Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / Building Career Confidence in Financial Planning

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Building Career Confidence in Financial Planning · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, it's Alex here from the Financial Plan Life podcast.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: This week I've got Jamie Barnes from Pembroke Financial Services.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: And the topic of conversation today is confidence.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's confidence in your career within financial planning.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: He spent a good 10 years in administration and power planning positions, and he didn't progress how he felt fast enough to the desired role that he was looking for, which was financial advice.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: He is now a financial advisor and absolutely loving it.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: We talk about the salaries that he had when he was in administration and power planning and what can be done to recognize whether or not what you're being paid is enough and what you can do about it in respect of finding out the best route to getting the salary and the job you deserve within financial planning.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: We also talk about the Power Planner Club with Sean Davies Cole.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: He's a mentor within that community.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: And we talk about what being a mentor has done for his confidence and what it's done for the mentees of that fantastic community.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: I hope you enjoy Jamie.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: How are you?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very good, thank you.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: You little liar, you just told me you were at the cricket lot yesterday, so you got a bit of a sore head.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Did you enjoy yourself?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, it was a great fun.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um bashing ball about and and uh watching my two local teams take part, so that was good, yeah.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Fantastic.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: Used to love used to love going to the cricket.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: As it said, I was uh right next to the Bristol County ground.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I used to frequently go down there for the 2020s, and it was great fun, great environment.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Back when I used to drink a lot of beer.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: So um yeah, I used to have a really, really good time.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: So um slightly envious, and I bet the weather was beautiful, was it?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, actually, we couldn't see the ball for quite a lot of the uh first sort of 20 overs because the sun was just basically directly on our face.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And when it's white ball cricket, you can't you can't see it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then when the sun went in, great to see everything.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Ah, fantastic.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Jamie, look, listen, thank you so much for joining me today uh on the podcast.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, as I said, you know, the podcast is about your career, it's about shining a light on your journey and talking about some of those ups, some of those downs, some of those things you've experienced and what you're involved with in within the within the financial planning profession and why you're in this profession full stop.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: What do you like about it?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: What do you enjoy about it, etc.?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: So what I'd love to do in the beginning really is just kind of kick off and just understand how did you get into the financial planning profession?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: What did your sort of first sort of foray into this world look like?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'd like to say that it it wasn't involving falling into the profession because I know that's a common uh theme across the you know the profession.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I graduated from uni in 2010 with an accounting and business degree.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So my background was sort of in finance, um, but financial planning was never something that I'd really come across.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, again, common theme.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I was working a summer job in a completely different world.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was gowned up in a CSI outfit doing um plastics in a medical facility, um, making and all sorts of weird and wonderful things for cancer and stuff like that.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a really um really interesting time um whilst looking for an actual graduate role.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that company then folded.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was out on the scrap heap for a few months and um found an advert in the local paper.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um again, it's just like it's all very random.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it was talking about it was a you know base administrator role but for a financial planning company.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought I'll give it a shot, went along to the interview.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I got on really well with the um the two directors there.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um one of the directors, I think, liked me because I he talked about football and that he was a Wimbledon fan, and I immediately said AIC Wimbledon, not MK Dons, and that got me the job, I think.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: There we go.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's the that's the best interview tip you can uh you can you can give out, then isn't it?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Find out what football team that they like and uh either pretend you like it.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, get the right one, yeah.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, get the right one.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I was I worked in administration for about a year there.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um they were a chartered financial planning firm, um, really good uh group of people to sort of bed in and get my teeth sort of into financial planning and understand the role.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I was there for a total of six years.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I was a uh doing my exams to diploma, um working as a paraplanner, initially as a junior as part of the small team, and then the team sort of expanded a little bit.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I moved into more of a senior paraplanning role for the um MD at the time, before I sort of decided I wanted to try something different and um move to a firm in Surrey where I was there for about two years.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then sort of personal circumstances um changing and things with my my partner moving away to a firm as well.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: She works in financial services as well, so uh quite a closely knit um family for that.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um ended up moving to Hove.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So um again, sorry to Hove wasn't exactly too far, but I decided I'd try and find something more local and really try and progress myself beyond power planning because it was something that I'd wanted to move across to advising for quite a long time.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: So um I found the lifestyle financial planning firm down in Worthing and joined them right before COVID.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we're talking uh December 2019.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, probably the most interesting time to start fresh in in a sort of advising role.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then of course COVID hit.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: So the vast majority of my first uh couple of years there was spent having Zoom conversations rather than face-to-face conversations with people.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So uh took a bit of a step back, did more of a hybrid role, uh advising and power planning for a couple of years, came out the other side and sort of went through the sort of full sign-off and our full-time advisor now.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been doing it for just under a year.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: Fantastic.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for that for that brief overview.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you've obviously gone down the route of administrator, power planner, financial advisor.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that is the one of the routes into becoming a financial planner, if that's where you want to end up.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: Have you got aspirations to go any further in respect of your career outside of because at the moment I suppose you're employed, are you?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know, does it do you have a an itch in the back of your mind that wants to progress into running your own business one day or being a shareholder within your business?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: Have you got those typical types of aspirations?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: Does that niggle away at the back of your mind?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: Is that part of your career plan?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is a constant um niggle, to be honest.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm quite entrepreneurial.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um my my days of being entrepreneurial sort of date back to school in really silly stories of like selling lighters to smokers for 50p a pop or something, you know, buying them in bulk off eBay for five quid and making lots and lots of profit off that.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And after passing my driving test, my my mate wanted to buy a bulk load of books to sell on Amazon.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we drove up to London, the three of us in tiny little Peugeot 106s, to load up our cars with as many books as we possibly could.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we ended up finding a John Licare first edition in the in this pile of books.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that that basically paved the entire um bulk collection.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So things like that.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's um in terms of where I see myself, I think I probably need to bed in as an advisor a bit more before really thinking about moving into senior roles and things.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: But um, there's plenty of growth at the firm that I'm at at the moment.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: We've had a new um MD come in.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: We've got quite a lot of change going on in terms of expansion, and and there's just I can see there's lots of growth opportunities.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really exciting time to be at the firm that I'm at.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's nice.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's not always been the case in in the past.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you know, I think ultimately, whether it's running my own small firm or being a director in a larger firm, I don't know.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: My my mind's always sort of changing on that, but it's something that I've always wanted to do.