Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / Jade Rose: From fashion to finance: Why health and wellness, financial literacy and educating young women on finance is crucial

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Jade Rose: From fashion to finance: Why health and wellness, financial literacy and educating young women on finance is crucial · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: 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.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: This podcast is proudly sponsored by Recruit UK, a recruitment consultancy specifically focused on the financial services.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Sam Oakes, and I'm joined today by Jade Rose from Reading's Wealth Management.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: In this podcast, we talk about her journey into financial advice, as well as covering topics such as health and wellness, financial literacy, as well as women in finance.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you enjoy it.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget to rate the podcast and leave your feedback and comments below.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Financial Planner Life Podcasts.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Sam Oakes, and I have uh Jade Rose with me today.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: And Jade Rose is a well, you can tell me what you are, actually.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: I am a financial planner.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: I started my life as a fashion designer and a buyer, and I've been working in the city for well, I've been in the city for about six years, but I've been a financial planner for about one year.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: So you're a financial planner working for Reading's Wealth Management.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's correct.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: And Reading's Wealth Management are a uh Reading's Wealth Management is a boutique practice.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: So it's myself and my founder, and it's a female-led practice.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: We are backed by St.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: James's Place, but we are essentially operating as a boutique.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: So we manage our own clients, we have our own vision and marketing direction, which is great.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: So essentially we have the benefit of servicing our clients like a family office.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: But we have through economies of scale the resources of a Footy 100 company.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: So it's the best of both worlds for our clients.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's pretty cool to meet.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: I love the fact that you said it's a bit like a family office.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: So what does that mean?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, family in every sense of the word.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: So um Tracy has her daughter going through the St.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: James's Place Academy.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: So she's power planning and she'll be coming on board as an advisor shortly.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: And the service that we offer to the clients is what you'd expect from a family office.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: So that's I mean, I don't want to say 24-7 because that may give people the idea to call me on a Sunday, but if they wanted to, they absolutely could.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it's the type of service where we found the bigger banks aren't able to service clients who fall into that middle wealth category.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's a lot of people.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, huge.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: So um so it's yeah, so it's family in in both sense of the words.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: So you mentioned there as well that it's female, um, it's a female, is it female only, or is it just that they're all females in there at the moment?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: It just happens that it's females at the moment.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: We do have um Stephen, our head of operations, who is the glue of the practice.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: He's he's the management of that.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's just happened that way, but the beauty of Reading is that it's growing organically, so it wasn't contrived to only hire women or to go in this direction, but we really wanted to build something organic and authentic, and it's just evolving as is.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, fantastic.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, okay.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, do you see yourself as a kind of boutique firm in London that are showcasing women within financial advice?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're putting that out there as a business as well, because that's quite a hot topic at the moment, females in financial advice.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um did we set out to be a boutique practice, if you will, not necessarily, but I think it ties into the zeitgeist of what's going on socially and politically, economically.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I I mentioned my background is fashion, and we have this movement of slow fashion as opposed to fast fashion, and it's it's being um mindful about what we consume and how we live our lives and living with intention.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's an ethos that we're really trying to build out with readings as well.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: Love it.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not about how many clients we can get and how much business we can do, it's about being intentional and mindful.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: What are the relationships we're creating?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: How does that benefit the other clients?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Who can we connect?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: What is the direction and the vision of the business?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that's really where we're going with this.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, cool.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: So kind of all-encompassing business from a mindfulness perspective.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Do you, as a business, do you practice a lot of mindfulness?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Is that sort of incorporated into your business?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Did anybody outline what mindfulness means to be ready?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, interestingly, from a personal perspective, I work with a coach, I practice a lot of mindfulness in my days and well, and evenings too.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we're actually meeting with somebody tomorrow as a team to work on what mindfulness means as a team, communicating with each other, um mindfulness for clients.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: Because you know, the the managing the money part is just a very small part of what a financial planner does.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of it is behavioural psychology, it's counseling at times, it's deploying empathy.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so without emotional intelligence, it's actually quite difficult to get far in this role.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, we we as a practice we do a lot of work on that.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, emotional intelligence is definitely an area that I'm interested in, and I could imagine being in a predominantly relationship-focused role like a financial advisor.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's imperative to be able to pick up on somebody's ups and downs, out they're feeling, and being in tune with their emotions at probably times of their lives, I guess, that can be quite stressful.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, do you deal with people at typical stressful times of their lives where money can be quite uh used as a weapon sometimes, perhaps?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, money is a dirty word anyway.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's the British thing of oh my god, don't want to talk about money.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: Oh so already it's an emotive topic, it can be a divisive topic.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but the the main thing I would say, because a lot of people say, well, what is financial planning and financial advising?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: To me, financial advising is transactional.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: You may want to buy a home, you come to me, I help you to do that.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: Financial planning is what it sounds like.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's planning holistically 360.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I hate all those buzzwords, but it's true.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we have had people call their advisors when their parents have died.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they haven't called siblings or children, they've been on the phones with their financial advisor and said, What do I do?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: And at that point, they don't want to know about inheritance tax and probate in world and estates.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: They just want to know it's going to be okay.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what's going to happen?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, that there's a high level of emotional intelligence required.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're confident, aren't you?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, at the end of the day, you're somebody that that that individual can call can call at a time of stress and pressure and worry.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um and money can, without a doubt, cause that, and um, certain life events can cause that, and you are, I guess, trained and prepared to deal with those situations to calm it down.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you mentioned somebody coming in and doing some training with you.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: So talk to me about that, because that's really nice, another side of that.
• 6:49
  unknown: Tell me about that.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, me too.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a big advocate of it.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so as I said, it's it's just knowing how to be better, as you said, confidence in certain situations.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: For example, you said money used as a weapon.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: We see a lot of the time women coming in where they've not controlled their finances, um, maybe they're going through a divorce and they don't know what to do.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a certain level of empathy and understanding that you need to deploy in that situation.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we've had people where uh family members have passed away, or maybe they've wanted to put their children through private school and they've realized oh that they just can't, you know, and it's having those difficult conversations and knowing how to relate to different people.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, so I think that would be great for the team.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Is that St.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: James's place providing that training, or is that an external trainer?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's an external trainer, and that's something we pushed for um with Reading.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: So going back to the boutique practice and the family office feel, we manage our practice how we want, and this is the direction we'd like to go in.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, it's great to see that Reading's Wealth Management obviously invest in their staff, and I think that's really, really important anyway, within any business is the the company are willing to actually invest in their staff through training and retention and all that kind of stuff.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: So lovely lovely to see that.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um okay, well let's just talk a little bit, let's step away from that.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna come back to it in a minute, okay?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: What let's talk about you and your career today and how you ended up working within financial advice.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because previous to working as a financial advisor, you were working in financial services, but prior to that you were working in the fashion industry.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't think I've ever come across anybody who's been working in the fashion industry that was then transferred across to financial advice.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: To me, it's like complete differences, polar opposites.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: One's a creative environment, one's a very technical environment.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: So why did you why did you choose why did you why did you move?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I I've always been intrigued by the stock market from a young age.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what it was, I don't know how it worked.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: I just knew it was this thing that you invested in and you made more money, and and you know, the open outcry, you know, in the old days, and I was just fascinated by it.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: But I never pursued it because I didn't know I could.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: It was never a career that was explained to me or or suggested that I go for, and so I just I just didn't.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um So do you think if somebody was to have come to your school, for example, when you were younger and actually talked about financial services at a really young age, do you think that might have influenced your decision to potentially go into financial advice at a much younger age?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: Quite possibly, yes.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm a big believer in if you can see it, you can be it.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: And all it takes is for you to recognize yourself in somebody else and think, oh, I I want to be like them, I want to do what they're doing.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, quite possibly.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm grateful for the career trajectory that I've had.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because, as you said, creative left brain, right brain.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think I have well, not think I know I have a different approach to a lot of my peers.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, particularly with the marketing, the branding, and also just connecting with people on a people level.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but so yeah, so I I I followed the fashion route, which is and remains my first love.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then I started buying for an online retailer.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, you say it seems completely different, and it is on the surface, but in buying, you are focused on profit and loss.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're trend forecasting, you're responding to the market, political, geopolitical, social economic factors do play into it.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what's going on in China with the coronavirus?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, a lot of suppliers and factories are over there, they can't get their stock over.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: Similarly, Apple is taking a hit because their factories are over there, and that's pulling tech stocks down.