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What Financial Planners Could Learn from a Financial Coach · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Today's guest on the Financial Planner Life podcast is Laura Moore.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: Laura is a money and mindset coach and financial well-being speaker.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: She's got her own podcast, and her brand is Mind, Money and Soul.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: I came across Laura on Instagram, which is pretty much where you find most financial coaches.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: You see, Laura isn't a financial advisor, she's a certified financial coach.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: And today we talk about the difference between the two roles, but also how a financial planner or a financial planning firm could work in unison with a financial coach.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: We talk about the differences between the two roles, what's her objective, what's her purpose, and how it does differ from financial planning.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: But it's a really interesting area.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's a growing area.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: There's plenty of people on TikTok, there's plenty of people on Instagram and other social media channels offering financial coaching.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: But how do you determine who's a good one and who's a bad one?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I can vouch for Laura.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: She's definitely one of the good ones.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: We have a fantastic conversation, really go deep into what she does and why she does it.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: And she shares a lot of what she does on social media, the things that work and the things that don't work, and things around her own personal motivation, well-being, and how she stays focused in the tough job that she does.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's a fantastic podcast, and I urge you to follow Laura on the social media channels to get some great ideas about how you yourself can promote yourself as a financial planner on social media.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Enjoy Laura, thanks for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: How are you?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm good, thank you.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very well, very well.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: I've seen you all over Instagram.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: You're doing a great job there.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: And as per my introduction, you are um a financial coach.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: You're not a financial planner, but I absolutely love bringing on financial coaches because I think you're all doing an incredibly fantastic job of bringing attention to the lack of education out there around money for people.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: And you guys tend to focus on the things that aren't in-depth crazy things to look at, like how pension works and all that kind of stuff.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's a day-to-day type of finances, but you do it in a way uh that it's easy to um digest because you use the powerful medium of social media, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and all those lovely, wonderful things, yeah?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: The so the world of social media is definitely useful when it comes to being a coach.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's a coaching, it's a coach's playground, right?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: It we it actually is.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's a coach's playground.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think, you know, historically, a lot of businessmen and and females and women, etc., people in business used to sort of hide away, shy away from really telling people what they did because it was all a bit smoke and mirrors, you know.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'd like to bamboozle them, confuse them enough so they have to come to me to talk to me.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, I shouldn't really say this, but the financial planning profession has been a bit like that over the years, you know, that you go on a website and it's bloody confusing, you know, and nobody goes out on, you know, people are starting to go out on social media and simplify things, but everything's really technical and overly technical and not simplified.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's not very user-friendly, you know.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: When somebody wants to understand something, you know, there's all you know, there's a whole array of facts and figures that you've got to break down.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's all jargon.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's you know, and and I love about coaches that they're breaking that down and simplifying it.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's a massive, massive use for it, and it's making it easily accessible and digestible.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like I say, it's a Joe public, like me, you know?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I definitely think like the world of financial coaching is getting so much more well known, but it's still very much at the start.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's a large sort of you know educational piece about coaches versus advisors, and then also people themselves understanding the like emotional and psychological side of money and like general money management.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And people, you're right, get bamboozled by a lot of like the language and the jargon so much that it just sends them the other way.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think coaches are a really nice, like in-between party that kind of marry the two together.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: Do me a favor, whilst we're on the subject of coaches and describe to me what it is you do, what's your job?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, as a coach, so as a financial coach, I work with people in a capacity where you aren't giving them any advice on specifically what to do with their money.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, putting products, what services, where you know, what to invest in.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's more around a combination of the emotional side of money, so understanding how money is, you know, how our emotions and our beliefs affect our behavior with money and what we can do to improve our relationship with money, and then sort of guidance and like mentoring around money management in a way that feels good for that person.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it not being like a one size fits all, this is what you have to do, but like bringing all the education in on general money management, that helping people come to the answers themselves of how they view money in their own lives and how to manage it in a way that feels good for them.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's all it's all down to you know the end client and what they want for their life.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very, yeah, it's very emotional, lots to do with our beliefs.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and yeah, re-rewriting them in that respect.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: Rewriting how people sort of confront these beliefs that they've built.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's a bit like a limiting belief, I guess, right?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: So 100% that we're not good enough, for example, to earn money.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think worthy.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and you find that I always say, like, you have to imagine having a relationship with money like you would with a partner.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't want a toxic relationship where you don't know if they're coming home, you don't you can't trust them, you're feeling desperate.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: What you know, a healthy relationship is trusting them, letting them do their thing, dating them and giving them time, but also not smothering them, you know, and that kind of idea of how we have a relationship with money, you realize that there are money blocks or money beliefs that stop people managing their way in a money that's actually really positive and supportive.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it can be really, you know, self-sabotagey and like hold you back, whether it is something like I'm not worthy of money, or you know, my one was like it's hard to make money, which stopped me building my own business for ages.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it's all these things and beliefs that we have, and they're limiting because the ones that are holding you back are stopping you from yeah, managing your money in a way that actually works for you.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: I suppose from a financial planning perspective, it's these types of beliefs that are perhaps holding back the next generation of wealth, or in a different way, look at it from a different way, there's a big transition of wealth happening.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: So the next generation that might have built this idea, these money beliefs that are holding them back, they're not worthy, etc.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: etc., all of a sudden they're going inheriting large sums of money.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Those money beliefs might be quite damaging to their future if they don't burst that bubble or break away from those old limiting beliefs around money.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: You most coaches, I coach people, I coach people around not drinking alcohol, for instance, right?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: I've got lived experience because I was a bit of a drunk.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, so I I can genuinely relate to people because I've gone through the process.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us a little bit about your relationship with money then.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, have you gone through the process?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so when I did my financial coaching qualification, I as part of the process, you you get coached and you, you know, my relationship with money has changed massively over the years.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if I take it back to like when I was younger, like my family did not have a lot of money, you know, I had three brothers and sisters, mum and dad always worked, and it was always money was a massive stress in our lives.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: So when I got to 16 and started earning money, I already had a very negative view.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: When I got to 16 and started making my own money, I went the other way to my parents and saved like every penny.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: I became a complete money hoarder, which has uh sort of had a benefit in being able to save, but it was from a place of scarcity and lack.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then I kind of, you know, uh went, got a full-time job.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: I ended up saving 15,000 pounds.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I instead of going to drama school with it, that was the original plan, I went traveling.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: So on the flip side, I had this moment where when I was deciding between drama school and traveling, I was, I realized I didn't have to make the decision based on which one I could afford.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was based on which one I wanted.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I felt that like I experienced firsthand the freedom that money can have for you or give you.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So what that then led me on to once I'd come back from traveling and kind of got into the financial world is I have had the experience, both negative and positive, with money, the negative side and how it can impact your mental health and you know, poor management and money blocks, to seeing the positive side of money and it being a tool that you can use to, you know, create something amazing in your life.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And through going through my coaching qualification, I broke down my own money blocks around setting up a business and making money.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and now I'm in, you know, a completely different space to what I was before.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So my lived experiences with that that I've had quite a few.