Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / Transitioning from Legal to Financial Planning

Transcript

Transitioning from Legal to Financial Planning · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Today's guest on the Financial Plan Alive podcast is Ryan May.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Ryan was voted Top 35 Next Generation Advisor by Citywire, which is fantastic.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: He came from a legal background, so we dig deeper on that transition, why he did it, and why you might consider doing the same.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: We look at the difference between starting in financial planning as a self-employed advisor up against his route, which was employed down a trainee route.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: We also dig into client acquisitions.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's been lucky enough to have clients passed to him by a retiring financial planner.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: But we talk about some of the risks involved in that and the transition of those clients over to a new advisor.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about physical health, we talk about mental health, and we talk about the power of community, which is great because we have the Financial Planner Life Academy going live.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoy.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Ryan, thank you so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um, first off, you've got the best background yet.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh good, yeah.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'll I'll uh give a QA to my partner for that.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: For those that are watching on video, they can see a lovely setting in the background.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And your partner obviously loves her interior design.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So hats off to her.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it's not about interior design, this podcast.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's about the wonderful world of financial planning and the careers within it.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And today you join us, you're a financial planner.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're a top 35 financial planner, according to Citywire.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll get into that as well, which is really, really great.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And um, we're gonna dive into your career journey, really, and hopefully inspire some of our listeners, whether they are power planners, administrators, existing financial advisors, or those people on the outside looking at the profession to see if it's something that they would like to pursue a career in.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So let's kick things off.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: How did you get into the financial planning profession?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: So um I worked seven years in law um prior to joining the financial planning profession, um, and I worked for five different law firms.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: And the last law firm I worked for specialised effectively in wills and lasting panels of attorney, and I was one of the sort of the client advisors there.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, a lot of our work was referred to us by financial advisors, um, and we'd done several joint meetings as well.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: So, over time, to be honest, um, I started to become a little bit more interested in what they were doing, what they were talking about.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: I sort of saw the diversification really in the workload.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and more importantly, as well, I'm I'm very much I enjoy the client interaction aspect.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so as a result, um, law can be sometimes quite um transactional.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: And and with all due respect, you don't necessarily want to see the client again because that means that something's probably gone wrong or they've lost a spouse.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: So, but I wanted the ongoing relationship, and that's where I saw the financial advisors certainly have that, especially with the annual reviews.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and it would be probably um right for me to say as well that obviously I was seeing the financial incentives and the remuneration packages there as well.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: And having just had my eldest, and I think she was one month old at that point in time, um, I could see all those boxes being ticked, and the most important box being flexibility as well.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: So that's sort of how I made my transition.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we I knew a family friend that happened to be the director of the firm that I currently work for, and we got talking and uh and it seemed quite a nice sort of process to sort of go through in that I I I joined the firm as a trainee um power plant.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic, brilliant.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: No, thank you very much for that you know quick overview.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a couple of things we should dissect here, actually, because when people work within the legal profession or accountancy profession, right?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, people are even aware of that as early as school, aren't they?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's a kind of route, and it's almost kind of pedaled as being a a good career to get into, you know, become a lawyer or an accountant or a doctor.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you should strive to do, or a teacher or something like that, you know, professional service.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And financial planning often isn't talked about within schools, it's not within the career education.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this is what we're trying to do.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're trying to solve that problem, get more people understanding what the fantastic career it is and why you should embark on it.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as a profession, if you like, it's a bit behind in respect of the career development plans for somebody that say is coming straight out of university, you know, how you progress through it.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: There isn't like a tried and tested blueprint that legal and an accounty has, you know, when you pursue a career.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you could start as a trainee, as an intern, and uh there's a clear-cut path all the way up to partner, and that's how really the uh professional services in that area is constructed.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um entrepreneurial individuals along the way go and do things themselves and in in different ways, but there is a clear-cut career pathway.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Did you find that though?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Did you find that when you were in legal, it was a lot easier to get into and a lot easier to understand your pathway up against your entry point into financial planning and what you also know about other financial planners on their journey?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's that's a really interesting question, actually, because I was a history graduate from university.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I went into law because of a family friend, and I just went in there to experience what law was like.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: To be honest, it was all about the um provado of the legal thing uh of the profession.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: And to be honest, I thought I was going to be walking into suits from Netflix, and in the London firms, absolutely, you know, staying in the case, but that wasn't necessarily what I experienced.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's not taking anything away from the legal um firms that I worked for, but that's that was my experience.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: And in terms of the entry point, because I didn't have my law qualifications, um, there was a couple of routes that I needed to sort of consider, really, and I felt like I did a lot of that homework myself.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, a lot of my friends that had joined at the same time as me already had their legal qualifications from university, so it was just the sake of trying to look for that training contract and move around different firms until they secured that.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas luckily at that point in time, law was sort of diversifying where there was alternative routes to go to become sort of a qualified solicitor.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it was it was still fairly new, in my opinion.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: And if I'm being perfectly honest as well, when I was speaking to sort of the the heads of recruitment for those law firms and for the big law firms as well, um, as much as they said that was brilliant and that going down that route where you didn't need to go back to university necessarily, um, from the partners of law firms, the traditional route was still, as they said, the more preferred route is what they knew.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: And um, that really they could relate to that a lot more.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: There was the option I could go back to university.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and to be fair, one law firm did offer me an opportunity um to do that um and finance that for a year as a conversion course, effectively.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but ultimately, um, as part of that package, it meant that my basic salary had to remain very low.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: And at that point in time, that was of no interest to me whatsoever because I wanted to start building family.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: So um, but a lot of my friends absolutely they went along that traditional route and it was very clear-cut, you knew exactly what you needed to do.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: Arguably, though, it was becoming so saturated that I sort of I pretty much came to the conclusion that I'm just as good as these people, but some of them are are arguably better than me, and they've already got their training contracts um or or they've already got their law qualifications.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: And as a result, I was like, right, this isn't going to work for me.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: So when I got into the financial planning profession, to be honest, um, to be fair to Sound Financial, they they made it very clear in terms of this is what we want you to do, um, this is what we want you to achieve in terms of the time frame, these are the milestones, and in regards to those milestones as well, this is the changes in your remuneration package.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: So it was very clear to me when I got into that what that was.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it was via the CIR, just doing a normal diploma from R01 to R06.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so for me, in my in terms of my experience, it's a bit more clear from the financial planning aspect, and and I didn't need to research it as much because Sang already knew what they wanted me to do, and which was great.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, so I was a bit of a um uh black sheep within the legal industry as well.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's probably a you consider yourself a black sheep.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you just woke up to the idea that the profession uh you know of law wasn't for you and it didn't match your expectations on providing for your family, for instance, you know?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think these are things you have to consider and there has to be a consideration of your why when it comes to uh pursuing a career staying in a company or looking for another job opportunity with somebody else.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've just done a video about this on you and put releasing it on YouTube, but I do think that people need to write down their whys as well.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Why are they looking for something else?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: What does it need to look like and to really establish and visualise the reasons why and what it is you think you're looking for.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think once you've done that and you've materialized that down on paper, you will start to see that perhaps I'm in the wrong profession, perhaps I'm in the wrong industry, or perhaps I'm in the wrong company for the ambitions that I have and the feelings of uh inadequacy or resentment or fear about not being able to reach the financial goals that you want.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: They're just alarm bells and indicators that you're not aligned to your why.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's really interesting.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned about saturated, and I think accountancy law, so many people go into it that I can visually see them bubbling over.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So some people will go into it, they'll push on through, it becomes hyper competitive, which means they can drive salaries down and focus on hard work, long hours, and the promise of something coming at the end of being a partner in when I become a partner in my own firm, then I'll know I've made it.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you are at the mercy of the process and the competitive nature of it.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't often favour uh the entrepreneurial-minded person, right?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't quite favour that type of individual.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're in financial planning, and let's touch on entrepreneurialism.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're employed within financial planning for sound.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: That was your route there.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just talk to me a little bit about you know, would you consider yourself an entrepreneurial individual?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, absolutely.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: I probably describe myself more as an entrepreneur, um, which is uh sort of something that not a lot of people's heard of before.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I done my I done a sort of keynote speech on it last year via next gen, and and I consider myself as that, and that's being an individual who's employed in an employed situation with a remuneration package, but adopts a bit more of an entrepreneurial mindset.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: And that's for the reason of trying to make improvements and just help the firm come along without the the risks um or or yeah, potential advantages that come with being uh a self-employed individual.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: So with me, with a young family, I love the idea of bringing in new ideas.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and the firm and the directors have been very supportive when with those ideas as well, which has been fantastic.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and they've made a big difference as well.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: But um I don't have the risks of going, okay, if that doesn't work, well then that might happen to my my my my income or et cetera.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: So there's no risks behind that.