Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / From Retail to Financial Planning: The Transformative Journey of Godfrey Asare

Transcript

From Retail to Financial Planning: The Transformative Journey of Godfrey Asare · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And today's guest on the Financial Planner Live podcast is Godfrey Asari.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: He worked in food retail.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: He now works as a financial planner and he went through the St James's Place Academy to achieve this goal.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: In this episode we pay respect to his dad who, from a very early age, instilled him with financial education and it instilled in him a passion to deliver to the world financial literacy.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you meet rock stars, sometimes you meet superstars.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: This chap is most definitely a superstar.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: You are going to love this Financial Planner Life episode, Godfrey.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining me today on the financial planner live podcast.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: How are you?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: I'm good, thank you.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Uh, how are you doing?
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I'm all right a bit of a crap.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Start to the day hour and a half it took us to get from one side of london to the other.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Literally, if I'd have left bristol today, I'd have gone here at the same time, the same time I traveled down from redden uh, and it took me about hour and a half actually, so we're in the same time, the same time I traveled down from redden uh and it took me about an hour, hour and a half actually, so we're in the same boat.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, exactly, absolutely albeit mine was probably a bit more smoother of a journey.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I went hour and a half in traffic oh, here we go, yeah, hour and a half to get about two miles.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Crazy, that's london traffic for you.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: But we're here today.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: You and I had a great conversation yesterday when we do the pre-podcast chat, so I was really excited to come in today and have you as my guest First of all.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that and I'm delighted to be here as well.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Amazing Cause.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: You've got the energy, you know, and that's what.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I love.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: People who are enthusiastic about what it is they actually do, enthusiastic about this fantastic profession, and people that want to help others with their financial planning for a greater purpose a greater good of mental health and well-being right, completely, completely, um.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: So, and you, you you know, like most things, um well-being is so super important and it's glad that it's been come to the forefront almost in society today.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Whether it's financial well-being or whether it's um nutritional well-being certainly my my background, all of those things are super important.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: So anything I can do to sort of give back to the community or the younger generation coming through, I'll be more than happy to do and support, because financial planning plays such an important part in our lives and it's probably an area that most people don't understand just given the complexities of it.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: So as much as I can do to support, I'll be there.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Fantastic, well, well, that's what we need.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: We need more people like you that can also see it as a problem that needs to be fixed, and there's different facets of different society and different people and different cultures that need a different approach to financial planning, it's not just a rich person's service.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: It's a service that can add value and benefit to anybody in their lives at any stage completely their careers or their journey.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: You know some people struggle with simple budgeting and the stress and anxiety that that can cause.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I know that because I'm the same for a long period of time I was rubbish at managing money.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: You know, I was an entrepreneurial individual yeah but managing money just sent me into cold sweats.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I'm with you.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I'm with you, not my thing, you know.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: So when I lean into financial planners, I lean into coaches, and I'm with you.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: I'm with you, not my thing you know.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: So when I lean into financial planners, I lean into coaches, and I'm like, oh my god, like I need this.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: This is a muscle in my brain that is weak.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: You know, I might have a really strong muscle when it comes to getting myself out of bed and going for a 20 20k run or something.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: When it comes to doing my finances, it's a weak muscle.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: So we need people like you that can simplify, that connect with people and get them thinking about it and building that muscle memory when it comes to good financial habits.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Now, you were one of the lucky ones because you weren't sort of.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: You haven't just learned about financial planning or financial services as a whole, so tell us about your story.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: How did you actually get into understanding what financial services?
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: is.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: That's a really great question and it takes me back to 2011.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: So I would have been 19 years old at the time and I remember because for two reasons, but my dad and I were the only ones at home my siblings and my mom had all traveled back home to Ghana, so it literally just left my dad and I at home and, um, I remember sitting down with my dad and, um, he was talking to me about all things personal finance.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: So whether it was pensions or whether it was endowment policies at the time, or whether it was investments and protection, um, and I was just blown away because my dad, when he came to this country in the 80s, he's always been a cleaner here, but what he had was the financial education knowledge that he got back home in Ghana.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: So, of course, being a key worker or manual laborer, it's quite hard to survive on minimum wage, and what helped him through his time here was all of the knowledge that he acquired back home in Ghana and when.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: That's what he used to become, I suppose, relatively successful and able to look after us as a family.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: But I suppose, because my dad's always been a cleaner, I never really understood all this knowledge that he had.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Until that moment.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: He sat down with me and I remember I came out of the conversation and that was the first day that I made my investment into a unit trust.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: I'd done a lump sum and I'd done a regular within an instant of having that conversation with him, because I saw and I understood the value of what he was telling me.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: And I also remember that time because it was the time where my dad and I, I would say, upgraded our relationship from sort of father son to best friends.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: They upgraded our relationship from sort of father son to best friends.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: So that's the two reasons why that conversation sticks out in my mind, because it was the start of my financial advisor journey and also, like I said, upgrading from father son into best friends with dad.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: I think father child or father son relationships are hugely important and from your dad coming from ghana, humble beginnings as well in the uk as a cleaner right, but had a solid understanding of financial services and investing and saving and all of that.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Where did that come from?
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Did he do that when he was in ghana or was it a personal interest of his?
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: he'd done it when he was in, when he was in ghana.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: So he learned all of it back there and I suppose the education system there, certainly in those days, according to him, was more built around life skills as opposed to academics forthcoming back home in Ghana at the time.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I think you're forced to grow up quite quickly.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Just given third world country growing up in the 50s, 60s, it's not as developed as sort of the western world.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: So I think you just become an adult far more quicker in those, certainly those times in that part of the country than you do potentially here.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: And so a combination of the education system and his life is what led him to acquire all of that knowledge.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: And as he imparted all of that knowledge and wisdom onto me at that age of 19 and I suppose as I went through my career in corporate and also just looking at the friendships around me, whether that's family or friends, I then quickly realized that actually financial literacy levels are quite low and that I was genuinely one of the fortunate ones where my dad had that knowledge and was able to employ it onto me.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: And that's why I feel so passionate now about giving back in terms of financial education, particularly because I recognize the benefit of it for me so young.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: It feels right, of course, and I think it's a necessity on my part, that if I was able to be a beneficiary of that positive experience, I've got to help others do the same thing.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Man, if you're going to receive it, give it as well, completely, completely yeah, and they're very, very fortunate, so I'm forever grateful to both.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: My parents, of course, yeah, but my dad obviously got me started in this world.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: I love the fact you've got a fantastic relationship with your father.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: As a father to a daughter, I've been working on that incredibly well, yeah, and hard.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: It's really, really important.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I think, as fathers, that we are positive role models to our children, I think also as fathers, it's important that we're positive role models to other men as well.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Boys, you know, they need to be looking up, don't they?
