Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / 42-Year Legacy, Startup Energy: Reinventing a Family Advice Firm | Sean Standerwick

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42-Year Legacy, Startup Energy: Reinventing a Family Advice Firm | Sean Standerwick · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:00
  Sam Oakes: And today's guest on the Financial Planner Live podcast is Sean Standerwick.
• 0:04
  Sam Oakes: He is one of the owners of MLP Wealth Management in Surrey.
• 0:08
  Sam Oakes: His business is situated in an old bank, and we talk about how being on the high street has massively helped his business grow.
• 0:16
  Sam Oakes: He gets stuck in to the local community.
• 0:19
  Sam Oakes: That hyper-local marketing.
• 0:21
  Sam Oakes: Why is it so effective?
• 0:23
  Sam Oakes: What impact it has on his business and attracting talent to come and work for MLP.
• 0:28
  Sam Oakes: We're going to dig deep into some of the people that work for MLP, their career development, their career progression, and how Sean and his brother have supported those individuals to find their path within the business.
• 0:39
  Sam Oakes: Sean is a Buddhist and he talks to us about a seven-day retreat he went on where he didn't speak to anybody, no mobile phones, and just meditated.
• 0:49
  Sam Oakes: We talk about how Buddhism is shaping him and the culture of his business.
• 0:54
  Sam Oakes: It's a really fantastic episode.
• 0:56
  Sam Oakes: For 42 years this business is going, but right now where his brother and him have taken it over from his father, it's now feeling like a startup.
• 1:06
  Sam Oakes: So we learn what it's like to run a startup mentality on 42 years of trusted foundations.
• 1:13
  Sam Oakes: This is a fantastic episode if you're interested in growing your own financial advice business, or even if you're a training financial planner looking for your next home.
• 1:22
  Sam Oakes: Hi Sean, thanks for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast.
• 1:27
  Sam Oakes: How are you?
• 1:28
  Sam Oakes: I am well, thanks.
• 1:29
  Sam Oakes: It's great to be here.
• 1:30
  Sam Oakes: Looking forward to this.
• 1:31
  Sam Oakes: Fantastic.
• 1:32
  Sam Oakes: All right, Sean, um obviously I've seen you on LinkedIn.
• 1:36
  Sam Oakes: You've been getting yourself out there quite a bit, and I think we've touched base a few times via messages.
• 1:40
  Sam Oakes: I was really impressed with your Christmas display window in your business on the high street.
• 1:46
  Sam Oakes: Did that get a lot of clients in interested in walking through the door at all?
• 1:50
  Sean Standerwick: Well, you know, there's there's many things that make people walk through the door, but we do get a lot of feedback from locals that even just walking their dog in the morning, they really enjoy looking at the windows, but it cheers them up.
• 2:02
  Sean Standerwick: We have children stopping, pointing, there's local school, and it just provides a little bit of cheer and it's a bit of fun.
• 2:08
  Sean Standerwick: So yeah, it's it's a compounding effect of things like that with everything else we do.
• 2:14
  Sam Oakes: Oh, I love it.
• 2:14
  Sam Oakes: I'm really into that whole hyper-local field.
• 2:17
  Sam Oakes: Been speaking to a lot of businesses lately who really want to position their companies as being like the number one financial planning company in the town or in the city or in the region.
• 2:26
  Sam Oakes: Um, when you think about your financial planning business situated on the high street, very busy, affluent area, do you position yourself as being a national firm and growing clients across the UK?
• 2:38
  Sam Oakes: Or are you trying to dominate locally?
• 2:40
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, so actually, really good question.
• 2:42
  Sean Standerwick: We well came up with a business plan with the whole team.
• 2:46
  Sean Standerwick: So we all sat down and we did it, and one of our goals was be the local go-to financial planning firm to be known everywhere locally.
• 2:53
  Sean Standerwick: You know, Richard Branson speaks about this and he says, get known and sort of not maybe not dominate, it's not the right word, but get really well known locally, expand it then regionally, nationally, and then internationally.
• 3:07
  Sean Standerwick: And so, yes, it's something we've been uh really keen on doing and really important to us.
• 3:13
  Sam Oakes: Oh, I love it.
• 3:13
  Sam Oakes: One of the things that I love the most about our pre-podcast call was your business feels like a startup, but on the foundations of a great deal of history and trust because the business has been around for nearly 42 years.
• 3:27
  Sean Standerwick: Correct.
• 3:27
  Sean Standerwick: So my dad set it up originally 42 years ago.
• 3:31
  Sean Standerwick: You know, he was there's a lot of hard graph there.
• 3:33
  Sean Standerwick: He started knocking on people's doors, selling them savings product.
• 3:36
  Sean Standerwick: I saw him last night, we were talking about this.
• 3:39
  Sean Standerwick: And, you know, the business has grown and we've got to this point now where we're in this really exciting position because we've got that history, we've got the heritage, but me and my brother took over two and a half years ago, although we've been here a lot, lot longer.
• 3:54
  Sean Standerwick: And with that, we've got this real drive to take things to the next level.
• 3:58
  Sean Standerwick: We don't rest on our laurels, and you know, it's just such an opportunity.
• 4:03
  Sean Standerwick: The average age of an advisor is 59.
• 4:05
  Sean Standerwick: There's such an opportunity for young people in the industry.
• 4:08
  Sean Standerwick: I think there's a problem that people don't realize what a great career it is, or maybe there's even it is a career.
• 4:15
  Sean Standerwick: So, yeah, that's something we're keen on getting out there.
• 4:18
  Sam Oakes: No, I just're on the right channel then for that, because this is what we were all about.
• 4:21
  Sam Oakes: The financial planner life was set up to be able to create a window into what it's like to work within the financial planning profession, not only to attract new talent into it and help reduce that advice gap, which the numbers aren't really shifting massively.
• 4:32
  Sam Oakes: They're still not shifting.
• 4:34
  Sam Oakes: Um, but also to educate those already in it about how to potentially progress within your career.
• 4:38
  Sam Oakes: Because again, there wasn't a great deal of content out there about career development within financial planning as well.
• 4:43
  Sam Oakes: So just tell us a little bit about your own personal journey.
• 4:46
  Sam Oakes: You're you're you're a business owner, right?
• 4:47
  Sam Oakes: You're managing a business now.
• 4:48
  Sam Oakes: How much is under management of your business currently?
• 4:50
  Sam Oakes: So currently it's about 240 million that we've got.
• 4:54
  Sam Oakes: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:54
  Sam Oakes: So 240 million, that was your dad's business.
• 4:57
  Sam Oakes: You've been working with your dad for how long before you went through like a management buyout?
• 5:03
  Sean Standerwick: About seven and a half years, I would say.
• 5:06
  Sean Standerwick: So I came on, as I said, I was self-employed.
• 5:10
  Sean Standerwick: We didn't have any structure there.
• 5:12
  Sean Standerwick: It was just me, obviously with family, right?
• 5:15
  Sean Standerwick: So it's it's a little bit different.
• 5:17
  Sean Standerwick: But I was just constantly going up to him asking questions.
• 5:20
  Sean Standerwick: I just given a desk, right?
• 5:22
  Sean Standerwick: Get on with it and you know, make it work.
• 5:25
  Sean Standerwick: But he was there for me if I had questions, my brother likewise.
• 5:29
  Sean Standerwick: But you know, that gave me a massive shortcut to learn something he learned over decades and decades of experience that I didn't need to do because I could just get all the answers quickly.
• 5:40
  Sean Standerwick: And so very quickly, you know, I caught up.
• 5:42
  Sean Standerwick: Whilst I had experience in financial industry, not in the financial planning industry.
