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Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude when Building an IFA Practice · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Today's guest on the Financial Planner Life podcast is Freddie Winter from Gratitude Financial Planning.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: He is a chartered financial planner.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: He takes us on a career journey starting at Coots on the graduate scheme.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: He goes into great detail about what he learnt on that scheme and also some advice about how you can get yourself on one also.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: We go on a career journey through power planning into employed financial advice, finally ending up on running his own directly authorized financial planning firm, Gratitude Financial Planning.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And he talks about the process of going directly authorized and some of the things he might have done differently.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: We hyper focus on social media.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about podcasting and we also talk about some of the ideas that I think financial planners should implement to tackle the B2B market as well as the C2C market.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you enjoyed the episode.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Freddie, thank you so much for joining me today.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very grateful, which is fitting because your company name is Gratitude Financial Planning.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that was what really caught my eye in the beginning.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a massive fan of an attitude of gratitude.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: So to meet somebody who's named their company Gratitude, you're right on the same path as me, mate.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: So great stuff.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Look really, really pleased to have you here today to learn about you and your career within financial planning.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, first off, Freddie, how are you, mate?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm great, thank you, Sam.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me on, by the way.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've been following the podcast for quite a while.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's actually quite a privilege to come on and and share my story and help other people out like they've helped me.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, good to be here.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic, and thank you for supporting the show.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate that.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, when I first set it up, it was all about creating that window into the profession.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: For those that don't really have a good understanding of really what a career looks like within financial planning, what are the entry-level points?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: What are the types of job roles within financial planning?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And as it's developed since um, you know, it's changed the rules have changed around RDR, it is becoming a profession.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: And there are multiple different jobs and different routes within it that somebody can take.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: And um just a bit of a side note.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Just a side note before we start, I'm bringing out the Financial Planner Life Academy.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: So that's coming out in September, where we take people from admin, power planning, mortgage advice, financial advice.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: We train coaching around their qualifications and the soft scores required in those types of positions, but also give them that thing that's been missing, which is that team of people, the financial plan of life, giving them careers advice.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: So the podcast has allowed me to do that.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: So happy days.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, enough about me.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh let's move, let's move, let's move on to, let's move on to you.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Freddie, I'd love to kick things off around career how you got into the profession.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, how did you end up getting into your financial services and then eventually into the financial planning profession?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'd probably say if there is a standard route, mine's probably more of the standard route into it.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got uh a degree in economics, so lends itself to finance uh uh in many ways.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um out of university, got uh on the graduate scheme at Coops.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So did the three-year graduate scheme there, which was amazing in terms of seeing all the different areas you can do in personal finance.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: So there was there was mortgages, there was protection, there was a pension specialist role that I did, the investments, and across a three-year period, you're pretty much doing it all.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Probably sounds a bit like a bit of an academy in itself.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then you pick what you want to specialize in and you roll off from there.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it was almost like have a taste and see what you're good at, see what you like, and progress from there.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, financial planning hit more of the spots, probably from all the technical side of things and seeing the value it could add with people, um, more so than the other areas.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where I niche down, so to speak.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the beginning, and then it it kind of rolled on from there, just as part of Cute's canning company.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Can I stop you there?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because I've had a few people recently um talking about graduate roles and entry-level positions around things like placements, internships, and in the financial planning profession itself, specifically, because firms aren't really of a size where they can take those people on.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: I did an article around it recently, actually, because I've had a couple of youngsters that have come on that actually found an internship and and and it's really, really and it's really, really helped them.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, how did you get that COOPS, that, that, that, that, you know, that graduate role at Coots then?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because so many people must have applied for that.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, um, I don't I don't know if there's any particular particular reason.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh got the got the grades, got went to a good university, um, and did well on the application process.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think from their perspective as well, because of the type of role, I think they look for people who are good communicators and the people you're just gonna generally get on well with, as well as the necessary the the key academic skills.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um that was certainly part of their um interview days, is actually more communication, mock meetings, that sort of stuff.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and just general chats, I think that's undervalued when it comes to actually the interview process, because I think they are looking for people that are going to get on with people.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So um if people are going down those routes and are successful at getting to interviews, definitely think about showing and demonstrating your communication skills rather than just what you know in your intellect, definitely.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: So you can't ride off the back of your academic achievements, for example, they are starting to look at those personality traits that will develop really sound relationships, but also the personality traits and skill set that makes you a team player, somebody who can very quickly adapt to an already established team and take direction well, perhaps uh give feedback well themselves, look at areas where they can solve problems.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: So don't just think about look, I've got a degree, that means I'm obviously capable.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's what more can I bring to the table?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: And if you feel like maybe in that area of your life you need a bit of work, then maybe start to think about getting some training, reading some books, looking at areas where you can improve on that side of yourself.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh one of the things that I've underappreciated it is particularly communication skills with this, with this, with this in this profession, actually working on that and being able to demonstrate that and yeah, reading books and learning how how you can improve that sort of thing will definitely help you get decent roles and and help you progress in the profession.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Is it whilst we're at this point, and if someone is at this stage in their journey, is there anything that you can recommend to them right now to get stuck into um to actually give them a sort of leg up or a helping hand when it comes to uh those interviews at those graduate schemes or uh their first interview at a financial planning job?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Going back some now.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um or anything you've done now, anything you've read recently that you wish you read back then, for instance?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um I am the Daniel Priestley stuff is great in terms of building up a network and helping you pitch and and talk about and communicate what you do.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Really read a lot of his stuff recently, which would have been great probably 10 years ago in terms of building up a brand and being able to share that and demonstrate that succinctly.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think what else?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've got a bookshelf up here, but I'm not sure.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I I did yeah, I did also read stuff about kind of the sales stuff, like the the I don't know what the book is, but the how to persuade and influence people.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that book, um that was something I read.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that's can't that's Carnegie, that's um how to win friends and influence people.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's the one.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Dale Carnegie.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's a classic.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: That is a classic, and that's a really good book that people should read because it hasn't really changed.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's a really good one to read.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the principles do, yeah, they last, don't they?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like people don't change too much, it's just what they do that changes slightly.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think anything on that sort of communication side will serve you well if you get yourself through the door and in front of people uh at interview.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think the Daniel Priestley one's a really great shout.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's one that I talk about all the time is key person of influence, was the one that I felt was really good.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it gives you that systematic approach to how to become a key person and influence uh within a specific specific sector or professionalism or field.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I would just highly recommend anybody to read that because I'm a I'm a big lover of process.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like if there's a system or if something I can follow, um, and following on from that as well, if we're gonna get into the book side of things, things like atomic habits, atomic habits, James Clear.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was a game-changing book for me because it teaches you about the fact that we are just running on habits, right?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then we can build those habits, put them into our subconscious, and how you build and break habits is just a systematic approach of you know, consistency.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you know, the earlier you you realize that you are just operating in that way, the more it becomes such an amazing tool to build good habits and recognize how to break habits.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I think um yeah, we're getting pretty early tools.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would just say something I've underappreciated until probably like four or five years ago is reading in general.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like literally, there's so much good stuff out there that if I'd consumed 10, 15 years ago at the start of my career, it would have been amazing.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I just didn't see the value in it.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and the most of the people you who who you see and you admire are incredibly well read.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hannah read some some great books that have helped them get to where they are.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So just yeah, don't underestimate the br uh the value of reading lots of good, like self-help books are great.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting as well, isn't it?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think when and we're sort of jumping forward a little bit, but I think it's a good time to do it, is that when somebody thinks I can become a financial planner, I'm gonna learn everything I need to know about financial planning from my CII qualifications or from the textbooks.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Freddie, you tell me, is there any reality in that thought?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um uh it will obviously it will help you and it'll give you the technical knowledge, but then in terms of performing that uh when you need to and and doing the role, uh it's there's there's loads more to it.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Which is part of why it's such a great profession, that you can use technical knowledge and and lots of other skills uh and and as part as part of your job.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, there's a there's a lot more to it.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And again, starting out, you feel like you need to consume all the technical knowledge and read all those textbooks.