Hoxton Life

From Mountain Biking to Trainee Financial Planner at Hoxton Wealth - Tom Streader

• Hoxton Wealth

Share episode

Welcome to another episode of Hoxton Life with your host, Sam Oakes. Today, we delve into the unique career journey of Tom Streader, who transitioned from mountain biking into the intricate world of financial planning at Hoxton.

In This Episode:

  • Following Passion: Tom shares how his early passion for mountain biking influenced his initial career choices, providing insights into the skills and experiences that facilitated his later transition into finance.
  • The Role of Education: Explore Tom's decision to further his education in finance after realising his interests had evolved, and how this has impacted his professional growth.
  • Importance of Formal Education: We discuss the necessity and benefits of obtaining a formal degree for a career in financial planning, drawing from Tom’s personal and professional experiences.
  • Professional Development at Hoxton: Learn about Tom's development trajectory at Hoxton, from his beginnings as a trainee to becoming a key part of the leadership team, and the opportunities for growth that Hoxton offers.
  • Building Long-term Client Relationships: Tom emphasises the critical role of long-term planning and relationship building in achieving success in financial planning.
  • Expat Experience in Dubai: Hear about Tom's transition to working in Dubai, the challenges and opportunities of working internationally, and how it has shaped his approach to his career.

Why You Should Listen: Whether you’re considering a career change, curious about the transition from a passion-driven hobby to a professional career, or interested in learning about working abroad, this episode offers valuable insights into adapting to and excelling in new professional environments.

Join us to discover how passions can influence professional paths and how embracing change can lead to fulfilling career opportunities in financial planning.

Ready to start your international financial planning career?

Hoxton Wealth is looking for ambitious individuals ready to take their careers to the next level. Whether you're interested in international financial planning, compliance, client servicing, or marketing roles within the financial sector, we offer unparalleled opportunities for growth and success.

Don’t miss a beat! Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch full podcast episodes featuring insights from those that work for Hoxton and some of our special guests and partners. Stay connected by following us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X for more exclusive content.

Curious about our career opportunities? Visit our website to explore open positions and learn more about joining the Hoxton Wealth team. Your journey in international financial planning starts here!

For sponsorships, partnerships, or media inquiries, reach out to us

Speaker 1:

Actually being a financial planner. It is a long-term career path. As such, Potentially looking at working with clients for 5, 10, 15, 20 years.

Speaker 2:

I find it really, really hard not to think that you would be the right person. You know, when people say, like past performance isn't an indication of future performance, I kind of disagree when it comes to careers.

Speaker 1:

She said how did the job interview go? I said yeah, it went really well. Actually, I got off the job. She said ah, fantastic. When does it start? Where is it Starts? Start of November, it's actually in Dubai, face dropped a little bit.

Speaker 2:

What sort of time scale do you think is realistic for them to expect that they will one day be sitting down with clients face to face building their own client book as a financial planner?

Speaker 1:

You know, if I haven't been able to potentially put that person in front of one of the relevant advisors whether it's tax, wills, estate, I feel like we potentially sort of failed the client. As such, it shows you how innovative the company is as a whole and, of course, that all goes back to Chris Ball.

Speaker 2:

He didn't have a gun to your head, did he when you were doing that? No, Okay, Tom, thanks so much for joining me today on the Hoxton Life podcast. How are you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, all going well, thanks. Thanks for the invite to the podcast office. What do you think? Yeah, great. I mean, look at the view, unbelievable.

Speaker 2:

Have you played golf down there? No-transcript so yeah went very badly in the end well, I went with jack, and we all know how much jack povey enjoys a game of golf right oh yes, he's, uh, he's quite serious about it right, okay, tom, so you are a Hoxton employee. Of course, this is the Hoxton life. It's all about the careers of those that work at Hoxton. So let's just start from the beginning, though, because, well, first off, how long have you been in the business for? So?

Speaker 1:

it was my three-year work anniversary last month, so three years in a month now Fantastic and the job role you're currently doing. So I'm currently working alongside one of the advisors, so coordinator, client relationship manager. I'm also part of one of the new roles within the team as one of the team leaders, so I also work with a smaller group of other coordinators and other business development managers, sort of working with them and sort of teaching, sharing my experience, my knowledge with them.

Speaker 2:

Brilliant. We'll go into that in a bit more detail in a a bit, but I'm always interested in those that are coming into the business essentially as a trainee wealth manager. Right internally we'd call that a trainee wealth manager role. So you're getting stuck in at the very, very beginning of the journey and you're going to be learning some of the tougher parts of the job that you're going to benefit from when you become a financial advisor later on down the line it's being a financial advisor, something you're working towards yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

So. I'm sort of within the trainee wealth managed role yeah um, now done my qualifications and sort of closer to that line of actually stepping up as an advisor fantastic that's always been the uh objective. So you're on the cusp of that at the moment, yeah, in essence. So, looking to uh at a moment, essentially step up and sort of work alongside or should say work solely by myself rather than alongside an advisor, hopefully at the start of next year.