• 5:48
  Sam Oakes: So I want to go back to this kind of so it's you and your brother that have come together now to manage the business.
• 5:55
  Sam Oakes: What's the name of the business again?
• 5:56
  Sam Oakes: MLP Wealth Management.
• 5:59
  Sam Oakes: Okay.
• 5:59
  Sam Oakes: So you're coming in on the back of a 42-year foundation.
• 6:03
  Sam Oakes: And what approach are you taking to this business now?
• 6:07
  Sam Oakes: You know, are you coming in there with a fresh pair of eyes, a fresh energy?
• 6:11
  Sam Oakes: Are you looking to now build this business and grow it?
• 6:13
  Sam Oakes: Is there that startup mentality feel to something?
• 6:16
  Sam Oakes: I'm just really interested how like how it must feel to have a startup mentality, but on really strong foundations.
• 6:25
  Sean Standerwick: Well, uh, one thing I am is really, really grateful for the fact that we have that heritage.
• 6:30
  Sean Standerwick: And yes, we definitely have this startup mentality.
• 6:34
  Sean Standerwick: So we're a small team, there are nine of us.
• 6:36
  Sean Standerwick: We've got, you know, some young people here.
• 6:39
  Sean Standerwick: Um, quite a few of them um are quite a lot younger than me as well.
• 6:44
  Sean Standerwick: And you know, what's important?
• 6:47
  Sean Standerwick: Why are we talking about this?
• 6:49
  Sean Standerwick: Because our industry, I we've got a hashtag, not your ordinary advisors.
• 6:54
  Sean Standerwick: And I think there are quite a lot of boring places out there.
• 6:58
  Sean Standerwick: We've had people join us and they just said, you know, it was quite dull there.
• 7:01
  Sean Standerwick: I didn't get much support.
• 7:03
  Sean Standerwick: We want to be this incredible team.
• 7:05
  Sean Standerwick: What is a business?
• 7:06
  Sean Standerwick: A business is really just a group of people gelled together by a culture.
• 7:11
  Sean Standerwick: And if we're, you know, we've got some really big goals.
• 7:14
  Sean Standerwick: I mean, we've got the infinite goals, things like financial peace of mind and a vehicle for people to be successful.
• 7:22
  Sean Standerwick: So that's career, it's clients, it's everyone.
• 7:25
  Sean Standerwick: And that these are things we're really passionate about.
• 7:27
  Sean Standerwick: We have some targets, you know, in the next three years to get to 500 million, you know, longer term, a billion and plus.
• 7:34
  Sean Standerwick: What's really important though, and I think we talked about this on our when we spoke the other week, is that at the core of what we do is looking after the client.
• 7:45
  Sean Standerwick: You think of uh of Ronaldo, yeah, he's an incredible football player and he's got this massive personal brand.
• 7:52
  Sean Standerwick: But if he was a poor football player, it would all fall apart.
• 7:55
  Sean Standerwick: And that's the way we look at it.
• 7:56
  Sean Standerwick: We don't want to grow in such a way that we take our eye off what we do, and at the core is just giving top advice, looking after our clients.
• 8:05
  Sean Standerwick: But you know, we'll we'll probably get into it.
• 8:07
  Sean Standerwick: But there are a lot of things we're doing when you talk about being a startup where the team are heavily involved in the process of the business growing with ideas, etc.
• 8:18
  Sean Standerwick: So yeah.
• 8:20
  Sean Standerwick: Oh, I love that.
• 8:21
  Sam Oakes: Just tell us a little bit about how you get that team involved then and you work collectively as a unit to be able to A, deliver an amazing client experience, but B, help those individuals actually grow as well and progress within their career and help the business push forward.
• 8:35
  Sam Oakes: How are you doing that?
• 8:35
  Sam Oakes: What do you do?
• 8:36
  Sam Oakes: Do you have like one-to-ones?
• 8:37
  Sam Oakes: Do you have weekly kind of huddles?
• 8:39
  Sam Oakes: What type of things are you doing to include those people that were within your business to be aligned to the goals that you have as business owners?
• 8:47
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, and do you know what?
• 8:48
  Sean Standerwick: That's key, being aligned.
• 8:50
  Sean Standerwick: One thing about my brother and I that I noticed was we had to negotiate the deal to buy the business.
• 8:55
  Sean Standerwick: It wasn't a handover, it took a year and a half.
• 8:58
  Sean Standerwick: It's difficult, it can be when it's family.
• 9:00
  Sean Standerwick: When our interests were aligned to do that, everything fell into place.
• 9:04
  Sean Standerwick: And that was a wake-up moment for me.
• 9:06
  Sean Standerwick: So, first of all, I mentioned we have a business plan.
• 9:09
  Sean Standerwick: If I came to the team and said, right, everyone, we're doing this and this, they're not going to buy into it, right?
• 9:16
  Sean Standerwick: So, yes, there are some high-level decisions we need to make and be leaders, but we want them involved in the plan.
• 9:21
  Sean Standerwick: And you know what?
• 9:22
  Sean Standerwick: They have some incredible ideas that we never think of.
• 9:25
  Sean Standerwick: So we have a monthly business catch-up, a meeting in which we all have different roles that people step forward to, take accountability for, and then we go through things and we mix up these business meetings.
• 9:39
  Sean Standerwick: They were getting a bit stale, so we had to change what we were doing there.
• 9:43
  Sean Standerwick: In terms of the people themselves, yes, we do some one-to-ones.
• 9:47
  Sean Standerwick: I'm also a fan of just regularly checking in.
• 9:51
  Sean Standerwick: Before I came on here, I was downstairs making a coffee.
• 9:55
  Sean Standerwick: James, our advisor, who came on as a trainee.
• 9:58
  Sean Standerwick: We're having a chat in the kitchen.
• 10:00
  Sean Standerwick: And, you know, he's just had his biggest month ever in terms of new business.
• 10:03
  Sean Standerwick: And I said, Why do you think that is?
• 10:05
  Sean Standerwick: And he said, Well, it was the change that you made and me managing fewer clients.
• 10:11
  Sean Standerwick: The problem's never been the opportunity, but now I feel I've got a more manageable client bank where I can make sure I review them as regularly as possible, but then stay on top of the opportunities and I'm not getting distracted as well.
• 10:26
  Sean Standerwick: So it's a mixture of the one-to-ones, the regular check-ins, how are you getting on, what's going on there, um, amongst other things, and and recognizing them as well.
• 10:38
  Sean Standerwick: I said to him, you know, oh, one of my first comment was, you've just had a really good quarter, well done.
• 10:44
  Sean Standerwick: You know, just saying that, people feel feel proud of what they're doing.
• 10:48
  Sean Standerwick: He should, you know, he's doing really, really well.
• 10:51
  Sean Standerwick: He's grown so quickly and matured a lot as well.
• 10:54
  Sean Standerwick: And it's just amazing and to see.
• 10:56
  Sean Standerwick: And, you know, without selling patronizing, I'm I'm really, really proud of him, you know.
• 11:01
  Sam Oakes: I think businesses that are investing in trade financial planners need to be champions.
• 11:05
  Sam Oakes: So let's just talk a little bit about James' journey then.
• 11:08
  Sam Oakes: So, where did he come from before he came to your business?
• 11:12
  Sam Oakes: And how do you approach bringing on a trade financial planner?
• 11:16
  Sam Oakes: It sounds to me like you give them a client bank.
• 11:18
  Sam Oakes: Is that the case?
• 11:18
  Sam Oakes: Do you employ them?
• 11:20
  Sam Oakes: Um, how do you train and develop them?