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and you probably neglect the other skills um that will actually probably help you climb the career ladder quicker uh than actually the technical skills, I think.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think that right there is gold for anybody listening that's starting out is that not only do you read your technical book that is very technical and it is very useful, but you're not going to remember it all when it comes to the actual sitting down in front of a client or the approach to winning new business or going out and building relationships, influencing introducers to use your services, perhaps your marketing, how you present yourself.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, having those, having a break from the textbook and actually reading something that gives you some practical skills that you can also practice, I think is hugely valuable.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it's an area in the financial planning training journey which is completely underrated.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, what you can find is lots of people get the qualifications.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh up there, you know, all of a sudden I'm a financial advisor, and it's like, and they're like, hang on, I this is nothing compared to what I learned in the book.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a that's a really great thing to say, and I think it's an area that people need to focus on is that development, that personal development.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: But people that come from other professions, people that come across, say, from sales or marketing, you know, a background for a few years, maybe they're 30 years old and they've worked in sales for the last 50 years, when they transition across into financial planning, because they've got lived experience in that area, maybe they've worked towards targets, they've sold things, they've done face-to-face over Zoom, all that kind of thing.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Recruitment's one of those fantastic professions that does everything.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: So actually, I've recently spoken to a recruitment consultant that's become a financial advisor.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the transition was really, really easy because that resilience that you need in recruitment, the thinking on your feet, spinning multiple plates, massively transferable.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: So anybody listening who's thinking, do you know what?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Can I transfer my skills from the company that I'm in at the moment or the career that I'm in?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you've got them, it'll fit bloody lovely into financial planning role.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't have it, you're gonna have to do some studying on that as well as your qualifications, right?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think if you've not got either, it's gonna be a hard task for you.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if you've got if you've got one or the other, then yeah, it's making making that transition.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a yeah, it will be a case of building on the knowledge and getting in front of people and and learning as you go.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's a there is a lot to learn from actually being in client meetings, speaking to clients, uh, and understanding the nuances between different people because all clients are different, right?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they all have different approaches to how they want their money managing and what they think about money.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: So there's lots of those things to pick up along the way, but there's certainly lots of transferable skills that you can bring into it, which is which is no bad thing.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to your career then.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to the fact you were at Coots, you recognized within that three-year journey that you identified financial planning as an area or financial advice as an area of interest to you.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, was that to do more with the client-facing side, the solving of problems?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: What was it about financial planning that was attractive?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Probably the second one to begin with, actually.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was probably a bit um like wary of client facing.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was probably a bit nervous on that side of things.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I actually was the sort of person who liked the problem solving element, like the technical side of things, could really get my teeth into that uh as a strength, and then wanted to build on the client side as my confidence grew.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, it was definitely more I like the problem solving element, always have uh with lots of other things as well.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that's why I progressed with that side.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Fabulous.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: So you finished the graduate program, you established that was what you wanted to do.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: What's next?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: So finished that, and then I actually started out as a as a financial planner, but got more guided towards protection, a protection sales role, a primarily protection specialist, um, which I didn't really want to do, if I'm honest.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I went along with it, gave it a try, um, but it it wasn't it wasn't an area that I wanted to specialise in.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was too narrow.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I wanted the broader financial planning side of things and the longer-term relationships that I'd had and seen in earlier parts of the graduate scheme.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the trigger, along with family circumstances, to uh leave Coutte and move back to Leicestershire, which is where I'm from, uh, and take the career on from there.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: When the graduate scheme came to an end and I'd specialized in the power planning, financial planning area, I was I was guided down a route of specializing in protection, um which if I'm honest, it wasn't the exact role I wanted to do.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'd I'd seen the full power planning uh role and the full financial planning role, and that was more the area I wanted to go down.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I I tried that for a bit um and then decided, along with family reasons and circumstances, to um leave Coots and move back out of London to Leicestershire, which is where I'm from, uh, and yeah, regress my career from there.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: So very interesting then.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: You you established that you understood that you like the financial planning side, the power planning side was something of interest to you.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: There are obviously personal reasons around leaving London as well.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: I could understand that.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: If you Ashby Delazouche is where you're from, right?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's not it's not it's not London, right?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: But you either kind of like can stay in London or you want to move back to your home or to an area that's more of a familiar environment for you where you want to live.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Did you do whilst you were at Coots though, like I'm just interested in to understand when you started your financial planning qualifications?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Did you do them at Coots?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Did you do them when was that?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, as part of the Coots graduate scheme, they put you on a plan of qualifications.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I did all the investment advice diploma through the CISI, and then I did the level six, which is the private client and investment management certificate, I think it is.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um I did that there, that was their that was their pro program to get you to level six.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, meanwhile, because I'd specialized in financial planning, I was also doing the CII courses as well, um, and claiming the credits for whatever qualifications from the IAD that that I could to make that quicker.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I was doing kind of both in tandem.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a lot of study going on uh at that at that point in my life.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's a huge amount of work and stuff going on.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've got some questions around the CISI and the CII, but maybe we'll save that for a bit further on down the line.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Protection obviously can be a really interesting area for somebody to get into.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you do get people that are standalone protection advisors, but also protection is part of the financial planning process, isn't it?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: You do look at how you how you're gonna protect yourself and your family if something was to happen or something to occur.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: So as a financial planner, you're you're gonna be talking about protection, it's part of the actual journey.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're a standalone protection advisor and you're in your box and that's your lane, that wasn't for you.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's also like what I've noticed as well is that because become a protection advisor, you don't you don't need to be level four qualified, right?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you just have some of the which I can't remember which qualification it I for.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't think you need the full, you don't need the full set, I don't think, but it might have changed since since then.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: But uh you don't you definitely don't need the full set.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: So it can be again an area where someone can gain confidence in getting in front of clients, and often it can be part of a trainee financial planner's journey to just be doing protection.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Once they got you qualified to be able to give protection advice, you spot on and that and that was exactly their thinking.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: So when when they were suggesting that I go into this role, they were suggesting that with a view to me getting experience, getting in front of clients, uh, talking about a topic that I knew a lot about, uh, and using that as a springboard, potentially then probably to go further out and do and do the full piece.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: But they did see that as definitely a way of me building up my confidence um by just doing something more niche um as opposed to trying to do the lot, I think was there was their view um at the time, which I totally get.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: I totally get.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: So you left Coots then and you went back to Ashby Delazus.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um what then?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: So then I then specialised back into a power planning role at um at Cooper Parry Wealth, which is a big wealth management firm in the Midlands.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that that was quite eye-opening, actually, because that was probably where I first properly like fell in love with financial planning there.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because I it was them they did it very differently to the way Coops did it.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Coops was still very product driven, everyone get put everyone in the next Coops investment or Coop's uh investment portfolio.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas uh there it was much more the holistic financial planning, cash flow, uh review everything across their their financial life, which I hadn't seen before.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'd only really just been specializing in a pension problem or a client that just wants investments returns of X but doesn't want to take the risk of Y.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Those sort of things.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas now it was much more, okay, how do we help you plan to do the things you want to do in your life?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Which was like, wow, that was like a big moment for me.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Go, well, that now there's some serious purpose in this.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I hadn't felt that before.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think previously I was in the role because I was good at it, it suited my skill set.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now it was actually, I'm actually really enjoying this and I actually get a lot out of this.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, helping, helping people like know that they can retire, or I've seen clients who were crying because they've been a victim of fraud, and you can tell them no, they're still all right, you're still gonna be absolutely fine.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Those sort of things, and be able to tell them people that with confidence and help them live the life they want was yeah, that was awesome.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that that was probably the turning point was like, this is what I want to do.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and really set a like set fire in the mic.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that's you know, what you're describing there with Coots is more of a restricted proposition, right?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you're looking at this restricted proposition, it's they've got their own products, their own solutions, and you're kind of talking about those, and that's it.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: When it comes to actually sitting down with somebody and giving them a full financial plan, cash flow forecasting, using the tools to do so, talking about all the different eventualities in life that might come up and trying to build a plan around their future that is also connected to the human nature, isn't it?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's connected to how we think, the psychology of how what we think about money, what we think about ourselves, what we think about our family and our future and our jobs when we think we should retire, if we can, if we can't, what our money beliefs actually are and are they true?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the beautiful thing about financial planning, isn't it?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: It opens you up to that conversation.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, it's very way more interesting.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Way more interesting.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: Cooper Parry Wealth are IFA as well, aren't they?