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I'm only 28, about to turn 29, but I have experienced both sides of it and also got my qualification, which took it to like a whole nother level, basically.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: Very cool.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: So you have gone through things there.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: And one thing I'd like to sort of touch on of what you said there, which stood out, was this scarcity, scarcity and lack of.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you created this belief around you were saving around scarcity and lack.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: So that is what you would class as like a blockage, right?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like a money blockage or a or a money, bad money belief or something.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: So that's an example of that.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: Can you just dig a dip bit deeper to explain that?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: Because some people might who save money might actually relate to what you've gone through and think, oh, I didn't think about it that way.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: So just give us an explanation of that.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, because I saw my parents, you know, they were working, yet we never seemed to have any money.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: I had a belief that money was hard to make and hard to hold on to, right?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that then manifested in a way as I got a bit older of because money is hard to make, I have to hold on to it as tightly as possible because I don't know when I'll next get a paycheck.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know when I'll next be able to get more.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I started, you know, paying for things from a young age.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I was starting to become financially independent quite early on.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the so saving from scarcity, I was, yes, I was saving money, which in itself is a positive thing and it's good for our, you know, overall financial health.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: But it came from a place of being scared that I didn't know when I would be getting more in, even though I had a full-time job as a team leader at Argos living it up.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I so I did have a salary, you know, I was in a contract, I was going to be getting paid every month, but it was just this fear that I wouldn't know, I would end up with no money, which would create a scenario like my parents were in, which is what I was trying to avoid.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Can I ask, and maybe this might be a bit personal, but do you think that you inherited your money beliefs from your parents, or do you think you created them yourself?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: So there's kind of two parts to your money mindset, right?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: You've got the money story and then your money beliefs.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Your money story is like what happened to you as a child.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: So what you heard your parents say, what your friends around you were saying in TV, all of that.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: They essentially, those experiences, your money story, create your money beliefs.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't necessarily inherit the same money beliefs that your parents do.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: You might, you completely might, but that's not 100% what will happen.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: However, what your parents have said in their money beliefs will have an impact on your money beliefs.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, we had a completely different um, really, money mindset in some ways, but it it fed into that.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And like, for example, I have three brothers and sisters, and they we all grew up in the same house, same parents, we all technically had the same experience, yet all of us, all four of us, have completely different view on money and money beliefs because of a how we internalized what we saw and what age I guess we were at, and how it then manifested as an adult as we started, you know, making our own money, etc.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, I don't think you inherit.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, I know I didn't inherit their beliefs, but they definitely had an impact on how I then went on to view money.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of like conditioning and environment, the environmental conditioning and like 100%.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: We definitely, I can yeah, I think we do that in all areas of our in all areas of our beliefs, don't we?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: Money's one of our beliefs, isn't it?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, we we have beliefs around everything and our beliefs around money.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very interested in this because I've never, you know, interestingly enough, I talk to financial advisors all the time, right?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't, I don't take time to look at my money beliefs.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think it's I'm and I I'm 42 years old.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not ashamed to say, sorry, 41, I'm not ashamed to say that I've only just bought a house.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Me and my wife and my daughter bought our first house.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, move in at the end of this month, right?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: I own I thank you.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: I owned a house before that I sold because I was in a relationship that broke down, and then found it incredibly difficult to get back on the ladder, building, you know, owning my own uh business and all of that typical type of thing.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: It has a real it makes it really difficult.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: My wife's not a massive earner or anything like that as well.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: So it made it really, really difficult.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I was held back all the time with this belief that I wasn't um everybody else could get a house, but I couldn't.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, people in my business, I employed, were buying houses.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I wasn't looking into how they got their money, because a lot of them were gifted money, etc.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then I had a resentment about that.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: I was resentful that other people had gifted money from their parents.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: And why are they going out and buying a half a million house?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I had this idea in my head I had to own like a half a million pound house, otherwise I was a failure.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I when I I went through just before lockdown, I put a positive on a house, right?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it all fell through.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: My wife lost a job and everything, and I had to walk away from it.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: And it it, I'm not ashamed to say, it nearly destroyed me.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: I was so um so sad.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: I felt such a failure.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: My self-esteem was on the floor.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: I felt awful, and I felt embarrassed and all of these horrible feelings just from not owning a bloody property.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think like, thank you for sharing because I definitely think there is a lot of people who have felt a similar thing.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the the feelings that we feel around money, like guilt, shame, embarrassment, responsibility, like all these really powerful emotions.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the one thing I would say, and like a lot of the time what happens is people attach their self-worth to their net worth, so the things that they have.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I honestly believe that when we can start to kind of like unpick that, it makes such a difference because I always say money itself isn't inherently good or bad, it's just something that's neutral.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yet it's the meaning that we attach to it.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I always said, like, for example, if you gave someone, if you gave two different people a hammer and one went and built an orphanage and one went and killed someone with it, you don't, you know, congratulate or put the hammer on trial, it's the person.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the same with money.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like money is just the tool.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem is, is we get so emotionally connected to a the money itself and what money can bring us that when you have situations like, you know, comparing to yourself to other people around you, does that mean they're more successful?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Does that mean they're happier?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Does that mean they're more financially secure?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean that they have X, Y, and Z?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we attach all these emotions and meanings to things that actually it's actually all in our, it's not all in our heads, but you know what I mean?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: There, it's more of a mindset attitude.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because and especially at the moment, you know, using going back to talking about houses, like I think, especially in younger people at the moment, there is a massive like societal belief that to be successful in Britain, you have to own your own house.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: And yet the irony of that is house prices are getting more expensive and wages are not increasing in the same proportion.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yet the the sort of dream and the the view of success hasn't changed.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's actually causing, you know, more unhappiness, more stress, more shame.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, actually, a house is just an investment to make sure that you know you can be financially secure in the future, but it's really good awareness for you to like be able to see like the resentment it was causing from your employees and stuff like that.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Awareness is key.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's the thing, it's self-awareness.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: And when those emotions come up, it's then to not shy away from them, but to lean into them and to explore where that comes from.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I love the work that you do there around that.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what a true coach does, it's really brings to the surface.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: All right, well, tell me what that fear is.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: Where's it come from?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: Let's challenge it, let's look at it, let's be inquisitive, let's go to the source.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: And more often than not, the the further that you dig and the deeper that you go, it does stem from childhood.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so much that stems from childhood.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and our views of others, you know, our our need to want to fit in.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we are humans, we want to be seen by others as being a success.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because if we didn't back in the day, we'd have been kicked out of the tribe and our you know, partners would have been taken from us and you know, we wouldn't have got the food and all that kind of stuff.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: So things like property and prestige, you know, not only is property a link to security instincts, makes us feel secure.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we have our own property, therefore, at roof over my head, it's mine, it's my non can take it away from me type thing.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, in reality, they can be taken away at pretty much any time, especially if you've stretched itself incredibly thin to be able to afford a mortgage that you can't really afford just to buy the house that you think you should have because others have got it.