Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / Overcoming Limiting Beliefs to become a Financial Planner - Sara Davies

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Overcoming Limiting Beliefs to become a Financial Planner - Sara Davies · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:04
  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.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is proudly sponsored by Recruit UK, a recruitment consultancy specifically focused on the financial services.
• 0:25
  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.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, it's Sam Oakes here at the Financial Planner Life Podcast.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: I hope everyone's well.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And today's guest is Sarah Davies.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sara is a financial planner and she works on a self-employed basis.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: She's quite new to the profession.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is a second career for her.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we dig deep into why she chose financial planning.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: She's working as a self-employed financial planner for DWJ Wealth Management.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: At the forefront of that company is a female.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's very rare to have women in directorship leadership roles within the financial planning profession.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we talk about the benefits of that.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: We also talk about what it's like for Sarah being a female in a predominantly male-dominated profession and how that's changing.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely open and honest conversation with Sarah.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's really going to be interesting to those that are looking to transition from one career to another.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoy it.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sara, thank you so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Really good, thanks.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: How are you, Sam?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Very well.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very good.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very good.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Monday morning.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a bit mental.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to look after my daughter, six-year-old.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't plan my Monday very well around it because it was the very last minute that my wife was going away.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of picked up my phone this morning, looked at my diary, and I was like, ooh.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a busy old day.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: So my daughter is currently sat outside the window doing some colouring like a good girl.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if you see me look away ever so slightly, it's because she's pulling faces through the window, more than likely.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: She's very playful.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh bless her.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully you've bribed her with some treats.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to wear her out because Monday is our PT day.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So here at Recruit UK, I've I've got a friend who runs a gym.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we do uh hit session.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: So anybody who wants to do that, Lurie, for example, usually joins us, you know Lurie.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we all go down and get very hot and sweaty doing a hit session.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I've said to her, and we're gonna do it in the park today.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I've said to her, if you're a good girl at 11 o'clock, you can come and show all the boys and girls how to do it.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really good way to wear a great tactic.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, you're gonna get her accidentally exhausted.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Sarah, like I said, thank you so much for joining me today.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Financial Planet Life podcast is all about the careers of those that work within the financial planning profession with an aim of attracting new people, um, sharing the realities, the ups and downs, what it's like to work in the profession, how to get into it, why you got into it.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Your personal journey should inspire those thinking about joining, and even those that are in the profession already.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, lots of listeners, uh, power planners, administrators, financial advisors, employed, self-employed.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I get messages all the time thanking me for the guests that share their journey and their experiences because it teaches them.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what it's all about.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's been lacking in the financial planning profession over the years, and that's why I believe there is a shortage, you know, because no one knows about it.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk a little bit about your journey, you know, what you did before you got into the profession.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: You're quite new to it.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as a female, why you chose the profession and what believe what you believe might be the opportunities for you as a woman within financial planning.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, talk about some of the things you're passionate about, such as financial education and why financial education is important to you.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a really uh uplifting and uh enlightening part of the job of a financial planner.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just about here's a product, let me let me make you some money, or here's a product, let me save you some money.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's a whole well-being side to understanding your finances, bringing out of the darkness and into the light your money uh beliefs and changing them because it causes stress and it causes anxiety, doesn't it?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Has done in my life anyway.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: I can relate to that.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, Sarah, I always have to kick things off with understanding why you got into the financial planning and what were you doing beforehand.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us a little bit about your journey.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: How did you end up in the world of financial planning?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, okay, so probably not the most conventional route, I suppose.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um I was previously, I previously worked in finance, but from a risk perspective.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I worked in um one of the big four um auditing firms, but again, not in an advice role, not in sort of a sales role or anything like that.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like I sort of hit a wall with my career quite early on.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was around 26, 27, and I just felt a bit burnt out, a bit, you know, looking for new challenges, and it kind of everything I sort of come up against, just it just didn't feel like enough, um, if that makes sense.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd always sort of had my eye on sort of financial planning and wealth management.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that's quite a strange thing to hear, like you said, because it's not known about.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I guess that goes back to sort of when I was younger.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: I I very randomly just come across a company that in my hometown in Cardiff that were financial planners.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'd looked it up and I thought, well, that sounds cool.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: This was years and years ago.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't that much of a flippant decision getting into it, but that was that was how I come across it.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I just, it kind of always just stuck in the back of my mind and um went from there really.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, worked in um worked in an auditing firm, you know, masses of opportunity, but it just didn't find the right opportunity for me, really.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of how it sort of came about.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pause there because people listening to this podcast might well be considering a move, a change of career.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: They might be in an environment where they're earning a good salary, the security of a big pay package, benefits package, perhaps the backing of a large firm they're working with, different routes, different opportunities within it, but just don't feel fulfilled.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: They don't feel happy.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to us a little bit about that.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: What did it feel like to you?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how could somebody identify with that feeling of was it burnout?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Was it lack of progress?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Was it just a lack of interest in what you were doing and meaning and purpose?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about what was the thoughts going through your head that thought I'm not happy.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a little bit of everything that you've actually touched upon, really.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a little bit of burn out because, you know, I would say, oh, everyone can say this, but I say I work quite hard, you know, and if I really put my mind to something, um, you know, I'm gonna give it 110%, absolutely, you know, give it my all.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt like I wasn't really getting the reward for it necessarily.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate, you know, especially when you're starting out in your career, not it's not gonna happen every night, is it?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna get promoted to, I don't know, diuretic career spans over a long period of time, but I just really just felt like I was forever hitting wars and I did feel really burnt out.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, I'm too young, don't wait on Trump with that, but too young to be feeling this in my careers too early on.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Something's not right.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, I wasn't being fulfilled in the role, it wasn't challenging enough, it wasn't technical enough for me.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: So jumping back slightly, I studied economics at university, and I felt like going into the auditing world or the corporate finance world would sort of fulfill that area of my sort of interests and my educational background, but it it just didn't, and it wasn't matching up to it, and it just wasn't really enough for me at the time.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Did you all you know?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we go to university.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I didn't, but we do people go to university.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: You you pick a course at 18 years old or whatever age it is when you go to uni.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's 18, isn't it?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, it is, isn't it?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: You you pick this course, and this is the thing.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're young, you pick a course, and you do it for four years, and you learn a hell of a lot during that period about the subject matter that you get stuck into.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: But as a person, you massively change.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: You move out, you live on your own, you live with friends, you party, you open up your mind to different experiences, um, different environments.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And by the end of that four-year course, it might not be really what you thought it was that you wanted.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was just this pre pre um selected path that you felt could be right.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then you think, well, I've got to use this now because I've spent all that money, I've been all this debt.