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm very much using the resources that's been provided to me as well as being permitted to take out um by the directors and then just experimenting sometimes.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, admittedly, I probably do a bit more of that outside of my normal nine to five, just respecting the job that I've got.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but um, you know, I I place a lot of um grad student thanks to the directors for allowing me to do these kind of things, really.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: So creating that, yeah.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I I think creating a space or within a business that offers employees the chance to be heard around their ideas for improving the business, whether that's process improvement, marketing, because you're going through it.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're good, you're going through the process, you're doing the job.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And often as a business owner, you might not be in that place.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: You might be a bit disconnected by what the world is currently like from somebody within the business who may be like 20s or 30s, if you're saying 50 years old running a business, which you know, there are a lot of 50-year-olds running a business, 50, 55 year olds running a business within the financial planning profession.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: So having that space to be able to allow employees to be heard uh is amazing.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I would do somebody's heading because I've got so many ideas all the time.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm entrepreneurial, I am that type of person, and I think I would really frustrate people because I'm like, right, I want to do this, let's do this, let's do that.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: How uh how uh let's let's just bring this back in to someone listening to this podcast who has lots of ideas and feels a bit like the business that they're in uh they don't feel confident to share those ideas with maybe some of the management team.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think that they could do to uh gradually or to suggest ideas or even to bring employee ideas into the culture of a business?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think in the first instance, like employee forums might be a great idea.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um we we do uh employee forums where some great ideas come out of that.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um for me personally, what I did was I almost dent like a sales pitch.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um so and I did it in my own time.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: So the directors were like, right, Ryan's obviously uh in the business and invested in that.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um and for my my biggest probably contribution to SAN was although we did cash flow modeling, we often did it in terms of spreadsheets.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: So what I wanted to do was create a new dimension for the clients to make it more visual as a result, bringing cash flow modeling software, something that they'd never done before.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and for me, it was very much um I went away, I researched all the different providers, I'd done demos on all the different providers, looked at costs, looked at the uh additional um facilities and features that they offer.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: So um onboarding was a great um thing.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: I think that in addition to the cash flow, we could use the software to onboard clients to then talk to our back office system and then avoid the administrational team having to reak information.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: So it was just a lot of tick, tick, tick for me.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um so effectively I I went back, put it all into one email um and just gave them there, gave them the time to consider that.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: To be honest, it didn't even take one business day, and I got the email back for pretty much one line going, yeah, crack on, which was great.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's one of those things where I think they could see that I've gone away, done the research, and clearly I was invested in that and invested in trying to improve um things.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I think they appreciated that.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, like it's it's gone from strength to strength.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I started it um and then I started to like train myself up on software with the help of the provider, um, and then other advisors started to see, okay, hang on a minute, this is really great.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: And because it looks at everything holistically as well, you're able to identify um opportunities and also pitfalls for clients that we need to be aware of without just singly fixating on, say, a product or an investment, and it opens up the bigger picture.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: So um it just provided a new dimension.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: So it doesn't necessarily fit into the core proposition, but it sort of gives us another avenue where clients come in and who goes, I want a plan and I want to know effectively if I'm going to be okay.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, absolutely, we've got a service now that fits that and we can bring it to life.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, I was sort of from an employee point of view, forums, doing a bit of your own homework, probably in your own time, to be honest, um, doing that sales pitch.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: And it's got to be, you know, it's got to be an idea that, you know, it not only benefits the business, but just provides a tremendous amount of value to clients as well.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Because ultimately, as financial planners, that's what we want to do.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I love it.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I love the approach you took towards it as well, was to create almost a business plan, a reason why this should be implemented into the business.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because you could have sat there and blamed the company for not having the software.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: You could have been sat there and got resentful, oh you know, you're not doing this, you're not investing in the business.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: But because you are a process improver by the sound of it, you're somebody that wants to improve the environment that you're in in whatever capacity, you looked outside of yourself and the impact it would have on the business overall.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: You took your own time to do the level of research required.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: So when you came with an idea, it wasn't I've had a couple of beers and I'm going to tell you what I think, you know, rose-tinted glasses.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually well thought out, well researched, and that you had the evidence and the research that you could give them for them to make a quick decision.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Most business owners want to improve their businesses, but they're time poor.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if you have that entrepreneurial spirit and you're willing to actually do the research, because it's the time and energy that goes into the research, that's the that's the part that's really, really difficult.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you do that, and as you say, you do it in your own time and you see it as a also entwined in that is that it's a process improvement for you because you're going through the process, you're seeing areas where there might be risks or opportunities to improve process for the client, uh, but also ultimately for you who delivers the advice to the client.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to be seen as professional.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you've you've identified areas where you might be as a business lagging behind other companies, sitting down with a spreadsheet as opposed to a lovely, beautiful system you can bring up on a computer or a TV and show them.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: These are all things that uh are out there in financial planning and consumers you know enjoy and like and they're interactive that will only have a really positive impact during your reviews, right?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that entrepreneurialism, being able to share ideas but delivering it in the right way to the decision makers, not just here's a load of ideas, go and sort it out.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it shows your worth to that business.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I bet you they think, God, we've got a brilliant guy here, you know?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they'll start to turn to you for advice.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: They'll start to turn to you for uh ideas.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: So anybody listening, I think that's a really important thing to do.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Don't feel like you have to quit your job and start a company to be an entrepreneur.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why not have a little go internally, first of all, and see if you like it or not?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because you'll soon learn that everybody has great ideas, but it's how you go about researching those ideas, evidencing those ideas, and of course influencing uh decision makers into bringing those ideas in, and of course the implementation.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you start to realise time plays a massive part in it, as does cost.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do that, it's a tick box to show that you yourself can perhaps be confident in the future to do something on your own if that arose.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: But also what it does do is it uh implements you in the business deeper, which is only good.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: I loved what you did there, and that's uh such a forward-thinking way of doing things instead of sitting in resentment and blaming a company for not having the most expensive systems or cash flow forecast, you're doing something about it.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great tip, and I'd love to have heard that presentation as well, I think, because that sounded really, really good.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um let's just go back to legal to financial planning.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: You made the transition.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Did you do your qualifications before entering the financial planning profession, or did you do them alongside the job, your first job that you got within financial planning?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And what was that first job within financial planning?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: So um, unlike law, where I was a bit of a legal gypsy, I've only been with Sound Financial um during my um financial uh planning years, effectively.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: So um big difference to me there.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a couple of people were shocked as well, if I'm being perfectly honest.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, when the initial conversations were were coming up about joining Sound, um, I was already under the mindset that, okay, I'm happy to finance my R01 myself and do it myself just to show a bit of commitment.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember mentioning that to the director that was I was talking about joining with.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: And um it must have been a good tip because he said, No, don't worry about that, we're going to finance it anyway.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: So just join and get let's get going.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I joined as a training pass planner and yeah, immediately pretty much within the first couple of months, started R01.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yeah, that just took about 18 months altogether of sort of balancing a young family bit of DIY and just an entirely new job, which um, to be honest, sounded like a foreign language to me at times.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, that's how I sort of entered uh the financial planning aspect in in regards to sort of exams as well.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: So it was also out very clearly for me by Sam just to say this is what we're doing first.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: I did have choice about how I tackled them.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: I just went one to six.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but in hindsight now there are potential benefits of grouping some together.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: And if you want a bit of a rest um but still want to keep going, RL5s probably the protection one's a good one to take, um especially during the summer where you know you maybe want to get to the beach a bit more, but you're still keeping that ball moving and rolling.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it took you 18 months to get through the level four diploma, yeah?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Through the CII, six modules.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: And whilst you were doing your full time job in a profession that you had never worked in before.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: So 18 months.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: is pretty good, I think.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know getting through those qualifications in 18 months and building experience at the same time, I think that's the dream for a lot of people when they enter the profession of a certain uh age where uh financially they see the benefit of that two years of training and development and it gets you up to that level four qualification and that's a stepping stone then if your goal is to become a financial planner.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I think realistic that's really good.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Could I ask you a question if if you knew a bit more about the financial planning profession uh whilst you were in the legal uh role perhaps and you may have had sort of inklings that you were unhappy in the legal position do you think you would tell your oldest or do you think it's better to start the qualifications prior to joining the financial planning profession in a role?
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say you had R01, R05 under your belt and then joined or even get your full level four diploma and then join the profession?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Or do you think you would have done that if you had your time again?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Would you give some advice to somebody who's perhaps sitting in a role in a legal position.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're earning some quite good money you know and and and and stepping across maybe into a trainee power planner type position might be a drop in salary and starting the qualifications as well and having that extra pressure.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just trying to get your feel for it.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think they should stay in a role within legal do their do their level four and then enter the profession?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or do you feel like actually no starting in a position such as trainee power planning administration some form of entry level position is beneficial doing whilst you're doing your qualifications?
