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I've not got around to getting a dog now.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, my wife's badgering the hell out of me to try and get one.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: I've got a cat, a little black cat.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: I love my black cat.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I just don't think I'm ready for a dog.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: Growing up, there was such a huge responsibility.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_03: They are.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it's like, do I really need that extra responsibility of um looking after a dog?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: You're really tick, you tick the child box.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that's one of life.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: Do you know what I mean?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, brilliant.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: Danielle, thank you.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I can say thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_03: You know, this is a careers-based podcast around the financial planning profession.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: And each, you know, each week I I love bringing guests on who can be honest and open and share their journey into the profession and their journey whilst in the profession.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_03: What went well, what went badly, what pearls of wisdom can you pass on.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: Because I'll tell you what, like everybody's journey in this profession is so different.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_03: And it's a profession where it's not clearly defined.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_03: It will do sooner or later over the next sort of five or ten years, we'll see a real clear structure about how you can develop within the profession, what's the best route to go down that suits the right person.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: There'll be timescales added to it.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_03: But at the moment, it's a bit of a free-for-all.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: What can take somebody five years to become a financial advisor?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_03: It can take somebody out a year, for example.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there's the um the belief now that um you well, not the belief, the the truth that you don't have to be a financial advisor to work within financial planning.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_03: There are plenty of other opportunities for you to do so as well.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: So what I like to do is shine a light on it, open it up, talk about people's journeys, bring people on in varying stages of their career, different roles, to really give a true reflection because historically there's been nothing like that, you know?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: And that's the purpose of the financial planner life and and the purpose of you being here today.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: So you were at Hall and Costello Wealth Management then.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: You're a chartered financial advisor, you were a woman in financial advice awards nominee in 2021.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: Did you win that one?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh no, I didn't.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: No, unfortunately not.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: But um there was a huge amount of candidates and yeah, worthy winners um well ahead of me on that one.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll be I'll be in the running for for one of the next years.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: You'll win it, absolutely.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: So it's not always been that way.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you you you you didn't always work within the financial planning profession.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: So let's just step back, let's go back to the beginning.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: Tell us a little bit about how you got into the financial planning profession.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so my journey is one of the longer journeys that you described.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: So um, I've actually been in financial services for around 10 years now.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I became fresh out of university, um, was I I studied law.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: So part of me like law.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a bit of a about kind of book geek, if that makes sense.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: I love reading.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, uh a lot of my self-development, which has helped and hence exactly, I guess, explains uh the kind of commitment to getting to charter over the last 10 years as well.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because I do like reading and I do like the studying alongside it.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: But um, what I found quite frustrating about law is that it is, you know, it's very historic, it's based on kind of what happened in the past, and it's sort of, you know, they're very much like afraid to open the floodgates.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's based on kind of previous precedents.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas with financial planning, um, I studied law and business and the financial planning side of things, it's completely the opposite.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: It is literally give me your problems and and yeah, let's come up with a solution that can help fit kind of your goals and your objectives.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of it is no one size fits all.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: As you said, everyone's journey is different, whether it's yeah, coming into the financial services industry or throughout their own kind of family and career paths themselves.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, a huge passion um was actually problem solving, um, I guess, and coming up with solutions.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I kind of was interested in the financial services, and at the time I was fortunate enough to get a job at Selector Pension, which is a pension comparison tool and software kind of company.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and whilst I was working there, a lot of my role was talking to financial advisors.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: And one day I just thought, you know, actually I could do this role.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: And um it was something that I discussed with a colleague at the time.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then he said, Well, why don't you then?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what's what's stopping you?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, as we were sat there on a kind of you know, 10:30 kind of snack break or whatever.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yeah, from from that day onwards, I said, okay, well, actually, yeah, there is nothing stopping me.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: What's the worst that can happen?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I started looking into it, found out you needed to do your kind of six diploma um exams, um, and actually started, I just thought, well, you know, my hour lunch every day, for example, why don't I just do the first one, get my teeth into it and see what happens.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I started that, and that was really kind of again, it there was a plan there, but there was a, you know, the short-term plans.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of one exam at a time and the end goal.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: And then after I got the first one under my belt, I was like, well, actually, for me, being why don't I be in a practice, why don't I be surrounded within a financial advice environment?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so I then started looking for a job.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and at the time I didn't even know what a paraplanner was.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I think I Googled it about 50 times.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: What the hell is a paraplanner?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, do you do a paraplanner?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: What does that do?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: And even now, funny enough, when I talk to certain people, and if I say about paraplanner, they're like paraplanner, no one kind of, it's a very a lot of people don't understand what a power planner does.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's a report writer, isn't it?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: But in my opinion, actually, now, kind of being a fully fledged chartered advisor, you want your power planner to be as qualified, if not, you know, better than you in terms of uh being that person that you can bounce your ideas off and they can pull together, you know, they're just really the people that don't get to sit in front of the client and present the solution.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: And um, that kind of explains again why I then moved on to to advising from power planning.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: Because although I always wanted to be an advisor, I was a good power planner and I did really like it because that solved the, I mean, that tick the box for solving the problems, you get given, you know, a fact find and naturally it's okay.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, these are the solutions, and then pulling that together and presenting that um in a report or from a compliance department point of view.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, for me that that kind of I developed, did my exams um and then decided that no, actually, if I'm doing the hard work, you know, why not be the one in front of the client that, you know, I love talking to people, why not be the person in front of the client?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, actually, it's quite a sad process when you go through, you know, the power planning and it's brilliant and it gives you so much.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: But then to wonder, well, what happened next?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: I always kind of played with me.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, well, I'd like to know in six months' time to go back to the client and be like, oh, you know, did you stick to that?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: How does that work for you?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: And that kind of triggered my interest then to be a financial advisor.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I went through the academy um at St.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: James's Place and um had a bit of support through them.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I became a self-employed invite advisor, sorry, um, within a part of practice.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I've now developed into kind of a chartered financial planner, senior advisor, and we've got, you know, kind of eight or nine advisors underneath who I help to mentor and bring through.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I've been doing that for five years now.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: So fantastic.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: Lovely overview there.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for that.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_03: And questions I've got bubbling away in my brain as we go through.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: So I love asking that question because I get to sit back and just listen.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I get these ideas pop into my head of where I think, well, okay, well, I if I was listening to this and I didn't have any idea about the profession or if I'm sat in a role right now, what question would I ask?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I hope I'm going to ask some questions that might well answer them for the people listening.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: You have been doing this for 10 years then, haven't you?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, since joining as a junior power planner role.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so 10 years.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: 2020, yeah, 2012.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: I came out of the university.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: So around 22 years, about 22 years old, 21 years old you were when you got into the profession.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: And that was getting into the financial planning profession.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: Because before that you were working within financial services, but at selector pension previous to that, a little bit of time there at AXA.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: Previous to that, you were working in law, or were you or is it you did a law degree in the decided idea?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I did a law degree.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yeah, I guess AXA was before because I took a gap year before university, so I had um kind of deferred things a bit.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: So AXA was very much, yeah, a kind of uh a great role to to kind of learn the the the work uh and the world of work, if that makes sense.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, then that was pretty much my kind of go off and travel um and see the world.