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like lots of people are in that situation.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: Has the house and the money made them happy?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: No, you know, because you can't because it doesn't property prestige and all that typical type of thing, money doesn't really drive happiness.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: That doesn't, it doesn't at all, does it?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, and I think that's one thing where you kind of I do a lot of work with clients around financial values and financial goals.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, when it comes to goals, when you are creating, you know, what would you like in the short term, medium term, long term, is it a house?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Is it to travel?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is it to have a family?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Asking yourself, is that what I want?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or is that what my parents have told me I should want?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is that what I want?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or is that what society tells me I want?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: The amount of friends or, you know, people that I chat to in my community that say, I thought I wanted a house, but actually it's just because my parents did, I'm gonna do this instead, or you know, whatever it is.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, like the goal side and understanding that it's what you want, not what someone else wants.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then from a value point of view, understanding what value, like what your key values are in life and applying that to your money and your spending and your budgeting.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, my top three values are adventure, education, and health.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: So when I think about spending my money, I like them to fall into those main three categories.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, like you say, you can reach these big milestones and then you go, I'm not happy.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, is that house or that big milestone that you've got feeding into your values and creating that joy, or are they so far from it?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like just that kind of like mindfulness with your finances as you're kind of going along, um, which I think is really important.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, bringing into the light, isn't it?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I think you know, it's bringing those questions that come up.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: And not, you know, I think everybody, if unless you're like proper on top of your money, um I think bringing any we all have a fear and an anxiety about money when it when it comes up, not having enough or you know, all that kind of stuff, or having it taken away from you, right?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's a fear, isn't it?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: A worry that you're gonna lose it.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, savers get worried about that.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Oh God, you know, like a hoarding mentality, isn't it?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: Someone's gonna take my money away from me, you know, that having that money makes you pretty happy.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: Buying this house, right?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I had a lot, you can imagine depositing these days, right?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: Fact deposit in my bank account.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: I did, I felt great.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: I did feel great having that money in my account.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: Now it's not in there.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm like, oh bugger, I've got to start again.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: But I reframed that and I said to myself, yeah, but Sam, you're no longer paying rent.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: You're paying into your property, right?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: Now you've got your property, now you've got some excess income that you can um money within your bank, a bank now, that you can start to invest in.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas before I was all about saving because I wanted the house.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: Now that money that I was putting away, you know, I've got two, two, you know, a couple of grand a month that I can now just do what I want with.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm really excited about using that money as investment.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's reframing.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I haven't lost anything at all.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm building up, I'm building up value in my property, and I've got an opportunity now to reinvest some money in a different way.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that when you think about reframing anything to do with your money, so obviously you went through that reframe of understanding why it is your saving, what you got off the back of that.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a goal for you that felt really aligned and good and exciting.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a family, you have a wife, you know, I'm building that financial security, and now this money can go elsewhere.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's just applying that uh frame of mind to the way, because personal finance is so personal.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's just about reframing the way that you yourself view saving or the way that you yourself view spending.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because for me, I always say financial well-being combines everything.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: You have to have, you want good saving habits, good spending habits, your mindset.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think sometimes in the financial world, people make assumptions that you should just be cutting back, saving everything, being frugal, preparing for the future, which I don't believe in.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Even people who have debt, you know, I have some clients that have debt that we run a debt management plan and they're like, should I not be paying off the most amount and just be living frugally for the next year?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, Well, you can do if that's the life that you want, but you still deserve to have nice things and you know, some luxuries in the meantime, but it's just finding the balance and not like viewing money as this one kind of size fits all everything you have to do things in a certain way.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like the point of money is so that we can live our best.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Lives, you know, we live in a capitalist society.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: We can't escape that unless you're gonna go live off the land and you know, grow your own veg and completely leave society.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds a dream.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds a dream.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I feel about growing all my own veg.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of it would die.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, like this idea of all of these parts making up kind of our overall financial well-being, all of them being important and changing, yeah, reframing the way you view those things that sort into your life.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: And some of them are as, and I say simple, but as straightforward as just, you know, uh, money is evil, money makes you greedy, money makes you selfish.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Very like societal beliefs, especially in the UK, can be as simple as reframing the way the role that money plays in your life.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Go, well, the more money I have, the more I can give to charity.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make me greedy or selfish.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: The more money I have, the more I can help my family.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make me evil, that makes me a good person.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And like, yeah, re-reframing it.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Love that one, reframe.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: I love that as well.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I just something you just touched on there.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I've just partnered with Talk Club with the Men's Mental Fitness Charity.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I told you about my financial plan of life academies, and any income I generate from the Financial Plan of Life Academies, I donate a percentage, 5% to Talk Club.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: So every time someone joins an academy and I invoice, I also donate the amount required for one man to go through eight counselling sessions.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm connecting also me building in an income through my business with doing good.
• 23:29
  unknown: Yeah.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like the people over profits mentality.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like it I like impact over income.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like impact over income.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's so that's definitely something that I would like to be able to do in my business and especially in women as well, where um we have, you know, only started to be a part of the money conversation in a much recent, more recent time because of you know, bank accounts and not being able to get your own mortgages and have your own jobs.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: So especially for women, there is this idea that um that that you you if you get money, you're you're like I said, all those things being greedy, being evil, being selfish.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it's looking, it's looking at from a different point of view and saying the more money I can have, the more I could put into charities, you know, uh certain types of businesses, independent businesses.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it allows that flow of money to not just help you and have you have a nice life, but to help other people.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be so powerful.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: You mentioned there about women and finance, right?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: And um you how many followers have you got then across all your social media channels?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, across all.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I've got about 20 to 25,000 across all of them.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: And are you able to sort of roughly give an idea percentage-wise, how many of those are female and male?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so on average it's about 80% female.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: 80% female.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: So more females are out there seeking um coaching or guidance around money.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: From a female.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: From a female.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because obviously I am female.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I find that for me, my platforms are heavily uh in the side of women, but I have some male uh, I guess they're not coaches actually, but I have some male, you know, financial content creators who uh have a much higher proportion of men that follow them.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's hard to say across the entire board what that would be.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, for me, my experience and who followed me is predominantly women.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: So let's look at that then.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: Personal brand, right?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: So you've built a personal brand online as a finance coach, right?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: You're a female.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: Do you do well done, Sam?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: We went to school.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: Did you set out to purposely attract women?
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: Or is that just something that's naturally happened from your personality and persona and branding?