• 11:22
  Sam Oakes: Is it outsourced?
• 11:23
  Sam Oakes: Tell us a little bit about the process of bringing on someone like a James into your business and how do you get them up to you know getting the best quarter that they ever have done?
• 11:32
  Sean Standerwick: So, James, if we talk specifically about him, first of all, everyone is employed here.
• 11:36
  Sean Standerwick: We don't do self-employed anymore.
• 11:38
  Sean Standerwick: Um, it's what people want, it's the right thing, it gives them the support they need, and that's what our business model is.
• 11:45
  Sean Standerwick: James was at a firm where it was around COVID time, he was just left to his own devices.
• 11:52
  Sean Standerwick: He was sitting at home, barely earning any money.
• 11:55
  Sean Standerwick: He managed to get himself fully qualified, and he just didn't know what to do.
• 12:00
  Sean Standerwick: He was promised that he would get support, he would get training.
• 12:03
  Sean Standerwick: He didn't really get he got one meeting where he was shadowing.
• 12:07
  Sean Standerwick: So when he interviewed here, we told him what we were looking to do, and he said, This is exactly what I want.
• 12:13
  Sean Standerwick: At that time, my father was still in the business, so he had him to learn from, he had my brother, and he had me.
• 12:18
  Sean Standerwick: And he came on, we said, Look, you're gonna have to start an administration, you're gonna be a trainee.
• 12:24
  Sean Standerwick: And he did that, and to this day, he says the thing where he learned the most was doing policy summaries, and he said, Oh, I used to love them.
• 12:33
  Sean Standerwick: And he was, yeah, and we would regularly check in with him, we would have regular catch-ups and make sure he was progressing and feeling like he was progressing.
• 12:42
  Sean Standerwick: And there was even a moment where we had, you know, we had some old staff members, you know, our culture has shifted and they weren't really aligned with the direction, they ended up leaving.
• 12:54
  Sean Standerwick: And James had at this stage started transitioning into client reviews.
• 12:59
  Sean Standerwick: He wasn't actually signed off, but he was helping with them more and and etc.
• 13:03
  Sean Standerwick: And he actually took a step back and came back to administration to help us out while we were hiring, and then we recognized that in many ways, also financially, because we knew he wouldn't be getting some of the new business he would have been otherwise.
• 13:18
  Sean Standerwick: So he it was where our interests were aligned.
• 13:21
  Sean Standerwick: He knew we cared about him, that we were going to look after him, and he had no problem doing that because he knew that's what the firm needed.
• 13:27
  Sean Standerwick: Once that was sorted, he went back and he quickly progressed to the point where it wasn't that long before I'd overhear him speaking to a client.
• 13:36
  Sean Standerwick: And I think, wow, you sound like my dad, me, or my brother, you know, after all these years of experience, you've only been here a year or two, and already you're sounding amazing.
• 13:47
  Sean Standerwick: You know, he's one thing James was also very good at was constantly he talks a lot, he asks a lot of questions.
• 13:53
  Sean Standerwick: Uh, and that that really helped him grow.
• 13:56
  Sam Oakes: And when he talks a lot and he asks a lot of questions, is that directly asking clients or is it asking his colleagues, friends around him, people within the business, yourself, for example?
• 14:05
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, it I was talking about asking me, my brother, my father.
• 14:09
  Sean Standerwick: So just always, and he still does it now.
• 14:11
  Sean Standerwick: Uh, maybe he should do it a bit more again.
• 14:13
  Sean Standerwick: But you know, also we're a little bit more busy, we've got more staff members.
• 14:17
  Sean Standerwick: But yeah, it was like downstairs when having that conversation.
• 14:20
  Sean Standerwick: I then ended up, we we started talking about some clients, and then I gave him a few tips, and he was like, Oh, yeah, that's really interesting.
• 14:26
  Sean Standerwick: And he asked a few questions.
• 14:28
  Sean Standerwick: That kind of thing, we've got an open door policy here.
• 14:31
  Sean Standerwick: Come and talk to us.
• 14:32
  Sean Standerwick: You have anything you're struggling with, anything you're unsure.
• 14:35
  Sean Standerwick: He asked me a different question yesterday about an investment.
• 14:37
  Sean Standerwick: So, yeah, it's about look, why would you not, especially in a firm where you've got direct access to the business owners' directors with a lot of experience, why would you not take advantage of that?
• 14:50
  Sean Standerwick: Cut out, you know, I've got what is it, 18 years uh you that I've been working since I left university.
• 14:56
  Sean Standerwick: Why would you not leverage that knowledge?
• 14:59
  Sam Oakes: And do you spend a lot of your time client-facing still now you're moving into more of a business owner position, or you know, or are you um 100% on sort of running the business and training and development, developing staff?
• 15:10
  Sam Oakes: Is it a balance between the two?
• 15:11
  Sam Oakes: How do you how do you do it?
• 15:13
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, really good question.
• 15:14
  Sean Standerwick: So that's something that I'm constantly assessing where we spend time.
• 15:19
  Sean Standerwick: And one thing we realized recently is not spending enough time with clients.
• 15:23
  Sean Standerwick: So, yes, I have a client bank that I'm managing, it's not as big as theirs, and I tend we, me and my brother, tend to look after the bigger clients.
• 15:29
  Sean Standerwick: We take on all the new inquiries, but it's actually look, it's potentially or certainly one of the most fun parts of the job.
• 15:39
  Sean Standerwick: And it's really important at this stage where we are with the business that we are heavily involved with that.
• 15:45
  Sean Standerwick: We don't want to be, we don't want the business to rely on us 100%.
• 15:49
  Sean Standerwick: I think if you can have a really successful business, it needs to run while you're not there.
• 15:54
  Sean Standerwick: We're not there yet, but it is important, and you know, with where we are in our journey, that we are spending more time with clients.
• 16:02
  Sean Standerwick: So, you know, that there are probably, you know, well, we talked about with my brother, what is it?
• 16:07
  Sean Standerwick: That there are probably three things we should be doing.
• 16:10
  Sean Standerwick: We should be clients, and that means looking after clients, uh, bringing on new clients, and also staff.
• 16:19
  Sean Standerwick: So that's staff in the firm, but also recruiting.
• 16:22
  Sean Standerwick: You know, we've been on a recruitment journey almost constantly, certainly over the past few years, and that's really important because you need to get the right people.
• 16:32
  Sean Standerwick: It's all about the right people.
• 16:33
  Sean Standerwick: So that might come at a time where you're not looking for that role.
• 16:37
  Sam Oakes: Okay, so what are some of the challenges you've had around recruitment then?
• 16:40
  Sam Oakes: Because it's a tough market to recruit in.
• 16:42
  Sam Oakes: Um, how have you um approached it?
• 16:45
  Sam Oakes: Have you had much success?
• 16:47
  Sam Oakes: And what sort of challenges are you coming up against?
• 16:49
  Sean Standerwick: Do you know what?
• 16:50
  Sean Standerwick: The hardest thing about running a business is managing people and finding new people and bringing staff on.
• 16:58
  Sean Standerwick: We've made mistakes, we've taken on the wrong people where it didn't work.
• 17:03
  Sean Standerwick: I've learned myself as a manager as well how to manage people.
• 17:08
  Sean Standerwick: And but we've got to a point now where I mean we're constantly improving and we constantly try to.
• 17:14
  Sean Standerwick: I think you've got to be realistic though.
• 17:16
  Sean Standerwick: I mean, you know, and again, I like to speak to people who've got more experience than me.
• 17:20
  Sean Standerwick: I even spoke to a recruitment agent last week.
• 17:23
  Sean Standerwick: And they said, when when I recruit, I still don't get it right every time.