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: So you've gone from restricted then into IFA world, haven't you, as well?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: So completely.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the beautiful thing as well.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then people need to understand that if you're going to go down the route, nothing wrong with going down a restricted route, right?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's a good route in, it's great to be qualified in that way, and you can have a massively successful career within it.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and there's nothing to say you can't do the full financial planning within a restricted model either.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's totally fine.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Coops just weren't doing that at the time.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they're doing it now, but they they weren't there at the time.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, because the financial planning side's non-regulated.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't even have to have qualifications to actually build a financial plan for somebody.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's only when it comes to the actual sales of the products themselves, or you recommend them, that you must be level four qualified, registered to the FCA to be able to give that um actual selection of investment advice, for instance.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: But the actual financial plans, there's plenty of people out there, and this is going to be a growing area of financial planning, is non-regulated financial planners just doing the financial plan piece and the coaching element side of it.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, very, very interesting that.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you can do that in a restricted proposition.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's whether or not the restrictive proposition do that, right?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas IFAs were ten IFAs tended to be a bit more earlier adopters of the financial planning lifestyle.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I think that's where it started, yes.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: But then again, you could there'll be this the same the other way.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: There'll be the IFAs out there that again still don't do financial planning and and just sell or advise on very particular.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Particular pension products or investment products.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it it's it's both ways.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: The restrictive model doesn't dictate whether you're a financial planning firm or whether you're just a straight up advice firm.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Spot on.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Nice one, Freddie.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: You went into a power planner position again.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: So you were you you'd obviously did you have sort of aspirations to actually go into financial you know, the the actual advice role, the the regulated financial planner role, you know, or you know, did you think power planning was going to be your route?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it would be my route in.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I must admit, at that point I did look at jobs where I could have done a junior advice role and do that.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I chose People Power because of the firm they were, what they were doing, um, and I felt there was a trajectory there where I could I could learn a hell of a lot and progress within that business at the time.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: You've been exposed already to a graduate scheme.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: And a graduate scheme, especially in a company like Coots, there is structure to that career path.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: There are goals and milestones with qualifications running alongside of it.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like a career map for you.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's mapped out in front of you.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: When you went to Cooper ParryWealth, for instance, was it important to you that there was a career framework in place that would get you to your end goal of being a planner?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Was that even discussed?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: Or is it something you were looking out for at that stage?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I discussed it at the time, but probably I was conscious that I wanted to be part of a firm that was that where I could see that progression.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because I did, I did want that role where I was in front of clients and that where I was essentially taking responsibility for helping those clients, not the person behind the scenes, uh, which is where I'd been before.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, that was definitely my mind.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Was it set out clearly at Cooper Parry at the time?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think so, but they're a much bigger firm now, and I'm sure, I'm sure it is.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Lots of people will look at the administrative, this, you know, what you consider to be the standard routine, right?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it it realistically, it's not the standard routine, you know?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not what is the standard, yeah.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: Admin to power planner to financial planner is a route, um, but it's not the standard because you've got that and you've got people now going directly straight into financial planning.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And there's the kind of argument.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Should should someone go straight into a financial planner role, or really should they start as an administrator, work through and gain experience as a power planner and then move into financial planning?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, arguments for and against.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Really interested to hear, Freddie, what your thoughts are on that.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I found with my career progression that I I probably struggled to make that leap from power planner to actual advisor quick as quickly as I wanted to, I'd say.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think I was probably leveraged myself on the technical side of things, and again, like I say, didn't appreciate the the other side of the role that I probably needed to develop sooner to progress at the rate I wanted to.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I also found that when moving when I did, as far as probably knock myself back a year, so I then had to prove myself again to then try and progress into the into a client-facing role.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um sorry, I think there is a there is an element that you can get stuck in a power plan role.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I think if you let your intentions known early that that's where you want to head, where you want to progress, and work on the elements that you need to to transition, then I've seen loads of people do it really quickly.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it is a good route because you do have that base of technical knowledge that will be a lot better than other routes in.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Really important message there is to not only sort of put your hand up and say, This is where I want to go.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: This is the goal and the vision that I have for my career, but also to take responsibility for your learning alongside your job role, right?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, again, you've gone back to these elements, the things that might well have been missing.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Can I sit into more client meetings perhaps?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Can I get some exposure to some clients?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Can I deliver part of the financial planning process or the piece that I've done the research on?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: Can I speak to clients behind the scenes?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Can I do some uh chasing of documentation from the product providers and understand the systems that and the processes that you go through for gathering that information?
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: So lots of things you learn in the admin and power planner side that really kind of do help you when you end up becoming a financial planner around your expectations of the role and the timescales associated to certain tasks.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you're not being unrealistic with the team that are then there to support you, admin, you know, admin power planning, you know, client relationship teams, etc.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: But also take responsibility for the learning and the study and everything that goes alongside it as well to make sure that you are upskilling yourself.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um I assume the company you were with were enthusiastic about your uh visions and drive to want to be an advisor, right?
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um they were they were yeah, decent.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um it was it would they were and they were the sort of firm where you did get the time in meetings, so like you could do pick parts of the meeting that you wanted to present, which massively helped build up that confidence and in presenting, to get in front of clients.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it was it was it was great for that sort of thing.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it was they do have that, the way they were structured did help with that.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if you are a power planner wanting to get into an advice role, you need to be at a firm where a paraplannet is getting in front of clients.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because otherwise you just go in cold and that that's hard because you've not seen any how it's done by the guys that have been doing it for years.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that's another important thing and where you'll learn a lot.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we're seeing is companies now developing what would be advertised as like a trainee financial planner position, where someone will take on the responsibilities of power planning alongside being exposed exposed to the client journey and the client experience.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Which, when you're looking for those trainee roles, make sure that that is the case, is what I would say is that you know, it's being laid out in front of you.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: Why, you know, why is it trainee?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Or are they just um repackaging a power planner role up as a train as a trainer?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it happens, yeah.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it does, yeah, it certainly does.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just worth sort of pushing back a little and just understanding, okay, well, what does my career journey look like in that type of role and how long will it take me to get there?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: And what am I exposed to to get me there?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's just you know, it's a good way of thinking when you go out there on your job hunt because there's lots of power planners sitting in a company and they're kind of like, I really want to be a financial advisor, but I'm not really being coached towards that.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: So when they do look elsewhere, they're nervous about just ending up in the same position.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm just a power planner again.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Not nothing wrong with being a power planner, but if you're a power planner who wants to be an advisor, it's a struggle, right?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: So um definitely something to look out for and to question.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: So you ended up becoming a financial planner, though, yeah?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's where you, you know, a storyful-ledged client-facing financial planner.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Did you but that didn't happen until the next role, um if I'm honest?
