Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / "I was concerned that financial planning would be a sales role. I was wrong!" – Rory Albon

Transcript

"I was concerned that financial planning would be a sales role. I was wrong!" – Rory Albon · 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: This week on the Financial Planner Life podcast, I'm joined by Rory Alban, financial planner at Lindhurst Financial Management.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: Rory is a second careerist.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: I love getting second careerists on the podcast.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And today he shares his story of how he got into the financial planning profession.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Now he left a really decent career at Amazon and took a pay cut because he saw the long-term benefits that a career in financial planning could offer him and his family.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: He goes into depth about taking his exams and tells us exactly when and how he secured his first employed role in the profession.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: Rory also tells us about the career progression path from power planner to advisor that was laid out in front of him by his employers and how he took matters into his own hands to speed up that process.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: Rory was initially concerned that a role in financial planning would just be a targeted driven sales role, but he was pleased to say that the reality is different to his expectations.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: And today Rory offers loads of value to all aspiring financial planners.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: We cover things like Rory's career journey, how Rory's changed careers and made the switch into financial planning, using your network from your previous career, employed versus self-employed, why you went down the employed route, and of course, expectations versus reality.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoy.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Rory, thank you for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life Podcast.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: How are you?
2:16
SPEAKER_03: I'm very well, thank you, Sam.
2:18
SPEAKER_03: How are you?
2:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm very good.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm very well.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm a little bit tired.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: I got up at like four o'clock this morning.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm a little bit tired, but I feel good.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: I feel focused, I feel aligned.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: I had a really good podcast yesterday with a chap called Carl Richards, um, very popular financial planner uh in America, um, talking about sort of purpose-led financial planning and his approach to it and how empathy and everything plays a huge part in it.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: And he was such an interesting guy, um, somebody that I got on really well with.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: And um, Paul Bradley used to be on my came on my podcast before.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, he introduced him to me, and Paul was on the podcast as well.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: So it was my first threesome.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: And it went down really well.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sort of buzzing off the back of that, really.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: And I was around my friend's house last night, we had pizzas.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, actually, one of them was an investment manager, and um yeah, all three of us got together, and it's been a long time since we got together, and it was just really fabulous to bond.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: And I've woken up in a really kind of great mood, and I get to sit down today and talk to you about your career.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: So um I feel blessed, Rory, if I'm honest.
3:21
SPEAKER_03: Lovely.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: So, Rory, let's kick things off then.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: What do you um sort of start off?
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Well, I always love to start off, by the way, is you know, it's a careers-based podcast.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to know you know how you heard about the financial planning profession and how you got into it.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: So tell us a little bit of backstory.
3:41
SPEAKER_03: Sure, yeah.
3:41
SPEAKER_03: So um I'll start with the backstory, really.
3:45
SPEAKER_03: Um, I went to the University of Portsmouth, studied business studies there, mainly because I didn't know what to do, and I felt that business study was a nice generic topic.
3:54
SPEAKER_03: You could kind of go into any industry with business studies.
3:57
SPEAKER_03: Uh fell in love with operations actually at that point.
4:01
SPEAKER_03: You know, how to be as efficient as possible and all those kinds of things.
4:06
SPEAKER_03: And just as I graduated, uh, luckily it was in the middle of the financial crisis, but Amazon had just opened up their first graduate recruiting for operations.
4:15
SPEAKER_03: So I applied for that and was lucky enough to get in looking after a section of one of their fulfillment centers or warehouses really.
4:24
SPEAKER_03: Um, and a team of about 50 to 100 over Christmas.
4:27
SPEAKER_03: They they chucked me in at the deep end.
4:29
SPEAKER_03: Really loved that role.
4:31
SPEAKER_03: Ended up staying at Amazon for nearly 10 years, working my way from the warehouse through to their head office in Shoreditch, uh, where I looked after project management and it got into the more strategic thinking of ultimately how to move a box from A to B as efficiently as possible.
4:49
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's almost the way I liken it to is uh a Formula One pit stop, trying to save those little microseconds here and there.
4:57
SPEAKER_03: But with the case of Amazon, how many orders they do, you save a half a second per package, and that adds up to thousands of hours over the years.
5:05
SPEAKER_03: So it's it is an intense but very good role.
5:09
SPEAKER_03: During COVID, as everyone did, I got sent home.
5:12
SPEAKER_03: Uh I live out in Hertfordshire, so it was an hour and a half commute in and out to the office every day.
5:17
SPEAKER_03: Uh so three hours on a train.
5:19
SPEAKER_03: Um, and it was lovely.
5:20
SPEAKER_03: I loved being at home uh and working from home.
5:24
SPEAKER_03: Is I've got two young kids, two boys, Harry and Jack.
5:27
SPEAKER_03: Um, it was lovely to be able to spend more time with them.
5:30
SPEAKER_03: I got to see their key life events, the walking, the talking, those sorts of things.
5:34
SPEAKER_03: And I would never have done that without working from home.
5:38
SPEAKER_03: Um and I then COVID started to ease up, things were getting better, and the the conversation happened with with the corporate office saying, Well, we would like you to come back in now.
5:49
SPEAKER_03: And I just I couldn't get myself motivated to get back up and running again with it.
5:54
SPEAKER_03: So I started to look at potential other options, starting them within within my industry.
6:00
SPEAKER_03: I was thinking about that, but then I saw it as a time to just take a bit of a leap of faith and join something that I would like to do.
6:07
SPEAKER_03: And uh, I've always had a personal interest in in personal finance and how investments work and those kinds of things, and how how to uh deal with investments, pensions, those kinds of things.
6:19
SPEAKER_03: And um I thought, why not do an RO exam?
6:23
SPEAKER_03: I did a bit of research and I thought if I just do an RO exam, the worst case thing that can happen is I hate doing the exam, I fail, but I manage my own pension a little bit better than I otherwise would have done.
6:34
SPEAKER_03: That's that was my I I thought it was nothing really to lose apart from the 100, 150 pound exam fee, whatever it was at the time.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
6:42
SPEAKER_03: Did the exam and it was RO1, which traditionally everyone says is the worst and you know, admin heavy and uh horrible to do, but I actually secretly really liked doing it.
6:52
SPEAKER_03: Um and so I went on to RO2 and and and moved my way through the exams and just found I was enjoying the the profession, or or at least a textbook version of the profession really well.
