Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / Tina Weeks on coaching clients, running a financial planning business, and how getting to know yourself will make you a better financial planner

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Tina Weeks on coaching clients, running a financial planning business, and how getting to know yourself will make you a better financial planner · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, and welcome to the Financial Planner Life Podcast, where we talk to professionals at varying stages in their career about what it's like working in the wonderful world of financial planning and financial advice.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is proudly sponsored by Recruit UK, a recruitment consultancy specifically focused on the financial services.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: They have a niche specialism, recruiting within the financial planning industry, so check out their website for the latest job opportunities, hints and tips, and blog articles.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And today's guest is Tina Weeks.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Tina Weeks, if you don't know her, is a financial life planner.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: She's a mentor, coach, public speaker, and a fantastic guest.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Today, she really delves deep into really what life-centred financial planning is all about.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: How she builds a financial plan around her clients' lives, their goals, their ambitions, their fears, and she really explains it beautifully so you can really truly understand the benefits of life-centred financial planning.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about Know Thyself, which is her brand new coaching group.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's on Facebook, it's already got 350 participants, so get out there and join it.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we find out what Know Thyself is all about and how it's going to massively improve your financial planning journey.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoy it.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hi Tina, and thank you so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Live podcast.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: Good morning, sir.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's all right, no worries.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I really enjoyed our first uh 30 minutes chat before the actual recording, actually.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: It was only 35 minutes, wasn't it?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know, we had a we had a lot in common, so it was really lovely to talk to.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And like I just said to you, um, as well, like I've I've I've seen you online over the last sort of 10-12 years.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've worked in recruitment.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you definitely are out there and you're always on my radar.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and your business as well has always been a company that really sort of promotes you know, um client-centric, yeah, life planning, that client-centric financial planning approach.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really always keen to get you on the podcast.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So um obviously, um, as I mentioned before, the podcast is really about uh the life of a financial planner, uh what financial planners are doing at the moment, and we're trying to raise awareness um of the profession so more people um can can move into the profession, which is obviously losing a lot of financial advisors.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So today is just really to find out briefly a little bit about your career, um, but also I just want to find out what you're up to and uh what you're doing at the moment and why you love the profession so much and what you're doing to change it.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So um, could you just provide sort of an introduction of just how you got into financial planning?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is that okay?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, and yeah, you're right, I do love it.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: I think this is a wonderful profession, and we have such an opportunity to make a difference.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's a real privilege working with clients and and seeing changes.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, I do love it.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um for those of you that don't know me, my name is Tina Weeks and I run Serenity Financial Planning.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: We are a firm of financial life planners, and that means we work in a slightly different way to the norm, in that the majority of our work is spent building relationships with our clients.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: We call it the relationship-based approach.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: So we use coaching and life planning skills to really help people figure out what they want to do in their life, and then we bring in the financial piece and the coaching piece to work with them and make sure it happens.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I love it because it's so fulfilling, and you get rewarded because you see the differences in people and you see people light up when they realize that that thing that they thought wasn't possible is possible, and it it really lights up people, and what happens then is it lights you up, it's really contagious doing this work, so yeah, it's it's it's a great privilege, as I said.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: So we're based all around the UK, we have offices around the UK, and everyone in Serenity works in the same way in this life planning, coaching way.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's the way I've always seen our profession going, and and that's really what how it works for us.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, I appreciate that that isn't the way that everybody works.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I started off in 1996, I think, as a tide advisor for Allied Dunbar, and boy, was that a different world, it was a completely different world, and it really was about sales, it was about how many of their plans and policies you could put in place.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: And although, looking back, if I think about it, the training was pretty good, and they were one of the few companies that really focused on fact-finding and getting that soft information from clients, it still was a money-making machine.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: It still was about getting clients to sign up and invest or contribute so that the numbers went up, and that's how you were judged.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I really struggled with that because you know I would spend a lot of time with people, it didn't always end up in sales, but then that meant as far as what you know the company I worked for was concerned, that I was a failure, and that really contradicted what I wanted to do and how I wanted to be.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: And from then I sort of didn't really progress, but I did become an IFA.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: So when I say that, it just means that it felt like I was just doing more of the same.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you were you were working for Lied Dunbar as a side advisor.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Product sales didn't really kind of fit with your ethics, then by the sayings of it.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: You were very much, you know, less product sales, more problem solver, more people person, that kind of thing.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, back then, obviously, it was how many, how much business you can get on the board decides on whether or not you're a success.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Helping someone if you didn't sell something.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you didn't sell something, absolutely.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and that's um really important to for anybody who's listening to this, who's thinking about getting into the industry now or the profession of financial planning is that the sales element of it, although you have to marry the two together, don't you?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: You have to still be somebody that can go out and be a business developer, bring on new clients, but a huge emphasis is on trying to kind of balance out that pressure, if you like, of trying to win new business by also being a problem solver and putting the client first in everything that you absolutely do.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and um, that's a kind of key thing we want to make sure that anyone coming into the industry, they have to want to help the client, put the client at the heart of everything they're actually doing.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: And we don't have to, you know, we're under no illusions here that suddenly sales, the word sales is a is a dirty word and has gone out the window.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely not.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: Every business has to be involved in sales.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Now what we're doing, we're switching the focus from the selling of financial products to the selling of a service.