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And um, one of my best friends, I helped last year set up his own um outsourced power planning firm.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a little bit of experience in sort of everything that it entails.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess I sort of mentored him in some of the sort of more business aspects that he might not necessarily have been aware of at the start.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and now he's away, he's pretty much booked up.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: As you can imagine, it's uh it's a very, very busy uh industry.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's not enough power planners to go around.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, he he's um he's doing really well out of it.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: Fantastic.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: So you spent quite a long time in an administrative to power planner capacity before making the move into becoming a financial planner.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: What was the reason for that?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um confidence is one thing.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think I was always confident in my technical ability, um, always confident in you know the advice I'm giving advisors, but it's a different world getting in front of clients.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'm 34, I'm not particularly young.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm still a relatively young advisor.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I I had conversations with some of the advisors that I've worked with over the years, and some of the comments I mean, you'd you'd be outstanding to be honest.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's um some of the things that I've heard say, one advisor said you you need to be at least 35 to be an advisor.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, just as a offshoot comment when I talked to him about wanting to regress my career into that world.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time, I think I was I was probably 29, 30, so he was basically pushing me back five years at least.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um and other things, such as uh the best advisors always have children and and have families, and you don't understand what it's like to advise families until you've got children.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, me personally, I'm I'm in a position where I don't have kids.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really think I'm going to ever have children.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's not for me, maybe a family of dogs.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: But um so you know, things like that can be quite disheartening.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly when you're you're looking up to these people and they're in senior positions, uh it's it's a bit of a barrier, really.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, I think ultimately moving away from those firms to different firms that would actually be you know open to allowing to progression.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, there are firms out there that will allow it for people of all ages.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I you know, I'm working with a firm at the moment that uh pushing through some of the young graduates that are coming into the business as soon as they can.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we're talking people in their 20s, early 30s, it doesn't the age doesn't matter.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, I don't I don't want to say it was like age discrimination or anything, but that did play a part definitely.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I think um you're okay to say that was age discrimination.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I've been in the profession for a good 15 years from a recruitment capacity.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we have seen ageism, without a doubt.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: I remember like, oh, we want someone with a bit of grey hair.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: Have you got an advisor who's a bit older?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um Yeah, I started getting grey in my 30s, I can't have a benefit.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, there wasn't a great, you know, outside of the banks, the banks were really good from a bank assurance perspective in training and developing younger individuals to move up through A, their qualifications, but to also get in front of clients within a banking capacity.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it was probably easier within the bank assurance world because there was less, it was more of a restrictive proposition, there was less products that you were selling essentially to those in uh giving advice on.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: So there was more flexibility, um, more clients, more customers in front of you to be able to get out and actually practice with.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I think where the IFA world um and the financial device world outside of bank stories were relatively made up of smaller businesses, there was a reluctance and a nervousness to put somebody younger because younger was deemed to be inexperienced, no life experience, therefore my clients won't take them seriously.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: You must be, you know, 45, 50 years old, you know, with kids and all that typical type of thing.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I definitely saw that.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I think age discrimination absolutely has happened within the financial planning professional historically.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I think at the detriment to it as well, um, there hasn't been uh uh there hasn't been as much as uh as much encouragement from those uh more independent firms to be investing in their stuff to progress and forward to becoming financial planners.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: And unfortunately, where we're seeing the average age of an advisor being around 55 years old, maybe a little bit older now, and we're seeing what 27,000, 28,000 advisors out there with a good 10 to 15,000 of them exiting out of the industry over the next five years.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's where we then have an advice gap for consumers, but an advisor gap as well, not enough advisors going out there and actually delivering the advice.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: And we were having this conversation that, you know, now is the time for firms to start thinking, hang about, we need to invest in a second careerists, but also in the staff that we have.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, how many people are probably sitting in administrative or power planning functions that if they had the right training, mentorship, guidance, encouragement to build their confidence could easily step across into a financial advice position just by having the conversation and maybe putting them on some training and development programs to build that confidence, they might think, well, hang about, actually, I don't want to be an administrator or a power planner.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually financial advice that I'm interested in.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: And having that support and recognition and guidance has actually allowed me to build confidence, to open up, to move into that position.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I think there's a lot of people sitting now, you know, it's a big, it's a big thing around females in financial advice.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: The bulk of people sitting in power planner roles are female.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: The bulk of people sitting in power, you know, power planner and administration positions who are level four qualified are female.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's as simple to peeing to peeing them across.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: And that's not to say that every power planner wants to be a financial advisor, because as you know, power planning is a career within its own right, but there is skills and expertise there.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think a power planner makes a good financial advisor?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think they certainly can do.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, it is it is two different skill sets.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's the relationship building and managing and face-to-face interaction.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's the for me, the the biggest thing, I guess, moving from uh power planning into advising was learning how not to just talk jargon all the time and talk technical speak, learning.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: There will be some clients that are interested in some of that stuff, and there are more knowledgeable clients than other clients, but some clients just don't care.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as you start talking about it, their eyes glaze over or they switch off, or and you know, if it's a new client, you've probably lost them at that point.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, for me that was a steep learning curve.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: But certainly, you know, I I've met countless power planners in my time who possibly you know would make good advisors, and I think again, it's probably a lack of confidence to really push themselves to take that step.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not, you know, it's not a step up, it's a it's definitely a step sideways these days, as you say, it's a career in its own right.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but often something I guess that comes back to what I was discussing earlier was that I think a lot of firms take a short-term view on things at the moment.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And as you say, that with 15,000 advisors retiring or leaving the industry in the next five years, um more firms need to think long term and need to think about getting those people into the positions that they want to.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem they have is the power planners are just too good in their roles, and they know that if that power planner was moved into advice, they have a gap in that role that they just can't fill because there isn't enough power planners to go around.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's a self-defeating circle at the moment.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think um, yeah, I'm seeing this all the time with people I speak to.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's great for the power planners, they you know, they're in a real selling position that they can name their prize, go to a firm, you know, any firm they want to.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're at a firm where they're slightly unhappy for any reason, they have so many negotiating tools at their disposal for that reason.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Jamie, you mentioned you're quite an entrepreneurial individual, and I'd like to hear what you think would be a good idea in respect to structuring a company to deal with that problem.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: So let's say, for example, there are power planners within a business and they are worth their weight and gold, they're a skill set within their own right, and they're vital and there is a power planner shortage.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: If you were running your own business, your own company and you were building processes and procedures and development plans, etc., because you wanted your business to grow, right?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: What's interesting is that some of the size I think the average size of a company in the UK for financial planning is around five people.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously things like development plans within those businesses haven't really been put into place.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it's quite it doesn't really happen a lot, you know.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: And power planners and administrators often get overlooked when it does come to career progression.