Speaker 2:

Oh, fantastic. So prior to getting into wealth management, okay, this trainee wealth manager role. What were you doing?

Speaker 1:

Okay, so almost throwing it back to the very start as such. So went through school, did some A-levels, did A-levels actually within maths and finance. I wasn't necessarily the most academic people or persons at that time. Um, I did that for a year and kind of left it. I was quite a lot more of a hands-on kind of person, um, a lot more of a problem solver, a bit more entrepreneurial, very much into my hobbies of biking, um, and I I sort of left the finance and maths as such and went towards following my passion of biking.

Speaker 1:

So I went through the bike industry, worked in a few different stores, sort of went up the career path, career levels, and then I got to sort of the plateau, got to the top of the role within my previous job at a company called Giant and decided I wanted to make a bit of a sort of pivot, bit of a switch, and finance has always been an underlying kind of area of interest to me. I think just at that time it wasn't the appropriate time to engage or sort of focus towards that as a career path for me. It was better just to focus on my hobbies and my passions at that point. Um, then when I was 23 I decided I want to pivot a bit and went towards and did an undergrad, post-grad and then ended up here in Dubai three years later at Hoxton.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so walked away from education at the time wasn't really something that motivated you. You mentioned biking. What type of biking is that?

Speaker 1:

So it's a bit of a mix. Really, predominantly, it was always mountain biking. I'd say, as like most people, as you go through the years of biking you then also go into road biking. So really it's a bit of a mix nowadays, but used to predominantly be mountain biking yeah, did you find you were?

Speaker 2:

you were almost kind of obsessed about your hobby. Was it something that you were really super interested in, which is why you wanted to a ride your bike all the time? But be, be around bikes, be around people within the uh, the biking industry yeah, ultimately.

Speaker 1:

I mean it's one of my passions from, should we say, primary school as such, and meet up your mates in the weekend or after school and you go on your bikes and go for a little ride and do some jumps and muck about and bits and that's just always continued and flowed through all my sort of group of friends. They did the same. So it's always been a passion and something you've done very regularly. So it's always kind of been ingrained as such, something that I've done and really enjoyed and I think that's why I kind of followed through into my work as well, so leaving college and not sort of following or pursuing the A-levels, pursuing the sort of hobby, the area of interest. I think that worked really well for me.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic. You mentioned entrepreneurial mindset. Ok, have you ever set your own business up or done things off your own back?

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So I guess I've always been kind of slightly entrepreneurial, whether it's been working for the company, working for Giant as such, been working for the company, working for giant as such. Um, when I did the ultimate pivot, when I was 23 and wanted to actually focus on my education and sort of progressing the finance career, at that point I had my partner sharni. We were kind of focused on purchasing house and quite used to. She was a regular income stream. So I had to try and pivot towards the education, which of course, is very full-time, doing an undergrad while still maintaining an income, and towards our personal goals as well.

Speaker 1:

So I uh sort of set up my own company, did my own bits on on the side, you say, while I was working part-time, while also doing online sales. Uh, so make sure, sort of drop shipping, um also upselling of products, purchasing and selling them on um, and actually then became kind of my full-time job after about two years roughly. Um then for the last three years before I moved out to dubai, that was my full-time job. Um, just basically online sales and sort of drop shipping, but sort of e-commerce type yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 1:

It's e-commerce. It's using a range of different channels, whether it's facebook, amazon, ebay. They were the key ones selling a range of different products. It did again, sort of going back, to come from my passion of biking, because I understand that product, that's my air of expertise. I was able to sort of, you know, uh, utilize or really capitalize on that, and I was predominantly selling bicycle orientated with its products, bikes, accessories and bits, and actually I worked out, you know very well interesting.

Speaker 2:

Okay, everyone sort of would love to set their own little online store, sell some things, make some money. Can I just ask how much you made a year off of doing that?

Speaker 1:

yeah, of course. I mean it always starts slow, as many of these things did, although I guess it actually it worked. It did suddenly pick up quite quickly because I found a few products that weren't actually on ebay. So I was like one of the first people on eBay with one of the products actually that went really well. Um, I say probably, you know, went between 23 and 25. I was kind of earning around 50 to 70 grand a year roughly doing that off your own back, yeah, which is worked really well.

Speaker 1:

It meant I could keep an income stream while actually doing my undergrad, focusing on that to ensure that I did well to really get my longer term goal, which, of course, is pursuing a career in finance.

Speaker 2:

Brilliant. So when did you discover, or when did you decide that a career in finance was for you?

Speaker 1:

I guess for me it was. Finance has always been of interest, sort of personal finances. When I was working for the company called Giant I was doing so you said it counts and bits like that. It's always been an area of interest. But at that stage my passion was, uh, biking my hobby, when I kind of plateaued within the career because I jumped up the roles and I was ultimately then managing one of the stores. I personally have a bit of an ambition. Yeah, try and push myself further, and I was quite limited at that stage. So then sort of had a look and almost reviewed where I'm at now and and and what would the options be. And actually it was developing myself, of doing the undergrad and and for me at that point it was financial advisory. Yeah, that was very interesting, kind of as slowly looking into that while going through the, the undergrad and postgrad courses knowing what you know now about working in wealth management and you've come in as a trainee wealth manager.

