Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / Educating the next generation through the Personal Finance Society - Robert Boland

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Educating the next generation through the Personal Finance Society - Robert Boland · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_03: Hi, and welcome to the Financial Planner Life Podcast, where we talk to professionals at varying stages in their career about what it's like working in the wonderful world of financial planning and financial advice.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: This podcast is proudly sponsored by Recruit UK, a recruitment consultancy specifically focused on the financial services.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: They have a niche specialism, recruiting, within the financial planning industry, so check out their website for the latest job opportunities, hints and tips, and blog articles.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: And today's guest is Robert Boland, Chartered Financial Planner at Cotswold Independent Financial Services.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: He's also one of the education outreach ambassadors at the Personal Finance Society.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_03: And he spent 16 years in financial services.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: So we talk about his career today, starting out in bank assurance and then moving into the IFA world, where he is now one of the associate directors at Cottsworld Independent Financial Services.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: One of the highlights of the podcast today is that we talk about what you should be doing when you are looking for your next financial planning opportunity.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: What kind of due diligence should you do on the company?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: I hope you enjoy it.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: Robert, thank you so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life Podcast.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: How are you?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, very well.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Sam.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have a nice weekend?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, hectic.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, little boys sort of playing football, so always busy.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: Top man.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: So very, very busy then.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_03: Good man.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_03: Excellent.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_03: Well, listen, thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: You know, this is a careers-based podcast.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's a great way for anybody that's interested in getting into the profession to find out what it's like, walks and all, from those that actually have worked or are working within the profession.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and you yourself, you know, you've worked for banks, you've worked for self-employed, um, you're now co-director of Coxworld Financial Planning.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so you've had you've been on a journey, you know, you've got a journey and you've got a story to tell.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: And part of that also is being the education and outreach um ambassador, isn't it, at the um the Personal Finance Society.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: So you've got a good understanding, a good grasp of the profession.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: So fingers crossed, you should be able to teach us a thing or two.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, it's been uh a bit of a whirlwind 16, 17 years.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So uh fingers crossed.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: It goes really quickly as well, 16, 17 years, doesn't it?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I I I can't remember being that young 20-year-old um in the bank again.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: Well, funny enough.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, well, let's tell us a little bit about your career then.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: Let's, you know, how did you get into the professional?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_03: I always like to start there.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: So tell us a little bit about your career journey.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so Sam, basically, I started um at banking.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I started at Bradford and Bingley as a cashier.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: My journey to that role, um, I left sort of my college.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I went to sixth form, got some A levels, not probably as well as I would have liked to have done.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sort of fell out with education at that point.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then for the year and a half between getting that job and oh going into the bank and sort of A levels, I really struggled to find a path.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I did a bit of warehousing, um, did a bit of sales at cash generators, so buying and selling secondhand items.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually um failed a telephone interview with um NatWest at the time.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um they asked me how many 20 pounds were in 380, and I must have stumbled and said the wrong answer.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I always remember that day and think, wow, um how did I get to where I got to now?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a chance advert I saw when I walked past the Bradford and Bingley branch when I worked in the Neaton, and they were um asking for cashiers.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I walked in there in my, I think it's a bright yellow and blue check shirt, cash generators, um, handed my CV into who would be sort of my mentor uh going through my career, Jane.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: I never thought they would come back to me.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just took a chance, took my CV in, and then thankfully they gave me a call.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I had a couple of interviews, got to do a bit of a role play on the counter with them, and I loved it.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I absolutely look back to that day, and I think thankfully, that woman, Jane, who I still keep in touch with over my career, took a chance on me, and I got into banking and from there sort of worked with some great people at Legal and General who had the partnership with Bradman and Bingley at that time, and managed to get um offered sort of like an academy at the time, a route into financial planning.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'd done my mortgage qualifications with the bank, and they offered me a chance to go and basically spend six months in the hotel and get all your financial qualifications and then become a financial advisor.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Although my timing probably wasn't great, Sam, because it was 2008 and there was a thing called the financial crisis going on.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and my colleagues at um Legal and General at the time must have thought it was brilliant to send me back to Bradford and Bingley the same weekend that Sam Tinder had to take them over because Bradford and Bingley were uh obviously in financial um issues themselves.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I do remember that time being very thankful for the opportunity, but also a bit daunted at 22 having to walk into a branch in the middle of um mass panic in the financial crisis.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So um yeah, it was a great start, very fast start, and I did a lot in that two and a half years, but it also um made me think, wow, I'm 22 and let's go, let's see what happens from here.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so then okay, brilliant.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because funny enough, you say about working in like a cash, it was like a cash converters, was it?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so it was like a cash converters called cash generators.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was the age old you needed sales experience.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: But at the time I was 18, 19.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I had no sales experience, but every job I went for at that particular time, they kept saying the same old, oh, you need some sales experience.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: So thankfully, cash generators took a chance and said, Do you want to come and work for us?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a particularly well-paid job, it wasn't a particularly enjoyable job for me, but I knew it was going to give me the hopefully sales experience on that CV to then propel me forward.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And as I say, thankfully, um uh Jane took a chance on me at the time and got me to have these interviews.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I when I very first got into recruitment, and it was exactly the time of the credit crunch, we used to I used to work with um RBS, Nat West, Chelsea Building Society, and I used to fill a lot of roles that were cashier and personal banking and then mortgage roles, and then moved into financial planning positions.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: So that was the my sort of how I cut my teeth in recruitment.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_03: And we used to send people to the banks that had the experience of working within shops, but had a more sales focus.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_03: So some of them, the ones that we used to find were really, really transferable into the banks, especially into like the personal banking type roles, were people that worked in um travel agents or people that worked in um, you know, phones for you and and car phone warehouse because of that kind of client-facing target-based environment.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: Because let's face it, the banks were, you know, they were target-based.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: You had to sell a certain amount of credit cards and loans and all that kind of stuff.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um and they transferred really, really well.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: So I used to just I used to just phone up all these phone companies and just headhunt people and say, Do you want to go work for a bank?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: Do you want to go work for a bank?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and do you know what?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Looking back, it probably works for that reason, Sam, because I was um obviously people were bringing in their items.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: We were obviously negotiating what price we wanted to pay for them because we knew we had to sell them for a markup.