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So therefore, you pursue a career in the closest thing that relates to the education that you that you that you went down, yeah, the degree that you went down.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And often I hear people just following that path and not realizing until later on that it's just not what they're about.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't align with their core principles, it doesn't align with their core uh internal values.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't know that until you do it.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you've got to do the job, you've got to go and have a look and see what it's all about because without doing it, you don't know.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, and we have to be grateful for what we learn within those positions in the years where we're doing something we don't want to know, because the beautiful experience you gain is that at least I know what I don't want to do, right?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you can take from it.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: So you were a bit burnt out, you were thinking this isn't for me, it wasn't aligning with your purpose.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: You'd done a little bit of a recce beforehand by the sounds of it, a little bit of research, and you picked up a firm and and you so what was it then that stuck in the back of your mind?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's interesting to hear.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: What was it about financial planning when you did a little bit of a search?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: What was it that stuck in your mind and thought, well, that would be a great career?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be interested in that.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so again, probably a few different things.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, one is sort of the educational side of it, you know.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's sort of two strains to that, I suppose, because that is the financial education and well-being, where you can go out and actually deliver seminars or different things like that to individuals within firms or younger people that might benefit from it.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: But also you get to educate people through your job, through your day-to-day conversations with people and you know, helping them to sort of plan their futures and plan their finances and achieve the things that they actually want to set out and achieve in their lives.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: And you can do that through educating them in how to manage their money or how to grow their money, or maybe how to not do things um, you know, that they might currently be doing that may be detrimental to them.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, as you know, the financial planning world, it's a mind field, pensions and all these different things.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's so complex.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: Even as advisors, there's things that we might not uh you know understand fully ourselves and might have to kind of call in the experts or you know, so to say.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so your average person, your day-to-day person that maybe is not, you know, sort of in that industry will really struggle with that and it can really affect them and their sort of their mental health and well-being, it can really you know cause big problems in their life.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I just think if you can just you know build a relationship with someone um and almost become their friend and help them with these things, then that's you know, that's such a rewarding thing to me.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Something that, like I said, I wasn't really getting that sort of rewarding element in my career previously.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that feeling of helping others, that outerism, you know, that thing that drives us is the knowing that what I'm doing is having a positive effect on somebody else.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And what I love about that is pardon the pun when it comes to financial advice, is the compounding, you know, like our money compounds interest and markets going up, etc.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: So does the um the impact that your advice has on, say, a family, because it could uh the education could pass down from generation to generation, the support that you offer could pass down from generation to generation.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: It could burden the levels of stress, worry, and anxiety for that individual and therefore have a knock-on positive effect to the family environment as well.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think the education piece is the bit that excites me the most about financial planning and financial advice.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the the human behavior side, the psychology side, you know, why we do the things we do, why we think the way we think about money and the impact it has on the decisions that we make.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the bit that's really, really interesting, especially in this hyper-consumerist world that we're in, where we're constantly bombarded with things that we should buy, things that we should have, all the things we should be.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: We should be successful, we should have loads of money, we should have that house, we should have this car.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And all these things are the things that drive us into insanity.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because let's face it, and you know, the economy's showing that now is that we can't, not everybody can't live up to the expectations of what social media or marketing or um these companies expect us to have, you know, we we just can't live up to it.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it causes pressure, doesn't it?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: It causes worries, it causes stress.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think from an education piece as well, it starts as young, young, you know, young as my daughter's age, five years old, you know, explaining the value of money because she's just like, you know, can you just get the guy to come and bring me a bit of food to the door?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or can you press that button that brings the toy from me, from the from the man who delivers the toys?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, there is something called money involved in this, Isabella.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: And let me try and explain it to you.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Do you get involved from an education brilliant?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Education, educate your clients, get them involved.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's brilliant.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can work with them, and that's a wonderful reason why you know becoming a financial advisor is such a great profession.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: What about educating people in schools and uh and reaching out to children, like I just mentioned there?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do you get involved in that at all?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Is that something that's part of your sort of altruistic approach to uh spreading the good word about good financial management?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's something that's probably I I mentioned previously part of my why and something that I'm sort of really passionate about.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, of course, it's not the most commercial decision necessarily.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, going into schools and teaching younger people, but again, it's part of that sort of, I feel anyway, my my sort of duty, having this knowledge and having the ability to go out and advise and provide education, I think is something I'm really passionate about.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, speaking from experience, I didn't have a Scooby-D when I was younger.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: I can't believe I'm gonna admit this on a podcast, but I was really bad at math.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it, as you say, it affected me so negatively that I didn't think that I was, you know, going to have a very good job.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't think I was going to live up to these standards and be able to have a good career or have all these things like a nice house and a nice car that you're you're told you need to have to be successful.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that kind of fed into my sort of teenage years and probably my younger adult years as well.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: I remember very vividly having my GCSE teacher, and I'm not knocking my education at all, because I was very lucky to have the education that I did, but my GCSE math teachers, that me and my dad, Dan, he said, Oh, you're not gonna pass.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: It is what it is, you know.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's it.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember just thinking in that moment, like, what does that mean?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm 16, I'm, you know, I'm probably weeks away from taking my GCSEs.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: To me, that was, you know, that was my whole world, that was my whole universe at the time.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: That, you know, but you have these things to focus on.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: It was such a big deal at the time, isn't it?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember thinking, oh great, well, that's it.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: And you've just written me off for like, you know, the rest of my life, and I'm not gonna have a very good career.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Luckily, I'm quite stubborn, so that's a good thing or a bad thing.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I managed to sort of switch that around and you know, get an economics degree and graduate and all of these things.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: And whilst that's not the be all and end all, I think that was probably my driver.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's being able to relate with people that maybe don't understand finance and don't understand, you know, numbers and different things like that.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: I've been there and I've kind of, you know, got the t-shirt and I had those struggles myself.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um I was able to turn it around and I want to be able to give that back and help other people that might be in that position as well.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I like that.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great story.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, maths, English, whatever doesn't always come uh naturally to everybody, you know.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I love about the financial planning profession is you don't have to uh have an incredibly solid conventional educational background.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know financial advisors that left school at 16 years old and now they're running firms and worth millions.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and it's one of those professions, and if anyone's listening to this, you know, get the idea out of your head that you have to go to university and get a master's degree, you have to be an absolute mathematician, you have to know absolutely everything about the economics and everything like that.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's helpful.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, it's helpful to be able to, you know, pass your GCSEs and all of that because it's going to help you pass your exams when you get into financial planning.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not a necessity.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there are many people who don't have that background in education, don't have degrees, and it's one of the one professions that you can earn over£100,000 a year in without a degree.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um, my advice to anybody is don't let that put you off.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Have a reason why you want to do the job and make sure you're aligned to that.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if it's to be of help and of service to others, perhaps throughout your life you learnt the hard way.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful lesson is to learn the hard way.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, you're educated in what can go wrong.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: So when it comes to sitting down with somebody who's struggling, it comes from a place of knowing, doesn't it?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think from an education perspective, that's worth its weight in gold, you know.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think one of the sort of a really sort of great skill, I would say, as an advisor is, you know, is being able to empathize with your clients, um, really being able to emotionally connect to them and understand, you know, the struggles that they might be going through that they might have or maybe are worried about in the future.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, like you said, you don't you don't need a degree.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm it's a bit difficult saying that obviously because I've got one, but I was also the person that didn't have one at 20, you know, I didn't go when I was 18 because probably because of that whole mathematical incident or whatever.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I didn't go straight away.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: I took some time out and I thought, well, you know, like what am I doing?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Where am I going with my life?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: What what am I what am I gonna do?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of thing.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like I had to take time out to think about that.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I was also that person that didn't have the degree and was thinking, right, it's okay.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: So what's my next step?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: What am I gonna do?