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: To a strong father figure who is teaching them life skills and not just kind of falling back and relying upon a school system to try to teach that, because I don't think the education system in the uk, uh, really builds strength and uh, and if you don't fall into the academic structure.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: You can.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: You can fall by the wayside or you can be a kid who is um going to find out for themselves and do it themselves?
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: yeah, no, I, I agree, and I suppose we um, I grew up in owsbury estate, which is an estate that's sandwiched between sort of elephant and castle, old kent road, peckham area, uh, and as well as obviously going to school and learning um, academically in school, and I was always academically okay, but I would say probably most of my life lessons came from home, from my parents, who used their experiences back home in ghana and I said back in those days, life was very, very, very challenging, um, right, so they always instill those good morals, good values, good discipline in us, and then also this, the area that I was in, of course it helped, it teaches you.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: So it's a grow up very, very quickly, just because the environment can sometimes be a bit unpleasant, right, um, but I suppose that's what shapes you as a human being today.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Right, it's your, it's your life experiences let's just go on to the subject, then, of that community that potentially what you just described as unpleasant right.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like the people that within those within that community or within that side of london, are they exposed to financial education or financial literacy?
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Do you see less of it there than you were with others as you stepped out of that community?
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: not.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: It's a good question.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: I, I would say certainly what is might be perceived as the underserved community, yeah, what I found, certainly growing up, is they probably have less access to a lot of things, not necessarily particularly around financial education or financial literacy.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: So there is an element, yes, in the underserved community because they might not have the network or the?
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Um predominantly the network, to access certain financial educational pieces.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Um, but even when I stepped into corporate worlds, even people who had, I suppose, a bit more wealth or had a level of income that enabled them a certain lifestyle, didn't necessarily translate into good financial literacy either.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Um, I think it genuinely is um, something that has to be taught.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Um, and your finances, I suppose, doesn't necessarily dictate whether you have good financial literacy or not, but I suppose what you do have, if you're in sort of the middle to upper class lifestyle, is the access so you can afford to pay, potentially, for financial advice because you've got the means to do so and you've probably, given the nature of the job that you're doing, know someone who knows someone who can then connect you if that makes sense.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Financial illiteracy um is not prejudiced you know, anybody can have it right.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Anybody can be, and it's very, very common.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: You speak to financial planners, you deal with high net worth individuals and just because they've got a lot of money doesn't mean they're good with money right, exactly it transcends, doesn't it?
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: uh, class systems or whatnot, you know, backgrounds.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Good, that's really really interesting, but you know you learned from your dad, right, um, before we get into your corporate journey and and you learned from your dad.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Do you find, though, that, in the community you were in, people do lean into each other and ask for advice?
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: If you, you obviously were getting some great guidance and coaching from your dad around financial literacy, did people lean into you friends, family, anybody else lean into you to ask you for financial advice before you were even us in James's place?
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: yes, I said at the early stages, when I first got the education, I would say no because of course most people didn't know what it even meant.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: So it I think it was more me being proactive because I just love to help people.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Um, and if I, like I said, benefited from that education, I then started to become the annoying friends or the annoying family member.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Ie, sam, have you got your pension sorted?
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Or, sam, you should sort out this investment, etc.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Etc.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: So I felt energized almost to go and give back to family and friends and people in the community, initially in an unofficial capacity.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course yeah um, and then, I think, over time, um, it then became a combination of people seeking me out within my community, as well as me still being proactive to give them the nuggets of information that they need, I suppose, to be able to set themselves up.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Because I think at that point you then start to build a bit of a reputation over time as someone who is credible, someone who is knowledgeable, and then people then start to seek you out, say, actually, godfrey, do you mind if we have a chat?
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Of course, yeah, perfect.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: So you're now at st james's place, you're a partner at st james's place, you've gone through the st james's place academy, you're fully qualified and you're out there giving financial advice right now.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Let's just talk about what was before that, okay.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: So what were you doing career-wise?
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Because you've made a career switch, as do many successful people who end up going through the academy and joining St James's Place and setting themselves up as a partner.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: What was the career you had before joining St James's Place?
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Doing the academy and becoming a partner?
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: so before St James I did approximately 12 years in retail, in food retail.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: So I did seven years at Waitrose to start with.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: I done a variety of different roles but latterly before I left it was in food buying.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: So I was a biscuit buyer at the time for Waitrose, which was a great, great job, great career and a great category area to be in.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: I then left Waitrose after seven years and done six months at itsu, the restaurant side of the itsu business, and I was a senior buyer for them, and that was more procurement style buying.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: As to more retail style buying, which is can be quite different, and after those six months which I'm glad, I made the switch, but I probably recognize in that moment that retail buying is probably more me than procurement style buying I went and I done five months five years, apologies at Marks and Spencers, again as a senior food buyer, initially doing crisps, snacks, nuts, and then a bit of confectionery buying during my time, and then I went into produce buying before I finally left retail and made that transition into financial services, yeah, fantastic.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And what's interesting to me is that I never really understood that type of role to the detail of the relationships that you would have working within, say, a grocer like waitrose.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Actually, what you're exposed to in respect of big brands, yes, yeah, and the individuals who were in those companies that you're trying to buy these, this produce from to store in your display and sell in in a top high street store.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: So, with that and that level of experience, exposure, tell us a little bit about that.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: So what were you doing in the role and how did those relationships sort of trans translate into becoming a financial planner, for instance?