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Because again, you know, when you're young, that you know, I think there's a huge, I think I guess it goes back to financial education, but there's a huge perception that, you know, there's a path that you're on that you you have to follow.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: And for me, and I'll be completely honest, that you know, I didn't know.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: I I went to university because I thought that's what I should do.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: My mum didn't have the the kind of options or the opportunity to go to university.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I saw her go through night school and do it later on in life, um, after children, and I saw how hard that was for her.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I I was kind of, you know, if I've got the opportunity to go to university, it should be the path that I that I go down.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and again, it was that, well, I wanted to to feel like if I'm going to university that I should do something that I could then use later on in life rather than maybe just doing something at the time that I really enjoyed, which was, you know, psychology or sociology or something like that.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: So again, you you kind of you're molded, aren't you, throughout life into this certain kind of box.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I think there's always a kind of uh a kind of conscious uh kind of battle with yourself to kind of break the mould, but in a way that is kind of worse breaking the mould for or taking a direction that actually you're passionate about.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's hard because unless you know, unless you feel that passion for something, you know, all you can do, in my opinion, is just you know take the leap and kind of run with something and and then pivot if it if it's not the right thing for you.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I think there's a lot of pressure on people not to do that.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_03: I think I think there's a lot of pressure on people, especially younger now, to be aware of what it is they should be doing with their life and not taking into account that life is a journey and that along the way you work things out.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, there's this high expectation that and I listen a lot, people phone me up and they get very anxious, I very anxious, and oh, I really want to be an advisor, I really want to do this.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm not talking you're 21 years old, right?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm 40, I'm running my own recruitment business, you know, and it's been a fucking struggle.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's hard, but hardcraft.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_03: The journey is hard.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: And along that journey, I've learned so much about myself, right?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: If you were to get your head down and do a bit of work, get your qualifications, join a firm in five years' time, you're gonna be 26.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: 26 is young, yeah, right.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: 26 is young, young, young.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: I mean I mean, even like when I hit 30, I was like, oh my god, I should have, I should be so much more further ahead than I am right now.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like it's 30.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: I look back on 30 now and think, God, I put so much pressure upon myself.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: I think people put a lot of pressure upon themselves to have this idea in their head, especially if they've gone to university, and especially if sometimes I feel I feel this a lot with the academic side as well.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: When people are very passionate about getting a degree, they must get a senior role, all their other friends are going to leave university and get a better job than them, therefore they have to get a better job.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: They maybe have the pressure of the costs involved and the loans and that involved, not to mention how they're sort of marketed to by the media about the rising cost of living and the you know, having to buy a house and how hard it is.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: We have all this pressure at such a young age to feel like we should know exactly what it is we should do.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I just want people to take a step back a little bit and relax and just enjoy the journey because otherwise you're gonna stress your nut out.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree a hundred percent.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I went, I I don't I loved the gap here.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: It grew me as a person so much and uh went off traveling.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: But the one of the main reasons was going was because I thought I'd never do that again.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'd never get the opportunity to travel again.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: Once in a lifetime, you know, opportunity to do it.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: And when you're there, you realize that oh god, I could do this whenever I wanted to throughout my whole life for the next, you know, 50 years, 60 years if I really wanted to.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, you know, kind of age permitting, but yeah.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: Any there's lots of different careers now.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: You look at, you know, Bali have just released a five-year working visa without any tax, you don't pay any tax in Bali, right?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: You sit on the beach or in your your huts or whatever you're doing, and you can work over there for five years on a visa and not pay any tax out there, as long as you're spending your money out there.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_03: So there's lots of these kind of uh digital nomads that are doing that now.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: And I think the open that the world is a hell of an open book now, and you can go out there and do that.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it depends the type of person you are, you know, as much as that attracts me, you know, the flip side of it, and the reason I guess financial planning is is that my passion is because as much as that is uh an idyllic scenario, you know, I I thrive in front of people and I love being with people.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: So for that, yeah, it's again it's that balance, isn't it, between knowing what makes you tick, I think.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love I like that you worked out very early on, although, and that's another thing as well.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: Like sometimes people feel like they're two footed in on a degree and a course.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: So, for example, you went down the the law route, right?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and sometimes people don't work out that they absolutely don't want to work in law until they're in their 30s, right?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: But you kind of made a decision, you very quickly established that this isn't where I really want to be, even though I've dedicated four or five years, whatever it is, to your education around that, you realised it wasn't where you wanted to be.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: So you didn't you didn't even go into the profession.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: You decided to pivot at that point and take a different route.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: And that was quite a brave thing to do.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: But was that was that a challenge to you at that point?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_03: So there will there will definitely be listeners right now who are in there who are graduates and they're thinking the same thing.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, I don't really don't like what it is I'm doing, it doesn't interest me and I don't see a future in it.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_03: What would you say to those people?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'd say that you can always you can always, you know, I I guess go back.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if you've established a kind of uh a degree in a certain kind of sector or a certain industry, you know, you you can go back to that.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, but not even that if you haven't even completed it.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think as you know, if your passion is that strong that uh that you you've identified that actually it's not the route to go down, I think you know, I'm the type of person that I I just I would work hard.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a I'm a hard worker.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: So to put it really kind of, you know, I would work hard whatever I did.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: So why not do it in something that I'm really passionate about?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because I would give my all to to kind of any industry, any job as it's it's anyway.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: So again, why not do that for myself was another reason of being self-employed down the route.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I think it's just about um, you know, uh, and I guess fast forward now, I yeah, one of my clients, Bessel absolutely love her to bits, and she had a, you know, the holiday countdown apps for for for uh you know my next trip to Bali or whatever.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um she had one then for about two years to retirement, and I just I and bless her, and we got we got her there and she absolutely loves it now, and she's pretty everything worked out perfectly for her.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I remember thinking at the time that to me, that isn't the way that that actually I would want any of my clients to to envisage.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I obviously met her quite later on in in kind of her journey, um, and she usually had that set up already.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, it's something that I guess going back to your own circumstance that that you are here.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's always that balance between live for today, plan for tomorrow, and you know, and I guess to view it career-wise, that you are going to be working for a long time.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, you can if if something's not the right path for you, you can change it if you know it actually, if if something doesn't work out for you, just pivot.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: And we saw it all through the pandemic, companies, you know, kind of pivot into, you know, restaurants go to takeaways and and vice versa.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I think actually, as long as you're passionate about what you do and and you love what you do, it's that age-old thing of not working your day in life, isn't it?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: But I do think, yeah, that actually kind of if something spikes your interest, it's definitely worth pursuing.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: I agree.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_03: I think some people, I come across some people that do exceptionally well in a job they hate.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_03: I always say to them, imagine how good you'd be in a job you love.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's like so why are you working so hard and so wow?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: In the environment you hate, multiple opportunities out there where you can go and you can go and transfer the skill set that you have and the passion you have and the interest you have and the purpose, alliance itself purpose, and go and find that thing that you know that ticks those boxes.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: And the more I talk to financial planners on this more honest and open level, the more I understand that the financial planning profession ticks huge boxes.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_03: Huge, huge, huge boxes for people.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: It isn't just this nerdy kind of get my calculator out and work out what your pension is going to be and stuff.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: There's so much more to it, so many levels from a well-being perspective.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_03: You know, how we interact with our clients and how we educate our clients, the levels of stress that can be reduced by good money management.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, having somebody that you can confide in about the things that we don't talk about, the things that you know make us feel quite insecure, money.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: You know, how we are viewed in respect of how much we earn, how much how you know, and there's a lot of people hold on to these money issues and they don't let them go.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: And a financial advisor has that skill set to be able to open people up and say, come on, let's talk about it, let's get it out in the open.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: You know, even people I can imagine you're coming across like that are thinking about divorce.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: And people worry deeply, don't they?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like, well, what am I going to do about my money?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: What am I going to do about this?
