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Financial Planning Blueprint for Career Success with Warren Shute · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: And today's guest on the Financial Planner Live podcast is Warren Shu.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: He is a multi-award winning financial planner.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: He's a money coach.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's an author.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: And he's also a Sunday mirror columnist.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: So he's a bit of a celebrity, if you like, within the financial planning game.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: When he's not delivering full financial planning for Lexington and building his business to over a million pound turnover, he's coaching other financial planners to do the same.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: He's got his own coaching program, and in this episode, we go into great detail about what's covered within it and why you should sign up.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's not every day we get a financial planning celebrity, Warren.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the last one I had was Pete Matthews.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: I tell you what, he did well.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: He did well on the podcast.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's a proper celebrity, Pete.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's a legend.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Don't put me in Pete's league, but uh, yeah.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's a pro he's a legend.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: He's a legend.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: I called him an OG.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's a legend, but he's a really, really nice guy.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, he deserves his legend status.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, he's an absolute legend.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: I called him an OG, but I don't think he quite realised what OG meant.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like I think he's an OG of YouTube, um, like the original gangster.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: But I think he I think he thought OG stood for old Git or something like that.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because he meant he mentioned, I'm not as old as I look, Sam.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: But um he's uh he's a good guy.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, Warren, thank you so much like I say, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: The Financial Plan Live podcast is all about those that want to learn about the fantastic career of financial planning.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the aim is to inspire the next generation, it's the the second careerists that are thinking about getting into the profession, but also what we've found along the way is a lot of people listen to this podcast who are in the financial planning profession and they use it as a source, a tool to learn about how to progress within their career because historically, people didn't really open up about career development within the financial planning profession.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're bridging that gap with the financial plan of life.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, having somebody like you who has spent a long time within the financial planning profession and has made a success of it, you know, I'm really looking forward to talking to you.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the first question I always ask though, Warren, is you know, why financial planning?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: How did you actually get into the financial planning profession?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I started training as an accountant, and very, very early on I realized what a boring profession that would be.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because you've got your head in the books the whole time.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: You're looking at, and then when you present the information, you're looking historically at arguably over the last sort of you know 12, 18 months, and you're not looking forward, generally speaking.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I was fortunate to be in a meeting once when a financial planner came into the meeting and he was talking to the client in the accountant.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was just observing, and I thought, hey, what a great opportunity.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So um I had a family member, I got into um uh into an insurance company.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: As it was back in those days, I worked for a company called Pearl Assurance, but only for about eight, 12, 18 months.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just got my basic exams.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then from there, I then went off and I joined um a firm down in Surrey, who were very, very good.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And my career sort of escalated from there.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I joined another firm and eventually set up Lexington in about 2000, I think.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: What was your reason for setting up Lexington in 2000?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: What was your sort of main driving force behind going it alone?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: When I joined the firm in Surrey, they were exceptionally professional.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Their aim was quasi-financial planning.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: They did reports, they didn't really do live financial planning, but they did reports for clients and they presented financial comprehensive work.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they worked with a lot of accountants and solicitors.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I like that.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: The reason I moved away from them is I live up near Sarances from the Cotswold.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a good journey for me to get down there all the time.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And every firm that I went to, I actually only went to another two firms after that, really just didn't hit that mark.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I really wanted to set up a really good firm.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: My accountant at the time, I felt was a really good accounting firm.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, what if I could set up a financial planning firm that was really good?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Gave really, really cared about the client, a really good financial planning advice and focused on the client rather than the products.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was about that time, this is like the late 90s, that I met Paul Etheridge.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was invited to a PFS conference by another financial advisor.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um I literally did squeeze into the back of the room and I heard this very eloquently spoken gentleman on stage talking about clients willingly paying his fees and creating financial cash flows in plans for people.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, that's what I want.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to do.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that really inspired me, motivated me, to you know, build Lexington, as it were.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Very interesting.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: So Paul Etheridge, just for those that don't know, do you want to just let us know who he is?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul Etheridge um is is known uh really as the godfather of financial planning.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he founded the Institute of Financial Planning, which later then merged into the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments, CISI.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he founded the software company Presswood, which is where truth comes from.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um and anyone who has been fortunate enough to meet Paul typically sings his praises about how wonderful he was that sharing information and really passionate about developing the financial planning profession here in the UK.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: He really was one of the earliest pioneers in the UK to develop financial planning.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you essentially were one of the very first adopters of true financial planning then, that long ago, because I can imagine there weren't that many people delivering full financial plans.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was more product type selling and the banks dominating with bank assurance, that kind of thing.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think it would be fair to say I was one of the earliest ones who's still practicing.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: There were a lot of individuals practicing true financial, not a lot, but there were several individuals practicing true financial planning, but now they've generally retired.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So they were sort of they they've they've done their career, as it were, and they've now retired.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was fortunate enough to be part of that cohort, to be part of it and learning from them.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: But there's some great people out there who have practiced financial planning, who have since, you know, done their career.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: They've they've had their period and they've hung their boots up and they've enjoyed it.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not yet 50, I'm 50 next year, and I'm still loving.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think I like or love financial planning more today than I did on the very first day that I started.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm very, very fortunate.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I thrive.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I can't ever see myself retiring.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: So why is that then?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you prefer, why do you say you like it more now than when you very first started?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's getting easier.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think technology is making our life easier.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think the, although the regulator perhaps isn't quite there yet, they're understanding a little bit more what we're doing.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, although people push back at things like TCF and consumer duty and stuff, it's really getting us to understand and appreciate the client a little bit more.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So the regulator's saying, hey, look, treat the client in the right manner that you're supposed to be treating them.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think there's more people like you doing great podcasts like this.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So they're communicating more.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: So we're bridging the gap.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a nicer place to be.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: I love financial planning and I do career talks in schools, and I truly try and get people to understand this is probably the best profession that there is.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: We get clients to help, we help clients live their life by design.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And as a consequence, we have to be congruent.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to live our own lives by design.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have to live with purpose.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we're being role models for our clients.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: They see us having, you know, a good lifestyle, having a nice work, life balance, having enjoying nice holidays, doing sensible things with our investments.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they then feel, okay, this is sort of thing that we need to be doing.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, often when we become experts within a subject such with a certain subject matter, and then we take people through a process of learning and discovery, it resolidifies, doesn't it, the the importance of what we're teaching to ourselves?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we condition ourselves even further into a specific way of thinking that further cements and improves our life around that certain subject matter.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, would you say over the last say 20 years, for example, since you've been delivering these financial plans, helping people live with purpose, do you think that's had a hugely positive impact on your own life, your own personal development, and maybe your overall wealth as well?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of course.