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't set out purposely to only approach women or you know, have women in my community.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: What I have found is across all this has happened across all platforms, I'm far more likely to get a response or a comment or a DM from a man telling me what I'm saying is wrong, or um that I've missed out a bit of information, or that they've got something to add to it.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I know there's this whole mansplaining thing going around, but kind of, and it kind of felt like from my point of view, as I grew my platform, not as many men wanted to hear from me.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, that's a generalization because I have some incredible men follow me that I'm who are in my community.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: But in general, um, so I went through a period in the middle of kind of my journey where I did start to go, well, fine, I am for I am for women actually, because I work better with them and yeah, they're not giving me sticks.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of for a short period of time kind of went like women only.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then I I guess it didn't feel aligned because I didn't want to exclude anyone, because I was like, not, you know, not everyone is like that.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of that only lasted for a short period of time.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then I just went back to being myself, creating the content that felt good for me.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but but just naturally, I think off the back of my personal brand, because I share a lot online around a day-to-day basis.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm sharing that side of it, especially because I started out as a content creator.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think women naturally have just kind of been more interested in what I'm doing.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it wasn't on purpose, it kind of just happened naturally.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: Just kind of happened naturally.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: So prior to prior to being a financial coach, you mentioned there you were a content creator.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: So just very briefly, just give us an outline of what you were doing prior to being a financial coach and why you actually took that step into essentially going self-employed, two-footed into being a coach in an unexplored territory, a brand new type of um career, essentially.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's completely self-employed, right?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's in at the deep end.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: So head first, yeah.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: And it's brave, you know, um, it's unregulated, it's brave, um, but you're doing well, you're build, you're building an audience.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: First of all, you know, why why did you do that?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: And also, I want you to kind of follow up with that with what your content creation um experience has done in respect of helping you in your coaching business.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then we'll go further into um content creation, I think would be interesting.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: So so rewind like back to I was saying like when I used to work at Argos when I was 16.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was doing my A levels and I knew that I didn't want to go to university because it there I wanted to be an actress.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm gonna do drama, I'm gonna go to acting school.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: So when I left my A levels, did my after my levels in when I was 18, I went and got my first ever full-time job in a sales and marketing role for a marketing agency with the view that I would just save as much as I could until I had 15 grand to go to drama school because my parents couldn't afford to put me through it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: That was the plan.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then, like I mentioned earlier, I ended up going traveling instead.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then while I was traveling, I was like, I don't want to be an actress.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: I had a lot of friends in the industry who were, I kind of saw their lifestyle.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, once you've already had the um the kind of uh what's the was there's like a word for it, the golden something, but the uh the salary every month.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: You get kind of got used to that.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that went out the window.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, when I get back, I'm gonna start like vlogging and like blogging and creating, but I just didn't know what it looked like.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I set up an Instagram, I set up a blog, and I was just talking about like everything.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking about travel, yoga, food, money, and naturally I found myself just talking about money.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: I found it very I just found myself, yeah, writing more blogs and having more to say.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the thing that people wanted to know more about.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it kind of kicked off from there, like that classic case of I fell into it accidentally.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Then I was content creating alongside my full-time job for like uh probably like a year or two, until like I kind of slowly swapped out doing my full-time job and swapped over with um creating content.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then as I started to think, actually, this could be a career.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because honestly, I just started out doing it for fun, helping people with their money, making little money guides, you know, sharing my experience.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a friend go, you don't know you could turn this into a career.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is about two years ago.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, really?
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: What who would what who am I gonna get money from?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I got my first ever deal with the bank at that that kind of month of my life, I was like, oh, this could be a job.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where I started to transition into um, yeah, influencing.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then the push where I went from that to coaching was I started working with a handful of people.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: They'd message me on Instagram and go, please can you help with my money?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I go, yeah, all right.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I would like charge them a couple of hundred quid for like 10 sessions, and I would like help them do everything just based off of what I knew.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: As that kind of went on, I was like, I started to understand the financial industry much more.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, wanted to be really careful with what I was saying and the around financial advice.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, I think I want to do my financial coaching qualification so that I have the confidence and the knowledge as a coach to turn this into a business.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and yeah, kind of went from there, really.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: Fantastic.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for that overview.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: Can I ask, what does a financial coaching qualification actually do?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: What did it teach you?
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: And because I think there's people who work within the financial planning profession who are or who are wanting to work in the financial planning profession, they listen to this podcast, they don't think about the coaching element as much as, say, the financial planning element, right?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: So tell us a little bit about that coaching qualification and what did you learn from it?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: What what's you know, uh what what what skill set did you learn from it, let's say?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I so it is an unregulated space, right?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: So technically, to call myself a financial coach, I don't need a qualification.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think that'll change at some point in the future, but I didn't need it.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was something I chose to do for myself, maybe a little bit of imposter syndrome, being like, who am I to help people?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I want something behind me.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: There are a handful of places out there that you can get a financial coaching qualification, but the one that I did um was broken down into like a 12-week training session where you understood about the brain, you understood about psychology, you understood about why we make the decisions with money that we make and the emotional side.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then you also learn coaching skills.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: So how to coach, get bring, you know, the types of questions to ask, listening, you know, all those things.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a 12-week training program.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then off the back of that, we did these like mini training sessions with all the coaches that had gone through the qualification where we practiced on each other.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we would have like a triad coach, client observer, and we would all take it in turns.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you learned so much from seeing other people coach and being able to coach in that space without worrying, like, oh my god, I'm charging this person.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: What if I don't do a good job?
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're learning in the program.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it definitely gave me the kind of a the understanding around the emotional side of money, and that like it kind of ignited a bit more of a fire for the money mindset stuff, and then the actual coaching skills, because it definitely is a skill to to coach.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think anyone who is a coach or has had coaching, you know, you that you get asked a bunch of questions that you've never really thought about in the order before, and you go, wow, that's actually made me have moments like when my clients have light bulb moments where they go, Oh my god, I've never thought about it like that, or oh, something's just come to me.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've never really, you know, that is the mad where the magic happens.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: But all of the answers are within that person.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's just you being a coach and teasing it out of them.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, I learned, I learned that kind of side of it.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_02: Have you also found as well where I've where I've worked with men and I'm coaching them through their thinking and their decision making that are usually leading them down some bad traits, addiction, stuff like that.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: I always find that when I coach them, that's when my like my learning increases.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: So the when I teach somebody out, my my thinking changes massively because you're positioning questions to those people uh differently every single time.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_02: And in a way, you're challenging your brain to think differently every single time because there's different answers that you get responses to as well.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: You're not it's not just your own thinking, um, it's their thinking also.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: I I just find the more I teach somebody else, the more I help others, the better I become at my job.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um you find that as well with the coaching side.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like with every client, with every session, I am learning something new or like stapling something in, and you know, it helps me create more resources for other people.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you realize that like personal finance is so personal.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: There is nothing, even though there's themes, you know, um uh that that can be across the board in regards to maybe emotional spending or certain feelings, every person is so nuanced and has got so many different variables because it's one person's life.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: You can never assume that you have this person and their story and you know, all of that figured out.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: You have to every time show up, be present, hold that space and be open to potentially anything happening.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and yeah, definitely you learn learn so much sort of from individual clients I've had.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of you mentioned there, like so you obviously had a bit of a background there in content creation, right?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: So then you use that content creation to get yourself out there on social media.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: Gradually people started seeing what it was you were doing, started trusting you as somebody who understood personal finance and was reaching out and asking for help, right?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: So all of a sudden, lead generation, you know, you started getting in bind business, which is like holy grail, it's not when it comes to social media or Instagram businesses.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they want you want in bind leads, you know.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_02: So there's plenty of people in the financial planning space, right, that um are starting their journey on social media.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: They're starting a social media journey.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk a little bit about what you think they can do as financial planners to gain more engagement with their target audience to generate more in-bound inquiries that might potentially lead on to financial planning businesses.