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: yeah.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: So, um, I suppose, as a buyer I mean it's quite a complex and varied role, but in its simple or in the way that people understand the most, we are the guys that are responsible for choosing what products you see on shelf when you go into the supermarket.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: So if you go down the biscuit aisle, for example, it would be the buyer who would liaise with the manufacturer, so whether it's mcfitty's biscuits, whether it's oreo biscuits, etc.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: And they would decide what's listed.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Of course, in the same breath you would have to negotiate the cost prices with those suppliers and then you set the retail price that the customers then pay in store, and the aim is to make as many sales as you possibly can in a way that's profitable.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: So two things I think, or three things I should say when it came to how did that help with my transition into financial services?
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: The first one is the relationship building, because as a buyer, you're quite key and central to everything that the organization does.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: You're really at the sharp end of things.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: So you've got the internal relationships that you build but, crucially, you've got the external relationship.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: So when I was at Waitrose buying biscuits, I had about 50 different suppliers, so 50 different brands who I was responsible for and built relationships with over the time that I was there.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: When I was at Marks and Spencer's, there was about 12 different suppliers when I was in Chris Nucks and Nuts and a similar number when I was in Produce.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: So you're being exposed to several different organizations just by virtue of being a buyer.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: So you get to build really great deep relationships with people and they can understand, as I said, your, your morals, your values, your integrity, your competence levels and they can also help you to build credibility through being a deliverer right.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: So that was really key building those relationships.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: The other thing that really helped with that transition was commercial awareness Because actually if you think about what the cost that goes into a product so if you take a biscuit, for example, you've got raw material costs, so you've got butter, you've got sugar, you've got all these other raw materials.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: You've got labor material costs, so you've got butter, you've got sugar, you've got all these other raw materials, you've got labor that goes into the cost.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: You've got utilities in the factory that goes into the cost.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: There's all of these different bits types of costs.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: So we have to be very up to speed with market economics.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: So if the price of sugar goes up because of inflation, I need to be aware of that and I need to know what is driving it because ultimately I need to go and negotiate with the supplier based on factual data.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: But actually, when I talk to clients and I'm now saying we're in an inflationary environment, I understand, because of the job that I was doing in buying, what is driving that inflation.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: So, naturally, over time, you just build a real deep knowledge around macro economics for my buying role.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: But the information is no different as opposed to financial services.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: You're just communicating it in a different way to your clients.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: And then the final thing that really helped me in my buying role it's coming into financial services.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: I think is presenting, because I said, your core part of the, the business operation.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: As a buyer, you are consistently in front of senior leadership team, people who are your peers in terms of level or people more junior than you.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: You're always having to communicate, cascade, present information and a lot of what I do now with clients or even when I go and do education seminars to businesses or schools previously being able to stand in front of people, understand your audience, simplify the message for them.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Those are my three key takeaways for my time in buying um that, I think, has enabled me to transition relatively smoothly.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Of course, life is always about ups and downs, but relatively smoothly.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Fantastic, what a great overview.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for that, and I think it's a great example of how what we do, what we can be doing in our previous roles, can massively be transferable if you look for it in the right way into financial planning.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: So anybody listening here who's doing a completely different role to financial planning, don't fear it, because there are obviously transferable skills that you might well have that can transfer beautifully across in into financial planning.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Do love the fact as well, and you know, this is where my entrepreneurial hat comes on, because I'm thinking about the average earning index.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about using the example of a basket of food as it goes up and as it goes down.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about the average earning index.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about using the example of a basket of food as it goes up and as it goes down.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about you, your background in buying.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about these fantastic brands that you've been working with and these relationships you have with your brands.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: And I'm thinking to myself.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Financial planning is all about networking and influence, and you've got the ability to network and influence some massive brands because you've walked through those doors and you've presented to them in a situation where you're doing deals.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, completely, completely.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: So the trust is there already right, absolutely, and and that that's one of the things that I've personally found I suppose transitioning is fine when you're dealing with someone's personal finances.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: I mean it's so, you know, um, personal not to repeat the word but personal to them.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: They have to really be with somebody that they trust.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: And to try and establish a trust with somebody when you're dealing with them in that capacity takes time.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: It takes time.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Or, actually, if I've fostered or if someone else in their previous career has fostered relationships over 12 years, or however many years you've been in your industry, the trust is already there and it's already there from a position of not talking about finances.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: It's talking about, maybe, your family, you know.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: It's talking about your interest, it's talking about your hobbies.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: All of those things come into play when you start to foster and nature those relationships so that actually, when you come and talk to about someone's personal finances, you've already got a solid foundation that you can build on, you can build off.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: So I always encouraging people to foster good relationships, because you never know where those relationships might lead to in the future.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so always be respectful, always be humble, always display good morals, good values, good principles, because later on in life.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Even if you don't know it at the time, it is those same relationships that will help you to grow in whatever endeavors it is that you're doing later on in life.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Bang on, mate.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: You know your network, your net worth very, very similar and also lean into those skills and expertise that you've built over that time, lean into those relationships.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: And it's something that's taught quite heavily at St James' Place during the academy is look, what does your network look like?
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Where are you going to find some business?
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Because ultimately in this game, you've got to go out there and you've got to provide financial planning to make money.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: It's as simple as that, um, but you've established and understood exactly where your strength lies and what your network looks like and you've lent into that and I think that's fantastic.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: One of the things you picked up there and I think is really important for anybody listening here if you walk into a room and you start shouting at the top of your voice you need a pension, everyone's going to be like who the hell is this crazy get?
