Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / A jargon busting approach to financial planning – Keith Boyes

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A jargon busting approach to financial planning – Keith Boyes · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, and welcome to the Financial Planner Life Podcast, where we talk to professionals at varying stages in their career about what it's like working in the wonderful world of financial planning and financial advice.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: This podcast is proudly sponsored by Recruit UK, a recruitment consultancy specifically focused on the financial services.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: They have a niche specialism, recruiting, within the financial planning industry, so check out their website for the latest job opportunities, hints and tips, and blog articles.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: And today's guest on the podcast is Keith Boyes, who is a managing director at Spentwell, a directly authorized financial planning firm.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Keith has an extensive career working within the financial planning profession, starting out in an administration role, working his way up to power planning.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: His career took him over to Hong Kong, working on expat financial advice as well over there.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that taught him a lot about himself and his habits and his behaviors and how changing those has improved his approach to being a better financial planner.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about his approach to jargon-free finance, what blogs and vlogs and marketing that he has decided to do, why he invested his time in that, and the importance of doing so and building that habit.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: Talk about the ups and downs of being a business owner, the only first 12 months and how he navigated that and the challenges of finding a balance between work and personal life.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: He tells us why he started Spent Well, the drivers, the experiences, and the background that led up to that point.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: He also talks a little bit about how he keeps organized, how he keeps focused on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly basis.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is an absolutely super podcast with a super guest, and I think you'll really, really enjoy it.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Keith, thank you so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: How are you?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm good, Sam.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really well.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: I've had an amazing uh week, actually.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: A really, really great week.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I delivered some really lovely news yesterday to the team at Recruit UK that, you know, due to the uh economic downturn and the problems that we're experiencing from a financial perspective, that we've given them all a really hefty pay rise.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: Lovely.
• 2:13
  unknown: Yeah.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: So um, and it was amazing to do because you know, these pay rises come out of my profits, obviously.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it affects essentially my pocket.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: So being in a position where I'm able to give people some extra money, especially in a you know, city like Bristol, which is becoming super duper expensive, they were so grateful for it.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it was such a valuable thing to do.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I implore any company that employs people to be looking at their salaries at the moment because you might be all right financially, but the staff that you're that are working for you and building that income for you might not be.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: And from doing that, it was a real eye-opener.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the gratitude and the buzz that we've now got, you know, is is wonderful.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that that's really filled my cup up today uh uh this week.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I'm in a great place.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Nice, I like that.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: It shows you care, it shows you're thinking beyond you know, beyond thinking about thinking about your staff with that sort of stuff.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I think um, you know, in the recruitment industry anyway, it's highly competitive.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um we have to be seen to be having the best benefits, we have to be seen to be having, you know, good well-being propositions, things like unlimited holidays we've brought in, um, good bonus structures, fair, transparent career progression models, things that we do in recruitment and recruit what recruitment companies are doing now are revolutionary when it comes to the hiring process.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're really the ones that are taking the chances and the risks in a profession that was predominantly stack it high, sell it cheap.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was terrible once.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Terrible.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: But these days, like it's so competitive that we have to have that trust and flexibility.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of what we're doing can be taught to the financial planning profession, because I hear a lot in the financial planning profession of archaic, you know, methods of employing people, really restrictive um benefits packages and movement.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Even the simple thing of working from home, the amount of power planners, administrators that have to be chained to a desk.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Even a financial advisor I was talking to last week was chained to a desk and he had a conversation.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: They were like, We don't want to do this, we don't want you working from home, but we're gonna trial it.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like, I can't let him doing he's a he's a financial planner, been doing it for ages.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Why does he have to be chained to a desk?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's madness.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's the old you have to be seen at the desk, even if you're not actually working, you still have to be at the desk.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's ridiculous.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you not for you though, because you run your own business, don't you?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: You're a you're a director of your own business, yes, directly authorized.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll get into that in a bit in the benefits and why you did that and really sort of um the pros to it.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I could imagine there are a few wobbly cons to it.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Is there like I feel you on that one, I understand that.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: I always love to kick off the podcast um by really finding out a bit about how you got into the profession, because there's lots of people out there that want to progress their careers, obviously within the profession that are already in it, but there's also people out there that are looking at the profession thinking, I wonder if I want to be a financial planner.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: But historically it's been difficult, isn't it, to get into the profession?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a tough route.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: And now we've got different routes, things like administration, power planning, different roles within the profession.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: You don't just have to be a financial planner.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to, you know, that's not the only thing you can be.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: So there are these different roles, different entry points.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: So please do share with us today, if you can so kindly.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: First question is how did you get into the profession?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so well, this is going back a few years, but uh you know, it's actually a complete tangent for me because uh, you know, I'd always been a keen sort of sportsman, loved my sport, had an interest in business generally.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: My dad was an accountant, so I was sort of aware of the money side.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: But um, you know, when I sort of finished school, I came to the conclusion I'm not quite sure what to do.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: Let's blend the two.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I ended up studying sports management at university, which was a mix of business and the sort of sport side policy and behind the scenes and all of that.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, during my studies, I quickly realized that sport was more of a hobby for me.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't really see it as a career, I didn't really want to go down that route.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh in ultimately I graduated during the you know great financial crisis of 2008-9, which is an interesting time to graduate.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it's not many sort of jobs going around at the time.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: So joined Aegon, basically with you know the first job I get hold of, which was pension premium processing.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: So, Sam, when you were making that pension contribution on a monthly basis, I was the guy sitting there in the green and black screen, punching in that contribution from said employer, which would then sort of filter through into the system.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: Very sort of monotonous, but actually quite an interesting insight in behind the scenes.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: And because it was a relatively straightforward job, I tended to be quite efficient about it, work quite quickly, and then have all this kind of spare time.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: So you said, Well, Keith, we do have sort of programs, you know, you can go study X, Y, and Z.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I came across the certificate in financial planning as it was at the time, and thought, oh, that's quite interesting.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: And it intrigued me, and the the money side was interesting of it, but I also liked the idea that they could not quite sure clear on it, but I like the idea of that sort of people side of it as well.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: I had could see this interesting blend that I thought, yeah, let's have a go at that.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: So started studying as certificate as it was at the time.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so in a sense, it sort of fell into it, but saw sort of future career paths when I looked at it and so actually ultimately have to start at the bottom.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: So during my sort of studies, I worked through various guises.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: So from pension premium processing, I moved to a different company uh in their back office, you know, doing the admin work and in sort of a legal firm who had a bolt-on wealth management side and continued studying, so moved on to sort of diploma.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: And and I'd always loved the idea.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't want to go straight into being advisor, an advisor, which some people sort of had down the old sort of broker route, if you like.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: I loved the idea of going through the different stages of a career.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: So when it got to the point, which is the ultimate vision of being a planner, and I'll come on to the sort of business owner point, but I like the idea of when I did reach that point, I already knew everything in behind.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I could really sort of back myself as an advisor because I know what it means to be a paraplanner, which I stepped into later on.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I know what it means to be an administrator, so it means I could set expectations for clients quite well and actually, you know, then sort of work well as an advisor.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: So not be an advisor that just then sort of throws this bump of paperwork off on someone without fully appreciating what it means.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I I sort of worked through those sort of various stages.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: So admin roles for what, three, four years, para planning for another three or four, um, and then eventually stepped into a hybrid role uh at Bruin Dolphin at the time, but mix of para planning, so doing the behind-the-scenes report writing work and then a bit of advising as well.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it's at that point I then sort of jumped off to Pastures New over in uh Hong Kong.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a couple of things I picked up on that.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: I used to work for Aviva, so similar to being at A Gon, working as a product, working with a product provider, and then working in the background.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: So my job was sort of to um, I was a trainer to the customer service team, training out those guys to get them to understand what a bond is, what a pension is, things like what A-Day was um when that happened, to be able to answer the questions of any customers that came through about their personal um uh investment projects without giving any advice.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um and on the side of that as well, um, we used to talk to financial advisors that were phoning up to get evaluations and transfer guy, you know, transfer evaluations and all of that type of stuff.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I just do kind of, I like that because I just want to sort of echo that.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: That sometimes going into a role like that and working within the processing side, it teaches you a lot about what goes on behind the scenes.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think it's a very valuable place because if I look back when I worked for Aviva, you know, a guy called Robert Harper, he's now chartered um power planner, very senior chartered power planner, Richard McDaddy that's been on the podcast, chartered fellow senior partner at Evelyn and partners, you know.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: So these are people that I was sat next to that started their qualifications within these financial institutions.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: And at the time, you know, it was pre-RDR, like you.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't really know what they were doing or what they just had an option.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: They had something in front of them, uh and a, you know, a backing from the company to say, look, these qualifications might well take you somewhere.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: It might not be within our business, however, we're going to invest in you to do them.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it's very interesting.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you don't have to always be 100% two footed straight away in the financial planning profession.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: You can gain some experience and some qualifications by doing something a little simpler to ease you into it to see if it's actually financial services that you're interested in, but also the skills to actually build around customer services, working with others, working to timescales, targets, uh, attention to detail around administration.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, it's good to hear that that was your sort of grounding.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, it moved me into training and development.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't move me down the advice side.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: I did start the FPC qualifications at the time, but it wasn't the right time for me.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't excite me enough to become a financial advisor.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I moved more into training, development, and then recruitment.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: That was my sort of area.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting, cool.