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: So until I moved again and then I stepped into that role.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that was part of my thinking with uh the next role where I moved to a smaller, more boutique, like served a few very high net worth individuals, uh kind of firm, um, where that role was a lot more clearly laid out that I could step into that role.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt like I'd learned enough from Cooper Parry and that my time was up there and I wanted to try something different.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: And probably at this point, I was starting to have that little seed in my head that I want to do this for myself.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I can I can see how it works.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was learning a lot from Cooper Parry and from previously as well from Cutes, how I could do this myself.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought in my head, moving to a smaller firm and potentially in a role where I could get in front of clients even more and actually step into that financial planning role um would be a better stepping stone.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Again, seeing how a smaller firm does it, because I if I'm doing it myself, I'm gonna be a small firm at this at the start.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that was starting to be my thinking.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, my next role at Chamberlain's was very much with all that in mind and stepping into that that advisor role uh there was yeah, was part of it as well, of course.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Very interesting.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: I love your thinking.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: You've got this entrepreneurial seed in your in your thinking, that vision's starting to come.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're starting to see yourself as a financial planner in your own business, and you had the foresight to then think, well, if that's going to be the case and I'm going to be running my own business, I need to see what a smaller business does and how they operate.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really that's a really interesting, really interesting approach to it, actually, because you can become institutionalized in the larger firm, can't you?
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: That was part of it as well.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like I felt like I'd either, if I stuck at Cup Parry, I'd have to be stick with how they do things, uh, abide by their way of doing it.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: And there wasn't, if I'm honest, a quite the right cultural fit for me in terms of how I wanted to do things.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think at that age, again, I was well, in my late 20s, still probably a bit naive that I could change things and they would do things the way I wanted to do things, which is not the case when it's not your business, uh, which I've learnt now.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um I think there was a bit of that that I knew that either I go all in at Coop Parry or it's time to move and try something else with an idea that okay, maybe it works out, Chambers, maybe that they're perfect firm for me.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or if it doesn't, I'll learn a hell of a lot from there as well.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then maybe that's my next stepping stone to my own business.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna ask you a question here.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: When is the right time to set your own financial planning business up?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I don't know if there is one because I did it uh with uh not even a one-year-old.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and yeah, and with you wouldn't have looked at it going, yeah, financially that is the right time for you to do it.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Time-wise, that is the right time for you to do it.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not on either of those scores.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: But um I think for me, it kind of the story for me is I was building up to a point where I wanted to bring in clients that I wanted to serve at Chamberlain's, um, and Chamberlains that weren't the right sort of clients for Chamberlain's.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they wanted to stick with their high net worth model.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was more like, I want to go after the more professional accumulator market uh and grow the clients of tomorrow rather than look after the high net worth clients of today.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I I that's what I pitched to them as like this is what I want to do if I want to progress as my as a fully space advisor with my own um clients that I've grown, then these are the sort of clients I want to go after.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and they said, no, that's not that's not all we want to do.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that was at the point where it's like, well, if I want to do that, I've got to do it myself now.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, I'm gonna have to yeah, either shut up and work with the clients that I'm being told to, or move toward another firm again, which again felt like this is that would take too long.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there might be people a point in people's careers where it just feels like the right time, or if there's it's now or never kind of times.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that was kind of the feeling I've had um at that point two years ago.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: Lots of things in there to um to pick apart, actually.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: You've been exposed to high net worth clients for quite some time.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, your very first entry point was high net worth, possibly ultra high net worth clients at Coots.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then Chamberlain's again, you know, you've experienced working in a firm that specifically deals with high net worth clients.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: And often, especially around the financial planning models of fee percentage of ongoing assets under management and the ability to service clients, it's often considered the higher net worth the client, the better business model you have, uh, the more better lifestyle that you might have, all that kind of stuff.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: And people often chase those high net worth clients.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: You've been exposed, been in those environments, but actually your mindset was slightly different.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: You wanted these professionals, these accumulators of wealth.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's because they were more like me, more like more relatable, and felt like I could add more value.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's coming back to that purpose piece, like a lot of the clients that I was dealing with across all these three companies, like they'd they've made it.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: They then actually need an advisor, they'd be fine.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, most of them.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously great.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Make an advisor to make them more wealthy, me, more tax-efficient.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's lots of value to be had there.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not knocking it, but in terms of the real value in terms of helping people retire when they want to or improve their lifestyle, like there's a lot of value in that in terms of purpose.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I agree, not necessarily profitability-wise, but there's certainly a lot of value in there in terms of the purpose it gives you and that side of it.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you felt that you were more connected to them based on the journeys that they were on, whereas perhaps high net worth, they've accumulated wealth already, right?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:57
  unknown: Yeah.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: So they were already they've often business like sold businesses or um yeah, inherited or yeah, family wealth, that sort of stuff, um, was previous, the previous sort of clients I was dealing with.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um which, yeah, it's all it's all it's all great, but it's it wasn't, it's never what I pictured it once I started having a vision in terms of how I was going to do it.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was never, they were never the sort of clients I was going to be working with.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the sort of clients I wanted to, I wanted to help people realise that like if you worked hard and you did the right things with your money, you could become the the millionaires of the future and that sort of thing.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's that journey that I wanted to help people with.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: Which I think is great.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's more exciting.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: You like you say, you're going along side by side with people.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the thing is as well, you've kind of had it in the reverse almost, if you think about it that way, that you've seen people with wealth at the beginning of your career journey, and now you know what it's like at the end of it, therefore you've been exposed to it and you can kind of almost inspire and uh educate and also kind of explain to them what happens at that stage, right?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: So if you think seeing people who sold businesses and and whatnot, you've been exposed to that point in time.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: So when it comes to talking to somebody who's like an entrepreneur and might not have a clue about that type of thing, you can speak from experience about what it's actually like in the financial planning process because you've done it.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: And therefore, they're kind of buying into you more, aren't they?
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: As somebody who's got the relevant experience to take them through the journey, to be their financial planner throughout their career.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a really lovely way to look at it.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a lovely market to be working in, is those professionals because a bit like me, really, I'm flat out on building a business.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: And when it comes to me thinking about money, I'm not like, you know, I'm I'm it's it's taken me a while to put down my pen and put down my laptop and all of that and actually focus on the money aspect of it.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've just been driven on building something of value and and and the purpose that I follow, which is trying to sort problems and fix problems and create things that people want.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: Money kind of becomes secondary to that.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: And it's often, it's only when since I've been leaning into financial planners, money coaches, that I've realized, oh wow, I need to look at that.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: And um, having somebody that's that's experienced that and going through the journey is is is powerful stuff.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's you're right, there's definitely skills that clients now see in me that I've got for them ready, ready to go in the future, like like you say, business owners or when it comes to retirement, retirement plan, that that sort of thing.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's also from a service point of view, like people, when they're like 40s and 50s, want to have a planning to know that they're heading in the right direction.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and the sooner that people get this, the better off they'll be.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: But the trouble is the way that the industry is skewed at the moment is that they're likely only to get that because they've only got sufficient wealth to get that once they're in their 50s or 60s and they've accumulated that money.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: So they've probably missed a hell of a load of opportunity before then to maximize that journey that they've been on for the last 20 years with their money.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of tapping into that earlier, is is the idea.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you're right, you do get kind of bogged down with the what you're doing, and then you don't necessarily think about the financials of it all.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: But uh it is yeah, it's a model that's working at the moment.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I still have to turn people away.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like I've solved the advice gap by any means, but it's it's helping people on a different stage of their wealth journey, basically.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: So you set up the firm Gratitude Financial Planning.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, what a gratitude financial planning?
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: What things are you doing to be able to fix that problem, to be able to communicate with those types of clients that might not have had the access as early on as, say, somebody in their 50s?
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: What are you doing to get in front of those people and win them over and get them on as clients?