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: And how am I going to live?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_03: And and historically, females, for instance, wouldn't have been able to really go and talk to anybody.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_03: I remember my nan very late on in her life divorced my step-grandad.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: Now she was she was very unsure of which direction to go and what to do, etc.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: And she ended up talking to a lawyer, not a financial advisor.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's exactly the same as my nan.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously, my my parents are separated as well.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I saw a lot of pressure from single parent families and also, yeah, as you said, my nan separated.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, hearing her journey now, I think, God, if only she had that information back then.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: And luckily she did have a very good lawyer at the time, but it was the lawyer that kind of convinced her to kind of feel this is how we you know we need to split the assets and things.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I do work with a lot of kind of lawyers in that respect.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I do think financial planning, even when you look at divorces and the difference between a lot of people focus on splitting the main residence, for example, and the here and now, and they they they're kind of they they I guess by the time you get onto pension assets, you know, the the kind of the willingness has gone slightly because you're so focused on the here and now that there's a lot of females and males that necessarily don't get that side of things or the advice um that they need in in that respect.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but also I think that it's a huge relationship building industry.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and uh I I mean like I guess going into it, I didn't really realise that.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I was very much, you know, well, I was interested in people and I wanted to build a professional relationship with them.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: But what I found now actually is it's quite hard for for me to not be friends with my clients, which is a really weird position to be in.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, we you know, even on Sunday I was around um uh a friend's house, uh client's house.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: And actually I spoke to someone the day after and I said, Oh, we had a barbecue on Sunday.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: And she said, Oh, oh, how do you know them?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Oh, well, actually, she was a client.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: So her and a husband were a client, and then you know, they met my husband and we met for coffee once, or we went around them once, and we've now become friends, and I think that's it is because you you get so in depth with people and they do open up to you, and and vice versa, they they like that back from you in in the respect that they know and they trust uh that actually your their best interests are at your heart, and I think it's hard to to kind of keep that distance when you do get to that stage with heart.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's a very intimate relationship, it's very intimate, and and as I think that one of the words you just used there, which sums it right up, is trust.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, the financial planning profession, you know, it is a profession.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: You are a professional.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, they're gonna talk to you about things, aren't they, that they probably wouldn't talk to their best friend about.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: So there are things that are gonna come up that perhaps they they don't want to share with anybody in their close proximity.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: And perhaps, you know, and as we look at things as people get older and how lonely people are actually getting as they get older, but do they have those types of people around them that they can confide in anyway?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_03: So when it comes to having a relationship with a financial advisor that throughout their life they can turn to for any money concerned, I think that's a real blessing for somebody to have.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm the one thing I've learned as I've gotten older is let go of the need for my own personal ability to solve all my problems and turn to my experts who are there for me.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_03: And in turn, I am an expert for them in other in other areas.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_03: I've got my chap who's a brilliant nutritionist, I've got my friend who's my personal trainer, you know, I've got a financial advisor, I've just had a fantastic mortgage advisor that I've been dealing with, a brilliant guy, such a good guy, and I will forever refer him on to other people, but he's always there for me and he always will be there for me.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: I'll have whatever, you know, a good, a good doctor, whoever those people are, I turn to.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: So it gets out of my head and I can speak to those people.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_03: And that's where financial planners sit in, I think.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: And that's you absolutely nailed it in respect of this the trust and it's the relationship that's being built.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's not just I'm gonna sit there and make a load of money for somebody, and therefore I'm gonna make a load of money.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what I want to kind of get through to people as they're thinking about joining this profession, is that there's it's a deeper level, there's a deeper connection.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: And you're part of a team, you are part of a team in terms of yeah, the the accountant, as you said, the mortgage broker, the the everyone.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: And you want your client to feel as safe as possible that they have that team around them, that any eventuality that that comes up or any concerns they have, they know, and it won't always be you, but you know, I again, but a lot of the times my clients come to me for for, you know, oh, I uh do you know a business coach, for example, or someone that can help with the business side of things.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, um so a lot of that is is kind of intergrained into they trust you with one kind of area that actually they think you're the go-to person for a lot of things, and again, that's about building your network in the background, isn't it?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then for us to be that person that we can um safely uh make sure that actually our clients are getting the best information um as possible.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: But I do, yeah, I do think actually that weight lifted off clients' backs in terms of you know knowing that there are people that they can turn to.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: Because let's face it, you know, in the industry or in the kind of society or economic environment we're at at the moment, you know, it's hard to kind of switch off from information.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: Information is is very different to kind of bespoke solutions to your problem, and that's really the the kind of difference that we're in at the moment is uh people are flooded with information, but what they're not getting is is kind of the relevant specifics to their actual circumstances.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um it is confusing, it is confusing, and I think yeah, to to know that it as an individual or as a business owner that you have that person that you can just run your ideas over or kind of that that you trust to to come up and apply all that information to you is is really really vital.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: And I think even let's let's sort of fast forward five, 10 years, right?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_03: And the adoption of quantum computers and um AI, right?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_03: There is an ability in the future, not far away, for me to ask any question that I want, right?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_03: And an AI will be able to answer that question on a huge on a far more superior level to a human can, right?