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Also, just how long were you, just for the continuity here and so people understand, how long have were you working in like administration, power planning, up into that hybrid rule role with a really great company like Brewing Dolphin?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: How long did it take you to get to that point of when you started to step into financial advice?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so all in so what, 2008, 9, that must have taken me five, maybe five, six years.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: Within that sort of phase, broadly speaking, maybe slightly longer, actually, marginally.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um within that space, allowed me to build up my work experience within that space.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: But the beauty of it was that you know, you're you're essentially in a non-pressured role.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, broadly speaking, it was saying nine to five, or if there's pressure points, maybe it's different, but allowed me to then pick up studies of interest early morning.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: So doing the diploma early morning, getting in there at half six in the morning, studying before everyone else is in, and then also studying late at night, and knowing that I could just finish and leave it there and come back to it tomorrow, and allow me to go and sort of pursue my own sort of personal development.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: So it gave me the sort of balance of both worlds where it taked off the work side of it, and I was building up my knowledge and interest in that, as well as the you know, that sort of personal development side.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: So that you know, it gave me that sort of really big hook all in, which you know worked perfectly, rather than perhaps being instantly thrust into the world of advising and suddenly having all this pressure and then also doing exams and thinking, oh God, this is this is too much.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really that's that's really interesting because obviously the the big focus at the moment and a lot around financial planning and getting into the profession is like how quickly can I pass my exams?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: How quickly become can I actually become a financial advisor?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: And often there is that period of of learning and understanding the environment.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the one thing I I hear a lot of, and both routes have their benefits, one being down the admin, power planner, the slower route I would say to becoming an advisor, to somebody going straight into an advice position and having to learn it all.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And as you say, maybe not you not doing the power planning in admin and passing it over to somebody else.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the the the profession and how now businesses are structured does actually allow that to happen.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's far, they're far slicker businesses now that allow somebody to do that.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: But there's pros and cons, there's pluses to each side.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: The one that you've just mentioned there was that uh in the early how old were you when you were doing that, sort of studying and and working in those capacities?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: How old were you?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: So we started that sort of 20, age 22, 23.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then that's taking me forward for yeah.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Which is acceptable, I think, around that age, you know, to have an expectation of yourself as perhaps being a financial advisor at 22 years old, and there are ones out there that are doing it.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that relaxed approach to doing it and the knowledge and experience that you gain whilst you're going through that, as you say, took away some of that pressure to have a bit more of a good, good work-life balance, but filled you full of knowledge.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: So when you then hit that point of 26, 27, which I think is like a kind of change time for you as a as a human, you're kind of thinking, oh, 30s approaching.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my God, 30 is approaching.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny actually, because I look back on that, I was more concerned about 30, and I've now passed 40 and I'm loving my 40s, you know, I don't fear getting old.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: However, at that age, it's like a, oh God, I've got to have this in place and this in place, and my career must be in place.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think, you know, take that foot off and think, well, what am I learning right now?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Am I gaining the experience and the knowledge I'm required to then have a fulfilling 30s and 40s?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I completely use that.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, you don't you almost need to just sort of back off a little.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, age 22, who really knows themself at age 22?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: No one knows themselves.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: You don't know maybe some people really have a set path, fine.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: But do you really know yourself deeply?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm pretty sure you don't.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: And it took me to probably you know, into my 30s to really understand who who am I, what do I value in life, what's important to me.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know, a lot of that stuff's the personal side, but ultimately that drives what you do in work.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's very much you know, overlapping with each other.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: So, how can you confidently say it's such an early age, this is my career path?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Some can find okay, there's exceptions, but I you know, I just think we need to take the pressure away from ourselves and be open to trying different roles.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like when we talk about sports people.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, the best sports people are the ones that went and tried five, six, seven different sports and kept their hand in and then eventually filtered it down to later life.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't just go down the football route from age two.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think likewise in careers, and that's why it's quite interesting.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: People that come into financial, you know, the financial possession uh profession from other careers, from creative industries or you know, from government industries, and they can bring in their new, exciting, really interesting insights, which we need to refresh it in and really sort of strengthen our brand in the community.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's yeah.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love what you said there.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's an absolute truth.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been working with second careerists a lot, and there's I love talking to marketers that then want to become financial planners because they understand the psychology of marketing, they understand the part that a lot of financial planners are lacking.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: You can be, and and I can take this, we all can, yeah, we can be so um absorbed within what it is that we're doing that we're not thinking outside of um the task that we have in place.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Bringing somebody in who's gaining some life experience within a different sector is gold.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, teachers are fantastic at coming across into the financial planning profession.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're great educators.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you can teach a child to understand something in simplistic terms, therefore you can simplify financial services, which is you're full of jargon, full of really confusing facts and figures and this mystification of you've got to use me because if you don't use me, you're gonna fail.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm a magician who knows everything about how finance works.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And what I'm loving as well is that you're a big advocate of jargon-free social media finance.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Your goal is to educate people to get them to understand things and not demystify it, confuse them that they have to use your services, but more to kind of empower them to understand what it is they're actually doing.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Can you just talk a little bit about that actually, whilst we're here?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Talk to me a little bit about um what you do to bust jargon within financial planning.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and this is about it's about breaking down barriers so that you know, it's that classic, there's this massive hurdle, you know, a massive mountain actually, between the advisor who's sitting up there high in the mountaintop, and little, you know, little Joe Block's client down below looking up, thinking, What's this?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: What is that?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: Trust me, trust me, just climb the mountain.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: What am I doing?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: I don't understand any of this.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and we presented ourselves in that way in industry where you know it is just give us blind trust.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: We want you to trust me, Sam.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: I want you to trust me, said client.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: But how you know, you've never actually built the bridge, you know, for us to sort of come onto the land with you and enjoy the fruits because we've never explained what it is clearly we do in terms that you understand.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, it could be, you know, if you're a master in your universe and an architect, a teacher, you know, you have your own language, you're a sports person.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we need to be able to speak to people in their own language that they can understand.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: And we I think we've been broadly speaking, we've been poor at that.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: We speak in finance language because we think that makes us look intelligent, we think that's what people want, and tell you they definitely don't.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: People just wash over with that, they're they're not interested.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: What they want to know is, am I going to be okay?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and actually they, you know, they want us to understand them.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, Sam, what makes you tick?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: What's important to you in life?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: You were talking to me earlier about your little one, Bella, at six years old.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the important things to you in life, and you know, aspirations, you know, going forward.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: So you were telling me your exciting story about the business and what you want to achieve with that.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: Those are the important things.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: So, what is it that you know really makes you tick?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: And it's all that personal side, and the finance stuff just sort of creates is the foundation that sits below that, and we can support with that.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: But first, you've got to understand that personal side.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: So that's something we're massive on here at Spentwell, is being able to you know educate, you know, empower people.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: So we you know, we do lots of blogs, lots of short, punchy videos.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: We're not perfect at it, but we we try as hard as we can to remove the jargon and use sort of great storytelling.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: So, for instance, we talked about human protection, so protecting you in the event of you know death or if you're off sick or ill.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: And we told the story of the three little pigs, you know, who built the straw house, the brick house, you know, and so on, and how that represented different tiers of protection you could have in place, really bringing it to life.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: Because you know, we think of the masters of the universe, Disney, everyone loves Disney, yeah, because they're amazing storytellers.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and that's the kind of stuff we need to pull into our industry because then you can hook people in.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: So then it becomes, you know, we speak to people on their level, so they then start to understand why you know the jargon stuff, why the pension is important, but in their language, understand why saving for your future is important, absolutely, you know, and so on and so forth.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: So that we do a lot of that here at Spentmile.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: So short, punchy videos, blogs that are easy to understand, they can give people the tools to succeed, and that's stuff they can take away themselves, and some people will, and that's great.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's a win as far as I'm concerned.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: But equally, it's also just going to plant a seed in some people that you're you know, time poor, busy professionals who just need a helping hand, and they'll then you know come in and hook hook in with us, and and that's great.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's sort of serving those sort of different elements.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: And when it comes down to it, you know, it's about doing the right thing.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: So whoever you are, doing right by you.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's the most important thing.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: And we believe we can do that by you know demystifying, getting rid of all the noise, to be honest, that's in our industry, and just speaking to people in terms they understand.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think for some, and and that's brilliant, and I love that, and I'm all for that.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a big part of the future of financial planner life is to be able to help and empower individual financial planners to A, tell their stories, but to do it in a way that isn't being done by others to stand out.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um and to simplify it for Joe Joe blogs, because you're absolutely right.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: We don't want to sit there and understand the ins and outs about how a bond works or how the footsee works.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: We want to just understand why should I?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Why should I save my money?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what will it do to my well being?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: How will it make me feel secure and match my security instinct by putting some money away?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Putting a financial plan in place that predicts and covers what might eventually happen within my life at different life points.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think with anybody, a plan helps us feel comfortable.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: We can't predict the future, but we can certainly kind of have a guide and support along the way to help us with those areas that we don't fully understand.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I think money is a massive area that a lot of us don't understand.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: And also we're under attack constantly from consumerism, marketing, things that we think we want because it's going to make us feel good.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: And we ignore what that then does to us on an emotional level, a behavior level, when we then do the wrong things with our money.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we're we're under attack constantly.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think people feel guilty and ashamed about that.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas they shouldn't do, should they?