• 17:02
  unknown: Yeah.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um what do you think?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: What would you do?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: What what do you think your best process would be if it was your own business?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: How would you operate it from a career development or career process perspective?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I think um I'm always thinking about the team that I would want and the team that I'd want to build out around me.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, in my current role as an advisor, I I think who do I want to be the admin for me?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Who do I want to be the parapanner?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want the absolute best people that I can trust that will trust me and that we can have open conversations with.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because good communication at the end of the day is the key thing in in all three roles to make the the job work and make it work efficiently.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um and if you have that, you can increase your client numbers as a result.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think um a lot of firms focus too much on the AUM.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, what I'm seeing a lot of is you know the population are getting older.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of them are hitting retirement and taking money out.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're not just sitting on on their pots, it's not gonna grow forever.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have that view of just focusing on the AUM you've got, you're just going to lose it eventually, even if with market growth or whatever, is it's not gonna, that just isn't working.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: So from the term terms of building out um progression careers, yeah, you have to set out early on a proper plan and a path for people.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know, starting with the receptionist at the front desk, you know, if they if they're there and they've they've joined in their early 20s, they're probably not going to want to want to do that forever.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: If they do, then then fine.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can potentially expand on that and have a second receptionist eventually or a PA or something like that.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's all about the individual and what they want to do, building the career plans that really match them and match their aspirations.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you if you have a team already in place of, say, five people, knowing what those people that you've got currently want, meeting those objectives, you can then sort of put in place the plans around that more longer term.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if the power planner you're speaking to says, okay, I'd like to move into advising within the next five years, you can then start thinking, well, I need to speak to recruiters or or put myself out there in the market to employ a new power planner to replace that person within the next two to three years.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: How will that work?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, will I go straight to power planning or will I bring someone in as an admin administrator and train them up in administration first of all for a year or two years and then move them into junior power planning, let them have a bit of mentorship and then full-time power planning whilst the other person moves across.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: So there's you know, there's lots and lots of ways to do that.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think it's particularly difficult, if I'm being honest.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've used a couple of examples there, and I think you know, you could easily build a bigger team app from that, just quite a simple process.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: When do you did you ever sit when you know when you were at interview stages around administration power planning roles?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: Did they ever sit down with you and say, look, here you go, this is our career development plan.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: This is what you know it would look like when you come in at this level.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: And for you to progress and get, say, an increase in your basic salary and more responsibility, this is what this stage looks like.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: And if you were to progress past there, this is what this stage looks like.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: And we envision you doing that within your first 12 months to get to this level.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: And it might take another 12 months to get to this level.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: At this point, because you've been there for two years, what we'll then look at is talking to you about where you want your career to progress.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: So if early doors we establish that you want to become a financial planner and that's part of your process, then we can start to build and entwine opportunities to sit down with clients, learning development opportunities to then step into that role of becoming a financial planner, right?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: Did you ever have any of that during that interview stages?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: Or was it always kind of someone would just sit there, look at you, and look at your experience, job title, and think, shit, we need somebody who's got admin and a power planner title, and let's get them in the business and let's just just give them work to do and we won't even consider their own personal development.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think you got overlooked as a power planner?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I I guess yes and no.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's two um I guess two responses I could give.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think in my very first interview, my only experience was my degree.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think partly it was we're willing to take a punt on this person, but also this person's going to be a lot cheaper than if we go for an experience to have in person.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um but at the same time, there was a conversation around, you know, we've got two um power planners in the firm who are a similar HTU.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can sit and work with them in their room and learn from them, and you know, eventually you could move into their role.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So there was an initial career progression.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but my you know, I was always brought in to just help out the the backlog in, you know.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to give them this service because they did talk about a little bit of progression, but I think that was as far as it sort of went.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: As a parent, I I had an interview with a firm where I specifically said, I have a plan, I want to come here as a senior power planner, but I'm looking to progress into advising within the next 18 months or two years.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Yeah, great.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that was kind of it.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: So what would that look like?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a sort of we'll get back to you response.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then yeah.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um they didn't.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I mean I you know in terms of I say they didn't get back to me.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: I I took the job and there was no progression after that.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: So So how long were you in that how long were you in that job role for then?
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was there for two years, but it was there were conversations that we were having that made it quite apparent throughout that period that there was never a plan in place for me to move into advising career career career progression wasn't there, it was really I was there to be the techie guy.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I as I said earlier, um, about being too good at your job, which is not a I'm not being arrogant, but um you know, if you've been doing the role for so long, you have all the technical knowledge and background, you have a couple of extra qualifications, so I have the PTS qualifications, so I know about final salary transfers and um other defined benefits schemes and all that sort of stuff, it it can become a bit of a hindrance as well as a help.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, and they use that.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: They they they don't want you to progress.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: So that's very interesting.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: No, I I can I can understand that.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: And that's that's the that's the noise that we've heard over time, where people are asking to become they've in the back of their mind they want to become financial advisors, but A, they're too good at their job and there aren't enough power planners, therefore they get stuck in those roles.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: And that's often why people lose their staff, and that's why I'm sort of saying if businesses are putting in these personal development plans and they're outlining and listening to what the individual is looking for and they can align a progression plan, you know where you're going.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: There's a roadmap, and it kind of gives you some confidence as you're progressing through it, and also understanding that they are going to progress you into the role that you eventually want to become, which is which is a financial planner.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: You spent a long time in power planning, right?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: You did spend a long time in the power planning position.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: Let's just look at that because let's say somebody's in a situation at the moment, they are a power planner, or maybe they're a trainee, power planner, administrator looking to move into power planning, but their goal is to become an advisor.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: Do you reckon you'll be able to sort of outline what you think is enough experience in a power planner role to be able to step across into client-facing financial planning?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think there are two trains of thought on this.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: So some people would say you need to have a good few years under your belt as a power planner.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Some people would say there are people that are just not cut out to be powerplanning, but will make uh power planners, but will make excellent advisors go from the admin straight into training training advisor and and skip the power planning bit.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I can I can agree with both of those views.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think it does depend on the person.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think for me, I started power planning at about 22, 23.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think for me, in terms of where I was in my personal life and just growing up as a as a bit still being a very young boy and not a man, um, I would have been terrible as an advisor at that stage.