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: We had to sell them.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, depending on which side of the business you were working, you wanted to obviously buy them in the best price.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So then when you went onto the sales floor, you were going to be able to sell that item at a bit more of an inflated price and hopefully make the company money.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, there were bonuses targets uh for that.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as I say, it wasn't particularly glamorous role, no, and it's not one I would ever want to uh go back to, and that's no offense to that sort of industry.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, I just knew that that was hopefully going to get me the sales experience to go somewhere.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: At that time, I didn't know it was going to be banking, but I just thought I need that sales experience.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a great team around me, and again, we made it work for what it was.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you did you mortgage did you do your mortgage qualifications first then?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, so Bradford and Bingley.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, after you know, I pretty much had a good first year at Bradford and Bingley, and I think because I was young, I there was a few doubts.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things to appease me was, well, we want you to obviously stay.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So why don't you look at the mortgage qualifications?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I really got on with the mortgage advisor at the time.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So he helped me sort of point me in that direction.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then in my second year, I managed to get all three C maps pretty quickly.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And again, at the time when I qualified, unfortunately, Bradford and Bingley are pulled out of offering their own mortgages, probably a precursor to what was coming in the following year with the credit crunch.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it, you know, we talked about management roles, and then at that time, legal in general sort of was sweeping in with a bit of a headhunt that we've got a partnership with you.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Can we take this young chap and potentially interview him for this academy?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um at that time I wasn't even driving, uh, so I was quite late into driving.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: So they told me this job was going to be in Sheffield for six months.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing my driving test around that time, so it was all panic.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I think it was one of those weird and wonderful things where everything sort of just came at the right time.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I remember getting the call for the job on Valentine's Day and telling my girlfriend who's now my wife that yeah, I've got this job, but we're now gonna spend six to seven months apart.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's fine, don't worry about it.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: It will absolutely be fine.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, happy Valentine's Day for four or five days a week.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be up in Barnsley, Sheffield.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'll come back at the weekend, it'll be absolutely fine.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, obviously, history has told us it's fine.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're still together and we're happily married.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: So happy days, happy days.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's meant to be.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: So, okay, so you got your qualifications.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: Did you mortgage some if they weren't doing any mortgages, but you moved into financial planning?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: So, at what stage did you move into financial planning?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: That was at Santander, was it?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, so it was um so so again, it was within Bradford and Bingley, Legal in General.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: You went off to the academy, you came back um into a branch.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, it was later the Santander partnership with Legal in General, but you worked for Legal in General in what was known as their employed sales force, which is um the words in the industry today who make you laugh, employed sales force, that's what we were called.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and my two branches were Banbury and Vista.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I had quite a commute from where I live in North Warwickshire.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, you were sort of on borrowed time because you knew that partnership was not going to last forever, because Santander had their own advice arm.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why would they want to work with legal in general long term?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you you sort of made the most of it, you enjoyed the job.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I looked at it as a well, this is the start of my career.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to do well, I've got to try and impress these clients.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a 22-year-old fresh face advisor who's now got to build up trust with clients that are probably in their 50s, 60s, in their retirement planning phase.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I saw that as a great opportunity, and I learned a lot at that time at Legal in General.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: And again, always made sure I keep in touch with people from those days.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, John Somerville, who now heads up um, I think it's London Institute of uh Banking, um, and there's some great managers that I've spoken to and great advisors that I still keep in touch with.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that job came to an end because of the contract with Santander, and I jumped ship, uh, I went to AXA and I didn't do particularly well there, had a year there, and um it just almost paid me a wage, and I tried to get the feel for it as I had with Gratton and Bingley and the um legal and general, and it just never quite was the same.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then thankfully, Santander came back knocking.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the lady Jane, she's gonna get mentioned a lot in this uh conversation this morning.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Jane Marston got in touch with me and said, Would you consider coming to Santander?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I said, Yeah, let's have a conversation.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, so kind of went back to the same in um same setup because it was the same team, just labelled Santander and became a Santander financial advisor at that stage.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: Right, lovely.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: So decent experience in the bank assurance side, then that's where you cut your teeth.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's a shame, really, that there isn't that route available for people to come from cash converters.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: No, and you know what, that that is the shame because I do think it's important for us to find people, not you know, there's a lot of people that didn't go to university within this industry who I think are fantastic advisors.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And my worry is we haven't quite got that banking route, which would be the traditional way into the industry.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously, banks don't get the footfall, don't have the service that they used to have, certainly bank assurance.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it is an interest in how do people get that same experience that I got, and how can we do that?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the travel agents that could become financial advisors, how do we do that going forward?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: It would be interesting to talk about that in a little bit of time, actually.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: So you moved from banking into the IFA world, didn't you?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: So when did that happen and what was that like?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so again, um as the industry sort of uh progressed, and I've seen a lot of change in the 16 years, of course.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: We we went from just the CFXM, so the um certificate level to diploma.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And at that time, Santander, like everyone, were cutting back and um were heavily rumored, um, and it became reality shortly after I left that the financial services arm was going to sort of be scaled back and job losses were going to happen, or you're gonna be redistributed somewhere else in the banking chain.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, you've you've just had a couple of years' experience, you've had a great time at Santander at this time, you want to go on again and you want to see what you can do.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I went, I went IFA, I took a gamble, had some savings, didn't have children at this point, Sam.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: So probably why I did it at that age.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, let's take a gamble.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm good at my job.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, clients will come to me naturally.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it just didn't quite work out for me.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um you sort of took a gamble, you went self-employed or you went employed, or I went self-employed, I went completely self-employed with no backing and no, probably no plan if I'm honest, no plan, no structure of how I was gonna do it.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: I just had a bit of blind faith that I was good at my job and I could hopefully make it work, and I'd get out there, I'd advertise, I'd get out there, I'd network.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, part of it did work, but part of it failed badly.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I trusted people were gonna be there to support me, a company, um, said that they were gonna provide me a certain amount of leads, I was gonna work under them as an appointed rep.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it just didn't work out.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then about halfway through that one year of self-employment, I switched to another company who did give me a bit more structure, but effectively I was going back as it was kind of employed, but they badged you as self-employed and put a lot of pressure on you to do things that you didn't quite want to do, and it felt a bit too you know, structured and banking for me.