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, without a doubt.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Without without a doubt, without a question.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Before off ed when we started talking, you know, got two kids, great kids, 16, 18.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've loved every single year of their but of their life so far.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we've really done things together intentionally because I appreciate they won't always be around.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I've done things for my wife, planned holidays and such like, and we just really try to live.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: We have a we have a slogan in the office: live life by design, not be fault.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, live intentionally.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: What is it you want to do?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: What's your outcome?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: What you want to achieve?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and my wife, you know, very open to say it, enjoys working in the business, but we're engineering her out over very slowly that she'll do do a less less.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: She enjoys being in the garden, she enjoys doing other things.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but me, I really do enjoy, because I'm in the front end, I got the best job, right?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: I sit in front of the client helping them live their life.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: So my meeting this morning with a couple, um, it was really just great to say to them, hey, look, why aren't you taking more holidays?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Are you still enjoying the work that you're doing?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: What haven't you yet done that you want to do?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: What's on that bucket list?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, your children are not going to be your children forever.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: They'll soon get partners and children themselves.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that will add a layer of complexity.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: So really start making sure you enjoy your life with your family now while you can.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and part of our planning process, we show them that you know Die with Zero is a book written, which is a great book.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't read it, pick up the book, Die With Zero.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: But we do something on the theme.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: We call it Die With Zero.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: We do a cash flow and say, look, how much more money can you spend and still have a hundred thousand pounds, say at age 80?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we do that, say, look, you know, you can spend 30,000, 50,000 pounds a year more and still have a hundred thousand pounds at age 80.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And they'll often say, Well, I don't want to buy anything else.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm okay.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have to hold this on.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Give it away.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, give it to your children now where they need it.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why save it up until they're older?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't spend your money, I guarantee it, your daughter-in-law or your son-in-law will have no problem finding business class and staying in the five-star hotels.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if someone's going to spend this money, it's either going to be you or them.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: So who's it going to be?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's great to get under their skin and motivate them to enjoy life.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why finish planning is the best profession there is, because we're remunerated very well.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: We have a fantastic job and we help other people have a great life.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: I love the I love what you said there.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going through it myself at the moment, and I'm looking at all areas of my life and I'm looking to see where, in what section of my life do I have fulfillment.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that came up was money.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I did the wheel of life and I scored myself a three out of ten on money.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I run my own business, I earn good money, um, but I felt I didn't understand money, and I felt like I didn't have enough.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I have this in I have this feeling of insecurity around money, financial insecurity.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like I haven't got enough.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like someone's gonna come and take everything away that I've built up, whether it's my business that I've built up and I'm gonna lose everything and I'm gonna have to work in McDonald's or something.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing wrong with working in McDonald's if everyone does, but I don't want to, you know, and there's this like money beliefs and fear and everything that I had all wrapped up in it.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I was uncomfortable with even approaching somebody to ask for help about it.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when I did and I sat down with a financial planner and I went through the process of like goals-based process, so understanding where I want you know what's important to me, you know, my business was important to me and all those typical types of things.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: And coming on to the question of having enough money, like picking a figure that isn't moving has you know, I'm yet to pick that figure because I'm still working it out.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's a work in progress, but the very simple act of actually putting a figure in place and working towards that goal instead of it being moving and constantly chasing, even understanding that concept has grounded me and made me feel really, really comfortable, like really calm because I I got I could keep on going.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm that type of person, I can keep on going, keep on going, keep on going.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I wonder if there'll ever be enough for me, right?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a bit like that sometimes.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'm also noticing at like 41 years old, I don't have, and you see even now, I don't have this urge to spend money.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: So why do I want to earn so much money?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what does it mean to me to earn that money?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Do you find that with some of the clients that you've worked with over the years, that gradually over time, their interest in spending money becomes less that then it's it's just not in it isn't important later life, right?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but Sam, not typically at 41, but yeah, not at 41.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: You need you need a bit more motivation then, but um but their motivation to spend money typically does diminish as they get into later years in their 70s and 80s.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: I get that completely.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um a lot of the financial planners and financial planners listening, they'll probably agree with this.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of our work is around transitioning.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we might start work in our 20s and we might retire in our 60s.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got roughly 40 years of ingrained behavior of earning more, head down, saving more, head down, repaying our debts, our mortgages, so we get to retirement.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And retirement isn't a moment, it's a period where we transition.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And now we're going into a period in retirement where we now say, well, hang on, I don't have to save more, I don't have to work harder, um, but I've got this money, but I don't want to get to go because that's my accomplishment.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've accomplished this, but that's what it's for.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very important if you're a new, a young flex brand starting that when people start approaching their retirement years, maybe even in the run-up five to 10 years before, you get them to start really enjoying their life and start spending it because it's going to take a period of time for them to get into the habit of spending and enjoying this money.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I have no idea why it happens, but when you tell people to enjoy and spend more money and everything else, your business grows.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it grows really weirdly.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be brutally honest on this.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my wife, when I told her what I was doing, had an element of concern about this because we were telling clients to spend money and you know, gift money away to their children and such mic.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, but you know what?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is the right thing to do.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's the right thing to do, I need to do it because I want to look back on my career and say I did everything full, full out.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And ever since we've done that, our business has just sort of taken off.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, just be congruent, get the clients to do, do the right thing for your client, you know, make sure that they're living up, make sure they're not spending that they can't afford.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And this comes back to the benefit of having good cash flow or um financial planning software.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we use truth presswood because you know, the connection with Paul, and I still think it's the best out there, but there's some great tools out there that you can use, and it's make sure you become a master on them, make sure you really know it as best you can.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Implementing that type of technology into your business, do you think it massively increases the chance of converting a potential client to use your services?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, does the visual aid of it help then?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, not necessarily, yes, because you're more congruent with the advice that you give.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: You you I think advice is all about congruency.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you mentioned converting these.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's all about congruency.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Do I really because we're good people?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you come into the financial plan, you don't come in there to make money, you come in to help people really.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, there's easier ways to make money, but you come in to help people.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're congruent with your advice that you're giving people, they're more likely to take it.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the best way of being congruent is by doing a financial plan because you can see the implications, not this year, but over the life of the client of that piece of advice.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: The most important thing, everyone listening, please make sure you've got your own financial plan in order and make sure you review your financial plan at least annually to make sure it's up to date because that's congruency, right?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Even to this day, after these 20 plus years I've been in this business, my wife and I sit down at my office, typically in January when it's a bit quieter for us, and we do the financial planning live on screen and we do it together.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Is that financial planning for yourselves and for your business?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: You include absolutely everything together.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: So the actual business planning is done separately.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: The financial planning we do live on screen is basically a client meeting with me and my wife.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the planner, um, and we do it live on stream, the cash flow, you know, what's going on, what's happening with the children?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: My son's going off to uni.