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: So tell us a little bit about some of the hints, tips, tricks, proven strategies that have worked for you and perhaps some of the ones to avoid.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, when I first first started doing it, like I, you know, I was making it up.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, there's just got some things that I want to talk about, and I'm gonna put up a post and hope people see it.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I'd be lying if I said a couple of years ago, some of the platform, you know, Instagram was a lot easier to be on a couple of years ago than it was now in regards to the way that your content got seen and engagement.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: However, it's still, it's not like it's gone absolutely out the window and there's no point.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like even if you're at the start of your journey now, there's absolutely still merit in getting out there and having so I've seen people with businesses who have Instagram pages that have half the amount of followers than me and have an insane amount of you know, inbound leads and sales, versus some people who have hundreds of thousands of followers and can't even make one sale.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not about the numbers, it's about how you're positioned.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a shop window.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're positioning yourself as someone who is knowledgeable, can be trustworthy.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I always say when it comes to creating content, you want to think about kind of like the three pillars, which is um inspiring, educating, and entertaining.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: So my content does all three.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: I inspire by sharing my story, my personal story, where I've gone from, where I've, you know, got to, and just general motivational stuff.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: Education is helping people understand what it is to be a coach, what it is to be a planner, and how that can benefit them.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I would do a lot of financial education just around budgeting and saving and tips, you know, how-tos, hacks, things like that, people that can implement them quite quickly.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then entertaining.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, a large part of my page was about creating funny content that would help people relate to me and for me to be seen as one of them.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yes, I'm a coach, but I still have these problems with my money.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we can all, you know, laugh at how you know you don't have much money left at the end of the month, but you drop 30 quid on delivery because you can't be bothered to cook, you know, like all those little funny daily things.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, your content doesn't have to do all three.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can pick mine as purely educational, purely inspiring, put you know, purely entertaining, but it's it has to feel right for you and what you're creating.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: I like a mix of all three because that's just what I've always done and it works for me that way.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: And they kind of, you know, are all part of the mix.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, make it you're essentially trying to evoke an emotion in someone with your content without giving everything away for free.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of the time, and this is something I've learned about social media, is well, never be afraid to repost and reshare the same content, just in a slightly different format or manner.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: People have to see the same thing over and over and over for it to go into their brains, especially if they've been a different way for a really long time.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: And this is part of like the money mindset work, understanding how 95% of our life is built up of these subconscious beliefs and autopilot programming.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: It comes the same as content.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you're you if you put a cool piece of content out there explaining, you know, what planning could do or what what their lives could look like if they acted in a certain way, someone will look at it and with their conscious brain be like, oh, great, that looks good.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: But then they crack on with their day, they carry on scrolling, you know, things get in the way, they forget.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's that repeated um yeah, content that people have to see to get them to really like embed it, and then want to do something off the back of it.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: For example, inquire, book a discovery call, buy a program, buy a book, etc.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_02: I like that.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: In spite, you know, one of the things that come up there was being relatable.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: You don't want because sometimes you see people, they look so they put themselves on such a pedestal that it's like, well, I I don't really want to contact you because you feel a bit scary.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, people when people feel scary, or even though they could be saying something that's totally great, it puts a invokes a bit of a worry that someone would is going to get rejected by that person if they reach out to them.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_02: And that relatability is key, you know, that feeling of someone like you're just one of them.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and like I always say when I talk about money, I say I talk about money in a fun, judgment-free and jargon-free way.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's one of the biggest bits of feedback that I get from people who say to me, um, that I'm relatable and they they I make money easy to understand and not scary.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I work with people who will come to me and say, I'm in£40,000 worth of debt, or, you know, something that maybe they feel was shape, or I'm not earning much at the moment, something that they would feel worried to be judged about, but you go at it from a point of view completely judgment-free, being like, that's you know, that's completely okay.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's more what you now do with this information.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: So being relatable and not feeling, not casting judgment over someone is so important when it comes to the financial world because it's because it's so emotional, you could be so careful not to come across in a way, like you say, that pushes people away.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: You want to invite people in.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're taking the scary, you're taking the scary exterior that money used to have.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: You're exposing it, aren't you?
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: And you're exposing our money beliefs and fears and worries and concerns, and saying, look, here's a safe space to talk about it because I'm talking about it, I've been through it, let's bring it into the light and let's just talk about these things that we've built up as being massive and let's pop it and let's let's let's simplify it, let's make it not so big so we can move on from it.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I think a lot of what you guys are doing in the money coaching world, and although it is unregulated and it has my concerns, I think anything which is unregulated has concerns, right?
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um fashion recruitment is unregulated.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, people say what the hell they bloody want to get business on the board, you know, and it's wrong.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I think how an individual an individual comes across on social media, how they present themselves and the things that they say, the fact that they get on video and they do talk about things and they're creating a following.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I suppose it's getting picked up by banks, other financial institutions, and they say, Well, this person's doing a great job, then they're the type of ones you should be following, not those kind of for X trader, I'll make you this much money in so many days, and all that kind of kind of nonsense.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: So if someone's like thinking about using a money coach, what would be your advice then to ensure that they are picking the right money coach, not the wrong one?
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think from uh a choosing a right coach point of view, you want to check out their social media pages or their website or what you know content they put out there to not only get a feel for them and see kind of what they're about or what their style is, or do you feel like you gel with them?
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the kind of more like do would we work as a coach and a client?
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's the kind of vibe I get off of them?
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then, yeah, you want to look at the more practical stuff like do they have a qualification?
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh who have they, you know, can you see any information about who they're currently working with, like brand partnerships?
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because you are right, things like banks and financial institutes that are um regulated by the FCA are only going to work with those types of people if they meet a lot of, you know, tick a lot of boxes and are doing things the right way.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: However, not all coaches are going to be doing the sort of influencer stuff with like brand deals and um stuff like that.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, getting on a discovery call with them and understanding how they approach it and the things that they say and how you feel when you get off the call and things like that is as why I always offer a discovery call.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: I say this is just as much about you as it is me and us understanding if we would work together.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, that would that's kind of probably the top three tips I'd say.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: Do you tend to go into things like testimonials and video testimonials and stuff like that?
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_02: Do you ever do that?
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I think that it it depends.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: So for example, like the I guess the place where you have to be careful with that is some people I mean testimonials, right?
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: So for example, for me, I am on a website called Vouch4.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it's uh the place that for like financial advisors and mortgage advisors, and they've introduced a financial coaching category, which is really cool.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I am on there, and that came through.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: So the the coaching qualification that I did with the money panel, they had a relationship with them and they want all of their coaches to be on there.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been amazing.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like you you basically get feedback from your clients or your prospective clients, and then it goes onto a website on vouch for and you can check it out and check out the coach if you can see that side of it.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you can see video testimonials, obviously that's amazing.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: Getting someone to do one of those.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: Not every client wants to do that, understandably, because then there might still be feelings of you know, not it wanting to be kept it private and personal.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: However, testimonials and case studies are um important as well.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_02: I see the future with financial of financial coaches joining forces with financial planners.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_02: So you've got the financial planning uh business where perhaps they might be looking at individuals with specific levels of investable assets.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because for a financial advisor to make money, they tend to have to be giving advice to people who have got decent levels of income to uh invest, or lump sums, inheritances, and all the complex tax and financial planning, all the complex stuff that they do with individuals that tend to be considered sort of high net worth.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: And the the Middle England type clients aren't being serviced as much as they used to from the banks, right?
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: So there's definitely this comp this this coming together of coaches and financial planners.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_02: And we're starting to see it with some of the firms where they're adopting coaching at the bottom end level.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: I say bottom, I wouldn't even call it bottom end level, but another element of their business is coaching, right?
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_02: What I love about that, and it's what you're doing, right?
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_02: You're val you're so valuable in the sense that you're talking to an audience, right?
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_02: That are at some point going to inherit a large sum of money.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_02: More than likely, they're going to inherit a large sum of money.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_02: But you're already building a relationship with them, probably primarily, I assume, by the way, at an earlier stage of their life.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_02: Are your audience average age?
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_02: What's the average age of the audience?
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so the average age of my audience in regards to who follows us me, follows us, follows me, is between sort of 18 to 35.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's the sort of age bracket.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and people work with me on a whole fall into that category for sure.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, right.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_02: So you're talking to 18 to 35s, right?