7:07
SPEAKER_03: And I I then that's how I found out more about the industry, really.
7:10
SPEAKER_03: I started to research more about what financial advisors do on a day-to-day basis, and it's actually not like the textbook at all.
7:18
SPEAKER_03: It's not just this black and white, here's the best plan for you.
7:22
SPEAKER_03: There's emotions involved, there's soft uh skills that are involved in you know, dealing with clients sometimes in their best moments of their life, you know, they've just got married, maybe just had kids to their worst, where they've just received an inheritance from their late parents or whatever that might be.
7:39
SPEAKER_03: And and then I just I found that even more interesting is dealing with that soft side of the business.
7:46
SPEAKER_03: Um, and just yeah, and just took it from there, started doing networking and things like that to get into the industry and never never wanted to go back to Amazon or anything like that, loving the role, been doing it now for just over a year, uh being in the industry.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Um great.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pause you there because a couple of things are like you've expressed there, which I think is great, right?
8:09
SPEAKER_00: One is that although COVID was terrible and you know lots of people died, and it was really disruptive.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: It was also positively disruptive.
8:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I would agree.
8:21
SPEAKER_03: I personally I was very lucky and no one was heavily influenced by COVID.
8:26
SPEAKER_03: So I touch wood, everything was okay on that that front for me.
8:31
SPEAKER_03: Um, so for me, COVID was actually a really big positive.
8:33
SPEAKER_03: It was a nice reset, uh, is the way I see it.
8:36
SPEAKER_03: Is just I probably would still be at Amazon today if if it wasn't for COVID.
8:41
SPEAKER_03: I would have been in that uh structure, that routine of I get on the train every day, I go do that hour and a half train journey, I work for eight hours, nine hours, and then get the hour and a half train back, only seeing my my sons and and wife really at the weekends.
8:58
SPEAKER_03: And I probably would still be doing that because there was nothing to give me that reset of just coming through.
9:04
SPEAKER_03: That's that's I'm grateful for COVID for that, I guess.
9:07
SPEAKER_03: You know, there's a lot of bad things, and I don't want to take that away from a lot of people.
9:10
SPEAKER_03: But for me personally, I didn't have any negatives, I only have positives from it.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: I speak to so many people whose life's changed for the better during that process.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, where they set up their their businesses.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah, they left companies where their time was being zapped on sitting on trains or in cars driving to the office.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: They were missing some of the most vital things that uh a human can experience, like interaction with our children, putting them to bed.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: And I can I echo exactly what you say.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm very grateful that I run my own company and I come and go as I please in the hours that I work because I'm able to I drop my daughter off at school today.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I pick her up from school, we go to the park after school, and to think that I would miss those beautiful little opportunities and to bond with her and to connect with her, which I never had with my father, you know.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it's I'm so grateful for that.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: And um, I've spoken to so many people in your situation, and I think it's just something that we want to kind of emphasize here, like, you know, when you're if anyone's listening to this and you're in an employee position and you're going into the office and it's something that you think you're missing out on, and you think, I wonder what it's like on the other side.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: It is better.
10:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it can be, certainly.
10:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: You know, it does feel great.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: And you do you, you, you know, you can step away from the the drudge, if you like, of those 12-hour days where you know, silly, silly hours are spent commuting.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: What about the costs?
10:29
SPEAKER_00: Did you save a lot of money as well?
10:31
SPEAKER_00: I suppose when you were thinking like, oh, I'm traveling into the office day in, day out.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: And did you save a lot of money around travel costs and all that kind of stuff as well?
10:38
SPEAKER_03: Travel costs were a big factor.
10:40
SPEAKER_03: Um, we're talking up north of a thousand pounds a year just in in getting me from A to B.
10:47
SPEAKER_03: So that definitely helped.
10:49
SPEAKER_03: There was a moving into the industry, I was fresh faced and I was never gonna command the same salary as what I left on at Amazon.
10:55
SPEAKER_03: So I knew uh so whilst the travel cost mitigated the problem a little bit, it it didn't bridge the whole gap up to what I was previously on.
11:04
SPEAKER_03: So um, but I knew that coming into an industry I was gonna be a risk to any employer that took me on, I wasn't gonna command the same salary.
11:11
SPEAKER_03: But um yeah, that that definitely did help.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: I love that you're new to the profession, uh, but you've spent 10 years in a completely different environment and sector and industry.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, that to me is really important because it's the problem we have within the profession right now is attracting new people to the profession.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: And as we spoke about on on the call prior to this, you know, you you can't expect there to be like a trainee graduate route that's going to train every single new financial planner that's gonna come through.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: The profession does need to do more to attract second careerists because of the skill sets that you've learned, the experience that you have, um, it does tend to trump somebody that's not had that life and work experience.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: So it's positive in my eyes, because of what I'm building with Financial Planner Life Academies and the partnerships I'm trying to make with those second careerists is look, financial planning does offer a huge amount of flexibility and opportunity.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: So if you are in another profession and you're thinking about doing something different, the profession of financial planning is achievable because you're doing it.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to go through that.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, when we look over your um your knowledge and experience of the profession before you actually started.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: So just to reiterate, really, R01, you took the exam really just because you had an interest in pensions, is that right?
12:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that or or the the profession as a whole, really.
12:27
SPEAKER_03: Um I I started that exam.
12:30
SPEAKER_03: Perhaps looking back, I wouldn't have started on R01.
12:33
SPEAKER_03: I just did it because it was the first one as R01 and went from one to six.
12:38
SPEAKER_03: But I think when I I took it on, I wanted to just get my foot in the door almost and just try it a little bit.
12:45
SPEAKER_03: A no-risk trial is the way I saw it, is just uh£100 or or the exam fee, get the book, read through the book, and and there was no there was no risk for me apart from having read a book.
12:56
SPEAKER_03: That was it.
12:56
SPEAKER_03: So I I tried to make the transition as risk-free as possible.
13:00
SPEAKER_03: It was a big leap.
13:01
SPEAKER_03: I, as I say, two young kids to change industry at that point in my life was was definitely a risk.
13:07
SPEAKER_03: Um, but I wanted to make sure it was going to be the right risk.
13:11
SPEAKER_03: I didn't want to join the industry and go, oh God, what have I done?