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah that's a really good question.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I would say it probably boils down to the individual um I'd also probably say as well it boils down to um whether the employer is going to fund that or not or if you find an employer that's going to fund that.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah it's difficult because if you're moving from a sort of a fairly well paid job into an entry level job in in terms of the new profession where admittedly okay I had client um servicing experience but I didn't have any financial planning exams or any financial planning experience I had to sort of accept the fact that that might be a type of a pay pay drop and it wasn't a significant pay drop but yet it was still a pay drop with a with a two month old baby.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: So it's something that I needed to take into consideration.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think with the exams as well if someone was in a position where they could finance it themselves I think it puts them in a really really strong position to almost be able to go out and say I've researched the different firms around me.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: I've got a better idea of the difference between firms and what services they offer and it puts you in a really strong position to start with as well as you could almost go around choosing the firm that you want to work for as opposed to saying okay I've gone along with four other interviewees we've all not got exams and I'm just hoping that they're going to choose me based on my experience and personality but having an exam back behind you and saying that you've already got that to play great.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: The other thing I would probably say as well is when I first got into the financial planning profession um a lot of the theory in the books was great and and the understanding of that I struggled sometimes because I wanted to see some practical sort of um information.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: So some more planning orientated where a lot of the books that I was looking at was very technical and though that that's very important and very um yeah yeah massively important actually but ultimately I was looking for a bit more planning and what's it in practice and then the sake of using all the different softwares when I first started going in and the jobs that they were giving me in terms of using um sort of quotation softwares and and different bits of research that's not necessarily mentioned in the books.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: So if I was entering um and having no qualifications um it's good to and as fast as you can brilliant it bring you a bit more to speed um but I know that there have been employees that we've recently taken on that do have some part of their diploma and I certainly think that they've probably had a bit of a a running start there because they're like oh yeah I'm familiar with that term or etc that so it's definitely um an added bonus if you can facilitate that I would say I am 100% with you on that.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I as I've mentioned previously I've got the Financial Plan of Life Academy going live hopefully in the next five days.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I wanted from the Financial Plan of Life Academy was to be able to support people through their qualifications.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: So not just look here's a dusty old book blow it off and read it and hopefully you take it all in and good luck on the exam.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted full exam support through module training and development that someone can do whenever they want to do it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if they do it in their own time lunch breaks whilst they're working for another company, a different profession, then they can go through it.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: The thing that you picked up there that is really important as well is that the qualifications don't make the advisor an advisor.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: What I think people need to learn is what you do on the job and how you use that information in a practical way.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: So within our community the Financial Planner Live Academy we also have a practical soft skills training that runs alongside the qualifications.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: So at least you can see it in action and we also have mentors so if you have an aspiration to be a financial planner then within the community you can lean into mentors that are doing the job.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we run live QA sessions around that.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you become educated around the exams and the qualifications educated around what you do day in and day out.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: And there is things like cash flow forecasting software that you can play around with or demos of and all that kind of stuff.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: And also that you get a realistic understanding of what the profession looks like by those that are within the profession already.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're all about here at the financial planner life perspective.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then to top that off we also provide career advice.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're sat in a role perhaps in legal and you're thinking I wouldn't mind being a financial planner I've heard a few good things about that.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: What people don't have an understanding of is the different multiple pathways in the profession and where it can take you.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because you could start as an admin, go to power planning, you could create a career out of power planning, you might want to go into compliance you might have aspirations to run your own business what's the realities of running your own business?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Should you be a registered individual self-employed an appointed representative directly authorised what's IFA in comparison to restricted?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: What's the difference?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: What's cash flow forecasting what is financial planning up against product sales there are all these things that I don't think people fully take into consideration and often they could leave a profession off the back of feeling like it's the wrong place for them and dive two footed into a new one without any expectation.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: And also what that does and we know this because a lot of people will leave second career they become second careerist big there's a big push on second careerist hiring into the profession to upnumbers.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: And some of the bigger product providers you're SJPs your MNGs your open works or quilters are these advisor schools right but we see a lot of people leave professions go down that pathway and don't take into consideration you're going to be self-employed and struggle with the difficulty of what it's like to actually build a business in a profession you don't actually have any experience in.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: So for me it's about education and then signposting the right way at the right time when someone's made a decision.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that was what I wanted to create.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I you know I got nothing against your academies at your SJPs, etc and all of that.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: In fact I partner with St James's Place and I I put people through it and they're doing really well.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to make sure that if they're going to go down that route that they don't become the percentage that don't do really well because they didn't think about what's involved and where they want their future to go.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the early stage you could make the wrong choice and then you're locked in and you'll just go I'll just persevere with this and it's the wrong thing.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we were all about doing.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: When you were in that legal position you're in that job in that you know in that in that role what was the penny drop in moment for you that made you think I'm not you know was it what was it?
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Was it the money?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Was it what was your reason why you had to leave?
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: I would say it was um for me I want to tick three boxes and I've got them in a certain order as well my most important box to tick is flexibility just with my young family if I'm being perfectly honest um I want to be able to go to my eldest daughter's sports day my youngest isn't in school yet but eldest the daughter's sports day at any point in time and I don't want anyone to be able to say no to me because the worst thing for me would be turning around to her and saying I can't go to your sports day because daddy's not allowed.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: So flexibility was really important to me and as we all know at law it was long hours and there's not so much flexibility in law.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: Admittedly that the firm that I was working for at that time there was a bit of flexibility better than most but yeah the other thing for me as well was um progression.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to see um something where I had a clear line of progression and I was always working towards something because that's something that's really important to me.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: And that's probably why I moved around so much in law because I was like right okay I've got what I needed here.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: I've been very open and honest with the employers in terms of what I want I think in comparison to what I'm seeing I'm not gonna either get what I want or I think I've got what I need here to then move on to see okay what can I make this a bit better it was and it was the state where probably the situation where one of these boxes won't be tipped.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: And then the third box is money.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: And to a lot of people that's quite surprising because normally money is either second or first.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: But I normally find with career progression money will follow inevitably and financial planning does offer a very very good remuneration package for employed and self-employed and advisors and and power planners um etc and I I definitely wouldn't be in the situation I am in now if I stayed in law 100%.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: So in regards to that the the penny drop in moment was the fact where I wanted to tick all three of those boxes and I felt that financial planning would certainly tick all those and right now in the position that I am it's all those boxes are being ticked.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right that's great.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's good to hear and to some to hear from somebody as well that wasn't nervous about jumping from one company to another when you're in legal to hear that and to say that you're staying put within a company and within a profession that's ticking those boxes for you as much as you enjoyed the risk of jumping from company to company when you're in legal there is still that risk isn't there and that worry especially with the young family of am I making the right decision?