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: They should kind of you know feel comfortable and um confident about their finances.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it comes in so handy when it's people like you out there demystifying it, not making it complicated, and showing what it is you do outside of moving numbers around on the spreadsheet, you're actually the human side of what financial advice is.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that is the exciting part about it because it makes people's lives better.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's a well-being proposition.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: If I ever opened up a financial advice company, it would always be about the people and it would be with a huge well-being focus.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'd ensure that it was about the how you are going to feel and how happy you're gonna feel by understanding your behaviors and how that translates across into money.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: And that the you know, the behavioral side of it is absolutely fascinating.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: And there's some great guys that are doing some you know, really good work in there.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: Brendan Fraser over in the US, Andy Hart here's you know, his behavioral stuff, fascinating stuff.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: And it's actually quite exciting because you start to then I've actually I've learned more about myself, you know, in this industry, you know, with that sort of stuff, where you you know, you realize how important money is and all these little biases you pick up along the way, you know, subconscious biases and how you deal with your own money, you know, and how it relates to you know, growing up.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: So it said that you know, our money habits and behaviors are ingrained in us from age eight.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: How fascinating is that! And in the conversation you have with clients, when you ask them this, you know, tell me about your childhood, you know, and how it compares to your relationship with money, and they just see, oh, we're actually running on the same track as you know, our parents, or we've gone completely against it because we were hacked off because you know, our dad was really tight with money, and that just really annoyed me, or you know, my mother was really materialistic, and you know, what you know, whatever it was.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: So it's fascinating.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: So that so then it hooks in, so then they start to understand themselves better.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: Then when they understand themselves, you know, they then have that sort of grounding, right?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, right, I now understand myself, my own behavior with money.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right, we've got a starting point, right?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: Now, what is it going forward?
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: Where do you want to get to?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think anything that you do as a job where you educate somebody about self-improvement, i.e., let's put the mirror up to ourselves and let's look at the part that we play in how we live our life, our own happiness.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: We are the ones ultimately masters of our destiny.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: We are responsible for how we feel with internally.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think any job where you learn about human behaviors and the things that we do to self-sabotage our lives, when you teach it to somebody else, you get a huge amount of reward, A, from helping somebody, but you are able to articulate it at somebody else in a way that then reinforces the message in your head.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, that you know, that plasticity, that neuroplasticity, you're just deepening it and deepening it and deepening it in your belief system and your view of it changes every time you teach somebody else.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I know that I learned it three years, three and a half years ago, I um I went and did a 12-step process because I was drinking too much.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: I was my life was very down, I was depressed.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I've spoken about this before.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: But from doing a 12-step process and going through the 12 steps, one of the steps is that I have to help somebody else.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: And as I coached and developed and trained somebody else and helped them change, the internal understanding of why I was doing it was reinforced with me.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a power in giving back of what it does to you as well.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: And when you do that with an approach of kindness and love and gratitude, it's even better.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I speak to advisors who love their job, is because they love that aspect of it, not because they're all about how much money I can make and look at the prestige and look at the fast car I'm driving.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: They do it because they believe they're genuinely making a difference, right?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I like to think that speaks for the majority of the industry that we are here to do right by people.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: And by the way, that's really exciting.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that I've got a client who literally five days ago has retired five years earlier than he thought he could.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: He's absolutely buzzing.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: He's already planning trips to Iceland, to South Africa.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: He's going to take up golf.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: How bloody exciting is that?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: Just because you know, just because we, you know, were able to sort of engage with him on his level, you know, and get him to where he wants to be, and he can now go and enjoy his life.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: That's hugely rewarding.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Do you talk to them about their purpose in life as well?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Do you kind of try to align, you know, because a lot of the time somebody had this idea.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: I can imagine you're sitting down with somebody, they've got this idea in their head of what retirement looks like.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: They've got this idea in their head of when it's going to happen.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and some of those expectations might be steeped in fear, some of them might be over-exaggerated, like they're too confident that.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: And when you sit down and you look at it and you break down at the financial side of it, it might be that actually you might need to work a little bit longer, or actually, you could retire a bit earlier.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: But during that process, do you tend to demystify everything around them?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then deep down in the core of who they are, they have this, they have this drive of what they want to be.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it's often um, do you ever help help them bring that out?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like this chap who's saying, Oh, I'm gonna go to Iceland and all of that.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, did he have this passion to want to go traveling?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, and you've helped him bring that further forward, therefore, by connecting that idea of you can do it a lot sooner than you think, that he's then lifted his spirits.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think most of the people I speak with aren't quite sure what that vision is initially.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think I actually, you know, I think it's that old adage that you know the answer is ultimately 3D.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: They'll give you the first answer.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, want to retire at 65.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_02: All right, why?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, my scheme said it was 65, so I thought that'd be a good age.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: All right, but when do you want to when do you want to retire?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to take a full stop, when would you do it?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: All right, you know, and then well, okay, let's strip that away.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: What is important to you in life?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Keith, you know, my family's important.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, my daughter's just had a uh, you know, she's got a couple of uh kids, so I've got a couple of grandchildren now.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know what?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'd actually really like to spend more time with them working five days a week, so I don't really get the chance.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: All right, that's interesting.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: Would that be important to you?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: Oh god, absolutely.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: I love them to bits.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: That would be amazing.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, right, that's interesting.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: What else?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: What else would you like to sort of achieve?
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if if we're saying you're stopping completely, what would you do?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: What would you do with your life?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then you start to sort of go several layers deeper.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then it, you know, for that guy as an example, eventually came out.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, do you know what I'd really like to go about more traveling?
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_02: We haven't really done as much because we've always been you know busy with the work or stuck here in Scotland, COVID and all that.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'd like to just hop off to not sure where, I just want to go travel into different places and experience different things.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: Great, what would it mean to you to be able to do that?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'd just be amazing and really just sort of give my life sort of you know, great sort of reason and purpose going forward.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: And we could take the family with us.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, if we've got enough money, we could maybe get a you know, a villa over in, I don't know, South Africa and in golf analysis, exciting pursuits.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: Might not be that for some people.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: Some people just want to, you know, enjoy their time, do some charitable work in the local community, whatever it is.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, absolutely.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's about sort of really digging deep and asking questions that people have never been asked before, which is difficult for them.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: So that you know, I'll I'll be silent, you know, a lot of the time and and they'll sort of look at me, is that not the answer you wanted?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: You tell me, is that is that have you got more?
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then you know they keep going and you eventually get to the real reason, what their driver is.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the fascinating part because most people never go three layers deep, if not deeper.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: Most people skim, most people are skimming the stone along the along the lake.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they never actually dive below to the depths and really sort of see the treasures in their own mind because no one's ever asked them, no one's cared, no one's ultimately listened.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: So that's yeah, absolutely.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think as well, you know, how can you be a good financial advisor?
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: How could you be a good recruitment consultant?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: How could you be a good teacher or whatever it might well be, where you're the idea is that you're looking to change people's lives, also as well, if you don't look at yourself, because you have to be able to know yourself internally to be able to help and understand others.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where I'm constantly seeing the good quality financial planners, right?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: Are the ones who invest in themselves, that look at themselves and understand how the mind works, mind management, the things we go through, understand core beliefs, manifestation, all these wonderful things that are steeped in scientific backing.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: Once we know ourselves, only then can we really with confidence speak to somebody else and ask the questions that you know have been powerful in your life to make a change within you.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think anybody listening here, and I'm speaking on behalf of this as a general type thing, because anything I think where you are consulting people in changing their lives, it's important that you know yourself.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Financial planners, right?
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Financial advisors, different.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, here's a product, bang, off you go.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: Financial planners different.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's about people.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and that should be a priority number one for anybody, I think, considering this as a career.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: How am I with people?
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: How am I with myself?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: Can I confidently sit down and have an open discussion where it helps somebody discover what perhaps some of their limiting beliefs are or their fears are and what they really want from their future?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: Am I good at that?
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: Have I done it with myself?
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the area that lacked for years within financial advice because it was people just saying, I'll sell you this, I'll sell you this, I'll tell you this, I'll sell you this, because they're chasing the commission.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: It was a money focus type thing.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: Don't get me wrong, a reward should come from the work you do, right?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: It should do a byproduct of um of good work, right?
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you if you are looking for the financials in your life and that's a motivator for you, should be also about the money, but it's also about the journey, isn't it?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's also about how does it make you feel after you've done your job.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's important because a byproduct of doing a good job is you feel good, right?