13:14
SPEAKER_03: And so I tried to do as much background research as possible.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Can I just ask you, at what point did it did it flip where you felt confident that you would embark on a career within financial planning?
13:28
SPEAKER_00: You know, was it after R0 three?
13:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, and also with those qualifications, did you do all your qualifications before even getting a job within the financial planning profession or just partly?
13:37
SPEAKER_03: No, just partly.
13:38
SPEAKER_03: So um I it actually, yeah, I can answer both questions in one almost really.
13:43
SPEAKER_03: So I did RO one and two off my own back.
13:46
SPEAKER_03: Um pre-speaking to anyone in the industry, really.
13:50
SPEAKER_03: As I was doing RO two, I started to try and network a little bit and try and speak to actual financial advisors.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Good.
13:56
SPEAKER_03: I knew that the the textbook version and the real world version, there was going to be some differences.
14:02
SPEAKER_03: Um, we touched on it, the soft skilled side of it and things like that.
14:05
SPEAKER_03: But I wanted to broaden my knowledge a little bit further and understand a little bit more about the industry.
14:09
SPEAKER_03: At this time, I didn't really know what independent versus restricted meant and what those really meant for a client.
14:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
14:17
SPEAKER_03: Um, I knew it from a textbook version again, you know, the products that are available, but not what that really meant for a client.
14:23
SPEAKER_03: So I started to network a little bit.
14:25
SPEAKER_03: I joined, I went as a guest to a couple of BNI, uh, they're sort of a networking group.
14:31
SPEAKER_03: I went as a guest to a couple of those, reached out on LinkedIn.
14:34
SPEAKER_03: Uh, but the one that actually worked best for me is I spoke to the CII, the Chartered Insurance Institute, and asked them to put me in touch with a financial advisor near me that could potentially be my mentor, potentially be uh just someone that I could just ping questions off now and again.
14:51
SPEAKER_03: And they put me in touch with uh my now boss, Joe, um, who we met up.
14:57
SPEAKER_03: We we spoke about uh this was on Zoom, it was hype of COVID at the time, but we we spoke about the industry and we spoke about the the different areas that she got involved in.
15:07
SPEAKER_03: So she works for Lindhurst, the company that I now work for, who are an independent financial planner.
15:13
SPEAKER_03: And we spoke about the benefits of being independent, and that really sold it to me because one of my biggest concerns sitting back from the industry and not knowing enough about it was I really didn't want to be a salesman.
15:25
SPEAKER_03: I didn't want to have a quota of 10 life insurances to sell that week or whatever that might be.
15:31
SPEAKER_03: And I was I was dreading that that joining a company and that actually being the case.
15:37
SPEAKER_03: But and so we spoke about that, and we spoke about how that's not the case for I'm sure Lintherson and I'm sure many other firms, and it's more about client comes and sees you and what can you do for that client that will improve their either their situation or their well-being, um, either a hypothetical future where something goes wrong or the path that they're on at the moment.
16:00
SPEAKER_03: And I love that.
16:01
SPEAKER_03: I love that sort of sitting down and understanding where a client is today and how we can get them to a better place in the future, or protect them from not being in a worse place.
16:12
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's uh that's opposite sides of the same coin.
16:16
SPEAKER_03: And it was that conversation.
16:17
SPEAKER_03: Um, I kept in contact with Joe.
16:20
SPEAKER_03: We we would catch up now and again, and it wasn't long afterwards that the firm had a role open up as a junior power planner.
16:27
SPEAKER_03: And she knew at the time I had RO one and two under my belt.
16:29
SPEAKER_03: And she said, Hey, do you want to join as a part qualified power planner for us?
16:34
SPEAKER_03: Uh, we'll fund you to do the other RO exams and we'll put you on a path to becoming an advisor.
16:40
SPEAKER_03: Um, and that's how it all started.
16:42
SPEAKER_03: And I've met the directors and and everyone else um over in the head office, which is based over in Harpenden, and um loved it and haven't really looked back from there.
16:51
SPEAKER_03: It's a it's a really lovely firm to work for, I feel, with a good family vibe.
16:56
SPEAKER_03: Everyone's got young kids, so they're all we all know what it's like when you get that phone call from nurseries saying, you know, someone's not feeling too well or anything like that.
17:04
SPEAKER_03: And it's yeah, it's it's and that this is that's what exactly what I was looking for.
17:08
SPEAKER_03: A no-pressure sales environment with a family-centered firm is exactly what I wanted and um lucky to have found it.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, we make our own luck in life.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: Nothing you could you could say in your head over and over that you want to be a financial planner, but without taking any action, um, you're not gonna get anywhere.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a prime example.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: And what I always have expressed to anybody that comes to me and asks me for advice about how to get into the profession.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: Firstly, now I say check out the Financial Planner Life Academy's page because there are some really fantastic entry routes into the profession, and that's gonna be built up uh over the next few years as their need for new blood grows, and certainly from other professions.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: So that's one area.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: But another area is to take responsibility.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: And I often just say to people, look, it's as simple as looking at your local area, making a list of all the companies, putting it on a spreadsheet, taking down an email address, a telephone number, going on their websites and taking a look at some of the key people on there who work within that business.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Take that list and go on to LinkedIn and connect with individuals on LinkedIn, start following their businesses.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: Download the top 100 list, the top 100 financial planning firms list, right?
18:25
SPEAKER_00: Follow all those on LinkedIn, link in with a couple of people, perhaps uh some of their recruitment team.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, perhaps some of the senior advisors.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: A practice like that, in the very first instance, is action.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: So not only are you saying I want to be a financial planner, but you're actually purposely going out and connecting with people and networking them.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: And LinkedIn is like networking on steroids, right?
18:46
SPEAKER_00: You're out there, you're connecting with people.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: Now you now you ramp it up a gear.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: What you then do is you start to comment on their posts.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: You start to like their posts, you start to get visually seen by those within the profession.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: Now you might celebrate an RO exam pass, you might celebrate something on LinkedIn.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: And what you'll find is those people that you're connected with, the network that you're connected to, the people that you're liking, not only do you see more of their content that's relevant to the profession that you're interested in, but they start to see what you're doing if you're active on social media.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we all spend three hours a night on Instagram.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Why not spend it on LinkedIn to help further your career?