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I do speak to people that come within the financial planning profession and it was the wrong decision for them.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: But they've gone into it two footed you know and and again it's like I want to slow down the process a little bit for people.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: So like if you're sat in a company if you're sat in a company in a business or in a profession that's not financial planning start doing your qualifications first of all and start educating yourself about the career what's expected of you what you do soft skills training all of that and that's what we're doing with the academy as well is saying look you don't have to leave right now.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be a hundred percent committed to that's what you're doing.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing that now and that's what it is and so much so I'm gonna quit my job and start over here.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do that.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like start some qualifications get some training and development start the journey and then see if that's something that you want to do.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then again get educated which means that you're going to be more informed which means you're gonna make the right decision at the beginning entry point in your career.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I want people to understand is that you don't have to run like a lunatic towards that goal of being a financial planner.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because do you know what right it ain't going anywhere the financial planning profession and the opportunity is getting bigger and bigger and bigger for those financial planners.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: So if it takes you two or three years to establish yourself or five years perhaps to establish yourself perhaps you're 25, 23 and you're thinking I want to be a financial planner because that's what that's what I want to aspire to and the badge of that means that I've hit the prestige of what it is.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: My ego is getting fed on that element.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like slow down right because when you're 27, when you're 30 years old 35 40 is a great age to be a financial planner.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: You've still got years ahead of you to build those assets under management to build those client relationships to build a business of value that potentially one day you might own and sell.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to slow it down a little bit.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think people run at it too hard I've got to do it I've got to get my qualifications and I've next year I've got to be an advisor.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: I admire the ambition.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: I admire it but don't trip yourself up along the way and make it difficult for yourself.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_02: 100% I think in that regard uh one of the most important things that I would probably say to people coming into the industry I think you're tackling in that head on with regards to what you're setting up is just understanding what firms you're looking at as well and what's the difference between those firms and the differences between independence and restricted.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very fair in terms of my perception um there are different financial advice firms out there offering different services and different products and I would sort of always compare them as apples and pears were just different.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: There's obviously the the the ongoing oh no don't do that because that's not ethical and et cetera et cetera whereas I just feel what you're doing there is is perfect because I sort of did that but to be honest my own lifestyle and and what sound were offering me played into um my my family's priorities more which made my decision to go to sound quite easy.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: I was in talks with the likes of SJP for example and they were going to get me up to London and do all my exams within six months it sounded brilliant and and I knew some individuals from SJP in my in my from my legal days and and the impression that they gave me certainly when I was working within law firms was very professional, the the marketing was great etc that and there was one individual there that gave me a bit of his time and he and he was a lovely guy as well.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it was a very difficult decision for me to make but the decision was basically purely on the basis that my daughter was two months old Sam said you can do the exams remotely and stay in Plymouth and SJP was saying let's go to London and we'll put you through the academy.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_02: So it was an easy decision for me and um I got a lot of brownie points for that as well as you can imagine but it was just the obvious decision for me that aligns with my values and my why um but ultimately um it's if if it wasn't for that would I've known the differences not really um I got a good indication when I got through and I thought well I was quite lucky I know that well I am because I feel like that aligns with what I what I who I am and what I um and my values um but at the same time it only took me going into somewhere to to get embedded in the profession to start learning about all different kinds of financial advisors services propositions etc.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_02: So what you're doing now I think it just tackles that head on and you're completely right.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: Don't rush into it because as you said you can end up in a situation where you feel okay I'm now established and I've now got this client bank um but actually I don't like the way we're doing this here and I would prefer to do it this way and as a result I need to go over to that sort of firm.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then yeah you might be in a situation where you feel a bit trapped or you feel a bit like I would only do that before.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: And that is exactly what you're tackling right there, which is great to hear.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Good good feedback there.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on the right pathway I'd like to think so I've got a good understanding of the profession as a whole from 15 years of looking at lots of different businesses and doing what you do.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Often when you're a financial planner you're looking for clients you're looking for maybe for introducers.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're not looking at the profession as a whole and how people are doing things.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: I have that experience I have that bird's eye view I know who's doing a good job who's not doing a good job.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast gives me such a great insight into the the the way people operate within their own businesses and it's so interesting.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I think um guidance and help is required in those early stages.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you look back at that crossroads of running your own business through an academy, running your own and then more than likely ending up as a partner of the practice of St.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: James's Place and running your own business up against the place you are now you've already said you're glad you made the choice of where you are right now.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: But knowing what you know where you are right now do you think you just struggled to build a client base within the first couple of years of being a fully qualified financial planner self-sufficient?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah I'd say possibly so based on my experience what I probably haven't mentioned is that I'd done a little stint of um recruitment for eight months in between my legal times and and I was a horrendous recruiter um and um within eight months I didn't place one individual enter recruitment I thought you know I'm a personal individual I can be relatable and of course people want me to help them and place them and I was horrendous.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so on that basis um if I was thinking that I was going to start up and build my own clients and etc that as much as you like to think sometimes that you've got a lot of friends, you've got a lot of family contacts and everybody's there to support you I adopted that mindset in sound um but I was employed so there was no risk there of not getting paid.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: And as much as some family and friends were very supportive um they've got their own lives with all due respect the world doesn't revolve around you so you've got to be really on it.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I was very lucky to be in a situation where first of all when I first qualified directors were um passing me clients to maintain the service levels that we pride ourselves on.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I was doing a bit of joint service in there and then obviously from that point in um point in time I was also given the responsibility of overseeing an acquisition.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: So um in in that regard um I've been very very fortunate and very very lucky I I do know that um but I think I probably yeah it's not easy at all and I speak to I've got a lot of connections in terms of financial planning I speak to a lot of friends and what they're doing in their company some of them overrun their own businesses and or it's a fairly new business or or they work as a self-employed individual and it's tough.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna lie and some people are made for it.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas I'm willing to hunter probably not to be honest.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_02: I I I like to make sure that my clients are comfortable what they're doing and they understand what they're doing.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: And as a result you won't find me making big sales pitches or giving them time frames to decide oh we need to know an answer within this amount of time I'm not saying other people do that but I wouldn't be surprised um but I'm not sort of so cutthroat and recruitment taught me that in a way in a way.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah I think I would have struggled if I'm being perfect honest and I'm very lucky to be in the situation I am.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's great.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's I think that's a very honest overview of your situations.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there'll be often people listen to this podcast who are thinking about the choices that they make and how they go about doing things.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: And again it comes back down.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: The last thing I would want is for anybody to be misguided of the time and energy and resources required to be somebody who can go out and win client relationships.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's madness that some people are entering and becoming financial planners without ever having experience of actually developing business or even sales experience.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sales experience to me is like so vital.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know it's a dirty word within financial planning sales because of the whole kind of pre-RDR product sales aspect.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: But what people seem to forget is sales is so important in selling your services to your clients or to new clients.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think without understanding that without understanding the world doesn't revolve around you and people don't just walk through a can you know a door and land on your lap and say give me financial advice because that's totally unrealistic.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: Even with the most sophisticated social media campaigns and YouTube channels it takes time to build inbound leads.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: It really really does what I know from financial planning and to be a success the most successful financial planners I know are influencers they are not influencers in the sense of YouTube influencers or but they can influence others and educate others to refer them business.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you know being training learning has to take place and self-analysis in the beginning to establish am I ready to go self-employed straight away and I don't want people to make the wrong decision based off of what somebody else is saying to hit to hit a target.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah I definitely say that's right and you look at me as well I came from uh seven years in law I've built a fantastic network of of legal um professionals so a lot of people would have probably naturally thought Ryan's gonna go in there and have a lot of great connections and yet don't get me wrong I've certainly received referrals over the Years from family, friends, and a lot of my legal connections because it just forms such an important part, especially sort of Will's last and power's attorney and all that sort of stuff.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, um, but was it enough to sustain a consistent income to support my young family?
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: No, I probably wouldn't have said it was enough.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_02: So um, yeah, right call for me, and it's really important to be aware of that entering the profession.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: You're right, sales and everybody's selling yourself.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_02: And um it sales is sales.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, my the recruitment company gave me a fantastic level training in regards to sales.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I worked for Booster Chemist for a long time whilst I was in a university.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_02: Great sales experience.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and and sales is inevitable within financial planning, absolutely.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_02: But uh past that is very much, yeah, looking professional and able, but it's that trust.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_02: And as soon as you establish that trust, you don't need to sell, I don't think.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it's just making sure that you do the right thing um for the right person at the right time.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think leaning into your background as well, like don't get me wrong, you know, there are people, like you said, who just absolutely nail it and from day one we'll build a build a network.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: Those people tend to have established networks, so they tend to be like an expert already within their field, so they're well connected and they know they're well connected.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: So when the business plan comes out, it isn't right in a list of friends and family, it's right in a list of business connections.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so people that can introduce business to me or networks that I'm part of, uh, you know, uh where can I become a key person of influence within a specific niche or uh expertise that leans into my uh expertise, you know?
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's really, really important as well, is just like, do you have that?
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do have that right now, that's that's exciting because you could be pushing yourself as a key person of influence within the network that you have, whether that's I had a professional golfer contact me yesterday, a professional golfer and he wants to become a financial planner, footballers, people from the music industry, um, legal accountancy background, we get a lot of that.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: I had somebody who was uh an e-commerce expert to um Amazon shops as well.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: So he understood how Amazon shops work and he also understood who does well and who doesn't.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: So he could position himself with expertise and advice about their shops whilst also giving financial planning advice to those that are doing well.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's about really kind of like, well, where is my network?
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: Where can I lean into it and can I make money in that?
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's way more powerful than just trying to lean into your friends and family because that's uncomfortable.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to go knocking on my friends and family's doors.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_02: There's definitely um I I was very reluctant to just force stuff on them.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so you would do it almost indirectly in my uh what I did then on my social media posts, and they would all reshare.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_02: Brilliant.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_02: And that was as much as I wanted to ask of them, to be honest.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_02: They all knew that that they needed help, but yeah, you're completely right.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_02: Going back to you, I'm an outfit golfer myself, and there's a lot of relatables between golf, I think, and financial planning.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so for that individual, yeah, you could almost tailor it around them with the connections that they have too.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_02: Brilliant.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's the thing, isn't it?
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I see a lot of individuals talking about niching and and all that sort of stuff.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I can see that certainly being a very um great position to be in and integrate into leverage.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to me about when you you obviously joined the uh sound, right?