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I was never one to be skip for power planning and and go to advising.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've had no sales background, so you know, there's that can still be an important aspect of the role.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: As much as I don't like to use that word, I hate it as an advisor.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it's important and and you have to learn and develop and hone those skills.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um because uh yeah, it it just wouldn't work for me that way.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I think yes, I did 10 years in power planning, I probably could have done half of that time and done five years, um but it very much depends on the person, and we I come back to using the word confidence quite a lot because I think I was so confident in in my role as a power planner, and I've I've always thought that I would make a good financial planner, but really taking that next step.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's I guess that's the difficult thing as well.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I guess I stayed too long in my first role, like I could have broadened my horizons and gone and tried out other firms in the area, and it, you know, no no disrespect to that firm because they were a chartered financial planning firm, they did everything absolutely right.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Great set of advisors there.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: But for me personally, in my position, I probably would have benefited from going elsewhere and just trying different things a bit earlier, not taking six years to try something different, and then the next firm that I was at, two years, although not a long time, was probably still too long to be with them for.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm only on my third firm, whereas I could have worked for four or five and got a taste of different things, and that might have sped up my progression into advising a bit quicker, I think.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think you're absolutely spot on.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we can sort of dissect that inround your own personal confidence and it's kind of the better the devil we we know.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: And we think also a lot of the time that if we do jump ship and go and work somewhere else, that it's gonna look bad on our CV, or it's gonna look back on, you know, okay, if I move around too much, then one day I won't be able to get a job.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, well, it doesn't quite work like that, you know, because if your CV shows that you've got experience in multiple different firms, that's massively valuable.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: And we don't really these days expect anybody to stay in a company for as long as they used to do, man and boy.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like it doesn't really happen anymore.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: So from a recruiter perspective, if I looked at a CV and someone spent, I don't know, let's say I said to someone, get into the profession, get yourself a job as an administrator.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: So they go in there and they tick that box of an administrator.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: They might get an RO exam under their belt, maybe RO1 or something like that, but they've got that valuable experience of being an administrator.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: At that point, I would say you are now marketable.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: You are marketable to a profession that is looking for good quality administrators, power planners, and financial advisors.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: There is a skill shortage.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: So you need to build confidence in the fact that you have a year's experience under your belt that is more than anybody else out there that doesn't have any experience.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore, your candidature in the market has gone up.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: So if you've gone into that role at 21,000 quid, right?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: That that year's worth of experience should be now getting you, generating you a salary of 27, 28k.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's why I positioned somebody as an administrator after a year's experience between 25 and 28k, dependent upon where they are.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm pretty damn sure you could push to the level of around 27, 28k after a year's worth of experience as an administrator, especially if during that period period you took it seriously and you got some qualifications under your belt.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: And at that stage then, you should be opening yourself up to the market.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: You should then be looking at the wider market and saying, what is my value in the wider market?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: Sam's telling me I'm worth 27, 28, so let me go and have a conversation with a few people.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: Especially now, they come to you.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: So if your LinkedIn profile is articulating and showing and selling who you are as a person, as a skill set, you should always be updating that LinkedIn profile to reflect your experience and to articulate online TV, isn't it?
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's your brand, your personal brand of who you are.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: Are you commenting?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: Are you liking things?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: Are you following companies within your local area that you might eventually want to go and work for who would be interested in hiring you?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: Doesn't mean you're being disloyal to the company that you work for.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: It just means that you have an understanding of what the market looks like, and you're not just taking what your boss is telling you as gospel.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: Because different companies are run by different people, different people have different skill sets, different people have different objectives and ambitions.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody who's 60 years old running a firm with five people in it hasn't got to have the same drive as somebody who's 35 years old running a team of five people in it.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: So it's about getting in front of those different people and building those relationships and making sure that you're being seen.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: And once you're in that position, you go out there and you do that, and you step into say a senior administrator position, then all of a sudden you've got, I want to move, but I want to be called a senior administrator.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to now start my progressing into power planning.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: So then you're looking for that senior administrator stroke power planner role, then aren't you?
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because A, you need the job title, but B, you need the experience.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: So at that point, you go out, you look at these firms, they invest in you, they look at you, has you got the skill set to bring them on as a train as a senior into a trainee power planner position?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: Perhaps they've got a power planning team in there already, they've got a development program in there already, they've got some people that can show you what it's been like, how they've gone through it, the years it took for them to do that.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: And at that stage, that's when you push yourself out there even further.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: Now, once you've got into that trainee advisor position, sorry, that trainee power planner position or senior administrator position, you can stay there for say, I don't know, however long it takes to hit what it is that you require to give you that level of experience.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, research capabilities, using cash flow forecasting.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: Perhaps it's saying to yourself, I want to get my level four qualification before I move on.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I would say that, make it that your level four qualification has to be achieved before you move on from that next role.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: But you've got a bit more experience in a different company.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: And there's nothing wrong with then going out at that point and keeping your options open.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: Talking around, speaking to people, because again, your candidature keeps going up.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: The more experience you get, the more your candidature keeps going up.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: Don't go along to meetings and waste people's time if you're not interested in joining and you're ready to go.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: But keep in the back pocket someone like a recruiter or someone who can give you a fair reflection of what the market looks like and what your value is within that marketplace.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: And that personally builds confidence because you know that you're a commodity that's of value.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: You're you're you're an employee that is wanted and needed, and it builds confidence.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like, great, now if I get my qualifications under my belt, I'm gonna hit this.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: Now, if you're if you've level four qualified and you've got a year and a half, two years worth of then para planning experience, you are in the realms of then 40, 45k basic salary.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: And that's how quickly you can progress up to a 40, 45k salary within financial planning at the moment, within three years.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: If you're on it and you're going out to companies and you're seeing the market and you're asking for that research and understanding what other people are doing and talking to others in a similar position to you.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: And that's just to get to that power planning stage, right?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it works exactly the same around the financial advice side, especially as your experience goes up and you start to generate clients and maybe you become chartered, your candidature continues to continue to continue to go up until you get to the point where you then might want to become a self-employed advisor.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: So where you sat in it for quite some time, and anybody listening to this, you did that because, by the sounds of it, of lack of confidence.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I think so.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh lack of confidence and loyalty to the firm that I was with.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um blind body is a big one.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, loyalty is a big one.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: Loyalty is a big one.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_02: To counter loyalty, it's about honesty.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: So you need to put on the table, and anybody listening who might have been in a similar situation right now, exactly what it is you want, what your goals are and what you are looking for.