19:20
SPEAKER_00: What you can then do is ramp it up even more and you reach out to those people.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: So as you put a LinkedIn connection across, you say, look, you know, I'm thinking about becoming a financial planner, and this is what I'm doing.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: Have you got any advice for me?
19:31
SPEAKER_00: And you do that and you ask people and you just put it out there.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: So as you're going through your study, you are immersing yourself within the culture of the profession.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: But by doing it, and LinkedIn's beautiful because the algorithm promotes you to those people if you are engaging with content.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: And it really super duper helps in your ability to create opportunity because what you put out, you get back.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: So there's the action part, sitting on your, you know, sitting at home and hoping that you know the right job's going to land on your lap, you know, it's going to take a long time.
20:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, if ever.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: And what I loved about your approach as well was the B and I side, you know, getting out of the comfort zone and going along as a guest to a B and I.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, and also reaching out to the CII.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: I thought that was excellent advice where you found a mentor and eventually worked for that for that mentor.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, again, just shows that action, but it also shows the skill sets and the characteristics required to be a financial planner because networking is a huge part of the job, right?
20:28
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
20:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you have to step out of for some people's comfort zone and talk to strangers and talk to groups of people that you've not met before and things like that.
20:37
SPEAKER_03: And I think, yeah, like you say, it was a really good that was another good looking back, a really good insight into the industry and just that networking.
20:46
SPEAKER_03: I do it now, even though I'm in the industry.
20:47
SPEAKER_03: I was at a networking event yesterday, and it's talking to other people in completely different industries and being able to hold that conversation is um yeah, a key skill for any advisor, I think.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm always I'm always interested in the expectation versus reality.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: When you were studying and you were building the confidence to uh take that step further into the profession, right?
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Your expectation there was one of the first things by the sounds of it, which I picked up on, and correct me if I'm wrong, but and perhaps you've got some other sort of expectations versus the reality of what you've actually experienced.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: One was being this sales, you felt it was gonna be really sales-y and that you were product selling and product pushing, and you'd have these high targets and all of that typical type of thing by the science of it.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: So was that true?
21:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, is that true?
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Is that what you your expectation was?
21:37
SPEAKER_00: And tell us about the reality.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Is it is it different?
21:40
SPEAKER_03: 100%.
21:40
SPEAKER_03: I did think there was gonna be um high targets.
21:46
SPEAKER_03: I spoke to a few firms that it didn't work out with, where it was that kind of mentality of a metric driven business of how many initial meetings have you had this week?
21:58
SPEAKER_03: How many follow up meetings and calls?
22:00
SPEAKER_03: like that and i i felt it was forcing a a client down a path that potentially wasn't right for them just to hit a number a metric or a number and something i learned from amazon actually was if you put a a metric to any uh any uh anything it will people will find ways of hitting that metric in the easiest way possible and it may not be the best way it'll be the easiest way of doing it there'll be shortcuts that we had and i i i don't know if that would happen within the industry financial planning is obviously a lot more compliance driven than uh than operations over there but i was i had that n that expectation uh that you mentioned too that just that's how businesses run they run on metrics they run they've got to hit a bottom line number ultimately they're not there for charity or or for anyone else so how do they get to that number well within financial planning we all know that's getting clients that's getting funds under management that's selling various products and that's the path I didn't want to go down um reality for me has been completely different I'm quite happy and Linthurst as a firm is quite happy for me to sit down with a client for an hour and say actually look you're on a you're well protected you've got a really good plan in place already there's not a lot more that I can add to your current plan.
23:20
SPEAKER_03: There's a few perhaps little tweaks that I can do but I'm not going to resell you life insurance that you've already had or change your pension that's not in any way beneficial for you just so that I could add my fees on top of it.
23:33
SPEAKER_03: And that's exactly what I wanted.
23:35
SPEAKER_03: And I feel that now that I'm in the industry and I I network with some others I've for example I've joined the local council for the CII the group that got me into the industry in the first place.
23:46
SPEAKER_03: And so I do talk to other advisors now both independent and those affiliated to those like St.
23:51
SPEAKER_03: James's Place and the like and it's most firms aren't like that aren't that or the same as Linthurst actually in that they they just want to do right by the client and they know do right by the client and that's going to be the long-term business growth.
24:05
SPEAKER_03: There's not a short term mentality that I'm perhaps used to in working for a tech firm previously you you're chasing that quarter's number and that's the what really matters and and financial planning in reality is much more I'm building a business that's going to be generations in the making it's going to be 10 years before I may make any money off this client but I'm going to work with them for 10 years to build them up in a positive way for the things like their pensions.
24:32
SPEAKER_03: And that's what I've really enjoyed.
24:34
SPEAKER_03: There's always going to be some bad eggs there's going to be some firms that chase that that client to get the absolute most out of them but um actually from what I've seen reality wise is that most firms aren't like that which is lovely to see.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: That's really that's really interesting.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: And I really I like the analogy there with Amazon and the products and the and the metrics and the targets to get there.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: And I can understand why you would make that connection and I feel that there's lots of people that might work in tech sales for example right have got background or background in sales right that would transfer incredibly well across to financial planning.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: For the reasons being that sales is difficult.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: Yes you know you have to kiss a lot of frogs you have to knock on a lot of doors um you learn great skill sets such as open questions listening skills um you tend to be a business developer somebody that's always kind of inquisitive and looking to find out more because knowledge to you is very is the ability to then show your worth to somebody that then deepens relationships, for example.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: So there is you know relationship building that goes on in a sales role as well.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: But what can often sometimes let salespeople down is these uh unlimited earning potentials and high targets for example uh external or internal metrics that puts pressure upon an individual and what you don't want is that financial you don't want that salesperson who's got all those amazing skill sets and behaviors that they've built and been hopefully a success coming into a financial planning profession where there is you know you have to you have to play ball you you know you can't just go out and be a cowboy and be rogue and tell somebody they want to hear just so you can earn that big fat commission check at the end of it.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: Those days have gone at the core of any relationship at the core of any financial planning business and and I'm with you on that by the way this idea that there's loads of salespeople in in you know in financial planning I don't meet them.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: I meet all these people that share the same values as you so there's this portrayal that there's loads of these rogue sales people you know people always batter St.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: James's place saying that they're just a bunch of salespeople it's like I've met loads of people from St.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: James's place and they care deeply about the client relationship you know and and more often than not the process of coming to a conclusion of what is a suitable product or uh investment solution or whatever it might well be comes from a deep and meaningful relationship and getting on with that client and understanding really what their long-term objectives are not just from a financial security perspective but from their life in general.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I love about the profession.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: So the the transfer of skills from another profession into it sales being one of them is great.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: I see that with recruitment consultants.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Recruitment consultants would make amazing financial planners I'd agree I think I think you're right.