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: So just talk us through.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: You were lucky enough to obviously not get a yellow page as chucked at you and told you to go and win clients, right?
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: You were lucky enough to get involved in an acquisition quite early on.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you you managed the acquisition.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, did you manage it, see it through, and then that acquisition was your baby that you started to nurture the clients?
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: With tell us a little bit about that experience.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I started Sam in 2017.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I then I qualified in 19, pretty much register um on the register there, and then sort of um started obviously seeing clients and building on the client bank from there.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then it was um, so we recently officially purchased that business of that retiring advisor.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_02: That advisor's been under our umbrella for two years anyway, operating.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_02: So we knew him fairly well.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_02: He's a great guy.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_02: I get on really well with him.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it just got to the point where he was then his PA decided to call it a day and retire.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um rather than taking on someone else knowing that he was going to be retiring the next couple of years, he said, I'm gonna call it a day two.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: So it was that sort of time where he had already started to integrate with sound.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but now we needed an individual that was an advisor that was able to take over his clients.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: And and to be fair to the directors, again, a great call from them.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um they were thinking they're not only advisors, but they're also running the business.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: They've got their existing client bank, whereas we've got Ryan over here, he's really within ambitious, gets on very well with um the retiring advisor, and he more importantly, he's got the capacity as well to take on those.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then although I had my existing client bank, I'm completely up and taken from a small client bank to a very mature client bank within this within the space of a year.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_02: So um we've been, yeah, it's been effectively as soon as that was the plan, um, getting together with the retiring advisor.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we've probably conducted 80 face-to-face meetings this year just for the handover.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: There's other individuals geographically that we cannot see, um, but we've communicated with them already.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_02: And apart from the legalities in terms of actually purchasing the business, which has been dealt with by our practice manager and directors, um, I was pretty much involved in everything else.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just a case of onboarding those clients, thinking about the marketing, thinking about the communications going out to them as well, and thinking about the change of websites and all the um bits and bobs that naturally come with the um migration of data and just purely that relationship um with not only the retiring advisor um but the the existing clients as well.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: I can fully appreciate that properly.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_02: It is a very sensitive and anxious time for these clients.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: They've known Chris for for years.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and now all of a sudden we've got Ryan.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so it's been great to get out and about meeting these clients and onboarding them.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_02: And as with everything, there's always those little teething issues, but it's making sure that we've minimised them as much as possible to embed them.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_02: And as Chris said, he didn't need to um he could have sold up to a conglomerate with all due respect, and and um he could have been gone within a couple of months, but he didn't want that.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's testament to the guy that he is, and that's why we go on so well that he wanted to make sure that his clients were still looked after by someone local and uh and someone that you know wanted to look after those clients and give them the best possible service.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_02: So um thanks very much to Sand and Directors for trusting me, absolutely.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and yeah, it's been it's been an absolute pleasure just um so far.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: I used to run a uh I set up a company called Gunner Co., which was a IFA acquisition business.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: I set that up with the guys from IFA magazine um quite a fair few years ago.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I understand the process of an acquisition, uh valuing a business, but I also understand there is uh a relationship between the advisor and the client as well.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: And one that the idea of the profession gives you this indication that yes, there are big consolidators offering decent lump sums and there are people selling it, selling them.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: But there are the majority of advisors that care deeply about passing Mr.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: and Mrs.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: Jones over to somebody who cared as much about them.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: And especially when you've got these like one man type advisors, because it's almost like they're friends, they're they're delivering a service, and it's uh it's created the opportunity to have a livelihood and a business of lifestyle and an income.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the last thing they want to do is sell them on and sell them down the river because they might have to look them in the eyes down the golf club or the club or the pub or wherever they go and hang out.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really important.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what an opportunity for you to be that handover person that transition helping somebody exit the profession comfortably and confidently to be passing over to you.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: Was there anybody that during that process that didn't like the transition and felt uncomfortable about it?
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, do you how much of the acquisition was do you think were any clients lost or were there a hundred percent hit rate of people moving across?
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, certainly wasn't a hundred percent hit rate.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I would say that there for those individuals that were very anxious, very concerned, um, it was it was the minority.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_02: I would probably say um out of sort of the 80 visits that we've had so far, two have been very anxious about it.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_02: And and rightly so.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you completely touched on a brilliant point in terms of they've been lifelong friends of Chris's.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and and just a transition from just to being to a completely new advisor was was a bit scary for them.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so they've um obviously we sat all the information in regards to the sound of who we are, and we were a bigger outfit with a bigger team.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_02: So the idea of being able to be there to support them as well, which was really important to Chris.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, some of them have struggled absolutely, and I think the the face-to-face meetings had certainly helped alleviate their concerns because um all they knew was there's this chap called Ryan that's going to be their new financial advisor.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_02: And and I like to think when I can go along to clients' meetings, it's not all business.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I love to be able to like just get to know what's important for them.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I've been keeping, for example, a spreadsheet, and we're meeting a lot of clients, so I needed to do that, but it was a spreadsheet to to note down what their interests were, not anything to do with products or investments or plans, anything like that.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_02: You've got all that.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: It was this individual loves his jigsaws.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_02: This these individuals are golfers.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, these individuals love to go to Spain in a villa, etc.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_02: And or this individual loves doing um uh motocross, for example.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_02: So it's all those small bits that I'll then revisit when I come to the next meeting and go, okay.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, as much as I want to remember them off the top of my head, it's probably unlikely that I would.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_02: So um, but it's those important things that I feel that was reassures individuals that I care uh about what they're doing.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and that as an existing client, they're probably the most important person in the room, as opposed to maybe a new client coming in, because these are the individuals waking up on the 1st of January and trusting us and paying us already.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, there were certainly individuals that needed that reassurance.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_02: Face to face certainly helped.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I've also I'm also very keen on keeping up touch points.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll do like a newsletter on a quarterly basis.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's something that sounds in the directors have never asked me to do.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they think it's great and they love that new idea in terms of what they do.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_02: Not everybody does it, I appreciate that, but it's something personal for me as their advisor, as opposed to a firm-wide newsletter.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_02: And it's those touch points as well that I've certainly felt uh have helped onboard clients in a more gender fashion and more and enable them to build that relationship quicker.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'll be speaking about um my personal stuff, what I've been up to.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so like what me and the girls have been up to recently.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_02: And it's only a short snippet, but it just gives them a little bit of an idea about who Ryan May is, apart from your advisor.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's times I have to admit, where I get into a meeting and they're like, Oh, how did the ballet rehearsal go?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, How do you know that?
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Oh, yes, yes, there was a newsletter.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for asking, sort of stuff.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: But it's great to do that.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's good bringing that personal brand into things.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think um the future of financial planning is going to be investing in ecosystems for clients.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: What does the ecosystem within the financial planning prof financial planning business do in relation to touch points to clients?
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_00: How are you communicating with them?
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_00: What services above and beyond financial planning in the initial meeting are you delivering and how are you delivering it?
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: Are you delivering it through newsletters, a app, a community, a YouTube channel?
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: Are you touch are there touch points?
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_00: Are they following your company page on LinkedIn?
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: Are they following your Instagram page, your newsletter?
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think how financial planning firms build those ecosystems is really, really important.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think for client referrals internally is powerful, but for client retention is powerful.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you're on the right path in respect to that.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: Keep doing that because that is that is definitely 100% what you need to be doing is creating a really lovely ecosystem.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um one of the things on your journey that I want people to understand as well is which I picked out of it is.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of those are business owners.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, not all of them, but a lot of them have got their own client banks, that could be self-employed, etc.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: When thinking about joining a company, think about what opportunity lies for me within that company in respect of succession planning.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're sitting down with a company and you're going through an interview stage and you want to work for that business, but what does the future hold?
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_00: A financial planning company will will will worry about taking the risk of hiring somebody, especially if they're a trainee, if they think I'm going to train this person up, they're going to get all their experience, do what they need to do, and they're going to leave and start their own business.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like you, entrepreneurial, prefer to be intrapreneurial, having a business that has a succession plan that includes you in their exit, whether that's a management buy-out, employee buy-out, or um transitioning clients across to you so they still hold the keys, but you can have more responsibility in the direction and the ownership of the business.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great opportunity.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that I've spoken to a number of financial planners like you that are having these clients passed down and are building businesses within businesses and have got the understanding that okay, this is taking me somewhere here.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like I could own this business at some point, I could buy them out.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: There are lots of things that can be done.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think business owners, again, don't want to leave a business.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_00: They might want to create an eternal business, like Chris Budd is saying, this eternal business that never changes its name and it's a buyout from an employee perspective.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I think those things are well worth thinking about when picking the firm that you're working for and certainly asking the questions about that.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_00: What are you planning on doing with your business?