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it was a bad time, just really not well thought out and not planned.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and thankfully Santander came back knocking uh for a third time, and uh I went back as a protection, a life insurance advisor, um, just to get back in.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'd had a I think it was the one time where mentally it had tested me that is this the right industry for you?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: You've gone from earning a nice solid wage at a bank to probably earning half that in that one year of self-employment.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: It can't last forever.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we just brought our first house not long before I'd left the bank.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we were obviously thinking about the future and having children and planning.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew that perhaps I had to go back into um banking and then go again at some point.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, thankfully, still very young, although I probably didn't feel it, felt like I'd failed.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it really took a toll on me and I needed to gain some confidence back.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, Santander, I went back.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: I tried desperately to get back into financial planning within the organization, and again, it just didn't work.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, spent another year and a half there, and as fate would have it, thankfully started having conversations with the likes of uh Cotswold and just quite found the right people at the right time.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: I managed to get back face-to-face advising.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And thankfully, I've been here since.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a bit of a journey.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Probably not too untypical, as crazy as it sounds, it's not too untypical from a lot of young advisors that would have to bounce around.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it is again just finding the right home at the right time.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_03: So I think let's just go back to them when you went self-employed, because we're in a sort of point and in a situation where I get people come to me that say they want to become financial planners and they don't have any experience.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: Perhaps they've done the qualifications without any experience, but the opportunities that are getting presented to them are all self-employed.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there's not that many that will take people on employed, especially if you've come from a profession where perhaps you might have been earning 40, 50 grand a year, you do your qualifications, you say, well, they're crying out for financial planners.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: I may as well move into that.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_03: And you go, you then take a sidestep into financial planning, and all you're presented with is self-employed options.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: Now, that's not a problem if you have a good network and you're very, very confident and you know what you're doing.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: But you did financial planning, albeit in a bank, you know, you thought you had that sort of self-confidence that you could go and do it on your own, but you came up against some serious challenges.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: So now would be a good time just to talk about what do you think those challenges that people should be prepared for if they're gonna move into a self-employed role?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_03: What things should people be aware of?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: What kind of due diligence should they do before they actually go self-employed?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think the one thing I didn't do, Sam, was realize that it was going to be hard work.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was going to be hard work.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'd had everything handed to me on a plate from a banking environment.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, those banking days, you would see six appointments a day and you would have 20 minutes to eat your lunch because you were that busy.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: You were writing business, you were being successful.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that was the culture that you'd become embodied in.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you were used to.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: So the reality now, and and I laugh about it with some of my ex-banking colleagues today, is the reality now is if you get five, six appointments a week, sometimes it feels like you're really busy at the moment because they're done in a very different way, and you help clients in a very different way.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's almost, I would say you've got to know where your clients are coming from and how you're going to use those clients correctly.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because that that was things uh I probably never took time to realize.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: I had that naive belief that people were going to follow me because I was good at my job.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, oh, don't worry, I won't advertise, they'll come and find me, they'll find Robert Boland, the financial advisor.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't happen.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to make yourself presentable, you've got to make yourself known to the public.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you've got to go out there and network, but it's finding the right networks, the right um communities to network with as well.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, again, I did a lot of networking in in those days where you would go to breakfast meetings, but you'd come against four or five financial advisors at these breakfast meetings, and then it almost became selling the network of breakfast meetings rather than actually promoting your business.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, it was a lot of wasted opportunity, and you always thought something would come off it, so you carried on, but it didn't work.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, it's knowing that is that the right network for me, and if it's not chopping it and moving somewhere else that's gonna get you that business and not being afraid to speak to people.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think I was again a little bit naive that oh, I didn't need to go out and speak to people, I didn't need to uh go and mix with people and and sort of self-promote myself.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think you've got to do that.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is an industry where we almost have to show off a little bit of our knowledge and what we can bring to a client.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say those are the key tips.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just know where those clients come in on and almost not trust when someone says they're gonna give you four or five leads a week.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not just solely rely on that.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Look else, look elsewhere.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've got some great relationships with accountants, solicitors, um, referration that come into me.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't advertise locally, but I communicate locally, so I get a lot of local leads come to me.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's what I've learned this time round.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm employed this time round, working for my current company, but I still work in my mind as a self-employed advisor, trying to feed myself all these leads and all these opportunities because I think it's important that you do that.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if you ever do go back self-employed, because again, we know the market is geared on self-employment, you've got that connection, that client base, and hopefully that experience this time round.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, again, it was a scary time, and I just probably didn't take it as seriously or as um, I didn't do the research in it at 25.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I think um what what you said there about being employed now and treating it like a self employed role, that is the right way to do it, especially if you're working for a firm that isn't absolutely massive, that has this kind of marketing machine in the background that's churning leads for you to put in your diary and qualify.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: You know, a bank's done that incredibly well.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: Because they have that huge footfall.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: And it was something that you experienced in your previous role.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: But the actual at the time, Sam, we were they were just getting brought into us.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: That was the difference.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: They were just getting brought in.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: They'd be in the banking for one minute paying the check-in, and all of a sudden being whisked in as almost like some special treatment come and see our financial advisor.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, you don't do that in the real world.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: And that's the real, and that is a good reality check for somebody that's thinking about going self-employed.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, well, what experience pre pre-going into this self-employed role, what experience have you got of self-generating business?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_03: Where are you going to get business from?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: Because I always say to people like, you need to be thinking, if even if someone says they're going to be providing you with some leads, and even if you're employed working for a firm, that doesn't mean they're going to be providing you with leads.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: Employment doesn't instantly mean they've got a client bank view to work with.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there might be, I don't know, 30%, 25%, 30% of firms out there that have got an existing client bank view to work with, where you can service that existing client bank.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: Most firms require you as a financial planner to go out and write business and find business and promote yourself.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: And as you said, you've got to be your own favorite person, haven't you?