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: Those non-negotiables because this is what I want.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: And by the way, I have spoken to the wider market, and this is what the wider market is offering.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: I really like it here.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: I want to be loyal to you, but I want this in place.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then you become confident in your negotiation when it comes to your personal development plan and your one-to-one meetings.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: And those are the things I think people will often sit back and they wait for somebody to come to them and give them the opportunity.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: Where it's not about that, it's about grasping the opportunity and it's out there.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: And that to have confidence in going out and speaking to people and doing some market research because you'll learn a shitload in the process of doing it.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things that you have been a part of during that period of power planning, and probably came maybe at a bit of a later stage, was becoming a bit of a power planner mentor.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: With Sean Davies Cole and the PowerPlanner Club, isn't it?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm a member of the of the mentor team there.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: Fantastic.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us a little bit about what you do there and what you've kind of come across and how you're helping people there.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: So um we're a group of um mainly power planners, but there are some advisors and and sort of hybrid role power planner advisors that people come to us on and join the scheme as mentees that are looking for a number of different things.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Some are looking just simply for technical help.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Some people um I use a really good example.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: I have a uh mentee that is um completely outside of the profession, and he works at the airport as a baggage handler.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, nothing to do with this industry profession at all.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he came to me and said, I'm I want to be a paraphrum.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've done some research, I've looked into um the role and and what it entails.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I've built myself this uh weird and wacky Excel formula spreadsheet program that does all this stuff for uh for advisors, and I was like, Yeah, my mind was a little bit blown at that point.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um so with that, it's it's helping people, how do they get that first step through the door?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um understanding that what you what you read in the marketplace about um salaries and career sort of aspirations, progression might not necessarily always be quite correct.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not going to walk in as a no experienced paraplanner or junior paraplanner and earn 40 to 45k.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's just not going to happen.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so and having those conversations with people, sort of helping them by sort of explaining things they can do that you know might range from completely unpaid work experience.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's never too late to try that.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you've got the financial backing you know with your family, or you you can afford to do it, then that's always one way to try and get your foot through the door.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: Just dropping letters into local firms.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Here I am, people will snap you up.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: They they I don't know a single firm out there that wouldn't take on someone unpaid to give them a bit of you know, a bit of help.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: It might it might involve a bit of paperwork shredding and scanning and all the the boring nitty-gritty stuff.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, people will take you on and you can get yourself in that way.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: So things like that.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, other mentoring is is the word that we've used several times in this conversation already is confidence.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: So confidence building.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you hear stories from others that can really range in all sorts of weird and wacky ways of yes, loads of people are leaving the firm because they've not been treated correctly, or people don't get on, it's a bit of a weird atmosphere in the office, or there's a difficult advisor that I work with, but all the other advisors are great.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: How you get around and solve those sorts of problems.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, it's you know, it's a full-ranging um mentorship scheme, essentially, where we're there to try and help in any way we can using our skill sets.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: So uh Sean, when a when a mentee comes in, she will read what they're looking for and she will divvy them up as much as she can to the right person with the right sort of skill set.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess for me now that I'm advising, I'm I'm probably speaking more to mentees that are maybe looking into going into that role.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also um with my final salary scheme um DD transfer qualification, there might be advisors in that realm um that are looking for help with more technical matters.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's it's really quite a really wide-ranging thing.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: I find it absolutely fascinating.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I do it, it's a completely obviously unpaid, it's a volunteership scheme.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I heard about it and and offered to do it because I thought it would help my own development as a person getting in front of clients.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's not the same thing, but I am a relationship manager with with people, and this is the same thing.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm managing a relationship as a mentor, mentee.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it can only be a positive thing for both me and and for them.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I like to impart wisdom if I can.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, I feel like I have something to offer in that world.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: Fantastic.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: Did you join that as a mentor, or were you in there as a mentee?
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: Have you experienced both sides of it?
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: Only as a mentor for me.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it was something that I had considered.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think because it it has been going for a while, but um I only really came across it once I'd sort of properly moved into hybrid advice and power planning.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: So um it might have benefited me to go on as a mentee as well.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the guys on the team are all fantastic, really knowledgeable people, have all different sort of backgrounds from you know, simply from being up north to different places in the south and big firms to small firms, chartered, not chartered, all of that stuff, restricted, independent.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, I think if you make a good point, I probably could have um been a mentee as well as a mentor.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: But do you think looking back on it, it would have benefited you, do you think?
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: Would you have would if it was something there at the time?
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know it's relatively new, and you know, you've been you're a bit of a veteran really when it comes to administration power planning.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: You've been doing it for a long time.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: But if it if something was there then, which that which it wasn't really, um would you have joined it, do you think?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think it would have been beneficial for you to join?
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, yeah, 100%.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: I there were there were a few things.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the the power planting profession career was in its infancy when I when I started.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: There were a couple of firms I could name of outsourced power planners that were quite well known, quite well-known personalities that are still probably the most well-known personalities in that um arena.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they set up websites, so there were forums and a couple of other sort of things going on, which I guess is where it all really started from.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I used to use that forum very actively, and it's something that I still come back to with my mentees.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: I should recommend them to that forum um time after time.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Which for which forum is that?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: The um I forget what it's called now.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's called the Big Ten.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it used to be the Parapunas uh PowerWow.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: Powerwow.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it's now I think it's now the Big Ten.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a forum in there.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all sorts of different topics, so exam help from you know technical questions to uh job related things as well.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, really good.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_02: I think community often gets gets overlooked.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I think in the role of power planner administrator, where sometimes there are very few of them in the business.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and there it can, what I've heard, be quite isolating sometimes.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: So being able to connect with other power planners, other administrators, those that are going through a similar job role, but also possibly have the same gripes, the same worries, the same concerns, the same questions, things like career development, being able to turn your head left to the right in a community and have the confidence to ask somebody a question who's there to help is powerful, isn't it?
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because it gets you outside of your own personal thinking.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes our own personal thinking, we can put ourselves off, can't we?
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_02: We can stay in a role for too long.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_02: We can not have that conversation with our boss about career development or the the the interview where the job was promised to turn into a training financial advisor role.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: And has anybody else gone through that?