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_00: When are you looking to exit?
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_00: And does an opportunity lie for me within that?
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want to work for a firm in the long run and be part of the growth of it.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I suspect you've got worries and concerns that I might be an entrepreneur and leave and start my own business.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_00: What opportunity lies for me there?
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that crosses the line between respecting and understanding that the business doesn't want to invest in somebody and them to go out the back door, but also they see that you've got a commercial aspect and element to it and that you can then say, because I want to add value to your business whilst I'm here and whilst you're here.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a lovely little angle.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that's a great way for somebody to position themselves as a trainee when going into say an interview process to actually have conversations about that?
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or do you think, you know, is that punchy?
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um in my experience, no.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh not punchy, only because I one of the most important things I've always sort of said to myself is to be honest with my employers, and that's certainly what I've done with sound.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_02: They they know exactly um what I'm thinking long term, they know exactly what I want long term.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and these are conversations that we frequently have, to be honest.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think there is that element of um respect as well and and trust um to know that we're we're both in it to look after each other.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um the directors are great guys that have given me a tremendous amount of support, and and because of that as well, there is of course an element of loyalty there.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and these are guys that I don't only know just inside of work, but are well attached with with my family as well.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so there's again an element of respect and and there too.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's definitely um always on the top of my mind because you know, I'm I'm 34 now, um, I've still got a young family, and um, where are we going to be going?
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I would love to be part of that journey and keep doing what I'm improving on because I've seen a couple local firms, one's done a management file, one's done an employee ownership trust, like Chris Paster saying, and brilliant, like you know, brilliant, brilliant stuff.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um and in terms of um sound, um what I've always really placed a lot of importance on is open communication, and and they've been open with me and with where their mindsets are at um and with what options they've got.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_02: And then I've also been open with them in terms of this is what I would like to achieve.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I've always sort of thought to myself, to be honest, that if it ever came to a point where, you know, I always look at sort of say Jeff Greelish from Master, um, and you know, Mass City was a great opportunity, but he was loved there, but it was the next level of if something came across like that, I wouldn't make a decision and say, Yeah, I'm I'm going and then going to go in to tell them.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'd I'd go in and say, look, this has come across my desk.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and um this is a decision that I've got to maybe consider.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_02: But before I even start that, we know what we are both looking for, and um, let's have a conversation before.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_02: And in all honesty, that's happened only once before.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_02: And they were absolutely brilliant.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm so glad I had that conversation before even making a decision because they were like, Ryan, we're already there, you've just jumped the gun, as usual, a little bit a little bit too early.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, that didn't, I wasn't even in an awkward situation there where I felt bad because I hadn't got in depth with conversations elsewhere, but it was something that I was, and that's what I would definitely encourage employees to do, is just be open and honest.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_02: There's nothing wrong with that, because the last thing you want is to go, oh, this is what I want long term, and then you leave it, you're not open and honest, and then four years down the line, in terms of your review, you say something like, Oh, well, that's not going to happen.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're not in that mindset.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you're bang on there, mate.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that's again, that's part of the process I did on that career accelerator podcast episodes, and we talked about that, and I'm releasing a video around that soon as well, hyper focusing on the fact that if you're unhappy in your job, or even if you're not unhappy in your job and something comes across your desk that sounds great, and you think, cool, that's ticking a box.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's ticking a box for a reason because intrinsically that's a motivator for you.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_00: Give the company you're working for the opportunity to listen to the opportunity that's sparked interest in you and has ignited something in you.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_00: Go to them and tell them and say, This is what's come across my desk.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm not gonna lie to you, but this sounds really, really interesting.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think as a business owner who employs people, I'd much rather have a conversation with somebody who uh has had their head turned so we can explore it together.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_00: Can I deliver what that head turning opportunity can deliver?
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_00: Can I change something within my business to speed the process up, maybe some training and development?
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps I could do something like hand clients over, perhaps I need to review my salary expectations, anything like that.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because that feedback is so incredibly powerful for a business owner.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the right business owner who has a growth mindset will like yours thank you for that information.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_00: But what it does also is that you as an employee know that you are honest.
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the key thing, right?
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because if all of a sudden in the background you're scheming, like, oh, I've got this now, and you start to look at your current employer almost differently, like with a with different eyes, like, well, why didn't they do that for me?
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it can become really tricky, you know, and it creates a bit of toxicity in your thinking.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then when you do leave, for example, uh, it might be a really uncomfortable, it might be an uncomfortable exit.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll take that into your new job.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that mindset that you had at that pivotal that pinnacle time of making a decision about your career, mm, you might take that low frequency sneakiness with you.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or that low frequent frequency dishonesty with you and regret with you, and possible resentment, and a fear and a worry that I hope this works type thing.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas when you get perspective from somebody who runs a business, they might turn around and say, what they're telling you there is actually really hard.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_00: Unless they've got black and white and can show you, then let's let's explore it and let's explore how we can do something similar, but in a way that isn't going to break you, you know?
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_00: Really good advice there, mate.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think honesty is at the core of everything you should do.
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're honest with your in it, be honest with your employer.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you're unhappy, be honest why you're unhappy.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think once you've done that and you know that you've done that, if things don't change and they don't align to your ambition inside and your values, then you've made the right decision to leave at the right time.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, not one off of the back of fear or resentment.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_00: You would agree there?
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, yeah, definitely.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I think even at that stage, it was just I I was still enjoying what I was doing, and there's nothing wrong that they were doing either.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, like overwise, there was this little niggly bits with every single job.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_02: But overall, I was very content.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_02: It was just the fact that I thought, I think it was the top 35 thing came out, and then uh I was getting a lot more messages.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I was like, Well, this looks good, and this doesn't look like like it looks genuine as well, and it was explored just an initial chat.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then I thought, you know, as I said um earlier, that these guys are um I respect them, they're good family connections as well, like um.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_02: Family friends, and I've got to the point where I respect them I want a conversation with them, and I've had to remember as well the world doesn't revolve around me, sound financials doesn't just revolve around me, so they're not mind readers, they're not gonna go, Ryan might be getting an opportunity in a minute, and we've got to there's always worse checking in, but they've got so many other things on board that in case someone's come across my desk and I'm gonna go and have an open or someone's conversation with them.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_02: And for what they delivered, um, it was a very easy decision, and um, and the relationship, in fact, probably got better between us because they knew that I'm not gonna just go, I'm off now.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they know that something comes across that I'm like, oh, could we think about this?
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_02: Can we talk about this?
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like, is this something that we can do?
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_02: They know I'm gonna come to them before I cause them an issue.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think um anyone listening to this podcast should take heed to the advice and the experience that you've had, but also the outcome and how you sound incredibly happy, you know, where you are, and you have the um space to talk about things if you are unhappy.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think culture plays a big part in that.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think the feed em shit and keep them in the dark mushroom culture of old is dying out, and there has to be employee forums and conversation, uh flexibility, agiless.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've changed so much in my recruitment business.
• 1:07:29
  SPEAKER_00: We change I I try we try to keep things consistent around when the things that work, but the things that don't work, I'd rather cut them out quicker and replace them with something better than drag out something that brings down the culture of my business.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm always checking in with people being careful not to be swayed by somebody's personal um uh views on life, but looking at something as a whole around performance performers of my business.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_00: People that one thing I look, do you know what one thing I look for now is high performance.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want high performers in my business, and I create a culture of high performance, but I also create a culture of support and well-being.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_00: So if a high performer drops, they can bounce back up again because I've got everything in place to support them, whether that's counselling, open door policy, homeworking, flexible, we've got nine-day work weeks.
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_00: I can't do more around how supportive we can be as a business to support high achievers who want to work hard.
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_00: The things that I look for now is high trust.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_00: Trust for me is a big one.
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_00: High honesty.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_00: Honesty for me is a big one.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um and a need to achieve.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not a need to avoid failure.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want the need to achieve.
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_00: A culture of those types of individuals and encouraging them to be honest and open allows me to create something that supports high achievers.
• 1:09:05
  SPEAKER_00: Allows me to recognize when someone does drop below, I can deliver some training and development and support to bring them back up again.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_00: But also helps me recognize that perhaps the person who I'm really want to be in my business and try hard and I want to support them and I'll do everything I can might be the wrong person for my business.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I mean?
• 1:09:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's partly why sound is sort of I feel valued by them, and that's probably why they've invested so much in me, because they can see that I'm I'm ready to go and I'm like ready to jump onto a project, or I just want to do the best for sound and me, because inevitably, if it's adds value to sound, well then sound that that value will um inevitably follow in terms of maybe a change in a remuneration package or or just any other benefit.