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: You've got to be out there championing yourself with the right people.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: And I think if you're not capable of doing that, and if you're putting down your business plan on paper and you can't make a three, six, nine, 12-month business plan of where you yourself will self-generate business and you're going to fall on your ass.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know, in other words, you're perhaps you might be expecting a little bit too much from the employer that you're actually going in going in with.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: And that's the kind of one of the struggles that can happen, I think, is that we're seeing people that are just not thinking enough about what they have to do themselves, which become like you know, a successful financial planner and look at their current networks.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: You mentioned like accountants, solicitors, and previous to that, you were working with like the Breakfast Club.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I've seen all that breakfast club stuff.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: I've been into a few.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_03: I wouldn't, for me, it's just absolutely what you just said, promoting the network, you know, and passing the leads around.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very expensive breakfast.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: I always use I probably refer to it now.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: So uh again, they work for some people.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that some industries, I can see how it can work for them, but maybe it's a financial planner.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Paying£12 for a breakfast and have a 40-second slot to promote your business.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is that really going to get you enough leads to generate um from there?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And probably not because they probably already have financial advisors, they probably already know who they're going to refer to, and they've probably already got some incentive package with their advisors as well.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I was foolish, and then probably just thinking, oh, I can make this work, I can become the favorite advisor for all these guys.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: The reality is, if you've seen them once every two weeks and getting 40 seconds, no, I don't think that's the right way to go about it.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, for me, when when I started with Cotswold, one of the key things I wanted to do was go and set up some relationships.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew an accountancy practice, I knew a couple of guys that worked there.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: I actually referred one of my ex-colleagues to to a job there as well.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: So had that relationship and we just went in and met Neil, the director there, and said, Look, we want to work with you.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: We want to obviously reward you if leads come from here, and we feel we can add all this financial planning practice for you.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think you can give us a shot?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just a case of making sure you're in front of that director, telling them about how good your business and how good you are as an individual, and how that can benefit his clients, and vice versa, if we have any accountancy referrals, we'll pass them to you because again, you're a local accountant, you're good at what you do.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I had two colleagues that had just left my um previous company that had an accountancy arm that went and set themselves up.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: So again, Joe and Becky, we have that same agreement with them that we'll refer to you.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have people that want to obviously have financial planning, bring them across to us and we'll see how we can help them.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what you've got to do.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think you've got to find those relationships within how many in your peer group, how many people do you know that you could genuinely help their clients or their line of business?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the important thing in this industry.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to be not afraid to communicate with these groups because you you need to, as you quite rightly said, self-promote yourself, put yourself in front of people.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: Find your network, isn't it?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_03: Find your niche as well.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, you always hear about hammering down on a niche, finding a kind of key area of who you can help.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_03: I think being niche is good.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_03: I think it helps, it helps you stand out within a marketplace where perhaps a financial planner hasn't ever sort of trod before, you know.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I got guys that I speak to that uh that focus on the niche of um sports agents, you know, stuff like that.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, they are that they they fully promote themselves within that area, or musicians or YouTubers, or tech entrepreneurs.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: So they're kind of picking an area where they become experts in so they can kind of articulate their message across in a language that is understandable by that audience, but they also know that long term these people have got money or long term they're going to need support.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: Or perhaps it's a mo it's a market or a niche within the market that isn't getting um uh a financial planner educating them, you know, about what they should and shouldn't be doing with their money, and perhaps especially around like agents, football agents, et cetera, where they can earn an acceptable amount of money.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_03: They don't particularly probably care too much about their own wealth management.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, and that and that's a key thing about it.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what we've got to do as an industry.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: We've we you know, financial education, as we'll touch on uh shortly, is important.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think again, this is why I do quite a lot of the things I do outside of my normal day-to-day job.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think we've got to promote this industry more and more, and then that you know, we'll find clients easier because our names are out there supporting.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and of course, people hopefully will remember do you know what that guy is supporting education in the local area?
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we go and talk to him?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because we've got pension needs, we've got retirement planning needs, we want to buy our first house.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it is important that in a world where we don't have that banking route, we don't have that normal transition from you know a retail job into financial planning.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to find ways to promote ourselves.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so those youngsters coming in with self-employed opportunities, I would say you've got to get out there and get your name out there and be confident about it.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is daunting.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: I remember being a 22-year-old advisor in front of my first set of clients.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is daunting.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: You feel they're looking at you because your age, um, and what does that person in front of me know?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: But if you've got the qualifications, if you've got the education background around financial services, you are good enough to give that advice.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: You are there to give it, and you've just got to be confident that you can do it.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think with a client, I always say if you don't look confident in what you're doing, they'll know straight away.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_03: They can spot a blagger a miles away, can't you?
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you've got to.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: I always feel comfortable in front of a client, whoever I'm talking to, I feel comfortable.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've almost got that knowledge, I've almost got that self-belief that I'm here for a reason in front of that client.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know what I can I can do.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, take it from there.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't don't shy away from the client, don't let the client impose you too much.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: You you're just as qualified or rightfully qualified to be in front of that client.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you weren't, you probably wouldn't be in front of the client.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_03: I think financial planning as well, as a career, is should be very exciting to somebody who is, you know, 30s, 40s, even 50s, where they've worked for so long in a profession where they've built a really incredible network of people that they could go back to and actually start talking to them about their own financial planning.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_03: So I think it really lends itself to so like new people coming into the profession, they struggle because they don't have relationships.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_03: And relationship, it's a relationship game.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_03: You have to have relationships, good, solid, strong relationships that you can leverage off of.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I think when you're younger and you're coming in as a financial planner and they're, I want to be a financial advisor at 22, straight in at financial advice.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you really are quite new in your career and new to the profession, and you're going to be a bit wet behind the ears and you're going to need some mentoring and support and some guidance.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: You're going to have to be in that employed role, some leads being put down, meetings to attend, learning, learning, learning, learning.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_03: But when somebody's got the skills, the transferable skills of being an advisor, being able to sit down, build trust, and uh open somebody up and get them to see where they require those financial needs, why your service is so important.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's a great sidestep for the profession right now.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_03: So, like people that work in marketing that have got really great marketing clients, perhaps they've worked in an agency and they know and they've been dealing with the directors of businesses all across their local area.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_03: They know that they've got somebody that they can target, but they've also got some area of expertise and understanding about how those guys actually work.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_03: You mentioned there about accountants and solicitors.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's a very saturated market for financial advisors.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_03: You know, if my, you know, if someone's coming in and saying, like, oh, go and, you know, make some friends with accountants and solicitors, you're going to get a lot of no's, aren't you, when you're knocking on those doors?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_03: Because they've already got those solid relationships in place with a advisor perhaps they've used for quite some time.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that outside of the box thinking about generating clients.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm seeing that more and more and more now.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I think you have to.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: And again, in the local football team.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I manage my son's football team.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: They know I'm a financial advisor.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm a member of a local running club.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: They know I'm a financial advisor.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's 200 members in that running club.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I get a lot of questions off members of that running club about where I can support them and potentially help them.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it is making sure.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes, Sam, we don't think our career and our jobs are that exciting.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you know, that can come down to we think no one wants to know about us.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: But why wouldn't they?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: We can help them, we can unlock that door in their planning to talk about what we do.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I I always do, and I suppose I bore my family and friends with it because at some point I hope someone's going to get through to someone and they'll come to me for some advice.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: It's always it's always a bit of a bad rap financial service, isn't it?