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: So it it's it's actually quite similar in a way.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: But so when I was in buying, I enjoyed the business side, and I thought, oh, I'm really enjoying.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but I'm joining the spreadsheets.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like the spreadsheets.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: Spreadsheets.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: I know, I know.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I so then it piqued my interest.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: This kind of uh the earlier interest in the stock market, I had it kind of resurfaced, and I thought, hmm, maybe we should look at this.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: And at the same time, I was freelance designing and I had to do my tax return, and it may as well have been in a foreign language.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, what is going on?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought, right, I'll I'll teach myself how to do this, I'll get this tax return done.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it's that classic case of I read the book, I was interested, I Googled, and I just fell down the rabbit hole.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: And it was like walking through the wardrobe to Narnia because I thought, wow, this whole world exists, and honestly, that's how it felt.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: This whole world exists that I didn't know was here.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then I almost felt um a bit robbed or a bit cheated.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because I was like, Okay, nobody tells you this in school.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody tells you or explains to you that there are ways to make money and to to essentially buy yourself or invest in your security.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: All of these, and I was like, I should wish I'd have known this earlier.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, they don't even teach you about credit cards in school or lending or borrowing or mortgages or anything like that.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's just so many people get into debt so quickly when they leave school or they go to university and they just especially in a very consumer-driven world we're in now, you know, they don't have any respect for the for money, I don't think.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you know, I've gone down that trap.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sitting here saying I'm totally aware of how easy it is to get into debt and how easy it is to spend money.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: The more you make, the more you spend.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, we we're always living to the edge of our minds, aren't we?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: We're never um, you know, well, that's unfair, some some people are, but you know, it's interesting because I had this conversation only today with a friend about how an a bank would never sign off a loan of 20, 30, 50,000 pounds to an 18-year-old.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: It just wouldn't happen, it's ridiculous.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yet 18-year-olds sign up for student loans.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're not taught about the interest out the gate, they're not taught that the debt may be sold on in 10 years as the next tranche of debt.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then that's something that people have to pay off over decades of their life.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so think of conf these types of conversations were actually in this day and age, somebody with a fashion degree, I loved it, learnt a lot from it, but that's something where you can learn on the job.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not particularly necessary.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not I'm not saying that to um insult anybody with an art degree, because I if I could do my time again, I still would.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: But had I been explained about student loan and the interest and the debt, I would have thought twice about the trade-off and if I could get to where I wanted to a different way.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um So, in a perfect world then you having a better understanding of financial advice, for instance, at a younger age, what should have been?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: What do you if if you could implement something now, what would it be?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: For my for my younger self or your younger self.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: What if you were to implement something now to make you more financially aware at a younger age, what would that actually be?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: What would it have to look like?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think uh it should be a part of school syllabus.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's just as important as maths, English, science.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think there should be more done to break down the top of talking about money.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: I know from my own experience you bring up money in the home, and it's oh it's none your business.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: You're the child, I'm the adult.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I and I get why it's uncomfortable and you know, but it's not helpful because then you're just perpetuating generations of um financial illiteracy, and that's not helping anybody.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I I think for me the main thing is to just get it into schools, and that's why I try to reach out to younger people and and kind of make talking about money as comfortable as possible, just get people going.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Because people make money people make money out of managing money, don't they?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: People make money when they look after their money.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So why wouldn't we as a society, as a country, want people to be investing the right way in the right manner, not going off and just smashing the forex or whatever and having a good goal because everybody's a forex coach these days.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: You're gambling, aren't you, at the end of the day.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um but you know, why wouldn't we want to protect people in that way?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, it's gonna or or is it we don't know, we just want them to borrow money and get into university and get into debt and be controlled.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh well that's probably a conversation.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's probably a conversation from another time, and I have my own opinions on that one.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um But I mean, putting myself in in that position to answer the question as as 18-year-old Jade, I didn't know what investing was.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll explain.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: I knew you put your money into something and apparently you get money back.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: That was the extent of my knowledge.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't understand debt, I didn't understand equity, I didn't understand why I was investing.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'd be like, okay, you want this money, but what's in it for me?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a big problem we face is the jargon and the terminologies, and it's so technical.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: And before I came into finance, I did used to think, you know, do they do this on purpose?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Are they are they making us feel dumb so that we don't get involved, you know, conspiracy theory as well.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um of course.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: And now that I've gone through many, many exams and a long time studying, I realize it's technical for a reason.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: These are complex instruments we're talking about.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: And you're talking about people's livelihoods and you know.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that doesn't mean that the complexity needs to be passed down to the end clients.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's where the industry is going wrong.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, you may engage with a lawyer, and you know, law speak we all know is a whole other language, but they should simplify it for their clients.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I think finance is lagging behind in that sense.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Psycholinguistics, they kind of isn't it psycholinguistics simplifying instead of using complete complex jargon, keep it nice and simple so everybody can actually understand it.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: There was a good bank um that came out called Smile Bank.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Remember Smile Bank?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: And their psycho, because I used to be a trainer, we used to train out a little bit around psycholinguistics.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: And um their banking literature and marketing was really great.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: So they sent like a simple like black letter out with a little smile, remember like a smile, like an emoji smile where you were doing a tech smile, you know, when it was first came out with that, and then they sent a little toothbrush out as well.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: A little bit of marketing, and that was a bank.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just really simple language, and you opened it up, it was like smile, bank, smile.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Instantly you feel like you want to smile.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: They send you a little toothbrush, so you think you're and the next thing you've got this lovely little black card as well, which has got a smile on it, and you think, well, I want to be with that bank.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: Can I write that one down for an idea?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, it's it's a bit like the challenge of banks, isn't it?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: The simplicity of it, and uh and then what they're trying to do is simplify banking and incorporate saving pots into their online accounts, make it so you can instantly look at your savings, put things away, take money out that's gradual, so you're not feeling like it's a big huge chunk coming out.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: There's just so many lovely ways to manage your money.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: And again, technology is um allowing and facilitating that to happen.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I think we still need to know because we can put our money in loads of different saving pots as much as we want, but we're still gonna take it out when we want to buy a new t-shirt because we're going out on Saturday night.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: So it's about kind of understanding the worth of that money, I think, at quite a young age.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: What it actually means to your future, future financial planning, isn't it?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Understanding that.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um and how the hell are you gonna survive in the future?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yeah.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: And there's other factors to take into account, such as whether you're female or whether you're male, you know, are you gonna live as long or you know, are you gonna be raising children if that's what you want to do and all that stuff.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: So this is the scary thing.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Women tend to live longer than men, but at the point of retirement, the female pension pot is worth 20% of the male pension part.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: But he's gonna die before you.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: So how are you how are you going to live?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: How are you going to So my cancer on that would be that he she would inherit it.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: But if she's never controlled it or if she's not built that up and she doesn't understand what this is, and and I'm I'm not um, you know, making a sweeping statement of women here, but in this scenario where her pension is worth a fifth of the men's, I would suggest she's not as financially literate as she could have been, otherwise her pension part would have matched his.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and on top of that, if she has dependents to care for as well, then she has to now think how is she passing that down to them tax efficiently, because there may be a huge tax bill on that.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: So, of course, these are all um sweeping statements, but it's things to consider.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: But also the gender gap, the gender pay gap as well, isn't it?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: That plays a plays a part in that as well, isn't it?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so interestingly, again, I had this conversation this week.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: So, yes, the gender pay gap is still there, but it's absolutely improving and it is closing.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: But the bigger gap is the gender wealth gap.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, in that men invest more and they take more risk.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I read this, yeah.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas women, well, the opposite, they're not investing as much, and it's not that women are prepared to take less risk, they're just taking more cautious risk.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we found that the suggestions made to men are um high risk, high return, you know, and the women it's it's quite safe and it's your fixed interest and those types of things.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and again, that comes back to the financial literacy and just having people, and you know, men and women can have different goals.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I we are uh Readings is a founding partner of the Wealthy Hair Network, which was launched last International Women's Day.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: And it aims to connect professional women from all over the city um with the shared vision of promoting female wealth.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Wealthy Hair Commission's a report, and what it found was that women are happy to invest as much as men and they want to invest as much as men.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's just they may have different goals and different reasons for doing so.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: And the the key themes that came out of that were providing for family, security, philanthropy, ranked highly.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you're looking at philanthropic investing, you're looking at impact investing, investing in companies that are doing goods, companies, you know, maybe looking at getting rid of plastics or or uh renewable energy and things like that.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not that women don't want to invest or don't like investing, all of that nonsense.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's just that they have different priorities.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, ethical investing is a really big thing, you know, and it's gonna get bigger as people want to know where their money is going and what impact it's having on the world.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: And when we say well connected now, we can see directly what parts of the world are suffering over others.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: But do you does that is an ethical investing more attractive to female clients than it is male clients?