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: him out of this.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Get him out of this room right.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: But if you go in there and you actually talk about food, if you talk about the stress and the pressures they're under in their buying job, if you talk about the, the economy and how it affects the price of sugar or whatever right, and the fact that you have worked for waitrose, itsu, etc.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden that experience becomes a trojan horse that knocks down doors and gets you through, uh, in gets you into the circle where you become a key person of influence and I bang on about key person of influence all the time, and that, essentially, is who you are.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: You've got yourself positioned in a way where you can be the financial planner to the food industry.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, food and money, you know where I'm going, I know where you're going with this.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: You know where I'm going with this, you know like I love it.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I think it's amazing and I appreciate that and I think it's like that should be really hyper focused for you and I think it is, you know, being that person who is the financial planner to the food or the grocery or the supermarkets or the retail food industry.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: I think it's such because when one person knows, they'll refer you to somebody else completely.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: And also, what I love as well is your strategy from day one right is b2b.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: A lot of people go in and their strategy from day one is like b2c right, and it's a lot harder to get a load of completely to get a load of clients on.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: When you go and knocking on doors and clients, right, it's a lot harder.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: You go through the door of a big organization you know, such as ITSU or something right, and you've got a relatability because you've done the job before you understand the pressures and everything that go on there.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: But then you can formulate a presentation or a workshop around money, around well-being.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the impact it has not only on the individual, who might not have a pension or understand where their money needs to be invested, who might need that financial education, but bottom line on the business.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: If these employees are happy when it comes to finance, it has a direct impact on the bottom line.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Right, completely.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: And it's such a great way to kind of position yourself.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about your, because you've gone straight in right you, you've gone straight in b2b and you've gone straight into the world of presenting.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I can understand why?
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: because you're a really presentable, charismatic, fun guy.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean?
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I love being around you myself.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about what you've done, then.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: What's your strategy been and what?
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: What sort of workshops have you delivered?
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: What sort of seminars, what type of clients have you been working with?
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: so I'm so speaking, going back to um, I I feel like it is my purpose because of my um experiences with my dad, who educated me, to go and educate others, so that I see, as my core purpose is, go and educate others before anything else.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: So, um, and then back to the conversation we're having about your previous background and leveraging those relationships.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Um, what I then started to do was financial education seminars to businesses, but particularly with a real focus on the food and drink industry, because that's my previous background.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: That's where I can get probably the most connectivity, just given, or relatability, I should say, given the nature of the job role.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: That's where the network is.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: It's an industry that I understand, and the interesting irony of it is actually, when I go into some of these businesses, they end up tapping me up more for buying advice than they do for financial advice.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: A combination of the two, right, but I'm always getting tapped up for, actually, godfrey, we're having a conversation with this retailer, what would you do, right?
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: So, of course, the the relatability is there, um, but essentially what I go in and do is I talk about really employee benefits, um, and so, as you will know, sam, employee benefits can encompass loads of different things, so it could be death and service benefits, it could be what are your pension contributions from your employer and what do you need to do as an employee?
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: What stock options do you have with your employer and that could be a benefit also, and there might be a variety of other things.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: But what I do is I always speak to the relevant person, usually HR, to understand what those employee benefits are, and then I will incorporate it into my financial education seminar session Because, again, you want it to be relevant to your audience, so I'll be giving them information and education about a variety of different things personal finances, but intertwined with it, like I I say, is their own employee benefits and and, interestingly enough, actually most people always come up to me and say I didn't even know I get this employee benefit, so I'm just going in there because I just have a, as I said, a purpose and a passion for educating others, letting them know what's available to them, giving something for them to think about.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: All of those things is what I then use for my, for my seminar sessions, which has been fantastic, and I really appreciate the organizations who have allowed me to come in so far, um, and I appreciate my network for, I suppose, supporting me um, but they've been great and the feedback from it has been fantastic, so I definitely want to do more of them if I can I love it trying to think of names the wealth feast, hungry for money, something like that.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: I know we, we must, uh, we must pick up offline to decide a title, right title, yeah, the brand, I think it's.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: I think it's fantastic, brilliant.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: I'm loving that you've had that early success and you felt that success and I probably felt a few failures right in the early stages completely, completely yeah what's been one of the biggest learning curves in the first couple of you know, the first year of being an advisor I think you're always having to find new ways to grow your client base.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Um, because, you know it, there's peaks and troughs in any organization.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: So you might feel like one strategy that you've done is working, or actually, once you've utilized that current batch of potential clients, actually where's the next one going to come from?
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: And for me, because you know right and we've been having chats I'm very much low-key, I'm very much sort of behind the scenes.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: Uh, I like to foster relationships, sort of in the deep personal relationships in the background.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: I'm more than happy to go and do presentations, seminars, chat to people.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: But on the flip side, where I probably have found what I probably find the most challenging is because I am low-key, I always find myself having conversations about do I need to start having a bit more of a social media presence?
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: Because there's certainly an opportunity, if you can put out the right type of content, to potentially acquire clients that way, but also to fulfill my purpose, like I said, in terms of educating others.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but at the same time, I'm a very private person.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: So it's a real conundrum for me on a personal level, because there's a huge opportunity in that social media space that could potentially be untapped if I don't step into it.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and do I need to step out of my comfort zone, which I know what the answer is, but I think that's been probably in.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: The hardest part for me is that social media element, because there there is a real appetite for it for sure.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: A couple of things.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Um, I know some incredibly successful financial planners that do not have any social media presence.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, there is a pressure upon us to have social media presence to make us feel like we're being successful because of how many views, likes, comments that social media actually gets.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Um, you'd strike me as a long form content individual where you add the most value in the long form basis, and that's really where social media should start okay so my advice would always be to someone like you is right, you love conversation, you're very personable, you love talking to people on a deeper level.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: You're very empathic.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: You have high levels of emotional intelligence, right, your eqs right up there, iq by the sounds of it as well.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Um, you need to be sitting down with people like you're doing today, okay, and and when you sit down with someone like you do today, you have a nice, frank, open, honest conversation right Now.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: The beautiful thing about that this might be an hour long.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: So you take that video, you give it to somebody and they cut it up.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: They cut it up into 25 pieces.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: There's your social content got you, got you yeah.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: So you take that social content and then you just organize for that to go out.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: You might.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Maybe you employ somebody, maybe you use something on an external basis quite cheap to manage your social media for you.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: By doing that, you're then not having to think about every day what it is you have to post.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: You're repurposing content so that one clip, this one, this one conversation with us today, becomes, say, three different social clips.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: It becomes an article that sits on linkedin, that builds me a newsletter, which builds me a following.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: That then goes on my company page as well, and I rotate the.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: I rotate things.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: I have a youtube site, so I put on youtube, I put on instagram, I put it on youtube shorts, um, I put the blog article onto the website.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: So all of a sudden, that one piece of content repurposed, sure is.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: You're milking it for as much as you possibly possibly can.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: So when you start there in long, in long form content, that then becomes a long form youtube video.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: You can even break that long form youtube video down into six different videos.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: When you structure the questions accordingly, based on the specific keywords that people are searching for.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: It might be um, how do I transfer a pension?