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: So you still have to be in sales, but now you're looking at bringing in clients, clients that are the right sorts of clients for you, that you want to help, and you build your business by providing a service to clients that need it and they're happy to pay for it because they get value.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a very different mindset, but also the same mindset at the same time, and certainly a lot less pressure because it's not just about number crunching by someone who's over your shoulder looking at you, particularly in um financial planning firms.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: It really is about well, and certainly in my firm, the targets that we have, and we don't really have targets, but the ones we talk about are how many people can we help?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: How many people can we bring on board and help?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's our focus, that's where the emphasis goes.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And is that also you know, yeah, and again, you know, you run uh Serenity, okay?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh your own business, you built that up.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you you had your stint working as a you know product seller, if you like, and then you moved, you mentioned that you moved into the IFA world as a you know for a period.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I was called an IFA, but actually what I did primarily was mortgages, right?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and it was you know the mid-90s, and it was really booming, and the phone kept ringing, and it was really hard to do anything other than mortgages in the environment that I was in.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it was great, and it while it lasted, it you know, it was a lot of fun, made a lot of money, and thought, you know, let's try this myself.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought I did.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I launched my own IFA business again, still had a big focus on mortgages in around 2003, 2004, and decided really after a short time that there this still wasn't the thing I was looking for right from the beginning when I started as a tide advisor.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: There was this thing that I was looking for, and through all these different um guises, I just wasn't finding it.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: I still felt that there was something missing.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: But a few years of doing that, and I realized I found um financial planning.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know what it was.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: I came across it and I thought, I think this would work, and and still it wasn't quite right, but that was the route I wanted to go down, and that wasn't until the beginning of 2008.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: So so interestingly, then, financial financial you found financial planning.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, listening to you, you know, you worked as a financial advisor, and it didn't feel fulfilling, if you like, in the type of role or responsibility within the role that you wanted, the type of financial advisor you wanted to be.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then you came across financial planning.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting how you separate the two.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, they're very different.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, let's let's let's sort of just quickly when I was a financial advisor, it felt like you know, there was a very much a conveyor belt attitude to clients.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: Get them in, sign them up, off they go.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: Get them in, sign them up, off they go.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: And and that was just the the culture that you know a lot of IFA firms had at the time, particularly ones like mine, which were uh mortgage-based, because it really was a numbers game.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: There wasn't time to build a relationship with that client because they were in and out before you really had time to discuss anything.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I first came across financial planning in 2008 when I joined the Institute of Financial Planning, and that was a bit of a revelation.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then literally a few months later, we had the credit crunch come and just slam crash bang in the middle of our business, and yeah, that was a massive eye-opener.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I'd been running a business for a few years by then, but this was the first time I'd really hit hard times.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, selling mortgages was almost impossible at that time.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we had um the lenders introducing dual criteria so you customers could go and get better rates directly with um lenders, and we also had much stricter criteria.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I found that in April 2008, someone literally turned the income tap off.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: And myself and my husband at the time worked together, so it was double troubles, it was really hard.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: We had two children in independent schools, we had staff offices, and suddenly no income, and it stayed like that for a while.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: So boy, did I learn a lot about how to run a business during that period, and I think that's a really good thing, you know.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: For if you look at a lot of successful businesses, they've had times when it's been tough.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they've had times when they've had to learn the hard way, and I think that puts a lot of business owners in good stead.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I look back and yeah, it was it was really hard for a long time, but I learned a lot.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: And in fact, a lot of what I learned during that period are some of the things that I go take clients through now.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: Things like how to budget effectively, manage expenses, you know, look at your cash flow, don't overcommit in the business.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: So many things like that that I learned are now bringing into the coaching work that I do with clients.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it was tough, but I learned a lot.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't actually till the following year in 2009 when I discovered life planning.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: And after all of those years of feeling like something was missing, it literally was a light bulb moment for me.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: I just learned to thought, This is it, this is the thing that I've been looking for, this is the thing that I know is going to make a difference because it took the switch completely off money and onto the individual, onto the person, onto that client that was sitting in front of you, that human being that was coming to you, with all of their dreams and fears and everything that was going on in their life.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: And life planning and the training that I did around life planning made me feel more equipped, made me feel like I could help that person much more than just make sure that they had a pot of money that was growing throughout their life.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think that's what financial advice does, it identifies gaps in what in what clients have and helps them fill them.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: And the ultimate aim is to try and build up a pot of money that's as big as possible.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: But what life planning does is it switches that.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: There's no point in building up a pot of money unless you know what it's for, unless you know what it's designed to do, what you want it to do, and ultimately what we help clients do through this whole process is discover and live a life of freedom.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: I know that sounds cheesy, but as humans, really, that's what we all want.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember those years when I first started working in this way, and I got I got quite a lot of criticism, Sam, and you know, you know, initially it was a bit of a shock, but after a while I thought I don't care because I know this is this is the thing for me.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm not going to change just because some people don't get it.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: And where are we?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: 12 years on now, 11 years on, and it's still the thing.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't changed my vision.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: My vision was really clear.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: I put it, you know, when I tried to articulate what my vision was, because I couldn't really see anyone else that was doing what I was doing, and I was trying to articulate it, and I struggled.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I still struggle, but now the vision that I have that I almost regurgitate at every one of our team meetings, and whenever anybody asks me, is that my vision is to bring financial life planning to as many people as possible so that they can live a life of freedom without worrying about money and at the same time build a really stable business that inspires, motivates, and supports everyone that works.