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: Have you found that or um I wouldn't have the resources to say it's more important to women than men, but I do know that it is high on the list of priorities for women when they're investing.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um with that being said, a lot of our older male clients, which typically you would think, you know, they've made their money, it's it's low on their agenda, actually they're starting to think about their grandchildren.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it may not affect them in their lifetime, but what about their three-year-old grandchildren?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: And exactly.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: So there is definitely a shift.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I think in a world of globalization, of the internet, like you said, you can't get away from it.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: We can see what's happening.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: We can't, you know, cognitive dissonance isn't a thing.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: We can see exactly what's happening.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: We know what part we're playing.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, you know, social conscience people care.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned um we we spoke on the phone before this, um, and also just just briefly earlier about health and well-being.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: Now I think financial advice has a place in the health and well-being market.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think people worry excessively about money, it causes anxiety, it can cause family problems, it can cause depression.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: And more often than not, some people can kill themselves over money.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and I think when money can be when money can be talked about in a way that then impacts mental health, for instance, I think that's a really great thing.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I think um the health and well-being market is booming, it's huge in America.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when you look at financial planning companies in America, they're very much feel some of them very much feel like a health and well-being product.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: I was interested to see what your thoughts were on that.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because if I started a financial advice company right now, I would be trying to get into the health and well-being market.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: And there's loads of money in the health and well-being market as well.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there is.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: Although I don't like to um put the commercial spin on things, but no, you're you're right.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: We're just trying to make money then.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um but in me, as in my personal life, I am a big um believer in keeping everything balanced: work-life balance, mental health, financial health, all of the above.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and absolutely as a practice, that is what we're trying to do with our clients.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: I work with a few coaches who work with their clients who focus on money blockages, kind of energies and mindset, because you know, our relationship with money is taught and it's inherited.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and whether that's from parents or from friends, society, whatever it may be, but the stories and the narratives you have are kind of external factors that have shaped your view over the years.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so a lot of people say to me, Oh, Jade, you know, I'm I'm never going to be a millionaire.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, well, if you say that, not without issues, yeah.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you I I hate it because people say it to me and I'm like, shut up.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: But it it's true, you know, if if you going back to if you can see it, you can be it.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't believe it for yourself, how can you possibly put yourself in a situation where you attract that money?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: But then so what?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: If someone thinks they're not going to be a millionaire, then perhaps they are not going to be a millionaire, and perhaps they should stop thinking about it and actually look at other aspects of a life where instead of a little sort of worrying so much about that instinct of prestige, look at an area that you know gives you fulfillment.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, you're totally right.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: You can manage that for you can manage that side by accepting accepting it or accepting that this is how much you're earning.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, if you live to the average age, it's gonna be this much, this is how much you're gonna need to save.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: So why don't we calm that part of you down and um let you live the rest of your life, knowing that what we're putting away is gonna look after you and your family, fingers crossed.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, you're right.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: Not everybody aspires to wealth, nor should they, but that money mentality works um from a different perspective as well.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: If all you're thinking about is a lack of money or how much stress the lack of money is causing you, that's going to consume you and that does lead you down the path of mental health issues and worries.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, you're completely right.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: I think in society, success is defined by monetary gain and what's in your bank account.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but if you have the right money internal dialogue to say, actually, you know, I'm comfortable providing for my family, I'm comfortable, you know, as is, that's a great place to be in because at the end of the day, we're all striving for happiness.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: Happiness to some people is X amount per month.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: Some people want millions and millions on a yacht in Monaco, but it's the internal dialogue that you're having with yourself that is what counts.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: Clearly, you are quite interested in money and you're quite interested in financial services.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: You've got a passion for it.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Without a doubt.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: So let's go back again to when you were working in fashion, which is a predominantly creative environment, and you were working for somebody as a buyer, then you left and you went freelance.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 26:26
  unknown: Okay.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, I was freelancing at the same time.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: You were freelancing at the same time.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: So what did freelancing freelancing being self-employed then?
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: So what did that teach you about work and responsibility and managing multiple tasks?
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: That taught me how to hustle.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: Hustle.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: That taught me how to hustle, and that experience prepared me for my life as a financial planner.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because if anybody is interested in getting into this industry, I love it.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: I wake up on Monday super happy to go to work, but it's hard.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it's uh it's funny because people want to be their own boss because they don't want to do nine to five.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: I say, well, actually, when you're your own boss, you're doing 8 a.m.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: till 2 a.m.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: So the others don't shrink, they actually expand.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: But it's great and I love it.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: But the the buying taught me corporate.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: It taught me how to operate in the paradigms of a huge corporate structure and how to be a part of that machine.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then the freelancing taught me how to do the work I want to do and how to balance different projects, how to context switch, which in financial planning, you're context switching all the time.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: Every time you take a new meeting, you have to switch.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um context switch being a different person you're seeing, a different environment, a different set of questions.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: It could be from person to person, it could be um from a 55-year-old man with a business ready to retire to a 21-year-old just starting out wanting to buy a house, to a meeting to develop a presentation on financial education for children.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: All three require a different version of me.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um so it can be challenging, but I think the buying and the designing experience taught me how to cope with that.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great stuff.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: So thinking on your feet, being able to do multiple tasks, you were working with commercial businesses, so you've got the business front to you, you've also got that thinking on your feet type approach from being a freelancer.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: And that working till 2 a.m.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the working until 2 a.m.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: I can agree with you on that.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've run a recruitment business for the last 11 and a half years, and you certainly do take your work home with you.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you think about it 24-7.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you really, really do.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you've got to learn to switch off, otherwise it consumes you.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: But going back to the emotional intelligence, when you are working with people, people's money, and they're trusting you with that.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: I can't switch off.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: I can't say I don't respond to emails after this time because you've trusted me with your life savings.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like it's my duty to be available.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so what do you do then to manage your personal well-being in the work arena?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, let's be honest, as you said earlier, being a financial advisor is hard, and I can imagine it can be quite stressful.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: So what do you do personally to manage that?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: So at first it was a bit of a free-for-all, which I think for anybody going self-employed, it always is, because you don't have a boss watching when you turn up or when you go home, you don't have somebody chasing you for a deadline.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: So the first few months were kind of finding my feet and um even things as trivial as eating properly.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: If you're about all the time, you're grabbing food on the go, and I I I I did admittedly fall into an unhealthy cycle.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: So now what I've done to look after myself is to set my own routine and my own structure.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, that is going to the gym in the morning before work because I could be home at five, I could be home at 11, who knows?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: But if I get my workout in in the morning, that's covered.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I do a lot of journaling, I practice a lot of self-care.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: I love journaling.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: I love journaling.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, if you'd have asked me this question four or five years ago, perhaps I wouldn't have answered so honestly.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: But I think it's important to get rid of that 24-7 hustle culture, which actually is in contradiction to what I've been saying.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm a big believer in the 24-7 hustle culture if you're looking after yourself as well.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, as long as you're finding that balance.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it's about making time for yourself.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's about making time for um.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think some of the biggest frustrations you see is that, and I've done it myself, where I've been working my socks off, and my downtime would be to go to the pub or something.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's nothing healthy about doing that for me because I get up and I'd be hungover, and there's my weekend gone.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: So now my whole approach is I finish work again.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's because we're getting old.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's what's going on.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: I just can't do it.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I go to yoga and I do um and I like my meditation and I and I read and I journal and I I review my days and I read into how the psyche works and how the conscious mind works, and I work at trying to observe my instincts and how my instincts can't control my life.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and that is essentially mindfulness, and then building practices in on a daily basis, good positive habits that reinforce good positive thinking, and then all of a sudden, bam, my mindset has shifted, and I'm in a completely different place.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you have to break those habits, don't you?
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that was the one thing that's hard.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's bloody hard.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I spent like personally, right?