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, so then you, then you've always got content out there.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Start with the long form.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: That's where your strength is.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: You love building relationships.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Now, the beautiful thing about that is it's a relationship builder.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: So when you knock on the door and we go back to the trojan horse.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: So when we knock on the door of mccain's right chips and we say I'd love you to come on my podcast, I'd love to sit down with you and do a youtube channel and talk to you about life at mccain right.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I'm a financial well-being expert and I've made a connection between you selling frozen chips uh, employing people, their well-being around money and the direct impact that has on your profitability.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Can I come in and do a well-being presentation as well?
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: So all of a sudden it's like oh yeah, fantastic.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: But first off, I want to talk to you.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: So in the short space of time that we've known each other, I feel like I've got them.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Got them to be really, really really really well, yeah, by the way, feelings mutual yeah, right.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: So so all of a sudden, a relationship is forming, but there is a commercial relationship here that's forming as well, because you're going to get something off the back of this, and so am I, and we're only going to be picking each other up and looking at opportunities to help each other.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: So, after it's all done, and then the social content goes out, the relationship is formed.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: It's a different level of relationship than phoning somebody up and saying can I sell you a pension?
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Or, sorry, can I sell you a pension?
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Well, sorry, or can I advise you on a pension?
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Not sell you a pension, but you know what I mean, of course, of course.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: So you lean into that long form content more so than thinking about the end result, which is the pressure to post on social media.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Put the sausage meat in the sausage machine.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: It will make sausages later on.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Just make sure you've got one meaningful conversation a week that you're recording and you've sorted your whole social media strategy I, I really like that.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: I really really like that approach.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Um, because you are right and you know, I don't.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: You know, even having this conversation has been fantastic.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: It's been, it's been great.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: It's almost as the cameras aren't rolling exactly right and uh, and I've really, I've really valued it and I suppose it is that it's a conversation and I think one thing that I appreciated is I don't really go on camera and do stuff like this.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: The first one I'd done was with the Savvy Wallet podcast and on the back of that conversation with Atto great, great guy, great conversation, great platform I was inundated, inundated with requests from people that I know, people that I don't know, about Godfrey.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: That was fantastic, godfrey, can we have a further conversation?
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: And it made me realize that my purpose is probably far greater than me.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: So, to your point, if I can sit down and do these long form contents, give back in terms of education or even just life experiences that people can draw on from some of the guests that I'm bringing on and repurpose them, as you said, that probably is the way that I need to go down and it's something that I will certainly um, go, but go away, have a think about how best to execute, because I think now it's more a thing of not if but when?
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: when exactly?
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: You just need sometimes you just need someone to give you a blueprint, yeah, give you a nudge in the right direction and give you that confidence, the feedback again um, somebody recognizing that you're already there.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Can you just nudge me in the right direction?
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: But you're not going to get there unless you open up and be honest and ask for that support, or just open up the conversation of course, which is what we're doing today.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: Right, and I really appreciate, of course.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Oh cool, I really appreciate it.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: I'm like you I'm driven by helping people, it's in a sometimes against my own um detriment because I'm less businessman, more I want to do a deal.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: I want to like help somebody you know, and sometimes I have to worry about that.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: We did 50 50 my business partner's like no that's not commercially viable.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Sam, yeah, I know it's going to be great because it's going to feel good and I'm going to feel good and and sometimes we're driven by that.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: Interesting what you said about purpose right, I'm a purpose-driven person.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Finding your north star, finding your bigger purpose, right.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: How important is that to you and how much impact does that then have on your confidence to do the job?
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: it's super important because when you go through any or any life journey right, it's never going to be easy.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Right, you're going to get your highs, you're going to get your lows and particularly during the lows, what keeps you going is your purpose.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: For me, for me personally, I mean, it would mean a different thing to somebody else, but during those low moments, I remember why I'm doing this, and that is the added motivation that I need to keep going, um, whereas if I didn't feel like it was a purpose or a passion of mine, I could potentially lose interest, especially when the chips are down.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: So that's why, for me, it's so super important having a purpose, having a passion and something that I really want to make a real difference on.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: Um, because it enables me to keep up, because the consistency really, can you summarize your purpose?
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: do you, are you able to very quickly establish what your purpose is?
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: To remind yourself in those times?
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: so you are always magnetic, you know, linked to it yes, so to um make each generation more financially literate than the last and that's your higher purpose, higher love it.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: And you can sum that up so quickly.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so easy as well.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: It becomes part of your introductory pitch.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: It's so easy because it's like it of your introductory pitch.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: It's so easy because it's like it's not.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: I'm coming in here to try and get you to do a financial product with me.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: I'm coming here to do this.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: This is my mission, is it's like with me?