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_02: Traditionally, financial planning, unless that individual is inheriting a large sum of money or earns a lot or whatever, probably doesn't really see a financial advisor unless they need pensions advice.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: Even then, they kind of can go and get their self-invested personal pension plan through Hargrees, Lands, Lane, or wherever they want to go to, right?
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_02: And they're sort of becoming this DIY type of mentality.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: But there is this beautiful connection between financial planners and the coaches and how you can work in unison.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I think these financial planning firms that then adopt coaching and create these lower fee charging investment solutions or cash flow forecasting models that are kind of auto-executional but guided by a coach.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's a fantastic way to start to nurture those clients that are eventually going to become probably high net worth um inheritors or investors or whatever it might well be.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, have you got any views on that?
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_02: Have you thought about the future of your job and how it kind of fits into the wider uh sphere, if you like, of financial advice?
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I guess for me, well, I know we were talking about this a bit earlier, but like I I don't want to get my financial advisory qualification.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want to stay as a coach.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: And my focus is around education and yeah, that kind of the relationship with money, um, doing more talks and things like that, you know, going out, going out to the masses.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: But in regards to like a wider side, I definitely have a handful of like people um connections that I work with who we pass people either way.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if they need planning or advising, I and I I it's not for me, I would send them over.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if this person over on their side, they need more emotional coaching, it comes my way.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a handful of like partnerships.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: There is this like view of their to say now.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: So by the time they do inherit or they do become high-net worth individuals, they are looking to do that stuff.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's less lots about going to an advisor and investing their money, and it's a hopefully a more smoother transition.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that, you know, there is kind of work to be done both ways because the ideal scenario really is me getting into people when they're in their like university years, when they get chucked into university and they get given a loan and they don't know what to do with it and they end up in debt and helping people manage their money to not even be in such a poor position coming out of it.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: So a bit of prevention, I guess.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, I definitely think there's room for that kind of connection with coaches and advisors for sure.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and also, you know, let's say, for example, clients of financial planners have children, right?
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_02: But if that financial planning business also markets services to their children, like coaching, like you know, here's some coaching.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_02: This is like because most parents don't really coach or teach their children about money, that's evident, right?
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_02: So that service from a financial planning perspective, look, you know, let's let us look after your money, you know, mum and dad.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_02: And here is also in-house educational videos where we can start to market to your children, that builds a relationship then with their children and the brand.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_02: So intergenerational transitional wealth becomes far easier.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just putting my business head on.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_02: I can't make money out of this.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's good.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: I like it.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: I like I love when people have ideas like that.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: When you hear like one thing and you're like, hang on a minute, because as you said that, I was like, that's actually a really good idea.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great idea.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I definitely think that with um, so I'm gonna be doing some work with a uh kind of like a housing association, which will be content, um, digestible content for people to have for them and for their children.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a lot of conversations with parents in the DMs who were like, how do I make sure I'm not passing down poor money beliefs and poor relationship with money onto my children?
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: What do I do to avoid that?
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that obviously, you know, a lot of the people in general at the moment, you know, will say, Well, I didn't learn about money in school, and my parents didn't teach me about money, which was my experience.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to go out there and teach myself trial and error, seeing what kind of information was out there.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, at the time I was doing it, there wasn't really financial people on Instagram and you know, Instagram had only just kind of come around, whereas now it's really up and coming.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot more access to free information, but for there to actually be some kind of structure around teaching the value of money and how to manage it, there's definitely room for um that side of it when it comes to teaching children from a younger age, definitely.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_02: Perhaps like if you choose to ever have children, right?
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_02: That could be a book you could write.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: Money off of them.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why not?
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_02: But as you're going through your journey, yeah, teaching your kids about money, there was a guy I had on the podcast, Will Rainey, I think his name was.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_02: Grandpa's Fortunes.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_02: He wrote a book called Grandpa's Fortunes.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_02: It teaching it was teaching his children about money and investments.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's so cool.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_02: So Grandpa's Fortune, I think it's called by Will Rainey, I think.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_02: Became on my podcast.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_02: Check it out.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_02: But that was really, really interesting.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_02: But someone like you, I could see, you know, you were again you're relatable, right?
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_02: You're totally relatable.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I could see your face on a book.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_02: I do.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_02: Talking, but talking about, you know, look, I want to teach you, but you can teach your kids this.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's that simple.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_02: And why not start them off?
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_02: And as you teach your kids, you're going to learn even more.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then you can grow together as a family.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I I sit down with my daughter, and all the things that I've learned around mind management over the last five years.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I sit down with her every day and I teach her it.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_02: And it's wonderful seeing her grow and her adopting.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like, even like getting up and when she gets up in the gets up in the morning and she does like a gratitude prayer.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_02: She goes before she goes to bed, she does gratitude prayer and stuff like that.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_02: And seeing that and hearing it fills my heart, obviously, with joy.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_02: But I I'm getting her to develop an attitude of gratitude, which is one of the most powerful things I've ever learned in my life.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I think like the simplistic approach to just the money beliefs, etc., etc., is that you're instilling in and creating a belief in them at a young age.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_02: But then also that's a that's something that a parent can share with love and kindness to their child, as opposed to you can't have that, and you can't have this, and we can't, we can't afford it, and all the words that get used that create these unhealthy beliefs, right?
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think like two things off the back of that.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_00: One is that um a lot of the time we talk about money out loud in a way where we're not being very mindful.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes you know, you fall into a habit.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: I find myself, if I'm having one of those months, I say to my friends, I'm so I'm so broke this month.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, I'm not gonna invite that energy.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: Stop using those words.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've prioritised my money in other places this month.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we say things without realizing kids pick up on that, right?
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like little sponges, aren't they, from like zero to seven.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can start to instill these small habits and belief systems and attitudes towards money from a young age, it makes it a little easier for them growing up because a lot of the time you get to 18, 20, 30, and you're having to unlearn stuff.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're having to go, well, this is the way that I've lived my entire life, and this has been my experience because naturally, you know, we've got this thing in our brains called the reticular activating system.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: So when you have a belief or when you say something, your brain will actively filter through the world looking for those things, which is why when you say, you know, I'm gonna buy a blue coursa, and then suddenly you see them everywhere, your brain is doing that all the time with both negative and positive.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you're doing a lot of the unlearning from an older age, but if you can instill it from a young age, it's a bit like how easy it is for children to learn languages, you instill it from a young age, that will continue.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: Even if there's obviously triggers and changes, the sort of foundation of how you want them to believe, um, feel about money and act with money is going to have been kind of implemented right at the start.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you're doing them a massive favor because they don't have to do as much work further down the line on doing kind of the negative stuff.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_02: I love it, fantastic.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_02: What is your favorite social media platform?
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_02: Do you you know yeah, what's your favorite?
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um at the moment, it would be between podcasts, because I've recently launched my podcast, which is really cool.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it's in between podcasting and TikTok.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I video is my favorite form of content.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_00: It always has been, but in the last sort of year or so, it's definitely got a lot more like powerful video and audio is like the thing now.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: So Instagram, which was predominantly a photo sort of app, is now changing its ways to kind of be more like TikTok.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_00: And YouTube is starting to overtake Google in regards to searches.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we know that video is so powerful.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, obviously, I used to want to be an actress, of course.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_00: I love being on camera, but with TikTok, it's just like really fun, you know, you can do different trends.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to just pick up your camera, and where TikTok's at at the moment, you get a lot of organic reach.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you feel like you're getting a lot of like bang for your buck, you're putting in the work, you're getting rewarded.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, those two probably.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I but I'm I'm with you on the podcast front as well, though.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I mean, it's a bit of a slower burn.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and the sort of levels of audiences that uh that you might well be used to, say, if you posted a picture and getting like 10,000 views or something like that on a podcast, it takes a while to build that up.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_02: And don't get disillusioned by those lower numbers because, for example, right, my my podcast generates um around 6,000 listens and uh views a month, right?