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Is that planning being put in place?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: How's it going?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: How's our life assurance?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: How's our wills?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: We need to change our power of attorneys, everything, the whole thing.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Do you ever come across financial planners that don't have their own financial plans in place?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: And not really a financial planner, are they?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's like saying, I'm a footballer, but I don't play football.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, but you can't be.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can't be a financial planner if you haven't got your own financial plan.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Show me a footballer that doesn't play football outside of you know his game.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, you know, it just doesn't come into play.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's um and if you call yourself financial planner and you're not delivering financial plans for clients, I don't know.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't get it.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just it's just yeah.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: You've been running your business now for about sort of 20 years, haven't you?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Nearly roughly over 20 years.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: I started in 1995 and um sublatings around about 2000.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: So a decent amount of time to build a business then.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now you strike me as somebody who's a quite a happy chappy.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: You don't seem like of course, because I'm a financial planner, right?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like I've got the best job in the world.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I work with some great clients.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um what's not good about being a financial planner?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just I'm thinking more about the actual running a business.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I run a business with 20 people out there.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: I sat down in a in a director's meeting today, and it felt it felt quite stressful.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there was things that aren't quite working out.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: I've got lots of people that we manage, we're trying to develop new business.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: I guess it's not financial planning, um, but you know, it's I'm still a business owner managing people.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when you set your business up, what was your when you set it up, what was your goal?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: Was it to build a business with loads of people in it, or was it to build a lifestyle business?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: What was your sort of your view at the very beginning?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I mentioned earlier in the conversation that I founded that I used a counseling firm that really liked their business model.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: And they were a fairly small firm.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: There were two partners and there was probably about eight staff.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're actually larger now, but in the time.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a really nice firm because the partners really cared about what the um uh clients did and they all worked very closely together.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, if I could create a financial planning firm like that, that'd be great.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that was my aim.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: A fairly modest size.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I use the word lifestyle, but I think if people wanted to put a label on it, they would see it as a lifestyle type business.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, I work 40 weeks of the year, I work four days a week.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that could be deemed as a lifestyle business, but when I work, I work pretty hard, but I enjoy it.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I take that 12 weeks away from the office because that's when the magic happens.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what your clients don't want to come and see you for lifestyle financial planning if you look ragged, tired, and you're worn out and you're moaning about everything.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: They want to be uplifted and they want to see in you, okay, this guy's walking his talk, he knows what he's doing.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we could have retired before now.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to work financially.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very fortunate, but I love it.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I said I don't ever see myself not working.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and yeah, it is a it's a good.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: So you've been you're 40 hours a week, but you work four days a week, and you've always done that, have you?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: No, I work 40 weeks of the year.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: 40 weeks of the year, sorry, yeah.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I work four days a week.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I've done that since I wrote my book.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I had um a uh start-stop process of writing my book, and I thought this is just ridiculous.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, what would I do if I was in front of a client?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: What you know, they were doing the same thing.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I say, just schedule it.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Very hot on time management.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: I read a book called Um Getting Things Done by David Allen, I think, um, a number of years ago.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's probably one of the best books I could have read.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so I just said, okay, just schedule it.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll Monday to Thursday, I'll just see my clients.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Friday, I'll just do write my book.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when I started that process, I've just continued it.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so now I just use Friday as what I refer to as putter time.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just my time, whatever I want to do.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: I might be doing, I do occasional podcasts, I might do writing papers, I might just, you know, go and play around a golf my son, um, whatever I use.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: But there's no Lexington financial planning work involved.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I could literally just take a three-day weekend.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: And you've done that since the get-go.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so not.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Since that now, the last about eight years, nine years, ten years.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we've just recently incorporated a nine-day fortnight in my business.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to bring it down to four-day work week if they achieve what we hope that they would achieve during that period.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just to be clear, Sam, that is me.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the office.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So everyone else works five days.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone else works five days.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because clients clients in my world, clients expect that.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: They ring up, they, you know, they want to make sure they can speak to somebody on a Friday afternoon if something he's doing.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's just me.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: So they know clients know they can't get me on a Friday.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they can I only meet with clients Monday to Wednesday.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I have a very structured diary.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Monday to Wednesday, my planning meetings are at 10 o'clock.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'll do other things in the afternoon.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then Thursday is a buffer day, an admin day.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: How many employees have you got, Warren?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: I have so it's myself, Nikki, my wife, who does the finances.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Carolyn's my practice manager.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: We've got Poppy, who's my client manager.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you would the client relationship manager, she kind of deals everything with the clients.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Teresa's my PA.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've got uh Suze, who's my para planner.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I've got Vince, who does kind of like um all my web and IT and stuff like that.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: So seven of us, I guess.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got seven of you in total, but you're the only financial planner.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I've got Lewis.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my God, that's awful, isn't it?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis is my associate planner.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um so Lewis is qualified, he's he's certified and chartered, um, but we work on clients together.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the meeting this morning, we're both in the meeting.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I prep for it, both in the meeting, and then Lewis will write at the minutes.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Lewis writes at the meeting.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so is Lewis giving any kind of financial planning advice at all?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Or are you yeah, okay.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he will do.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we work on the clients together.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and he's younger than I am.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you can tell when you're if you're younger listening to this, you're thinking, oh, I don't have the experience of that.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: You are sharper.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I'm well qualified and I'm good at what I do, but Lewis is sharp.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he comes up with things, he comes up with ideas, and he's I'm very open for him to speak up in the meeting so he can sort of say things.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's very good.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: We are looking at the moment to recruit an apprentice, so someone who could start administratively, work through the roofs as a power planner for a period of time, and then perhaps go on to be a financial planner if they want to.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we we don't want to grow big, but we may be another couple of people.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: So you've grown the business really around you yourself, yeah, and then created this, yeah, the supporting function in place.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you've been doing that for a for a decent amount of time.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Would it be rude of me to ask what you are turning over as a financial planner?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's been discussed already.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we do over a million pounds in turnover and we've got over a hundred million assets.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so you know, it it it it's it's not bad for a four-day week, four-day week of the year kind of firm.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's pretty good.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible, you know, and you've built that really around yourself as the sole practitioner.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the only I'm I'm the only fee earner.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: So when you say fee earner, then so how are you charging for your fees?