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: I want to reduce the advice gap, put more financial planners in front of people, to add more um financial well-being and improve the well-being in general for the whole population of the world.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: That's like my higher purpose and I know that.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Financial speaking from experience, I know that when you don't have good financial well-being, it can make your life hell.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Completely right.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: It can really really impact your life.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: And to know that I've gone through that and how it's impacted my life and I've gone through it in different stages having no money, having money or having a business, selling a business, all of those things I know just how much money can impact our overall well-being.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Our money beliefs, our money trauma.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: All these things are so, so impactful on our overall happiness in a capitalist society completely right, and particularly if you've got a family, uh as well, who are dependent on you.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, you can see how quickly the impact of and I don't think it's necessarily a thing of having loads of money is the impact of just not understanding money and how money works, how much of an effect that can have on your family who could potentially be dependent on you, is so significant.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: So for me, it's not about income levels, and my dad always used to say my dad was a minimum wage cleaner, right, so he's never had low, never really had income, but what he had was knowledge.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: What he had was the financial discipline to forego things in the short term and focus on the long term.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: And it's that financial discipline that I want to really be instilling and teaching.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: Yes, you want to build capital or build wealth, or you want to reduce taxes in a legal framework, all those bits and pieces come into play.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong, but having good financial discipline through the education is key Because, no matter what situation you face into in life, if you've got that knowledge and you've got that discipline, you should be able, in time, to get out of it or be able to manage it more effectively.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: If we instill that discipline and we instill that knowledge and we instill those habits, it has a positive effect on the next generation.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: Because you're living proof of that.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Not only has your dad instilled financial education in you, he's actually shaped your whole career.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: That whole career being shaped into becoming a financial planner is not only going to help you but it's going to help multiple people out there.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: So your dad's foresight to teach you that has impacted other people's lives later on down the line.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: So that's if you think about it it's powerful.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: There's a bigger force at play here.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: You know now your destiny, your higher purpose to me.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: You need to do more of this stuff.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean?
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: Because you've got no choice, because it's the way the energy is because from an idea in your dad's head of what he thought was important, to raising a boy into a man that now is off delivering the message that he gave you, that gave you the respect and vice versa is power.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I, I'm genuinely I and it didn't come from a banker it didn't come from a financial advisor.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: It came from a chap who came from ghana and worked here as a cleaner.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Completely, completely cool honestly, my admiration for both of my parents is is is up there seriously, and especially my dad because of how hard he worked with the um circumstances that he had to face into and then for him to have all of that knowledge, like saying pie onto me.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: I will forever, forever be grateful.
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: I tell him this all the time, uh, and now, um, I'm always always joking with him that I probably know more than him now, probably know more than him now, but, um, I don't know.
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: I just want to make my parents proud, um, and my dad particularly, because I said without him I will probably, I probably wouldn't even have the knowledge.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just wouldn't have the knowledge and I might not even be on this career path that I'm in now if he hadn't instilled those and you may not even be in an environment or a country that would have given you the opportunity so you you.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Your dad made sacrifices for you completely and you're repaying him back not only through repaying impact for being proud of you and taking advantage of the opportunity that he gave up right, or you know, he made those life changes for his family.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: You're repaying him by helping others completely.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: There's something beautiful in that, and you wrapped it up in an attitude of gratitude and for me that's so, so important.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: So there is a byproduct good shit that happens right which is not always linked to money.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: There is other things at play here that are happening in your life, in this higher purpose, that drive you forward with confidence, with gratitude, in a way that you know you're on the right path, and I like that, and I think that's why having purpose, that's why having a North star, that's why having something greater than yourself is a driver, and it keeps you focused.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: A goal outside of money, if it's too money, money, money money, money, money it can destroy you, I think.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: Agreed, and I think it will also show, especially in this world.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: It will show in the relationships you have with people in the long term.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: You know, like I've always said money and that's maybe because we just haven't really grown up around money like that, but I've always thought that money is always secondary.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: I thought if you do something that you're passionate about, um, you have a real keen interest in, or a skill or an ability or something, just focus on being the best you can be at that, the money will always follow after, naturally as a byproduct of whatever you do.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: So that's always just kind of been my thing is to just keep being you, keep developing in the skill or the expertise that you're in.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: The money element is so secondary um it.
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: It will come um over time.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah I love it.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: We all need help and we all need support.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: We all need training and development.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: There's nothing better than a clear career development framework or a training program that sets you on a pathway and accelerates you quicker towards your goal.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: And that's the beautiful thing is.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: When we lift our head up and we look around and we look for that.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: It's out there and you found it in st james's Place Academy.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: So just tell us a little bit about your journey through the academy.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: How's that been?
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Has it been helpful?
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: Extremely helpful, extremely, I said St James's Place being the biggest financial advisor company in the country.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: You you can imagine.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: It's got the infrastructure, it's got the support network, it's got the expertise to really give you a good grounding in terms of how to become a very good advisor.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: So that has been absolutely invaluable.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: What I've also loved about being the St James's Place Academy is that you just don't have the technical knowledge that you're learning, um, but certainly for how I learn, I learn from people who have come before me.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: So a lot of the teachers or trainers, I should say, on the program are ex-advisors themselves.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: So there are nuances that you can't learn from a textbook, but you can get from someone who's got the knowledge, experience and wisdom of having done it before, and that's just how I learn, I suppose.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: So everyone's got different ways of learning.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: So a combination of those two things the technical expertise and the experience for me was invaluable, especially for how I learned.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: And of course it was a combination of theory and practical too.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: So that was fab.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: But then, equally on the other side, I was in a cohort in my training program of about 22 other people all going through a similar journey.
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: So those people end up becoming lifelong friends as well as people who support you along your journey too, because we all went through the same thing.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: So it's been absolutely positive experience being on the St James's Place Academy, experience, um, being under um St James's Place Academy.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: And and it's interesting because I actually got into the St James's Place Academy through my old manager at Marks and Spencers.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: And I remember saying to my manager when I was uh, it was one of one of my managers when I was at Marks and Spencers I said look, I'm loving my career, I want to do something a bit more purposeful.
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking of financial advice.
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: And he said you know what?
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: Let me connect you with my financial advisor.