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, my main my main source is um my social media marketing.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's how it all started, um, in terms of trying to attract, turn the heads of these sort of clients to actually go, you know what, I need to think about this.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I started that say my I started nice guy money on Instagram um as my persona for trying to get some financial education out there uh and help people think about this.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it might not necessarily mean that they actually become clients, but they might take something from it and do something that really improves their the way they look after their money.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: But there also might be people, you know what, I hadn't thought about that, I hadn't thought that was for me yet.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um who actually do get in contact and and start that journey with me.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's that's the main way that I'm I'm trying to get these people to think about this earlier and realize that they can have this service earlier.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: Are you you know, I it's exactly a similar sort of thing that I'm doing at the moment with Financial Planner Life.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's an education piece, right?
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the people that might be listening to this podcast need to hear stories and hear the real stories from people that work within the profession to get their confidence up to realise that perhaps that they can do what that person's done, or they'll pick up some ideas around why maybe they should go self-employed and set their own business up instead of being employed.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's that educational piece that you give away for free, but uh people will change their lives because of it.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I get numerous messages Sam, I've really you know, I've I've changed uh I've changed my path.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: You you know, your podcast has been so helpful in in me doing so.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm really pleased that I can offer that uh service to help others because uh when they're in the profession, I hope they're gonna turn around and pick the phone up and say, Sam, can you help me now find a job?
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: Or can you help me um move from employed to self-employed?
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: And these are all the things that obviously I can do because I own a recruitment company that specializes in financial planning.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: So it's about that giving things away for free.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's the laws of attraction.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: If you help and you put out good things, I tend to find that good things do happen to you.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: Eventually they come back to you.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: With social media, with Mr.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: Nice Guy Money, when you post something, it doesn't turn into a transactional piece of business the next day, does it?
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: It did, yeah.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: No, not at all.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's hard work.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think people underestimate, and I've seen that people underestimate how difficult it is to keep going with it and be consistent with it.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've seen like other money coaches or financial advisors come and go within the space of a month or two months because they realise how difficult it is to get some traction.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you do have to accept that for the first year or so you might not get much that much interest.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a sexy topic.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like you can you can put some really nice pictures or videos up on something.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: You it is an educational thing if if that's the route you go down, uh, which isn't necessarily going to catch the eye on an Instagram feed.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it is a slower burn.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it it does work, it is where the majority of my leads come from.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you also have to appreciate it's not necessarily directly the person who's seen it.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: You are now potentially that go-to guy as the financial advisor.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: When someone goes, Do you know a financial advisor?
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: My name might come up because they know that they've seen me on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn, um, which is also something I didn't appreciate to begin with.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I get referrals from people who aren't actually clients, but they just know that I am an advisor who knows what he's talking about when he's talking about money.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: You become word of mouth, you become that recommendation.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you want to be that when someone thinks financial planner, if they've seen your content enough, then they're gonna say, Yes, I know a person, I'll forge you the I'll forge you their LinkedIn profile, or I'll forge their Instagram page or their YouTube page.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're absolutely you're absolutely spot on there.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that is the mindset.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's putting yourself out there.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think it takes seven, seven times or something, isn't it, for someone to seven points of contact or something like that.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, seven points of contact for someone to type start to remember you.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I can pick the phone up to people now, and they'll say, I say, I'm Sam X from Financial Planet Life.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: They go, Yeah, I know you, I know you are.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just like, and I've never spoken to them ever, you know?
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and but people know who I am because I think I said the same to you when you when we had our first chat.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, it's weird that I recognise your voice like and we've never spoken before.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's incredible.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the investment that you're making with your time when you create content, personal brand, social content, is that it is an investment.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when you know, when you advise somebody to invest some money, you don't say, you know, put 20 grand in this and next week you're gonna have five.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: You might have five grand in 10 years' time or five years' time or whatever it might well be, depending upon where it's actually invested.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's not financial advice, by the way.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um so it's exactly the same when it comes to your your marketing and your social marketing.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's uh it's an accumulation of awareness, brand awareness.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then you'll start to see that come back to you tenfold in the future.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now, it might take a year, two years, three years.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm seeing some real benefit this year, and it's year three for me under Financial Planet Life as a brand.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: For two years I made no money.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: Last quarter, I think I've done about 80,000 quid.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like you know, that's pretty good, right?
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like it's and and and now I'm super excited about the foundation uh and The audience that I've built, and I want to now serve them even more.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to provide them with more things that can add value to their lives, not just careers based, it's other things.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm really excited about that.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the thing that spurs you on and keeps you going.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then have you ever done much in the way of partnering with you know you know, like you're a self-your self-employed, you run your own business, right?
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: When it comes to like brand awareness and it comes to marketing, et cetera.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_01: I've tried the whole employing people.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like I employ people in my recruitment business.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: I've just changed my look now, my outlook now, when it comes to brand exposure.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm looking for people to the left and to the right of me that are interested or serve the audience that I have, but in a different way.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then I look to partner with those individuals to create a brand underneath Financial Planner Life.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_01: So like I've got Financial Planner Life Studios, which does video and podcast services.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, then we'd have the academy.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm not a trainer, yeah, but I want an academy, right?
• 45:06
  unknown: Yeah.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I've partnered with a trainer to create the academy.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I become the tr the attraction part of it.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't have to pay to build something.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: I just use my skill set and I'm in my lane of experience.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not trying to be master of everything.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: But I partner with another master.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: And we come together to create something together.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it's beneficial for that person.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's beneficial for me.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's symbiotic relationships.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_01: And have you started to do that yourself?
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's so easy to turn around and say, oh, to win clients, you have to build professional introduced relationships with accountants and solicitors.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: We hear that all the goddamn time.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: There are more ways to generate clients by partnering with different businesses or niches or uh services.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: Have you been doing that?
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: Have you been looking at those ways that you can bolt on?
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not done it yet.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got I've got a vision for the nice guy money brand.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, I've got almost two brands, so to speak.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've got the gratitude financial planning, which is which is my regulated advice business, and then nice guy money, which is at the moment just my catchy persona when it comes to Instagram and Facebook.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I do have visions again, time allowing, money allowing, to use the nice guy money brand as more of a broader educational piece, maybe like the Pete Matthews stuff, I don't know, or doing educational workshops for companies that are employing the right sort of clients that I'd like to look after, and using that as that's the brand that that's the setup for that.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because that marries well with the fact that nice guy money is all about helping educate people, financial literacy, all that good stuff.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I could see that working well as a brand for me to go into companies and do a piece on good personal finance or on get to know your pension or whatever it may be, there the seeds, and now you're talking about seeds in the back of my head being entrepreneurial again, there are the sort of things that I'm thinking about.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's just again, starting those, pulling on those threads and seeing where they go.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so those sort of inquiries have been made uh recently, like the last six months I've started to have people ask me if I do that sort of thing.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's just having then the right contacts and relationships to build that out and and make some bit of it and do it how I want to do it.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I can see how it works.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: I can see how once you put yourself out there, you start getting these other those these other options and partnerships to leverage.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: Can I make a suggestion?
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because I like an entrepreneurial chat as well.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I like I come up with some ideas and I and I and I see things, I see where things could work well for financial planners.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: I love your brand, nice guy money.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: No one's really positioned themselves as nice guy money, like nobody is, right?
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: I love your company name, Gratitude Financial Planning.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it was all about gratitude.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: To me, that's you're setting yourself up as being a well-being focused individual, right?
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_01: A well-foc, a well-being focused advisor.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: And all financial advisors will position themselves as well-being, but nice guy money and gratitude financial planning is so on brand with it, up against coots.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_01: Coots probably want the welfare of their, you know, the well-being of their their their uh clients to be topmost, you know?
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't sound like it, does it?