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: And it might even be able to bring in emotion.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_03: I can have a video of you in front of me completely augmented that that is talking to me.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_03: But I wonder even at that stage, even at that stage, right?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I just don't think you'll ever replace the need and the connection a human-to-human connection can have by being able to walk into a room, shake hands with somebody, look them in the eye, and have uh um an a specific energy level connection, you're never gonna get rid of that.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: No, I I agree.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's a lot of it's hand holding a lot of kind of the financial planning industry and being a financial advisor or a financial planner is yeah, he's hand holding people.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and in order to kind of hold their hand in the right way, um, you need to know kind of what actually you're kind of yeah, working towards together.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, and it's a lot of it is, you know, I've been in front of clients.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: If you ask someone, you know, what's your attitude to this?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_02: They'll say, Oh, I want to make as much money as possible, you know, if it X out of X, but then something will happen if you're sat in front of them and their eye will go towards, you know, the kitchen, and and then you'll have a conversation and it will come to light that it's really been frustrating them because they, you know, they really want the kitchen done, and the you know, the the the children have been doing this and there's not enough space, and and it's really frustrating because and then it develops onto well, and me and my husband have been arguing a little bit or like something like that.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the thing that you're missing.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's people and it's communication, and it's having that relationship with someone to to break down actually, you know, the not just kind of one-word answers to to kind of a kind of question bank, but actually what is it that that actually resonates with the client in terms of the underlying issue or the underlying goal there.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, a lot of it it has to be done face to face, in my opinion, it has to be done um yeah, with a person um that knows you as well, as opposed to computer generated moving forward.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: So I do think there is a there will be a shift towards that.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I think for a lot of people it will suit certain kind of environments or certain kind of objectives, um, but I don't think you could, you know, ever move away from from real financial planning.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_03: You mentioned that you're a bit of a book geek.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: So you do a lot of self-development personally.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: What do you think you know, what have you what have you read or what have you learned throughout your 10 years of working within financial planning that you would say is a kind of a fantastic concept or um a form, you know, a strategy or what it is, you know, is there any specific books, any specific sort of formulas that you follow, any steps or anything like that?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think for me, a lot of it is kind of figuring out like what's your why, if that makes sense, of the phrase kind of what's your why.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I think you can relate that to both kind of myself, what's my why in terms of doing what I'm doing, but also each client.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: What's your why?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: What's you know, what's the the kind of end goals here, and also breaking things down.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think, you know, a lot of people, like you said, they go for this, you know, they're younger or they're they want to come into the industry, but they they want to go to this straight away to the chartered financial planner, for example.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: But it's breaking it down, you know, one exam at a time, one sprump through the door, you know, building up kind of, you know, I guess your experience, but also kind of all those celebrating the achievements that you get along the way, which then reinforces kind of the passion as well.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think when we skip straight to the end goal, a lot of people, the passion fizzes out because they're going for that one big goal.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then the the journey to get there is so long that they're not appreciating it along the way.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I think sometimes it's nice to, you know, kind of develop and set yourself small goals, appreciate them when they come along.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, kind of break it down, I think.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's something I've definitely learned a lot of the ways just to celebrate small wins because they do again, it sounds really sad, but it goes back to again financial planning, it's the compound effect, isn't it?
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's the actually compounding everything that you do, which just kind of resonates to you.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of that for me is habit stacking in the respect that, you know, I'm quite, my husband says to me, you know, I'll set my alarm the next uh the night before, and I'll, even if I'm knackered or I've had a bad night's sleep, I'll say, you know, I'm going to the gym at this time or 6.15, I've got this class on or whatever.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he'll wake up and he'll go, I don't know how you do it.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: I just don't know how you do it.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: But to me, if I let myself down, and there is an element of, okay, if you if you've got an injury, yes, okay, don't push yourself overboard.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: But, you know, I set myself targets or I set myself things that I want to achieve, and I'm dedicated to achieving that.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: And if I don't apply that principle to my own life, then how can I expect my clients to believe that I would be that invested in them?
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and vice versa.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_02: I think, you know, if you build that mentality that what you say you're going to do, you do, then that leap from an external industry or a kind of role that you're in previous to get where you are or where you want to be becomes that little bit more.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: You trust yourself more because you know that you're the kind of person that when you set your mind to it or you set your heart to it, you do actually do it and you deliver on it.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that starts small.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: That starts, you know, with nutritionally based things and going to the gym and you know, saying that you'll be there on time and little things like that.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're that kind of person, I just think, yeah, that actually that's how you build your own trust.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_03: You've got some non-negotiables that you built into your life.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm the same.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm a firm believer in non-negotiables.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I think within any career, you also need to look after your own personal well-being, right?
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_03: One of my non-negotiables is between 11:30 and uh 1.30 is my time.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_03: So that's my time to go to the gym.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, if I want to meditate, if I want to go for a walk, if I want to do some yoga, that's my time.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_03: And no one can book into my diary, no one in here in the business can book into my diary.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_03: They can, you know, I'm not here for two hours.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_03: But for me, it's highly important that I build that into my day and that I book it out of my calendar.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_03: And at first you get really anxious about it.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um, what do people think?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: You know, what happens if someone wants to call me and blah, blah, blah.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_03: And as time goes on, it just becomes normality, and you build your work hours around those non-negotiable hours that I I develop on myself.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_03: But other non-negotiables are like making sure I'm on time.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_03: 7 p.m.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: for you know, 7 a.m.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_03: for me is a start day.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm up at seven, I'm up, my non-negotiable straight into gratitude, straight on the mat for 10 minutes of stretching, straight in the office.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's that's my non-negotiable.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_03: You know, timekeeping for me is so important um from the council perspective.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: You can flip it around, you know, and I think you know, if a lot of people, well, a lot of other advisors within my kind of, I guess, kind of industry, you know, some some are night owls, some are morning ours, you know, and and I'm the same.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it it you just figure out what works for you.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: And as you said, there is a big judgment.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm a morning person in the respect that my time of the day is the morning.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: So my alarm goes off, I get up at 6 a.m.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't, I'm never in front of a client before 10 o'clock because to me, that morning is the gym, it's the walk, it's the you know, the the kind of getting into the day, setting myself up.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: But give me an evening appointment and I'm absolutely fine.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas some people will be the other way around, they don't want to do evenings, but they'll happily, you know, start at 8 a.m.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: or whatever and and kind of carry on.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think as long as you make sure you do what works for you, I think, yeah, 100% that you know, there's no judge kind of judgment either side.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's just about figuring out when you're more productive.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_02: And people are, you know, there's there's a lot of psychology tests you can do, but also kind of about your sleep habits, whether you're a morning person, night hour, when your most productive time of the day is and things like that.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I think actually it is about, I used to be a bit of a martyr, and especially during lockdown, I got to the point where I'd I'd I almost sat there for a day or for the whole day because I felt like I've got to be doing the same.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I guess that drive to to kind of be, I don't know, in prison.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_02: And some days I'm I could probably actually, if I took a step back, you know, I probably could have squeezed that into three or four hours worth of solid work, and then I'd have gone out, you know, and I'd have got that balance right a little bit better.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I think actually, yeah, there's we live in this culture now where it's you know, I guess everyone loves to say how hard they're working, and and we all do, and you know, someone says, I love my mum to bits, but every time I speak to her, I go, You actually, oh, works so hard, such a hard day.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, blessed you, and I'm like, but anything else gone on or like anything else different, like and I think we are, you know, we got to a point, the two of us, where we used to speak kind of, you know, a couple of times a week and or every day at one point.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, every day it was like, oh and I at one point I said to her, I was like, It's this a competition that we've got into where it's like who's had the more stressful day, and yeah, and there was nothing positive about that.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just about working, and that's a great thing about this industry or any industry you're in, it's but specifically financial advising, is that you are, you know, you're the one that can, you know, say yes, you're the one that can manage your diary, you're the one that can, you know, very much run your business um as suits you, but also your clients as well.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I do think that, yeah, that's a hugely kind of undersold uh value of being a financial planner is is having that passion, the tenicity, the the kind of yeah, the structure that you want to work hard and that you want to make the most of it, but also having that flexibility as well, that you know, it can very much work for you.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_03: Not in every single role though.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_03: Let's talk about your, you know, you've you you at the beginning there you alluded to the fact that you didn't understand what a power planner was, right?
