Hoxton Life

Why Business Development Should Be Every Trainee Financial Planners First Lesson - with Kane Tucker

• Hoxton Wealth

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In this episode of the Hoxton Life Podcast, host Sam Oakes sits down with Kane Tucker, Senior Business Development Manager at Hoxton Wealth, to explore the journey from trainee wealth manager to becoming a key figure in the international financial planning space.

Kane reflects on joining Hoxton in its first year and working alongside Chris Ball, CEO and Financial Planner. Together, they’ve built one of the most successful Business Development Manager and Financial Planner partnerships in the UAE. Kane shares how their dynamic duo approach has set the standard for success in the international financial planning industry.

The discussion dives deep into the challenges and rewards of Hoxton's Trainee Wealth Manager Programme. Kane highlights why business development is the foundation of a resilient and successful financial planning career. He explains how the programme immerses new recruits in real-world client engagement, equipping them with targeted marketing leads, referral systems, and LinkedIn strategies from day one.

Kane also offers candid insights into the evolving role of business development, the importance of process and persistence, and the power of mentorship in shaping the next generation of financial planners.

If you’re considering a career in financial planning or want to understand what sets Hoxton Wealth apart, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways. Tune in to hear Kane’s journey, expert advice, and what it takes to thrive in this competitive industry.

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.

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Speaker 1:

If you're willing to work 12, 14 hours, then I'll take my hat off to you and you can definitely join my team.

Speaker 2:

Do you think process and sticking to a plan is a key?

Speaker 1:

thing Critical. Yeah, it's critical. Yeah, absolutely. If you go away from that, I don't think you'll do well, what do you think is one of?

Speaker 2:

the most powerful things that you've learned in the last six years of being at Hoxton? What's the thing that you think? Right, you need to have this if you're going to be a success in this training wealth management role Having an actual process in the business that will take somebody through probably the toughest part of the job, which I believe is business development from quite a young age as well, because a lot of the training wealth managers are quite young and they're sort of cutting their teeth and doing the toughest part of the job, but it does pay dividends.

Speaker 1:

If you can focus for four or five hours, there's no reason why you can't sit at your desk just focusing on who to speak to for four or five hours. Now, I'm not telling you that's all you have to do all day as the job, because you're going to be doing other stuff to learn the process. But being able to speak to people for four or five hours a day and knowing what you're saying, how to say it, that's a talent in itself, I think.

Speaker 2:

So Cain, so kane, thanks for joining me today on the hoxton life podcast. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm very, very good. Thank you very much. Uh, we had to sort of pick the cameras slightly back to get you in shock, because you're such a big lad straight from the gym. Yeah, exactly, mate. Thank you very much for accommodating it. Right, okay, so you've been working in the international space now for over eight years, eight and a half years now. Yeah, great stuff. So just tell us a little bit about how you got into the international space. What was your beginning and journey to where you are now at Hoxton?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I started in Qatar with Devere, so obviously quite a few of us that are at Hoxton started at Devere. I think it was a good stepping stone. Tommy, who's one of the senior advisors at Hoxton, so he's one of my best mates and he got me the job initially Started out as a BDM, or as a coordinator as they were called back in the day, started there, worked for Devere for 18 months and then Chris mentioned he was looking to go set up on his own. So we moved to Abu Dhabi and then kind of set up.

Speaker 2:

Hoxton six years ago. Fantastic.

Speaker 1:

So you were one of the first with chris at hoxton. Uh, yeah, yeah, there's four. Four of us at the start.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so me, chris, two of the bdms and christine's are five of us really yeah, okay, it's good, small little office, yeah well, so six years later, you're now business development manager, aren't you? Yeah, okay, so let's just talk about that kind of transition then, because you said you started eight years ago for devere to where we are today, which is eight years later. You're now the bdm manager. You're looking after the business development management team. Yeah, has a lot changed in that eight years in the international space, and especially within this business developer or coordinator role yeah, so I think a lot's changed.

Speaker 1:

I mean the way that you can kind of get meetings in um. I mean, when I started back in qatar, you had to come and source your own data from various different areas. There wasn't as much marketing as we get now, which is good. I think we're very well supported now on the marketing data. Alan and the team do really well getting them leads in and make them very specific to what we're looking for.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I think the whole industry's changed. We're doing a lot more services, we can provide a lot more detail to what we cover Um, and obviously, given the light licenses and regulations that we've got on place, that we can do business definitely helps um what we can kind of provide as well.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic. So you provide a hell of a lot more services to the clients. Much more than six years, seven years ago, brilliant.