Speaker 2:

Do you think doing the degree was a necessity to becoming a trainee wealth manager, say at hoxton? Do you think it's a benefit? Do you think it's a necessity? What? What I really love to understand your views on that, because a lot of people think you have to get a degree to become a financial planner. Is it beneficial or not? And I'm kind of on the fence around this yeah, because I'm kind of playing around with a new idea for attracting new people to to hoxton and one of those is like a graduate scheme, right, okay, yeah, so I'm intrigued and to understand what are the?

Speaker 2:

what do you think? Do you think getting a degree or a master's? Yeah is beneficial to someone coming in and starting a career as a trainee wealth manager and eventually becoming a financial planner.

Speaker 1:

I don't think it should be something that's mandatory. I think it benefits itself in. What you'll probably find is most people will do a degree. Most people follow the norm as such. They go through school, college, do a degree. They'll do a degree within one subject, but the amount of people that actually have a career path within that subject, it's very minimal.

Speaker 1:

I don't think the degree itself really always adds value. I think it adds value from a standpoint in terms of maybe it develops you as a person on a personal basis, maybe, yeah, it's useful. For me, it really built on my kind of analytical skills. I think it's very useful, it's very good and it's kind of a way that you can potentially showcase your personal ambition or your personal drive to actually achieve a should we say, a good grade. As such, although is it mandatory? I'm not sure there's so many people that do very, very well without so many people that are very, very smart and clever and they don't need to do a degree to really showcase it as such yeah, it's from a, I suppose, from a hiring perspective, I think, um, it is evidence, isn't it, that somebody can apply themselves.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I'm always intrigued to understand. But what did you learn from it? Yeah, you know. What did it teach you about yourself? Yeah, what skills did you gain around your organization, your analytical skills? I think it's not so much. I'm not going to quiz somebody on the subject. Yes, of course it's. What did you learn? How did it make you a better person? You know, how did you structure your days? What was a challenge? How did you overcome them when you were going through it? And I think that's where I look at degrees, and I think you've had to apply yourself, you've had to stick at something to do that. It takes a certain mindset of which is kind of evidence, based on three or four years of doing a qualification, and I think it's a. Really. It's something I've overlooked because I never got a degree. Yeah, let's call it 16. So I think, well, you don't need a degree, you don't need this, and the older that I'm, the older that I'm getting I understand that you don't.

Speaker 2:

I get that, and there's plenty of people to go out and be an absolute success. There are lots of different careers you can go out and do that in, but I I'm really leaning into like if someone can apply themselves for four years, yeah, yeah, that to me is like tick box yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

I guess that's what I personally did as well.

Speaker 1:

You know, I left college and didn't feel like I wanted to do a degree, although probably 50%, if not more, of my friends at that point were all going off to university different areas across the UK and so much uh, abroad, um, and for me it wasn't a necessity then. But then when I was sort of 23 and I wanted to follow a different career path, I think it was. For me it was. Ultimately it's a way to showcase, like you say, whether it's sort of dedication, commitment, structure, uh, you're learning. It's a way to physically show this is what I've achieved. I put myself to this for the last three years, maybe four years if you're doing a post-grad and actually this is, you know, it's something I'm personally proud of. I've got my certificates, so actually I've got that result for for my time that I put in there. So I think it is useful, like you say, because ultimately, how else can you showcase potentially your sort of soft skills and other areas and the way you sort of manage yourself, your time and your dedication?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I also just love the fact that you've had an entrepreneurial streak within you. You've created a business off your own back. You understand hard work. Yeah, you understand the more work you put in, the more you get back. Yeah, you've been responsible for that business, your own finances around it, whilst doing a degree yeah, and also buying a house during that period and maintaining a home for you and your partner yeah, um, with an aspiration and a vision also to want to start another career, and I think when I look at all those things wrapped up it to me, it makes me go, wow, like if you walk through and I was asking you those questions and you came in with that evidence to show me that that's what you've done. Yeah, I find it really, really hard not to think that you would be the right person yep, yeah, because it's like it's I think you know people say like past performance isn't an indication of future performance.

Speaker 2:

I kind of disagree when it comes to careers.

Speaker 1:

It's like Everyone says that, though, don't they?

Speaker 1:

Past performance isn't an indication of future performance. I mean within finance, of course. That's one of the key things everyone says. But I think when you look at a person on an individual basis, of course it is Don't get me wrong, people change, you know. And yeah, don't get me wrong, people change, you know, and and well, they do change ultimately. But actually looking at past performance or what you've previously done, that showcases this is what you know tom's done, this is what sam's done over the past five years and what's the purpose or reason behind it why he's done that? Is it to better himself? Was he forced into it? Has he done it off his own back? So it's, you know, shows sort of proactivity and proactiveness.