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think I went and did, you know, I went to university for my own personal reasons.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm absolutely glad I did it.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: But like you said, it you don't necessarily need it for the profession.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: So, like you said, anyone out there thinking, oh, I can't do that because I don't have a degree or I might not have been fantastic at maths in school, just try.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: Just have that conversation with, you know, have a conversation with an advisor, reach out on LinkedIn or social media or something.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: I get people reaching out to me all the time.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'll try to be quite active on social media and try and post relevant things.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not always not always on the mark, but you know, um, I do try and post things that I find educational or helpful to other people.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I often get um, you know, prospective advisors or partners reaching out to me and saying, Oh, how did you find it?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: What did you do?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Let tell me about your experience.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I think there's nothing more valuable than that, really.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I I kind of wish I'd done that three years ago.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you're right, you know, and I think having the anybody listening here, having the courage to reach out to somebody local to you and just ask them, can I grab 15 minutes?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can I ask you a question?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Am I able to book in a time to buy you a coffee just to pick your brain about what it is that you do for a living?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think you'd be very, very surprised how many people like yourself are kind enough to actually give some feedback and give some advice because you were once in their situation, you know, you were once in their position.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's very, very difficult.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: I find it very hard to turn people away.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: I get lots of people come to me and say, Sam, you know, how do I get in?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: What do I do?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And um I'm gonna put some, start building like relevant content on YouTube so I can just direct it.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm doing that on my website at the moment, building relevant content as an educational piece where people can go listen to my videos, read some articles, and get a good feel and a good understanding of what's required, but also what's the realities of getting in?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: How do I get in?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: What's the realities of salaries?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how do I negotiate salaries up?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, should I accept this?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Should I go employed or self-employed?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just to kind of demystify some of the uh the fears and the barriers and the worries that we we put up about entering into a profession that actually, once you get into it, is is relatively straightforward.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's just so different company from company.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you could take one path that might take you five years to get to your goal, you could take another path that might get you to your goal within a year and a half or two years.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I think one of the things that's really needs to be clearly defined in the beginning for anybody that's thinking about entering into the profession, and those are in the profession, is where do you want to go?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: What's your goal?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what is your uh what's your long-term goal here?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is it, you know, you're dead into the the research side of it, you love the compliance, you love the nitty-gritty, you love getting your red pen out and saying, no, no, no, no, that's wrong, that's right, because you're driven perhaps by a need to protect consumers.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it might be that you're somebody that just it's relationship-driven.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: You you know, you've got a drive and a need to want to build relationships and you love that part of your job.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, sitting down with a spreadsheet destroys your brain because you love talking to people and you love helping people, you love seeing the direct impact face to face, eye to eye, with what you're actually doing within your job.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, going down the financial planning route might be more interesting.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: It might be that you want a specialism where you're interested in clinical negligence or personal injury and you want to help people within those situations, pre- and post-court, you know, settlements and all of that kind of stuff and what they do with their money.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: So then you might go down the clinical negligence and PI route.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: It might be investment management, it might be marketing.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the opportunities now that are open up within financial planning.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: So there's so many of these different opportunities within the financial planning profession.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: But what people need to understand is it's where do I want to go?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, where would I like to go?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Where would I like to go?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes a path you want to go down and you think you're on it, but actually it's like you're not going anywhere.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: You really aren't going, you've sat in that administration role for two and a half years, but you told me you want to be a financial advisor.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and we're seeing that a lot.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what we need to do is bring to the surface look the realities.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can go to you can get from A to B a lot quicker, just reach out and take a look at some of our educational pieces, have a conversation with me.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes these light bulb moments with people are fantastic.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, oh Jesus, I wish I spoke to you before.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, you're welcome to.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because there are options out there, and it's exactly the same as you guys.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots and lots of people within the profession that want to help the next generation come through and be a success and pick the right path and pass on their skills and pass on their knowledge of what worked for them and what didn't work.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's more important as well.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Which leads me on.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you decided to come into the profession.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Great to have you.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Great to have a female within the financial planning profession, distinct lack of females within the financial planning profession.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's going to get better and better and better.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Big word you mentioned, empathy.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think women tend to be more empathetic than men.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Men are changing, I think.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: We are becoming more empathetic and more uh open.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: But women have a natural empathy that I've found.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've got 70% of my business are now women actually.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I've noticed the natural levels of empathy.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different approach to how they look at their business and what they do.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so there is a difference between men and women and how we work within the work, you know, in the workplace.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: But each have their skills and benefits and attributes that are important.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to bash men, I'm a man.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: Don't bash them too much.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: But no, you're right though.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, each each sort of individual and each, you know, men and women, they have their place in the profession.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: But like you said, I think we need to do more to one, as women take the leap into the profession, because I think we're generally seen to maybe not take as many risks as maybe men do.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's not it's not very common.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I see it a lot more being in the profession, but it's not very common that you see females, that you know, jump in, taking the leap of faith from a career and um jumping into self-employed life or starting your own business.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: It absolutely does happen, but it's not necessarily shouted about as much as it might be with men.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think as women, we need to encourage other women to do that as well, um, you know, and really build up a really strong female powerhouse of financial advisors.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what we're seeing more of, and especially within the financial planning profession, which I believe is in a startup phase, um, you know, it is at that, it's a very exciting point where people can now come on in and run their own business, you know, use marketing, use social media, be responsible for those things and have a really strong outreach and build a really strong personal brand.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and what I've seen is a lot of women take into social media far greater than men, you know, embracing the likes of TikTok or you know, the influencer stance, using it within a uh um uh as a as a as a string to their bow when it comes to their marketing.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it works really well, you know.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Chantelle Patterson, who was on my podcast, um, her money talks.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: I can't remember the name of a podcast, doing it absolutely perfectly, you know, doing it really, really well.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's loads of women doing the same.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, you you obviously you mentioned there about the perception of financial planning, perhaps financial services.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think it was quite before you got into it?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Did you think it was a very male-dominated profession?