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_02: What did they do to get over that mental hurdle?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_02: Because when it's in our own head and we're doing it ourselves, we're never sometimes giving ourselves the best perspective.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um it can often stop us from progressing.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that give giving having the confidence to go into a community, not to feel like I'm gonna, you know, I'm the person here who knows less, but the fact that you're there to learn and eventually a community is built around people then helping each other.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: There's a big thing in that, isn't there?
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, having the confidence to help others builds confidence within yourself because more often than not, when you mentor somebody, and I've learned this myself from mentoring um some people around um personal issues.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_02: The more I explain to somebody a situation, a theory, or what I went through or how they can overcome it, the more it reinforces it in my mind.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I learn every single time by helping others, and it's a powerful, powerful tool to make you yourself feel good and improve your own personal well-being.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_02: And more often than not, when it's free, it means more.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_02: As in when you're giving up your time for free, it means more.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm very reluctant when it comes to mentoring people to charge them.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to charge somebody.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't I don't charge somebody up who charge somebody.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: If I've got knowledge and I've got power and I've got experience and I can pass that on to somebody else to improve their life, I think it's a crime that I would hold it again, hold it in myself.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: I should be giving it and passing it on.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_02: I have a duty of care and Responsibility to do that.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's why the Financial Planet Life podcast was built.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I have access to people like you who can honestly talk about what their career was like.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore, I should build a platform to share that and empower others to learn from peer-to-peer and hopefully encourage discussion and more people to have confidence in their careers, right?
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's what it that's what it's all about.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's really, really good.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: So how can someone join this PowerPlanner Club if they were thinking about joining?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a website.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think it is simply the powerplannerclub.co.uk.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, Google it, it comes up.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a bit about all of the different mentors in the scheme at the moment, a little bio about us, um, our histories and how we got to where we are, and a little bit about um what's involved in the process.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: Usually when people sign up, it's just a simple there's a simple questionnaire to do about what you're looking for and and um how we can help you essentially.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then prior to being matched up with somebody, it's all done through Calendarly.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we ask people to use their initiative and book the meetings with us so we won't actively go out to those people and say, hi, I'm I'm your new mentor, book in with us.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's the start of that process is for them to come to us and to show that they really want to be a part of that scheme and team.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then after that, we usually sort of recommend um to start off with that we have an hour-long conversation to discuss everything and then repeat that after say a month or two months, and then maybe after that it might become less um frequent meetings once they're sort of bedded in.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, there's there's a great opportunity for people if they are out there listening to uh to join up as as mentees.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to put more pressure onto us because I know we've had a huge number of uh mentees apply recently, and um we're still looking for more mentors as well, actually.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_02: So um well I'm quite excited about I like I like Sean Davies Cole.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_02: She's um local to me, and I've met her a few times, and we've been wanting to work together in some capacity for a while because obviously we're both really kind of she's a power planner, outsource power planner, running her own company, but also trying to be a mentor.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_02: I run a recruitment business, marketing business, and I'm trying to do mentoring and training and development.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I've partnered now with next gen planners, which makes it a really obvious choice to do that because they're all about the next generation of advisors.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I've partnered with them to create an academy, a financial advice academy, not just to train financial advisors, but administrators, power planners, mortgage advisors, and financial advisors and take them through the qualification processes, but also at the same time the soft skills and development and training required.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_02: And within that community, I would like a team of mentors to lean into.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_02: And an obvious one would be Sean Davies Cole because of the access she also has to her own experience around power planning, but also the PowerPlanner Club, um, bringing people up through the mentorship program in there to then help with the Financial Planner Life Academy as well, which is directly linked to NextGen Planners, and Sean Davies Cole has got a great relationship with Adam, who owns it.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's really sort of a symbiotic.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm really excited about building those partnerships with those forward-thinking, like-minded people to try to then support and help and grow the mentorship program because I can then guide people across the PowerPlanner, the PowerPlanner Club, to become mentors because I suspect you probably need more mentors, right?
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_02: You need more people in there helping.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, yeah.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: We have uh fantastic uh WhatsApp groups that you know once a week men um Sean will come in and say, Hi guys, we've got X number of mentees to allocate this week.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: Put your hand up if you're willing to take one on.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: And um it's the the numbers are going up again.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: We we had a sort of quieter period since I joined, um, but now it's it's sort of, yeah, we're we're looking, I think, for more mentors as well.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, it's it's always developing.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I know that Sean has a good relationship with the guys at NextGen.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um me being based much further south, I haven't really used the the NextGen resources as much as I perhaps should have done in the past.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: My one of my colleagues used to use it extensively when it first set up, and you know, that is a fantastic scheme.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's gone from strength to strength as far as I can see, um, set up by really good guys.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's all really positive.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's great for the profession now that it's there to sort of tap into as a younger advisor, power planner, administrator.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: I highly recommend it.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_02: Highly recommend to anybody listening.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if you are looking to progress your training in development, is to look up NextGen Planners, you know, definitely loads and loads of content within their videos and um qualified trainers, etc.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_02: Loads of soft skills training within there and a great community of like-minded individuals that you can speak to to bank off of and network with.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we were invited along to the award ceremony last week with NextGen Planners, and we won um we won the award for the best podcast.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but there was loads of people there.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_02: It was a fantastic community.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's very laid back and chilled.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's not your typical kind of stuffy kind of local approach to financial advice, and that's what I love about it.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_02: So really pleased to be working with them and anybody looking to progress and better themselves, I think is well worth checking out that community.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_02: So you moved from power planning, you've gone into financial advice now.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_02: What's it like working as a financial advisor?
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: How have you found it?