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Have you got any kind of weird and wacky ways of doing it, or you use this the classic sort of AUM model?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: And uh okay, so we charge a planning and advice fee.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: So every client has a financial plan, and the planning and advice fee typically is around three to four thousand pounds.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Defaults three thousand pounds, but if there's complex annual allowance calculations and stuff, or used to be lifecard allowance, we would charge more.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's the planning advice fee.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: So everybody pays that.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then um we charge 1% on new money um and then 1% a year, um, up to 2.5 million and it tapers down.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but clients who want a financial planning service that don't have assets will pay us a retainer fee.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll just have a retainer fee put in place.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh financial planning clients generally pay about five to seven and a half thousand pounds ongoing is a minimum fee.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: So decent.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: We don't mind how we don't mind how we get that.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: We do so so some clients might be in um workplace pension schemes, and we don't get a 1% on that, so we'll just charge them retainer fee.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think you could have got to the levels of you got to in respect of the turnover without the support of the the business that you have built in respect of the people in the roles that they're doing?
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, not at all.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: No, definitely not because I would have to do everything then, wouldn't I?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so I literally all I so Dan Sullivan talks about unique excellence.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, what's your unique thing?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: I literally talk to clients, maybe ask for a couple of emails, um, and that's it.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: So the reports are written.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'll prepare for the planning meetings.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go through, get my head in the game so I know what the client is doing, but I don't write any suicide reports.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, inquiries are dealt with through Treasurer.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: We have a very structured approach in doing it.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a lot of this information is what I learned from Paul Etheridge in the early days.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I trained with Paul for I don't know, five, 10 years, a long time.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I gleaned that.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'd hope he he passed away earlier this year, but I hope he wouldn't mind me saying I kind of modernized it because it's now 2023.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: He started his business in the 80s.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we've done that.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um, we that's what we now impart in the advanced planners group.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I started a coaching program about a year ago.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're just coming up to cohort four.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we've had three three groups going through the program already.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I basically give them everything that I do so that more people become good financial planners.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And people sort of say, well, why'd you do it?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why'd you do that?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think I do it because I appreciated how much I learned from Paul Etheridge.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't I'm not an ego kind of guy.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is not me.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I learned from other great people.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've taken it on board and I appreciate that.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I thought, you know what, if I can help other people become good financial planners, we get a stronger financial planning profession.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, we all win.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's no downside to it.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, and I love it.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I love the fact, I love the fact when the, you know, I asked the coach, how's it going?
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is fantastic.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, today was really good.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just sharing them what I do.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: Lots of questions around this, actually.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: I got my mind ticking away because there's so many financial planners over the years that I've spoken to, self-employed financial advisors, you know, one man bands, etc., that are nowhere near where you've gotten yourself over your career.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: And they either bottom out, they either hit a hit a glass ceiling at some point and they can't progress any further.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: They find it difficult to build a business around themselves, whether that's relinquishing control or having to use some of their money to invest in an employee, for example, much preferring to perhaps lean into a network and outsourced and all that typical type of thing.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: So you've walked the walk, you talk the talk, you're now developing a coaching practice for other financial planners.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I am very interested to understand is there a blueprint for this level of success that you've experienced?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: And are you confident that you are teaching this blueprint in a way that will turn other financial planners into million-pound turnover businesses on their own?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sam, I genuinely don't think I'm particularly special.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was pretty average at school, um, and I've just falling into a profession that I really enjoy.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was very fortunate to meet some very good individuals, and I've taken what I've learned and I've implemented it.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I read a lot.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And when I read, I implement what I read.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't just read a novel.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: I look and I think, okay, how can this make me better?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: I read with an outcome.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and Lexington is a f as a firm is very systematized.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: We have a document, which is the end-to-end process, which basically covers 99%.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: I can say everything, but I'm sure there's other things that not, but 99% of the things that go on.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, when someone walks into the door, a new client, there's a process for it of what you do.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: So before that client walks the door, everybody in the office is told that this individual is coming, what their name is, you know, what they want to drink, you know, how to greet them, da-da-da.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the whole process is documented.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: So when that's done, it becomes very easy for someone then to replicate it.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what Paul gave to me.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Paul gave me a client, you know, welcoming document.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this is what you do.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think you called them SOPs, but you know, we have this process, and that's what we do.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we develop this process, we work the process, we refine the process.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: We've just gone through an exercise this year of updating it.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and therefore, things are done the same way 99% of the time.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's always exceptions.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I get that.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes clients don't return a form when the process said that form should be back.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's when the human interaction comes in.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if we can take this as Paul's expression, but routine thought out of everyday actions, it allows our team to be creative and individuals.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: So a good example is when we're chasing some information, we have a phone, email, right policy.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: So every time you pick up the phone first, you don't ping an email, you pick up the phone because relationships are the most important thing that we can deliver.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if we become a commodity, people shop around on price and they shop around on convenience.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we're then going against the online services or anyone who's going to make them feel important.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: So pick up the phone and just speak to the client.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: So cool.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you don't get through, then we'll email and then we'll write.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then if we don't get response there, then it gets escalated.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: But just having that system in place means that every member of staff knows that, well, they just pick up the phone and ask the client.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't get through, so I dropped proper an email.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't hear back 10 days later, so we just write them a letter.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then we get escalated to Carolyn, who'll bring it up at a meeting.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so having things like that, having the processes, we adapt uh adopted a lot of the information from um traction, uh, the book, which is a fan Geno Wicks great book.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a team huddle every week.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: So every week, might call it a client meeting or office meeting, team huddle, just going through what's going on, chasing things through.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a part of that, but the team have it to make sure everything gets going through.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'll have a level 10 meeting, basically a management meeting with myself, my wife, and Carolyn, our practice managers, just the three of us, to just iron out any queries.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's something going on in the office, unless it's really important, someone's dying, it'll just go on the issues list.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: They won't raise it with me.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it will just go through.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: Very similar to the way we run things here, actually.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really interesting.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the further I'm away from that, those huddles and those meetings, the better I feel as well.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm less emotionally connected to my business.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: So when I do get a chance to sit down and have a high level, level 10 conversation, as you would, as you would put it, it's the right conversation and the right time to be had.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: And some of the decisions that we're now making at that stage are far more impactful.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: And on a weekly basis, we're keeping on top of things in the office because we've assigned specific team leaders and managers to have those conversations with individuals.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then if it escalates any further, it comes to me at some point.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, no, I'm I'm all over that structure and process, and that's hugely uh benefited a me and my personal kind of well-being, um, but also uh accountability within our business, and and also it gives the opportunity for people to be listened to and to be able to put fires out before they spread.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think that's really, really good.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um interesting, your coaching.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh can I ask you a question about coaching?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, in your in your life, then you know you had this penny-dropping moment where you were at this presentation and you heard the soft, tender voice of um what's his name again?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Paul Effray.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Paul Ethel is Paul Effray.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: And how much have you spent in your in your life on coaching or training for you personally?