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: So, lo and behold, he connects me with a chap named Ian who's his financial advisor, and I have a team's call with Ian.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: And Ian, by the way, is an independent financial advisor, has no connection to SJP and never worked for the business.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: And he said, um, I mean, I have conversations with loads of things.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: But he said, um, godfrey, whatever you do, go and do your training at saint james's place, because they are the best in the business.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: And that spoke volumes, because he had no relation to saint james's place.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: I said, never worked for the company before.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: So for him who's an ifa or independent financial advisor to tell me to go to St James' place spoke volumes, and it didn't disappoint when I came on to the actual academy program myself.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: So again I'm grateful to Rick, my manager, for obviously supporting my journey, and also grateful for Ian, because had I not had that connection or had that advice, I probably even wouldn't be sitting here with you today.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing, yeah, absolutely.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: And very interesting that an IFA referred you Now to me.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: I've got a good view of the profession 16 years of working in recruitment, doing recruitment business around it.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: I've seen what people have tried to do failed, or smaller firms trying to train and develop people.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: We've got a major problem really, really, in the profession of bringing people in without experience up to financial advisor right.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: What st james's place have done with that academy over the years is phenomenal, brilliant, absolutely brilliant it's phenomenal.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: There's nobody touching it, you know, and there are all these different academies coming out.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: I've got the financial plan of life academy, by the way, but that's a different one.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: That's where someone might still remain in their current job and then want to have a taste and a feel, so they might start some of the qualifications on 1999, a month, and then from there might then go on to join the St James's Place Academy, because you've got to do your R01, your R05, before you get in there.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Anyway you do.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: So it's kind of like an incubator to give somebody a feeling, a taste and an understanding, right.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: But what SJP do term one, two, three, four term five, six, whilst you're out there actually in the field doing the job you've still got ongoing coaching development and support.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: So not only going through, like the theory, the qualifications, the how you do things, the practical skills, you're then out there in the field.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: You're not just saying right off, you go, then you know you're on your own.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: You've actually got ongoing support for a couple of the years thereafter as well.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: I recorded a great episode with G where we covered terms five and six quite recently.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: So if anyone's listening and want to know what happens after you come out of the academy, look at the most recent episode.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: Three and a half thousand downloads in one week we hit the album I played down to G, not me.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: She's very good, she's very, very good.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you've had a really positive experience and I'm glad people are out there referring it, especially hearing that ifas are referring.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: It is good, because there can sometimes be a bit of negativity and I think, well, that's not good for the profession at all.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: You know, why are you getting so negative?
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: Like it's not good for the profession at all.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: It's a bloody good academy and people need to know about it and need to come along and actually view it, understand it, see what it's about the options.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: I think you know you've gone down the route of being a partner, which means that you are running your own partner practice, which means you've got to have a business owner hat on.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: And you've got to have a financial planner life hat on, sorry, financial planner on, not the financial planner.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Go have a financial planner hat on.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Why did you choose that?
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: Why was that a good route for you, up against, say, going into an existing partner practice as a self-employed advisor?
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: Why was it important that you were a partner?
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: because I I and, by the way, I loved my time in food retail.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: I would go back in a heartbeat.
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: Honestly, I didn't leave for any reason of not liking anything like that.
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: It purely was just based on the purpose and the passion.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: So, but having done 12 years or so in corporate life, I just wanted to really and truly just get away from corporate and do my own thing.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: Um, I've always kind of seen myself as a bit entrepreneurial anyway.
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: So it gave me an opportunity to test what I thought I might know about myself.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: Um, and for me, having that independence and control of my life to be able to do what I want when I want, how I want, was so super important as I go through this journey.
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: And the only way I could do that was by being a partner.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: If I went into a practice again, it would feel quite corporate and I was again wanting to escape.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: Escape that.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: So I guess it gives me a good balance because, whilst sjp is a corporate organization, um, because I'm a partner, I'm a bit removed, I suppose, from the day-to-day corporate element of things, while still having the backing of a big corporate.
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that felt like a really good balance for me in terms of what I wanted to achieve, in terms of how I wanted to live my lifestyle, um whilst keeping corporate arms length, but having them if I need.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Having them, having them there for support if I needed them no, I love it.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: That's fantastic.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: How did you deal with making sure that you were making the right decision to go it alone?
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: So things would be going through my head how am I going to pay the bills?
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: When am I going to get my first deal across the line?
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: How much does this cost?
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: How much does that cost?
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Funny money coming up.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: All these things are very typical for me.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: So, all these different things, am I going to make it?
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: Am I not going to make it?
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: What?
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: what support did you have to make sure that you were making the right decision and the sjp were advising that you were making the right decision by going down the route of becoming a partner I think for myself again, um, and maybe it's life experiences, but, um, again, having done the job I done, which was fantastic so, at waitrose and marks and spencers, particularly what you're taught and so how, how they've developed me, uh, as a professional, in terms of my confidence, my ability, etc.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: I think that just gave me an element of actually do you know what what's the worst that can happen?
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: I've got the knowledge, I've got the skills, I've got the experience and, as a fallback position, if all else fails, I could always go back and get a buying job.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: So that helps in terms of going down the partner route for me, because I have something to fall back on which is 12 years worth of credible experience in very reputable businesses.
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: So that was thought number one.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: Number two, and going back to, uh, obviously, my dad.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: Uh, with all of that education that he gave me, I've been investing from the age of 19.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: I'm now in my early 30s and, on top of that, all of the share save um schemes that I had, with marks and spencers in particular.
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: I mean they were so super beneficial for me financially, um, that I was able to have a bit of a safety net and a buffer that meant I can give myself some time to become a partner and not have to necessarily worry about bills as such in the short to medium term.
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: Of course, you've always got the longer term piece that you need to be able to cover your bills.
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: But having that knowledge from my dad meant that I was able to put into action everything that he had told me and it just allowed me a level of comfortability financially to be able to say, right now is the right time, um, to be able to go and do that.
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: Um, I'm I wouldn't say I'm high risk, I'm just going to make a decision on a whim, I wouldn't say that at all.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: And then, equally, uh, my wife, um, was extremely supportive, um, in terms of going on the journey, the timing of it all, and I always think that when you go through life journey together with a partner, it's always really, really helpful because they will be able to help you see things that you might not necessarily see and you can be able to plug those knowledge gaps if there are any.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: And, of course, like I say, say, when you get the peaks and troughs of uh going through a career transition, especially at the life stage that I'm at, you need someone who's incredibly supportive to be able to support you during those sort of down moments, and she's been absolutely fantastic of course she's my rock yeah, exactly, took the words out my mouth we need rocks in life sometimes we need rocks and sometimes we need superstars, exactly exactly I'm the same with my wife.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: I'm very, very lucky with with kerry ann.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: She's definitely, she's definitely my rock, without a shadow of a doubt.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: And being an entrepreneur running a business, it consumes you, you know, it really consumes you.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: So, having that um partner by your side who is um encouraging you and is there to pick you up and help you and to encourage really and just to support, it's critical.