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's very full steam, very uh, you know, it there it's it's a it's a quick learning curve.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think doing it as a hybrid role was great and probably a bit too much because you know the the power planners are always busy, advisors are always busy, there's there's always stuff going on, and managing very different skill sets at the same time, workload, it can be quite the challenge.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a sigh of relief to move across into advising full-time and and to do it.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I was I was given a rather large bank of clients that were needing reviews quite quickly and and sort of told to sort of run with it and off you go, um which is all all fine, all great, um, because I'm not going to complain about g being given clients at all, but um just a very interesting the the very first sort of handful of clients that I took on to see were um challenging to say the least.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: So probably the ones that you get once in every blue moon type clients that aren't necessarily the clients that you'd want to have an enduring relationship with for longer period.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you know, I I've learned a lot just from those that the first sort of conversations that I had with people about how to present and how all sorts of other things, you know, that you do learn with your training as a sort of when you're going through sign-off and everything else, but until you're there and live in front of real clients, it's um it's not real.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm still learning all the time.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as I said, I've been doing it full-time for less than a year, um, it'll be a year in August.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: So um for me, my learning should never stop.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I want something I haven't done personally is gone to charter status, which you know, considering I've been doing this for over 10 years, I should have done a long, long time ago.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it's a tip that I'd give to anyone listening is that when you get to diploma, if your idea is to move to chartered eventually, don't stop at diploma, just plow straight through.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: I had a I did um R04 as my last exam to get qualified diploma level.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: I then went and did an AF7 straight away in the first cohort, so I that's when I did my um advanced uh pensions exam.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: I then stopped, and it's now been I think uh about six or seven years since my last uh um exam, which is a long time to get out of that and get back into it.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um especially when I left university and said to myself, I'm never doing another exam ever again, which I just say um, you know, it so back onto the you know advising role myself, it's yeah, hugely challenging, but I'm absolutely loving it.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: I I you know I can't wait to go into work every day and and get my meetings booked in.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: There are things that that can be quite challenging just from a um sort of current situation at the business that I'm in, you know.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: As it I said, it's there's been lots of changes going on.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're looking to continuously grow and expand, but that has meant that there are advisors retiring and clients are being sort of handed around.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um there was a someone that left last year, so when they left, I was suddenly given more clients to deal with.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, so there's there are things like that that do happen, and you know, that's just part of life at the end of the day.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still very confident in the direction that the business is going and I want to be part of that direction and that growth.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um doesn't necessarily mean that I will stay at that firm forever.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, you know, loyalty in the past was something that was definitely my downfall.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think you you mentioned the the salary figures there for uh administrators.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think you would be absolutely shocked if I told you what I was learning around that time.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you'd be even more shocked if I told you what I was on when I qualified with my diploma.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um if I said low 20s, I wouldn't be wrong.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: So this is, and this could be one of the problems.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_02: This is some of sometimes the problems that we have is that we feel too loyal to the company we're working for, yet we aren't getting what we've what we're worth, what our value is.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_02: And that what we have to remember is we've exchanged a our life, we've exchanged the ti our time, right?
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_02: We've given up our time for money, we've exchanged a year of our life that we'll never get back.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_02: And you but we have to sit and put a value on that, and we have to be confidently putting a value on it.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because the person who employs you puts a value on it.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the person who employs you for less than what the market value is enjoys that because they're making a saving.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_02: So for them, it's about saving and cutting money, right?
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_02: For you, for the person who sat in that role as an administrator or a power planner or a financial advisor in any job role, you have to think, right, if I'm employed, they're pa they're paying me money to give up my life, to give up my time for them.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_02: And it has to be fair.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_02: And there is this idea that if we don't look at it that we're going to lose our job or that we're disruptive.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_02: And there's an it sets off an anxiety and a worry in us.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'll just carry on, I'll just carry on as normal and it will all sort itself out later on down the line.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's minimizing that horrible conversation that you want to have with them about money.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_02: But if you don't have that conversation, things will never change.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when people come into I'm an owner of a business, I've got 20 odd people who work for me.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_02: And we're always having to play around, always having to look and review what our salary package looks like, what our benefits package looks like.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_02: We've just moved it uh onto nine-day fortnight, so every other week week it's a four-day week.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_02: And the idea is to move into four into four-day work weeks.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_02: And that's to kind of give we've got all these mental health benefits we get, you know, award, you know, like um events and all these things we spend money on in recruitment to kind of be relevant, you know, and also at the same time to make sure that they've got a salary that's fair for the level of work that they have to do.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_02: But we do it also to ensure that there is no hiding place.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, you want all of this, we'll give you it, but we expect this back.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it actually kind of makes better employees out of them.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_02: And the ones that don't want it and take the piss, we can get we can manage them out of the business or they can leave because we won't accept it because we have on the table a very good package in comparison to what's out there.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_02: So it's really important because as a company I'm responsible for that, because I can lose my staff.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the staff are the most vital part of my business.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_02: Without a staff, my business doesn't exist.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_02: So it's important that I do that.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it's important that is as an employee, you feedback to your company, you feed back to your manager based on your research that you've done, because no one's gonna do it for you, where you sit within the market and what your value is and what you are expecting as a return.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_02: Whether that's career progression, I don't mind being on 21k basic as long as I'm gonna get trained in this, this, and this over the next year.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_02: Because actually, if I'm trained in this, this, this, and this, and all of a sudden I'm a trainee power planner, then in the back of your mind, you're also thinking I'm now even more marketable.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore, in a year, I might be able to get a six, six, seven, eight grand pay rise.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_02: So you might get it in from that perspective, but burying the head in the sand and avoiding those conversations and not doing it, it really stifles your career progression.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I want people to understand as well is don't be put off by this idea that having a CV looks jumpy, it's bad.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_02: It makes no difference, especially within financial planning.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_02: What people look for is experience.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think it can just, you know, people that read the CVs might say, oh, they've they've been at a lot of firms, but then it's a good conversation piece that then you just get asked about it.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, you know, what was your experience with these firms like?
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: And often by being with more firms, you're going to have experience of independent.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: You might have a bit of a uh restricted experience, you might have a bit with a small firm or a one-man band or a really large firm.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I completely agree.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: It it it sort of mirrors in in your world, you know, what you're talking about with mental health benefits and packages in place that are really good for uh for the employees.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think in in our world, we're we're starting to think of that more as well.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think certainly the the guys I speak to that are of the younger generation that they are wanting those sorts of benefits to be included.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're not just expecting a standard four times deaf and service and you know, standard holiday package and and salary.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_00: It it's the other stuff that goes around it and what comes with it is is really, really important now.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's funny actually, because you don't see a great deal of conversation around the benefits packages within financial planning.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_02: They're always very, very basic.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, flexible workings, like, oh my god, really?
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna offer flexible working.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, power planner working from home.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no, no.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, how many companies could grow their power planning team if they just took on remote power planners?