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, it's kind of like it's a niche podcast about financial planning careers.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've got six thousand people in a room in a month watching and listening to me, uh, and I'm not even working.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's that's the powerful thing about it.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_02: And as that audience grows and they start to binge listen and they start to share it, and it becomes really, really powerful.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I get messages here, there and everywhere daily.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_02: I love your content, love it, love it, love it, you know, thank you so much for you know, it's a real insight into the profession.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_02: Before you know it, you're a household name within your super duper little micro niche, and you become that key person of influence.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_02: And when you do a podcast and you do it like this, where you can simply zoom, record it, you've got not only have you got video, but you've got audio.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_02: I can cut this up into individual social media snippets and put it out on my social media on any channel I want to do.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_02: It does become very powerful.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_02: And then you draw the obviously you hyperlink it back into your episodes, etc.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_02: etc.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_02: It does become really, really powerful.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_02: And the beautiful thing about it is well, because you can create short form content for the quick, you know, the quick scroller.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_02: He wants to eat, you know, watch something within 15 seconds, otherwise you're planet.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_02: Then you've got the individual that likes to binge listen, and I'm a person who likes the long form content.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_02: I get really interested and build the relationship with the re you know, the person who's on the podcast.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_02: I see it as a really, you know, a a long game, but a very the best thing I ever did was set up a podcast.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I only set mine up in August, yeah, August, like 5,000 downloads, which is cool.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_00: And like obviously that helps with my Instagram coming through and with all of the followers and stuff like that.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I it's one of the forms of content that I know people love to digest.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're always gonna see it because obviously if they're like subscribed and they have notifications or whatever, and it's building that relationship with them.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, for me, for my business, I very much see the podcast as a brand awareness and relationship building tool, as opposed to a moneymaker.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, some big um podcasts, you know, like Stephen Bartlett's one, he gets huge sponsorships, he gets a lot of money.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas with mine, my aim is to help people understand what financial coaching does, your relationship with money, and hope that should they need a financial coach or want a financial coach, they'll come to me and they'll go digest my content in other ways.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_00: But it's also such a fun way to create content, pull it out your mic and just chatting.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the dream.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_02: It is the dream.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the thing is, right, you're absolutely spot on, right?
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_02: The thing that's what I do.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_02: I get people that come to me and say, Sam, can you help me with finding a new job opportunity?
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_02: Can you help us with this, that, and the other?
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so we get paid, I get paid that way, right?
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_02: Inbound, inbound leads.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_02: Anybody listening to this who works in financial planning and you want to look at your career, reach out to me.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's what I do for a living.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_02: I own a recruitment company with 20 recruitment consultants that all specialise in it.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_02: So reach out to me, you know, and we'll find you your dream job.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be the picture.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, and I'll make money out of that way.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_02: But I'll tell you what's happened.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm coming up to like a hundred episodes.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_02: And and you know, the wonderful thing is I get to sit and talk to people like you, right?
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I get to start to thrash ideas, and I'll always remember you.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_02: I think you'll always remember me.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_02: And there'll be a point, right?
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I guarantee you this, I'll be picking up the phone tune saying, I've got an idea.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_02: Can I just pick it?
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_02: And like you build relationships with people who are confident enough to come on podcasts, and they're usually experts within their field.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_02: So you start surrounding yourself with winners, right?
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's like the amount of cool conversations and things that I've developed off the back of it that I know as well is going to continue to happen.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's the laws of attraction.
• 59:19
  unknown: Yeah.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, put yourself out there, but surround yourself with the right people on the right frequency, you're only going to attract good things.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_02: And a podcast literally catapults you into that stratosphere, into that dimension, you know?
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_00: I agree with that.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think also, like, first of all, they say, don't you like you're like the people you spend most of time with.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're surrounding yourself with good people and people that are, you know, have an abundant mindset or run their own businesses or whatever, it gives you that confidence to start to do that yourself.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_00: But also, like, I had a similar thing.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_00: At the moment, my podcast is just me talking because I was like, I wanted to establish it as my own podcast, but also do a lot of the education first.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then hopefully come the new year, I want to invite guests on.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that is to help my audience have a you know wider formula, uh lot of content with new people or different experts.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_00: Partly it's also selfish because I want to connect with people who are like-minded or have cool ideas or who I want to pick their brains.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of like a double whammy.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that you're right, the connection side of it, especially if you run your own business or you work a lot from home, you can really lack that connection if you don't actively make a choice to go out there and build connections, which in a digital world, um, you have to sometimes make friends in a digital way, um, and connections, and and and you don't always know how that's going to support your career in the future.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_00: You just know, you just trust that I'm putting myself in the right circles, I'm meeting the right people.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let life unfold.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_02: I need to watch, you know what I need to do more of is I need to put myself on people's podcasts.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I have positioned myself now with two really interesting sides of my business around financial plan of life academies and my commitment to attracting new people to the profession.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_02: And what that's done is that's allowed me then to talk about the profession, how I'm a conduit to that profession, and what I've created, which is financial planner life academies.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I can go on to lots of different types of careers podcasts and talk about the career of a financial planner as a place to go and earn more money, be more fulfilled in your career, have work-life balance.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_02: So now I've developed that.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_02: I feel that I've got a reason to go out there onto other people's podcasts.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm really looking forward to that.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_02: And the thing you kind of you didn't, I think maybe you shied away from it, was the fact that when you go on other people's podcasts, you're talking to their audience.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_02: So if they've got 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 people listening to an episode, that percentage of that is going to come and seek out your your podcast.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_02: So you're going to generate new clients that way.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: And that's and that's the bit that I'm really looking forward to over the next few months is getting out there on other people's podcasts and also going out and public speaking because I've just done this public speaking course and I'm going up to St.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_02: James's place and doing some public speaking there.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm going to build that up because you know, online is great, but tell you what, face to face, there's something else.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_02: When you go and sit in a room and you tell a story for 50 to 100 people, the connection, again, is just insane.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's it may not it may not be as explosive or as big as doing online, but there's something intrinsically within you changes.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_02: Difference between face to face.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_02: There's a there's a chemical reaction that goes on within, spiritual, if you like.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_02: You change because you've overcome a hurdle.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_02: There's nothing more scarier than standing up and speaking to people, right?
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, and I agree.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, first of all, in regards to the podcast part, I have I've probably been on maybe 10, 15, 20 of other people's podcasts.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I now get messages on Instagram or by email from people that have listened to an episode that I've been on a year or two ago because they binge theirs, then they hear me and they go, Oh, I'm gonna go check her out.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_00: So agree with you on that.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then in regards to like the in-person stuff, I am so the same.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like I love online, I think it's amazing that we can reach all these different people.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I've actually made them like some of my closest friends I've met through Instagram, we've connected, and now we're like real life friends.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_00: But there is nothing, you know, more buzzy and energetic than going into a room full of people and sharing your story or giving tips.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I did a talk last Wednesday, it was like a panel talk, it was it was loved it.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was probably like 60, 70, 80 people, and it was like a two-hour panel talk, and then we stayed around after, and I got to like interview some people, and I just came away from it.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I was it was late at night because it was a long, but I was so buzzed and so full of like excitement.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh my god, I want to do more of this.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_00: And where we've been locked away because of COVID, I definitely think there's gonna be more opportunity to do stuff face to face, and I think people take on what you're saying and connect with you in a different way when it's face to face.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna ask you some questions about the dangers of social media, right?