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: Can I now take I love that little piece then?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: I love talking about that because that's the part that I see as financial planning, truly.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think as people listen to this, it's like that, do that, be that person, you know.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: The the the numbers, the the research changes all the time.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's why we've got power planners, it's why we've got administrators, it's why we've got compliance to people in place, is because it allows you to focus on the people.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's why, you know, I think unfortunately, this is where we're guided by the textbook.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, textbook give us gives us this, and that relates to your part about we then went and sold.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: We're all salesmen, actually, ultimately, when you think about it.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: If you go through any career, we're all selling in some way, shape, or form.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: And we shouldn't be ashamed of that, that's perfectly fine.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: But it was done in the wrong way in financial services back in the day.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: We're much better at that now.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: But we're given this in the textbook.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: And Tynamill, you said we actually need all this over here, which is the human element, you know, the behavior element over here, understanding humans, how they work, how they tick, and then that's where the real value add is.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: This broadly stays the same, all right.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: Bar some real changes, government changes, and so on.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_02: But this element is quite fascinating because that's more personal, and that's where you can really start to make a massive difference.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Based on your experience, then, how did you educate yourself around that?
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: What things did you do, or what did you listen to, or what did you read, or what courses did you take to really improve that side of you as a person?
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: Were you born with that?
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: Were you a natural, or did you learn it?
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's something I've continually learning and I still am.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's something I enjoy about industry, and that you you will never have all the answers, and you should actively you know seek out different opinions, different approaches across different industries as well.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, that's something I always try to do.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm a keen reader, be that on audible or physical books.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll go and read you know, interesting books by you know the behavioral psychologist guys, uh, you know, people like Carol Dweck, is it?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: I can never pronounce her name, Brendan Fraser, listening to podcasts like you know, like Andy Hart, like Pete Pete Matthews, guys like that.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, listen to guys within our sphere of influence, as well as being open to you know, opinions of people in different you know, industries as well, where you can start to see different ideas and how that might, you know, you might be able to pull that in.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_02: And that comes interestingly from the clients we speak to, so from the interesting mix where you get you get inspired yourself and things you could do, you know, your friends and associates and so on, you know, as well as the usual sort of you know, seminars and webinars.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: So next gen's being fantastic for that and getting in some you know good alternative thinkers, um, humans under management's another one, which is quite fascinating.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I guess always sort of looking beyond.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: Stephen Bartlett as an example, he's an interesting entrepreneur.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: What can we learn from, you know, what can we learn, you know, and ultimately, you know, I'm running a business.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a financial planner.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: Am I a well-versed business owner entrepreneur?
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: Not really.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: What can I learn from guys like you, Sam, who are who are doing that?
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_02: What can I learn from other entrepreneurs who are ultimately running businesses and take the their best ideas and plug them into financial planning?
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: So absolutely, I'm always sort of exploring that stuff, and that's across, you know, be that video books, podcasts, seminars, and so on.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: Unfortunately, I don't have an endless amount of time, but it's uh having a young daughter means I can pop in, pop in my airpods when I'm out in the pram with her and listen to an interesting uh booker podcast.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: I agree with you.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: I love the audio.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: Audio is a great way to sort of divorce, you know, to get information to sink in podcasts, uh, whether it be audible or listening to manifestation at the moment.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's a fantastic book about manifestation.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I I I love things like um uh neuroplasticity and the and knowing that if you think a certain way, raise your vibration with certain language, internal voices, you know, how you project something internally is it being happier, how you manifest it, but actually it does work, it does change.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: And and it was brilliant reading that book because as I went through it, um Roxy Gavolf, I can't remember a surname, Roxy somebody.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but anyway, when I read as I was reading through it, I realized I was doing a lot of it.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um and because it's like a step process within it, I love that because it allows me then to kind of work through it as a workbook.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: And um as I was sometimes you you you we do these things, but we don't have the confidence that we're doing it.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: And when you read it in a way that's backs it with science, it's like, oh man, I'm doing this.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: So you believe it, so therefore you have faith.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have faith, you in you you then are 100% all in.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and when you're 100% all in, that's when it changes.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um, oh, some of the change I've had anyway over the last six months, in my my thinking, is just been out of this world.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: So if anybody's listening to this and wants to reach out to me and ask me any questions about anything when it comes to like changing a mindset from a depression, anxiety, even addiction mindset to being happy, grateful, and content and also positive of it come and speak to me because I'll happily share my journey.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe a podcast for another time, I think.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we all take risks in our careers, right?
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: You spent six years nearly in those administrative power planning roles, hybrid role.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: You managed to land yourself a great job with Bruin Dolphin, right?
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: Bruin Dolphin are a fantastic company.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: We worked with a what an amazing company, right?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: But you decided to take a risk, I think, in your career.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us a little bit about Hong Kong.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: What happened there?
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so stepped away from Bruin.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_02: Quite a tough decision because I had a great boss who was hugely supportive, really understanding, and sort of supported my development a lot.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: So it was really tough to leave that role.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: My partner was offered a role in in Hong Kong.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, she's a consultant, and we thought, do you know what?
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: We've always wanted to go away and get some life experience.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: She'd done a bit of traveling, I hadn't.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and also, you know, work abroad would be quite interesting and see how they're doing it over in Hong Kong.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: That'd be quite fascinating.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_02: So we decided to sort of take the plunge and move across.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and what a fascinating experience it was, you know, living in essentially a shoebox.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_02: So my wife was over there first, and she she could literally she could sit in her bed, she could reach over, cook here, and then literally just a couple of steps over there would be the toilet and shower, all used to run within one room.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: Which uh was interesting.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: Thankfully, when I came across, we we upgraded that to a bit more, a bit more room, but still fairly modest.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: So because Hong Kong Island is you know limited space, creates tall sky skyscrapers, means you have small flats, unless you're you know millionaire, you can go live up on the mountain and in a nice villa there.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, so it means all your you know your life is essentially outside, you know.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: So you the cost between eating in and eating in and eating out there's neither here nor there, expensive place, but you tend to eat out most nights, which then means you'd be quite social, you know, most nights.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_02: So there's no distinction between the working week and the weekend, it's all very much blended as one.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, so quite sort of full-on in that respect in Hong Kong.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, equally, you know, you're it's full of like-minded expats, so you make you know some great friends quickly.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: One of my best friends I met in a lift, you know, just by chance, uh, and we he's from New Zealand, and we, you know, he would end up being my best mate, and we still keep in touch.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: But that's the mindset over in Hong Kong when everyone's very sort of open.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's something that I brought back here actually, and that being more open to just speaking to different people from different walks of life, you never know where it can take you.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, so the personal side, brilliant, did traveling around Asia and so on as well every month or so, as well as working.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I worked with St.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: James's Place uh in Hong Kong, who, you know, my opinion compared to you know, other firms in Hong Kong were shining light because they're bringing more UK standard across.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_02: Hong Kong, in terms of financial advice, could be considered to be the certain 1980s or 70s of the UK, can be a bit Wild West at times.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, in various stories I came across of people um passing over you know half a million uh you know US dollars, and you know, that's gone in the space of three months or four months, and the advisor is nowhere to be seen.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so lots of unpredictable, sort of unscrupulous characters.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but you know, that sort of experience really sort of firmed up on who am I, who do I want to be an advisor?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not, you know, we're given some sales training, and I realized quite quickly, um I don't want to be that hard sales guy.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, I don't think people want to be hard, you know, hard sold to.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so so in hot in Hong Kong, I created my own blog called Financial Musings of a Scotsman.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_02: Where essentially it was about breaking down barriers, so sharing good financial information that people can carry themselves.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_02: It and that in itself would build up trust, which was a massive, and it still is a challenge for all of us, but particularly in certain Hong Kong at the time, you know, break down that barrier, build trust by showing them actually I do know what I'm talking about.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_02: Here's some stuff you can carry.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then that sort of drew in sort of clients sort of through that approach by just sort of displaying that no, no, I am here to do right and do good by you.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: So um, yeah, it was a fascinating experience in Hong Kong and really sort of made me sort of firm up in who I am and what I want, you know, as a career.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it was all it was always going to be about doing right by people.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: Looking back on it, no regret going off to Hong Kong and having a go in the expat advice market.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a regret to you, you see it as being something that kind of opened you up to knowing really what it was that you wanted to be.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people get that from traveling, don't they?
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: I certainly did as a younger age when I traveled around Asia and for a year or so in Australia.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: It did open me up to the idea of who I am and what I really want from life.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_01: So combining the two is fantastic.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: So um you obviously took that risk.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: You you learned a lot when you were out there.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_01: You also discovered the type of advisor you wanted to be didn't fit the model of what perhaps Hong Kong and the expact community and what St.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_01: James's place uh wanted from you as a financial advisor.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, you decided then to eventually come back and let's push forward now to where you currently are at the moment because throughout your career you've worked within financial planning, but you've decided to run and set up your own business.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: So did you know, did go to Hong Kong and that really kind of create that entrepreneurial spark in you also that you could be that person that could take again another risk?