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on a journey where I I don't drink alcohol anymore, I don't touch anything.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: Everything I everything I do is about building healthy habits.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: Are you vegan too?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not vegan.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: I tried it for about three months and I really struggled with it.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, although my wife is on my case at the moment to get back on it because it affects her diet, affects her body, and all that kind of stuff.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm definitely, I definitely understand veganism, I believe in it.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, when you're trying multiple things and it's like it's just too much stuff, I'm trying it better.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I just didn't do that.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, some balance for me is is important, and um, and I can see that in the financial advisor.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I speak to a lot of financial advisors, and some are just stressed out of their nuts, you know.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them make a lot of money, but they look unhealthy, or they're stressed, or it's all well and good and all that earning all that money, but if you're not gonna buy you health, it's not gonna buy you out.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: It really won't.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and um this is where I'm kind of just sort of trying to make that connection because I think everybody's waking up at the moment, yeah, and everyone's waking up to a healthier way of life.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: People are more connected, people want to look out for each other's mental health, people want to be talking about it.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: People now need to be talking about money without without a doubt, because there's so many people who are and again are younger that have got that instinct to buy a property because they want security and are really struggling to be able to actually be able to do it.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the financial industry has slightly got a bit of a gap in age.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got an aging population of advisors that say 10,000 are going to be leaving in the next like five years, and most of those are like the average age is like 55, right?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: And male and white, yeah, you know.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got a kind of demographic that's going to be leave in the in industry, and then we've got uh a lot less people coming into it that can relate to the next generation.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm a millennial I'm 38 and I'm classed as a millennial.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: There aren't many financial advisors that I would say between the age of like 27, let's say, up to my age, there's not an abundance of out there.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think there's a a lack of opportunity?
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think then there's a huge opportunity for the financial planning industry to service clients that aren't being clients?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because you mentioned about Middle England earlier.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Do you kind of get where I'm coming from here?
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so your question is um is there opportunity to service clients who perhaps have been ignored by by the industry?
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think there's a massive gap right now, advice gap?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: So one of the um reasons why I did pursue this is because of the annoyance I felt when my eyes are opened to this world of investments, and I thought, how dare they not tell me that this exists?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, all of the things I could have been doing up until this point had I have known how to manage my money.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so I wanted to be the advisor that I wish I had when I was designing, when I was creating.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and and something that I strongly believe in is that you don't have to start wealthy to become wealthy.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, okay.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: But I think a lot of advice is aimed just at the already wealthy people.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_02: And that's not fair because that's how you keep the wealth concentrated at the top, and and and the gap just widens and widens, and I'm I'm just not into that at all.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so the part of the joy I get out of my job is identifying those who are talented and ambitious and are interested in managing their money but just don't know how, helping them at the start and watching that grow and watching that flourish.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because you know, the the wealthier people are, or should I say, the most successful entrepreneurs and business owners we have, that benefits society because they're paying more taxes, they're creating more jobs.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: So it's in everybody's interest to build people up.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: People are saying, like, well, you know, robo advice propositions, fintech propositions, these are the things that millennials want.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: This is what the next generation requires, but yet we see them close.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they're closing, they open and they close.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they also tell us if we stop having avocado on toast, we'll be able to buy a home.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I would take that advice with a pinch of salt.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think the robo advice is great.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_02: I am uh a consumer of a challenger bank myself.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think the savings part is brilliant.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think the ability to use it abroad without fees is long overdue.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: So all of that stuff is great.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think it negates a need for face-to-face advice.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: Going back to the earlier points of if you are taken ill or somebody in your family's made redundance and they can't provide for the family, you want to speak to somebody, even if it's just for a hug and a reassurance that it's gonna be okay.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: And an app can't give you that.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: But where I do think the apps are great is they get people into the habit of putting money away.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: And start thinking about it.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: And start thinking about it.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, is it going to achieve their goals?
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: Is it serving them in the best way possible?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_02: I couldn't comment on that.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, like uh so in so do you think larger financial advice companies or financial advice companies as a whole should really start incorporating robo advice into their proposition?
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think, you know, it's a digital age.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: I think if you're not keeping up with tech, then you're going to fall behind.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't think, fortunately for me and my job, that AI will fully take over financial advice.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it goes hand in hand.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's an addition it's not marketing based on it.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's complimentary, absolutely.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get some money in, you know.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: Once it's in, yes, we give it at a lower rate charge, get them a give them a feel, then we can financially educate them, and then perhaps we can then go across and when they've got a bit more money coming in and they need some advice around a certain life decision around money, then then they know who to call.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that relationship again, isn't it?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_02: I was just gonna say the the power of human connection is not to be underestimated.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's the best.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, even you and I, the amount of LinkedIn messages I receive every day, and it's you know, it's very generic and it's very big.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: And that's just from you.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um but the fact that you reached out and I took the time to respond, um, and we had a human connection, and then we spoke on the phone, and we're here today, and I think that's a brilliant example of organic growth, organic connection, and that's not to be underestimated.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: And the the challenger banks they serve their purpose.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_02: I am a consumer of them, but it doesn't take over face-to-face.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, cool.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: So what I'd really like to now sort of focus on is branding and personal branding.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so if we're talking about the face-to-face approach to winning clients and building relationships, what part do you think marketing and branding plays in financial advice?
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: The part it plays currently is a very small part.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_02: The part I think it should play is huge.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: Again, financial planners or advisors are heavily restricted by regulation, and rightly so.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not the British way to brag about ourselves in the main, you know, when we don't shout from the rooftops how great we are, you know, we're quite, you know, stiff up a lift and all of that.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: Where I think we could learn from our American colleagues is to self-promote because I spent a lot of my own money to do my exams.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_02: I it wasn't sponsored or paid for out of my own pocket.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: I spent a lot of time studying.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_02: SJP did about nine months due diligence on me before they'd even let me through the door, and vice versa.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I've gone through a whole process.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, in theory, why should I not be self-promoting and telling people what my skills are?
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because, you know, they're substantiated and it's true.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: But it's just not the done thing.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the reason for that is because purely because no one's doing it.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's that being first, you know, and it's quite vulnerable to put yourself out there in front of everybody.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: Particularly the thing I found and I'm interested in your opinion with LinkedIn is that you cannot hide or should not hide behind a username and a filter and all of this stuff, a private profile.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's your full government name, your employer, your real headshot without dog ears or whatever it may be.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's something really vulnerable about putting your opinion out there.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: And LinkedIn's LinkedIn's a bit like that anyway.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's a professional network, and no one quite knows how to behave.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if somebody puts out something which is relatively um sensitive, someone's oh god, just being sensitive.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's so many the do's and don'ts, and it seems to be like it's kind of LinkedIn police, and people are policing themselves, and this is a professional network.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_02: I saw it this morning about the Brits said, Oh, music's too uh politicised, it's it needs to just go back to being pop music, and then someone else wades in and no it shouldn't, and it's like, oh my goodness, what is going on?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, people don't quite know how to take it.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: I personally think LinkedIn's a great platform.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I run a recruitment agency, and the idea of running a recruitment agency is to be able to network and connect with decision makers within companies and to connect with my candidate market, so people that would be open and interested into job opportunities that we're talking about.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: So the most people who use LinkedIn the most are recruiters, they're on it pretty much 24-7.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: You're like living in it.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I have to tell my guys not to be on it so much because you can get lost in all the crap on that, you know.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I don't when I come across when I speak to financial advisors and I ask them the question, how do you generate your clients?
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody really talks about LinkedIn.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's a really underused tool.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's interesting.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: So what do they say?
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: They just don't know how to use it.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: They don't like approaching people on LinkedIn, they don't know how to use it to find accounts uh to find their clients and they don't want to put themselves out there.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: So when we talk about like I talk about LinkedIn as being like the front end and the and and and like the back end.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: So if you have like a sales navigator or I we use like a recruiter account, that's like a kind of in mail system.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then the front end is about you promoting yourself like on the news feed.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you're right what you said earlier is that people have a fear of putting themselves out there and being shot because it's your job, and there is an element of your instinct saying don't do this because it's your security, don't put yourself out there because there's a chance that someone might judge you.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a big part of that, it's a bit of a judgy environment, LinkedIn.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and don't forget, we now live in this cancel culture whereby you make one-run comments and the masses are calling for your resignation.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I understand why people are hesitant to put themselves out there.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: But if you don't, you know, if I the personal part for mine is about it's all about personal brand moving forward.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: So the reason I'm doing this podcast, for example, is to be able to put my brand out there personally, not just recruit UK as a business, but me as an individual, my points, my opinion.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_01: I've been doing the job for a long time.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I've got a lot to give.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to be able to share it.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: Some people are gonna like me and some people are gonna dislike me, so I've got to just deal with that, you know.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: But the content that gets shared and gets put out there will get me noticed.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: And if every week I'm putting new content out there, and that's what it's all about, is content.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm commenting on the market, if I'm commenting on the things that you're thinking about when it comes to thinking about leaving your job or you know what financial advice the firm to join or what culture is like, then it's current.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: And most people tend to log into LinkedIn when they are thinking about a job.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: So for me.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: But for how a financial advisor can use it, I think they're not using the in mails correctly or targeting and connecting with people in the right in the right way.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm intrigued.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: What is the right way to do it?