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we consume it too much, it can sort of alter our perception of reality, etc.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_02: What healthy things do you do to maintain and have some balance around your business when predominantly it's an online business, right?
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I agree.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like I definitely think we have to take into account the negative sides and the the cons of social media.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_00: I choose to, I'm very much a half-glass full kind of gal.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like I choose to look at the positive sides and just manage the you know, the negative sides.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_00: And for me as an individual and also a business owner, you know, my business started, like I said earlier, as a content creation.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_00: So when I finished my day job, you know, five o'clock, if I had my dinner, I would spend the evenings and the weekends creating content.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_00: My only focus was what posts, what videos, what topics.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I loved it.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was, you know, I didn't care doing it in the evenings.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_00: As I became to get my qualification and run my business full time, social media is a part of it.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_00: So before, like my business was social media, and now social media is a tool for my business.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't get to create all the time.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not, it's it's not all I'm thinking about.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, I have to have boundaries around how much time I choose to spend on it.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_00: Cause it is so easy to just pick up your phone and scroll, and before you know it, you're like 10 minutes down the line.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just about it being a time sucker, it's about what it's doing to your brain with the short form content.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_00: Our concentration levels are dropping, you know, if you're not hooked within a second, you're moving on, you want information now.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think even with TikTok, where they upped the um video length from like 60 seconds to three minutes, I would find myself watching a three-minute video that was engaging and interesting and be like, well, all right, what are you trying to just get to the end?
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, dude, three minutes is not a long time.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, come on.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that you have to be careful with your, yeah, your levels of consumption consumption.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_00: And like my one of my biggest things, and I'm still working at it, but it's not going on my phone first thing in the morning.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I did um I'm part of this group, and I'm doing 21 days of abundance with deep act chakra and it's like a one person manager.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: Just the group, and every day there's a task and a 10 to 12 minute meditation.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first thing that I'm doing.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_00: My phone comes after, you know, at least being half an hour awake or whatever.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, because I remember reading this thing that if you pick up your phone first thing in the morning and you're scrolling, you end up setting the way that you're gonna you want to receive dopamine throughout the rest of the day, which just blew my mind.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to be so careful because we don't yet know the long-term implications of social media usage because it's still so new.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have hundreds of years of like, oh, this is what happened to the cavemen.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I mean?
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I think understanding the role that it plays in your life and not relying on it is very important.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_02: That was some fantastic breakdown, a really good explanation of how you manage that.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so many good hints and tips in there.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_02: First thing I do, wake up in the morning, turn to gratitude.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm pre-programmed to go into utter gratitude.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the thing that I do.
• 1:06:53
  SPEAKER_02: I fill my cup up before I even get out of bed.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, in my head, I'm like, oh, I feel fantastic.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I get up and I agree.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_02: If I look, if I and I habitually said to my wife when we move house, right?
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not having phones in the bedroom.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_02: We're not having TV in the bedroom, it is a bedroom, and that is it.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, phone's gonna go on the other side of the room and it's not next to my bed because you are right, it does set you up for the day if you look at the wrong thing.
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_02: And also when you look at it at night and you look at it at night before you go to sleep, and it's on your mind.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I've sat in bed meant to be like chilling with the wife, right?
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm sitting there two hours work at like nine o'clock at night, and it's like, I don't need to be doing that shit.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_02: I can do that tomorrow.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_02: I can do it tomorrow within work time.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's about just um, especially as we've got a when you've got a family, right?
• 1:07:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's hideous.
• 1:07:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like I sit there on my phone, wife sits there on her phone, she's got like a jewelry business as well, right?
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_02: Online.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_02: Check it out, Wild Moon Jewelry.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and um, and then we're like, my daughter's like on on a she's six, and then she'll be on like an iPad.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I am that parent.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_02: I said I'd never be.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm just like that, glued to my phone, and it's like I've got to stop it.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_02: So um great advice and good advice to anybody when you're mixing work with um social media, there has to be boundaries, right?
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 100%.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a lot of friends who actually they don't uh work a job that requires any form of social media, and I have them, you know, on and off delete it, and then they're not on it anywhere near as much as I am.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_00: I am aware that sometimes I'm glued to my phone, but so much of my business is through social media, replying to DMs, replying to comments, you know, posting videos, etc.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_00: However, as a very creative being, which I think all human beings are, but it's how you tap into it.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_00: I really choose to reframe it as creating and like supporting my business.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_00: So when I do have boundaries around it, you know, I don't have children, I don't have a partner, I'm just living my best life, you know, in my own time is my own time.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I have to be really careful to not run over and like you say, just be sat in there in the evening and doing things.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_00: And and yeah, boundaries is key.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and reframing it as a positive thing, um, and also taking little detoxes, you know, little weekend away here and there where you it's locked away in a box.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_02: And you do notice the difference, your brain changes.
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_02: You absolutely lose it and you notice the difference from that.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_00: And your energy levels massively increase.
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_02: And attention.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_00: So many things, actually.
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so many things.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_00: Use social media safely, guys.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Laura, for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast and sharing your career journey as a financial coach and also just sharing quite deeply around your own personal sort of experiences and views around social media, what you've done, how you did it, and why you've done it.
• 1:09:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think anybody listening to this will really see the benefits of a financial coach.
• 1:09:33
  SPEAKER_02: And if they're a financial advisor, they won't see you as an enemy.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_02: And in fact, what I think financial advisors should be doing is reaching out and connecting with financial coaches because there is something there that has to be done.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_02: I said to you prior to this call, I'd love to run my own financial advisor business, and I see myself doing that in the future.
• 1:09:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be picking the phone up to you and saying, come and be a financial coach at my financial planning business.
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll be like, Yeah.
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I've got a coach there, right?
• 1:09:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's valuable.
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_02: You're talking to the audience that we want to talk to, you know, and they're the future investors.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and not to mention, and you know what I love about what it is that you do, and it's what's come across with you today is that you genuinely care about people's um emotions.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_02: You care about how they feel.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_02: There is a mental health attachment to this, a mental fitness, an improvement to move through these money blockages that causes pain and sadness, and we hold on to them, and you allow people and help them, guide them to let them go to be the best people in their lives that they can possibly be.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's admirable.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_00: I like it.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_00: I always say money and health are the two things that affect everyone, and they're very um interlinked between them.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if you've got poor health, it might have an impact on your money.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not managing your money well, it has an impact on your health.
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, they're both very important.
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I do, I do really care.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think, you know, I give this business so much of my time, and I'm excited to see where it goes.
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are a financial advisor, hit me up on LinkedIn.
• 1:10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, it'd be interesting to see where it goes.
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I do thought of something that could be really cool for people, really helpful.
• 1:11:03
  SPEAKER_02: I think you're gonna go all the way, mate.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Well done.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Great, Laura.
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much today, and um have an amazing day.
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.