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, money, money is a massive cause of misery.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and worrying about money is a massive cause of misery for so many people.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not unusual for someone to kill themselves, is it, over the fact that they don't feel that they're living up to the expectations of what they should be around money.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it causes huge amounts of problems, and it's a subject where we're just uh meant to assume that we know what to do around it, how to run our money, how to look after our future.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that stems from somebody who's who who's at a very, very early stage of a career, for example, to the most successful people, you know, doesn't mean just because you're really successful that you understand money, and and and it can have really dire, you know, dire, dire sort of circumstances that can happen in your life because of worrying about money.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the thing, the more I learn about this life-centered financial planning, the more I love it.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because to me, it's kind of like it's a well-being proposition.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I said this, you know, that within within financial services, there needs to be this well-being, that feeling of like, I am giving a service that's going to make you feel better.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to explore your fears, your worries, your concerns, and I'm going to take you on a journey, and that journey is going to lead you to think to understand a plan.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: I can't guarantee it, but it's a plan that will make you feel comfortable right now in the present moment.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to take away all those worries about when are you retiring, have you got enough money?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: How are you going to pay the bills?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: How are you going to get your kids to school?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how's your business situation?
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: What happens if you die?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the thing.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: If someone can see the benefit of that when they're sitting down with a financial advisor, not you're a crook, you're trying to sell me a product just so you can make some commission.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're on to a winner.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you're absolutely right.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's that articulation.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody can articulate what um life-centered financial planning well enough and communicate and also put that message out there to everybody.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not just an exclusive service to high net worth individuals.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is something you should be thinking about very early on in life, and I think it should be accessible.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you think life-centered financial planning, this life-centered approach that you love, how can it become more accessible?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, first of all, I'd like to agree with you in that, you know, money and people's relationship with money is a massive contributor to people's well-being.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know the exact statistics, but we know that worries about money and feeling inadequate around money, shame, guilt, fear is a massive cause of, you know, leads to a lot of suicides in this country.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: And it's heartbreaking to know that you know it doesn't need to be that way.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: So, what I'm talking about is not just answering people's questions that they have around money, but really exploring what their relationship with money is, because your relationship with money actually has a massive impact on your relationship with everything else in your life.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: And by shining that spotlight on where you are and who you are, and how you think about things, you can actually then make a decision about where you want to go next rather than the conditioning that we've all had to go in one direction or another.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: So, this way of working really is so much more than just being about answering people's money questions or looking after people's money.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: This is something else.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: This is about giving people some the reassurance and the security they need, and then taking it one step further to ask the question about what's life all about?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: What's the point?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: What are we doing here?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, are we stuck in the matrix or is there a different way?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and and what we're trying to do is help people see that there is another way and that they have the the, they have everything they need to take that direction if they want to.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Our job is just to support them to do that.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't give my clients the answers, I just encourage them to really dream big to see what you know what the possibilities are, and those things that they thought were impossible, we'll make a plan and we'll see and we'll we'll support that and to make sure that they go down that route.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter how old they are, Sam.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: I know you said it is helpful early on, and it is.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's a there's a big, a big question around why are we not taught this stuff around money in school?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's a whole new conversation.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: But throughout people's life, you know, I sit down with people that have more money than you can ever imagine, and they still worry and they're still scared, and they still feel what we call the survival emotions around that, and then what happens?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: There's a knock-on effect in every other aspect of their life.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about investing and trying to get as much money as possible.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: There's a missing piece here, and it's about life and what it's all about, and getting a clear vision in your mind about how you want to live.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: And nobody gives us permission normally to think about that, and that's where we come in as financial planners.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Our job is to give you that permission to think outside of the box, to think in a different way, and go for that life that you didn't even think was possible.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's very it's it's and this is the thing as well.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Again, anybody coming into the industry um and wanting to become a financial planner, this is the side of it I want people to hear.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because to me, it's it's it's it's marrying behavioral science and counseling and questioning and probing and coaching, or you know, so many different angles, uh, you know, sort of avenues to this.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just about profits and money, you know, it's about the person and the person's journey that they're on, their life journey.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: But is always there's always things that are coming up.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you mentioned it, you know, someone could be really successful, but they could be riddled with fear, couldn't they?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: They could be riddled with pride where they don't want to talk about what's going on, that they feel that they should know everything.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then you give them that safe space where you gently, I suppose, um, question and probe and get them to gradually unravel what those fears might well be.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're gonna come in with some solutions to the problems that can be catastrophic in somebody's mind until they release it and share it with somebody who has some expertise and can say, look, hold my heart, hold my hand, I'm gonna take you on a little bit of a journey and show you this isn't as bad as you might think it will be.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think perception, you know, I'll sit there, I've got a young daughter, I run a business.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was only during it's COVID's taught me so much, you know, it's taught me so much.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've looked at my business, I was never involved in the cash cash flow forecasting, anything like that within my business.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: I left that to my business partner.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: 10 years in the back of my mind, why don't I have that?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't I know this?