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's the that's the problem.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I do think we've got to change that.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we can change that with this more positive approach and this more let's talk about the industry rather than almost shy away and think, oh, we're a financial advisor, let's not mention that.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I as I say, I openly tell all my friends and family all about what I want to tell them because I think it's important.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_03: So just talking about some of the things that people are actually worried about because average Joe Blocks doesn't, you know, they don't spend their time head down in books learning about financial planning, you know, they're doing they're doing their jobs and living their lives.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, it's quite interesting because some of the things that I worry about, that I worried about before I spoke to a financial planner, you know, kept me awake at night.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_03: You know, but to a financial planner, it was just like, hey, don't worry about it.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, let's let's let's let's build a plan.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_03: And then as soon as you've got the plan down, you're like, oh wow, Jesus, as simple as that.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I think being able to promote what it is that you do in respect of peace of mind and well-being around finances, you know, if you can make somebody happy in that respect, they're only going to turn around and say, You've got to see this guy, like I know a guy or I know a girl, and they're gonna sort you out.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_03: So that promotion through referral is a is a really valuable thing.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_03: You are obviously an education outreach ambassador as well.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_03: So we're talking about promoting the profession in a different way.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_03: So an education outreach ambassador for the PFS, so the Personal Finance Society, just tell us a little bit about um, so if anybody doesn't know who the Personal Finance Society is, listen to this podcast, just give us a brief overview of who they are and how you've got involved with them and what you do with them.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the Personal Finance Society um is an arm of the uh Chartered Insurance Institute.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh obviously geared for financial planning professionals.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's a great sort of resource for qualifications, a great resource for networking, obviously, um the continuing professional development um material that we have to go through.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: And as part of that support, there is a lot of pro bono initiatives out there, such as the education outreach, uh the My Forces Money Plan.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, we work with obviously the armed forces as well.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's a great sort of um, as I say, network of professionals that hopefully have got very similar experiences or quite different experiences that you can learn from as well.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it was a bit of a chance opportunity that um the coordinator at the time in Birmingham, where um I attend my meetings, asked me if I'd be interested in the education role.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I'd already expressed that I was interested from what I'd heard about some of the things that they were doing on the education side.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: So instantly I said, yes, I can only see a benefit to doing that.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'll I'll champion it, I'll be the ambassador, I'll talk about it in the regional events.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and my role is basically to promote the financial education piece that the PFS deliver across the Birmingham area and well, nationally now, because again, this virtual world has allowed us to completely go wherever we need to go.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I can pick up a school assembly, for example, tomorrow morning if I wanted to.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: If that school was in Scotland, I haven't got to worry about traveling.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: We can set it up virtually.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: So um I think it's an exciting project, but importantly, why I got involved was because I want to give something back.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's important, even though I'm early in my career, you want to give something back.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know the opportunities are closing in the traditional manner.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about education.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now you mentioned YouTube earlier, you mentioned some of these newer ways younger people make money.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I think younger people probably have more money available to them than perhaps ever before.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, do they know how to use that money?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Do they know the complications that money can bring to them and some of the planning aspects they need?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um my brother, um, he's used as an example so many times.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: My brother will admit that he perhaps didn't realize some of these things when he was 18, 19, because it's just not taught in schools as as much as they would like to say it's part of their curriculum.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not done in the right manner by professionals like ourselves.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I that's why I got involved.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: I feel it's a great opportunity.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've been part of my committee for over three years now, um, and I really do enjoy um what I speak about because um I was also awarded education champion, joint education champion of the year at the PFS Awards.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've actually got some great connections with colleges, and they asked me to do careers fairs.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: They asked me to talk about um, well, talk to their students every now and again about why financial planning might be a good opportunity.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they've asked me to help shape their curriculum at times as well, to try and find the you know the skills that are needed for financial planning in the future as well, and how they can change their curriculum.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I think I've always said it, if you want to change things, you've got to be involved in that process.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we can't just sit there and say, oh, it will never change, education won't get into the curriculum.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: We have an opportunity to put it into the curriculum or put it somewhere in that learning process.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: So um I I think it's a fantastic uh thing that the PFS do.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um long may it continue and hopefully it will continue to grow and grow.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's a great team at the PFS that organize this.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm just like one of many of the volunteers out there that deliver these sessions.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, good.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_03: Excellent.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_03: So being passionate about educating people around finance, but also around the career of a financial advisor as well.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_03: When you're in those schools and you're sitting down with, say, the younger next generation, are they quite surprised as to what it is a financial planner actually does?
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think, yeah, very much so.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think um, again, there's probably no perception of what we do.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and that's the interesting point again, and that's what I alluded to earlier on the conversation.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Do people realize what financial planners do?
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do people realize why it's important to go to a financial planner?