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because it is a risk running your own business, isn't it?
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: Especially directly authorized.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: Did that spark that change in you and and and drive you to then create spent well?
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_02: There was always the, you know, in my time in Hong Kong, there was always that push to be, you know, how are you bringing in sort of clients?
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: So ultimately was, you know, how are you, you know, be more entrepreneurial, think differently.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that was hard because that wasn't something I'd been particularly pushed uh into sort of prior to them.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, that you do sort of go on that bit of a roller coaster ride.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: And you do have to be patient and have, you know, bloody thick skin to.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Be honest because you know it doesn't happen instantly.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_02: And that was an experience I had in Hong Kong where it was, you know, for instance, that knowledge sharing approach, I was very aware that was going to be a slow burn approach.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I needed to be patient and have faith in that.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: And being honest, that that wavered at times because you know it's not happening instantly.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_02: And you you, you know, you you know, you you know you're good at what you do, and you know you're better than some of the other guys out there, but you know, how do I sort of get over that hurdle?
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: So uh that gave me a really sort of great grounding.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_02: So when I came back, you know, I recognized that you know, when I started spent well, this is how I want to do it.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's about doing right by people.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's gonna take time.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd said to myself, it's probably gonna take at least two, if not three years, to see this very relaxed knowledge sharing approach, education first approach to really land the people and start seeing that coming back to me.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: But I was also comforted in the knowledge that, you know, regardless, I'm still gonna be having an impact with people.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that's then gonna come back to me at some point because people remember me because I did write by them, even though I didn't necessarily, you know, profit from it at the time, and it wasn't about that at the time.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I've carried that with me, you know, into spent well.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh uh, and that very much sort of forms our number one approach is you know, get out there, share knowledge, break down those barriers, do it in a jargon-free way, bring people on the journey with us, uh, and get people engaged in their money.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: One of the questions I'm going to ask you then around, because being marketing led through blogs, some videos, some content, that kind of thing, it's not the typical thing that financial planning firms have been doing.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: They're starting to do it more now.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, did you feel restricted in what you could be as an advisor by being employed?
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: Was that again a driver where you're thinking, look, I've got this idea, this philosophy of how I want to run this, the slower burn, the, you know, when there's external pressures from somebody who employs you, well, why haven't you brought business in on that?
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, well, look, I am building something here as well, which is going to have value, this intrinsic value, it's going to amalgamate, it's going to compound over time and create the brand that I want to be and bring people in.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: Did you feel under pressure that you couldn't do things like that when you were employed?
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: But being your own boss is allowed and freed you up to try the things that you truly think you want to do and that add value?
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think this is where you know employers need to just sort of take a step back to to the degree and be more all the firms I work with are brilliant, right?
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_02: Ultimate people in their own different, you know, on different approaches.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_02: But I think there was that understandable, almost that shareholder need, if you like, for instant return on investment.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_02: We almost need to take a step back and say, well, actually, if we want to do this in the right way, we need to be prepared to have, you know, a year, 18 months of Keith building up who he is, his brand, his approach in L Happen.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_02: But we almost have to be prepared to say we need to support him for you know for a few years for that to really come to freshen.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_02: And what you find in you know in the bigger firms is that you know there are those sort of pressure points, realities of sort of being a commercial business and that demand for instant results.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, when it came sort of doing things slightly differently, for example, I won't name the firm, but changing a dull, boring suitability report and putting some visuals in.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_02: Nah, nah, nah.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_02: We we don't do that, Keith.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_02: Compliance says no.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: No, but we can explain this one pay one meaty page of text with two really great visuals and talk about it with a client.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_02: Nah, we're not doing that.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_02: And and I found that slightly frustrating because I knew it would be a better outcome for a client.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_02: Not that everyone's visually orientated, but many of us are, but I knew it would be a better outcome because clients don't read 40 pages above.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_02: But they can engage with visual and engage with stories.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I found that you know, within that, we're sort of stuck within those two tracks, which yeah, ultimately sort of led me to wanting to you know step out beyond that and do it in the way that I, you know, think it should be delivered.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_02: Is it perfect?
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's not.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_02: And for some it's not the right way, and that's okay because everyone will you know receive their messages in different ways.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, I do know, and it is having a positive impact with people because it's you know being delivered in a way that resonates with them.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: And that's you know, running my own business has given me that flexibility to do that and move beyond the constraints of perhaps the bigger beasts who are stuck in these traditional ways that to be fair to them is very difficult to change because it's ingrained.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_02: And some of them are trying to change, but that takes time.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas I've got the flexibility to say, we're gonna change, we're gonna turn the boat and do it this way without too much baggage.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think we, and I said before, as a as um a commentator, if you like, on the profession and an observer, I am an observer.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't do your job, and I'm an observer and a commentator.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: And um what I'm definitely seeing, and I predict also, is a rise in newer firms opening up, right?
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: Run by younger people who have a more entrepreneurial mindset and more confidence in running their own businesses, because that's pretty much how they've been marketed to on Instagram and what since they were born.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I believe that with the support and the technology that is out there, that it's never been more achievable for somebody to run a business in financial planning the way they want to do it with the umbrella and the support of good compliance, right?
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be your own directly authorized form.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_01: You guys have gone down that way, but you don't have to be, right?
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I believe we're gonna be seeing more of that.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, and I suppose it's having the confidence if you're sat in a role right now and you're looking at your current firm and they're not matching your expectations of what you believe good financial advice is or how you want to market yourself.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: So you being your true uh person, you know, if you've got a couple of guys running a business and they've never engaged on social media before, they start thinking you're absolutely wacky.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_01: Why are you saying this?
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: Why are you saying that?
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, whereas you deep down know that, well, actually, I'm seeing these guys doing it and it's it and it's actually working.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that is definitely on the rise.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we're in what I would consider to be, and it's good choice of words, it's a startup.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_01: We're in a startup phase currently.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's an exciting time for financial planning.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: You've got an aging population of advisors and a huge amount of clients that are going to need advice.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: You've got a great transition of wealth that's happening.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_01: There's no shortage of money out there.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_01: There's a huge need for financial advice because there's not very good financial advice out there, which is what the coaching side of things coming in and starting to fill that gap and talking to people about the uh the types of um things that can build good habits early on in your life, like savings accounts, managing your money correctly, not wasting your money on certain things.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's really, really good, the behavioral, early behavioral side.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: But good financial planning is in a startup phase.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_01: Good advisors like you that are passionate about it, that it can educate and articulate it in a way that people understand, there's a need, and it's never been easier to do it.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: So the confidence that people have to have sitting there right now thinking I can do this better, it's like you probably can.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_01: But empathize, don't think arrogantly and be driven by your ego that just because the guys that you're in business with aren't doing it, doesn't mean they haven't tried things throughout their career.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_01: They've had failures, they've gotten to a point where it's working for them and their goals are different from yours.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, don't be resentful at them.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: Take what you can and understand, but follow your confidence within you and your purpose of where you want to take it.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_01: Because being a business owner, and you'll understand this, right?
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_01: When you're sitting there as an employee, it's like, well, do that, do this, do this, do that.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: Why aren't you doing that?
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_01: But actually, when it comes down to you running your own business and you're like, oh, hang on a second, I'm wearing 12 different hats here.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_01: No wonder they were a bit cautious about doing things because they're trying to do the job and they're trying to run a business.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_01: And we know that now.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know that.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_01: You're probably stepping into that being a business owner.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_01: So my question to you now would be lots of people thinking about becoming an advisor, uh, lots of people thinking about setting up their own firms, rightfully so, right?
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: Lots of people thinking about, I want to do what you're doing around blogging, videos, uh, content on social media.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_01: How the hell do you stay organized?
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_01: How do you stay organized?
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_01: How do you know spin multiple plates?
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's a skill to that, and that's a big fear.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_01: If people put all their energy in and all their focus in trying to do marketing, they're worried they're going to drop the plate in in client development or something like that.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do you stay organized and when's the right time to do this sort of thing?