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't I know that?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was in total control over that 10 years of being the person who could sit down and look at the finances.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: I had a complete choice to do that, but I chose not to.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And instead, I just chose to live in fear, if you like, of what might be happening because I didn't understand it.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And over this period in COVID, as soon as I sat down, looked at the finances, did a knocked up a cash flow forecast in like two days, spoke to like a finance manager who runs recruitment company, started speaking to experts about it, doing this podcast, for instance, and asking for advice off of people like yourself.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: My God, I feel like a different person.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: It and the things that I that were building up in my mind around money.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they didn't they they were far greater in my mind than they act they should have been.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it was m causing me more harm than good.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as I got it out there, as soon as I shared it, I felt calm.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I can see that benefit of what it is you guys are offering there at Serenity and what other financial planning firms that offer life-centered financial advice are doing.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And anybody coming into the industry, I love that that's the career you should be looking at, and that's the interesting part of it.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's the bit that would make me become a financial planner.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's a people game, isn't it?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a relationship side and it's helping.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I'm trying to talk to people as much as I can about this to show people that might be in the environment I used to be in, that was you know focused in a in a very different way.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to show people that are there that there's another way.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: And you mentioned earlier about working with clients and showing them solutions, and and that's a bit of an there's a bit of an art to that actually, Sam, because when you when you do this sort of work, you sort of are you're you're looking at it from two angles because when you're life planning someone, when you're coaching someone, you're really trying to get them to think for themselves and see things for themselves.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: And often people find their own solutions.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there are a few times where people get stuck and you might need to give them a bit of a nudge, otherwise they'll be there for a long time.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: But most often than not, people find their own solutions, people identify for themselves the path that they want to take.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: And the big one of the big parts of the work that we do is getting people to really acknowledge where they are now, and it might not be the best situation right now, but like you said, not looking at it, all it does is it creates fear and it creates um shame and guilt and all those survival emotions.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: And what we do is we end up beating ourselves up constantly because of a story in our head that we've made up, you know.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, and that applies to so many aspects in life.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: Most of the upset and the worry and the suffering that we feel is self-inflicted because we've made up stuff, we don't know the truth, but we've made up a story to go alongside it, and that causes us angst and it causes us all sorts of things.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: So shining a spotlight on where people are and getting them to really, you know, look at the deep, excuse me, look at the details is you know, I always say power in knowledge, knowing what those what that situation is, regardless of what it is, means that you now know what your starting point is, and you know that you can only move forward from there.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: And that's not always the case, but with the right support, it's the most likely outcome.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that sorry to kind of cut across you there.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: That sort of skill set around life-centered financial planning, you know, it's taught, isn't it?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: You have to learn that.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: There are certain aspects of your personality you might be more um attuned to delivering that type of um advice or questioning technique, and it might come naturally.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: But life-centered and you know, financial planning is something that you learn.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: If, say, for example, like um I'm speaking to a candidate and I put them into a company and they they aren't life-centered focus, they might never learn life-centered financial planning.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they might just pick up the habits or be taught the same, taught the same things that the financial planner is that they're joining.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, it's that kind of people have to understand that you you you have to come out, don't you, and learn this life-centered financial planning.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something you're just gonna get, yeah.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Who by the way, here it is, you know.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, that was one of the things that I heard a lot in the early days, Sam.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: That you know, it's all right for you to, you know, you're a woman.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: This stuff comes to women, you know, women are you know more predisposed to this sort of work.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think there is an element of that.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: Women you know, traditionally being the caregivers and the ones that are often more in tune with their emotions, are you know, do have that a little bit, but I don't agree with it on the main because I think this is about who you want to be, this is about what sort of financial planner do you want to be.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: There's no right or wrong answer here, it doesn't matter which one or which type you want to be, but if you want to be a financial life planner, if you want to have a relationship with clients where you use life planning and coaching skills to build that relationship and get the best out of that person, help them live that life of freedom.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: If that's the sort of planner that you want to be, then there is absolutely no reason why you can't learn these skills.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't about you know having inbuilt um abilities here that you only those that have those can use.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: This is about do you want, do you have the desire to work in this way?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: And if and that's the only, I think, the determining factor.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: If you have the desire, there are people like me out there and others that are you know really wanting to help you learn those skills so that you can be better at this and work in this way.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: Because the rewards are massive, it's not just your client that benefits, you benefit.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: You cannot do this work and not incorporate it into your own life.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: So many times I've sat in front of a client and I've really seen them light up when they realize what's possible, and every time that happens, that feeling that I can see that they're feeling is contagious.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: I feel it too, it gives me energy, it changes everything in my life because I'm helping them change things in their life.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's a strange thing to talk about in financial planning because we're used to people being technically able, and we have to be technically able, we have to do that piece too.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's the piece where we provide the solutions, really.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: But there's this other piece around the you know what we call the relationship-based approach that absolutely can also be learned.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that kind of emotional intelligence side of it, the questioning techniques and the reasons why you're asking these questions and how it fits in with the person who sits in front of you.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Understanding those instincts of self as well, the human instincts and behaviours that drive us.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think you said earlier, didn't you, the the drivers, the is it the nature drivers?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the things that that that drive a human being forward.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it's quite simple, isn't it, actually?