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think these sessions open up a lot.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one of the sessions we do is staying safe with scams.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: That is probably the best received session that we deliver because all of a sudden people are being made aware of why these text messages, emails, all of these things are actually scams and why they should be safe.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: And again, why someone like me would be talking about it to them, why I'm trying to protect them from that.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: We also do one called My Future Finances, which focuses on that next step from college, university to getting that first job, how you're going to budget for it, the lifestyle you want to live.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, it's quite funny because we put a uh, I think section C is the sports car, the mansion, the you know, the shopping bags, all the luxury items, and people, of course, always go for that lifestyle.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then we tell them how much they might have to earn and what type of jobs they might need to do that.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's such an eye-opener for the for the children, the students, even some of the teachers, uh, take a lot from these sessions.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I think we've got a great program of workshops to deliver.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: We can do assemblies, we can now do it virtually as well.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Which I think if you're gonna take a positive out of the pandemic, the fact that we've been able to go into schools virtually.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: I did one last Thursday, I was beamed across three different classrooms at that school for a 30-minute assembly.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's cool.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that's a great opportunity that we now can hopefully build on.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we want to get back there face to face because the delivery is far better face to face because you get the human interaction.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: But if we can get there virtually, it's even better that we can reach more schools and colleges.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_03: Great.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_03: So you are now obviously one of the co-directors there at Cotswold Independent Financial Services.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_03: And you mentioned something just a couple of minutes before about you know, you've been doing this position, you know, you've been working in financial planning for like 16 years nearly, yeah?
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_03: And you feel like you're just starting to kind of get it.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_03: Would you say that that does that come from working here?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_03: Or, you know, explain that because I think someone listening who might be thinking, they might be thinking, like, well, in a couple of years' time, I'm you know, two years into my career, I'll be doing this, this, and I'll be.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_03: Is there a reality check needed that it does take some time to really find your feet in the profession?
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm quite a big believer in it.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I I did start when I was young.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I started when I was 20.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: So um I suppose I still feel maybe another 25, 30 years of of work in me anyway.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I still feel it's a young sort of um turning point for me.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: And certainly since I joined Cotsworld, I perhaps see a little bit more clarity.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've gained my chartered data solid being at Cotswold.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also a fellow of the uh Personal Finance Society as well.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I almost see a bit of a turning point there.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's almost, if you like, it was my apprenticeship the early years.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh obviously, that time in the banking industry, bank assurance, that little bit of self-employment that I did.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: I see that as my learning piece.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then obviously, once I got to probably when I turned 30, I just see that as a bit of a turning point of saying, right now, this is what I want to do, this is what I want to achieve.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: I do want to run my own company one day.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: I do want to obviously change the face of advice in the way that I can change it.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want to make it more modern.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: I want to make it a little bit more appealing to younger people.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: And how can I do that?
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I do still feel I'm early in my career.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, 16 years might not feel uh that you should be early in a career, but I still think there's a lot more to come and a lot more that we can achieve.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I've been doing running a recruitment company for 13 years.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_03: And it's only in the last couple of years that I feel like I'm stepped, like I've evolved.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_03: You evolve constantly throughout your career, don't you?
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_03: You're always constantly evolving.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I think moving in, you know, where I am now is nowhere near where I was like 10 years ago.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_03: I I've I've just been evolving as a business owner and understanding all the different hats and things you've got to do to run a business.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_03: But now it's like, yeah, well, I'm like 40 years old and I've really pumped for like my 40s, like, you know, and where it's going to take me with this business.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_03: But it takes time to build it up, doesn't it?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I remember, I think do you know what?
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: It always sounds strange when I say it now.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: I remember after that bit of time when I was self-employed and when I went back as a protection advisor, I went back to a bank that I was sort of in a higher position into a lower position.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of thought, maybe this isn't the end.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I did have those thoughts, maybe this isn't the industry, maybe this is not what I want to do.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it was finding the right people at the right time that helped me get there.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I do often look back and I don't look back at my early years in any discredit.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: I just know I'm a stronger, more capable advisor and also a much more knowledgeable advisor from the experience I've got.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I started in the financial crisis, and then when COVID hit, I knew how to react to my clients far better because of that.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because I go, I went straight back to that financial crisis, being that young advisor with all the issues we had with clients at that particular time, and sort of thought, well, how would how are we going to react if clients do react in that same manner?
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: How can we educate them?
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: How can we make sure clients feel more comfortable this time round?
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's always nice to look back on your earlier part of career.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but as I say, I do think I've probably evolved in the last five to six years of this career to know that the next 20, 30, there's still a lot more that I want to achieve.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_03: So Cotswold Independent Financial Services, I mean, you've been there four and a half years.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's probably the bigger chunk apart from Santander, where you've worked for more of an independent in the open world of financial planning.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_03: What you know, what were the things that, what are the things that Cotswold do for you or have done for you, or what have you experienced there that makes it feel like a really comfortable, better, top level financial planning firm to work for?
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think um we we I went back to that conversation we had about being prepared when I was self employed.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a bit of a strange one.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: When we started having conversations, uh, me and the two directors, Stu and Matt, I wasn't initially in the position where I wanted to leave my previous employer.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't Bit of a chance conversation.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to come and talk to us?
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to have a chat with us?
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I was doing telephony advice at the time.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I was always eager to get back to face-to-face advice.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was hoping I could change the perception of my previous company to let that happen.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think it became more and more clear that that wasn't going to happen.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is the only time I probably met two directors four to five times before signing a contract, basically.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of meetings between us because I wanted to know number one, do they match the ambition I have?
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: And am I going to be a perfect fit for them?
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's no point just jumping ship for the sake of it.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: We want to work together.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see how we can do it.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what I like about Cotswolds, we're very traditional in the fact that we want to see clients face to face.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be there personally with the clients because we know the impact and the value that adds to the client base.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: But we also know modernization has to come in and we know we've got to improve things to make sure we can be as good as our competitors.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: What I think we do very well is we are independent.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: We don't get bogged down in any sort of uh favoritism with any providers, not that any what independent advisor should do, but we are truly focused on that client outcome.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we believe in supporting community projects.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: Again, my two directors openly let me do that education champion piece.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, again, before I became a director late last year, I was just an employee and they let me go and be part of the PFS.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: They let me go and do that because they know the value it adds to our client bank and the value it adds to me in for my personal development.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I think while it's probably took me a while in my early career to find the right place, certainly found the right place.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: It just probably didn't come from an expectation.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't go searching for it, which I think is the nice thing.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't go searching for it, but the conversations we had were all the right conversations.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: I probably first time I've ever asked two directors for their business plan before I knew I was going to go there, um, because I wanted to know what their intentions were.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I say that because obviously, with the industry we're in, there are, say this in the nicest possible way, there is probably an older age bracket in our industry.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: And one of our directors is um, Matt won't mind me saying this, one of our directors is of that sort of age where you think, well, what are your long-term intentions here?