Speaker 2:

yeah we, we want also people when someone's coming into like a training wealth manager role and we're getting to your kind of journey really, because you've gone through it now. You're now approaching becoming a financial planner and you've gone through all the stages. You've seen the business, you've developed with the business, you've done all the different types of roles within the position that you're in right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

But making sure that we attract the right people to come into that system, if you like, or that process, yeah, why? Class is almost like an apprenticeship, right? Yeah, it is a training program. You go off and be an accountant. You go off and be a solicitor. You're going to be. You're not going to be a solicitor just because you've got your qualifications. You're not going to be an accountant just because you've been in qualifications. You go through like a scheme. You go through a process. You go through a pathway to becoming, ultimately, the end of that, you might become a partner, but that'll be a bit later on, right?

Speaker 1:

yeah, you need to experience. I think it's fundamentally.

Speaker 2:

That's the key part 100 and what we want is that kind of person that comes in that isn't kind of looking for that. Well, I've got the qualifications, therefore I'm a financial planner or that I really, really want to be an advisor. Yes, we know you want to be an advisor, but take your time because you're gonna have to learn the process of what's involved to be a success when you finally become a financial planner. Right, yeah, that's really really key. Let's just explore that a little bit. So you are now a team leader within the trainee wealth management team. So within that team there are people who are doing business development. They're phoning through leads. We do some insane marketing. We get great leads in. We're looking for referrals all the time.

Speaker 2:

You have to have a certain type of mentality in that role because there is a work hard ethic in there without a shadow of a doubt, and there should be, because you have to turn over a few stones, kiss a few frogs to be able to find the right prospects of course yeah if someone's coming to you now based on your experience, yep, what would you be looking for? For somebody? Somebody to join the team.

Speaker 1:

I guess the key is looking at long-term. You know it's not a short-term game. There's a lot of should I say opportunities out there where you can kind of have short-term gains as such and actually being a financial planner, it is a long-term career path as such. You know you're looking at working with individuals for their long-term plans and potentially looking at working with clients for 5, 10, 15, 20 years maybe Within the role. I mean. I think fundamentally, as you highlight, the key thing is it's starting from the bottom and understanding the basics. You know people may have the level 4 qualification which you need in the UK. It's having the experience of speaking to someone on the phone, understanding what was their inquiry, what did they want to look at, what are they concerned about. And actually you need to be able to learn how to speak with people and how to unravel their story and their information and really find out and ask the right words to fully understand their picture. And if you're not able to do that, I think you're not going to do very well as a financial advisor. Because really looking at holistic advice, although people come in and they say I want to look at maybe my pension, without asking the key probing questions.

Speaker 1:

There may be something that's a lot more prominent you should be focusing on, is it? You know, life insurance, their wills, is there any other concerns? Um, but what would you be looking for? Someone that's got a longer term goal, who's proactive, who who's keen to learn and understand and get stuck in and actually work hard. As such, I think that's probably it. Really. For me, it's just really that hard work and sort of go get it attitude and do you get it in year one?

Speaker 2:

does it just happen? You know how long? You know how long does it take to really feel like the pennies drop in? Yeah, I think it's very tricky.

Speaker 1:

Many people think I'm gonna jump into the role and become a financial advisor, I'm gonna earn lots of money, I'm gonna do very well, I'm gonna help all these high net worth clients.

Speaker 1:

But you need to take a step back and realize you may have the qualification, you may not, depending on what sort of your, what your position is at the moment, but you need to understand all the fundamentals of financial advice, which starts way before giving the advice. You know you need to understand how the whole process works, how, how to introduce hoxton to the client, how to understand the client. And it's not easy, you know. I think it's a bit of a roller coaster for many people. You know, like myself, you have your peaks, you have your troughs and what it is over the longer term it's looking at the average and it going in the upwards and the right direction as such. So no, it's not necessarily easy the first year or second year, but providing you've got that commitment, you've got that goal in mind, you know which I did for myself and you can get there and actually it's quite a fulfilling role, I'd say.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so you work on an international basis. You're over here in Dubai. Okay, there are plenty of financial planning firms in the UK. You could have worked in the UK, albeit it is very difficult to find a trainee wealth manager role in the UK, where a firm is also willing to give you a basic salary and performance-related pay, which we offer right.

Speaker 2:

There's very few companies out there. One of the reasons why I joined Hoxton all the work that I've been doing on the financial plan of life. I've got my own academy where we train people. For me it was hugely important that I worked for a firm that was looking at the next generation of people that want to be advisors and for me, where the average age I think in our business is roughly I think it's about 30 or something like that yeah, it's ridiculous. So we are a young business, we are a growing business and we do have a pathway program where we can take people from start all the way through their career journey to even exiting the business as a financial advisor if they wanted to leave and actually sell their book of book of clients within the business. It's phenomenal. So for me, it was. It was, it was really, um, really important that I joined a firm like that. Just want to sort of get that out there. Um, for you, for you, why international? Why not the UK?