Speaker 1:

So it makes it a bit more interesting as a coordinator, as a business development manager gives you a lot more to speak about, a lot more to learn and a lot more kind of opportunity.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, fantastic I can imagine eight years ago, because I used to recruit those types of roles into um the middle east and it was a bit of a kind of revolving door really. Someone would go out.

Speaker 1:

I didn't know what cat I was when I moved there at all. I don't know what it was. I said, yeah, I'll move there. And then, when I was packing my bags I I said I don't know what it is, I just thought the opportunity was good. Yeah, what?

Speaker 1:

made you go, then I didn't really have anything in the UK to stay for. I was there for a year and then had a bit of money behind me, so I was like you know what, let's try something new, yeah, and it's obviously paid off. What was it like? Starting in Qatar is really odd completely new surroundings, new environment, um, and obviously a completely new job. For the first six months I was awful, really really bad, um. But yeah, I think you just kind of have to adapt and uh and learn as to how the role goes, I mean understanding what goes well and what doesn't, and then focusing on yourself and always self-improving nice well, it's interesting, you said in the first six months you were, you were, but you ended up becoming Chris Ball's business development manager and probably as a duo, one of the most successful out here, I'd say so, yeah, yeah, in the UAE.

Speaker 2:

So from six months of not knowing what you're doing to being one of the most successful business development managers, what do you think changed? How do you feel that you you Focus, I think.

Speaker 1:

Okay, focus on. Well, I've been sitting down with each other and kind of seeing what's going on, what's not. I mean, the people that I was scheduling meetings for wasn't what we typically do business with or the criteria people that we do business with. So I was just kind of sitting down understanding what works, what industries work, um, getting a lot more knowledge on the services provided. So if someone had a certain kind of pension that we were looking for and we did well with that, then we'd focus more on that area and try and speak to more people in that industry, in that company, etc okay, so let's just talk a little bit about then, because in a business development manager role, it has changed quite significantly from eight years ago to where it is now in fact here at hoxton wealth.

Speaker 2:

It's actually part of our trainee wealth manager program. So let's just talk a little bit about. If someone's listening to this now and they're thinking I wouldn't mind joining the trainee wealth manager program, I wouldn't mind getting stuck into the entry level um journey, if you like, to becoming an international financial planner, let's set the scene a little bit for them. What should they expect from a role as a trainee wealth manager in the the?

Speaker 1:

word journey you mentioned is perfect because it's not a quick fix, it's not something that happens overnight. I think you need to be completely invested in the process. It's going to be a three to five year journey for you to get to where you want to be. If an advisor is what you're looking to be, if you're not looking to be an advisor, don't think the role is really going to be for you. Um, because that's kind of the, the project that we're working on. We want to train people up to be a wealth manager. It's kind of in the name, um, and within that three to five years, you've got all the training that you're going to need, um, to get yourself set up to where you want to be.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, lovely so just take you know again, give somebody an insight into what to expect from the role. What would be like their day-to-day duties, what do they do in that position? That's going to kind of set them up as well to be a wealth manager in the future.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean daily and weekly are pretty similar really. I mean, in the morning you're just kind of getting set up for the day, but it's the first six months I'd say you're just completely learning everything that we do is just completely learning everything that we do Services, how to speak to people. If you've never kind of done this kind of role before, where you're speaking to people day in, day out and you could be speaking to sort of 50, 40, 50 people a day, it's just tonality training, how to handle yourself when people are throwing different things at you, uncomfortable situations, I think you need to get used to. But yeah, I think it's just hard work and willingness to learn is the main thing.

Speaker 2:

Do you think process and sticking to a plan is a critical?