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: When you start to connect uh certain questions to it and life events to it, it becomes becomes easier, but you kind of have to you have to understand it and you have to learn it because at the same time as well, you're probably going down the pathway of asking some quite personal questions of people, and um you have to coerce those types of answers out of someone, don't you?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um as opposed to um just the right word because once you've that client in a safe environment, that certainly you know coerce is definitely not the right word, it's really about making them feel comfortable enough to be to want to share, to be able to connect with you in a way to know that whatever they say is okay.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things I realized when I started looking around at what sort of training was available for people like me, yeah.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: I did um the evoke training with the Kinder Institute, and I'm still, you know, I still use that work.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a master life planner, it's made a massive, it's been a massive part of my self-development and how I've developed my business.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_02: But when I look around at other coaching training programs, I can see that there's a massive piece missing, and that's why I've decided after many years that actually I'm going to pick up that mantle and see if I can fill that gap.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: That gap for me is a piece of work on the individual.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think before you go down the route of learning how to coach and work with people, there's a massive piece of you on you that you need to do.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: You need to understand yourself, you need to understand your own emotions, you need to understand the impact of your behaviours on other people.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: You need to be able to be in tune enough with yourself so that you can put any judgments, preconceptions, assumptions to one side.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: And whenever anything comes up for you in a client meeting, you need to be able to attend to it.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: That is a skill, and that's what I'm going to be looking at, focusing to give people on to give people the confidence to be able to do this.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: You talked about questions and asking people questions.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: This is so much more than asking the right questions, it's about how you're being when you're asking the questions.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's a matter it doesn't matter what comes out of your mouth if you're not being in the right way when you're asking them.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: And also, how are you dealing with the answers?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: If you've not done the work on yourself to be able to still hold that space for that client who is feeling emotion, then you're doing that client a disservice.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, what we're saying first, then is look at yourself before you start to help yourself before you start trying to help other people.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know yourself, how can you how can you know anybody else?
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: You know, position, yeah, to be able to do this work.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me a little bit about this, then Tina.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you you know, you you yourself have set up a brand new coaching business, haven't you?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I've joined forces with my own coach, actually, is a guy called Julian Danabitia.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: He runs an executive coaching business called Down the Corridor.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: And we've been working together on a while looking at this piece and how we we've realized that coaching is a bit of a buzzword in our world right now, and I think quite rightly so, because this relationship piece can make such a massive difference to not just the person you're sitting in front of, but like I said earlier, yourself, but also your business.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, this is how we future-proof our businesses.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: So much of what financial advice is about is now being commoditized.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: The one thing you can't commoditize, not yet, is human relationships.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: So we've decided that let's, you know, we need to support people in this world to be able to, in our world, I mean, to be able to deliver this effectively and feel confident in taking the client down that rope.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: So we've launched a new coaching business, a training business called Know Thyself.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: And at the moment we're building a community on Facebook.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: So please come and join us.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's called the Know Thyself Academy, and we're going to be sharing a whole bunch of stuff with people to really help them start to implement this work into what they do.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's for all professional advisors, but primarily financial planners who get that financial planning needs to have this client-centred approach, but often don't know where to start.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: And often they'll go do a coaching course and come out still none the wiser because they haven't done this piece on themselves and don't have the confidence to take what they've learned and go and deliver it to clients.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: So, what we're trying to do is put training in place that is in alignment with other coaching programs, either coaching training or life planning training.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: It gives people this extra piece that enables them to take that forward.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: But it also works for people that don't have any experience in this at all.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we talked about those people that are still in the old world.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_02: If they want to make a jump to this other way, and there is another way, if they want to make that jump, that's what we want to help them to do, to provide the support and the training, the development to be able to do that effectively in their businesses.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you've created that online community as well, where I assume that anybody that does the Know Thyself uh coaching course can log into the community and ask questions and learn off of each other at the same time as well.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there's almost like a tribe element to it.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's a Facebook community, so it's gone a bit faster than we were expecting.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_02: So we're thrilled about it.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: But at the moment we're all on Facebook, we're in the process of getting our website up and running, and our training programs, our formal training programs, should be launched in a few weeks.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: But in the meantime, we're running free introductory sessions on the Facebook group that anybody can come and be a part of.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so just just run me through again then.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: What should some what should a financial planner or a financial advisor expect from the know your know thyself coaching course?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: They should ex well first of all they have to be open to it, you know, because like we were saying earlier, you can't do this work if this isn't who you decide desire to be, if you want to be that sort of planner.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the first step.