• 1:09:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um I've always I've always struggled sometimes um with I've always wanted to be working with rowers, um, you know, all pulling together.
• 1:09:59
  SPEAKER_02: And and this just um this is over my whole career.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_02: There's been individuals that haven't pulled as much.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_02: And and I'm like, well, why aren't you pulling as much as me or someone else?
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Let's let's do it together.
• 1:10:10
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't this exciting?
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_02: And but in all honesty, they're probably just pulling absolutely fine.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's just that I need to get my head around that, you know, individuals over my whole career working just wanting to do nice work.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's perfectly okay.
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_02: I have to get my head around that because that's what they want.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_02: But in terms of me, I'm just like, well, when I'm sat here on a Tuesday night and I'm watching an hour's CPD um on something financial planning aspect in my own time.
• 1:10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Some people would probably argue that's sad, but I know that I'm interested in what I'm doing.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_02: And um and I'm doing that in my own time and uh not taking time away from clients or the business.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I just know I'm a rower, I'm a good rower.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like you, mate.
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think there's nothing wrong with loving what you do for a living.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's nothing wrong with upskilling yourself in your own time and investing in yourself, right?
• 1:11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Whether that's learning more about the business, understanding how to do things better, learning more about yourself.
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because it often starts with ourselves.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how am I interpreting this?
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, what am I motivated by?
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_00: That the wheel of life is one of those fantastic things that you can do just to double check and check in.
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Am I spending too much time in the work arena and not enough time with my family and friends?
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that sort of stuff.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I found that really, really beneficial because uh there is a risk, and um I've been there that we can consume ourselves too much with the future of our businesses and our positions, and we put our self-worth along outside how we feel within our work.
• 1:11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Being an addict, I am an addict, I've established I'm an addict, it never has an end.
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And often you can uh consume, consume, consume and not feel like you're winning.
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to remind myself that of when I am winning, I have to reflect on the things that I am doing well and give myself a bit of gratitude, you know, gratitude, pat on the back, self-love, self-care, and recognise am I having the same high expectation on myself, am I putting high expectation on others around me unfairly based on what they want out of their life?
• 1:12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Do I do you understand what I mean?
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's a tricky one.
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a real tricky one.
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I see no problem if you enjoy what you do, it being what you do in your spare time as well.
• 1:12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Do I think you should be sitting there at the dinner table with your kids doing financial planning reports?
• 1:12:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't.
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you should be taking your anybody should be taking their homework to encroach upon their time with their families.
• 1:13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is super duper important.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And if I could look back, I'm 42, I pick my daughter up every single day from school, drop her off, I spend time at home with her.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_00: I I I I don't miss things.
• 1:13:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm present for my wife and support her.
• 1:13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think to myself, God, if I didn't have that opportunity to do that, not everyone has that.
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and if you don't have it, it's like, wow, if I didn't have that opportunity, how would I feel?
• 1:13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think lifestyle, and you look at financial planning companies who've got it right culturally, are the ones that have this balance, lifestyle, financial planning, balance.
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they hire the people who have that mindset and bring them into the culture of their business that share it because you're not going to attract top talent now from the next generation if you're not thinking about overall well-being and the flexibility to allow that person to be the best person for the job.
• 1:14:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the old days of come in in here and at this time and finish at this time and take your work home with you and why haven't you finished yet are gone.
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_00: What that needs to be is accountability from the individual for personal self-development.
• 1:14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think if you're going to be a success in life, do some personal self-development.
• 1:14:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, don't expect your employer to give you it because it just doesn't work like that.
• 1:14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Which leads me on to this point now.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_00: We'll finish on this.
• 1:14:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think training and development community, you can guess.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 1:14:28
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think about it?
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_00: And what part has it played in your success early on in your career to now?
• 1:14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Training and community, absolutely.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, really important.
• 1:14:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think you know, Sound's always put on a great level of training.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's just, you know, the stuff that we need to do for our 35-hour CPD and all that sort of stuff.
• 1:14:48
  SPEAKER_02: And if there's been anything extra, um, there's normally been open years.
• 1:14:52
  SPEAKER_02: But I've taken on a lot of my training myself, I would say, and I've gone outside of sound to go, right, okay, where can I boost myself and where can I improve myself, not only just with my job, but also with my personal development as well, because it all does work together, doesn't it?
• 1:15:12
  SPEAKER_02: The mind, body, and all that sort of stuff.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, uh, and to be honest, um, a lot of people, uh, if I talked about even just doing the gym a year ago, a lot of people would say, Ryan would never join the gym.
• 1:15:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's he's not a gym gunner.
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's all.
• 1:15:25
  SPEAKER_02: I joined the gym in March, so I'm still doing it now.
• 1:15:28
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I think I'm getting slowly uh addicted to that because I can see the benefits it's having on me mentally, um, as well as my capacity to work at a higher level, um, and also just the benefits that I'm having at home.
• 1:15:42
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not just the training in work, but it's also training for me personally outside of work.
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and that's where probably the community has really comes into it into this um forefront of my mind, really, because it's very difficult, as you said, the average age for a financial planning is 55.
• 1:16:00
  SPEAKER_02: So, like there's not a lot of unlike when I was in law, when I was just surrounded by a lot of people my age or um slightly younger, slightly older.
• 1:16:07
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have that necessarily, especially who are in a financial planning role.
• 1:16:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's one individual in work, um, but apart from that, there's not many other individuals around Plymouth, maybe two or three.
• 1:16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it was Nextgen was my community.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I know you know them well, and you know I'm a big fan of NextGen.
• 1:16:26
  SPEAKER_02: And for that in itself, it sort of just combined these two.
• 1:16:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, Nextgen not only provided me with an immense amount of training, which is just the value of that's great, um, but it's also it was the community that it gave me.
• 1:16:40
  SPEAKER_02: It opened me up to um individuals that were in my position or had gone through my position and um uh that I could just relate to and who understood which I was going through.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_02: And we all had that sort of similar mindset, and that's what they always say, isn't it?
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Next gen, it's it's the mindset having that same mindset.
• 1:16:58
  SPEAKER_02: And and for me, um, that's probably one of the best decisions I've made uh in terms of my financial planning career to join next gen.
• 1:17:07
  SPEAKER_02: And that was kudos to Matt Pitch, who I went, he was my mentor through the CI.
• 1:17:11
  SPEAKER_02: And that was something again, I went out and done myself.
• 1:17:13
  SPEAKER_02: No one told me to do that.
• 1:17:14
  SPEAKER_02: I just thought that looks like a great opportunity, and and I'll be forever grateful for the time Matt gave me over that year, still remain in touch now.
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_02: But it's those kind of things that um I think a lot of people, you know, night or five, go home and that's it.
• 1:17:27
  SPEAKER_02: So shut, door shut, laptop shut.
• 1:17:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um whereas I'm like, I go out and it's just the curiosity, I think.
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to become better.
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to push myself a bit more.
• 1:17:36
  SPEAKER_02: I've always been a bit like that, really.
• 1:17:38
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and it's just connected with individuals like yourself, um, individuals all over the profession, um, not necessarily just next gen as well, um, but it's just those individuals that have given me so much value and information that would have taken me a lot longer to gather um and it sped up the process immensely.
• 1:18:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just even those things going off and go through a bit of a tough map at the moment, like what do you think I should be doing here or what do you think I should be considering?
• 1:18:08
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, all of it's like sort of confidential, but at the same time, I'm just throwing ideas out, um, even about processes and et cetera.
• 1:18:14
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, I just love it.
• 1:18:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's like collaboration and um pushing it on, and then I bring that back to sound.
• 1:18:22
  SPEAKER_02: And unknowingly, sometimes they didn't know it, I don't tell them every single thing that I've just done this and that's because of that.
• 1:18:28
  SPEAKER_02: I just start doing it, and then there's like, oh brilliant, like that's cool.
• 1:18:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so unknowingly, I bring a lot from next gen into sound.
• 1:18:36
  SPEAKER_02: But um, yeah, training community is normally important.
• 1:18:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, love what you're doing and what you're saying in regards to that as well.
• 1:18:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the more that we can do, the better.
• 1:18:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because we certainly don't have that in law.
• 1:18:47
  SPEAKER_02: There wasn't that in law, there wasn't those communities in law, and it wasn't those kind of types of training or um facilitating it.
• 1:18:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's such supportive profession, financial planning.
• 1:18:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, from what I've experienced anywhere else, that it's brilliant.
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think the supportive nature of financial planning is being spearheaded by next-gen planners.
• 1:19:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I believe the next generation of planners that are coming through are about collaboration, not competition.