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it's about building your niche market and um picking a niche market and trying to stick to it.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: So for example, my niche market is financial advisors, so my I connect predominantly with people within financial advice or people that are connected to financial advice that can potentially introduce me to relevant people.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: So if I was my own financial advice business, for example, then I would be reaching out to accountants and solicitors who deal with the types of individuals that my client my clients would be.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: So if I was after entrepreneurs from a tech environment, etc., I'd be researching who the top 150 to 50 tech companies are, and I would be reaching out to those individual tech companies and I'd be connecting with each and every person who works within that company.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'd be probably looking also at their um employees based on their net worth.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I would probably not on their net worth, but more on their salaries.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: So what potentially as a project manager on an average would earn a company like that.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I might well be targeting people from the 100k to 150k plus market or CEO directors and trying to connect with those people because I know that if they're gonna be seeing my content as a financial advisor and they like me, then they're gonna build a relationship with me and the likelihood is they might reach out to me if there's a bit of content that I'm sharing that's interesting.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it's about building your audience on the front end and creating good, relevant content that will interest them.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm thinking right, I'm gonna target um startup banks or tech within.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Financial within tech, then I need to write content that's relevant to that audience that's gonna cross over between financial advice and their job.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_02: And you touch on an interesting point that a lot of people, myself at one point included, romanticize the struggle of learning the skills they don't have.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: For example, I was coming up with my content ideas, and that was great, and I was spider diagrams and brainstorming.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: Then I decided, okay, I need to buy the equipment and I need to teach myself how to shoot and how to edit.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_02: And then a friend said to me, Jade, calm down, take a step back.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: Why are you stressing yourself out with this when you could just hire somebody to do it?
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, No, but I have to do it, it's got to be me and cheating and blah blah blah.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then she said, Is your CEO doing your job?
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: Is your CEO doing the back office?
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's delegation and that's entrepreneurship and that's business ownership.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: Stop focusing on the things you can't do and double down on the things you can do.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: And from there, I've been stress-free, thankfully.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you to that friend.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, exactly.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's exactly the route I would I would suggest as well.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's like things like this.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's like about I have I wanted to get out and see more people.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to get out and see more companies.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: I want to go out and meet more people face to face.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_01: I believe in the value of face-to-face.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_01: I've been buying a screen for so long, doing marketing, and that is doing my editing.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, right, well, how can I combine the two?
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, combine the two is go out, sit down with you, talk about the industry, create some content, put it on the internet and double whammy.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we get to I get to go out and meet people.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great way for me to get in with other companies and get in with people.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I've got content on the side of it as well.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's about being smart around the content and like looking at the fact that there's SEO, which which is definitely important to drive traffic to your website, but will that will that make you lots of money and how expensive is that to do, and how time consuming is that?
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_01: So pass that to somebody else.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I think as well, when you start to work out the way to outsource marketing tasks that can be automated and outsourced, you can outsource it to India, you can outsource it to Asia.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_01: So there's lots of ways to utilize outsourcing services and still do your job, which is gonna make your money on a daily basis.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: I was getting caught up in all of these, like you said, the SEO and and the content creation.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then I thought, actually, people go to university for this, people study for this.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, it's probably insulting of me to think that I can read a few blogs and all of a sudden do it.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_02: So, like you said, I started outsourcing and delegating, and that brought me back to doing what I like to do and do best, which is the relationship piece, yeah.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_02: The speaking to people, the getting to know them.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: Why am I spending hours and hours and hours doing something that I never got into this industry for?
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, albeit it needs doing.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_01: And pick your platforms as well.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, LinkedIn, yeah, it is a professional platform, but a lot of your clients are gonna be professional.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: Get them in the job arena and create content that is gonna attract them on that.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid to reach out and send them a message.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, how are you doing?
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I know you're working for such and such.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm running a financial um education piece around whatever.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_01: Would you like to come along?
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_01: Or I'm in your area, can I come and meet you?
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's that reaching out that doesn't happen as much as saying recruitment.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: Recruitment is I'm gonna reach out to as many people as I can, you know, and get a name for it.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I think is that I don't want to pester people approach, but a well you're you know, you're very articulate, and the email you sent me was well written.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I think someone would appreciate that type of content from you.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think also people can smell bullshit.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_02: Of course they can if I can say that.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and and you you can receive so many disingenuous messages or hard sales pitches.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_02: The amount of people who've connected with me with no personalised notes and then sent me a sales pitch or asked me to buy a product.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think where is the connection?
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_02: You don't know me.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: And there's automated software out there as well, where they just it can pick up your name and it can pick up your job title, it can pick up everything, can it would just send it in automated outfit, which is useful sometimes, but if it's not well crafted, it looks bloody obvious that it's especially when they get real things, they get things wrong.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, I just I would just say don't be have be fearful around LinkedIn, use it, start playing with it a little bit, and so stop measuring the success you get back off of it.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_02: The thing that helped me is I read something that said, your first podcast, your first blog, your first anything is going to be terrible.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_02: So just accept it and move on.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: Because you can't get to the 50th, which is brilliant if you don't do the first.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh god.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so that started me thinking, do you know what?
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_02: If it's terrible, that's absolutely fine.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's got to be terrible for me to progress.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: And if that is the hurdle for me to get over, I will happily get over that hurdle.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: And it helped me with my mindset.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you'll get over those fears that are associated with it.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's a growth mentality, isn't it?
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_01: Growth mindset.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_01: So going back then to when you joined St.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: James's Place, you mentioned there that you did your own qualifications off your own back and paid for it.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: Did you not go through the academy?
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: No, I didn't.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's a good question.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: Why I didn't.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_02: I knew I wanted to work for St.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: James's Place because they are the largest wealth manager in the country.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_02: They manage£117 billion worth of clients' money.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: Just a few quid.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just a few.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_02: And they, for me, were the most entrepreneurial firm.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_02: So although my career transition from fashion to finance seems a bit odd, um, I always knew I wanted to own my own business, whether I was selling clothes or selling stocks and bonds.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: I always knew I wanted to be owned my own boss.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_02: I have always been an ambitious person.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_02: So going into a financial planning role where I was given leads, perhaps, or given clients, obviously that's lovely, but I knew it wouldn't feed me and satisfy what I needed to be stimulated.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I applied to St.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_02: James's Place and they said, you know, you've had a few years' experience in financial services.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: We'd just put you straight into a practice.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_02: We think you can do it, but you need your exams.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was hard, but I love a challenge.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I said, okay, well, I'll rise to the challenge, I'll do it.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I took myself through that process.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now how long did it take to pass the exams?
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_01: Did you have any before you went in?
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_01: You had none?
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_01: So you joined St.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_01: James's place without any qualifications.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, sorry.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_02: I so I had none at this at the point of this phone call, and then I sat them.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I think in total I did three exams, and I think it took me about 14 months, but I took a break of about five months in between.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_02: And if anyone is doing the exams now, the biggest piece of advice I can give is do not take a break.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think I sat the exam on the Wednesday, let's say, and I said, right, I'll give myself the the rest of the week and the weekend to just relax, celebrate, decompress, and I'll start again.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then it was about five or six months later because you just fall out of the habit of it.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that was tough, you know.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_02: I was working full-time, eight till five, and studying in the evening.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_02: And don't forget.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: Who were you working for at the time?
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I was working for a stockbroker at the time.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right, okay.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that was pretty intense.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you were working as a stockbroker.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_01: So working within a stockbroker.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_01: And what were you doing there?
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I was doing AML and compliance.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, cool.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_01: So you weren't, you know, advising or anything like that, or stockbroker.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_02: So I was exposed to the corporate broken worlds, IPOs and MAs, and then the trading desks as well, but I wasn't actively advising clients.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so just for purpose of the listeners to understand this, your journey from financial, sorry, your journey from fashion to financial advice wasn't one without actually working within some other financial services companies up to you within a stockbroker.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_01: What age did you work within?
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I worked with a fund management company.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: Fund management company.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I worked for a human capital management company.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_02: So that's things like payroll and HR.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_02: All of those roles were strategic.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_02: I knew that without prior qualification, I would be laughed out of an interview room if they even let me in.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so I purposefully applied for roles which I knew would expose me to the elements of finance that I needed.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then when the time was right, I would study for my level four.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_01: Can I ask you, do you think now looking back on it, do you think you could have gone from being a freelancer as um a freelancer and um working in the fashion industry as a buyer, do you think you could have transferred those skills directly over to St.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_01: James's place if the academy if you could have just jumped onto the academy?
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think you needed to go and work in those positions to get a feel for financial services?