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_03: Now you know, you talk about this flexibility, this work flexibility and stuff.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: Now we're not gonna get too into detail about it, but I know lots of administrators, lots of power planners, lots of compliance guys that don't have that flexibility that say a financial planner has, starting to develop it, it's starting to happen.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_03: Ford thinking companies are allowing it sort of to recognize that people can work from home, my God, you know, as a power planner.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, you can work those hours around.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_03: And if you look at things like the outsourced power planning companies, etc., it's very flexible.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_03: So it's starting to come in, but it's not always been that way.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_03: And let's just look at the you know, if someone's listening to this, right?
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_03: They're thinking, well, what is it, you know, why why why did Danielle start as a power planner and what was it?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, you didn't know what it was.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_03: Just give us a brief overview, right?
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_03: What was your journey in the very, very beginning of a pack of being a power planner?
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_03: You know, how long were you in the role for?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_03: What what did you learn?
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_03: And when did you decide that, okay, well, this role, power planning, isn't for me, it's actually something else.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: For me, the power planner role is very much, I mean, it's a it's an administration role, but a lot of it is kind of looking at someone's circumstances or any kind of existing assets they've got and yeah, collating information.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of it, again, was was a kind of an education piece around understanding the industry.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: So, again, what I think puts a lot of people off the industry as a whole is is the jargon that's you know associated with financial planning.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: And again, you can skip forward and say now that's a huge kind of piece for us as financial planners to break down the barriers around kind of using financial jargon and the misconception around what do things mean or or making it sound more complicated than it is.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's trying, it's about trying to simplify financial planning for me.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but specifically with the power planner, it allows you that time to to kind of get your head in the industry, to to learn uh all the quirks of um legislation in the financial services has changed hugely over the years and it continues to develop.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_02: So each scheme or each kind of historic product that someone's got, for example, will have different benefits that that you know, being a paraplanner allows you to kind of hone down on actually the history of financial planning, which again, relating that, I guess, to a future role as a financial planner allows you to understand certain people's kind of emotions around the financial services, you know, because a lot of them were contracted out, for example, uh, during a period of time where they opted out of their state pension benefits.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: So you know that or you learn that through the power planning role.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: So it allows you the opportunity, I think, to really embed yourself into the financial services industry and figure out um kind of if it is something that that you do enjoy, but also to give yourself that that background knowledge.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_03: Not everybody's a client facing power planner, and we're seeing it more now where the power planner is is being brought into like a client meeting.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's a fantastic extra addition to a meeting that kind of gives confidence to the client that there is not only me, the financial advisor, building the relationship with you and understanding you perhaps more on a personalized level, but in the background that we've got this individual here who's highly educated, is doing some huge research, and they're going to tell you a little bit about maybe how technically some of these things work without confusing you too heavy.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but when you're in your power planning role and you get a fact find back from a from a from a client, perhaps the financial advisor's done the fact find, because you as a power planner will receive all that information.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_03: You get it all in, right?
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_03: You might have an administrator work with you, or it might be your job if you're an admin stroke power planner, to go out to the product providers, pull all the other, you know, to get all the letters of authority in and all those types of things, right?
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_03: Extra work that you've got to do to bring the clear picture in to what that individual's financial situation looks like.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_03: Did you feel sometimes though, as a power planner, that you were disconnected from the client and what the emotional aspect of it was?
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_03: Did you ever feel that?
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because you're relying on the information that comes back from the advisor.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: And again, it gets my journey is different because it's made me more detailed in my processes now, because I know what it's like on the other hand, when you know you're like, oh, I just don't get actually why they would be doing that.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then you have a conversation and they go, Oh, it's because that happened.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_02: And you're like, Oh, well, that would have been good to know.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but sometimes, like with anything, we keep it in our own heads because we know the clients.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, I think now as an industry, we are doing a lot more where the power planner is coming along to meetings more.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's something that funny enough, I was talking to our office manager about last night and with my PA who who does my admin is bringing her along to my meetings from now on, really, just so she can do the paperwork because she sees it all and prepares it all.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_02: And again, it's that, yeah, getting her involved.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm quite fortunate that most of my clients know her and by her name and will email her directly for certain things.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_02: So, again, it's trying to build that relationship in and so clients, so you're almost like a kind of Team as such.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I do think I think paraplanning is honestly, I think I genuinely I love being a financial planner, but I genuinely think paraplanning is a is a fantastic career to have.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that it it provides a great opportunity to go as far as you want to go.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: And being a good financial planner is is like gold dust nowadays.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: And there are very, you know, it's something that as a planner or as an advisor, you is really, really crucial to have behind you.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_02: And it enables you that peace of mind and that kind of ability to know that you can focus on your clients because the kind of background side of it is very much taken care of by the power planner.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I do think it's a fantastic career to have.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_02: And from my point of view, I think, yeah, if you're a decent power planner and you're in that role, it's just about whether you want to be in front of the client and whether in order to get there you kind of want to be a planner or whether you're able to get that out of kind of the arrangement that you have in your current role by kind of seeing the end goal as well.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_03: How long were you in a power planner position for?
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh four, five, four, four years.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_03: Four years, okay.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_03: So when you were in that power planner position, did you have when you entered it first off, did you have any qualifications?