• 1:19:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think historically it's been very prideful, male-dominated, egotistical profession.
• 1:19:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it's been like, right?
• 1:19:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's changing.
• 1:19:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is absolutely changing and it's collaboration.
• 1:19:33
  SPEAKER_00: I take that vote.
• 1:19:34
  SPEAKER_00: I take that one since I've been in my financial planner life.
• 1:19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Being in a collaborative position with the financial planning profession has absolutely catapulted me into completely different areas to the point where I'm actually planning a financial planning business myself and building a financial planning business.
• 1:19:50
  SPEAKER_00: I would have never come if I didn't collaborate with the community.
• 1:19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm a recruiter collaborating now with the financial planning community in a way that doesn't look at me as being uh a bloodsucking, you know, parasite.
• 1:20:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they see me as somebody who's adding value.
• 1:20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
• 1:20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the the relationships that I've built and the questions that I can turn to.
• 1:20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Pete Matthew, I've got a question.
• 1:20:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I can ask him a question straight away.
• 1:20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Adam Owen, got a question, can I ask you?
• 1:20:17
  SPEAKER_00: My God, the information I'm getting now is brilliant.
• 1:20:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's super duper important that community is at the heart of the financial planning profession.
• 1:20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm super pleased to announce that with my academy, I've partnered with NextGen Planners.
• 1:20:30
  SPEAKER_00: So all that training and development, all those things you've talked about are in my community, plus all that wonderful stuff that I can do around people's careers.
• 1:20:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we're onto something spectacular there.
• 1:20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's gonna be really good.
• 1:20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And for you to say that, it's brilliant.
• 1:20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing you said there that I want to touch on physical fitness.
• 1:20:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a firm advocate of it.
• 1:20:54
  SPEAKER_00: I strength train four times a week and I run three times a week, right?
• 1:20:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I have done religiously in a habit.
• 1:21:00
  SPEAKER_00: You said addictive, right?
• 1:21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:21:01
  SPEAKER_00: You could say like I've been addicted to exercise, right?
• 1:21:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a habit.
• 1:21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Everything in life which becomes uh you know, they're all habits, whether they're bad habits, that's right, or whether they're good habits.
• 1:21:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 1:21:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think what we're designed to do here is to identify the things that fill our cup up and remove the things it takes away from us.
• 1:21:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 1:21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Exercise is a bloody good thing to be addicted to if you can just keep your mind straight in the sense that what are you doing it for?
• 1:21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're looking in the mirror all the time and your body dysmorphic and you're thinking I'm not big enough, or I'm too skinny, or I'm skinny fat, and all of that, then you need to work on self-esteem and accepting who you are, those typical types of things.
• 1:21:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that then becomes a mental fitness uh strategy.
• 1:21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So mental fitness and physical fitness are two things that I think are really, really, really, really, really important.
• 1:21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh running without a shadow of a doubt is an antidepressant.
• 1:21:53
  SPEAKER_00: So if somebody's struggling with anxiety, if someone's struggling with um low moods, as difficult as it can be to get up, and if you physically can go and run, because raising that blood pressure, getting yourself in that heart rate zone, clearing your mind when you're out there, it's meditative.
• 1:22:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're building mental strength.
• 1:22:15
  SPEAKER_00: But my wife's been getting through some problems recently, and we've identified when she runs, she's in much better place.
• 1:22:24
  SPEAKER_00: When she doesn't run, her mental health declines.
• 1:22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Simple as that.
• 1:22:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's like taking a bloody pill, go and have a run.
• 1:22:30
  SPEAKER_00: So physical fitness, that exercise and cardio element, the physical strength training, I think is great.
• 1:22:36
  SPEAKER_00: All of these things are goal-oriented.
• 1:22:38
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to run the fastest you can run, just just how long can I run for?
• 1:22:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then what observe what's happening to you in your mental state whilst you're doing that.
• 1:22:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you when you're in the gym, when you're doing something and it's exertion exertion, haven't you found that isn't it easier to deal with a problem in your head?
• 1:22:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, 100%.
• 1:23:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, now that you say that, and um, yeah, to be honest, I use it as my switch.
• 1:23:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like, as you sort of said, almost like a cup, like the cup fills throughout the day and it's about to overspill.
• 1:23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Because I've got so many things to think about, not just in work, but just making sure that I oh, I need a sort of house insurance, or just some something like mediocre like that, but all these bits and bobs and and and as you said as well, it's that there's no one that comes in front of the girls, um, making sure that when I go to gym, it's after bedtime.
• 1:23:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm normally gyming in the evenings at the moment, but I find it's a great time for me because it I bring that cuff back down and and then I just walk out and I feel like just more relaxed.
• 1:23:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's a switch.
• 1:23:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think mentally I've associated gym as a switch now, probably like golf was my switch beforehand as well, where I was playing on a Saturday morning and I was out of work then.
• 1:23:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it didn't take long for me to get back into work, to be honest.
• 1:23:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it always takes me longer to get out of it, but yeah, you're right, in terms of just going to that gym, like it but they say it is like that kind of thing, isn't it?
• 1:24:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like taking a shower, going for a walk or something like that.
• 1:24:03
  SPEAKER_02: Normally my best idea is coming in the shower or have for a walk or and especially at the gym, like um you've just you you've only concentrated on that one thing, and it's like, how can I do that better?
• 1:24:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then all of a sudden you've just you're just taking a break between sets or something like that, and then it's I'm just thinking about that.
• 1:24:21
  SPEAKER_02: No one's talking to me, no one's like, it's just me.
• 1:24:25
  SPEAKER_02: Last night it was me in there for an hour and a half alone.
• 1:24:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:24:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's brilliant.
• 1:24:29
  SPEAKER_02: Lovely.
• 1:24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good man.
• 1:24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 1:24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Keep that up because you know, live a much happier life and longer life if you're doing that.
• 1:24:37
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to go crazy, you know, just be consistent with it.
• 1:24:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, one of the things I'm bringing into the financial plan of life community as well is my friend James Stammers has got uh he's a really good PT, he's always been there with me and always supported me.
• 1:24:48
  SPEAKER_00: So he's coming into the community underneath the alchemy of aging, and it's all about how to grow older, fitter, and healthier, and thinking about your flexibility, your mindset, uh cardiovascular, and the impact that then has on your business.
• 1:25:02
  SPEAKER_00: So he's gonna come in and sort of create plans for people to follow.
• 1:25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And if anybody that wants to use his services can use him as a coach, and we're gonna get him into like businesses and like get businesses looking at the physical fitness of their staff and offering this type of service to either the business owners, I think really should be the ones driving for physical and mental health, um, but also give it accessibility to their staff to be able to do that.
• 1:25:24
  SPEAKER_00: I do it in my business, we have PT sessions, all that kind of stuff, and it works absolute wonders.
• 1:25:28
  SPEAKER_00: They say the physical health, as much as they the mental health of your employees will add money to your bottom line, you know, you'll increase your revenue.
• 1:25:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we're doing that, and also I've got the partnership with Talk Club, the men's mental fitness charity.
• 1:25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, men's mental fitness is obviously a big thing, men are killing themselves, but everybody needs mental fitness.
• 1:25:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we're bringing that into the financial plan of life community and we'll have a mental fitness area as well.
• 1:25:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if people are struggling and they want to connect with some other people who are in the community going through similar something similar, then we can have a mental fitness check-in and that people can check and they can start to realize that there is somewhere they can go within the community who understand what they're going through and perhaps can give some perspective or just the opportunity to talk and listen and move forward because some people need that, and that's okay.
• 1:26:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to cater for that within my community.
• 1:26:17
  SPEAKER_00: So good, you're touching all the things that you're you're the prime person that I want, and the outcome of where you are, I love, you know, I love it.
• 1:26:26
  SPEAKER_00: You filled my cup up today, mate.
• 1:26:28
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Live podcast.
• 1:26:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think you've given some really excellent advice for transitioning, uh, things to look out for and the realities of it.
• 1:26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And also, do you know what I'm taking from this?
• 1:26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Accountability.
• 1:26:39
  SPEAKER_00: You sound like a bloke who is accountable for his future, and he's not blaming him pointing fingers externally.
• 1:26:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that to me is a big lesson today.
• 1:26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Be accountable for your own career.
• 1:26:52
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:26:53
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of summed it up better myself, really.
• 1:26:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just be yourself, be authentic.
• 1:26:58
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, go for it.
• 1:27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 1:27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining me today.
• 1:27:02
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for your time.
• 1:27:03
  SPEAKER_02: I really do appreciate you having me on, Shift.
• 1:27:06
  SPEAKER_00: My pleasure.
• 1:27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Cheers.