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not enough.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not enough.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think if I spent more, it might have been further forward.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: So when I started in 1995, did my first exam, I also started on a personal development program.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and both have run simultaneously over the years.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm an NLP trainer um and I'm a certified coach.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I couldn't even tell you how much I've spent on training over the years, but I know I've reaped the information back tenfold.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so I have literally had a coach for the last probably 20 years in some form or another, constantly throughout.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, at the moment, I even work with someone.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just like, why would you not?
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's almost like, you know, it's almost like you're a you're a client, why would you not have a financial planner?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're a client earning a million pounds a year.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: How on earth can you know everything there is?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do know everything there is, surely you want to bounce it off someone.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, what kind of coach do you have now then?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: What's the most valuable coach that you would have in your life right this second?
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, is it so they they're generally financial?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they're generally financial type individuals or business individuals who help me develop the business, develop my knowledge base, that kind of thing.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: So do you sort of lean into them and I I'm just intrigued, like you know, like are they like a business performance manager?
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: Are they somebody that's grown businesses to a high level, you know, is it a financial advisor who's been a really successful financial advisor, for instance?
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: What you know, who do you lean into?
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Do you lean into people from outside of the profession?
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how often do you check in with these types of people?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: Is it is it an ongoing type coaching mentoring scenario?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's more of an ongoing mentoring, coaching scenario.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: I tend to lean into them probably quarterly, so it's flexible, but generally coarterly because what we're doing is we're speaking and raising issues or challenges, or they're frauding me, making me feel a bit uncomfortable.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of think, yeah, you're right.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then you've got to do something with that information.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: So our coaching program runs on a costly basis, and it runs on a costly basis because I want you to learn this information, then I want you to implement that information.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because number one on the agenda at the next meeting is right, how did that go?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: What did you do?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: What did you do?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Have you made steps forward?
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's no point just coming and sitting and being comfortable.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna do that in a sit in a hotel and have a beer and just have a chat.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the whole idea is you come into the office wherever we work and that you develop the practice you want.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: So day one is literally, how do you want to live the rest of your life?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: What's it look like?
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: How much do you want to earn?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's you know, let's make sure we get a personal financial plan in place.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: How much are your business overheads?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: How much do we need to turn over as a business?
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: How many clients do we want to get?
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: What type of client do you want?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't believe in niching.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of marketing people say you've got a niche, it's easier for marketing.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I get all of those arguments and I agree with them.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: But why on earth would I want to sit down every day of my life with a doctor?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be bored, relentless, I was going to swear then.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be bored ridiculous, wouldn't it?
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, or a BA pilot.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's all you spoke to.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: It would just be boring.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: So my clients are very varied because it keeps me on the toes.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy it.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, someone might listen and say, yeah, but you can't become an expert in that field.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: I can be good enough.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: I could be good enough to get the information, and most people have got the same problems.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, manage your emotions, stop being a twat, invest more money, okay, and enjoy life.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's just managing the individual.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, I don't believe in Isha.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: I like the variety that it brings, you know, working with different people.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we do work with quite a lot of business owners and people going into retirement.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but generally speaking, we have a good variety.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let's talk about this coaching program you've got then, because you know, it sounds really, really useful.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, there's not a huge amount of coaching programs out there, perhaps for financial planners from those that have walked the path and had huge success like yourself, and who are completely and utterly passionate about what they do and love it and enjoy it.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, first off, let's just talk about who are the target uh candidates then for a coaching course that you're offering.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: Who who who would be the perfect student?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody who wants to deliver a financial planning process or service that they're not currently doing.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're a financial planner and you're delivering a good financial planning process and you're enjoying it, I don't know how much extra value I can add to you.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you might pick a couple of things up or not.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're uh there and you're an IFA, or you're there and you're a financial planner and you're not quite yet delivering financial planning because it's so many moving parts, and where do you look?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I was in your shoes once and I had no idea where to go.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's for you.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of thing we do.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: So um it's quarterly.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: The whole program runs over three years.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're not committed to three years.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: You can just dip in and dip out when you want, but it's a quarterly program over three years, and we cover step one is you know, what's your outcome?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get real good clarity.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do the business planning, personal financial plan, business plan, get the numbers to do a lot on time management and really try to get um, I've been surprised that I want to say everyone, but I'll be fair to say virtually everyone that's come through the program so far.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: I've been surprised that you know time management is something they haven't really got to grips with.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, structured diaries, see clients on these days.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care which days they are, but these are the days you see clients.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: These are your admin days, we call them buffer days.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this is what we do, having some structure to that diary, making sure that you block book out your holidays in advance so that when people eventually, when you delegate the wrong people are booking people in for your diary, in your diary, you know, they know Warren's not around that day.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he can't do that.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so day one is more about that kind of stuff.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then day two, we go into the discovery meeting.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do we screen a call so we get someone ringing in to say want to work with us?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: So let's pick up the phone.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: What questions do we ask them?
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: How does it work?
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: If we don't want to work with everyone, can they afford to pay our fee?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then how do we run the discovery meeting?
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: We have a very structured discovery meeting, it takes an hour.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it gets the most out of people.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's very much like you know, what's important to you about money?
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Eight out of ten people say security.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, do you have security now?
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what would it mean if you had security?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this, that, and the other.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what is security to you?
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: How do we define it?
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, never thought about that.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, let's have a think about it.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's hold that moment and let's this what we're here for.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, is let's try and dig deeper and try and make sure that we can clarify what security means to you.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't know what it is and you want it, how am I going to help you deliver it?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and then we ask about what supports you about a financial planner.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what are you looking for in a financial planner?