Speaker 1:

Very good question, I guess, for me at the time. I mean almost how I got the job as such. So I finished my postgrad degree. I was then doing my sort of online sales business. It was peak of COVID, in fact. Now I was there and once I'd finally done that we've been doing it for a year I thought, right, let's now really utilize my degree and I want to have a look at the options.

Speaker 1:

So I was having a look around, having a look, doing a bit of research about financial advisory practices, having a look at the options from she's in london, locally, um abroad. Hoxton came up a couple of times on some of the searches. So clearly the marketing team do do very well. Now it was something which hadn't ever necessarily crossed my mind about actually moving abroad. It's quite a funny story really. So I was applying for a few jobs or having a look at job applications. I then went around and was having a look on LinkedIn and actually finding a few advisors, found a few advisors at Hoxton. Message one on LinkedIn said look, this is my current circumstances. I'm looking for a job role, sort of a junior role. Is there anything available? He messaged back, said actually, look, yep, there's a potential role here. It'd be good to set up a call and just have a chat. Had a chat with the advisor. That went well. We set up a few more and he said at the end of it, after I think the third or fourth chat, he's like you know, there's a job available here for you, so here's a job offer.

Speaker 1:

I got that from HR and the job starts in four weeks, on Monday, first of November, let's say it was that went well. My partner, Sharni, then came home from work that day and she's like how did the job interview go? I was like, yeah, it went really well. Actually, I got off the job. She's like, oh, fantastic, when does it start? Where is it? I was like so it starts at the start of November. It's actually in Dubai. Face dropped a little bit. She's like, okay, I wasn't expecting that. I was like, yeah, so job starts in four weeks. Get a flight out there. You might have to speak to your work tomorrow about maybe handing in your notice. And then, yeah, next minute we're out in Dubai and that's kind of how my role started, or how I actually got the job at Hoxton, which is a bit of a crazy sort of whirlwind really. That does sound mad.

Speaker 2:

Fair play to your missus for actually going along with it and supporting you then.

Speaker 1:

And here we are, three years later along with it and supporting you then. And here we are three years later, just still together, yeah, still together. Luckily, we got married the following year after we moved out here, um, and yeah, both, you know really enjoying the sort of lifestyle and almost going back to the sort of the international versus uk uh sort of financial advisory practice element. For me, I've never worked within a sole uk or an international financial advisory, so of course, this is my first experience and first experience and actually it seems to work very, very well because we've got the office in London, we've got the UK license. You could, for example, if I want to move back to UK, I could move back to UK work in the UK office.

Speaker 1:

We can service our UK clients. I can be based out here, which works very favorably for time zones. So we've got clients globally, you know, from australia, asia, locally, middle east, uk and us. The very good location being here and actually having the offices and licenses globally means you can service clients wherever we are. So from the international standpoint, it just seems to make absolute sense, because I know a lot of people as well, having spoken with them advisors, but sold uk practices when their client essentially moves abroad a lot of people coming to dubai, a lot of people going to saudi, etc. They can't then service the client anymore because they're based offshore. But we're in a very unique and lucky position that we can yeah, 100, I'm with you on that.

Speaker 2:

Again, when I was looking around uh opportunities for me, when I sold my recruitment business and I wanted to get into financial planning.

Speaker 2:

Um, you know, chris invited me out here to take a look. And 16 years of working in financial planning um, you know, chris invited me out here to take a look. And 16 years of working in financial planning, recruitment international space was never really, you know, held in a positive light, yeah. So I was like, look, I'll come out and let me look underneath the bonnet. I was skeptical. Yeah, absolutely I was skeptical. And when I came out and I sat down with chris and I looked under the bonnet and looked at the business here, started to actually understand what international advice actually is, because I would put my hand up and say maybe I had a perception of it that wasn't quite aligned to what it is like currently. Yeah, um, I was blown away. And then, all of a sudden, I saw the opportunity. It was like so you regulated in the uk and you're regulated out here, and the usa and australia and you're doing in india, south africa, yeah, you've got a passport in Europe.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so does that mean that? A financial planner who's in the UK at the moment could actually move to Dubai and continue to service their clients that they've got, and do that tax-free. Yeah, they could. Oh Makes sense.

Speaker 1:

So when they're out here as well.

Speaker 2:

They can actually then also service clients that are maybe in the US or move from the US to somewhere else. We're doing we're doing 401k and ira rollovers, yeah, and australians, yeah. I was like, oh my god, that is a huge opportunity. And all of a sudden, the penny dropped for me. I was like this is ridiculous, like it's a great opportunity. So when you look at someone like you who's coming in at the beginning of their career and you're going straight into a multi-jurisdiction, uh, multi-licensed financial planning company, soon to also be in the dFC, out here, right, yeah, which is really, really cool.