Speaker 1:

yeah, it's critical. Yeah, absolutely. If you go away from that, I don't think you'll do well and do you help people build those plans? Yeah, yeah, yeah it's all part of it. I think everyone that works at hoxton within that training wealth manager role has that in them. Um. So again, if someone's kind of falling off track, then you've got other people around you to help you. Um, but no, you definitely need structure, you definitely need some sort of process if you're going to do well at this job.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you guys use linkedin a lot, which is amazing to see. Obviously I come from a recruitment background and linkedin's got a playground. That's where we we always use linkedin in recruitment, and to see financial planners uh plans planning companies using linkedin as effectively as hoxton wealth are. It's just really refreshing to see, because I did a poll once and about 75 of financial planners don't generate any leads through linkedin and what you tend to see is financial planners out there sharing stuff on the front end and it becomes a bit of an ego thing. You know like, oh, this is what I do and this is what I do, but no one's actually winning. No, it's just a show-off competition. Bit of a show-off, yeah, bit like a Sam Oakes show-off thing. You know financial plan at life, but it works. It does get inbound business for me, but for everybody, especially in financial planning, it doesn't seem to work for lots of people. So you use yeah exactly.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I've used it to my advantage to find potential clients within industries and companies that we work with. So if someone's worked for a certain company in a certain area and we know we've added value to the previous client, then I'll try and expand my network through that person and speak to people that they connect with and other people connect with, because I know that we've added value to them. So I want to try and see if it makes sense for someone else to have a discussion about.

Speaker 2:

Do you tend to niche down then? Is there a specific type of persona you're looking for?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, massively so I mean given the services that we offer.

Speaker 2:

there's loads of different criterias that we look for, but I know a good profile when I see one just based on previous clients, previous searches that we do, and then obviously adding the value from the knowledge that we've gained over the last few years great stuff, and when you actually engage with these clients and you start speaking to them and you start dealing with them, tell us a little bit about more of the responsibilities of the, the business development managers in your team, these trainee wealth managers what other responsibilities they have? They just reach out, have a chat with somebody and pass it on to somebody else, or is there other parts of the process that they're learning as well?

Speaker 1:

um, so they're learning. I mean, they're typically trying to schedule a detailed meeting with the advisor. Um, so they're not just kind of having a chat with a random person on linkedin and then hoping for the best. They're tethering to what they think they can help them with and then from there we're scheduling a meeting with the advisor because we know we can help them with something based on previous clients and then from there, once the advisor spoke to them, then the training wealth manager and the advisor then kind of work together on that until the client decides to become a client at hoxton oh, fantastic.

Speaker 2:

So it's not like a. You know I'm going to make a hundred calls. Just pass it over to leads over to somebody and see you later, and that's it. They're getting involved in the diary booking, absolutely sitting in some of those calls as well yeah definitely getting feedback from the advisors yeah, I mean constant communication is what you need.

Speaker 1:

I mean, if you're just kind of booking a meeting for an advisor and they leave you with zero communication or contact and there's no relationship built or anything, it's just kind of distant, you definitely need to be involved in other process outside of organization and sticking to a process.

Speaker 2:

What do you think is one of the most powerful things that you've learned in the last six years of being at hoxton? What's the thing that you think right? You need to have this if you're going to be a success in this trainee wealth manager role organization, of course.

Speaker 1:

Um, you need to be on top of your meeting what at the start of every week. You need to know who who's in for that week. You need to confirm that they're in for that week, making sure everything's organized. The advisor's got everything ready for the meeting. The notes are on there, the emails have been sent, the team's link's been sent. Everything just needs to be organized. Yeah, super organization there's nothing worse than flustering around before a meeting. Yeah, because it gets you and the advisor in the bad headspace Great stuff.

Speaker 2:

So it's well worth making sure these people listening who are interested in this training. Wealth manager role is this isn't just pick up the phone, make phone calls, generate leads.

Speaker 2:

Okay, that is a big part of it and I think it's a skill set that needs to be taught and I love the way that Hoxton teach that at the very, very beginning of the journey. A lot of companies focus on the financial qualifications and administration to power planner route, then becoming an advisor, but having an actual process in the business that will take somebody through probably the toughest part of the job, which I believe is business development, absolutely from a from from quite a young age as well, because a lot of the trainee wealth managers are quite young, yeah, and they're sort of cutting their teeth and doing the toughest part of the job. But it does pay dividends, because when I speak to people like ravi, that's taken five years to go through that training manager role and he's on for 300 000 next year in respect of business written. It just proves that that process works incredibly well but it doesn't happen overnight right no, exactly definitely builds character.