27:29
SPEAKER_03: You've touched on it it's the open questions like you say and they might come to you for A, but really they want B.
27:37
SPEAKER_03: And it's it's that and you you probably see it in recruiting you see it in sales they want X products but actually these products are much better fit for the problem that they have and you've identified that through the conversation that you've had and recruiters maybe you they come in for hey I could have came in for an operations job at the end of COVID or and look for that but actually a great recruiter would have said hey have you thought about this other industry that you might want to switch to and financial advice is exactly the same.
28:05
SPEAKER_03: People come to me all the time and say I'm looking to retire in five, ten years can you check my pensions over for me?
28:11
SPEAKER_03: But actually there's another opportunity elsewhere that they perhaps haven't noticed when it comes to protection or their mortgage or anything like that.
28:18
SPEAKER_03: And it's about seeing the wider picture of that person and the their whole uh financial life or even their broader life and how you can influence that not just the the pigeonhole that they've tried to come initially with you at I agree Rory.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay let's move forward and when you get into the financial planning profession there's usually two options right you either go down the employed route or you go down the self-employed route and that's usually when you step into self-employed usually is when you step into a role of financial planner straight away.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: You don't tend to get very very rare would you get self-employed power planners for example that's because you know they tend to be employed and um you've got self-employed power planners that have usually got lots and lots and lots of years of experience and they've set up their own outsourced power planning company.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: So you can be self-employed as a power planner but not in the very very beginning it doesn't happen.
29:13
SPEAKER_03: No you'd need that that experience for sure.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: So you um obviously had the difficult decision that you were at Amazon for 10 years.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like you were probably earning some really good money right?
29:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah I was definitely earning significantly more than I did when I joined as a power planner which is and there we go.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: So I think this is an area we should talk about because first off did you look at self-employees as an option as well as employees?
29:40
SPEAKER_03: Yes one of the one of the outcomes of networking talking to a few people I spoke to a recruiter um who put me in touch with St.
29:49
SPEAKER_03: James's place actually in their academy program pre-your podcasts actually Sam so that would have been useful perhaps a year ago um and I spoke to to the recruiter over there um I like the idea of self-employed you see the numbers and you're like hang on this could be great this could you know I could I've got a great network I could sell everything to everyone that I've previously known and be very well off from it.
30:15
SPEAKER_03: But when I I went into the weeds of it a little bit with it and I actually listened to some of your podcasts from probably a year ago now and you had guests some of them employed some of them are self-employed and there was pros and cons of each and that there still is now and and the pros are unlimited earning potentials you you could bring in what you like the con being you are working super hard to bring your own business in there's no brand there's no you're starting everything from scratch you're you you're gonna have to build your own client bank from scratch unless you you would have to pay for a client bank to come through employed for me I chose I ultimately chose employed for a couple of reasons one I felt that it might be better for me to learn my hone my skills in a little bit further there perhaps a bit of an element of imposter syndrome stepping in there but at this time I'd only done perhaps a few of the exams what did I know what could I sit in front of a 50 60 year old guy and tell them about their pension when I've barely you know just built up a little one myself it's how what what could I offer is is the perception that I had at the time uh that so that was one I I like the knowledge that I could just poke my head up above the desk and ask my colleague you know a more senior advisor what would you do in this situation?
31:37
SPEAKER_03: And the other bit is just from a personal point of view um we've touched on I've got a family young family could I risk going off on my own where potentially I wouldn't earn anything for let's say even three or six months before I start even bringing in anything really could I do that to the family and what happens if it isn't six months what happens if it's a year what happens if it's 18 months and the the kind of the negative oh it could go horribly wrong if I go down this path started to creep in a little bit and um ultimately I went I felt then for me the right choice it was to go employed.
32:16
SPEAKER_03: I still think that's the right choice for me.
32:18
SPEAKER_03: I do enjoy if I look at who I'm talking to my clients now half of them are in an inherited client bank that I I've worked on from other advisors that have built up their client banks.
32:30
SPEAKER_03: The other half are coming to me probably if I'm being brutally honest not for me as an individual in a lot of cases they're coming to the brand of Lyndhurst Lindhurst is arguably one of the largest uh independent financial planners in Hertfordshire so we're a big fish in a small pond I guess gotcha and we get people come to us for that and there's word of mouth and the client bank all the things that you would get if you were self-employed perhaps in year three four five six onwards uh I've had from day one and so for me I think that's the pros of being employed outweighed the cons in the situation I was at and at the time and where I was thinking at the time since then we've gone Lindhurst has actually put me through performance coaching which touched on those elements of imposter syndrome that negative jumping to a negative uh place first of all and I realize I probably would have done quite well self-employed and I I perhaps still could one day but for now I still think employed is the right way for me.
33:33
SPEAKER_03: I like that team spirit about it which you wouldn't necessarily get as much of being uh in a self-employed I've I've thrive off the team side of of the the role being employed interesting so there's a couple of things here because a little bit when you first started your exams you wanted to test it first didn't you so you did one exam and at least then you learned something about it.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: And your approach to becoming a financial planner was one of mitigating risk.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: Yes and thinking to yourself well I'll start here and we'll see where it takes me and I'll get a feel for it.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: But what you've experienced is you enjoy the connection with those around you within the business it sounds like they're great at identifying areas within you that need improvement.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: Would you have gained that through self-employed perhaps working in your back bedroom and by the way anybody listening here you can be self-employed and still be part of a business and still have the culture the environment the office the support and everything else involved so I just want to make that sort of clear as well there there are opportunities out there that almost mimic being employed.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: But one thing I'm gonna pick up on here is is that you chose to go so you thought I want to be a financial planner right I want to be an advisor I want to advise I want to be client facing giving financial advice but you took the route of a power planner.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: I did that's right and you took a drop in salary for that so for you it's like I'll take a drop in salary gain my experience and in your head how did you determine that the earning potential that you feel that you want to achieve how did you determine the time scale to get to that was there a clear career roadmap by Lindhurst put in front of you that sort of expressed and showed you, okay, well if you start as a power planner here on I don't know I'm picking a figure out of the air here 35k, 30k we'll bring you through this roadmap, which means that year one you should be here year two you should be here with your knowledge.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Therefore you should have some access to clients at this stage and your earnings will go up this way.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: Did they put something in front of you that made the decision easier because there was clarity around your journey to achieving your objective of earnings for example because sometimes I can loom over your head worrying about that but when's it going to come?