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't sound like it.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds like sounds like we're elitist and um we don't want you.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas you're you are that person I could see coming on to this morning and sitting down and talking about it.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: Here's you know, here's Freddie Winter, Freddie, even your name, Freddie Winter comes on, nice guy money talking about this.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that I can see, and what's wide open is everyone says well-being this and well-being that, but no one's connecting the two.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: And a really good way of doing that is to look at therapists or counsellors or those already in the well-being market that have established a really good network.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because they could already be going into companies and delivering well-being propositions around employee well-being or something like that, right?
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, or mental health in the workplace, or whatever it is, is to kind of go out there and find those people and start to establish relationships with them.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_01: Start to tell them the vision that you have around well-being and how money is connected to over well-being.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: They'll know this, you know.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: And therapists and counselors and well-being specialists will often come across people where money is the pro money is the problem, right?
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you become the person that they refer those individuals actually to.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_01: But if you took that a step further, nice guy money podcast, something along those lines, and they become your guests.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like my guests are financial planners, your guests will become those specialists.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: So you have a subject that you talk about with that specialist who's an expert, and you drop in every now and then a bit around the money side of it, right?
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: But they might be talking about a specialism being how to manage anxiety or depression or how physical fitness can affect your outlook in life, or it could be somebody who specializes in addiction or whatever, right?
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_01: All these things that people search for.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: People are always searching for a solution to a problem, the human problem, right?
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, money, money is one of those funny ones.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_01: I said to you, I sorted all my problems out mentally and internally and spiritually, and money was the last one I sorted out.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: But when I did look at it, my God, did I feel good?
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_01: I felt really good just by simply setting up things like a budget plan, organizing my bank accounts in certain ways, prioritizing debt payments and all those things and saving.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_01: An emergency fund was a game changer for me because I spent so long saving for a house that when it was all gone, I went into a pit of like, oh my god, I've lost all my money.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't think about it, it was in my house.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to re- I had to rebuild it all again and teach myself a new habit and a new structure of how I manage my money.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it was game-changing for me.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I see someone like you partnering with those well-being experts, bringing them onto your podcast, having amazing conversations that people search for.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_01: The listener then becomes aware of you.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's true.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_01: The person that you're working with and bringing onto the podcast becomes aware of you and then starts to refer you into their network.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then you you establish and you grow that way.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's searchable, it's interesting.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think one of the areas that I banged out about on about this quite recently, divorced, right?
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: Women are doing a really, really good job at the moment.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: So they're saying that there's not enough women in financial planning, but there's loads of women coming in, and there's loads of women that are doing coaching, and there's also loads of women that are experiencing women on women financial planning, women supporting women through their financial journeys.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_01: But men go through the same things as well.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and as much as we need it for women, we need it for men.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: And men can be very prideful, can't they?
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_01: They can minimize things, we don't talk about things enough.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_01: So when you combine that with good mental fitness and good mental health, then it's it's just it's it's it's wide open.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_01: I watched a podcast and it was a divorce specialist and a financial planner.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the conversation was about fixing relationships.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it was lovely.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_01: It was like what can be done to fix the relationship and what part money plays in that.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_01: Are the arguments and the disdain and the resentment stemming from money and somebody's money beliefs in that relationship?
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because that can kill relationships.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_01: So the idea was to save relationships, but of course, one and two marriages break down.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_01: Women have often been in positions and situations, especially around pension plans, etc., where they they do tend to walk away with less.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: But men now need to also now more women are looking after household income, for example, more men need to look at their own financial situation and their position as well when it comes to divorce.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_01: And at what stage do you start thinking about it?
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because if there's children involved in that process, if there's a house, if there's businesses, it becomes tricky and complicated.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_01: I just see that as a wide open area that can be dominated by Mr.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: Nice Guy money.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're right.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's it's I had a conversation with a again, it was fitness and well-being.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: So he did a lot of went into companies and did this like i.e.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_00: workout sessions or workout away days, or they did thick topics on like sleep and things like that, or diet and nutrition.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, it fit it does fit in so well as part of that whole like health and well-being.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: I finance is a key element of that.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and I think it's an underestimated, like untangible benefit of financial planning that people don't appreciate, but it does give you peace of mind, gives you reassurance.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even if it's that someone else is looking after it and taking care of it for you, or it might be the fact that you you know where everything is.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think it's you're spot on.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like as I progress through this and as I grow this company, those sort of relationships and partnerships will be massive.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I need, yeah, I need to I need to look at those things and see where I can I can I can grow that.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's where I see this, it's where I don't so when people come into financial planning and they set their own businesses up, more often than not, they don't have that development experience, that business development experience.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_01: So they gravitate more towards B2C because it's like I can sort the customer's problem out, right?
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that this is me, yeah.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then you've got B2B.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_01: B2B opens and exposes you to more customers, but via somebody who's already established that.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_01: So all you do is go to that B2B, you give them a platform to talk about what they do, which gives them more brand exposure.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_01: But then they give you a platform to talk to their customers about it.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_01: So instead of talking to a hundred customers, which are doing incredibly well on your on your Mr.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_01: Nice Guy social posts anyway, so you've already nailed that.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's like then, well, what can I do on the B2B side?
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you just don't see enough on the B2B side in financial planning, and it's it's it is wide open.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, people say I focus on business advice, you know, businesses, that's what I focus on.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_01: And the ones that actually do, and they partner with like employee benefits companies, they do really, really well because obviously the employee benefit company has all the customers.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you're finding you're finding 50 introducers, and also you do you know what?
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, isn't it far more interesting to talk about a subject that you actually like?
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: So if it's well-being, then it's way more kind of like interesting than like I don't know, talking to a solicitor or an accountant, I would probably say it's doesn't that unless it's you know, it's it's more engaging and interesting and searchable.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I think if as opposed to the solicitor accountancy, getting your like link ups with those, I think that's done, tried and tested, and and not the way to do it.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you're right, it's finding these other avenues where your clients are and yeah, leveraging the relationship you've got to get yourself out there.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's all about networking, it's all about raising your awareness and getting your name out there.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um is again something that I totally underestimated probably five years ago and wish I'd started it as soon as I started this career.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think but I think and I think you should give yourself credit actually because you're way ahead of the game.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's that consistency approach again.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_01: You've you've said to yourself, look, this isn't going to happen overnight.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna build my brand and you're doing it.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, and and you you even said earlier that you've seen people come and go.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_01: They do come and go when it comes to social media because it's hard work, it's graft.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_01: And like when I see people like other recruiters trying to do like a financial planning recruitment podcast, I support them because I want them to do well, right?
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_01: But in the back of my mind, I know it's graft, yeah, and I just kind of wait for them to fizzle out.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, so it's quite an interesting thing to see.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's so true.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: It it's it's just yeah, it's the thing people don't realise how long it takes.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh how particularly when it's coming, you can create your own content, how difficult it is to keep coming up with new ideas, uh, and then yeah, to keep doing it two or three times a week amongst everything else you've got going on, it's it's hard work, but like I said, I'm now getting I'm now getting the the fruits of that.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's yeah, it's taken three years.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_01: Freddie, how do you come up with the content ideas?