Speaker 2:

It's a huge opportunity. It isn't Mickey Mouse. And then, when you looked a little bit further, and the fact that Oxygen are a fee-based financial planning business right.

Speaker 2:

They're not some, you know dodgy commission-based company, right, that's a thing of the past. Chris has built a proper business here. Paul Tate in compliance global head unbelievable experience, right, having to deal with all those different most decisions. We've got somebody now in the uk who's heading up compliance there. Jonathan jay's come on to build out the uk. Yeah, this isn't some mickey mouse operation. We have boots on the ground in multiple companies, uh countries. So for me it was like, yeah, there is something special going on here yeah, 100.

Speaker 1:

It's like an exciting company to work with things. You're not restricted. There's so many options as well, whether it's, you know, looking longer term and actually say, ultimately, I do want to move back to uk and you know, five, ten years, I can. I'm not restricted, I don't have to give up my clients, yeah. Or if you want the opportunity of moving to us you know, chris has said that multiple times before if you want to go work at the us office, fantastic, drop me a message, drop the guys in US a message and you can have a look at those options. So it's pretty limitless. It's a very good and unique position to be in that you can, for example, we're sat here in Dubai, lovely weather, and be able to service the clients in the UK and everywhere else.

Speaker 2:

Realistic expectations. Let's set some, okay. So somebody's thinking about becoming a financial planner for Hoxter. They've got no experience so they joined on the trainee wealth manager pathway, a bit like yourself. What sort of time scale do you think is realistic for them to expect that they will one day be sitting down with clients face to face, building their own client book as a financial planner?

Speaker 1:

yeah. So I think a lot of people have expectations that they want to be giving advice as soon as possible. I think what you find when you then experience working within a financial advisory practice experience dealing with clients, um, giving advice or assisting with giving advice you realize that actually I think so. For me it's coming up to well, just over the three year mark. I think that's a really good kind of time scale, such because what that means is, you know, the first year odd for me is just learning. It's learning all the groundwork basics, from sort of admin related elements to how to speak with clients, how to follow up, how to utilize the systems to ensure that you're compliant and follow up um. It's then actually broadening your knowledge in that second year and really developing out and understanding these are all the services we offer and actually understanding the elements for the different jurisdictions.

Speaker 1:

So I've got a really good understanding of UAE and the UK, let's say, by the end of year one. Year two you can expand and understand the US 401ks. It's a massive thing for clients. So I think three years for me is a very good kind of timescale as such, it gives you that time, like we said earlier, lots of other professional industries and practices. You don't just jump into becoming a lawyer. You'll do three years, four years, five years of experience to gain the, the foundations and the fundamental knowledge to be able to advise in that area. So I think for me three years is kind of the, the key sweet spot as such well, you should start thinking about the fact that now's the time to make that yeah, to make that transition.

Speaker 2:

Um, I am definitely inclined to agree with you there. I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done and a lot of good, positive habits that need to be built to be a success. Look, making multiple telephone calls a day, phoning people up who, um have inquired about business with us.

Speaker 2:

It's nice and warm, okay but, lots of people click on leads and sometimes they, you know, don't expect a call back, right? Yeah, it's challenging. You've got to pick the phone up. You get the phone. Maybe you get the phone put down on you or you don't connect. You can't connect with everybody. It's a tough old job.

Speaker 2:

It's like knocking on 100 doors to you know, to get five people that say yes, right, yeah, but what does that do to you? What does that do for you in your early stage of your career? Do you see it as a benefit? Do you see it as a negative? Positive?

Speaker 1:

talk to me about that I think it's all part of the learning curve as such. Um, what I'd say, many people when they first start within, uh within the company, myself included. Let's say, someone uh in australia made an inquiry about a uk pension. You give them a call and actually they said I'm not interested, don't talk, you understand? Actually it's all about catching people at the right time. It's also about probing as well and asking the right questions, because they fundamentally have made that inquiry.

Speaker 1:

It was a concern for them at some point and actually I feel like I've done, let's say, someone a disservice if I haven't actually got to the bottom of it and potentially scheduled a conversation with one of the relevant advisors because at that point they were concerned about, let's say, the UK pension. I can have a chat with them. It's really asking like I said earlier, they're slightly more holistically asking all the additional probing questions whether it's because we had the budget this week. Are they aware of that? Are they aware of that? Are they aware of the impact and identifying? Is that their key priority that UK pension or actually are there other areas they should be looking at? And that's us doing, I think, a good job as a company and I feel like you know, if I haven't been able to potentially put that person in front of one of the relevant advisors whether it's tax, wills, estates, just holistic finance then I feel just holistic finance and I feel like we potentially sort of failed the client as such.

Speaker 1:

And it is tough because it's part of the learning. It's understanding what we offer as a company, it's understanding the services, it's understanding the areas of concerns for people. So it's very, very tricky at the start because you're in that learning stage still. So you will have a lot of people actually maybe putting the phone down saying, look, I'm not interested, and you feel like you're almost hitting a brick wall. But again, that's then maybe a motivation for you to learn a bit more. Speak with one of the advisors in the office, speak with one of the more senior guys in the office and understand how do they find the early stages, what can you do to improve x, y and z, improve the calls and actually maybe what can you do to identify what the areas they need help with what about your qualifications?