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's uh it's a it's an interesting challenge as a as a business owner.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_02: So the background is myself, and I've got a fellow director, Diane, who supports me in behind the scenes.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_02: So she supports you know, finance or fee reconciliations.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I I'd sort of take the view, liken it to, I think it was Alex Ferguson that said it that you know, if you're not an expert in something, be confident enough and be comfortable enough to go in and get someone that is that's better than you in that space.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I've got consultancy support, I've got investment support as well externally, uh sorry, compliance support externally to sort of free up my space to allow me to do what I'm good at, which is financial planning, as well as sort of the marketing side of it as well.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_02: I may get to a point where I, you know, I may outsource some of that.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_02: But so that helps with the organization because I've got experts around me and also helps stress test my own ideas.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_02: So Diane, you know, my fellow director, you know, I've stressed test things off her, as well as fellow professionals in the industry.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so I'm in a group of planners, uh, it's about seven of us who all run our own businesses.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll bounce ideas off each other, which is great, it's invaluable.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, in terms of that business structure, so there's something I'm quite sort of big on because you could easily lose yourself with what 12 different hats or whatever it is across different guises.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_02: And ultimately we need to be sitting in front of clients.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's you know the most important thing.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_02: So Monday's an admin day for me.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_02: Friday's an admin day.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_02: I won't tend to take meetings on those days, so those are catch-up days for me.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_02: Allow me to do the behind-the-scenes stuff.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_02: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday will be blocked out, you know, and available for meetings.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and I'll be flexible if it needs to be later at night or early in the morning.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_02: We'll do that.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that gives a bit of structure.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and actually I hooked in with the fact that I've got it here, Michael Hyatt's book, which is Full Focus Planner, which you know, I take quite an interest in sort of goal setting, habits, and behaviors, and how we can do that.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_02: So, this is where I've learned stuff from stuff you know that I then impart on clients, is how you know you can be more organized, achieve your goals.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, I've actually found this has been invaluable where I'll set on a Sunday or night or Monday morning, I'll set out targets and goals for the week and sort of my top three targets of for each day.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_02: So it gives me a structure because it's quite easy for us in in our world, particularly with multiple hats, to you know, rush over here, rush over there, and so on, and get to the end of the day and don't feel like you've achieved anything.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, having that sort of daily structure in place is really important.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_02: And within that, I then expand that to monthly and quarterly and yearly targets.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll do a an August state of the nation review.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_02: What have we done, what we've achieved for the year, right?
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_02: What's our goals for the next year?
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_02: So sort of breaking it down into those different elements, saying when it comes to Keith on day one, you know, I know I know what's happening.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_02: So that's how I just sort of try to sort of keep organized in that respect.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_01: So you keep a structured plan, you book out certain days that are non-negotiables when it comes to like things like administration.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, a lot of key, you know, you love sport.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a lot of sports stars and people that are very experienced and successful in what they do when it comes to sport, Kobe Bryant, Kobe Bryant's and stuff.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_01: Is it Kobe Bryant?
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm terrible with names.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_01: Kobe Bryant, yeah, I think so.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_01: These guys have non-negotiables, don't they?
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, things that they always do and it's a non-negotiable.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there was one guy I was listening to the performance podcast, and he he never left the basketball court until he'd hit five free throws, three pointers with a swoosh as opposed to hitting anything.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that was a non-negotiable for him.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, Jordan was non-negotiable.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_01: It was always going to be two, you know, two and a half hours turning up before a session even starts of training.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_01: Some people's non-negotiables are all about time, some are about having a non-negotiable is I won't finish work until I've booked in five meetings or whatever.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_01: Have you got any non-negotiables that you live by?
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, nothing too big, but a couple of nice are important ones is dress for your day.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I'm home based, do have an office in town, but tend to sort of work from home.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_02: So basically, from the moment I get up, creating the right mindset for work, which is dressing for your day.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm open caller, fair relaxed in that space.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_02: But, you know, that sort of puts me in the right work mindset.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_02: Secondly, is being there for my family.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: So that means finishing it broadly speaking, five o'clock or half five.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm there for bedtime.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_02: I can go pick up Sky from nursery.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_02: Because what's the point in running your business if you just end up working 24-7?
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_02: I may as well just go get a nine to five job and probably be more happy.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_02: So having that sort of structure and you know, boundaries between personal life and working life is hugely important to me, you know, to allow me to go and you know, spend time with life and spend time with Sky.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's you know, because why not?
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_02: We should be able to do that.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what are my other ones?
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, dress three day, yeah, structure and sort of working hours, not extending beyond them.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_02: Although I'm not perfect in that, it can happen.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's sort of the realities of it, but some silly cheesy, but something that I find hugely important is always thinking of the client first.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I get a lot of approaches from people who need support.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_02: And the harsh realities of the business is that sometimes it's just not economically viable.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't believe it's right just to say no to them and they walk away.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_02: I still feel compelled to do something for them.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll do a guidance call with them and I'll send them some webinars I've done and still answer some of their questions.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: So even if it's not profitable for me, I still want to do right by people regardless of where they are on the spectrum.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's one of my things, and it's hugely important to me that uniforms are a key part of our approach.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, beyond that, I don't know, I don't think too deeply about this, I guess.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, those are a couple of my key ones.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's cool.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's supposed to, you know, the other thing is actually in terms of clients, no people I don't like would be the polite way to say it.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_02: So only take on people that actually I I want to work with.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not even if they had 10 million pounds, whatever it is.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_02: If it's someone I don't abide by or they don't meet my values, I'm I'm not gonna work with them because I need to be able to relate to that, those people.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_02: I need to be able to work with people I want to make a difference with, and I know there's enough people out there that we can do that.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll say no to people that doesn't quite fit.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_02: And it importantly, it might not fit for them either, and that's doing right by them.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_02: So that's also a hugely important one.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_01: I like that a lot, actually.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I abide by that.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I always know to you always know, you can always feel when somebody's not quite right, and you can always feel and but the problem is it it lingers.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it lingers.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_01: You go home, put your head on the pillow, and you're like, Oh, I really didn't like that.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't like and it ling and it lingers today.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_01: Why are you gonna have something?
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's like what you put out there, you attract, right?
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, simple as that.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're working with if you're surrounding yourself with people you don't want to work with, you're gonna feel like shit, simple as that.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I absolutely agree.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it's I think in the early stages of someone's career, you want to just kiss a load of frogs and just any bit of business and you people please the hell out of it, but you're not living to your true values, and I like that, you know, and running your own business, you've got to be living to your values.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's the whole point.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things you picked up there on a non-negotiable, I think is hugely, hugely important.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I absolutely live it, is that picking your daughter up from school, taking your daughter to school, being there for your family is highly important if you're running your own business.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_01: As you say, what is the point?
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_01: My other non-negotiable, if I shared mine right now, is that I have a non-negotiable that I'm an hour and a half in the gym every day.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_01: So hour and a half in the gym every day looking after my body, but I also have a non-negotiable around two hours of mental health as well.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I ensure that for two hours a week, I am uh taking some time out to reflect, to write, to um meditate, um, and to ensure just to check in with myself to do to inventory how I'm feeling, to make sure that I'm on the right path.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not hiding or minimizing anything, I'm not worried or scared about anything, I haven't got any resentments or anything like that that could be affecting who I am as a person and therefore affecting who, you know, the people, the culture within my business, my family, et cetera.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I think sometimes with non-negotiables is that we have it within work, but if we don't look at our non-negotiables with ourselves first, it's going to influence our work in a negative way, which can spill out to spending, you know, you know, not going to bed till 11 o'clock and waking up at six o'clock and working on weekends and things like that.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because as Paul Bradley said to me on the podcast recently, time is our most valuable asset.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_01: Time is our most valuable asset.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_01: And you know this within your financial planning is that you're you're you're basically giving people time back by planning their future, right?
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_01: And time, you can't you can't get more time, it's more valuable than money.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think um when we use our time wisely, we have a more happy and healthier life, but we're more happy and healthier work balance.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_01: Employers, i.e.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_01: me, got 20 odd people in there.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_01: I ensure that my business has thought about them as individuals to look after their well-being, their flexibility, the things that will be going through their head, not just what I think they should be doing.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it's created a far greater culture of trust and happier, content people within my business.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_01: Some will not fit that environment because they can't handle the freedom, you know, and that's fine, and they don't belong in this type of environment.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_01: But we must live our values, we must share that with others.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm doing it, they get the chance to do it as well.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I find that looking after yourself as well as your non-negotiables on how you work with clients and your business will only improve your business.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_02: And just to sort of tie into that, Sam, so a bit of a question for you, actually.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I do that personal reflection sort of stuff that you mentioned there, sort of once a week.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_02: Or I'll look back on the week that's gone by and think about things, work and personal stuff, and reflect on it and write down sort of thoughts and things.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_02: And it's something I'd be interested in your thoughts, something I find really interesting because when you sit down and do that and look back, then think you think things that you maybe worried about or felt you didn't go well or whatever it was, when you reflect on it, you then realize, Racha, that wasn't that bad, or actually, this is quite valuable because I've learned I should just do this this this time around.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually it was good that I failed in that.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how you is that exactly what I do.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_01: I so the way I look at things is I'll look at something like how do I feel within myself?
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_01: Am I annoyed with anybody?
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_01: Do I have a resentment against anybody at all?
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, is anybody is anything eating away at me based on their behaviors or something?
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_01: Am I holding something?
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_01: Am I minimizing something that's annoying me?
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_01: I look at the things of am I scared of anything?
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_01: Am I worried about anything?
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because fear is obviously the future.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_01: Resentment is usually in the past, right?
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_01: Something's happened in the past, fear is something in the future.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_01: So am I worried about money?
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_01: Am I worried about next month's billings?
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_01: Am I worried about what someone thinks of me because I'm picking my kids up every day at four o'clock?
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what I I'll I'll go through some of those things.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'll look at, okay, well, how is my spirit right now?
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'll look at that, write all that down.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll look at things like if it's a fear, then I'll break that down and think, well, where is that fear coming from?