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I get it isn't for everybody, and that's fine.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: But if that's who you are, what we want to do is show you the way, show you what you need to do, that initial piece about self-inquiry, looking at yourself and doing that development piece on yourself, then how to actually take that, marry up with some great coaching techniques and skills that you can use to bring that relationship-based approach into your business.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then we're hoping later down the line we can also bring in business consultancy that allows you to build a business based on these relationship-based principles.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: So we're going to take people through that whole process, do the piece on yourself, the piece with the clients, design your client proposition around that, and actually look at the whole business, how you incorporate that into a business and build a business that is really future-proof because it's not relying on you selling products, it's relying on you providing a service that everybody needs.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, fantastic.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, financial advisors from all walks of life uh, if they want to do it, are joining up, obviously, and they want to take on this.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody's welcome.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: This this approach.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um, what a great place as well for anybody just starting out in their career to kind of really get their head around this life-centered financial planning relationship approach.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so definitely somewhere where some new newbies as well, as well as experienced advisors should head.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: And um sort of what sounds to me, you know, I can't say it because I've never worked as a financial planner, but it sounds the right way to give financial, you know, financial planning.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it's it's very current, it's very falls in line with the health and well-being market, doesn't it?
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the you know, and um certainly and certainly a great approach there.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's really interesting as well is you you yourself, you obviously run a business, don't you?
• 36:24
  unknown: Yeah.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you're a life-centered financial planner, you've been running your business for what, good 11 years now, Serenity, is that right?
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, actually, I started running businesses in 2003.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I've seen various guises along the way, but Serenity in its current form has been running for about yeah, 11 years or so.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that was like that was born out of this life-centered financial planning approach.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you've taken that approach, you had that idea in your head, this I want to do it a different way.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: You did your kinder approach, and you set up the serenity, and you always, from that the start of that business, always had this life-centered financial planning approach, then.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that vision that I uh spoke about earlier, that's been in place from day one.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: We call it financial life planning.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: That was the words that we used in those days, and they're still, you know, they still work now, even though now we've looked, you know, we have different people now call it lifestyle financial planning or life-centered financial planning.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure if it's exactly the same thing.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_02: All I know is what I do, and that it's very much incorporating a relationship-based approach into this way of work, into our work, into financial planning.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you obviously employ financial planners within your business as well, and they have, and what's their sort of response, you know, when they sit down with you in interview, and then perhaps their first three to six months, is their response positive?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think you're gonna say it's positive.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd like to understand how different perhaps you know, have you taken many financial advisors from another company?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: They've joined you and gone, wow, this actually is really good.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: Have you had some newbies start that think, wow, you know, I didn't realise that financial planning was this way, and this is the types of conversations I'd be having with people.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, tell me about your experience of hiring financial planners in and how your life-centered approach is um benefits your business and the guys who work in it.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, first of all, I have both employed and self-employed advisors in my business.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and and that's another big conversation we can have another time, but for that we have, you know, we have both types.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_02: And for me, the most important thing is that they are the right sort of people, that they believe what we believe, that our values are aligned.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: There's no point in anyone joining a firm where they don't agree with the way that they work, and I get that the way that we work is slightly unusual and and not the norm.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, to be honest with you, Sam, most of the people that are in my business have come to me, and they've come to me because they're aware of this approach, and there aren't that many places for them to go, really.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm very you know lucky that they come to me, and people that I work with all believe in this way of working, so that there's never really any surprises when people join Serenity.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_02: We are a financial life planning firm, that's what we're all about.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: Life planning has always been at the centre of what we do, that's what we focus on much more than anything else.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: And as a group of people, I like to call us a cooperative.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: We get that this self-development piece is an ongoing piece, it's a never-ending piece.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we do it together.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: So we all we you know, when we get together, we we look at how we can develop ourselves to be better, do this better, understand this better, learn from each other, learn from cases that are ongoing at the moment, do role plays, go through training sessions.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: I often deliver a lot of the concepts through our team meetings, and actually often we include the support team as well, because it's important that they understand the way we work and what's important to us.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_02: So that that has meant that over the years, Sam, I have struggled to recruit because people don't know about this, so they don't look for it.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: And often when I've been presented with candidates that have no idea, sometimes it's just too big a leap to make.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: Often it helps if they have some idea of this beforehand, or at least once presented with it, very keen and open to it.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like a bit of research, a bit of research, at least into what it actually is and why you do it, as opposed to sort of turning up, sort of scratching their head and not really having a clue.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: Are they the sort of people that are like us?