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you turn around and say, well, I expect you know 25% investment returns and I want you to return my phone calls at five o'clock on a Friday night or a Saturday morning, then we're probably not going to have the right relationship.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I need to know that's question number two.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: We need to know that right up front.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, then we talk about outcomes, you know, their goals.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: We use the Dan Sullivan R question, you know, having this conversation three years from today, what needs to happen.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we find out what their goals are.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then we talk about retirement.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we sort of say, you know, is retirement for you a number or is it a time?
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because some people dictate retirement as, well, when I've got a million pounds, I'll retire.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: And other people say, well, when I get to 65, I'll retire.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I need to know that.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: I need to know how you are thinking, what's your brain like?
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, then we dig through, we go through other things about relationships, who's important to them, who's relying on them.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about their health.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to know about their health, if they're in good health and poor health.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about the financials, then we explain how we operate, the meeting process, the discovery meeting, investment presentation, planning meeting.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: We have a 45-day check-in.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: So after planning meeting, we speak to the client, make sure everything's been wrapped up and everything.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then we explain how we get paid.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure the client knows how we get paid.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then we just finish up and just say, you know, is there anything else you need to know for me?
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Nor to know that lets them to the right firm to advise you over the years ahead.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's very succinct.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, of the clients that we want to engage, arguably nine out of 10 clients will come on board because they can see it's about them.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about pensions or products or such like, you know, we're really looking about them and moving them forward to the next stage.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then in COVID, in the pandemic, when we went remote, we uh broke out the investment presentation section.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we used to incorporate our investments within our planning, but we set that as a separate meeting.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we do that as a separate day.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: All the information we send to the client about investment risk and investments, our investment presentation, which is about half an hour long, um, and then how we clarify risk and stuff like that with the clients.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we do that in our portfolios and how we manage our clients' money.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then day three then goes into the planning meeting.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: So preparation, what we do before the planning meeting, what goes out to clients, we have a 60-day countdown.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: So 60 days, two months before a planning meeting.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know what happens, Theresa, my PA, contacts the clients, books them in, they get booked in, then the countdown starts working, sending information off, gather information, building the draft financial plan in the background.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: How we deliver the plan.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: So the agenda uh for a planning meeting starts at about six, seven pages, generally ends up around about 12 pages, once all the content's in there.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it covers everything from you know what's important to you, what are your values, what are your goals, what's your financial planning objectives, all the way through the assumptions, net worth income, expenditure, all the ways we can try and save them tax.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: These are standards in there, the cash flow scenarios, if they you know had a disability, if the market were to crash, all we go through to their pensions, investments, such like.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very comprehensive.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: We look at wills, power of attorneys, and the guys on the course are very surprised.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is so comprehensive.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, that's what a financial planner does.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we don't sell a product, we we're on the client side helping them deliver a financial plan.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, inevitably the actions at the end of that meeting are sometimes quite long, and we'll prioritize them.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: We'll do some now, we'll defer some to next year.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and those actions get carried forward to the start of the next planning meeting the following year.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's it's a cycle of how it goes.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then we talk about marketing and stuff like that.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very much in how we operate, run our business, you know, the meeting process, the meeting flow, then the checklist and stuff like that.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very much an end-to-end process.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: What I've done is I've looked at our end-to-end process and taken segments out and said, how can I communicate this in bite-sized chunks?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had one guy the other day said, you know, I don't want it in three years, I kind of want it in two months.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: So can't you just give it to me all in one go?
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Well, that's just information.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: You get it from a library.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: What you want to do is make a change.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's that's yeah, that's how we do it.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I check in with the guys as well throughout the um in between to see how they do it, make sure they're making progress, if they got any questions and such like.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's good.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've got some great guys now.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that sounds like, you know.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a blueprint, isn't it?
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's a framework.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it are you you are somebody that loves to work to a process by the science of it.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: You have a process in place, you have a framework, and you are conditioning yourself to follow that framework, to follow that system.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: But as you're going along, you're making improvements, consistently looking to improve.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, so they're stabilizers.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: In my natural life, it would be very much, hey, how's things?
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just have a chat.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: But you know when you do that, that meeting goes on for four hours, it goes round and round in circles, and nothing really gets achieved from it.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: But when you've got a framework there that you go off and then you come back, let me bring back to the agenda.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, next thing on the agenda.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when the client starts with all these different questions, yeah, that's great.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: We'll park that, I'll answer that in this section, that in that section.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: We just and we stick to the agenda, they get a better experience, you get a better experience, it's a more profitable experience.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when the information goes to the team, they know what's happening.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, since they like, okay, the process was followed.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: When you are taking these people through the course, do you find that they then adopt the systems or the tools that you're using and drop the ones that they are because they've because they value your system?
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: You've got a system that works, right?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like for me, if I'm setting up a financial planning business, which uh I'm actually in like I'm actually in talk to the couple of people about setting up a financial advice business due to the what I can bring to the table in respect of um uh candidate acquisition.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_01: So bringing in new financial advisors into the business and growing it.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I am very, very interested in growing a financial advice business.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm talking to a number of financial advisors at the moment.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: I got a meeting with the guy who founded Monzo Bank, who's very much interested in um what we've got to say about setting up a financial planning business.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I the one the I just want a simple framework.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be a financial advisor.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's not in no interest to me whatsoever to be a financial advisor.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: I want to grow a financial advice practice.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: But if I'm bringing somebody into my business, I want them to work to a process that I know works.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, your process sounds spot on and you're living proof that it works.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_01: So if I I'm a firm believer, right?
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_01: Copy somebody who's a success and make it and make it yours, right?
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's why we read books, it's why we watch YouTube channels, we look at the person who we think is a success, we trust, and if they can evidence they're a success even better, which you can, then why if I if I follow you and your business model to the T, why is it not gonna work?
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it takes it's tough and it's hard and it takes a bit of time, which is why I get you're saying it's three years.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's realistic.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: You're not, you know, your chap who turns around and asks, Well, can I just get all this information in and do it in two months?
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm gonna give you everything you need to know.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: What?
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: You're just gonna implement it and you're gonna make it work.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's just not, it's it's probably not gonna happen.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's the checking in that makes it work.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's the see am I on the right path?
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's the overcoming um adversity and obstacles and things that come along the way, the things that are naturally going to happen.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um when they lose confidence, for instance, you can steer them in the right direction.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: I really like that.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, for me, this makes total and out of sense.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, the type of person that actually comes onto the course, are you finding that they're business owners?
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_01: Are they self-employed?
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: Are they employed, for instance?