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_01: What part of me is it affecting?
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is it affecting my security instincts?
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_01: Is it affecting my social instincts?
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I start to look at those parts and start to think about the I and me and what part of me is being affected, what you know, what part of my ego is being affected.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_01: When I can do that, it usually then brings to light the thing that's the problem.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now it might be that I might have to have a conversation with somebody that's uncomfortable.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, I need to do that.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_01: I need to have a conversation with it.
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_01: It might be that I owe an apology to somebody because you know it doesn't sit right with me that perhaps I've done the wrong thing, yeah, or I've thought the wrong way.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it helps me put a picture, a mirror up to myself just to see what areas am I responsible for for way the way that I feel.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_01: But whilst I'll do that as well, I'll also review the things that I've done in work and I'll pat myself on the back.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_01: What I try to do every Friday now is sit down with the, because I'm responsible for marketing and I've got a marketing manager within my business.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_01: We sit down on a Friday, we build a list, we inventory what we've done and what we want to do.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_01: And we build that list and we spend a couple of hours doing that for the sole purpose that when I hit Monday morning, we sit down again.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we have a clear, right?
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_01: Remember Friday?
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_01: This is what we're doing this week.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_01: We fire into it really, really quickly.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_01: We find that list again within half an hour, we fire into it and we have a fantastic week.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_01: So part of it for me is about reflecting on how I feel and am I responsible for how I feel?
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_01: What can I do to change that?
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_01: Do I am I holding on to something?
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_01: Do I need to let something go?
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_01: Have I got a resentment?
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_01: Am I scared of something?
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I make those changes and I bring it into the light.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if I can't deal with that myself personally, I've got a business partner.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_01: A big fear of mine was always sharing my my worries to my business partner.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_01: But what I've learned through sharing something that I've looked at first and seen my part in it, right?
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_01: Is that if I go to him and talk to him, it's bringing it into the light and a different perspective is then shared.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it allows me then to look at things from a different perspective, a bit like you with.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_01: Your group with the with the guys, right?
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_01: And perspective is what it's all about.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because we can live in our heads and we can have this idea of the world as a doom and gloom place, but someone said something, one thing, and it changes your perspective.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_01: You go, I didn't think about it that way.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_01: Having that confidence and that team around you.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we've built and I've instilled that process now into our business.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we have that internally.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we're able to do that internally.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_01: We all kind of do it.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's how I do it, and that's how I spend my time.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_01: If I don't do that, guess what, Keith?
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_01: I start to get a bit wobbly.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_01: I start, you know, the week afterwards I might not do it.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then the week afterwards I might not do it.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_01: And lo and behold, what happens?
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_01: I build up and I build up and I build up and I build up.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when it's dangerous for me because then I'll start making rash decisions or thoughts about things or people, places, things that are untrue, purely based on my interpretation in my head of the chimp going mental, saying, Yeah, fucks, you know, life's crap, you know.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, boo.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I and that's when I start to lose my my my my sense of calm and um contentment and balance.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I do.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_02: Brilliant, um, do you know what I think?
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_02: And based on my own experience, I think that is perhaps one of the most important things of being a business owner is exactly what you you said, sort of being able to sort of go through that process because it'd be quite easy within our own sort of sphere, our own little bubble to get lost, you know, within our own world, stress about things you don't need to stress about, you know, perhaps go down avenues you shouldn't be going down.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and just having that personal time to sort of personally reflect.
• 1:07:36
  SPEAKER_02: Work and personal life just sort of brings that balance back in.
• 1:07:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's hugely important.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's something I've sort of, I suppose, battled with over the last three years, finding finding that.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I found that process huge just invaluable.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_02: And that's something I think I would say for any any aspiring business owner, it doesn't even need to be in our industry.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_02: Being able to do that, actually being disciplined in doing that, yes, will have a massive difference on your personal life and in the business.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because at the end of the day, if you if you're happy, you're more it's more likely that your family will be happy and your business will be a happy, successful business.
• 1:08:12
  SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, it takes in the beginning, like any habit, right?
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I swear by you know, James Clear Atomic Habits.
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_01: What a fantastic look that is.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_01: Taught me so much.
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_01: Just take five minutes a day for yourself to to inventory your thoughts and to look at them, right?
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_01: That that five minutes a day builds up because you start to see the value in it.
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_01: Make it really, really easy to do it.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_01: What I do now, right, it's almost automatic.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_01: I turn to it within my head, this inventory list, and I look at the parts that I play in it.
• 1:08:44
  SPEAKER_01: Do I owe it?
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_01: What's the outcome to it?
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's happening all the time for me on auto on autopilot.
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_01: So in the beginning, like going to the gym, you have to spend an hour.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_01: You might have to get a personal trainer to give you some discipline, some accountability, to give you and to teach you why and how to do things without damaging yourself.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because, like looking after your body, you can get lost in a world of online help, right?
• 1:09:06
  SPEAKER_01: Where everything is pretty much saying the same thing, but doing it from a different perspective.
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then you get so confused that you give up, right?
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's the same with the fitness industry.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_01: You can follow all these people online.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_01: The fundamental basics of like losing weight is like calorie deficit, isn't it?
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, calorie deficit, if you want a good body, calorie deficit and lift weights.
• 1:09:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if you want to build muscle, eat more and lift lift weights, right?
• 1:09:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's very similar to the way the mind works.
• 1:09:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sort of saying that, you know, I'm going to categorize every bit of mental uh health uh problems into one box.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about mental fitness.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about improving your mental health when it comes to you as an individual and you as a business owner.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_01: And there are simple things that you can do.
• 1:09:46
  SPEAKER_01: One is take the thought out of your head, put it onto paper, materialize it, look at it objectively, and take a look at what part you played in it.
• 1:09:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, can you do things differently?
• 1:09:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, lo and behold, I can.
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, have I done something wrong?
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Own up to it and accept it.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be ashamed or guilty for it.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Don't hold on to things that you think are, you know, wrong.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Don't have a high expectation of yourself.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Don't have, you know, hold yourself to such a high expectation that you're never going to actually achieve what it is you're going to do.
• 1:10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because guess what?
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_01: That internal voice that you've got going on in your head day in, day out, is going to be a right little task, Master.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to be horrible.
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, one of the biggest best things I ever learned, and I said it to a girl this morning in the office, is that you have a relationship internally, right?
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_01: There's a voice inside your head.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Stop, listen.
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_01: How does that voice talk to you?
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_01: What language does that voice use?
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Is it kind?
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Is it loving?
• 1:10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Is it supporting you in your journey to be the best recruitment consultant that you could be?
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Is it attacking is it beating you up constantly?
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Is it putting you down constantly?
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Change the internal voice, change the picture of who that internal voice is.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Mine used to be this golem-esque, horrible thing.
• 1:10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's this beautiful, kind, fit, healthy spirit within me that's I just turn to and I and I have this wonderful internal conversation and it feeds me with the things that I want to hear, not the things that I don't want to hear.
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the most powerful things you can do is do that day in, day out.
• 1:11:14
  SPEAKER_01: It seems really silly in the beginning, but once you do it, it's your brain will change and it will affect you massively with your work because you give yourself a bloody break.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're allowed to make mistakes as a business owner, and you will make mistakes in your careers.
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I've made a mistake.
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've made a mistake, brilliant.
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_01: What have I learned?
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, and I love that.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the things that my piece of advice, I think.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think you echo that.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're on that page, and that's what it's about to be in a business owner.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's just giving yourself a bloody break.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you're doing it to yourself, right, let's say you get to the stage where you start employing people, what are you gonna do?
• 1:11:50
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna project that onto others.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_01: I did that for so long.
• 1:11:53
  SPEAKER_01: I projected my shit onto others, and like I look back on it and think like, man, like that was your fault.
• 1:12:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm glad I don't do that anymore because I think that's a lot fantastic business out there.
• 1:12:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but you learn from it, don't you?
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I guess that's why you have to fail.
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard at the time, but in hindsight, you look back and think, Oh, yeah, that's actually quite a good fail.
• 1:12:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm glad I did.
• 1:12:14
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, I wouldn't be where I am today, which I think is also a hard part of you know, running a business is the moments of failure, and you beat yourself up, as you rightly say, but you bringing it back to you and sort of having that conversation and just you know moving forward, keep moving forward.
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's really important.
• 1:12:31
  SPEAKER_01: A couple of things I really liked about what you talked about by having your business is that you you have started your own directly authorized firm, but you've partnered with somebody.
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_01: So you found that significant other that adds the part to that business that you haven't got, perhaps.
• 1:12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:12:46
  SPEAKER_01: So you found that, you know, yin to your yang.
• 1:12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's really important because some of the most successful people that are setting up their businesses for like work-life balance have that relationship.
• 1:12:57
  SPEAKER_01: They have that relationship.
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_01: So someone might be a really um client-facing uh financial advisor, but they join forces with a power planner and then they set their business up.
• 1:13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, one of the roles that I see more as well is somebody who's like more operational-based.