• 17:27
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah.
• 17:27
  Sean Standerwick: So, but we would just want to minimize.
• 17:30
  Sean Standerwick: So it's that thing of hire slow, fire fast.
• 17:34
  Sean Standerwick: I mean, look, we don't want to be firing people.
• 17:36
  Sean Standerwick: That's where we don't want to be.
• 17:38
  Sean Standerwick: That's why you hire slow, right?
• 17:39
  Sean Standerwick: So, yeah, there have been challenges.
• 17:41
  Sean Standerwick: There have been people that didn't work out that you know, we had one case of where someone ended up being quite nasty and uh they were still in the probation.
• 17:49
  Sean Standerwick: At that point, we just we can't have that in our team.
• 17:52
  Sean Standerwick: It's like a disease, it infects people.
• 17:54
  Sean Standerwick: Um, so we we just had to unfortunately let them go.
• 17:57
  Sean Standerwick: It's it's a horrible conversation to have.
• 17:59
  Sean Standerwick: We do not enjoy it, but what we've also let things slide over time and it builds up and it builds up.
• 18:06
  Sean Standerwick: So now we've got to the point where at a much quicker rate, we will realise if they're the wrong person.
• 18:11
  Sean Standerwick: Plus, we've got the experience of taking the wrong people to know who they are.
• 18:16
  Sam Oakes: Learn from your mistakes.
• 18:16
  Sam Oakes: And what about sort of um career development plans?
• 18:19
  Sam Oakes: Have you created a career development structure?
• 18:21
  Sam Oakes: Do you sit down in front of someone and say, look, if you join our business, this is what the roadmap looks like.
• 18:26
  Sam Oakes: And by the way, here's some people that have gone through the process.
• 18:29
  Sam Oakes: Maybe you should sit down with them and have a conversation and they'll tell you firsthand where they are on the journey.
• 18:33
  Sam Oakes: Do you do you have something which is quite visual, which is a guide?
• 18:36
  Sam Oakes: Because I know that people massively value being able to see, and I used to do it in my own recruitment business.
• 18:41
  Sam Oakes: I used to sit them down and they were in my meeting room, and on the board I had a big poster and I had it made up and it was all graphics, but it was one to five years.
• 18:50
  Sam Oakes: And someone, I would, I would say, Oh, I'm just gonna go get a coffee.
• 18:53
  Sam Oakes: Do you want a coffee?
• 18:54
  Sam Oakes: And they're like, Yeah, great.
• 18:54
  Sam Oakes: I said, I'll be back in five minutes.
• 18:56
  Sam Oakes: But whilst you're waiting, have a quick look at that over there.
• 18:58
  Sam Oakes: That's our career roadmap.
• 19:00
  Sam Oakes: And it would kind of articulate all the things that they could do along their journey and how their salary would change, how their bonus would change, if there was any incentives or benefits, when would they come in?
• 19:11
  Sam Oakes: And like almost kind of guiding them on this journey.
• 19:14
  Sam Oakes: So when I end up sitting down with them, they've already got a picture of where this business can actually take them.
• 19:18
  Sam Oakes: So they should be in a completely different frame of mind because they're thinking, whoa, I want to be part of this business.
• 19:23
  Sam Oakes: Um, because a career roadmap, I think, is a massively powerful thing.
• 19:26
  Sam Oakes: Do you do you have that?
• 19:27
  Sam Oakes: Do you have a career development plan?
• 19:29
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:30
  Sean Standerwick: So we have a template which we always talk people through.
• 19:34
  Sean Standerwick: What's really important though is to tailor it.
• 19:38
  Sean Standerwick: So we've taken on different people, different stages in their career with different skill sets as well.
• 19:44
  Sean Standerwick: So, for example, Katie, who joined us as an advisor, had some marketing background.
• 19:50
  Sean Standerwick: She was doing LPAs, and she was the person that did that at that firm.
• 19:55
  Sean Standerwick: We wanted someone to do that, she was keen on doing it.
• 19:58
  Sean Standerwick: So we said that's Part of something that you should do if well she wanted to do it.
• 20:04
  Sean Standerwick: Why don't we set up this service?
• 20:05
  Sean Standerwick: We haven't got someone we can refer.
• 20:07
  Sean Standerwick: And and that's also a really interesting story because within her probation period, she was pitching everyone internally, explaining to them what it is, how it works, how we should explain it to them pass it over to her.
• 20:22
  Sean Standerwick: And we would talk about wills.
• 20:24
  Sean Standerwick: And we said, Yeah, unfortunately, we don't have anyone we can recommend for wills.
• 20:28
  Sean Standerwick: And she said, Well, if you want, I'll train up.
• 20:30
  Sean Standerwick: Said, okay.
• 20:31
  Sean Standerwick: And so within her probation period, we funded and she passed to be able to help with Wills.
• 20:38
  Sean Standerwick: And now we've got a Will service and an LPA service.
• 20:40
  Sean Standerwick: So that's something that's very specific to her.
• 20:43
  Sean Standerwick: We do have progressions depending on where you are in your career and what potential earnings could be.
• 20:51
  Sean Standerwick: So yeah, we always sit down, and even with her, we said, look, if you with where you are with the LPA service, we actually projected what she could earn through that.
• 21:01
  Sean Standerwick: And she's smashed through that.
• 21:03
  Sean Standerwick: So she's actually earning far more and will be than than what we projected.
• 21:08
  Sean Standerwick: So yeah.
• 21:10
  Sam Oakes: So bringing her into the startup mentality, look, there's an opportunity here, LPAs, wills, you can get stuck into that.
• 21:16
  Sam Oakes: You could take ownership of that on the side of what it is you're currently doing as well as a financial planner.
• 21:21
  Sam Oakes: So that's one of the benefits, isn't it, with a smaller business is being that agile, where somebody, if they want to be part of the growth of it and actually shape the direction of it, they can.
• 21:29
  Sam Oakes: It's not like a cog in the wheel.
• 21:31
  Sam Oakes: You're coming in and this is all you do, and you're sitting there.
• 21:33
  Sam Oakes: And your culture is one about sort of sharing, developing people.
• 21:37
  Sam Oakes: If there is something that comes up where you see an opportunity, then you might enthuse that person to take charge of it and push forward to it and develop themselves in that area and hopefully develop the business overall.
• 21:47
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, so the I'd mentioned we have monthly business meetings, and one of the things we changed was pitch an idea.
• 21:54
  Sean Standerwick: So pitch an idea of something you think we can improve within the business.
• 21:58
  Sean Standerwick: And it can be anything.
• 22:00
  Sean Standerwick: It could be we're not recycling properly, but it could be one of the last ones, which Katie came up with, was engaging beneficiaries in the younger generation.
• 22:09
  Sean Standerwick: We know we've got a big problem, right?
• 22:11
  Sean Standerwick: And we know there's a wealth transfer that's going to be rejected about five to seven trillion from baby boomers to the next generation.
• 22:19
  Sean Standerwick: We've got 45% of our kind bank, which is 65 or older.
• 22:24
  Sean Standerwick: So it's not bad for a financial advisory firm, but that is a problem at some point in the future.
• 22:31
  Sean Standerwick: So she came up with this idea, she pitched it on how we could engage beneficiaries and clients children and things we could do.
• 22:40
  Sean Standerwick: And then we've given her the run with someone else to take that forward and what to do, whether it's events, sending out packs to them, and there are lots of different ideas.
• 22:51
  Sean Standerwick: And you know, some of these ideas we won't do, um, some of them we will, but it's that thing of you know, if in a year you try, I'm just making up a number, but 20 things, and then the 21st is an incredible idea.