35:57
SPEAKER_00: When's it gonna come?
35:58
SPEAKER_00: And I've seen that a lot where people have gone down the power planner route.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: And the years have gone by and they haven't achieved what they set out to achieve both financially and um from a position perspective so i they haven't moved into a financial planner role not by their choice.
36:14
SPEAKER_03: Yes and that you're right.
36:16
SPEAKER_03: So Lindhurst did sit it was something it was discussed in in the interview something was discussed actually in the networking before that with with the likes of Joe before I even met the directors and everyone else that were involved with Lindhurst.
36:28
SPEAKER_03: And I and to be honest I spoke to other companies about the same the same thing I you know I played the market a little bit.
36:35
SPEAKER_03: Okay but it and it's interesting how different people had different ideas.
36:40
SPEAKER_03: So Lindhurst's point of view is well you can't be sat down in front of a client really until you're qualified.
36:47
SPEAKER_03: So you need to have R0 one to six under your belt or at least be well on your way of getting them under your belt to be able to sit in front of a client and uh own the meeting you could sit in there and monitor and take notes from a from an advisor relating to a client but to really own that meeting you need to be well on the way to R0 six and they said well you know you've got four three or four left at the time that's going to take you another 18 months or so to finish off those three that are left.
37:16
SPEAKER_03: So and at that point we'll start putting you as a trainee financial planner we'll sit you down with a couple of clients and we'll go through the competency element of the role as well and then once you've done that hey we need you to look after 10 to 15 different cases from beginning to end and then we'll we'll sign you off as competent had you done well in those and they said well so all in you're probably looking two to three years of power planning to get to that and I could I could accept that I didn't want it to take that long but I could accept it.
37:49
SPEAKER_03: And so that's ultimately how I joined the job knowing that it was going to take like you say two to three years.
37:54
SPEAKER_03: But then the I guess where I am now I'm a year just over a year into the industry and have reached financial planner there's a bit of two things coming together really one I put my head down and I smashed those exams.
38:07
SPEAKER_03: I knew it didn't matter what I did if I didn't have the exams under my belt I weren't I wasn't going to be able to sit in front of uh in front of clients.
38:16
SPEAKER_03: So got through those within I think three or four months those three exams really put my head down to it that unlocked me to be able to do trainee advice.
38:25
SPEAKER_03: So I started sitting down with clients and started owning that.
38:28
SPEAKER_03: And that's where partly that was mine.
38:31
SPEAKER_03: I started networking at that point trying to build my own client bank I brought a couple of my own clients in to try and speed up that point to where I got to enough cases to be compliant.
38:41
SPEAKER_03: Lindhurst offered me a couple of clients and and to their credit they put me in the rotor of just the the calls that come into the office not to a specific advisor but just generally to the office I got my fair share of that from as soon as I hit trainee advisor which was great it's they they put their trust into me from as soon as I hit trainee.
39:02
SPEAKER_03: And that helped me build my client bank really quickly in the that Lindhurst was getting a lot of inquiries coming in I was building my own client bank I hit that 15 within sort of I think four months at four months of doing those 15 cases.
39:16
SPEAKER_03: So I then had all the ammunition to go back to the directors and say look I know we said it was going to take three years but I've you know put my head down and worked and I've got it at this point now instead can't what's stopping us from going ahead and and signing me off as qualified and there was yeah to their credit as well they they said well then there's nothing you've you've done you've ticked it all the boxes so yeah we're we're gonna sign you off as qualified and that's that happened uh earlier this year uh just a couple of months ago and um have gone from there so I think it's I think it's whilst I agreed to the timetable or or the the maximum that it could take I knew really the important bit was what things did I need to achieve to get to where I wanted to do and how could I do that as quick that's probably the operations coming out of me.
40:00
SPEAKER_03: How do I get those things completed as quickly as possible?
40:03
SPEAKER_00: What I do like as well is they let they set out a pathway for you you were encouraged to also they wouldn't they didn't hold you back.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: So they were encouraging you to get in front of clients.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: So from a power planner role and getting in front of clients but also what I love is that you took that responsibility to business develop yourself and start to show your worth to them that you are keen, able to step up and that helped propel you forward to get your competent advisor state to sign off a lot quicker.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: Again, taking action isn't it and I think often and and I love the fact you said two to three years within that you you and I think that's realistic.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: If someone's listening to this and they're choosing the route right of going down power planning to financial advice I would say two to three years is a very realistic time scale I'd say is a median I know some could do it sooner they could go into a firm start off as a power planner and then they might see something in that individual or an opportunity comes up and you know case by case, company by company the time scale's changed.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: However, two to three years is quite realistic in that power planner role stroke trainee advisor before you're then signed off and actually are you know a fully fledged financial advisor.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: Especially if you take qualifications into account there if you're one of the lucky ones that got in with a firm maybe started as an administrator and then started your qualifications at a lower level if you like whilst in the job then yeah three years.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: But you might enter into a company fully qualified already and that might you know your knowledge your experience your qualifications for example although it doesn't make you a financial advisor it certainly helps towards the um speeding up the process of becoming a financial planner and sitting down with clients I probably you know I hope you would agree with me on it sounds like you do.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: So yeah no I love that you know it's good to hear it's good to hear there's options yeah and you took a a view on it that okay I'm taking a hit in salary but I know I'm going to get that back in the future.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: So you're again like the how you should take you know the strategy around your long game is is clear.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: And I often say that to people as well you know don't get fixated and bogged down on the here and now of what you're earning because it's only going up yeah there's a very distinct lack of financial planners right if your goal is to become a financial planner within that two year, three year period there's a lot of people going to be exiting the profession and not enough people coming in.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: So the opportunity for you is going to be there and we've seen year on year salaries increase for power planners salaries increase for financial planners the opportunities for financial planners rise it's for people to have a patient have that patience and understand that you know yes we want things now but time flies pretty damn quickly and what you experience knowledgewise in the job um fine-tunes you to the point of when you're ready and you're ready when you're ready and I like um your measured approach to that and I like that I do like that for some it's difficult for some you know perhaps they they need the the they they they feel that stepping into a financial planner role would be better for them straight away some of them think the employed route doesn't work for them because they're very confident a in their ability but within their network as well so some of the things that the academies do incredibly well for example self-employed firms is that it's about sitting down with a financial planner or a trainee sorry somebody that's thinking about being an advisor and saying look what does your network look like you know who do you know that you could go and speak to and give financial advice have you gone and spoke to them already and told them what you're looking to do from a career change?
43:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, would they seek financial planning from you?
43:46
SPEAKER_00: Do they have a financial planner already I mean you must have networked well through Amazon as well surely there must have been some very good people that you've picked up there and looking at your immediate network has it served you 100%
44:00
SPEAKER_03: I think that's I perhaps didn't factor that into my decision making when I was looking at self-employed versus employed, in that I I always had in my head uh it comes back to that perhaps negative slant of why would they come, you know, they were the I was the guy that would they would come to if they had a problem with their project, when I was a project manager, if something wasn't on time or something hadn't delivered, that I was the go-to guy for that.
44:24
SPEAKER_03: I'm not going to be their go-to guy for their savings and investments, you know, and so when I make that switch, why would they, why would they pick up the phone to me?
44:31
SPEAKER_03: What I found actually as I've gone into the the role a little bit further is, and it's really key probably for second careerists, is they like that I've got the qualifications and the knowledge that I've built up, but I've also understand where they're coming from.
44:45
SPEAKER_03: So from an Amazon point of view, like a lot of American share uh firms, we get a share allocation of the company called RSUs or restricted stock units.
44:56
SPEAKER_03: Microsoft does this, Amazon, Google, all of the big American tech firms do this.
45:01
SPEAKER_03: And uh they like that I have the qualifications to be able to talk to them about perhaps what they should do with those.
45:07
SPEAKER_03: Is it a good idea to have a huge allocation of their wealth in a single share?
45:11
SPEAKER_03: Probably not.
45:12
SPEAKER_03: But what do I do with it if I was to move it somewhere else?
45:15
SPEAKER_03: And I found that's unlocked a lot of work for me, um, or at least initial conversations with people.
45:22
SPEAKER_03: And it goes back to what we're talking about before, where they're coming to me because they want to talk about what they should do with their share allocation, but actually they've got a wider issue.
45:31
SPEAKER_03: They've perhaps not contributed enough to their pension, or they've got a mortgage that's on a variable rate, and things like that.
45:39
SPEAKER_03: That I think that network's really helped me in just having those initial conversations.
45:45
SPEAKER_03: And it's not a it's not as difficult, especially for those that are second career so perhaps looking to go self-employed.
45:51
SPEAKER_03: If you already know the name and the background of a lot of these people, that's you're you're going into a warm start conversation with a lot of these people.
46:00
SPEAKER_03: Um, and that takes a lot of the pressure off.
46:02
SPEAKER_03: You're not going to a complete stranger and talking about, hey, have you talked about your pension for a while?
46:07
SPEAKER_03: Um, it's a it's a nice way to get into the industry.
46:10
SPEAKER_03: And so if you've got that network from a previous firm or whatever, or maybe it's a sports club that you're a part of or gym or whatever it might be, just yeah, I would suggest, like you say there, just before you go self-employed, and the academies will probably help you with this, is just that start tapping them up, start warming them up to it before you're 100% financially reliant on them giving you your the business.
46:33
SPEAKER_00: I think it's yeah, and some of the things that I'm seeing in any profession really is becoming a key person of influence within a specific community.
46:43
SPEAKER_00: Or a niche is the word, isn't it?
46:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: So look at me, right?
46:46
SPEAKER_00: So recruit, I'm a recruitment consultant.
46:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, I run a recruitment business and we recruit within the financial planning profession.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: Now I could just be another recruitment consultant and contacts you on LinkedIn with a message, say, I've got another job for you.
46:59
SPEAKER_00: You see my title, it says recruitment consultant, and you think, oh, that's just another recruiter.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: But I haven't.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: I've developed and I've developed a brand within the profession of financial planning to align myself as being, as I like to feel and I believe, a key person of influence within the profession now around careers.
47:18
SPEAKER_00: And I'm building content, I'm building almost productizing recruitment, if you like, into specific sort of niches underneath financial planning.
47:26
SPEAKER_00: And I've got lots of things coming out to also help and support financial planners set up their businesses if they want to move offshore.
47:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, marketing, branding, loads of cool things are coming out.
47:37
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to see more of that within the financial planning profession.
47:40
SPEAKER_00: I had a chap come on last week and he's a gamer, loves gaming, right?
47:43
SPEAKER_00: He loves anime and he loves gaming.
47:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, uh, why can't you position yourself to the gaming and anime community as the financial planner of that community?
47:53
SPEAKER_00: Set it up, do something, create a page, join a community.
47:57
SPEAKER_00: And I and I think I love that what you've done there with Amazon because uh who's targeting how many Amazon sellers are out there?
48:02
SPEAKER_00: Look at Amazon sellers, look at eBay sellers, look at all these individuals that have all these side hustle businesses, and some people are doing incredibly well, earning lots of money out of it.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: Now, you know the ins and outs of how Amazon work.
48:14
SPEAKER_00: So your knowledge around sellers and how you can help them improve and make more money on their sales side becomes a great opportunity to also market yourself to them as a financial planner to help support their financial goals on a personal level.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: And I like I'd like to see more of that within the financial planning profession.
48:35
SPEAKER_00: I think interestingly, most people gravitate understandably, sorry, not interestingly, towards accountants and accountants and solicitors, that kind of thing, which is great because there's lots of crossover.
48:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh but I love the ones that are thinking outside of the box and they're positioning themselves as that person of influence within a specific community.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: And I think you know, that in the the for the future, and for anybody listening, it is sit down and think about that.
48:59
SPEAKER_00: You've touched on it, whether you're a footballer, you could be a footballer, you know, you could be uh really keen fisherman.
49:05
SPEAKER_03: Uh you know, it could be anything, couldn't it?