Speaker 1:

Um, like I said, you're going to be on a journey of three to five years. If you try and skip it or rush it, then you're not going to become as good of an advisor as you could be. Yeah, um, and I don't think it works. Um, I think when you rush it, you'll definitely at some point find yourself become unstuck. There could be an area that you've not touched on. There could be an area that you've not learned um, because you've skipped past it. Ravi's done it for five years. I used to work very close, I used to live with ravi, um, and when, when it was covid, we used to work 12, 14 hour days, calling everywhere and, yeah, we just understood everything about the process and was willing to commit to doing the long hours so I know it works.

Speaker 2:

Do you think long hours is important in this job role?

Speaker 1:

It is and it isn't. I mean again, if you're going into a job, I mean I'm there for 10 12 hours a day anyway, um, just because I've got other tasks to be doing as well. But you can definitely get the most out of the day if you're doing nine, but nine solid hours, not nine dusting around. Yeah, you know, you need to be kind of structuring what you're doing. If you work, if you're willing to work 12, 14 hours, then I'll take my heart off to you and you can definitely join my team. But, um, not everyone's going to do that and I don't think you need to be doing that because you'll probably get burnt out. But no, if you structure it correctly, you don't need to do 14-hour days.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and we like to make sure that people experience what the job actually is before they even decide. If they want to. To say, move to Dubai and join us over here in the Dubai office, which has huge benefits.

Speaker 1:

You're living in Dubai it opens you up to international market. It's where a majority of our business actually is. But we do start people off, don't we? For six months in the uk? Yeah, we have done that. Yeah, we've checked. We've started them off in the uk. Um, hiring from the uk has worked, um, and some of this. I think five of them guys now are here, yeah, and they've moved over, which is good.

Speaker 1:

It's been good. They enjoy the process in the uk and then eventually wanted to come to dubai and now they're really enjoying dubai. Um, I think you can hire from the UK and you can also hire here. It just completely depends on the person that you're hiring. As long as they've got the key credentials to what you're looking for, then we can hire for anywhere.

Speaker 2:

Let's just talk about the mentorship. Then, that side of it because you've had good mentorship, haven't you? And I assume you're passing this now on to the next generation I'd like to think, so, yeah, that are coming through. Yeah, so what is you know, when it comes to that training, when it comes to that development, what's the type of level of mentorship that you are offering?

Speaker 1:

um, I'm not doing it because I'm being arrogant, um, but I know that my process has worked. Um, obviously, mine and chris's has worked very well. So I think if you follow what I'm telling you and it doesn't work, then it's down to me. I'll happily take, uh, the hit for for you doing it wrong, but I know that you, nine times out of ten, it won't go wrong and you will do well from following what I'm telling you. Whether that's knowledge, whether it's tonality on the phone, whether it's the process, whether it's the structure of your day, um, everything really yeah I think it works.

Speaker 2:

So we talked about ravi, we talked about the way he's moved now on to what we call the pathways. You go from the trainee wealth manager role and then you become a basically a financial planner a trainee financial planner and on. You go on that journey and it takes a few more years to get yourself really up and running and doing the job of a of a financial planner, and that's where he is now. We've got some other people in the business, though they're at the beginning of the journey. Yeah, let's talk about some of those people now at the beginning of the journey. Is there any standout people? Are they doing anything spectacular that you think, wow, that's really impressive.

Speaker 1:

They're all doing a really good job, but if you wanted to highlight someone in particular I think we spoke about him before Alex J yeah, so, ollie's little brother. So Ollie's been in the company for what? Three, four years now, doing really really well for himself, and his brother, alex, was doing really well for a career in golf but wanted to change. And, yeah, he's been in the company less than two months and he's top of the bookings and top of the calls and top of the effort and I think he was working till about 10.30 last night.

Speaker 2:

Was he yeah.

Speaker 1:

He's kind of obsessive, isn't he? Yeah, he's, uh, he's very laser focused, which is good. He's, uh, he's determined, um, which is what you need. He's young, he's hungry, he's willing to learn. I think that's the main attributes if you want to do well in this industry, in the job that's. He's got all of them so far yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Um, it's quite interesting. I was talking about his golfing career because I was thinking like what, what? How have you got this mindset? He's a very young age. He was determined to be this golfer and he was spending like eight hours a day practicing.