• 23:05
  Sean Standerwick: Whereas if you wait a whole year and deliberate it, so you failed at 20, whereas in the second scenario, you've not tried anything, you've done one thing, and then that failed.
• 23:14
  Sean Standerwick: You think of, and I look at companies like Amazon, Google.
• 23:19
  Sean Standerwick: I don't know if you know that the post-it note was was one of these ideas.
• 23:24
  Sean Standerwick: So three eye said, pitch an idea.
• 23:27
  Sean Standerwick: Someone just said, let's let's try post-it notes, and well, well, we know how well they did.
• 23:32
  Sean Standerwick: So, you know, Amazon AWS, you know, they have all these ideas.
• 23:35
  Sean Standerwick: They spend millions and probably I think billions on ideas that don't work, but they only need one or two that are incredible.
• 23:41
  Sean Standerwick: So that's our startup mentality.
• 23:44
  Sean Standerwick: That's what we want people involved in, and people love it.
• 23:46
  Sean Standerwick: So the last business meeting, we had a whole list of things to do, and it was amazing to see Katie and Lee.
• 23:54
  Sean Standerwick: So Lee's in our admin team, she's been an excellent addition.
• 23:57
  Sean Standerwick: She's fully bought into what we're doing.
• 23:59
  Sean Standerwick: I mean, she worked so hard that I have to tell her to go home sometimes and stop working.
• 24:04
  Sean Standerwick: She's on holiday now.
• 24:05
  Sean Standerwick: We keep emailing her saying, enjoy your holiday.
• 24:07
  Sean Standerwick: And she last emailed, she said, I swear I am having fun.
• 24:11
  Sean Standerwick: So um, yeah, but they took the lead on it.
• 24:14
  Sean Standerwick: And then between them, they were saying, No, don't give Paul and Sean jobs.
• 24:17
  Sean Standerwick: They need fewer jobs.
• 24:19
  Sean Standerwick: And that's the magic.
• 24:20
  Sean Standerwick: That's the magic, a team working together and the culture coming together when we're not directing it.
• 24:26
  Sean Standerwick: Uh yeah, well, we're in the background, of course, and we are here to direct, but not having to always be heavily involved.
• 24:32
  Sam Oakes: I love it.
• 24:33
  Sam Oakes: You yourself, though, again, I'm from LinkedIn, I've been following you and your story for a little while.
• 24:38
  Sam Oakes: Um, you recently went in for a seven-day meditation retreat where you didn't speak to anybody and you just meditated.
• 24:45
  Sam Oakes: I picked up on your journey that Buddhism is something that's important to you, something that you practice.
• 24:52
  Sam Oakes: Can you just tell me a little bit about Buddhism?
• 24:55
  Sam Oakes: Why you study Buddhism and practice Buddhism?
• 24:59
  Sam Oakes: How does that convert into your business?
• 25:03
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, so look, it's it's really important to me.
• 25:06
  Sean Standerwick: Um it guides how I act every day.
• 25:10
  Sean Standerwick: I live by a set of values, there is something.
• 25:13
  Sean Standerwick: So the the Buddhism I follow is called Theravada.
• 25:15
  Sean Standerwick: There are five precepts which you can follow, but and the highlights of those would be being honest, good speech, so saying, you know, not lying, but also not having divisive speech, not gossiping, not stealing.
• 25:30
  Sean Standerwick: Um and another one, which is quite funny because it kind of happened and we discussed this in a funny period, is is not taking drugs.
• 25:40
  Sean Standerwick: Well, when I say drugs, I I've never really taken any other than alcohol, and uh but drugs that cloud your mind.
• 25:46
  Sean Standerwick: And if you think about what you're trying to achieve in Buddhism, it doesn't make sense because you know, when you drink, it's really hard to control yourself, right?
• 25:55
  Sean Standerwick: And you know, it's it's really fundamentally changed the way that I deal with people, my perception.
• 26:03
  Sean Standerwick: Um and you know, being a bit more so I uh you know, there's there's two sides to me.
• 26:09
  Sean Standerwick: There always has been.
• 26:10
  Sean Standerwick: Um there is a very caring side when I'm in business, I can sometimes come across a little bit differently, and certainly in the past, sometimes a bit serious.
• 26:19
  Sean Standerwick: But actually, deep down, I really care about people and compassion, and and something that's really big in this Buddhism is is something called metta, which is loving kindness.
• 26:30
  Sean Standerwick: And how that's translated into the business is you know, I regularly check in with people.
• 26:35
  Sean Standerwick: I've noticed people have been really down, and I'll say, is everything okay?
• 26:39
  Sean Standerwick: And I don't just drop it, like without being aggressive about it, and I'm not doing it in front of everyone, but I'm saying, look, I'm really concerned about you.
• 26:46
  Sean Standerwick: Do you need some support?
• 26:47
  Sean Standerwick: You know, do you what is it?
• 26:49
  Sean Standerwick: You know, like I I don't want to probe too much if it's really personal, but I just want to make sure you're okay and keep having those conversations.
• 26:58
  Sean Standerwick: And and it's got to the point now where my team really understand my intentions, and it was where I really saw it come together was was Lee and our admin one day said to me, Are you okay, Sean?
• 27:09
  Sean Standerwick: And I was like, Oh, yeah, why?
• 27:10
  Sean Standerwick: And she said, You just don't seem yourself, and I said, Oh, um, how come you asked?
• 27:14
  Sean Standerwick: And she said, Well, you're always asking me, and I thought it's only fair that I should ask you, and that really was really heartwarming.
• 27:22
  Sean Standerwick: And when you've got that kind of a relationship with your team, it everything just falls together.
• 27:28
  Sean Standerwick: She knows if I give her feedback and I say, Look, you made this mistake, or you need to do this, or remember this, she knows I'm not coming from a bad place, um, and that's the same with everyone, really, in the team.
• 27:41
  Sean Standerwick: Um, so yeah, it shapes the way I think and I regularly think.
• 27:44
  Sean Standerwick: How would my teacher Ajahn Brahm react?
• 27:48
  Sean Standerwick: How would he deal with it?
• 27:49
  Sean Standerwick: I mean, he heads up a massive Buddhist organization, um, but it is a different world, so it's not 100% relatable in terms of being a Buddhist monk, of course.
• 27:59
  Sean Standerwick: Um, but yeah, it does shape the way I act and the way I manage people.
• 28:04
  Sam Oakes: I've got to ask though, that seven-day retreat where you didn't speak to anybody and you just focused on meditation.
• 28:08
  Sam Oakes: Can you just give us a bit of an overview of what you went through in those seven days and did you gain value from it?
• 28:14
  Sean Standerwick: Absolutely.
• 28:15
  Sean Standerwick: So I've been on a few now.
• 28:18
  Sean Standerwick: That's the probably the longest one.
• 28:20
  Sean Standerwick: I've been in one other long one.
• 28:22
  Sean Standerwick: I meditate generally every every day.
• 28:25
  Sean Standerwick: And what did I get from it?
• 28:28
  Sean Standerwick: So, you know, think about work, think about running a business.
• 28:31
  Sean Standerwick: I'm a father of two, my husband, just so busy, right?
• 28:36
  Sean Standerwick: And I had got to the point where I felt I needed a break.
• 28:40
  Sean Standerwick: And for the first, for one of the first times ever, I didn't feel guilty about taking a step back.
• 28:45
  Sean Standerwick: I was like, I need this.
• 28:47
  Sean Standerwick: Now, initially, you've because you're saying this silence thing, people think, oh that, oh, I'd hate that.