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's I then this is another benefit of it actually.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's um I think because you I've set myself up now that I I put content out there two but three times a week, I read and consume so much more.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's forced me to do that.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think you become a better advisor and and more knowledgeable for the fact that you are writing about it, posting videos about it, um, communicating about it all the time.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's that it's reading loads, it's watching loads of YouTube way more than I used to, and then having a good note-taking system.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got a very organized note-taking system in all lots of different categories um that I can just pull from, depending what the theme is for the week.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I try and theme for weeks if I can.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so it's it's yeah, there's a lot going on behind the scenes that people don't appreciate, I think.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_01: Talk to me about this note-taking system.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so it's on Notion.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if people use Notion.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I've just basically set up a database on Notion where I've got categories for like personal finance, uh self-improvement and well-being is one, um, investments, pensions, uh, family.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think they're my main five pillars, if you like.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then as and when I get content, come to me, ideas, I've got the app in my phone, I'll write it in there, and it's all categorized automatically.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_00: I just have to select the right drop downs.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then whenever I want to do a post on well-being, I've got probably 10 things I've already got saved in there to do a post about.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you would then put in like almost a prompt and maybe a synopsis or an I an outline of the idea of what you might well talk about.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_01: So once it comes into your head, you put it into your notes section, but you categorize that into a relative.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_00: When I come to do it, yeah.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_00: When I come to do it, I'll then do the rest of it.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: So whether that's scripting it out for a video or whether that's um mapping it out for like a three-picture post on on social media, I'll then map it out, and then that'll be the that'll be the stage in which I'm then preparing the content to post.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_01: Very interesting way of doing it.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then you take that idea.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_01: Do you then take the idea and do you dedicate a specific day to writing out some of those content ideas or do you freestyle it?
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_01: How do you approach the actual because you do uh yours on video, don't you?
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_01: On video.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you use your mobile, don't you?
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's it's yeah, very amateur at the moment.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's um just just a good mobile phone um and yeah, a tripod, uh, some lighting, and I'll just position myself at different different in different areas, try and mix it up and just read from a script.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um that and and post that.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I do do I do create images and and and pictures as well if I feel like the content's better suited for just a quick snappy two or three uh pieces of content.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_01: So when it comes to distribution of that content, what what do you use?
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_01: Sort of social media channels, because it can be quite exhausting, different sizes of videos or images for different types of social media channels.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_01: What's your go-to channels?
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_00: So Instagram's where I'm primarily focus.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's where it all started.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I've then tried to build that out on Facebook and LinkedIn pretty much just by copying the content.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'll try and maybe change slights, slight, slight bits of it, but as because like you say, because of the time consuming nature of it, it largely is just a copy onto the other social networks.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_01: And how many hours do you say a week do you dedicate to content creation?
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's probably the best part of the day, I think, six, five, six hours a week to do three pieces of decent content.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's it's yeah, it's the scripting of it, it's then producing it or creating it, and then it's the editing of it.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, particularly videos, like I didn't I really underestimated how long it takes to edit a video.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so particular as well, so I probably could do it quicker, but I have to be a perfectionist at times.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it yeah, it is a process.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'd say uh each video probably takes an hour and a half to write, record, edit, and post.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, it is part there's definitely parts of that I want to get rid of as soon as I can because it's there's a lot of time that goes into that.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_01: What part was would you actually get rid of, Freddie?
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_00: I would definitely get rid of the editing part of it.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, that would be that that's that'd be the main thing, and I'm I'm trying to leverage AI as much as I can to help me with the writing of the scripts as well.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um to just make that a bit slicker and quicker.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I'm doing that a bit, but I don't know.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_00: I find that particularly for what I do, it's that bit's gonna be very difficult to hand off to someone because you you need not only someone who knows the knowledge, but you need to know someone who knows your brand and what you want to put out there if they're gonna be writing stuff for you.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not quite sure.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sure there's partners out there for that sort of stuff, but it's it that'll be a tricky one.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the idea creation side of it and then the scripting of it, you yeah, that's at the beginning, it's very difficult because it was also you, it's your personal brand, is how you come across.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_01: But the editing side of it can definitely be, you know, stuff you're doing in respect to your phone that can be outsourced and it can be done quite cheaply.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um should definitely look into that.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_01: If you did do that though, and you outsourced it, would you double up on the content that you created with the free time?
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't know.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_00: Probably I'd like to think that it would allow me to do other stuff as well.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I I'm keen once again, once time allows, that to do blogs as well, because I'm finding that when I do a topic that I could repurpose that in so many ways.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, say for example, I'll do a um post, I did a post on child benefit recently, like a few, like a few different things on all the quirks of child benefits.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I could have done that in a blog, written it all out in a nice blog, posted it on my website, and then taken the chunks out of that to then do two or two or three videos or two videos and a like a picture um and split it out.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've I've gone to the trouble of writing half of it anyway, just by scripting things and putting captions on things.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_00: So there's definitely a an economies of scale from doing that.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd like to start doing that once I've got time to do it.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_01: Might be worth you looking at long form longer form content.
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said about the blog.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_01: So if you took, say, like say for instance, I I've got a podcast, right?
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_01: So my podcast would be like an hour long.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_01: But my podcast, I would then turn into an article.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_01: From my podcast, I can create social clips.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_01: If I wanted to be you, if I want to be really savvy about it, and I am with the ones where someone pays me to do a podcast, I'll turn that into 12 social posts.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm now moving into the YouTube side of it and going to bolster out my YouTube channel.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_01: I will structure podcast episodes to be then YouTube five-minute clips.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'll then repurpose those into YouTube shorts as well.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_01: So that when the the the bigger form, the longer form content you go for, doesn't have to, you know, and that's why a podcast is quite good because you can literally, from a podcast, as long as you record it, can do so many repurposements from it.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's unreal.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_01: So and that's like then, and then in its own right, it's then adding another median to your marketing.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_01: So social becomes part, a byproduct of podcasting in on YouTube.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and that's um that's quite an interesting way.
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's the way that I do it, and and and I found that to be a really beneficial way to do it, and to build then authority in podcasting, which is increasing in respect of a medium that people listen to, it's wide open for the idea we talked about with the money thing and and and the well-being side of it.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, food for thought for you, food for thought for people listening.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think it's a really interesting area, and we all you know see it, we all are exposed to it, and we all think we can do it.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_01: A, it's hard, it's tough, but strategically, it's just how you position yourself to do it in a way where you can repurpose it and get the maximum amount of content from the work that you do.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_01: Can you turn eight hours a week into an amazing marketing process?
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's just where do you start?
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_01: Where, you know, what's the starting point of it?
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah you know, and even you change the starting point of it, all of a sudden you're exposing yourself to two or three other areas where you can get your name out there.
• 1:05:49
  unknown: Yeah.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then the approach to it and how you how you build that starting point.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_01: You've gone down the route of actually going directly authorized, haven't you, with your firm?
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_00: I have, yeah.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:05:59
  SPEAKER_01: So Why directly authorized over, say, joining a network and starting up as an AR?
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_01: What were your reasons for that?
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it a lot of it actually was to do with the social media side of things and how I wants to market myself.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, from the conversations I've had with people who'd gone down that route, albeit it seems a lot quicker to get uh set up and you have a lot of the back office stuff sorted for you.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was that how restrictive is it going to be in terms of me putting content out there and essentially marketing and advertising myself.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't, I didn't want that restriction.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want permission to have to do an Instagram post or a LinkedIn post.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know some firms are are there's a there's a spectrum in terms of how tight people are with that, and that is also changing with the times.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_00: But at the time I was doing it, I just didn't want that as a barrier.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_00: And likewise, I wanted to make sure I was doing things how I wanted to do it, uh, with across the whole of my advice and planning piece.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, I went for it.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_00: And but it is um it is something people do need to know how long it takes.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's about an eight-month process to go from making your application to getting it all ticked off and going live.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that could be longer depending on on issues or or just how lucky you are with who you get as your case handler.
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it does take a while.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that yeah, but again, it's one of those.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think you however you want to do it, you'll you'll find the right solution for you depending on how you want to set your business up.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_01: Great, great reasons why.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_01: Great advice there about the timescale side of it as well.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_01: But also there's a cost associated to getting directly authorised.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_01: Capital adequacy, for example, you've got to take to consideration.
• 1:07:36
  SPEAKER_01: How much did it cost you, if you don't mind me asking, going through the process of being directly authorized?