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_02: No, I didn't.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_02: You you definitely can go from any career to financial advice via the academy.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_02: The reason I didn't is like like most things with finance, I just didn't know about it.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_02: It you know, it wasn't on my window.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_02: It was there, but um I guess, you know, as the saying goes, you don't know what you don't know.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_02: You don't know where to look for things.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think you might have been in a mindset of like, well, let me get some experience within financial services?
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely did want the experience because um for me to be the best financial planner I can be, I wanted to experience what the back office was like, what the cogs look like, how that the world of finance works.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I definitely I'm glad I did it the way I did.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_02: But um, yeah, if I had chosen to go on from fashion buying to the academy, I could have.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_02: And SJB has a very robust program.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_02: And to give you some examples, people have come in from property, uh, rugby players, mums who've taken time out of their careers to raise children have come back in.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um there's a real variety of people.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it's a really great program for anyone who's interested.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very excited to go and meet Sean Godfrey tomorrow, actually, at the academy over in um Soly Hall.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, very interested to hear about it and had a good conversation with him on the telephone a couple of days ago.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I think um the problem we have is with the, like I said, Asian population, aging financial advisor workforce, aging out, not so many people coming into the industry and a lack of training and development.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_01: When the where the banks were used to hire people in as, say, you know, a trainee advisor or come in as a you know into bank assurance, for example, it was a great ground to start your career there, or a life company or whatever.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you would often go into the bank with the process of the mindset, I'm gonna be a financial advisor.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_01: You might be a personal banker or a cashier, and so and some of the banks would just go, right, we'll get you qualifications, we'll get you up and running.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you needed them.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_01: And RDR happened and the changes in the fee structure and everything, and the banks obviously kicked everybody out.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then it left a real gap in the market for training.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I think SJP are one of the companies obviously that are really trying to do this, and I think it's a great thing.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you've got open work as well that are doing it with an open work academy, and two-plan wealth management have also taken part in that, and they've got a two-plan academy now.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_01: So you're starting to see academies surface, but I still think there's a real difficulty to attract people into the advice industry that haven't got say experience.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I you know, when I asked you for some advice around that, and I said you said, But why do you and I thought I felt that all power planners and administrators there's a great pool of potential advisors, male and female, but that are part qualified experience, ready to go.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_01: Just spend some money on training them, coach them, develop them, bring them into client meetings, and there's your next workforce.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_01: But then they're like, oh, I don't want to let go of a really good administrator, I don't want to let go of a really good power planner.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we're kind of a stalemate, really.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_01: And um for thinking companies like SJP that have the money, have the time, because there's a lot of very small financial planning companies out there that don't have the time or the money to be able to bring you know loads of people on on a punt that they might be quite good.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: So my question to you now is what is the right type of person to be a financial advisor?
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_01: Who would be the right type of mindset?
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: What do they what should they expect?
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's not as easy as you thought, is it?
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_01: No, definitely not.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about the reality of it.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_01: What type of person would best suit becoming a financial planner?
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_02: So the main thing is the emotional intelligence because the role is all about people.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_02: So if you don't like people, or you can't get on with people, or you don't like to be around people, it's not the job for you.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then you have to be tenacious and driven and ambitious in all of good those good things.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I know a lot of people say they are, but you need thick skin in this in this role.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and if you don't take rejection and frequent rejection well, the industry is just gonna chew you up and spit you out.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_02: With that being said, if you're somebody who thrives on challenge and goals and setting yourself goals and you strike me as that type of person, every day is a challenge to better yourself, whether it's to organize your time better or to be better with your clients to develop your technical knowledge.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_02: There are so many hats to wear that there's never a dull day and there's never a way that you can't improve.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to be hungry to learn, and that's across the spectrum because obviously book smart are important.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_02: We're dealing with finance, you need to be technically sound.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_02: But like the gentleman we're meeting tomorrow, we are keen to learn how to be more compassionate people.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_02: I want to learn how to be a better marketer and a better brander.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so this role is ideal for somebody who is ambitious and doesn't want to cap on their success and their potential because really it is what you make it.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_02: And if you want to come into this and kind of run a mid-sized firm and and it's quite comfortable, you absolutely can.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_02: But if you want to come in and really just run with it, then it's perfect for you.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_01: Did you go straight into self-employed with St.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_01: James's place?
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's boozy, isn't it?
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_02: But again, I am uh in for a penny, in for a pound type of person.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, I've had well-paying roles that have come with the comforts of pension and and and uh one company actually every two weeks brought in a masseuse, which was lovely.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh reflexologist, Reiki, you know, and when I left, people said, Jade, you are mad.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_02: But in this role, I love Sundays because I'm prepping for the next week.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_02: There's no such thing as oh, I have to work late.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm happy to do it.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm so driven by what my success could be if I work hard enough.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, it was an out it was a challenge, but sink or swim, right?
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a big believer in that.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think the lifestyle of a financial planner suits you?
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's a good question.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_02: I I haven't considered that before.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_02: It does suit me.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because although you're self-employed right now, you probably are still early days for you, isn't it?
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_01: So you know you're early on in your career.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_01: So you do need that mentorship, don't you?
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_01: Being self-employed.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_01: You need that mentorship and you need that structure.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I can imagine you are you quite enjoy a bit of structure.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and imagine maybe assuming they're I don't know.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um I can imagine, and I think you value that structure because you kind of think that structure I need the structure and I need to learn and I need somebody there.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_01: If I give them everything, then hopefully they're gonna give me something back.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's really beneficial.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think some people that you're self-employed, they're sat at home at their desk, right?
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_01: Today I'm a financial advisor on my own.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_01: I've left a bank or I've left a company and I've got no clients.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_01: What the hell am I gonna do?
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas you're in that kind of self-employed stroke employed place, aren't you?
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I actually consider myself an entrepreneur with stabilizers because my success is predicated on my efforts and my efforts alone.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_02: But I do have an excellent mentor in the Readings Founder, and I do have Tracy Reddings.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_04: Tracy Reddings, yeah.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_02: So Tracy is an industry titan.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone I know who knows her say, Oh my goodness, she's amazing.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, when I started working at Readings and I updated my LinkedIn, I had so many messages saying, I can't believe you're working with her.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_02: She's incredible.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's good.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent uh job decision on your behalf, Jade.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_02: So that was reassuring.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_01: Who was saying next to you?
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like people from the industry people I don't know.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_01: Fab.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_02: People knew her name and messaged me and said, You've aligned yourself with a real powerhouse there.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_02: So that was that was always good to know.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so so Tracy supports me a lot.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, actually, I met Tracy when I was working for a different practice, and it wasn't the ideal culture fit for me.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm a big believer in culture because if you do this job right, you're doing it for a long time.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: So it had to be spot on.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I met Tracy, and there was absolutely no financial gain in it for her whatsoever.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_02: But she took me onto her wing and she said, You know, um, I know what it's like to be a woman in this industry, I want to help you in any way, just you know, to call me and we'll go for a glass of wine.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then the planets aligned if you believe in that, and a few months later she said, Jade, I'm I'm in a position where I want to work with you.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_02: Would you come on board?
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_02: So it happened really organically, and yeah.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_02: So to your points on mentorship, it's interesting because I have a few mentors and they've been really integral in my success so far.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I read a book by Cheryl Sandberg called Lean In.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_02: Have you read it?
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_03: No, we haven't.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_02: She's the COO of Facebook, yeah, and she raises a good point that I think mentor and mentorship has become this buzzword, and everyone thinks you have to have a mentor.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you can't be successful without a mentor.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_02: And she gets a lot of strangers saying, Will you be my mentor?
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_02: And she said, actually, it's the other way around, a bit like um, you know, she what was it?
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_02: She said, when you excel and you show your value, the mentor will appear.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's not the other way around.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's not that.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's not that you get a mentor when you become successful, you've got to give value back.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_02: But with that being said, you know, the the reason I decided wealth management and financial planning was for me is because I started in a back office role with a fund manager in Liverpool.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, a twist of serendipity on my third day, I sat at the welcome breakfast next to quite a senior person who is my mentor to this day.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_02: And he'll be made up.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm saying this because I make him listen to everything I do.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and going back to your question about what type of person does well in this role, you have to be ballsy and you just have to ask for what you want because no one's gonna give it to you on a plate.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so I reached out to him and I said, Listen, I've only been here for three days, but I'd love to get to know you and you know, spend some time learning about the business.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_02: Next time you're in London, we'll get together.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_02: And and that was five, four, five years ago now.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_02: And he is somebody who, when I'm not sure what's going on, or I've got decisions to make, he's a soundboard and he's got years and years of experience.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so I'm I'm a big advocate for mentors, but I wouldn't put too much um weight onto the value because you know Do you think like sometimes it's it's worrying sometimes to put yourself out there as a bit of a mentor because you feel like some people might suck the energy out of you, you know?