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's really hard to work with people that don't believe what you believe, and that's always the starting point for me.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a big is that part of you know, from a hiring perspective?
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a big because obviously you run your business, and some people are going to listen to this podcast who are maybe thinking about running their business or looking to grow their business?
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is one of the biggest struggles that you come across is trying to get the right mindset or the right personality fit for your business?
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: And is that a difficulty for you?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, and I've had to kiss a lot of frogs along the way.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_02: I have had I've had some bad hires, quite a few in my years, people that you know, maybe in the early years that were brought in because I had my own fear around certainly after what happened in the credit crunch, and now I'm building a business in a recession.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: I had fears around cash flow and making it work, and is this the right way of doing it?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_02: And nobody else is doing it, and what if I it doesn't what if I completely fail at this?
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I think those fears were the drivers for me taking on maybe some people in the early days that were days that weren't quite right, but I felt might contribute to cash flow, and that is what happened.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I guess you know that worked a little bit, but the reason people those people didn't stay was because that alignment wasn't there.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say to anybody that's a financial advisor right now, and they're you know, perhaps they might be employed, um, but they've got that deep burning desire to run their own business.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: What advice would you give them for their first year of running their own financial advice practice?
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's so funny because I was actually helping out someone yesterday who is in an organization at the moment that she doesn't want to be in, and she's looking at what her options are, and one of them is you know, we talked about two options.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_02: If you're in that situation, you either find a firm that is completely aligned to your belief system and you go and work with them and you build your business within their business and you work together like Serenity, or you start up on your own, and there's so much to take into account.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we probably need three more podcasts now to think about what someone would need to be able to run their own business.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_02: But the first thing I think they need to decide is is that actually what they want?
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: What do they want to do?
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_02: Do they want to be a business owner?
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_02: And certainly if they're starting from scratch or on their own, they'll have to wear every single hat.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't know if you're familiar with the e-myth, and you know, they build an organization chart and you list out all the different roles in an organization, even if you're just one person to start off with.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_02: So you you build up this organization charge and you have all these boxes of you know, accounting and marketing and compliance and client work, and you have all of these roles, and you put your name into every single box to start off with.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: And over the years you might find that some a different name goes into one or two of the boxes, but that's all you've got to decide.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: Are you ready for that?
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously, in a regulated world, there's so much more to take into account as well, because you need to jump through all the hoops that the FCA puts in place.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: You need to make sure you can get professional indemnity insurance, you can make you have to make sure that you do all the things that you need to do from a compliance and a regulatory point of view.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: Are you the sort of person that wants to do that?
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_02: If yes, please do.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_02: We need more people running these sorts of businesses.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're not, find a firm that you're aligned with.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: And go and tick, go and talk to them.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: But do something.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_02: Don't stay where you are.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_02: I remember some, you know, when I think about some conversations that I've had with my own coach when I've been stuck and not really sure where to go.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: And he said to me, What's the worst thing that could happen?
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: And we always come back to the same archers.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: The worst thing that could happen right now is nothing.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: The worst thing that can happen is I'm still in this situation a few years down the line, and nothing's changed and I've wasted those years.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: So action normally is what we're looking for.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's what coaching actually is.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's about helping people see what they can't see, take action and move forward.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: And this work that we talk about when we when we talk about the relationship-based approach in financial planning that we do with clients, it applies to every aspect.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_02: So if someone's from if it's another financial planner that's coming to me and asking me how to move into what into this way of working, those are sorts of questions I'll ask them too, to get them thinking.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is what I'm saying, you know.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: They should, you know, a financial advisor perhaps is in that situation, should really know thyself and go and see you and and and get some coaching from you because that's a massive part, isn't it?
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's looking at what where you are in your career and what you want from it.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what's what what's the future look like for you?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: What is what is your goals?
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want to achieve?
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's a big part of knowing thyself, and that's great.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: And your coaching, by the sounds of it, should hopefully transcend that as well to to allow them to make that clear, you know, right, okay.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, actually, now I do need to set up on my own, otherwise, I'm going to sit here in the same position for the next two years doing exactly the same things, thinking exactly the same way.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_02: And not on your own or find a firm that you're aligned with.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_02: And what I've always said is, you know, go out there and do some research.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_02: You can easily see who's doing what, what firms are working the way that you would like to work, and go and approach them.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_02: Over the years, I've had so many people say, you know, can you just help me out?
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: Can you give me some pointers?