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so capital adequacy, I need to have 20 grand in the bank, um, which I can't touch.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_00: Just sits there.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I think it must have been my fee was about 1,500 for the FCA, and then probably about the same for I use Simply Biz to do the help me with the whole process.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they were very good at that, I must admit.
• 1:08:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they were good at that set helping with that.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yes, about three grand there, and then you've got insurance and all the other business costs, but yeah, for for that core bit, yeah, you need about, I'd say 25 grand, and then you'll whatever your budget is for everything else you'll need on top, unfortunately.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_01: When you look at the actual running costs of your business, standalone, because it's just yourself in the business, you've got no employees at the moment, right?
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's just me.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_01: So if you go in, if you're a self, you're thinking about going self-employed, and I'm sure you did the beauty parade around some of the networks, you might be paying away 30% to a network or a firm to be a registered individual or to be an AR.
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_01: What percentage do you think of your total income of your turnover goes towards running costs of your business, including fees and person indemnity cover and all of that kind of stuff?
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think um it's it's not, I would say doing it the way I'm doing at the moment is not that expensive.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because I don't pay for an office, I don't have any staff.
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so my main costs are my compliance fees, um, my insurance, um, and then all the software and extra stuff that I need in the background.
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm probably doing it off a budget of let's say 20 grand a year, which is not a lot really in the grand scheme of things.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, so that's probably what yeah, that's not that's not a lot in in terms of turnover for me at the moment, uh, against turnover.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's once you get up and running, provided you've you can earn enough to pay yourself, um, the other costs aren't that significant these days because you don't need all the other fixed costs to go with it.
• 1:09:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something to bear in mind, and something I didn't really appreciate until I actually looked at it.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's the thing.
• 1:10:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think capital adequacy is a big one.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_01: People need to obviously have that money saved up, and obviously you can't touch it.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I think you know that can be a bit of a stumbler for some people.
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, I think if you're getting to that stage where you think about going directly authorised, you should hopefully have already built that pot up.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_01: You've got that, you've got that in mind.
• 1:10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Did leaving your company as an employed advisor?
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because you were an employed advisor, weren't you?
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, was there a crossover between you being employed as an advisor to then applying for going directly authorized and FCA authorization and all of that?
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_01: How did you manage that part of the process?
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because that could be quite unnerving for somebody because they might feel they're gonna lose their job and their income.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_01: What what happened during that period and how did you manage it?
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, I probably did this the wrong way.
• 1:10:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think I probably should have had, well, I uh had a conversation more with the my current employees, but I actually took the decision that once I told them that that I was gonna leave and then use that time to set everything up and and get going.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think that's that's what they wanted as well, because there's a bit of a conflict of interest there.
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I'd had, I think you probably could do it a lot more slyly and just start the process, and then once it's looking like you're gonna get your authorization, then hand any notice and just do it that way.
• 1:11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but because going back to my previous story, I'd already pitched the idea and this is what I want to do, and this is where I want to go within this firm, and that's didn't marry up with what they wanted to do.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_00: That was almost like, well, this is a pivotal point now, where it's like, I need to make a decision and I need to make that clear.
• 1:11:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I suppose I could have lied and gone along with it and just carried on behind the scenes setting up my own business, but I I didn't do that.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Once that decision had been made, I agreed with my employer at that point that I was going to go off and I was gonna go for it.
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I had their well-wishes and they were incredibly supportive uh and were just yeah, yeah, pleased that I was going doing something I wanted to do.
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I thank them for that.
• 1:11:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't I didn't try and juggle the two in my instance.
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in your situation, yeah.
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_01: So in your situation being employed then to then going self-employed as a directly authorised financial planner, you know, let's be honest, what how how long was the gap in between you earning some money into your business?
• 1:12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, I know what it's like to get a loan.
• 1:12:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, what's the reality surrounding that?
• 1:12:20
  SPEAKER_01: And what do you think people should do to prepare for that?
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_00: I it was probably over 12 months before.
• 1:12:27
  SPEAKER_00: So going from the point where I'd quit my job and handed and submitted my SCA application, which is about the same time, um, to then getting authorized to then starting the process with the first few clients and then getting fees on from those first few clients.
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was probably about, yeah, easily 12 months, probably probably 14 months um before I actually then started getting an income in.
• 1:12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and obviously even then that income's not enough to really, that's just starting to chip away at that 20 grand cost of setting up.
• 1:12:57
  SPEAKER_00: So um yeah, it's I would say that you need I'm coming up to like a I've done two years now.
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'd say you need a two-year runway of being able to support yourself if you're doing it the way I'm doing it, because I didn't also, I only had like two or three clients that I was bringing on that I knew.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it was properly, I'm going in cold with this, and I'm back myself to get the leads from the attention I'm getting from from what I'm doing elsewhere.
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I gave myself two year, two-year cash flow of income, knowing I'm gonna meet my bills, cut cut back on lifestyle and all that to make it possible.
• 1:13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, I'd say two years.
• 1:13:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it depends, obviously it depends again what your circumstances are, how many clients you think you can bring across.
• 1:13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Freddie, great.
• 1:13:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, going down the directly authorised route, people do need to think about money.
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_01: They need to think about how they're gonna support themselves during that period.
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you don't have clients that you can instantly transfer across or novate across if you like, then you are gonna be starting from a standing start, right?
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_01: You might have some restricted covenants in place, especially if you're an employee.
• 1:14:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's not a matter of you being able to just novate clients across.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_01: It might be different if you're self-employed and you've got a contract that states that you have those client relationships and the income will actually follow you.
• 1:14:11
  SPEAKER_01: But in your circumstances, it didn't.
• 1:14:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it's well worth noting if you listen to this directly, you're gonna want to go down the directly authorised route is that A, you need to save out the capital adequacy side of it.
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_01: It does take time to get through the process.
• 1:14:21
  SPEAKER_01: You need to look at the uh the process of actually leaving an employee role to actually going down the directly authorised route, but then you always have to take into consideration how are you going to uh live, what in where's your income coming from, and what you're gonna do during those periods, make sure that you give yourself a good running start when you're up and running.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's another thing to look at as well.
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_01: But Freya, I could talk to you all day about business, I could talk to you all day about setting things up.
• 1:14:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've covered some really interesting things today on your journey.
• 1:14:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think your background and where you are today, I think it's really, really exciting.
• 1:14:53
  SPEAKER_01: So the the future for you, I'm excited for you.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think it's gonna you you're doing it from a I talked to so many financial planners, and you're doing it from such a great place that you're it's in lined with you and your core purpose and your core values.
• 1:15:09
  SPEAKER_01: I would go back to those five pillars in your notebook.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I would just reflect on it.
• 1:15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Are those five pillars your values?
• 1:15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Are they your company values?
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because it might be that you the five pillars that you've created, you've actually created the values and therefore the culture of your business.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_01: So when it comes to growing your business further, it's those five pillars that are really truly who you are because you value those in connection with financial planning money management.
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, good point.
• 1:15:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's quite an interesting area, be worth exploring that.
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's always funny because people always say, what are your values as a company?
• 1:15:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big thing about it years and for years, wouldn't it?
• 1:15:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, you've got to have values, you've got to have this and the other.
• 1:15:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_01: I I can't remember the values of my company.
• 1:15:56
  SPEAKER_01: But when I sit and I think about my intrinsic values, I can articulate those.
• 1:16:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the reasons, my purpose for doing things.
• 1:16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I love that approach and it's something that I'm gonna take away.
• 1:16:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you've taught me something today, Freddie.
• 1:16:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take that one away and I'm gonna do that one.
• 1:16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Freddie, thank you so much for your time today.
• 1:16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Really, really appreciate it.
• 1:16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for coming on the Financial Planner Live podcast and sharing your career journey.
• 1:16:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're welcome, Sam.
• 1:16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 1:16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.