49:07
SPEAKER_03: Really?
49:07
SPEAKER_03: That's that's the joy of it.
49:09
SPEAKER_00: Could be anything, and that's the that's the creativity side that allows you then to move away from traditional how do I talk about financial planning in a way that's fun, engaging, and interesting?
49:20
SPEAKER_00: Well, pick an area that you love and talk about that and how you can intertwine financial planning into it.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: And then bosh, you're away, aren't you?
49:28
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
49:28
SPEAKER_00: Um cool, excellent stuff.
49:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, Rory, what about some of the lessons that you've learned along the way?
49:35
SPEAKER_00: Could you share with us a lesson that you've learned along the way that if someone was about to follow the path that you've been on, that you might sort of nudge them in a different direction or preempt them a little bit?
49:47
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, pain and learning is all part of the process, but some things are nice to avoid, you know.
49:52
SPEAKER_00: We bang our heads against a brick wall sometimes until, and I wish we just turned around and asked somebody.
49:57
SPEAKER_00: What piece of advice would you give an aspiring financial planner who's sort of embarking on their career maybe early on?
50:03
SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, so I think I've only learned this really recently, and it's not an epiphany that I've had or anything like that, but Lyndhurst set us up with a performance coach, me and and three other uh trainee at the time trainee financial planners.
50:18
SPEAKER_03: And that I think helped me process my thoughts a lot around what I would perhaps suggest to aspiring financial planners or people that are looking to get to that position.
50:30
SPEAKER_03: And I think it really boils down to a couple of the points that we've mentioned before.
50:36
SPEAKER_03: That imposter syndrome is going to be a at least it was for me, it was a killer.
50:40
SPEAKER_03: It was, you know, how am I ever going to build up enough knowledge to be able to warrant sitting in front of a client and talk to them about areas that that I've only just started to learn relatively short term.
50:52
SPEAKER_03: You know, I only start picked up a book 18 months ago or something like that about this.
50:55
SPEAKER_03: So what qualifies me?
50:58
SPEAKER_03: I think actually it's that's not the, you know, I think uh the the the analogy that the a coach used with me is if you've your car breaks down, you could watch a YouTube video on how to fix your car and you could go read all the books and do all the knowledge and go to college and learn how to fix that exhaust in your car.
51:18
SPEAKER_03: You're not because you've not got the time and you've not you've not got the inclination to do that.
51:22
SPEAKER_03: And it's better value for money for you to pay a mechanic to fix your car than uh than it is for you to try and learn how to do yourself.
51:29
SPEAKER_03: It's exactly the same with financial advice.
51:32
SPEAKER_03: If people wanted to, they could go away and they could learn how to invest their pensions effectively for themselves or get the right mortgage or protection, whatever it might be, but they're not because their time is more valuable, the valuably spent elsewhere in their life, be that with their children or in their profession that they're working in at the moment, and things like that.
51:51
SPEAKER_03: And and the fact that you're there and you have that layer of knowledge, be it textbook knowledge or from a bit of experience as well, is going to take them to where they need to go.
52:00
SPEAKER_03: They need someone to can just look after it.
52:02
SPEAKER_03: And that really helped me get through that, overcome that hurdle.
52:07
SPEAKER_03: And we've touched on the other point as well is that maybe it's the way my brain works, maybe not for everyone, but that negative slant of what could go wrong?
52:16
SPEAKER_03: What's what's the worst case scenario here, and perhaps leaning towards that.
52:20
SPEAKER_03: And actually, again, the the coach I was already a little bit further along at this stage, but the coach helped me identify ways that I would potentially improve things.
52:28
SPEAKER_03: So I did the right thing in trying to dip my toe in the water and doing a couple of exams, networking before joining the industry and not jumping straight in.
52:36
SPEAKER_03: But how I would have improved that looking back at that is just to continue doing that.
52:42
SPEAKER_03: You mentioned it, LinkedIn, reach out to more people, build a wider network, um, talk to people within the industry earlier, actually.
52:48
SPEAKER_03: Maybe I should have spoken to people in the industry before doing some exams.
52:52
SPEAKER_03: That that way round makes much more logical sense now that I look back at it.
52:57
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I think that's the main thing.
52:59
SPEAKER_03: And then just to, I guess the third and final point would be for me, I think the CII, whilst they sometimes get a bit of a bad rap, they they were brilliant for me in getting me into the industry.
53:13
SPEAKER_03: Um, I've joined the local council, like I say, as a young professionals officer now.
53:18
SPEAKER_03: And I every local institute has one of these.
53:20
SPEAKER_03: So you're never far from a young professionals officer, or sorry, new professionals officer.
53:26
SPEAKER_03: And my role within that, which is a volunteer role, is to really talk to people about how to join the profession and how we can help with that.
53:35
SPEAKER_03: Um, and be that mentor that I was looking for and found with Joe and others when I joined the industry.
53:42
SPEAKER_03: I'm now doing for others.
53:43
SPEAKER_03: And I think wherever you are in the UK, find your local council and ask to speak to their young prof uh their new professionals officer and set up, they'll help you with networking.
53:54
SPEAKER_03: They can put you in contact with the right people in the right places and um and talk to you about the industry.
53:59
SPEAKER_03: And that'll be my final point I would like to advise others on doing.
54:04
SPEAKER_00: I think it's fantastic.
54:05
SPEAKER_00: Some fantastic points there.
54:06
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
54:07
SPEAKER_00: Rory, you're gonna bring this to a close now, but it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you.
54:11
SPEAKER_00: Really informative.
54:12
SPEAKER_00: I really enjoyed it.
54:13
SPEAKER_00: I've learned a lot, and I know the people listening will as well.
54:16
SPEAKER_00: Very valuable feedback about your journey.
54:18
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for sharing that.
54:19
SPEAKER_00: And I wish you all the best with your with your career, and I'm sure it's gonna be an absolute success.
54:23
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
54:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, really grateful for having me on, Sam.
54:26
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
54:26
SPEAKER_03: Your podcast has done me a lot of favors, so I'm glad to pay back.
54:29
SPEAKER_00: Fabulous.
54:30
SPEAKER_00: That's really good to hear.
54:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm always pleased to hear positive feedback.
54:32
SPEAKER_00: Rory, I really appreciate that.
54:34
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
54:35
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.