Speaker 2:

you've been running that alongside your um your job role yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I guess for me, um, I started, like I mentioned, by messaging one of the guys and linkedin came out here to dubai. Uh, we did quite a lot of training actually with that advisor and actually the broader team with all the different areas, whether it's marketing, um, tax etc. And for me it's fundamentally it's just working, getting that grips with the what you do on a day-to-day basis, did that for around 12 months there, after probably the 12 to 18 month mark. I was quite keen to now pursue, right, let's get the, the key qualifications under wraps. That's the level four, um.

Speaker 1:

So I then started basically revising towards those, did the three exams. I think that took around sort of nine months altogether. That was sort of something I did off my own back as such in the evenings during the weekend, and that was kind of my goal again. Uh, it was to set a goal of something. As you say, it's a hard job initially, but when you've got these goals to work towards because I know ultimately I need these qualifications and become an advisor, um, it does motivate you. Um, and, yeah, I'd say probably after the 18 month mark, roughly, I was. I was doing the exams. Um, they took about, as I say nine months and then um, yeah, so they were done and finished early stages this year which is good.

Speaker 2:

Congratulations is that? Who was that through?

Speaker 1:

the exams that was the cisi one, um, so, yeah, really good it's. Uh. Yeah, it's a good course because ultimately, I think doing it this way for me I found very good where working, getting the first-hand experience and then doing the qualification, it meant that I've got a very good baseline understanding of the UK advice that we give now. Doing the qualification, I think it made it easier, um, because I've got that knowledge bank already and then, of course, doing the exams, that built on that knowledge bank and I think I found after that I was then a lot more fired up and motivated and I suddenly, when I was speaking to people on the phone, I was like, have you thought about these areas and their bits which I learned during exams? And I think that helped me massively.

Speaker 2:

Um some of the, a lot of the people I've spoken to over the 200 odd people I've spoken to on my financial planner life podcast and the thousands I've spoken to over the years. Yeah, one of the a common theme for people that become quite successful within financial planning is being exposed to client meetings. Yep, um and the advice journey, instead of being a power planner sitting there and almost sitting in the dark doing the reports and the admin and never being sat in a client meeting yeah they never really pick up and learn on that.

Speaker 2:

So, with the job that you do, you are one doing one of the tough parts, which is prospecting. So you're building resilience and mindset around having to win new clients, build those early stage relationships. Yeah, disturb them enough in a positive way that's going to give them a solution to a problem that they might have or do not even know they have. So you've got to be knowledgeable in what you do and how you do it and how you approach it. So there's relationship building skills, right, and that's all great, and you're doing that on the job, day in, day out. But that next stage, which is sitting down with the client and doing the actual first meeting, second meeting, third meeting, tell us a little bit about that. Are you, who do you work with? Who you? What are you exposed to in that part of the journey?

Speaker 1:

yeah, of course. So for the last, I think, 18 to 24 months, I've been working with thomas goldie, who's one of the senior managers and partners within the business. Um, very good opportunity and, yeah, you know, fundamentally for me it's been so, so good, it's been so useful in terms of working with a senior advisor who's got an unbelievable amount of knowledge, experience, also clients, to help him with in terms of client servicing. Um, tommy's actually, you know, extremely good guy in terms of he'll get me involved in meetings, he'll keep you updated.

Speaker 1:

If you want to sit in on teams meeting, he's more than welcome or happy for you to do so. You're completely involved in the process as such, and I think that's, I think, a theme that runs throughout hoxton where we've got the kind of open office environment. It means, yeah, potentially I'm sat with the other coordinators, but if I've got any questions or queries, I can go over to any of the advisors and everyone within the office is always happy to have a conversation. And if you want to sit on their meetings providing it's appropriate to do so, they'll be happy for you to do that as well. So I think that's really really good and for me, a very good sort of part of hoxton, especially the dubai office, that everyone's sort of open and welcoming. It's not like a kind of standoffish. They're like, yeah, if you want to sit in my meeting, feel free to. You know, such a good learning experience for somebody who wants to progress to that advisory role and go through the training wealth management role also as well.

Speaker 2:

They've always been adopters of um like digital advice. Right, we've got the app, um, that's getting developed all the time with our 25 app developers in the business. Another reason why I joined right yeah built a homegrown system matrix which is tied in with the app. Yeah, we're working towards one day.

Speaker 2:

Client which is the ability for a client to actually come on board through the app and become a client within one day, which is magnificent. That's really, really positive. Right You're working with that type of thing, and that is not something that every financial planning company actually has Shows you, like, how innovative the company is as a whole.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and of course that all goes back to Chris Ball.