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: Critical because if you had someone in the background who was constantly in your ear criticizing you on you, it would stress you out.
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: You're already stressed, as it is um trying to build a business.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: You don't want the other stress right um you need a solid I think you need a solid home relationship if you're going to set up a business you really because and even if you're going into business with somebody else as well it has to be solid, because otherwise it's stressful you're going to have to end up dealing with things that you don't necessarily want to be doing and it just detracts from what is important, which is adding value to your business or to your, your family life.
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: And actually I saw your I I really resonated and it's great to hear you talk about your wife because, um, I saw your linkedin post.
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: Um, when you it's your wedding anniversary it was, it was your wedding anniversary and you spoke about how much your wife and how much your daughter means to you and that resonates with me really, really well because, obviously, going through a similar-ish journey, yeah, um, I understand the importance of having that rock behind you, so I really connected with you when I saw your linkedin post keeps me, keeps me grounded, keeps me focused, um, and gives me purpose, goes back to that purpose.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: I think family is a great thing to have, um, it's a gift that you know you can't buy, um, and I am grateful that I have it because some people don't right.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: My brother's going for a divorce at the moment.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: Sadly, he's got two kids.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: You know, life can change very quickly and when you have something, I think you need to work incredibly hard to keep it.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: I agree, um, and you know it's a two-way street and it's all about respect.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: Respect, I think, and um, without her and isabella, I can't be the person I am right and um, like you, I'm hugely grateful for that and it helps me with my north star and my purpose I'm really glad you shared that um, because I think we need to hear more about these positive stories of relationships and family coming together, helping each other out, supporting each other.
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: I think those kind of good stories and positive stories back to the role models we were talking about earlier.
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: I think it's good for people to hear 100%.
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: Completely, and I was really grateful you shared that.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, cheers, buddy.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you know.
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: Definitely, relationships, community, relationships, community, whatever.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, look we're.
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: We were talking about this last night, me and luke.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: Um, luke's a videographer is ever there um, connection as a human can.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: Again, it goes back to this idea that we put this idea that money is everything and all of that, when actually community and connection so important and what it actually does when it comes to filling up our cup internally, how we feel our self-worth, our well-being.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: Um, it plays a huge part with tribal people at the end of the day, and we're pack type individuals and we get energy from each other and, yeah, you can't see what that energy looks like, you can't measure it, but it damn well feels good and makes your confidence go up.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: So, the more we connect and respect and understand each other I think that's one of the key things as well.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we have to understand each other and that's where this high level of eq comes in.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: You've got it, man.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: You know, this idea that you can sit down with somebody and be interested in somebody else is key to building those deeper, more meaningful relationships, and I think vulnerability plays a part in that, because we're all vulnerable, but it's the person who can be honest and share that vulnerability which will also inspire the other person to make a change.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: Perhaps um makes a deeper connection.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: Someone goes I like that person, I'm going to deal with them yeah it's good.
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: What's the future look like for you?
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: What you got going, what's what have you got planned over the next say, say, three to six months.
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: What's your goal is shorter uh, so continue to do what I'm doing in terms of the financial education seminars.
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I absolutely love them.
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: Um, so, going into businesses, giving them the talk and giving them a bit of insight into personal finances.
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: So we'll definitely continue to do that.
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: I'm going to, in the interest of starting to, um, I don't want to say build a social media presence actually that's a bit different but I do in terms of giving back through social platforms.
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: Um, as of this friday, uh, I want to start doing my finance friday series.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: Um, and it'll just be um, it could be a post written post, it could be a video post, um, but something to do with finance.
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: So, whatever's on my mind, um, give some insight or give an educational topic, or, um, create a bit of a debate and discussion about certain things to do with personal finances.
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: That will be my starting point before we maybe get into the long form conversations, because I thought that was a really good idea.
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: So, thank you so much.
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: Um, and those are the two really big things.
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: Really, of course, there is the actual advice element too, in terms of providing advice to private clients.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: Um, but they're going to be.
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: My two big things is continue the seminars and then also start to build um content, I suppose for linkedin I love it.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: I'm just my brain's rattling away.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: Finance friday, right.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: So finance friday can literally be a podcast, it could literally be an article, it could literally be a post, because it's like getting your finances sorted before the weekend.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how many people go?
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: I'm not spending a lot of money this weekend and go out and spend an absolute fortune.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: So you got that whole thank f it's friday, thank f it's financial friday or thank financial friday there's loads of things you can do.
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: You're a real do.
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: I love how you just take like one thing I might say, and all of a sudden it's a business that's brilliant, it's a great, it's a great skill, but that's what I love.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I love because I've seen you, you're brilliant, and I just want to be able to go.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: Here's a vehicle you know to help.
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: That's how I think it's like.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: How can I make this person who's got the power, the if you were somebody that I had to drag out of see?
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: you later.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: I've got no, I've got no interest in giving my energy to somebody that's just going to take it and dismiss it because they're energy vampires.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: You're like bang, you're giving me energy, I get energy back, so it's just like it's reciprocal.
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: So when you meet people like that, it's I get excited because of the energy that's going on and it just brings two people up.
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: You know not what it's a give-and-take relationship.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: You've got the knowledge, you've got the awareness and emotional intelligence to recognize that that is how we operate in life and it goes back, I think, to good values, morals your dad's instilled in you.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: But I think also your exposure in your corporate career agreed has trained you, conditioned you, giving you exposure to the power of relationships, which is hugely important in financial planning.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: So anybody, listen to this if you're not relationship focused, work on your relationships, completely, completely yeah, brilliant, but I do appreciate that.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: That was great.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: That was great godfrey.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: Um, listen, I'm going to bring this to an end because I could talk to you forever and ever, and ever thank you so much for having me uh on the platform.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: I genuinely really enjoyed it um.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: It's true, I love the energy I love the energy.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: I love the energy.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: We're definitely going to continue talking.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: Of course we will do.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, sweet godfrey, thank you so much thank you so much on the financial plan of life.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: Much appreciated cheers.