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Did it look that way to you as a female on the outside looking in?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: It looked that way to me.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember the first time, um, sort of first sort of meeting that I was having with um a selection manager that was uh recruiting me in.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: I was walking over to this meeting, and I I live in the city set uh city centre in Cardiff.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: I was walking over to their head office, and I was so nervous.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: I remember thinking, what am I doing?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Why am I going?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: I almost turned around so many times.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: I thought you're not gonna fit in there.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's male-dominated, it's really corporate.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: I really had that perception.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: And within minutes, they completely changed my perception of that, and it wasn't like that.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: But I think from the outside in, it does still sort of seem that way.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and again, I think we've got a lot of work to do to kind of change the perceptions or you know, remove those barriers that it's that it's a male-dominated industry.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, it was previously, wasn't it, you know, back in the day, and it probably did have a bit of a negative um sort of you know, perception of the industry from the outside in.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I think again, that's something there's lots of work to be done.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: We're you know, we're trying to change the narrative and trying to um show that you know women can be really good financial advisors and financial planners, and um it's not a male-driven industry.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: It might previously have been that way, but it's not necessarily that way now.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: We we have to change that, I think.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at some of the statistics, okay?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because half of married women with a business-related degree out-earn their husbands, whilst 80% of women will be solely responsible for their household finances at some point.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: So 80% of women.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Women will also inherit 70% of the wealth passed down over the next two generations, which means they'll crop they'll control two-thirds of household wealth by 2030.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: So about 53% of UK millionaires will be female by 2025.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to financial advice careers, up to 70% of women who work with financial advisors prefer female advisors.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: 34% of financial advisors believe their believe their firm should employ more female advisors.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: However, despite all this, current estimates suggest that female financial advisors account for just 15%.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: This was when I wrote this article last time, so I think it's maybe gone up of the total advisor population.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you can see there's a direct need.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: So any women listening to this, uh any firms that are you know trying to hire, get some women in there because there's a huge opportunity out there to generate funds under management, which is what you guys got to do, you know, at the end of the day.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a great need for women to receive the financial advice that by the signs of it has been lacking over the years, and they prefer to have female advisors.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, there's loads of great situations where women become very uh, you know, look at um, look at divorces.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, why would a woman want to sit down with a man if they're getting divorced?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like how, you know, I would find that uncomfortable.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: I I would try not to find it uncomfortable, but you know, I think a female wants to compete to a female in that situation.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: Would you agree on my being a bit No, I I think you're right, because again, it's probably that empathy side, um, thankfully, you know, of not being through a divorce, but it's being able to empathize and being able to relate to that person from an understanding.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: And whilst we try and do that with, you know, people from all walks of life, I think there's nothing more, you know, powerful than having someone that might understand and might be able to relate to you.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: And also, I think there's a perception that people don't know that they necessarily need an advisor or they can have an advisor.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: If I got paid a pound for every time somebody said to me, I don't have enough money or I'm not rich enough to have a financial advisor or a financial planner, I could probably retire.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, everybody says it, and I'm like, you know, there's so much more to having a financial planner than what meets the eye.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, you can accumulate wealth over the years and things like that.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when it comes to divorce, for example, people don't necessarily realize that the value of having a financial advisor in that situation, you're someone that's on your side, someone that's trying to help you and make sure that you have the best outcome for you going forward because they can be really crippling at divorces and not you've got the emotional side of it, you've got everything changing in from the perspective that you know your life might be changing, your family dynamics might be changing in a way that you never thought would happen.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then you've got these extra money worries and pressures that you absolutely just don't need at that time.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, having someone there to be able to relate to, empathize with, and fight your corner is really valuable.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: How often, when you're in a client meeting, do you discover an un an uncover an emotional sort of scar, perhaps, that's that's shaped their view of money and their belief around money, as in they haven't got enough, or they they um they want more, or they've, you know, whatever the belief is that might be having a detrimental negative effect to their money management.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: How often do you discover that?
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do discover it, does it sometimes become a revelation for them?