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, you know, if you're too like being a therapist and listen to everybody's problems.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you and you you're kind of and somebody then kind of wants more from you all the time, and it's like I've only got so much to give you.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_01: You're now gonna need to go away and do some stuff yourself and show that you put into practice what I'm teaching you.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that coaching and mentoring has its absolute pluses, but I think it's about the right person coming along.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now, your um I forgot her name again, sorry right.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_01: Tracy.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_01: Tracy.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_01: Tracy obviously saw something in you that was similar to her, or she saw something in you that she doesn't see in others.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'll tell I I'll tell you what it is.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we met at uh uh SJP training events as a week-long conference, and we didn't speak for the whole event.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and on the last day, we happened to be sat on the same table and we had to do this quiz.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_02: Name all the ways you can meet a client.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and Tracy and I just locked eyes and she said to me, I'm so competitive, we're going to win this.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I'm competitive and we will win this.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then that was kind of the moment that I was like, Oh, I like this woman.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I mean, and it sounds so funny now looking back, but that was the moment where we both thought we're aligned in in our values here.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_01: So also as well.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_01: So without a doubt, we spoke about this.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is how we started communicating on on LinkedIn.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, again, it's the power of LinkedIn and reaching out to people.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I put some marketing out, some content that was relevant to my audience, which was females in financial advice and the lack of females in financial advice.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, I put out an article that created uh a lot of um likes, didn't create a lot of comments apart from I agree and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_01: So what I did was reach out and ask some questions, and you came back to me.
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um one of the things that came up was female uh influencers within the financial advice industry.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_01: So there aren't that many female financial advice influences, and there aren't there are a lack of females in director positions.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think one in 20 director roles within financial advice is female.
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't that outrageous?
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_01: So as a female, looking at the industry when you were thinking about getting into it, did it feel accommodating?
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously Tracy's been great, but you didn't meet Tracy first of all, did you?
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_01: So did it feel accommodating to females?
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_02: No, it didn't.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I can only speak for myself because of the type of person I am.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_02: If I am told I can't do it, then I will do it with bells on.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_02: But that's just me.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_02: But having the male, so having the male mentor was interesting because he's very focused on promoting women and getting women into the industry, and so he became an ally for me.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and um, rightly or wrongly, when the man advocates for the woman in a space where there aren't many women, it tends to carry a bit more weight, I feel.
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_02: Or at least that's been my personal experience.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so throughout it, he kind of built me up.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_02: I said, This is what I want to do, and he was like, You can do it, I'll teach you how.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why would you think you can't?
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_02: So that definitely helped me.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_02: With that being said, thinking commercially and strategically, I knew about 10,000 advisors are due to retire in the next five to ten years.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_02: I know that only 15% of advisors are women, but by 2025, 60% of millionaires are going to be women.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, okay, let's just connect with us.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is simple maths here.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, opportunity for me.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, let's make the most of this, and decided that was the path I was going to go on.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, you're right.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_02: There weren't many women that I saw.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um it didn't sort of do you think if there were women in financial advice that were standing up and talking, and there are, I'm not disputing that, but um predominantly it tends to be men, you know, that are the that are the celebrities, if you like, or the influencers, and there are a few females.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to know more, by the way, so send them my way.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_01: I want to know more and I want to connect with more.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but do you think if there were female influencers that were vocal and marketing themselves out and you know, building on their personal brands, would you have connected more with financial advice?
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um again, I I think more thin would that attract more women to the industry?
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think without a doubt, and you know, I've said it before, but I really believe in it.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_02: If you can see it, you can be it.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, cool.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_01: So Yeah, you've got to see it, haven't you?
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_01: If it's if it's if there's an article of about 10 women having a fantastic time in financial advice and how it matches their lifestyle, how it matches what they want from their lives, how much you know what it financially what it gives them, I think people are gonna go, wow, yeah, no, that's just normal, isn't it?
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a role model, isn't it?
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, even if we strip it back to basics and you look at children and toddlers, there's a reason girls gravitate to fairies and pink and dolls, and boys tend to gravitate to to build as tools and science because that's what they see.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_02: So they start to internalize that that is for them.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I mean, this is a whole conversation for a different time.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not, it's it's right.
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_00: But that's gonna start somewhere, isn't it?
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then so why does that change as we get older?
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_02: If we internalize those messages as children, then when we grow up into adults, if I only see white older men in this space, and I'm not a white older man, why would I think that that's for me?
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but we we have a director on our board as of last November, Dame Helena Morrissey, who is one of the influences I've been following for a few years.
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_02: She has nine children.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_02: Does she?
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_02: Eight or nine.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's nine.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_02: Nine children.
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_02: Absolute powerhouse, huge advocate for women.
• 1:08:31
  SPEAKER_02: She founded the 30% club, if you know of that.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's a women's um initiative to it to eventually have 30% um female directorship and the charter.
• 1:08:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so she's come on board with SJP, which I think shows we are thinking about diversity and kind of moving with the times as well.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but interestingly, what I've noticed is the female influencers, if you want to call them that, in the finance space, tend to be focused on debt management or budgeting, day-to-day spending.
• 1:09:06
  SPEAKER_02: There aren't many, if any, talking about wealth generation and building wealth.
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I I wonder why that is.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_02: And part of me as a as a young woman feels slightly patronized by that.
• 1:09:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because we're not all in debt.
• 1:09:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, true.
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_02: Many are, many aren't.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_02: We're not all incapable of budgeting.
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_02: Some of us actually want to make money, some of us want to invest, some of us are interested in the exotic things we can do, but nobody seems to be serving that space.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I do wonder why that is.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_02: But again, that comes back to opportunity and getting more women into the space.
• 1:09:41
  SPEAKER_01: I really like that Gemma Godfrey who runs Mueller.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:09:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think she's fantastic.
• 1:09:47
  SPEAKER_01: She's always on the television, you know, always being interviewed.
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_01: She's a very positive female role model.
• 1:09:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you go back to what you said earlier about like um men tend to be like kind of an advocate of females within advice, and they tend to have a bit more weight.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I felt a bit anxious about speaking about females in financial advice because it felt like I was being patronizing to women.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've got Louise in my business that I've made that she has earned her way up to become a director within the business.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like, well, we can get Louise talking about females in financial advice.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_01: And she did a great blog article and um video, and she got a lot of response from it.
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I was like, well, why can't I talk about it?
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, as a man, you know, and that's again that preconception of like what people think.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought, sod it, you know, I'm putting myself out there and I'm and I'm going to champion it.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I said to you before, I want to meet as many women in financial advice positions as possible, and I want to create a committee that are going to talk about ways that we can improve attracting females to financial advice companies.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I see your point.
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_02: Is that patronizing?
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, I see your point, and I see why you would think that.
• 1:10:50
  SPEAKER_02: And look, let's be honest, no matter what you say or do, there'll all be always be somebody to oppose and say, oh, that's not right.
• 1:10:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so that's just a fact of life, right?
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but look at the Emma Watson campaign, it was he for she, this year's International Women's Day theme is each for equal.
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you are in the minority where you don't necessarily have the power, or you know, why is it patronizing to receive support from the people who can help and kind of lift you up?
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think women in women in sales roles is saying I know we're not calling financial advice sales.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Essentially, you know, there's a lot of characteristics of sales within financial advice.
• 1:11:29
  SPEAKER_02: Can I just add to that though?
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think um financial advice and sales gets a bad rep, but if you buy an iPhone, you've been sold to.
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_02: If you go to Starbucks, you've been sold to.
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I think sales is a word we we need to just kind of leave behind.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think, you know, but I think the the mindset that we spoke about earlier, and you're clearly displaying it.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Crikey, I would hire 10 of you tomorrow to come and work for me.
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_01: You remind me of Louise in my office.
• 1:11:51
  SPEAKER_01: There is a certain mindset, male or female, that I look for in somebody, and you're bang on it.
• 1:11:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so SJP keep you in your you know, you need to keep you in their back pocket.
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to forward this to my boss.
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_01: No, honestly, because you don't come across people like you, and it's and it's and it's it's refreshing to hear.
• 1:12:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I do find and we've got you know quite a mixed um team in my office now, and um the females are doing fantastically well, and they are they they are bloody good at uh at building relationships.
• 1:12:17
  SPEAKER_01: So there is something empathetic about you know, the empathy side of it I think suits financial advice really well.