• 28:54
  Sean Standerwick: I mean, I've come to love it because what happens is you become much more mindful, right?
• 28:59
  Sean Standerwick: You have an idea.
• 29:00
  Sean Standerwick: I didn't have a phone, so you know, oh, what's this?
• 29:03
  Sean Standerwick: And you want to look it up, or what's that?
• 29:05
  Sean Standerwick: And I've got to say this to that person.
• 29:07
  Sean Standerwick: You stop all of that and you become.
• 29:09
  Sean Standerwick: I liken it to driving a car, right?
• 29:12
  Sean Standerwick: If you drive a car really fast and you suddenly put the brakes on, anything in the car will fly forwards.
• 29:17
  Sean Standerwick: You've got the momentum.
• 29:18
  Sean Standerwick: It's the same when you go on a retreat like that.
• 29:20
  Sean Standerwick: Your mind is gonna go, and then suddenly it starts slowing down.
• 29:25
  Sean Standerwick: And midway through it, quite honestly, I got really bored and I was struggling.
• 29:30
  Sean Standerwick: And I started to think about my family, getting excited about seeing my children.
• 29:34
  Sean Standerwick: And I was like, that's not why I'm here.
• 29:36
  Sean Standerwick: Let's because I'm supposed to be in the moment, right?
• 29:39
  Sean Standerwick: And and actually, it just also taught me to be okay with that.
• 29:43
  Sean Standerwick: The moment will pass.
• 29:45
  Sean Standerwick: Because I because you can, it's really easy, and you start noticing giving yourself a hard time about things, and it just I I my energy came back.
• 29:53
  Sean Standerwick: Um, I came back and I just felt incredible.
• 29:56
  Sean Standerwick: Um, you know, I turn up a much nicer person.
• 29:59
  Sean Standerwick: Um, my whole family got ill.
• 30:02
  Sean Standerwick: Um, say my my wife, my two kids.
• 30:05
  Sean Standerwick: I didn't get ill, and I used to get ill, by the way, all the time.
• 30:08
  Sean Standerwick: I've had a bit of a problem.
• 30:09
  Sean Standerwick: So, yeah, it's it's um it's an incredible experience.
• 30:13
  Sean Standerwick: You don't need to, by the way, go on a seven-day retreat.
• 30:16
  Sean Standerwick: That would be a bit probably aggressive for most people initially.
• 30:18
  Sean Standerwick: You can do a half-day retreat, you can do a meditation session, build it up.
• 30:22
  Sean Standerwick: You don't, yeah.
• 30:23
  Sean Standerwick: But if if you're interested, uh definitely check it out.
• 30:25
  Sean Standerwick: Oh, I love it.
• 30:27
  Sam Oakes: So you found like after our seven days, you know, taking off the uh the Buddhist gown and then did they call it a gown or do they call it something else?
• 30:35
  Sean Standerwick: Rogue, robe.
• 30:37
  Sam Oakes: Okay, so taking off the robe, putting the suit back on.
• 30:39
  Sam Oakes: How how quickly how how how polarizing was that?
• 30:44
  Sam Oakes: How uh you know, did it did it did it take a while to sort of step out of that mindset and then back into the work one?
• 30:51
  Sam Oakes: Did anything change?
• 30:52
  Sam Oakes: I'm interested to know if anything has changed for you specifically when you do something like that, because it sounds like life-changing when when someone says it.
• 31:01
  Sam Oakes: And I wonder if it can be in some way life-changing.
• 31:04
  Sam Oakes: Can it affect your business positively?
• 31:07
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, definitely.
• 31:07
  Sean Standerwick: So, you know, when you come back, you're very slow-paced and you're you're used to taking things calmly.
• 31:15
  Sean Standerwick: Suddenly you come back into a crazy world and you're all excited, so your mind starts racing again.
• 31:21
  Sean Standerwick: But, you know, I have noticed my energy levels I exercise a lot, were not what they were.
• 31:26
  Sean Standerwick: I couldn't work with the same intensity, but I was also patient with that and compassionate about it.
• 31:32
  Sean Standerwick: I knew it would come back.
• 31:33
  Sean Standerwick: I've got the experience now.
• 31:35
  Sean Standerwick: In terms of yes, it is, you know, I just noticed things like um, you know, there were some stressful moments that were happening, but deep within me, I just felt this real peace.
• 31:45
  Sean Standerwick: So it was like I realized there was something stressful, and I realized it was a thought, but actually within me and within everyone, there is this deep peace.
• 31:56
  Sean Standerwick: And if you learn to connect with that, and the more you connect with it, then then that's only gonna be positive for everybody.
• 32:02
  Sean Standerwick: So, yes, it's but it's also again, it is a compounding effect.
• 32:06
  Sean Standerwick: Um, but I feel like that particular retreat had a massive impact.
• 32:11
  Sean Standerwick: And, you know, I'm keen to go back.
• 32:13
  Sean Standerwick: It's not easy though, right?
• 32:14
  Sean Standerwick: I've got to be honest.
• 32:16
  Sean Standerwick: You say, well, I've got to take this time out of work, family, etc.
• 32:21
  Sean Standerwick: But you know, I've come to realise it's actually an investment.
• 32:25
  Sam Oakes: Yeah, I love that.
• 32:25
  Sam Oakes: Well, I love your openness around it as well.
• 32:27
  Sam Oakes: There's a leader of a business talking about, you know, the power of meditation, um, values, belief, taking time out for yourself to recharge those batteries and look at things from a different perspective, I think is hugely healthy.
• 32:39
  Sam Oakes: Um, so you know, if I was on the outside looking into your business as wanting to go and work for somebody, I think I'd want to work for somebody that has those values.
• 32:46
  Sam Oakes: And to me, it's you know, it's super interesting that you care about that.
• 32:50
  Sam Oakes: And like you can see how that transcends then into your business because you care about others and the development of people, you're interested in them, how they are, how they are within the company, how you are as a as a manager.
• 33:00
  Sam Oakes: You're looking for that feedback and you're looking to change as you go.
• 33:03
  Sam Oakes: It's not your way or the highway, which I think is, you know, it's a nice way to articulate your culture through your own personal journey.
• 33:13
  Sam Oakes: You know, it's interesting.
• 33:14
  Sam Oakes: It's not, it's not a cookie-cutter type, you know, approach to being a leader within the business, which I love.
• 33:22
  Sam Oakes: Um, one of the things that we did talk about as well, which I you're you're a high street business, right?
• 33:27
  Sam Oakes: You are on the high street, okay?
• 33:29
  Sam Oakes: You've got your you know, lovely Christmas display window that people see and they walk within.
• 33:33
  Sam Oakes: Um, you've got this business that was from an old bank, wasn't it?
• 33:36
  Sam Oakes: And it's got an old bank vault in it.
• 33:38
  Sam Oakes: Tell us a little bit about that bank vault first, actually, because that sounds really interesting.
• 33:41
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah.
• 33:41
  Sean Standerwick: So you look, we've got a real experience when you come into the office.
• 33:45
  Sean Standerwick: We are an in-office culture.
• 33:47
  Sean Standerwick: When clients walk in from the high street all the time with with large sums of money, but you walk through the office, you get a warm welcome.
• 33:57
  Sean Standerwick: We've we've also, you know, got some really nice desks, and we get, you know, a really friendly staff who welcome you in.
• 34:03
  Sean Standerwick: We've got we bought a really special coffee machine, we invested that.
• 34:06
  Sean Standerwick: We've got barista training.
• 34:08
  Sean Standerwick: So you come in, you sit in the waiting area, which my wife designed.
• 34:11
  Sean Standerwick: She's an interior designer.