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, wow, I never thought about it that way.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say, you know, probably the majority of meetings that you have with people um you sort of uncover, it's all about uncovering that, you know, emotion, emotional attachment, isn't it, to certain aspects within their finances or within their life.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and like you said, they do have that revelation moment.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: I've had many a situation where you know you can really put into perspective, they might have this goal, for example, that they really you know, they absolutely have to achieve in their life um in the next 10-15 years.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: But when you actually sit down in front of someone and say, right, so how are you gonna get there?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: And how would you feel if you were not, you know, you weren't able to achieve that goal?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I they they don't really think about it necessarily, uh, or they might not think they've got an emotional attachment to it until they have that conversation with you.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I say it happens all the time, and that's probably again another really good skill.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: I would suggest that you know you say skill, something you work on, um, being able to uncover those emotional attachments with your clients and those relationships that you're building because you go into get more um, I don't want to say buy-in, but you're gonna get more of a, you know, buy-in.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna get more of that, yeah, a connection.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna get more of a connection with them and um make them understand a little bit more and educate them a little bit more if you're able to uncover those emotional connections.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah, do you think it's important that somebody that becomes a financial advisor picks up the mirror and looks at themselves and is able to self-reflect and self-improve?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that's um a prerequisite of being a good financial planner is to kind of get outside of your own head, if you like, look at the things that you do well, but also need improving and make those self-improvements.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that's a prerequisite?
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is something they should every financial advisor should be doing is looking at themselves?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think so.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, you know, coming from an employed background, uh, you know, like you said, in it, I had a career, had a great, you know, a salary, and everything was sort of great in that sense.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: But whilst I wasn't getting the fulfillment, um, I really had to change my mind there.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I had that sort of, you know, the classic imposter syndrome of can I really do this?
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Am I good enough to sit in front of people and tell them how they should manage their money or tell them what they should be doing to improve their financial well-being?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I had I went through that myself.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: I had to, I really sat down and went through some really tough, you know, had some tough conversations with myself.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: I almost went back on it a million times, you know, and thought, oh, maybe maybe it's not the right move.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um going into this career.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've had all of that.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think you continue to do that as well.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we always evolve as individuals and we always change.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: I might not be the same person in 10 years.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: I might be very different, you know.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think it's all is important to look back and reflect um regularly and say, am I am I doing the right thing?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um how do you am I being genuine?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: How do you manage that then?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: How do you check to see if you're on the right path and that you're coming from the right place and that you are looking after yourself in that respect?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um just I think reflecting, you know, reflecting on, I like to try and reflect on sort of on a weekly basis or a monthly basis.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: Who have I been, what conversations have I been having with people, who am I talking to?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: What have I been doing this week that's really help helping people or am I doing good?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then I it's not necessarily just about sitting in front of the client, but what am I doing as well to better myself as an individual or as a you know, as a self-employed person trying to grow a business.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, just generally trying to reflect and making sure that I'm I'm staying true to myself as well whilst I'm out there trying to build a business.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's talk about that.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned about being self-employed, okay?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you've progressed, you've you've sat in a career that you weren't really that happy, you weren't fulfilled, um, and you pursued a career within financial planning.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you you're at what's class is really a second careerist, right?
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: But quite early on, second careerist.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're trying to attract a profession, and these second careerists.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a lot of the entry opportunities, especially into directly financial advice, will result in being self-employed.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there are massive benefits to being self-employed.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's your business, you can run it as you as you want, you can accumulate um assets under management, which at some point you are able to exit the profession and actually have value upon the clients that you've accumulated and have an exit value on sellout.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, some firms out there paying seven times recurring income, you know, crazy, crazy figures.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, 100 grand of recurring income, you walk away with 700 grand, you know, best case.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's not it's a great way to go into the profession.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're building it's your business, it's your brand, it's who you are, yeah, self-motivating yourself, et cetera.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: But also at the same time, Sarah, that would scare the living daylight out of lots of people, you know, like wow, what a what a risky move, you know, people would be saying.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how do you know that you're going to be a success?
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Why, why choose self-employed?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, in my my question to you is okay, let's look at that.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're in you're in your past role, you moved across now into financial planning, you've been doing it now for nearly two years.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, about two years.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about why you chose self-employed as the route for you and how.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: At the time, I I don't really know how it happened.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of didn't explore many other options for me.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: This was just the route that I was going down.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember thinking, right, okay, this is happening.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and had these conversations with myself.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it's obviously not as plain sailing as that, but I'd always had this ambition as well as you know, wanting to go into financial planning that I wanted to be a business owner, I wanted to run my own business whilst become self-employed in some capacity, but I never really knew what that looked like.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: And until I started exploring financial planning in more, you know, more depth, I didn't realise that I could kind of marry the two together.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: Whether that was a lack of awareness from myself or, you know, a lack of sort of advertising, I guess, or shouting out about the industry as a whole, I'm not sure.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it just kind of that was the route that I started going down.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, well, you know what?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: I was 27, 28 at the time.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I thought, great, I've got this opportunity to go into financial planning and really build a career that I want and shape it in the way that I want, with all this support of you know, the firm behind me, and I get to be self-employed, which is something that I've wanted to do as well.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Let's do it.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to pretend that it was like that, that just happened overnight and it was that decision.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, it took a lot to really make that final call and say, yes, this is what I'm doing, and you know, really change my mindset and convince myself that I can do it.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: But that was pretty much it.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that there was all these other opportunities.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I also probably come from that generation that we kind of have this perception that you have to have everything and you have to have it now.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I just thought, do I want to spend another five, six years going back and starting in a you know, an admin role?
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it just I'd already progressed to a certain point in my career.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I don't want to take, you know, five steps back and start at the bottom again from that perspective.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: Whilst I, you know, I am starting again, essentially, a second careerist.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: I I just thought I need to give it everything.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: I know I'm capable of doing it, and let's go, essentially.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you took that brave step.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the things that um, which we haven't touched on yet, is that you you went down through the St.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: James's Place Academy.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the one thing James St.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: James's, you said a minute ago, I don't quite know how I ended up.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you how you ended up because St.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: James's Place are incredibly good at selling the dream and and also the roadmap.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think we all need a roadmap.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't know about the roadmap.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: They've got a tried and tested roadmap.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: They'll wheel out people that have gone down the roadmap and been success.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: So you're seeing the testimonials, you're seeing that it works.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's their sort of ability to position you based on your personal attitude to risk, your um willingness to be um self-employed and work for yourself.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're looking at that, aren't they?
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: And they're thinking, has this person got what it takes to do it?
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm pretty damn sure they wouldn't have just said, Oh, yeah, here you go, off you go, be self-employed.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: They I suspect they sat you down, quizzed you, asked you questions, perhaps got you to write a business plan to think about where you could get clients from, what would you do if it was all down to you and there was no leads being passed to you, et cetera, et cetera.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: Did they do that?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Did you did you have an exploratory chat?