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: So when I entered it, I was doing RF as my original one.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: I was junior power planner, and there was kind of two of us in the office at that point in time.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then I worked my way up and I became kind of head of power planning and kind of team leader for the rest of the office.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_02: Again, so it's that juggling between the admin but also the power planning role.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but again, it's um yeah, it enables you to kind of you build the relationships and you can build the relationships.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_02: I had brilliant relationships with the practices clients at the time, um, because you are that that first port of call and you are then doing the kind of work as well.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_02: So you you do get to know the client um as well.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_03: The role of a power planner, like you the term power planner, everyone just thinks, right, well, that's it, that's what the job is.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_03: But there's multiple positions in the career journey of a power planner.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it can be broken down into even things like office administration comes underneath that, client relationship comes underneath that, investment administrator comes underneath that.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_03: It could be a client-facing power planner, right?
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_03: It could be a specialist within a specific area of tax, for instance, where you've kind of you know built your knowledge and expertise around that area.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_03: I know some power planners who consider themselves pension geeks, for example.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_03: They absolutely love, love pensions, you know, and they're absolutely solid on that.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I guess what I just want to take from your journey is that four or five years, you weren't, oh look, now I'm working in a firm, I've got an exam under my belt, I've got an R05 under my belt, now I'm a power planner.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_03: You weren't, were you?
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_03: No, you you you were administrator, you took on extra role responsibilities as you progressed through.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_03: So within that sort of four four years of being a power planner, you know, when did you start to realise because it was your first job within financial planning, when did you start to realise that oh, I am now a power planner?
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of I always knew what the end goal was, and I always knew what I wanted to get to, but I did really enjoy what I was doing, and I I was to put it bluntly, I was bloody good at it.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I again, like a lot of people out there, you almost get stuck in this position where it's not really where you want to be a hundred percent, but you are in a role where you know things are sticking along nicely, you know, you're doing let me stop you there.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_03: You said you were bloody good at it, right?
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_03: What why were you so good at it?
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_03: What did you do that allowed you to be really good at power planning?
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_03: What is it you were doing?
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_03: Was it some extra, you know, study?
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_03: What what what made you a great power planner?
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think just being quite detailed and caring, caring, it's getting this caring, it to be honest with you.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_02: And that's yeah, that was one of my decisions why I moved on from power planning, but I care I cared so much.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_02: I I it wasn't a fact finding to me.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I got information or I heard about a client scenario and I I treated it as if I was the advisor.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, this is oh, okay, well, what can we do here?
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, how could we, you know, solve this problem?
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, you are reliant, you're just the only difference is you're reliant upon that filter from the advisor to then come up with that strategy.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I really I really cared about what I did and and about coming up with that solution for the client.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I would it was something that, yeah, just you know, I guess from my point of view, uh I really enjoyed being part of that process.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um so problem solving is a big part of being, you know, when you get given, say, a task, you get given a report, a case, right?
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_03: And you've got to look at it, decipher it, and solve the problem.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_03: Can I, you know, improve this person's uh pension plan or whatever it might well be, right?
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_03: You've got all these all these bits of information, it all comes in, you look at it all, you bring it all together, and your job is to offer a better solution than the one they currently have, right?
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and give that back to a financial advisor.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_03: There's a huge responsibility on your head, yeah.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_03: But also as a power planner, I can imagine it being highly frustrating if you're working with a financial advisor who just stores it all up in their head and expects you to mind read.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_02: And there are unfortunately there are a few of them out there.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um let's talk about that bit.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_03: What would you do as a power planner now?
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_03: Let's go back in time, you know.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, now, now you can do so.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, now I know even for my point of view, you know, if I'm in a rush, I come out of a meeting, I can brain dump, I can do a dictation, for example, and send that through.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's so many different now kind of suggestions that you can, you know, you used to be able to have to go back and then you'd get like this handover sheet from an advisor or whatever with kind of soft facts and you know, dog's name and things like that.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_02: And you'd have to kind of try and apply that.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, their personal circumstances now, you know, we can ask clients to almost complete um their their kind of income, their outgoings, expenditure planners up front before meetings or as part of that, and having that relationship as a power planner, and from my PA point of view, she can very much, you know, she has that relationship with my clients.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: So if there is some missing information, she can go back to them.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_02: And and actually the the relationship is there through through the office as well to be able to do that.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that's hugely important, I think.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_02: But um, yeah, nowadays it's just about getting and and how you work, as you said, some advisors or planners will they do like to write things down or do a handover on a document, for example, and they, you know, if you set title or a bracket, you know, they'll input that information.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_02: And some do just like to work through a process.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: And to me, it's about a mix of of the two and knowing kind of where again where your strengths lie.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, some people do just like to do a dictation or a brain dump, as they call it, and then have someone else kind of filter that through.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think having that relationship with a paraplanner and the visor that is really tight, that you can, if there are any missing informations, challenge them on it or say, can you clarify this, or can you know, actually you missed this, so I need to know this to kind of complete the a report.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think, and that's where I think a lot of people necessarily kind of I guess not don't get it right, but I think that's where the distinction or there's a bit a bit of a kind of caveat or gap between power planning and advisor is if you're not working together, you should be on the same team 100% and should be working together.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's a profession, you know, it's it's a it's a career path within financial planning within its own right.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, Crikey, we're seeing salaries around the 65k mark for a power planner.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_03: So someone who is a career power planner, absolutely get your head down, get stuck in.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_03: I think one of the things you picked up on there is not an us versus them type role, is it?
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you know, I'm the glitz and the glamour, I'm the advisor, and you're the mushroom, I'll keep you in the dark and feed your shit from now on.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's like it's you go together hand in hand, and it's becoming so obvious now that it's a such a huge requirement of a good financial advisor to have a good power planner in place.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_03: And the relationship has to be solid.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I think um some of the biggest bugbearers I hear from power planners or administrators is just that lack of communication, that lack of support, the lack of training and development, but also the lack of mentorship and this feeling of, like I just said, like you're over there and we're over here, and we're the glitz and the glamour, and you'll do what I tell you to do.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_03: You can't do that anymore within financial planning because these guys are so sought after, these guys and girls are so sought after that all they've got to do is turn their head and a firmly who understands that, puts their arm round them, gives them a five pay rise and they're out the door.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_03: That easy.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_03: I can place administrators, power planners anywhere at the moment.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_03: They're rare as rocking horses.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_02: They are, yeah, they are.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_02: And good, and yeah, they are, uh, because they are, you know, they are the brains behind it, theoretically.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah, not to put us down as as branch.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, we you we wouldn't be where we are if we weren't.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but from that respect, yeah, you should, yeah, your power planner is as valuable um to a client as you are because they're the ones, you know, that that kind of, I guess, from a compliance point of view, but also um they're the ones that are checking the existing information and making sure that nothing's missed from that point of view.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_03: But it works in the same way as well, because at the end of the day, if you're an administrator, you're a power planner, your your your your trust with the financial advisor has to be solid.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_03: The financial advisor has to trust you because you're handing over work that needs to be done within a certain time frame, in a certain way, according to regulation.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_03: Because at the end of the day, if you're delivering the financial advice, you're the one that could be deemed as being the one giving the wrong advice.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_03: There is that there is that trust and attention to detail that needs to be built.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_03: Let's talk about mentorship then.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_03: Because do you believe in mentorship within the financial planning profession?