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_02: I can't do it so much these days, as much as I'd like to, but people are always receptive, and it's really impressive actually when you when you've got that desire and you go and approach people and ask for help, you'll be surprised how many people say yes.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, a hundred percent.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um, with the sort of dawn of everybody being a bit well, not everybody actually, people are starting, there's adopters starting to do this, which is working on your personal brand.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you can it's it's quite simple to put together your own little website, you know, get your social media out there and everything along those lines.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can work with outsourced freelancers and on a very cheap basis to be able to get good regular content out there, jump on podcasts and whatnot.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: So working on that personal brand of who you are, it it's very trendy at the moment and it's something that's growing within financial planning.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're seeing more of it.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: People becoming more social retail, you know, social sellers, aren't they, if you like, or social planners.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're giving away free advice all the time online and everything along those lines.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: But again, you know, again, if you don't know thyself, you know, if you don't know what it is that you want to do, if you don't have a really clear, confident uh structure about how you deliver your financial planning, then it's just gonna fall on deaf ears, there's a load of noise, and you're not really gonna get anywhere.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think again, that's that fear, isn't it?
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's that step away from being the security say of being employed to setting up your own your own business.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be confident that you're gonna go do it.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you hit the nail on the head.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've helped many a financial planner, you know, transcend from being employed to to self-employed.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I've even taught them through my experience of running my recruitment business, how many hats you have to wear.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and there are obviously networks and different nationals that will take away a little bit of the pressure for you, the compliance and uh some of the marketing and stuff like that.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, it's good advice that is.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think um definitely that coaching element of it is, you know, personally from my own personal experience as well, anything where I've gone away and did some coaching, it's just made me feel so much calmer and and um clearer in my in where I where I want to actually go.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it works the same with financial.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_02: At the end of the day, Sam, we all just want to be heard, don't we?
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_02: Give us their attention and be someone that someone who's got your back, someone who really really wants you to succeed, and really I think that's what coaching's all about.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_02: And if you it breaks my heart sometimes when I see Sam, how many people are stuck in an environment?
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not just work in any environment, stuff, it's somewhere that is really making them unhappy.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: And if I can help people see what they can't see so that they can find the courage to take action and move forward and live a different life, how privileged are we to be able to do this work?
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm, no, absolutely, one one 100%.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: If someone joins Know Thyself, your your coaching business, do they get sort of regular one-to-one coaching from you, like over the phone?
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you mentioned about the Facebook community.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: And again, sort of we've only been going two weeks.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: We literally, literally, we launched, we've just launched a we were waiting to get all our ducks in a row.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things I've realized in business, don't wait to get all your ducks in a row.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just get stuck in.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_02: Just get stuck in because along the way, you'll figure out what you need to change, what people want, what you need to adapt to make sure that your offering is spot on.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_02: So we just launched with a Facebook group.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_02: We just wanted to see is there an interest?
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_02: Is there, you know, do people want this?
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I think we're as of this morning, over 320 members in a couple of weeks.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_02: So that's given us the you know, the energy to think, right, there is a market for this.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_02: People do want to be like this, people do want to work in this way.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, in the community right now, there's just a lot of chat and a lot of introductions, and people telling us their story, which is beautiful to see, but also we're going to start off with just having some introductory sessions, free of charge, just telling people really what this is all about, what the first step is to understanding yourself and how you can work on yourself in preparation for launching paid training programs a little bit later on where we can really engage people and start doing the work properly.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, cool.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think it's great.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's wonderful, fantastic.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_02: Very excited about it.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it sounds really it sounds really exciting, and and I and I like your approach to to it as well.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's exactly the same as myself.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: I like I like to get I like to start something and just go on the journey, and as you naturally go on that journey, things start to change and evolve.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, very very much, you know, in the very, very beginning, you have this kind of vision, don't you, of what you're going to do, and it changes like every month by month by month.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think so.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, one of the things I've always felt is that you know, my I'm here to serve.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_02: I want a life of service, I want to be of use to people.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_02: And that's something I think that hopefully people can see in this new venture.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_02: That you know, if I if I'm here to serve, I have to listen to what people need.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: And if like I said, if I waited to if we waited to get all our ducks in a row before we launched it, we don't know what people want.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_02: We will adjust, we will make sure that we give people what they need, and sometimes that means you know, building your business as you go along and adapting.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I I like to think that you know adapting and being able to adapt is a really fundamental trait for a business owner.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_02: If you can do that and you're constantly adjusting to what your members, what your clients need, then that's a really good recipe for success, I think.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_02: I hope.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_02: Fingers crossed.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it sounds like it's to me.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's sounds very positive.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's worked for you and it's working for a lot of other people.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I wish you all the best on that coaching, and um, and it sounds exactly what the industry needs.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much, Sam.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's been really exciting being able to have this conversation with you.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: Good, I'm pleased.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Tina, thank you so much for your time today.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and um, we'll get that podcast out and get it released.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: And um, what we'll look to do as well is just um tell everybody about your coaching, okay, and get everybody to come and join your Facebook group.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'll probably add the link when you put the podcast.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'll pop up I'll grab the link from you and we'll let all the listeners know and we'll get that shared on LinkedIn and get that profile raised.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_02: But people don't have to be UK based, just to say, anywhere in the world.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_02: Is that right?
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_02: Anyone who wants to work in this way, you're welcome.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm definitely making uh make make um everyone aware of that.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: Tina, thank you so much for your time.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: We'll take no more of it and um good luck with everything and thank you for your time.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Sam.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_00: Cheers, Tina.