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Did you did you inventory what you, you know, the a small business plan, for example?
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: You you know, you hit the mark there, really.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: They whilst they, you know, they can very much sell you the dream and they tell you all these are all the great things that you could have, they also tell you the harsh realities of it as well.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, um being self-employed, being a business owner, it comes with its challenges, especially, you know, on the back end of a pandemic and potentially a recession that we're we may be headed into, you know, it's they they very much make you aware of all the struggles that you will face and they do test you and they push you to your limits throughout that process.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: It for me it was a little bit of a longer process because um, so I started my journey just in the Fed Fed 2020, and then obviously it got porous a little bit because of you know the pandemic, obviously, everything happened and nobody really knew what to go on or what to do or what the next steps were.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: So took a little breather and just said, right, we need to re reassess the situation and we'll come back to it.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: But absolutely, you know, you go through such um interesting um tests in lots of different ways.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: They test your business plan, they test you know your network, and who do you know and how how do you engage with your network?
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: And what would you do, like you said, if you have no leads coming in?
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: Where are you going to look to find leads?
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: What are you gonna do to build your business?
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because at the end of the day, yes, it's fantastic you have this really big powerhouse behind you, but you have to put the work in to build your business, you know.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you otherwise it won't work.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, they really do.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: And there's another thing that I found really interesting as well as you do these things that are called soundings.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's the same now, but you know, go out to people in your network, so people that you're close to, um, or people that you work with, professional collections and things like that, and you just say, I'm thinking of going out into this career.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's great because they're brutally honest with you.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people said, Why are you doing that?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um I've no sort of um reasons to think that you wouldn't be able to do it, but why?
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like that sounds crazy.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, it sounds bonkers.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: You go, you know, you're just going from you've got a career and you're just gonna leave and start a business or become self-employed.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it it can seem a little bit crazy for people from the outside, but I think if you've got that, if you've got that desire to do so and if you're thinking about it all the time, I know I was, especially once I started getting my teeth into it and thinking actually this is a this could be reality for me.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that is a bit of a driver as well to kind of push you along.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um just talk to people, talk to your friends, the people closest to you say, what do you think about this?
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: Will you support me?
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: What support have you got around you to help you in those tough times um and help you know build your own career?
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I love it, yeah, absolutely.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: Did you get to a point where you you said one of the things there, and one of the biggest um things I've learned in my life is is switching off this limiting beliefs, you know, this inner voice that says, you know, self-sabotage and inner voice telling me I can't do it, I shouldn't do it, I'm gonna fail.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: What do they think?
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: What do they think, et cetera, et cetera?
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as I can shut that voice up and I focus on the goal, I focus on my vision, and I'm very good at visualizing things.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of the things that I visualize have come true, right?
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the more I think about it, the more I believe it, the more I live it in my mind, the more I manifest it, um, the more it comes to me.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: This abundance.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe that abundance mindset is true, laws of attraction.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: I believe in that wholeheartedly.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: I believe in the power of neuroplasticity.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you think it over and over and over again, you become it.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you retrain your brain.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if you believe it and you think it and you believe it, then it's gonna happen.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: I I believe that.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: This happened to me numerous.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've changed my the way my brain works.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's in its ongoing process, and I and I absolutely love it.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Did there come a point where you just went, do you know what?
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: Fuck it.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: I believe this 100% I am gonna be a success.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: Did you subscribe to that in your mind, or are you still, you know, in the background, someone clawing you saying, You're making a mistake in the back of your mind, or are you now 100% two-footed into it?
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: I say I'm 100% two-footed in, but I very much would say I've had a similar experience.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I never, it's not that I never believed in you know, manifestation or law of attraction or anything like that, but I just never did it.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then when I and I I kind of had this perception, I wanted to be a financial planner, I wanted to be self-employed, I wanted to one day, you know, be a successful business owner, but I just never thought I don't know if I actually believed that it would happen.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then I just it really came to a point where I thought, if you don't change your mind and you don't believe in yourself, it's not gonna happen.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll just leave it here, and then you can carry on being, you know, unhappy and unfulfilled in your job.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I did get into some really sort of low places and dark places where I convinced myself it wasn't gonna happen, it was gonna be a complete failure, and I wasn't capable and wasn't gonna be able to do it.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I just I remember sitting there and talking to one of my um really good friends, and she just said to me, She was like, Look, worst case scenario in this situation is you become a qualified financial plant.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: That is the worst case scenario.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember that conversation, I just thought, there we are, that is it.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know why, but I've got myself into such a pickle.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: I was like I was so stressed out, and I thought, oh, I'm not capable.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I was and all these people around me were believing in me, you know, SJP were believing me, and they they loved my business plan, they loved everything that I was telling them, and then I somehow stopped believing it myself.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like I built myself up to this really this moment, and it was all that coming together, and then I just thought that I can't I can't do that.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I nearly very nearly shied away from it because I just you know it's a big deal to sometimes we have to take our set ourselves to that place, yeah.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm being a business owner myself, I got you know, I'm I'm growing this business.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's 20, 22 people in there.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also set at the financial plan of life.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've got great big aspirations for the financial plan of life of what I want to do with it, and they're big goals, you know.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I I got myself into a like bright pickle over the years, you know, stressing my nut out and you know, and worrying what people think and all that kind of stuff.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we win and sometimes we learn, you know, and sometimes they come those dark moments come off the back of failures, but those they're not failures, they're just learnings.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you have to take yourself to a place of uh darkness sometimes to bring it out into the light.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: And usually it's a little voice, it's this limiting belief.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's this, you know, this this trauma perhaps we experienced at some point in our life where we thought that we weren't good enough.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we look at it and we change the voice, we change the tone, we start to speak a bit kinder to ourselves and give ourselves a little bit of um enthusiasm, belief, you know, and we just change it.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think once you connect with that and you realize, okay, well, why are you saying that?
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: Why why in my head are you saying that?
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then once you start to look at it and pick it apart a little bit, you're like, oh, that's why.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your concern um and my you know, the worry for my security.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: I get that, but what have I got to lose?
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like I believe in myself, so I'm gonna do it.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then once you build that relationship with yourself, it becomes a far more uh constructive, kinder, nicer life because you know, you've got a nice relationship internally with yourself, haven't you?