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_03: Do you mentor your PA at the moment?
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_03: Do you mentor anybody else?
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_03: Can you talk a little bit about that?
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we've got um a number of advisors within our practice.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_02: Some of them are fresh um into the industry from external industries, so from a marketing background, for example, one of our girls.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um others have come from banking, so within the financial services sector, um, but not necessarily having been diploma qualified.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_02: So again, going through um St.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_02: James's Place offers like the academy, which again is fantastic for the groundwork.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_02: But I think, you know, as with a lot of things, it's actually doing the job.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, for me yesterday it was about I was in the office yesterday and we were having a chat.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the guys who's come from nationwide actually was just saying, Okay, well, I'm going out and seeing this client, and we went through everything, and we just it's just that second opinion, and just kind of, yeah, actually, oh, have you thought about that?
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, no, actually.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_02: And and relating things because I think, you know, as with everything, you know, um, and I think whatever industry you go into, you know, you go for a job role, you you have to ace the interview or whatever it looks like, and then you start the job, and then you sit there at this desk, or you know, I've not actually ever been in this kind of a position, but I imagine you'd sit there at this desk and you're not quite sure how to use the coffee machine, and you're scared to ask because you know, there's almost this no one likes to ask for help because you you set yourself at a standard and you wowed in the interview, for example, and you know, actually, but for me, it's about I'm a big, big, big kind of advocate for asking for help.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_02: Most of the time, I I ask everyone for for their advice.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um I don't always listen to it or apply it, but either, in my opinion, it either reinforces what you are thinking in the first place, or you just gain more knowledge to apply moving forwards.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I think as long as you trust in your own filtration process, that actually, yeah, um, it's a a huge kind of advantage to have to kind of ask for help.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of people um in the financial services industry, you know, there's a fear around, you know, showing an interest in whether, you know, power planning if you're an administrator, for example, because you're committing to rolling down that route, for example, or or vice versa, power planning advisor, but actually just to show an interest, to get as much information, you're the filtering, you know, you're the filteration.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_02: So you've got to trust yourself.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I would say to anyone in the industry or outside of the industry, just talk to people, gain advice, you know, and and I guess you will then be able to ascertain whether that is appropriate for your scenario or or kind of where you see yourself going moving forward.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_02: But from a mentoring point of view, yeah, um, it's just about making sure, you know, people keep that kind of consistency and motivation because I think, you know, uh a lot of showing up every day in front of a client, it relies a lot on your own motivation and your own kind of, you know, I guess the persona you put out.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I think that actually to have someone that you can that can encourage you and drive you in a positive way is definitely something, you know, that actually is good to have within the industry 100%.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um you moved on from power planner, you went down the St.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_03: James's Place Internal Academy because you're already part of a St.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_03: James's Place business anyway, when you were working as a power planner, right?
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_03: I assume when you're working as a power planner, you were employed down the St.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_03: James's Place Academy, made a decision, the brave decision to go self-employed, right?
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_03: You've also within that wrapped up um charters.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_03: Can I just ask what why did you choose to go chartered?
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_03: And what, you know, if someone was listening to this and they were thinking, well, I I'm level four qualified, why why do I need to be chartered?
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_03: What what's the benefit of being chartered to you?
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh to me, the the benefit of being chartered is the confidence to know that I've achieved as much as I can for the benefit of my clients.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not necessarily a kind of self-driven, um, it's a great accolade to have.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, for me, it's about that trust and cementing the trust and saying, okay, well, you know, and I guess it's it's trying to break down the barriers between financial planning and and salesman or salesmanship.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's about actually, okay, you know, I'm great in front of you and I care when I'm in front of you, but I also care behind the scenes.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's that whole kind of phrase of, you know, it's it's it's what you're doing when people aren't watching that actually matters.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I think for me, being chartered just reinforces that, that you're not the kind of person that can be great in front of a client or great in a meeting, and then, you know, not kind of put that same level of effort into kind of the the industry or the role behind the scenes because a lot of it is, you know, weekends, hard work, especially when you're balancing a business and trying to grow a business.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_02: And don't get me wrong, there's been times where you know that's fallen to the wayside because my clients have always come first, but it is about actually, yeah, showing that commitment.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I guess for me, it was just again that whole once you say you're gonna do something, you kind of I did question it a few times.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_02: Why am I doing this again?
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, because you said you were gonna do it.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_02: Remember what you said, Danny, show up.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_02: So no, it's about, yeah, I think for me it's um it's about differentiating, differentiating yourself, sorry, but also um I think just being able to evidence that you can kind of stick to your commitments.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I they say it's the gold standard, don't they?
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_02: But I think to be honest with you, I think that actually, yeah, it just evidences that that you are kind of committed to the industry as a whole um behind the scenes.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_03: What's been your biggest learning experience then, being a financial planner?
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_03: So you you've got yourself qualified, you've gone through the academy, you've now been working as a financial planner now for how many years?
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_03: Five years.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_03: Five years.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_03: Over those five years, right?
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_03: What was your biggest learning experience?
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_03: What would you sort of pass on as a nugget of of of wisdom to somebody maybe starting their first year as an advisor?
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_03: What would you what would you say to do, or something that you've learned along the way that's had such a really profoundly positive impact on perhaps the client generation side, perhaps from a marketing perspective?
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_03: What do you think is a a real valuable piece that you would pass on and say, if you're going to be an advisor, do this?
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: I would say um, God, that's a hard one.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's just kind of start now, get perfect later.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_02: Is it's just kind of go for it, try everything.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_02: Can you know, and I'm not just saying, you know, throw mud at the wall and hope it sticks, but you know, it if you're interested in something or or if you you think something's worth trying, then then give it a go, whether it's softly, lightly, or whether you kind of stick yourself right in the middle of it, it's it's just about kind of figuring out what works for you.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I do think that you know, you shouldn't be and you won't be the same person year on year, you develop, you grow.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, you know, whether it goes to to entering the industry or as a financial advisor, I think once you're in the industry, once you grow as a financial advisor, you know, you wouldn't, if someone said to me, Oh, you're exactly the same as you were two years ago, I'd be offended.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'd be because we whereas I think when we're faced with the decision around making a change or making a leap, you you you kind of flip that on its head and you think, oh God, you know, uh what entitles me to think I can do that, or what entitles me to think I can, you know, kind of succeed in that environment.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_02: But if you flip it on its head, and yeah, to me, it's just you should be continuingly growing.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it's about yeah, I think it's uh it's almost a shock factor.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_02: You put a daughter, and you know, for year on year, it's like, oh, you know, the six-year-old doesn't look like the five-year-old or isn't the same as the five-year-old, and they are, but for some reason we we stopped expecting that from ourselves at some point, you know, we reached 18 or back to that whole kind of you know, university age, and suddenly it was like we were meant to be this person, and then you meant to stick to it for or be that person.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, for me, it's just about continuing development and um making sure that you are growing, and yeah, I think uh that was a very long wendy where I've you know going down that route.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_02: Lots of learnings.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_03: And what I like about you as well, you've gotten to, and again, you're your proofs in the pudding here, right?