• 34:12
  Sean Standerwick: That's something else we added.
• 34:14
  Sean Standerwick: And then we have some nice jazz music in the background.
• 34:17
  Sean Standerwick: We give you a nice menu, so you choose your drinks, like you're an afternoon tea place.
• 34:22
  Sean Standerwick: We've got Harry who recently joined us, who worked in a really nice hotel.
• 34:26
  Sean Standerwick: So he comes in with his tray and he does all this presentation.
• 34:30
  Sean Standerwick: But it's just making people feel a bit a little bit special.
• 34:33
  Sean Standerwick: And I think in a world where, you know, AI and online, this is what people want.
• 34:38
  Sean Standerwick: And then you walk through and we've got the vault room.
• 34:41
  Sean Standerwick: So it was an old Nat West bank, and we've got the original vault doors there.
• 34:46
  Sean Standerwick: So we've got two, the massive, really heavy doors.
• 34:50
  Sean Standerwick: And, you know, when we redeveloped this place, most of the investment and time was spent in there, had to have diamond cutters.
• 34:57
  Sean Standerwick: I mean, you think about how safe those rooms are.
• 34:59
  Sean Standerwick: It wasn't very nice in there.
• 35:00
  Sean Standerwick: We had to put windows and things, and we knocked a wall down because half was the safe, half was the vault.
• 35:06
  Sean Standerwick: We've now got this really nice, you know, exposed brick, vault doors, one of the doors we've exposed so you can see the internals, and it all opens up.
• 35:15
  Sean Standerwick: And yesterday I had a new client in and I showed it, and I opened the door, and they love it, and they really enjoy it.
• 35:21
  Sean Standerwick: And it makes just a really nice place to work.
• 35:23
  Sean Standerwick: We all love it, and that's the vault.
• 35:25
  Sean Standerwick: We say, Right, we'll book the vault, and it's it's the name of the room, and um, people ask about it.
• 35:31
  Sean Standerwick: And you know, because we are local, a lot of people also hit bank there many years ago, and they say, Yeah, I used to bank it, or I know someone who did, or yeah.
• 35:39
  Sean Standerwick: So that's really important.
• 35:40
  Sean Standerwick: It's all part of the client experience.
• 35:42
  Sean Standerwick: Um, there's many things we do, but yeah.
• 35:46
  Sam Oakes: What about the the the local marketing?
• 35:48
  Sam Oakes: When we look at like hyperlocal marketing, some people sponsor football teams or they advertise in you know local newspapers or are involved in putting on events locally.
• 35:58
  Sam Oakes: Do you subscribe to that?
• 36:00
  Sam Oakes: Do you get stuck into the community?
• 36:02
  Sam Oakes: Is that something that you do?
• 36:03
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, and that's really important to us.
• 36:05
  Sean Standerwick: You know, I feel, or well, I know that local businesses are the backbone of the local community.
• 36:11
  Sean Standerwick: So we've done a number of things.
• 36:13
  Sean Standerwick: We installed a defibrillator on the side of our office.
• 36:17
  Sean Standerwick: Um, we all then had training.
• 36:19
  Sean Standerwick: We've had two sessions on that, and we also had a first aid training.
• 36:23
  Sean Standerwick: So we've actually had three kind of life-saving potentially sessions.
• 36:27
  Sean Standerwick: So if something happens locally, our team feel confident on what they can do.
• 36:31
  Sean Standerwick: But also, it's just really nice to know that if something does happen, we could play a positive part in that.
• 36:37
  Sean Standerwick: So our business plan is called DFib.
• 36:39
  Sean Standerwick: It was a bit of a joke at the time.
• 36:40
  Sean Standerwick: So originally my dad had the idea when we came up with a business plan um with the team.
• 36:46
  Sean Standerwick: So we had to give it a name, and I said, Well, let's call it DFib because then we have to buy one.
• 36:51
  Sean Standerwick: It was also a bit of a joke of we're bringing the business back to life, not that it was ever dead.
• 36:55
  Sean Standerwick: But um, so that's one thing.
• 36:58
  Sean Standerwick: We, yes, we spoke sponsor the local bowls club.
• 37:01
  Sean Standerwick: They took us down there.
• 37:03
  Sean Standerwick: We had a session with the whole team, which we all loved.
• 37:06
  Sean Standerwick: By the way, some people think it's just for old people.
• 37:08
  Sean Standerwick: I love it.
• 37:09
  Sean Standerwick: Um, and so did the whole team.
• 37:11
  Sean Standerwick: And and you know, one of the ladies there came out after a while and she just said, Do you know what?
• 37:16
  Sean Standerwick: You said you want to do this as team building, but I can just see you're an amazing team.
• 37:20
  Sean Standerwick: You don't need to do this.
• 37:21
  Sean Standerwick: I could just see how you work together so well.
• 37:24
  Sean Standerwick: And when you hear comments like that, it's you know things are coming together.
• 37:28
  Sean Standerwick: Um, but yeah, we just uh agreed to sponsor local cricket club, so the juniors, 28 teams there.
• 37:35
  Sean Standerwick: We sponsor the May Fair, so Bansted.
• 37:38
  Sean Standerwick: I mean, it's a lovely village, has a big catchment area, but there's a May Fair, we sponsor that.
• 37:43
  Sean Standerwick: We have a stall outside the front, there's no selling, we just give out some drinks and sweets to kids, and we also have the Christmas lights, so we sponsor that.
• 37:52
  Sean Standerwick: That nearly didn't happen a couple of years ago, and so this is all part of local business being a backbone of local communities.
• 37:59
  Sean Standerwick: Um, so we sponsor it, we feel it's really important, and then clients come by, and you know, we again we've had the feedback.
• 38:06
  Sean Standerwick: Um, one of our you know, clients who's got a significant amount that moved over to us in the last few years, they were with another firm actually.
• 38:14
  Sean Standerwick: That one of the things they love was how we're part of the local community.
• 38:18
  Sean Standerwick: But yeah, we do things like leaflets really work for us, so so we've we've really stepped that up recently.
• 38:24
  Sean Standerwick: We have sandwich boards, it's just as I say, compounding.
• 38:28
  Sean Standerwick: You know, I'll probably keep repeating this.
• 38:29
  Sean Standerwick: It's many things, it's not just one.
• 38:32
  Sam Oakes: But what part does say digital marketing play in your strategy, if any at all?
• 38:36
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, it's also really important.
• 38:38
  Sean Standerwick: So look, we we also have a monthly newsletter, we're regularly sending things out to clients in terms of our general marketing.
• 38:46
  Sean Standerwick: Not, not, it's got to add value, right?
• 38:49
  Sean Standerwick: Not the spammy stuff, and we don't want to be sending every something every week, but you know, we within our newsletter have the MLP update, and people love that.
• 38:57
  Sean Standerwick: They get some of our best readerships and about our community work.
• 39:01
  Sean Standerwick: Also, as you know, you know, I'm very big on LinkedIn.
• 39:04
  Sean Standerwick: Um, I think this is really important as well.
• 39:07
  Sean Standerwick: Um, it's you know that I've learned so much from it.
• 39:11
  Sean Standerwick: Uh, it takes up a lot of time, and uh, there have been a few times I've nearly stepped back.
• 39:16
  Sean Standerwick: Um, but just as I've always done that, something's come forwards.
• 39:21
  Sean Standerwick: So, you know, that that works in a slightly different way for me.
• 39:24
  Sean Standerwick: Um, it's been a good recruitment tool.
• 39:27
  Sean Standerwick: So Harry recently joined us, contacted me at LinkedIn, and you know, we were doing a recruitment campaign, and he's working here and he's been an excellent hire.