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you you know you've got to be kind to yourself as well.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're we as humans, we give so much to other people.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you know, we're always trying, we're always looking out for other people.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_01: We sometimes forget about ourselves, don't we?
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm you know, I'll be the first person to champion my friends and my people in my, you know, in my professional network and how well they're doing in their careers.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's so easy to forget about yourself.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, you've got to, I do think you have to take yourself there because if I didn't maybe take myself to that point where I thought I was, you know, I was gonna throw the towel in and not go ahead with it.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I would be a bit, I don't know, maybe I'd be a bit arrogant, or maybe I'd have I'd be, you know, floating on this self-belief that I could achieve anything.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, you can, you can if you put your mind to it, but you have to sort of, I think it is good to see both sides, you know.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to be humbled as well.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to be taken to your knees every now and then.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it, you know, but the thing is, in reality, it still happens.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, I still get imposter syndrome now.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_01: I still worry, you know, am I giving the right level of service?
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: Am I am I doing enough?
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_01: You're always going to have that.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't ever go away.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's about your mindset and how you manage it.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I think having that experience, you know, probably we were in the middle of a pandemic as well, which didn't help at all.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I was at home, isolated, away from pretty much all, you know, all my friends and my work colleagues.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm one of those people that I I thrive in an environment around other people, I bounce off other people.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I struggled with Zoom and Teams and all these things and being isolated.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: So again, it was such a journey on my own.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: I really discovered a lot about myself and about my drivers and when I needed to press pause and when I, you know, or when I needed to reach out and talk to other people and take guidance from other people.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's it.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: We build, we build these, as you said, you know, we start to learn mind management.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: We have 60,000 thoughts a day that come into our head.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: Most of them are mainly like worrying about missing, not getting something or having something taken away, uh, chasing pleasure or avoiding pain.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like we just have these crazy things that are just survival instincts that come into our head.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is we've got so much stuff around us, it confuses us.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: We we attach it to things, don't we?
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: We attach these thoughts to things and oh, that will solve my problem, that will solve my problem.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas most of the time, it's just a distorted, you know, lie.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you look at it and you it's about managing that distortion when it comes into your head, learning from it.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, why is it there?
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is it where's the evidence to suggest what I'm thinking about myself or my business or my future, which I got no crystal ball is actually real?
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: Give me some evidence.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I do to myself.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, and give me some evidence.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then I it I I if I can generate some really good quality evidence, I might look at it a little bit further.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if not, I dismiss it and I carry on in my path and my belief and my trust that it's going to work.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something you should just stick with within that self-employed.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: Something I can pass on 15 years of doing it is just believe constantly that it's going to work because it will.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: It will if you believe it.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because you'll attract abundance, good things.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that you um so you've gone through St.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: James's Place Academy, okay.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna fast forward a little bit because now you're you've gone through that stage, you've done all your learnings through the academy, or I've done other podcasts around that, people can pick up on that.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now you've gone then into a practice, okay?
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: You've gone down the self-employed route, you're now working as a qualified financial advisor, done your level four qualifications, yeah.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: You you're now working as a financial advisor.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're working for a firm in Cardiff.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's just outside Cardiff, um, near Swansea.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm so I'm based in Cardiff and Covers outfits.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you're working there as a registered individual, self-employed, underneath a partner practice of St.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: James's Place, where you go out and see your own clients, that partner practice offers you support, guidance, and mentorship.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: One of those individuals who are a director is a female as well.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there aren't many female directors within financial planning practices.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, how have you found that?
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: Having somebody at the helm who's a female?
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: I just think it's as a female, it's really just invaluable.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, jumping back slightly, I in working in the corporate world, I was surrounded by males.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: And not that there's anything wrong with that, but I was always, you know, quite often the only woman in the room, or I was quite often the only woman at the table.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_01: And there have been, there was situations where I felt inferior, stupidly, because there was no reason to sort of feel that way or think that way, but it has been, you know, had that vulnerability.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_01: So and I've never had a female leader.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time I actually met Danny, my director, and I thought, I've never actually had a female manager or somebody in a leadership leadership position.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_01: So to be in a position where I can, you know, essentially be taken under someone's wing who's got who's been there and got 10 t-shirts, she's she's been advising for 26 odd years, you know, she's seen it all, and then she's seen it again.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, she's she often says, you know, I want you to learn from me, but I also want you to learn what not to do from me.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_01: She said of I wish I had someone like me when I was your age or when I was coming into the career myself and into the industry myself.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I just think it's so invaluable.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: And again, she she kind of just gets me.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's such a weird um relationship.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: She just knows me so well.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know whether that's a skill as a you know, a really skilled financial planner or just her as a person, but you can just learn so much from other females and males.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I think coming into the profession as a self-employed advisor is a scary world, it's a big leap.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: So to have a female or sort of champion, someone that's got you back, and you know, she's there if I need her, it's really, really sort of second to none.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's inspiring, it inspires you as a female to um show it shows you that women can get into directorship roles, run businesses within what is you know perceived as a male profession.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is it is changing.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: What I also like about it, and you've touched on that, is the mentorship side.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: That she can relate to you differently, you know, and absolutely.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I've got I've got three women within my business that are all managers.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, women relate to other women differently.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's harder for a man, you know, and I try my best, I really, really do, but but I'm not a female.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I can do the best I can.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a daughter, you know, but I've doing the best I can.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had to change my my mindset as a male to be more understanding, yeah, empathetic um to the needs of a of a female.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think having a good, strong mentor within the profession and within your company shows you A that you can do it.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, one of the things you said there, it's like she gets like she really knows you.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know why that is, right?