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, 32 years old, shouldn't ever ask any woman in age, but I'm gonna anyway.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_03: But you were you're roughly 32 years old, right?
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, roughly, give or take.
• 1:02:28
  unknown: Yeah, I am.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_03: 32 years old, right?
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_03: You're chartered, you spent 10 years in the profession, right?
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_03: You've studied throughout that time, got yourself up to chartered, continuous learning, you've learned from the ground up.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you've taken the plunge into being self-employed as a financial planner, therefore, you're building that business, the assets and the management for yourself, yes, albeit underneath another firm and their brand, but you are really master of your own destiny, controlling your own client engagement and all of that kind of thing.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_03: That's you know, that is fantastic.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_03: And by the age of 32, I think that's uh applaudable, right?
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_03: And and and again, it's people I want some people to understand that it it can if you did it at 21 years old, by the time you're 32, you know, is life pretty good for you at the moment?
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_03: Do you enjoy what you're doing?
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_03: Are you really genuinely happy and excited and you know positive about your future?
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_03: Because I'm 40, right?
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_03: I'm really super duper positive about my 40s and 50s.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like the best I've ever been in my life, right?
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_03: Are you super positive about your 30s?
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_03: Are you thinking, wow, I've got myself to this position?
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_03: I put all that hard work in, and now I'm gonna plow it, and now I'm gonna start really kicking ass.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_03: Is that how you're feeling?
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I am 100%.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, you know, everyone, yeah, I think there's as I said before, there's a huge kind of society now bands around kind of burnout quite because of quite a huge phrase.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I read something recently, and it was like burnout is the lack of is when the passion goes.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I think actually, you know, uh it is, you know, it's it's long hours, it it's hard work, it's it's uh, you know, pressure, it's building the relationship to the trust, people trust you.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_02: So there become there becomes a kind of level of uh, I guess, pressure on yourself within that role.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_02: But when you love what you do, and yeah, it's I wake up every day and yeah, it I thrive off being in front of my clients and seeing the changes.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_02: And one of my clients bought a house recently, and um I emailed her at the weekend they completed on Friday.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_02: And um I met them when they moved over from Europe, they had, you know, not you know, it and long story short, I've been on that journey with them and I generally can say like that that's what I do it for.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_02: And that's yeah, every day you wake up and you think, okay, who can I help today?
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, for me, it's just about being excited about all the people in the future.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm gonna be.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_02: I I think the younger you are as well, you know, the I'm gonna be around now to see, you know, mums pass that down to daughters and and you know, sons and and the children, and yeah, it we talk, I talk to my clients about their grandchildren, and I'm still gonna be there when they set up the junior ISIS and then they're 18, and you know, we're educating them around kind of those types of things and what what that opportunity will entail for them.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the exciting thing about it.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's about trying to balance out living in the present, working hard, building your business, but also being excited about what's to come in the future.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's you know what it should be as an industry, but that's what everyone as a client and anyone who seeks financial advice should should be kind of doing as well, is is getting that.
• 1:05:41
  SPEAKER_03: I think you absolutely nailed it there, you know, that abundance mindset.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_03: There is so much business out there anyway, right?
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_03: So, from your perspective at 32 years old, chartered financial planning, right?
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_03: As you just rightfully said, the amount of money that's going to be passed down family to family over the next 10, 15 years is going to be absolutely huge.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_03: There's a distinct lack of financial advisors out there, distinct lack of female.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_03: Financial advisors, either.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_03: So that's a huge opportunity for you as well as the wealth transitions over to more women, more with more female millionaires over the next few years.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_03: 53% are going to be females of millionaires.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_03: So there's like a huge amount of opportunity for women coming into the profession.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_03: But also that abundance mindset.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_03: So for you, like having that purpose, having the ability to change people's lives and have a positive impact in people's lives, that gives you emotional security.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_03: Not to mention financial security, because unless you're an absolutely going to be sitting on your arse doing nothing, there is an abundance of money out there, an abundance of financial planning opportunities.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_03: So let's think about you from a financial security perspective.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_03: There is financial security for you over the next sort of 10, 15, 20, 30 years.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_03: There is an opportunity.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_03: As long as you work hard, you're going to earn good money as well.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_03: And let's not put that to one side.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_03: We help others, but there is a return on that that means that you yourself have a very secure life as well.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but there's no entitlement to that.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's about knowing that, yeah, you you kind of that becomes down to the financial education piece, isn't it?
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it's showing kind of clients the information that is tailored to them, going back to right at the beginning.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's about bespoking that to their circumstance.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_02: And most people know what they should be doing.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's about kind of the developing that trust and and finding that person that is there accountability buddy, isn't it?
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_02: In terms of, yeah, I will, and the relationship has to be strong because you have to be able to tell them what they should be doing and have the trust and the kind of counter kind of trust that they will then act upon that um and that they will go kind of go down that route.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, from my point of view, it's a hugely exciting um industry to be in.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I think moving forward it's something that I think, you know, and everyone's interested.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean funny, you know, I meet clients whose sons and daughters, and yeah, they're all interested, you know, everyone wants to make money.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_02: So they're you know, and and for them it's about okay, how do I do that?
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_02: Whether it's you know property, it used to be the bite to their properties, didn't it?
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_02: But now it's you know, investing and saving.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I think just having that open conversation and and getting kind of financial jargon kind of as part of everyone's vocabulary in terms of simplifying it, um, enables those conversations to be far easier.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and and yeah, moving forward will open up the industry to far more opportunities, both from people coming into the industry as financial planners, but also people kind of seeking advice moving forward.
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_03: Danielle, thank you so much for sharing your journeys today and sharing your thoughts around the profession, um, sharing your career progression as well, um, being open and honest and realistic about the reasons why you do it and what you like about it, and obviously finishing on there about the the positives of the future for yourself within financial planning.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I really, really appreciate it.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_03: I think the listeners will get a real feel for that.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_03: And that's fantastic.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for your time today.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I really appreciate you coming on the broadcast.
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_03: And um, we'll keep in contact.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Sam.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, if um it obviously, yeah, if anyone has any questions, they can just reach out anyway.
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because yeah, as you said, part of the mentorship is it's not just listening to things like this, but it's also yeah, how how do people kind of yeah, I guess filter out and get the confidence they need to move forward as well.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_03: Brilliant.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for sharing it.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's the first start.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_03: So thank you so much.
• 1:09:18
  SPEAKER_02: No worries.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_02: Take care.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.