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: What are you going to do when it comes to the end of your career?
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want to know that.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because is it a case of you you plan to sell the company and then just move on?
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or would it be something you'd be interested in looking at working with me so I can take the company on going forward?
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, openly that is the long-term plan.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: And again, we're at that start of that phase now.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's probably again where I get the mentality of this is early career, because my long-term career ambitions are there.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_03: So when you join a firm like for yourself, I like what you said there.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's the first time you've ever asked a company to actually provide you with a business plan.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_03: So some would find that in your situation, would feel uncomfortable, perhaps asking for a plan and you know, a business plan from the directors that they're looking to hire that person.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_03: So, what you know, why why was that important to you?
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_03: Just to just kind of reiterate that, why was it important that they had a strong business plan?
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think if if you look at my early career, and certainly if anyone was to look at my C V and you you can see on LinkedIn, for example, there was, even though I worked for Santander on three occasions, and probably again, large chunk of my life was at Santander, it was three different occasions that I worked there.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I always felt I was going somewhere, having two years, it not quite meeting my ambition, but it also the role was never going to sort of fulfill me.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think I could fulfill the company long term.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: So it was important for me if I was going to go somewhere, I was going to go back to face-to-face advice.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to become chartered, I felt that was very important from a non-university background.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: I really wanted to achieve chartered, so I wanted to find the right home that I could do that as well.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: I also wanted to have some involvement in community projects because as I pointed out, my directors have always been very open and helpful with that scenario.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: But there are previous companies that have been a bit objective about that, and that they don't want you to go and support it unless there's a business reason to support it.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I really wanted to almost go and say to Matt and Stu when I met them, this is what I want to do.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I think the the value to the business could be.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to know sort of what your views are on that, and I want to know what you want to achieve because if we can all be on the same path, then naturally it's going to work.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, four and a half years hopefully shows that because my career path before that had never been beyond two and a bit years in one particular point of a career, and it was very important to find the right home, find the right leadership, and also get the trust.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I mentioned earlier, they they treat me as almost a self-employed advisor, but with an employee contract.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: They made no promises about leads, they made no promises about sort of what they wanted me to do.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: They said they just openly said, we'd like you to produce your own business.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_00: We'd like to see if you can develop any um points of contact for us.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_00: But they made no promises, no targets, no set boundaries.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was a case of if you work hard, that's good enough for us.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you produce what you need to produce, naturally, uh you know, that there is a validation.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to dress that one down.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: There was a validation, I had to write a certain amount of my salary.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: But beyond that, it was up to me.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was completely open about what I wanted to achieve.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: If I wanted to do very well, they'll support it.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: If I just wanted to hit validation, they would support it.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, thankfully, I've never had that conversation the opposite way.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: But they are bosses that really understand that if they give you that empowerment, they give you that, you know, sense of you're in charge, that you will go and do it.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I like that.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_03: And also they're setting those clear expectations as well.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's for you going into something, it's not like, oh, brilliant, I've got a job and they're paying me this much money and and that's it.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_03: You've got a really clear idea of their expectations and also your expectations and that they match.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_03: And you're not getting tripped up.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you you fell foul of that, didn't you, before when you went self-employed leaving the bank?
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you had that idea in your head that perhaps we're a little bit egotistical.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we will get there, so our ego sort of, yeah, I can do this, no problem at all, no, no issue whatsoever.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and you know, you get you get sold something by someone, we'll provide this many leads for you, and it's like, oh great, I can always fall back on that, and I'll get 50% of that, so that's okay.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_03: It's about the real the reality of it, reality versus expectation.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I remember 25 Sam being told that I was going to get four to five pension referrals per week.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, probably in the back of my mind, I thought, well, I'll just write some family business in the background just in case.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then the reality is these four to five turn out to be one to two every month.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's quite a sting in the tail when you think, wow, I'm paying that particular company a lot of money to be part of their network.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: And yet the reality is I'm not getting those four to five leads per week, which were going to write me loads of money.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so again, when I met with them, it was keen to almost fresh out that detail, almost cut through any of the ball that might be there, um, almost just to make sure that you're not selling me something that's too ambitious.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually went to the office, uh, I went to their offices so many, and what which is our office now.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: I went, um, I probably met the receptionist more times than you would normally meet a traditional receptionist when you're going for a job interview.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I met the two directors, and we almost um, and and I know you're a recruiter, Sam, so we almost cut the recruiter out of some of the conversation because we thought, no, let's really have this conversation face to face.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not have anyone sort of be in the middle of the conversation.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, I always worked with the recruiter on this and said, no, I want to go and meet them.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't want you to tell me uh to tell what I want.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: I want to go and meet them, eyeball them.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we've always had that in the in the four to five years.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_00: If there's ever been a conversation, we've always had that same approach where we'll meet face to face and now working as directors, that's what we do.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we we work together to try and achieve what we want to achieve.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's the I think it's the best thing you can do is to cut out the recruiter.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you think look, the recruiter's important because they make the inroads, they get you there, they get you in position.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I think sometimes, and again, previous experience, um, because I think a recruiter got me that role when I was self-employed with um, it was a company called Charles Derby at the time.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: And again, the promises that were given, and I just always went back to the recruiter, always went back to the recruiter in the early days.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, again, very young, very naive.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't know any different to that.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it sort of taught me a lesson that the recruiter is important because they've got to get you in the door, they've got to get you, they've got to position you, they've got to market you to that employer.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: But once you're in front of that employer, it's about you.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_00: At that time, it's about you and it's about your expectation, their expectation.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and very nice recruiter uh that I worked with.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but at that time, I just always openly said to him, I'll feed back what the conversation is to you.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you can go back to them, you can do what you do in the background.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: But if it is a conversation about, I suppose, the day-to-day things, I want to be having that rather than you having that.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: Financials, contracts, yeah, recruiters, that that's that's where they can add value.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: They can obviously position you.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I think importantly, the day-to-day and the expectations and the objectives of the role, I think you are better to go face to face.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_03: And always use a recruiter as a bit of a sounding board, really, a place where you can go to and say, look, they've said this to me.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_03: What do you think?