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know, offered a decent salary and took on remote power planners because there were so many power planners, they'd be like, oh my god, I would love to be remote, you know, or at least have like two days in, three days in you know, two days in the office, three days from home.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, some of the more forward-thinking companies are now doing that and expressing that, but uh it's it's as a profession, it's quite behind.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's years behind.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's um, you know, working from home during COVID was a necessity, not a like it was like this is a luxury you've you've and and then I hear stories of advisors basically using that as oh, you've had two years at home, you don't need to be at home any longer, you need to be back in the office, and we need bums on seats.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_00: And there are the advisors that have the ego problem that bums on seats means prestige or something really, really random like that.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_00: And when a client comes into the office, they want to see all these tons and tons of faces sat around at their desk working.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_00: But on the flip side, it's you know, a lot of advisors are on the road four days a week and might only come to the office once a week.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if they're having their one day a week in the office and they need to speak to their team, then let the person be in the office that one day a week, and that's that's it.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't need to be them in the week in you know, for the whole week.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I I um you know my partner, for example, she's she's got a very um flexible company.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_00: So she works from home three days a week, she's only in the office two days a week.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um so there are firms out there that are more progressive, definitely, but again, that's from doing your market research and finding those firms, not staying in necessarily in the same place, you know.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly that.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, one of these things, one of the things I'm gonna take away from this conversation today, because as we draw it to an end, I think it's about recognizing your relevance, recognizing your experience, building confidence by talking to others, whether that's getting into the PowerPlanner Club, turning your head to the left or right and asking those questions that keep going around in your head.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_02: If you're in a company and you're on a lower salary and you feel like it's lower, ask what other people are on, connect with those people and ask those questions, ask what their level of experience is for the level of salary, ask what their benefits package are.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: Do they work flexible hours?
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_02: Ask what it's like working with their financial advisor.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_02: Do they put a lot of pressure on them?
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_02: What does their workload look like up against what your work like load looks like?
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_02: And try to kind of establish what's a medium, what's the what's the medium across that business for the role that you're in, and really try to kind of gain that understanding.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not a it's not a tricky thing to find.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_02: You will find it, you know, but you've got to have that confidence to go out and find it.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, you're just gonna sit in your shit and think about it.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_02: And if you become resentful in that place, which is easily done, especially around money and career progression, happens to me now, you know, and I run my own business.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_02: Trust me on that one, you know.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um then you can often sit in a really horrible place and it's not going to benefit you when actually when you let the ego drop and you think, you know what, I want to speak to somebody here, I need to ask for some perspective.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_02: The relief that you feel is insane.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then you go, oh God, I'm not alone, therefore let me go and start moving forward.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then you start moving forward, and life becomes a lot better because you become more valuable, more in control, but you know what your self-worth is, therefore your self-esteem goes up.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_02: So you start to feel better about yourself, and therefore you start to progress.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: The more you feel better about yourself, the more your self-esteem goes up, the better your career becomes, the more development opportunities, the more you back yourself.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_02: The more you kind of be are continually a worker of other people.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's fine to be a worker of somebody else, it's fine to be employed by somebody.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_02: Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that, but be an independent mind and treat yourself as a business, even if you're employed, that you are a valuable tool.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's a really good point.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know, it's almost encouraged here that although the change is essentially what happened with us uh a couple of years ago is that we had pro equity investment, and at the time the advisors were mainly self-employed in their own business units, and then they were brought into one unit and made employed.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, in my position, I was always going to move into an employed role.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_00: But with that said, the advisors were not used to being employed advisors, they were still basically treating their client banks as their own business units just under a different umbrella.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's almost been encouraged here that we are still to treat ourselves as almost a self-employed business unit.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_00: And although we're being given clients that are owned by the company, there is around that you have to, like you say, be your own person and um and work from that sort of position.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I do feel I do treat myself almost as if a I own my own business in in the sort of realm that I um control and and my my sphere.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_00: And going back to your other point about being um unhappy with your package, I you know, I see this all the time with with people that I work with in various roles, and they become, like you say, they become resentful of that, but they don't do anything about it, and that's the worst thing that they can do.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then what happens is someone else will come in and they'll somehow find out what that person that is doing the exactly the same role as them is is on, and they'll find out that person's any more than them, and they'll be like, Well, why is that person any more than me?
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then they they stew and they just sit and get even more resentful.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then I say to them, but you need to do something about it.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's a number of things you can do about it.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um even in larger firms, you know, there will be HR people, there'll be managers that you can talk to, colleagues, friends, family.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_00: There there's always there are always options for people, and certainly in this profession, there are more options than many many, many other professions because of the sort of lack of young people coming in and the lack of administrators, the lack of power planners.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_02: Back your experience.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's where your confidence comes from.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_02: Gain your experience, give it a hundred and ten percent, invest in yourself, become marketable, and you will your candidature goes up.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_02: Simple as that.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_02: Back yourself, invest in yourself, and your candidature will become more valuable.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it will only and the thing is at the moment, it will only be more valuable.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's why it's an exciting time to come into financial planning, right?
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_02: There's a distinct lack of advisors that are exiting the industry.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_02: You're already experiencing the succession planning where where there's client books to be be had.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you don't have to go straight into being a hunter, you can start working on existing client books, right?
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_02: So that's going to grow more.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_02: So the opportunity for trainee advisors is going to be higher because of the lack of advisors, they need new advisors.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_02: So those coming into the profession without experience can step into those roles quite quickly.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_02: But there is the administrative power planner route that was never really there before, and that's growing within its own right.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_02: So there's that huge level of experience you can gain from that.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_02: And there is zero, nothing wrong with being going down admin admin power if you end up wanting to be a financial advisor because it teaches you so, so much.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it might not pay you as much, but no trainee role does.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_02: No beginning ever pays you more, and you have to suck it up and accept it as whether or not you're, you know, changing career or you're starting out afresh, you know, and you're you do you're going straight from university or straight from school or whatever it might well be.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_02: Just take that opportunity, soak it all up and invest in yourself, do the qualifications.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_02: No one's gonna do it for you.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_02: The more you do, the more you invest, the more you learn, the better you become, the more marketable you are, and I guarantee you you will progress.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_02: No one's gonna spoon feed you, you've got to do it yourself.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_02: And that's a big, big, big thing here.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_02: So brilliant.
• 1:05:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, this one, thanks so much for your time today.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_02: I really, really appreciate it.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and um, I think people listening to this will take that, I think, what we've just sort of summarized with at the end there.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what they're interesting conversations, definitely.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's an interesting conversation around, and I think we are in control of our careers.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_02: We are in control of our career progression, and confidence is directly linked to that.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_02: Fantastic.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for joining me today.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, thanks for having me on.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_00: Cheers.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_02: Cheers.