• 39:35
  Sean Standerwick: He's young.
• 39:36
  Sean Standerwick: Um, he he was working in Dubai for a big firm, but uh a financial firm.
• 39:41
  Sean Standerwick: But he's just been excellent.
• 39:43
  Sean Standerwick: And you know, Katie who joined us said it was part of the reason.
• 39:46
  Sean Standerwick: She felt like she knew me.
• 39:47
  Sean Standerwick: So just by having those two people say that, it's all worth it because it's so hard to get the right people who really want to work somewhere.
• 39:55
  Sean Standerwick: And if they can see who we really are, then they buy into it, then it's all Much more likely to work well.
• 40:01
  Sean Standerwick: It will work.
• 40:02
  Sean Standerwick: And also things like mentors.
• 40:04
  Sean Standerwick: You know, I've I've actually spoken to a local businessman who set up his business in 1988.
• 40:10
  Sean Standerwick: Long story short, is he grew really, really well and not too aggressively.
• 40:15
  Sean Standerwick: They've got a boutique for feel.
• 40:18
  Sean Standerwick: They really got taken over by another company and now two billion under management.
• 40:23
  Sean Standerwick: Now that's not something we want to do, but he was giving me advice.
• 40:26
  Sean Standerwick: He just jumps on the Teams with me and he's coming down in January to have a chat with me.
• 40:31
  Sean Standerwick: You know, these are the kind of opportunities which you just don't necessarily find.
• 40:36
  Sean Standerwick: And in the modern world, you know, I think it's really important to keep social media in check.
• 40:40
  Sean Standerwick: I was not on any social media, by the way.
• 40:43
  Sean Standerwick: I was extremely uncomfortable with putting all these personal things out there.
• 40:48
  Sean Standerwick: You have to get over that.
• 40:49
  Sean Standerwick: But it overall it's a net, very positive result.
• 40:54
  Sam Oakes: I think you come across really well, Sean.
• 40:56
  Sam Oakes: I think you're a, you know, you're a leader that's willing to put themselves out there on a personal basis.
• 41:00
  Sam Oakes: And I think if you're going to build a strong employer brand and a strong brand for clients as well, I think you need to be true to yourself and be really authentic.
• 41:08
  Sam Oakes: And I think you tread that line really, really well.
• 41:10
  Sam Oakes: I mean, if someone's thinking about joining your business, they're going to look at who you are and can I work for that person?
• 41:16
  Sam Oakes: And if you can attract people as well as put people off, that's a good thing because you don't you want the right people coming to you, not the wrong people.
• 41:22
  Sam Oakes: And I think the more you put out there, the more you share about who you are, your values, where you're going as a business, the types of people that work well within your business.
• 41:30
  Sam Oakes: It just be it's a total talent attraction and detraction tool.
• 41:35
  Sam Oakes: In a positive way.
• 41:37
  Sam Oakes: Does that make sense?
• 41:37
  Sam Oakes: You don't want the you want the the right people that buy into you and they will reach out because they'll feel compelled to do it.
• 41:43
  Sam Oakes: And I see it all the time.
• 41:44
  Sam Oakes: So you're doing a really good job on that front.
• 41:45
  Sam Oakes: What does the future hold for you then, Sean?
• 41:48
  Sam Oakes: Where you know, what's the most important thing?
• 41:49
  Sam Oakes: Let's say over the next 12 months for you, your brother as a business, what's the most important thing to you guys over the next, say, 12 months?
• 41:57
  Sean Standerwick: I would say building the team.
• 41:58
  Sean Standerwick: I mean, people have said to me, what's the thing you're most proud of in the last year?
• 42:02
  Sean Standerwick: And it's the team and getting the right people in place, because you know, clients at the heart, we don't have a business without clients, but we also don't have a business without people.
• 42:12
  Sean Standerwick: And with the journey we we're going on and where we're going, we cannot do it on our own.
• 42:18
  Sean Standerwick: So we just need those people.
• 42:20
  Sean Standerwick: So in 12 months, you know, just want to continue to hire the right people, get the right people in place.
• 42:25
  Sean Standerwick: And, you know, with that, of course, grow as well, grow our client bank, but grow up grow our client experience constantly, always make sure that we are evolving and offering, you know, just the best thing for clients, really.
• 42:38
  Sam Oakes: Fantastic.
• 42:39
  Sam Oakes: And what type of person?
• 42:40
  Sam Oakes: Let's just break it down here.
• 42:41
  Sam Oakes: We know the next 12 months, what are you looking to hire who specifically they could be listening to this episode right now?
• 42:47
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, so I mean, I'll first of all say that it's about getting the right people, as I said earlier.
• 42:52
  Sean Standerwick: So we'll find a position.
• 42:53
  Sean Standerwick: If you're the right person, we'll find the position.
• 42:56
  Sean Standerwick: Ideally, we'd love another administrator.
• 42:58
  Sean Standerwick: It's really hard to find administrators.
• 43:00
  Sean Standerwick: Um, I mentioned Lee, who's been excellent.
• 43:03
  Sean Standerwick: Um, so yeah, an administrator would be would be excellent.
• 43:06
  Sean Standerwick: Probably a power planner at some point.
• 43:09
  Sean Standerwick: But again, you know, we would love another power planner, and we will need one.
• 43:12
  Sean Standerwick: And maybe at some point another advisor as well.
• 43:14
  Sean Standerwick: But again, you know, you could be a trainee like Harry, who's come on.
• 43:18
  Sean Standerwick: So he's starting in admin and he's got a progression plan to move through.
• 43:23
  Sean Standerwick: I mean, Aaron, who is our power planner, started off as a training advisor, realized it wasn't for him, and we transitioned him into a power planner, which completely suits him.
• 43:32
  Sean Standerwick: And he's our he's our main man that does our power planning.
• 43:35
  Sean Standerwick: So, yeah, it it could be any of those roles.
• 43:37
  Sean Standerwick: It could be almost anyone, but I would say mainly those three, four in terms of a trainee, yeah, as well.
• 43:44
  Sam Oakes: Fantastic.
• 43:45
  Sam Oakes: So, career development, we're looking at culture, continuing to improve on that, keep that startup mentality, bringing the right people into business that fill the right gaps so you guys can collectively grow together.
• 43:57
  Sam Oakes: Keep that hyper-local feel, make sure your clients are the center of everything you actually do, and that's what it's all about, is giving the client the most amazing experience, and then helping people develop as they go as well.
• 44:08
  Sam Oakes: So that sounds like a really strong 12-month plan.
• 44:11
  Sam Oakes: And I'm sure that if you implement that, that's going to go incredibly well.
• 44:14
  Sam Oakes: But Sean, listen, thanks so much for joining us today on the Financial Plan of Life and just sharing your journey, a bit about you, a bit about your business, the people within it, and where you're going, and most importantly about the culture side of it.
• 44:25
  Sam Oakes: I love the fact that you're into Buddhism.
• 44:26
  Sam Oakes: I think that's really cool.
• 44:27
  Sam Oakes: I've never had anybody on the podcast as well openly sort of talk about that.
• 44:31
  Sam Oakes: And I think it's such an attractive trait for a leader within a business to have.
• 44:35
  Sam Oakes: And I think it should really sort of attract the right people to your business if you had the same philosophy.
• 44:40
  Sean Standerwick: Yeah, well, thanks very much for having me.
• 44:42
  Sean Standerwick: Fantastic.
• 44:43
  Sean Standerwick: Have a great one.
• 44:44
  Sean Standerwick: Cheers.
• 44:44
  Sean Standerwick: Take care.
• 44:45
  Sean Standerwick: Bye bye.