• 1:13:12
  SPEAKER_01: So a financial advisor partnering with an operational focused type individual who thinks about structure, who thinks about how the processes are for the business, um, and perhaps does a bit of compliance, but maybe manages the compliance, manages the power planner on an outsourced basis, but is the operational person, making sure everything's ticking over.
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_01: So in the back of your mind, you're not worried, you know, and um you're off doing all your things that you need to do, which is um see financial planners and work on the content that you want to create.
• 1:13:40
  SPEAKER_01: It frees up that energy, that part of your brain, which is constantly thinking, what if, what if should I it takes away that?
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I don't know how you think about that, but my that's my experience of talking to advisors.
• 1:13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Perhaps if you go it alone, right?
• 1:13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm gonna do my own business and I'm gonna be, it's just gonna be me.
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_01: I personally think that's a risky game.
• 1:14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Find somebody who is yin to your yang, and they're out there.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you notice this as well, but you know the role of like a power planner or operations manager, it's always been kind of one that's steeped in employed employment, like, oh, you kind of do what you do, you know, a bit of mushroom, feeding shit and keep them in the dark, you know, just do your job and get on with it, you know.
• 1:14:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what I'm seeing now is far more entrepreneurial administrators, far more entrepreneurial operation managers, far more power planners.
• 1:14:28
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen two compliance guys set up their own financial advice firm and then employ financial advisors.
• 1:14:33
  SPEAKER_01: So we're seeing this more and more.
• 1:14:36
  SPEAKER_01: So connecting with the likes of the PowerPlanner PowerWow, the power planner clubs, the um there's lots of them out there now, isn't there?
• 1:14:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's um that if you if you are thinking about starting your own business, find an entrepreneurial power planner, find an entrepreneurial, they're out there and they want to join forces, don't do it alone.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, and I and I agree, and I think there's a confidence aspect that to that as well, to be be prepared to take on people that are better than you.
• 1:15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that that displays a lot of confidence to be able to say, actually, I'm not an expert in this, I could do it, but I'll I'll be a five out of ten.
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Sam's a nine out of ten.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go and get him, and he'll be you'll be better than me at it, and it can allow me to focus on something else.
• 1:15:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's a huge strength to be able to do that.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's only it's only going to make your business better.
• 1:15:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I agree, and you know, having that sort of different perspective as well.
• 1:15:28
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what Diane gives me.
• 1:15:30
  SPEAKER_02: She's supported other young sort of you know, entrepreneurs, so she's got experience you know in this journey, and I was very aware of that.
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_02: So that's really valuable to me.
• 1:15:39
  SPEAKER_02: So she then sits down with me and says, All right, this is your idea, Kate.
• 1:15:42
  SPEAKER_02: Have you thought about X, Y, and Z?
• 1:15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh all right, no.
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, okay, right.
• 1:15:48
  SPEAKER_02: Good point.
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think about that.
• 1:15:50
  SPEAKER_02: So you know, it's it's invaluable because it's quite easy just to sort of go down the rabbit hole.
• 1:15:55
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, if you don't seek counsel like West.
• 1:15:58
  SPEAKER_02: So when I started the business, I spoke to oh god, I don't know, 10, 12 different planners who ran their own businesses down south and up here in Scotland and got their perspectives on it.
• 1:16:11
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't know what you don't know, so go and speak to guys that are good at it and then you can learn from them.
• 1:16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, which is yeah, which has been valuable.
• 1:16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Keith, if somebody, you know, and again, this is a fear that people have, right?
• 1:16:23
  SPEAKER_01: If somebody knocked on your door, phoned you up, sent you a message in the digital age, knocked on your door, no one does that anymore.
• 1:16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Someone drops in your inbox and says, Keith, I'm I want to start my own business.
• 1:16:34
  SPEAKER_01: I've listened to you on the on the Financial Planner Life podcast, and um, I I am thinking about starting my own business, but I'll be honest, I don't know where to start.
• 1:16:41
  SPEAKER_01: As a person who runs a business and someone reaches out to you and asks for your help, A, how often does that happen?
• 1:16:48
  SPEAKER_01: Probably not that often.
• 1:16:50
  SPEAKER_02: I've I've actually spoken to three people this year thus far, three, four people.
• 1:16:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, who've asked me that question.
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I actually get asked that more often than I expected.
• 1:16:58
  SPEAKER_01: And how do you feel when somebody asks you that question?
• 1:17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think, oh, for God's sake, or do you think, oh, I help this person?
• 1:17:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, honored.
• 1:17:05
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely honored.
• 1:17:06
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 1:17:07
  SPEAKER_02: Because they're, you know, someone that's passionate and wants to go and make a difference.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and when they do it in the right way and they they tend to do it in the right way, they'll approach it in the right way.
• 1:17:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'll give them an hour or two of my time or whatever.
• 1:17:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's is great.
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because it just, you know, we should be able to all work in the industry together and boost each other up.
• 1:17:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:17:26
  SPEAKER_02: But there are there are far too many clients out there for us all.
• 1:17:30
  SPEAKER_02: Why can't we all work together and support each other?
• 1:17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because if we support each other, it just brings the whole industry up.
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_02: So the standard goes from here to there because you know, we've just been willing to open the door to people and share best practice.
• 1:17:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not, I don't think we should be scared about doing that.
• 1:17:45
  SPEAKER_02: Some of us can be, I don't know, this is my piece of the pie.
• 1:17:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm holding on to this, I'm not sharing my secrets.
• 1:17:50
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I get it, there's intellectual property and all of that.
• 1:17:52
  SPEAKER_02: We don't want to maybe give away all of our secrets, but that doesn't mean we can't still, you know, lift the industry up by you know supporting you know these guys that want to start their own business or or maybe just think differently in their own business, be an entrepreneur, as I think is Ryan May that did a talk about that in Next Gen, which is really interesting.
• 1:18:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh love it.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_02: So absolutely.
• 1:18:13
  SPEAKER_02: Open door.
• 1:18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 1:18:15
  SPEAKER_01: I always like to finish on.
• 1:18:17
  SPEAKER_01: We had a great conversation today.
• 1:18:18
  SPEAKER_01: We've you know, you've shared so much, and it's been a really lovely conversation talking to you.
• 1:18:22
  SPEAKER_01: I I've really benefited from talking to you.
• 1:18:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you.
• 1:18:24
  SPEAKER_02: Likewise.
• 1:18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Lovely flow of conversation.
• 1:18:27
  SPEAKER_01: How about we end on?
• 1:18:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, someone's thinking about what advice would you give to somebody right now who is thinking about becoming a financial advisor, right?
• 1:18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Or working within the financial advice profession.
• 1:18:38
  SPEAKER_01: They're in a different profession, let's say, perhaps they're a graduate even.
• 1:18:42
  SPEAKER_01: What's your sales pitch to why someone should become a financial planner or work in the profession?
• 1:18:48
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, my sales pitch to well, I I mean, I think first off, who you know, whoever it is, they need to just sort of you know take a step back and relax.
• 1:18:59
  SPEAKER_02: Don't stress about it too much.
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_02: Be open to maybe trying different roles in the industry.
• 1:19:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, if you might want to be a planner, that may be your ultimate goal.
• 1:19:08
  SPEAKER_02: But be okay with experimenting in the industry because you might be surprised with what you sort of come across.
• 1:19:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but you know, a pitch to industry is don't listen to the mainstream industry jargon which says, we do finance, we do money, this is the textbook, go and read it, and then you can do your thing.
• 1:19:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's absolute nonsense.
• 1:19:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's not what it's about.
• 1:19:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's about people, it's a people business, it's about being good with people, and it's about making a difference in people's lives.
• 1:19:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and if if you're and you might not be perfect with people, but if you want to improve on how you interact with people, and if you want to make a difference, this is this could be a great industry for you.
• 1:19:49
  SPEAKER_02: And within that, there's going to be a role in there that you know could work really well for you.
• 1:19:53
  SPEAKER_02: Don't be intimidated by the technical stuff.
• 1:19:56
  SPEAKER_02: You can do that.
• 1:19:57
  SPEAKER_02: I did it, and I'm not a you know, a Harvard graduate or anything like that.
• 1:20:01
  SPEAKER_02: Come from humble beginnings, working class background, and there's a wide variety of people across the spectrum.
• 1:20:07
  SPEAKER_02: So don't think just because you are said different person that you can't fit in this industry, you can.
• 1:20:12
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, in all likelihood, you're probably going to enhance it because you're you're different and you're unique because you are you and me.
• 1:20:20
  SPEAKER_02: No one can else can replicate me.
• 1:20:22
  SPEAKER_02: So whoever you are, you can add value, and that's quite exciting.
• 1:20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful.
• 1:20:27
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely yeah, fantastic.
• 1:20:29
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 1:20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that sign off.
• 1:20:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a pleasure talking to you today, absolute pleasure.
• 1:20:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um, thank you for sharing your journey on the Financial Planet Life podcast.
• 1:20:37
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, it's been amazing, Sam.
• 1:20:39
  SPEAKER_02: All the best.
• 1:20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Keith.