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's empathy there, there's understanding.
• 1:12:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think but touching on the fact that women also are going to be managing more of the household income, they're gonna be inheriting more money.
• 1:12:32
  SPEAKER_01: There are issues now, um, not issues, but there are things that women need to think about, like the gender pay gap gap and paternity pay gap and all those types of things.
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think more often than not, a female would like to talk to a female.
• 1:12:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there is that plan and that there is that route there for female advisors to come in and have a market to talk to, and there's loads out there with only 27 or odd thousand financial advisors out there anyway.
• 1:12:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's a huge amount of business out there, isn't it?
• 1:12:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it's about making that advice accessible to women.
• 1:12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if there is no branding, there is no marketing that's being put in front of women, where do they know where to go?
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:13:05
  SPEAKER_01: There's a really good company in America called El Invest.
• 1:13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, uh Sally Kroshek, I think her name is a good research, I love it.
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_02: She does it really well.
• 1:13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really well, really cool.
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like all that.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_02: She's actually the lady who discusses the investment gap and the wealth gap.
• 1:13:20
  SPEAKER_02: And to your points of marketing and branding, she does it really well.
• 1:13:23
  SPEAKER_02: So she did a video with Jonathan Van Ness from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think she's really engaging in a way that isn't patronizing.
• 1:13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because also, you know, even as a woman, you can run the risk of patronizing other women.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_02: Because you know, the thing I've noticed is uh the city can often lump women into one bucket, like speak to women, market to women, we work with women.
• 1:13:48
  SPEAKER_02: Well, there's more than one way to be a woman, yeah.
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yeah, something more than one way to be a man.
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, but but we don't find that with men because men are treated as individuals, in my experience.
• 1:13:58
  SPEAKER_02: But women are put in the the female category and kind of this is what women want, this is how to sell to women.
• 1:14:03
  SPEAKER_02: Do you not think men are put into categories?
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think all men need to be a certain way, and that's why a lot of them can't live up to the expectations and there's so much suicide.
• 1:14:10
  SPEAKER_02: Are you talking societally or in in terms of investing?
• 1:14:13
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think as a client, I would disagree.
• 1:14:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think societally you're absolutely right.
• 1:14:18
  SPEAKER_02: In terms of, you know.
• 1:14:19
  SPEAKER_01: But in respect of investing differently.
• 1:14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Is that because men are more so investing for men is more driven by profit?
• 1:14:26
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's because I think the conversations are more frank.
• 1:14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's hi Sam, what do you want?
• 1:14:33
  SPEAKER_02: What are you interested in?
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Let me treat you as Sam.
• 1:14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas women can be treated as it's a female client.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_02: This is what she must want.
• 1:14:41
  SPEAKER_02: This is how she probably likes to be spoken to, which is ridiculous.
• 1:14:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I think get to know your client because I think some men probably like to be spoken to the way that you speak to a female.
• 1:14:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think they miss that.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think they get enough of that.
• 1:14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:14:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and I think they're just expected to crack on with it and and you've kind of can sometimes cut, I think they can be categorized in a way that because um I think again that's um emotional intelligence.
• 1:15:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:15:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you sat down with me, it'd be a different conversation, perhaps that you sat down with I don't know, somebody else you've dealt with.
• 1:15:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think it would be a different type of conversation, wouldn't it?
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_02: It wouldn't be as fun.
• 1:15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um okay, cool.
• 1:15:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, all right, okay.
• 1:15:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we touched on a bit there about branding, we touched on a bit about your career today, um, and we touched on females in in financial advice, which are kind of the topic areas that I was really interested in talking to you about.
• 1:15:34
  SPEAKER_01: But what I'd like to know is what does the future hold for you?
• 1:15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you see your next year going?
• 1:15:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, my next year.
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_02: So, well, I know for a fact my next year is going to be incredibly busy.
• 1:15:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:15:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um if you are interested in coming into financial planning, it's important to note that your first, at least your first 12 months, it's going to be full steam ahead.
• 1:16:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's activity, it's upskilling, it's technical knowledge.
• 1:16:04
  SPEAKER_02: So my year is going to be full of just learning, basically.
• 1:16:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um but for the future of my business, I want to continue building more than a client book.
• 1:16:16
  SPEAKER_02: I want to build a hub.
• 1:16:17
  SPEAKER_02: One of my favorite parts of the job is connecting people.
• 1:16:20
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:16:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um I like that.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, we we work with jewelers, we work with life coaches, we work with doctors.
• 1:16:28
  SPEAKER_02: So it's amazing to be able to plug the need of other clients.
• 1:16:33
  SPEAKER_00: But connect connecting them, sort of thing.
• 1:16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like a facilitator.
• 1:16:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:16:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love that a lot.
• 1:16:38
  SPEAKER_02: And that goes back to the mindful and intentional vision of the business.
• 1:16:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about a Skatigan approach of we'll work with anyone.
• 1:16:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we of course we will, yeah, but we want to add value beyond just the financial planning services.
• 1:16:53
  SPEAKER_02: Who can we connect you to?
• 1:16:54
  SPEAKER_02: How can we build you up?
• 1:16:55
  SPEAKER_02: What does your business need to take you to the next level?
• 1:16:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit of guerrilla marketing there as well, isn't it?
• 1:17:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you're like sort of piggybacking on the back of different clients and different industries within it and elevating yourself so you're seen by the other side in a different way.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:17:10
  SPEAKER_01: They do that, you know, when you said about the hub, you know, pulling people off of um a big thing at the moment in marketing is pulling people off of social media and putting them into your own environment, so your own platform.
• 1:17:20
  SPEAKER_01: I wonder if like a bit further down.
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, financial advice companies use platforms, don't they?
• 1:17:25
  SPEAKER_01: I wonder how much in the future that will be done.
• 1:17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like those creasing a kind of a society, you know, creating your client base within a in an enclosed environment, if you want.
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 1:17:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the celebs was getting people to text now, isn't it?
• 1:17:40
  SPEAKER_01: So text to me as opposed to Yes, that's a big thing.
• 1:17:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think the email marketing was oversaturated and people are jaded by that now.
• 1:17:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, and and that goes back to the point of technology.
• 1:17:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's you have to evolve with it or you'll you'll get left behind.
• 1:17:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um in terms of the hub, I feel there is a yearning for that human interaction again.
• 1:18:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it's interesting traditional, yeah.
• 1:18:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:18:05
  SPEAKER_02: I think social media was great.
• 1:18:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a big fan of it, but we've come so far removed from get out of it.
• 1:18:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I I actually know um kind of the people, Gen Z and whatnot, who I feel are lacking certain social skills because they've only ever interacted through screens, Snapchat, you know, all of these things.
• 1:18:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it's great that they're so tech tech literate.
• 1:18:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but they miss that human spark.
• 1:18:30
  SPEAKER_02: And it's interesting that London is is such a densely populated city and yet loneliness is a huge problem.
• 1:18:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:18:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so the hub is a great way to just connect like-minded people.
• 1:18:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a great idea.
• 1:18:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:18:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's spot on.
• 1:18:44
  SPEAKER_01: What would your um what would your advice be to somebody in their first year of becoming a financial advisor?
• 1:18:50
  SPEAKER_01: What would your advice be to them?
• 1:18:51
  SPEAKER_02: Are they qualified or unqualified?
• 1:18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Difficult because you went in qualified, didn't you?
• 1:18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say qualified.
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say your first year, your first year, let's say your first year of being a self-employed financial advisor.
• 1:19:06
  SPEAKER_01: What would your advice be?
• 1:19:07
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, don't do it.
• 1:19:08
  SPEAKER_02: No, you're joking.
• 1:19:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um my advice would be it's all about activity, authenticity, and just hard work.
• 1:19:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:19:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's not going to be easy, it's not going to be quick.
• 1:19:23
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're in it for the instant gratification, it's not for you.
• 1:19:28
  SPEAKER_02: But just build those relationships, build those connections, um, and be prepared for the late nights.
• 1:19:34
  SPEAKER_02: But it's worth it, it's totally worth it.
• 1:19:36
  SPEAKER_02: And like I said, I skip to work every Monday, so you love it.
• 1:19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:19:40
  SPEAKER_01: Made the right choice.
• 1:19:41
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Great listen, it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you.
• 1:19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, thanks for having me.
• 1:19:44
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, and good luck with everything.
• 1:19:46
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I want to keep in contact.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because I definitely hear really good things.
• 1:19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I joined my hub.
• 1:19:51
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Jade, it's been a pleasure.
• 1:19:53
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 1:19:53
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.