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and if their recruiter's worth their weight, then they will be they'll give you an honest answer.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_03: The issue you always have when you come up against uh using your recruitment consultant is that if that recruitment consultant has only put you forward to that role, then they're going to tell you it's the be all and end all.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_03: Now you need to have your own opinion of that company, and that's the important thing.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_03: So cutting that recruiter out and having that conversation is so, so important.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_03: And it's something I've always done.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_03: I always bring them together.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_03: And and sometimes I've even sat in on um, I sat it, I sit in on um interviews because I can see that one of them wants to ask a question and they haven't got the confidence to ask it, or they don't know how to position the question.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I'll just cut in and just say, right, well, you know, such and such is incredibly interesting in marketing.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_03: That database to me is set up for marketing.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_03: Tell us a bit more about that, and like really digging on the things that they perhaps wouldn't want to actually talk about, and it becomes handy in that way.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_03: But otherwise, no, you guys should get together, thrash it out, and there shouldn't be a middleman.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's a bit old school, that is.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, and again, I was keen on that.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_00: And as I say, we, you know, thankfully have worked really well together in the four to five years, very privileged.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, when I become chartered, when I become fellow, Matt and Stu were very quick to react to that and make sure that I was happy to continue with them.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it was never in my thought process to go elsewhere.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, don't get me wrong, obviously, recruiters have been in touch um since those days, but I always knew my future really was within the objectives we set out.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually look back, um, I did a PowerPoint on a spreadsheet, um, sort of business plan that I took with me to my initial interviews with uh Stu and Matt.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, some of those we've ticked off.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_00: We have ticked off what the expectations were in year one, right, in business, um, getting my chartered status, then working towards being part of the business at some stage.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: So um it's quite pleasing.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to say, I've got two fantastic directors that I've never worked with um anything of the like in the industry before because they give you the confidence to just go and do what you need to do.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_00: They know it's good for them, they'll support you, and they won't question, you know.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, they might question some of the things that you do, but they won't question it in a negative way about the commercial, you know, the commercial aspect of it.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_00: They'll question it to see whether it's actually going to add value to you as an individual.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, which, you know, we've had conversations.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly when I joined the PF PFS, we always wanted to make sure it was going to add value to me individually, but also what we can um hope to achieve as a business.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_03: You mentioned something before about them being a little bit older than you and thinking about their exit really out of the profession, perhaps, and where you then would fit into that, because there's plenty of small to medium enterprises out there that are in those same positions.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_03: And someone who is in their 30s or 40s or whatever, who've got another 30 years of working behind them, it's a way to completely come into a business that's that can sort of add value to it straight away because you've got that modern, um, enthusiastic, energetic approach.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_03: Whilst they might be coming towards the end of their career, it's not saying they're not energetic about it, but that you can add a different dynamic to it and it kind of brings it to life a little bit.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_03: But also for them, it's a succession plan, isn't it?
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_03: So it's the ability to kind of continue to kind of grow the business, but having that person who's going to come in through it and help run it.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that infuses um those small to medium enterprises no end.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_03: And especially when there's a lot of people out there in those, in you know, in that 55, 60 age bracket.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it was quite key to do that.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_00: And again, obviously, um, this still may be a long term, and obviously um there's no enforced or age that any of them will retire.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a case of saying that, you know, I still feel that I've got 30 odd years left in my career.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, that would take me to my mid-60s.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's about then taking that generation on.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that they have seriously worked hard to build the business to where it is today, and it is very attractive on that basis.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think knowing them as well as I do, they want this business to go into the right hands and they want it to continue as it is.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yes, there'll have to be innovation, there'll have to be changes to what we do.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's like any business.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think this business is the same business it was 30 years ago, um, because it couldn't be.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but at the same time, they are very passionate for the business to continue thriving.
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_00: We've got some exciting plans, obviously, a lot of things that are going on behind the scenes that will hopefully come to fruition.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, as you say, they're both very excited for the future, but they also know at some point their time may be best to go and obviously enjoy their retirement, go enjoy their planning.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully at that time we sit down and yeah, naturally I take more of an active role or take a bigger role in the business.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_00: Good man, excellent.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_03: Well, listen, well, thank you so much for today coming in and sort of sharing your journey and talking a little bit about your career.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's been really, really informative.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, what I always like to end on really is what what do you what do you think the next sort of couple of years have got in store for you then?
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_03: Where do you where do you see yourself going?
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um personally, I just want, you know, I do want to continue working.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think winning that Education Champion of the Year award has now given me a little bit more of a spark.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_00: I want to continue working with the local colleges, the local institutes to see if we can get education more pushed into that curriculum.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously, the the big win on that would be is the curriculum did something about it.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's work to see if we can promote youngsters in financial planning.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I I am now shifting my attention to see how I can support the PFS on that and the um why the Chartered Insurance Institute on that, because I do think we need to, as you highlighted there, Sam, we've got to find a way to find those youngsters in sales careers and get them into financial services.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: University is a great way of doing it, but at the same time, it can't be the only way because, again, those people are likely to have less work experience on the flip side of things.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got to try and find that balance.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just want to see youngsters promoted in a better way, financial services.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's my aim over the next two years.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_00: On that, on the other side, I want our business to continue looking at that.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I know going forward when we do, because we again have advisors of an age where they might be considering retiring in five to ten years.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_00: We need to be then forward thinking about replacing them with young advisors where we can, or bringing trainee advisors in to try and then get them ready for that time and that handover.
• 1:00:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's my views on the next few years.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think we've got a challenging financial service market.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's always challenges in there.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of things to help our client base on.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we need to get people in.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: We need to make the industry more exciting.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and fully enough, we've been talking about social media and how we use that.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've got to try and make financial services a little bit more appealing to the younger market because that's who we're aiming for, and that's the future of the industry.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, great.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_03: Well, listen, thank you so much for all your thoughts today.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_03: I really, really appreciate your time.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_03: And uh good luck with your career.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much, and thank you very much for letting me speak today.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_03: No problem.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Robert.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_00: All the best.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_00: Bye-bye.