Speaker 1:

You know, know his goals, his objectives. You know one of the hardest working guys I know. I often used to get into the office at six in the morning because he used to have quite a focus on clients based in australia. It'd either be me or chris, first in the office and then, on the days that I do a late because I'm, let's say, revising for, uh, my exams, maybe, leave the office at 7 38. Chris is still there. He's in his office or he's just leaving. I mean, you know, it just shows, I think, everything from chris in terms of what the company's now doing. It's so innovative, as you say, having our own app, having the processes, the internal functions which make our day-to-day life so easy and smooth.

Speaker 2:

It's you know it's a great company, sort of be within and involved with he didn't have a gun to your head, did he when you were doing that?

Speaker 1:

He didn't. To be fair, it's all part of the role because, again, by having the offices and clients based everywhere, at that point my focus was a lot of clients in Australia. You know it's a very niche kind of market. We've got quite a considerable bank of clients there and there's very specific advice to be given. So fantastic, there's very specific advice to be given so fantastic. I'll take advantage of that. And with this sort of flexibleness within hoxton, it meant great. I could just do my shifts a bit earlier, so I'll start around six but finish earlier in the day. You've got some guys that come in, let's say, after lunchtime, and they'll do a us shift working with the us client. So you know, it's a good sort of not relaxed as such, but a good, flexible environment. So yeah, moving forward.

Speaker 2:

Based on your knowledge in the last three years working with tommy um internationally, have you sort of started to visualize and pick a niche or a typical type of client or a location? What does the future look like for you?

Speaker 1:

yeah, of course I guess it's understanding maybe areas that interest you as an individual as well. So if it's areas, location and clients as such I mean for me being based in dubai, of course it's a no-brainer in terms of, let's say, dealing with individuals based here in the middle east. Um, there's so much advice to be given. There's been so much bad advice in the past, as you mentioned before, that actually for me you know my kind of aims as such is working locally clients here. That also works favorably.

Speaker 1:

Should I ever want to go back to UK actually is quite a small sort of time difference as such. So you know whether focusing on Australia would be good or not. Maybe not for me now, because if I was to move back to UK, the time zones would be very tricky. Um, I guess, to answer that, have I thought that, yeah, I've made a bit of a business plan as such myself and I've actually gone through that with tommy. Um, he's been really useful in terms of actually guiding me and directing me and helping me to identify what the areas I'm good at. He's saying actually, tom, maybe you should focus on these areas because you know you're really good. You've got a very good knowledge bank within. Maybe is it the tax planning bits, tax efficiency, is it repatriation? Um. So yeah, for myself, I've got a bit of a target, should say a client base as such, which will be middle east, potentially europe as well.

Speaker 2:

But, um, I guess it always develops, it's it's not a static thing, it's a dynamic thing, so it's always going to be evolving and changing and what's beautiful as well as you just really touched on it a little bit earlier on in the podcast is look, we are international, you can move around. Yeah, one of the beautiful things about it historically what would happen? Someone would come out here, make a load of money, build a load of clients and not be able to service them when they went back to the uk yeah, whereas here, if you build a client book and you have a level of recurring income yeah, and your clients are used to being serviced over teams or video or face-to-face or whatever way that we do it because we've got multiple ways of doing it yeah, then when you go back to the uk, you don't have to give clients up. You can continue servicing those clients, which is pretty damn unique. So it works in the other way.

Speaker 2:

If you're in the uk, you've got clients. You want to come out and live in dubai? Yeah, maybe you want to come out here and benefit from the tax-free side of things. Maybe you want to do a mike yule thing and go to france and experience what it's like to work in france instead of just retire in france. Yeah, many advisors might well be in the uk thinking I would love to work in france and experience what it's like to work in france. If anybody's listening to this right now and they want to understand what that is, check out the hoxton life youtube channel, because I've just put an episode out, one where I interview mike yule for 45 minutes about being an advisor in fr, but another 12-minute little documentary where we look behind the scenes of what it is like to work in France and you can visually see it and you can even meet the chickens, because he's quite famous now, isn't?

Speaker 1:

he the Chicken Tuesdays or something else? Chicken Tuesdays, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I got to meet the girls the most famous chickens on LinkedIn and we had a lot of fun there, so brilliant. Hey look, tom, it's an absolute pleasure to speak to you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thanks so much for the invite.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, get an insight into you, your career and what you really think as well, makes a great trainee wealth manager. I'm loving the bit about the expectations side of things. You know managing these expectations, the benefits of starting as a trainee wealth manager, the foundational perspective. But also it's not like it's we're gonna just get you doing that and that's all you're gonna do. You're actually being exposed to so many areas of this business. Yeah, you're sitting down with tommy, one of the top advisors. He's taking you through the process. He's training, he's developing, he's mentoring you. That doesn't sound like a a greedy, selfish type environment to me. That sounds like a um, a progressive growth mindset environment where people are helping and support each other. So, yeah, brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing that. And, um, it's a real pleasure to meet you yeah, thanks so much, sam, appreciate it, cheers.