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: And they're there's a mix.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's no employed individuals that I can think of.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there are sole one-man bands, there are um partners of smaller firms, um, one chap who's very, very new.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one guy I'm really impressed with who has joined.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he's never really been mentored by anyone.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's set up a firm, he's running his firm, I think he's done an incredible job, and he's had no one, no influence at all.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's just basically gone through like a bank hall type program and he's now signed off and he's an advisor and stuff like that.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he's trying to deliver financial planning.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, you just can't.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm gonna try and be a surgeon without anyone training me.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: You just can't do it.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's a it's a broad variety, but the common thing that they've got is they want to deliver a financial planning service, they just don't know quite how to do it.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you ask the question about, you know, they take in my models and just copying completely.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: Most of them take them and copy most of it and they make it their own.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I tell them to do.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: I say, look, this is how I do it.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: This works for me.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: What I want you to do is you're welcome to just go and copy.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we give them all the printouts, we send them all the letter templates, email templates, they've got everything they can copy.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: I said, make it your own because you'll enjoy it more.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be more identity to you then.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't Warren, what type of person are you?
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_01: So for you, you've got a system that works for you because it works for you.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_01: But why why does your system work for you?
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: So what type of person are you?
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I don't know how to answer that question, but I can say that I follow the system.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um when you say what type of person is Eric.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you you mentioned things like one of the most impactful things that ever happened to you was to restructure your working week and to have specific things on certain days.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_01: I've been doing that.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: I've and and I've found that like oh, liberating because I would be so I'd be like um crazy.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'd be off doing this bit and off doing that.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very entrepreneurial in the way that I think and I can get distracted really easy.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden, my diary, or you see my diary system, I send you a link, you book in, yeah, and all of a sudden I've got people being booked in all over the place.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: So now I've restructured that.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_01: So only specific types of calls can be booked in on specific days at specific times, and that I factor in my holidays, I give myself those days off, I give myself time to when I go to the gym and all of that.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I kind of time what they call it, time block.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I've started to time block.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now, for me, that is like so important for me to be able to do that because and if I automate it and I simplify it, then I have to I don't have to think about it.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I give myself space and time to be me on those days.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I want to have a whole day of sales calls, I'll do a whole day of sales calls.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I and and I I need that because without controls in place, I can be a bit erratic and a bit like a magpie, you know.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'll get success, but I might burn my, I might tire myself out and get frustrated a little bit.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I wonder, like, and and like you talking about your system makes me feel calm, you know.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I I'm I'm everything you've said, other than being quite erratic, not so erratic.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: So because I guess because I've been doing this for so many years, um I will I'm very I I believe you get what you focus on.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I have a uh a sheet called Six Most Vital One.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I write down the six most important things I need to get done the next day, and the vital one that absolutely has to get done, and the team share it.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: We all have our own sort of way of doing this.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I'm very structured on the diary, you know, when people go in and not.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't use I I rarely book clients in my diary.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: My PA does.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: So she'll do that and she knows she can only book them Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 10 o'clock.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if someone wants to come in at a different time, she checks in with me.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then in the afternoon, I'll do catch-up calls or discovery meetings, that kind of thing.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thursdays are generally left clear for admin type stuff.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then Fridays are free.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it works a treat because they know, you know, oh, I've just been away for two weeks, I've come back, I look at my diary and I can see everything booked in, um, and it's all in there in the right places.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a common is there a common theme around the delegates that actually are joined up so far?
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a common theme in where they are in their careers and how they are um uh their working structures, for example, do they tend to be people that don't have very good time management?
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um the the majority of them um well rather than talking about delegates signed up, the the the number of advisors that I've spoken to, okay, the common thing that I've found is they they're not very structured in their approach.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like, oh, can I come and see?
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: They ring the client, I'd like to come and see you.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like the client says, I can do Thursday at four.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the client, the advisor says, Yeah, great.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, no, no.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: You ring the client up and you say, Hey, need to catch up and go through this.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: Would Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday attempt be best for you?
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just like, oh, I don't know yet.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let me leave it with you, you can come back to me.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's go on to the next one.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's almost like just have that system in place whereby we can just say, This is what we do.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: We just don't deviate from it because it works.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is it.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really mind what days you see the clients on.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you want to see clients on a Friday, that's absolutely fine.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: But you need to allow admin time in there.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're starting out, you might allow more than one day of admin time.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you need to allow what I refer to as putter time, free time, because you need to allow sometimes you just to think and calm down.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when the magic really happens.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I think most people don't really get on financially and probably in their own careers, is they don't allow their brains time to wind down and think.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's having that time where you sort of think, you know, are we doing this the best way?
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a better way of doing this?
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and sometimes when we'll have a meeting, so I'll have that time, we'll have a meeting, I'll do the chair examples, or bring a chair around, and we'll just leave a chair.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_00: Is it no one on the chair?
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we're talking about something, we'll say, Well look, that's John and Jenny Klein from Lexington.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, what do they think?
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: We look at a chair and we use the chair as a third person.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's very powerful exercise if you ever do it.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm writing, I write an article or something, I'll look at a chair and think, you're the lit reader, you're reading this article.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_00: My coming across right.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, it it's it's good.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's good, it works really well.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that I come across a lot is with, especially with new financial advisors, we're going to see a lot more new financial planners coming through, and a lot of new financial planners coming through, stepping into self-employed propositions quite quickly in their careers as well.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of entrepreneurial minds, you know, they've been uh digesting things on Instagram, TikTok about being an entrepreneur, et cetera.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and there's technology out there now, and there's platforms, social media, et cetera, that do allow people to be seen by multiple people like multiple times a day, and allows them to also speed up processes by using the right technology so that they don't have to be so reliant upon working in an employed environment.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_01: They can go and set their own businesses up and have that element of freedom that they're searching for.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_01: But it's never as easy to go out and win new business or win clients as someone might um allude to it being, right?
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_01: Someone might say, Yeah, come and join our academy and we'll get you up and running.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the next thing you know, you're gonna have this much undermanagement and this many clients.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, in reality, I speak to a lot of those people a year or two years in after an academy, for instance, and we're not gonna name any, but they're never anywhere near what potentially was outlined and promised by the person that brought them on.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: Within your training and development, do you talk about client acquisition and what can be done to generate clients?
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_01: Do you talk about marketing, digital marketing, inbound strategies?
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_01: Do you talk about referrals?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_01: Do you talk about ways that they can go out and network with introducers and build their confidence around that?