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the same male, female, whatever.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's because you've got a willingness to learn.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I would say to anybody getting into the to this profession, into any profession, especially when it comes down to being self-employed, don't look for the problems all the time.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't look for, you know, oh, I'm not getting this or I'm not getting that.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just have a willingness and a keenness to learn.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: Willingness and a keenness to fail and learn from it, um, to not be fearful and to be honest and to and to look for the positives.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because when someone's running a business, they're busy, yeah, and they've got so many other plates to spin.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: They also understand the most valuable people within their businesses are you.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they are it's you.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's only a finite amount of energy that we have as directors, as business owners, and we want to direct it in a way to the people that don't take it.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: We want to direct it directly to the people that use it and then give it back.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: I've got some amazing people in my office, like two girls that I work with who are brought into the financial plan of life, Charlie and Elena.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: I I just love their energy because when we sit down and we talk, it it's it's it's passed back to me.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a you know, it's it goes around and it's wonderful.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, anybody listening, female, male, whatever, you know, if you'll have a mentor within your business, and especially if they're a leader, they have got so much to give you.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you give it back.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_00: Don't don't take people's energy, replace it, um, and you'll get it back tenfold.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people want to feel you know, looked after, and it works the other way around.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can empathize and understand what's going through her head and the pressures that she's under as well, and that she needs, you know, she needs good people around her, then um it's uh it works really, really well.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_00: But not all managers are great, not all directors are great, some of them are absolutely terrible.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I learned the hard way with myself.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_00: There were periods in my life where I wasn't very good.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've learned that I'm a lot better now.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and also I bring people in who are better than me at that point.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's a skill, see.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_01: But that's I think again, like you said, you know, it's being able to recognise that maybe you didn't do great at something or that wasn't a great decision that you've made.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_01: And what what do you learn from it?
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_01: If we have, you know, if we have that arrogance about ourselves that we're everything's fine and dandy and we're always making the right decisions, we're never going to grow and you're gonna hit a lot of walls.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's being able to, like you said earlier on, it's being able to reflect and make sure that you know we'll think, oh well, maybe that wasn't a great decision.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_01: What can I do better?
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_01: Or who can I bring in that's able to make those decisions in a way that I wouldn't be able to, and put the right people in the right places.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you've gone through an academy, you've got yourself up and running, you've got your qualifications, fair play off the back of a pandemic and going into a recession.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_00: You you know, you picked your time.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um sounds like me.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, that's exactly what I happened to me.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_00: I like credit, the first credit crunch.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's when I got into when I got into recruitment, and then there's a recession and all sorts of stuff.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_00: So um these things are sent to test us and they're never as bad as you think.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it can only get better, is my view on that.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um in down times we make money.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_00: In down times we we become successes.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you well dwell dwell and wallow in the pity, you you don't get anywhere.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you're in a, you know, it's more about mindset again, isn't it?
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_00: That mindset shift.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let's finish on.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think the future looks like for you?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_00: Where what do you think the next year is going to look like?
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_00: What's your biggest sort of uh what are you enthused about over the next year?
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_01: Just really, like I said, you know, building relationships with people, meaning, meaning relationships, meaningful relationships.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_01: One thing I hear from so many other advisors um out there is that they wish that they were a bit um more precious about their relationships early on.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, you're not going to be suited to everybody, you're not gonna be able to help everybody, but there is somebody out there for everyone that might not be you, and I think it's being able to recognise that early on might save you a lot of headaches and your you know, your relationships with your clients a lot of headaches down the road.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, I really just you know I want to build a good business within a business and build meaningful relationships and really get out there and help educate people, especially with all this uncertainty at the moment.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a lot of worries about what the next year, two, three, two, three years is going to look like.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I think if I can sort of help one or two individuals, you know, now and then uh seek a bit of peace or a bit of clarity on what that will look like, then I feel like I would have done my job.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: I like it.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's aligning your job and your role as a financial planner with your core beliefs and and purpose in life.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, that's what it's about.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's a the sign of a long-lasting, happy um and content career, isn't it?
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_00: And let's not, you know, now you're in the profession, you've made that change, right?
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_00: You've got into profession, you're in there.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is there an abundance of opportunity out there for you as a financial planner?
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see it as a really fulfilling and um financially, let's not, let's let's look at your own personal finances.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see it as something that's fulfilling you internally in respect of a job role, but is also going to uh bring good levels of income your way and quality of life?
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I do.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and again, it goes back to that sort of self-belief for one, but also there is so much opportunity out there and uh to help people and educate people.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I go back to the education thing, but that's where people start to understand, oh, maybe it is a valuable thing to have an advisor.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I do think it, you know, I'm very much bought in.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think it will definitely pay off.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_01: It might not happen overnight.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_01: There are going to be ups and downs, but you will find that with every career and you'll find that with every entrepreneur or self-employed or business owner, you're always going to hit bumps in the road.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's being adaptable and understanding that that's going to happen and it's not going to be plain sailing all the time because that would be perfect, wouldn't it?
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not going to be like that.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you that's the reality of it.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, I'm very much, this is me now.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very comfortable with where I'm going in the future.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm very much building for the long term.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I say to anyone out there as well, listening to that, and it's okay to change as well.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_01: You might go into the profession, whether that's in an employed role, uh, you know, an admin role, like you said, all the different options, try it out.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_01: If it's not for you, it's not for you.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_01: Or if you think, oh, actually, I really like it, but I want to explore this a little bit more.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_01: I have this perception that I was, I had to do it now.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_01: I had to do it before I was 30, and otherwise I was going to be too old, which is ridiculous.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_01: But just, you know, your career lasts a very long time.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_01: So there's nothing wrong with sort of pivoting or changing your roots at any point along the way.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think you're absolutely spot on.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going into I'm into my 40s now, and it's the best I've ever felt, um, the best place I've ever been.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_00: And um, being forcey to me isn't isn't like, oh God, I'm middle aged.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so positive about my future.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm positive about getting older and the opportunities that that brings me um in the world.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you're right.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't think it's too late, don't think it's too soon.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_00: Chill out.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just breathe.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_00: Breathe.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's all right.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just go and add some value because all you've got is the present day.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_00: Get stuck in.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're going to live a life full of regrets, and that's an unhealthy and unhappy life.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_00: Brilliant.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah, it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_00: Genuinely.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, thank you.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_00: Just exactly what I need on a Monday morning before I hit my TT sesh.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, good luck.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_00: I really thank you.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: I yeah, I really value your time.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate it, and I think our listeners will as well.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for sharing your journey.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_00: And any questions or anything, you know, fire them uh my way.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you want to reach out to Sarah directly, that's okay, Sarah.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be more than happy to have a chat with anyone.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_00: Nice one.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_00: Have an amazing week.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_01: You too, Sam.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_00: Cheers.