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's an area of development I think is huge and wide open within financial planning.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_01: Not enough people with the skills and experience to go out there and win business.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what most employers are looking for from the next generation of financial advisors.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think not enough financial planners ask for referrals.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, even today, like still ask for referrals.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I think it's it's fun, it's nice, right?
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you want to help people.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I think as long as you got you asked with the right intention, then you know you should do it.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yes, we do talk, we do have a marketing day.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just about marketing and growing your clients, stuff like that.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: And very much a case of working with your existing clients first, making sure they're all set up, asking for referrals from them, getting them to come raving fans, um, and then building it out from that way.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have client events, so we do client events where you can bring somebody along.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so every um January, February time, we have a client event where clients are invited and they generally bring people along.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_00: So people are on this edge, they're not too quite sure whether they want to become a client or not, they can come along and meet us and meet the team.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's very informal.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: We have a band and drinks and stuff, it's really quite nice.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so having these things, um, I write for the paper.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, try and encourage them to write, particularly for their local newspaper.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that builds more credibility and brand than anything else.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I share with them articles that they can publish some of that that have been out so they can do that.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, the whole marketing side of things, we have someone do social media for us.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um I personally am not a huge fan of that.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think the fastest way to grow a client base will be through referrals or through um telephoning.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: The way I started was to um have someone just ring up and just make appointments for me.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um and trying to think of the third thing.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: There was a third thing I was gonna say, um, presentation seminars.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so doing a lot of presentation stuff.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think when you stand up in front of an audience, um, it puts you in a position of significance, okay, and authority.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you come across so as long as you've got a good story, we can share presentations with people of what we present on and how we talk about, so they can then just take it, learn the content, and deliver it.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you do that within the coaching course.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's hugely, yeah, that's that's hugely beneficial.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's it's it's just what we do.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_00: So everything we do, I uh I say to them, it's no secrets, don't hold anything back.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: Everything we do, we impart with them so they can then take it on board.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's what we do, you know.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_00: I even share with them, I do school education talks because I think it's the right thing to do.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll go into school and I'll talk um about money management, money skill stuff.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_00: We share that information so they can then take that.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if they then want to do it, they can go and replicate it.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_01: I've got the financial planner life academy coming out next month.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: So very similar, really.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we're bringing on second careerists, grads, anybody that wants to become a financial planner that's got no experience and taking them through their qualifications.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um starting out with the CII, but then we're going to bring on the CISI as well and L IBF.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um but loads of soft skills training within the community.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's an online-based community, and someone will come into it, start their qualifications on a subscription model.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_01: So they don't have to even leave their job.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_01: So if they're getting a well-paid job, for example, why go two-footed into like an academy where you have to leave your job, right?
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_01: Or start an administrator role when you're used to earning 60, 70k a year.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_01: Do your quad do your qualifications within our within our um community, do the soft skills and practical training that we provide as well.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_01: There are some things that are face-to-face, but a lot of it is online.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_01: These are all fully sort of qualified trainers, etc.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then what we then do is then we talk to them.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_01: This is the important thing, I think, from our perspective, is talking to these individuals about their career and about what the career within the financial planning profession looks like and what the different levels of entry are, how long uh expectations within certain roles, what you learn within certain roles.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_01: We give them demonstrations of CRMs and all that typical type of stuff.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_01: Even prepare people for CAS.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_01: So whether or not they want to be like an administrator or they want to be a power planner or a self-employed advisor or an advisor or a mortgage and protection advisor, we can take them through that process, but then give them that expert understanding and knowledge of what their route within the profession looks like.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because historically it's always been a bit, you know, Fugazi.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_01: No one really understands how you get to a certain place.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_01: You you luckily land in something, and someone might have this aspiration to want to run their own business.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_01: But if we can put a blueprint in place and say this is the reality of running your own business, and by the way, you could go DA, you could go AR, you could be a registered individual and still have your own business, and this is what it looks like, and this is the time scales to it.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_01: The thing that we're lacking within it, I think, is there is some soft skill stuff around like sales, um, like like process, approach to how you win clients, etc.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_01: Something like this is like gold.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_01: What you're doing, like like if I'm going to be a financial planner and I'm thinking about even when I'm thinking about this idea of running this financial plan, building a financial planning business, I want to lean into someone like you because you've you've done it, and I can't be asked to work it out myself because it's like too long.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_01: You've been going around the jungle with your machete, cutting it all up, yeah, and and you've got your light and you're you're you're off in the darkness trying to work it out, and I can just be behind you, you know, just like absolutely loving it and soaking it up and soaking it up and tried and tested roots, the things that you've done, the failures that you've gone through, the learning curves that you've had.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_01: I can just drop my ego and just take on board what it is that you have done and implement it into my life and build it around the way that I am.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_01: What I love about what you've also got as well is you're living proof that you can build a lifestyle financial planning business, right?
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to have hundreds of staff around you and those extra pressures because that also eats into your profit margin, right?
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the profit of your business must be fantastic.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, some people's profits of their business are not fantastic within financial planning, but your your overheads aren't probably astronomical.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_00: But we cover that.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_00: We cover five, we have a day on finances, so we cover running a financial planning practice and the cash flow and everything else.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we say that you really want to be around about taking 30% of your turnover as the planner's remuneration, okay?
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_00: Around about 50% of the turnover for overheads, 45 to 50 for overheads, and then have about 25%, 20, 25 is profit.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you work on those metrics.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a planner living on 30% of his turnover, but he's also got 25% retained as profit that he can then go and do what he wants to do with, you know, and it's possible you can do that.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_01: You sold it to me, Warren, that's for sure.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's definitely something that I would be literally chomping at the bit to get involved in.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_01: I expect there's lots of financial planners out there that would be chomping at the bit for it.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, what we'll do, Warren, obviously, I'm going to bring this podcast to an end now.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's been absolutely lovely talking to you.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's your day off, isn't it?
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_01: Technically, it's my Friday because I've got uh tomorrow off anyway.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_01: But um, we'll get this out on LinkedIn, we'll get it out on social media, and we'll raise awareness about this fantastic course because I think it will benefit so many people.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, and I really appreciate you opening up and sharing about it and looking forward to hearing more about it.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um and you might be seeing me knock on your door at some point.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're very welcome, absolutely very well.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's been really pleasurable as well, been really enjoyable, very conversational.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you're very good at what you do, so I appreciate it.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, excellent.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much, Warren.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate that.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um, take care.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: Take care, buddy.