Speaker 1:

I was the same, really. Yeah, from the age of 12 to 18, that's all I did, just play golf for six years really. Yeah, I got down to a good level, um, didn't do anything, didn't go out, didn't do anything, just play golf, um, and then just kind of hit a hit, an age where I just didn't want to do it anymore yeah which I think he's kind of hit the same.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but I think in that six years it was just laser focus, which is what he's done as well. You can always take that into another yeah, why golf, though?

Speaker 2:

because there's a couple of people in there I didn't realize that you had a background in golf as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's a lot of people in there who are successful that love golf yeah, or played a lot, you've got well, you've got to concentrate for four or five hours. So if you can, if you could do that, you can do a lot of things. I guess I'm trying to think how to how to put it. I mean, if you can focus for four or five hours, there's no reason why you can't sit at your desk just focusing on who to speak to for four or five hours. Now, I'm not telling you that's all you have to do all day as the job, because you're going to be doing other stuff to learn the process. But being able to speak it, that's that's. That's a talent in itself, I think yeah, no, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

I mean, let's talk about earnings, because people always want to know what they're going to earn because, especially if they're coming out to dubai, it's not cheap, right? Yeah, I've realized that in the last three months. It's very expensive, especially when you fall into the trap of using can be kareem every day for food and all this kind of stuff and six quid coffees in certain places. But, um, what about the earning potential? Are people earning good money in this trainee wealth manager role?

Speaker 1:

some are. Yeah, um, I mean I don't want to kind of big up the role too much because firstly, you can't control when you get paid in certain things because of how long it takes and things like that. But I think out of other companies in the industry, hoxham do everything they can to get you paid quicker as a BDM or as a training wealth manager, because we understand that it is tricky, it can be long-winded, but obviously we want to keep you guys motivated and make sure you can earn and keep you in the job and for the longevity Earning potential is you are technically self-employed. The more you put in, the more you get. You obviously get a base salary, um, and then you get a percentage of the deals that you bring in on top, um. The more deals you do, the more more money you get. It's it's really simple, ote on target earnings.

Speaker 2:

What do you think people are? You know what's a fair let's just give somebody an idea of what they could earn in the role, uh, in the first year, or yeah well, let's say year one and year two, year one and year two, I mean, the base salary is what?

Speaker 1:

£24,000 a year. There's no reason why you couldn't top that up to £40,000, £50,000 in the first year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and then from there, I'd like to think that you can do another £10,000, £15,000 on top of that, every a lot, definitely yeah yeah, definitely, especially with summit, that if you're joining the twm role, then everything is, is yours, like you have everything in front of you to do. Well, you don't really have to do much. You just kind of have to put the work in um willingness to learn. As I said, go and learn the stuff that we do. Learn it well, learn it inside out, uh, know how to say it and how to speak to people, and then it can only go well from there fantastic.

Speaker 2:

And what about qualifications? Because obviously, becoming a trainee wealth manager you want your qualifications alongside it for the time that you eventually perhaps want to become a financial planner. We're not forcing people to move into financial planning. If you're happy doing business development, you've made a career out of it yourself right as a team manager, yeah, so, um, what about qualifications? What qualifications run alongside that?

Speaker 1:

um. So at the moment moment, some of the guys are studying to be level four qualified, which is UK qualified, and some of the guys have already done that and now they're moving on to do Series 65, which is to be US qualified as well. A lot of our business at the moment is focused on US assets, so being able to discuss UK and US assets as a cross-border basis is something that a lot of advisors in the region don't have. As a cross-border basis is something that a lot of advisors in the region don't have, and that's why we want to be different and more qualified. Fantastic.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I believe you know Series 65,. What a great qualification.

Speaker 1:

Really good, huge amount of opportunity, not an easy exam either.

Speaker 2:

I've heard no. Huge amount of opportunity in America. You know, especially with these individuals that are moving from America all around the world and obviously being multi-licensed as a business, we're able to support those, yeah, individuals. It could be their 401k pensions being rolled over into iras, which is a huge opportunity, right yeah, exactly, look at you, your knowledge.

Speaker 2:

Oh look, it's all coming out I think the key thing is people want to understand how much they can earn and how long it actually takes. Yeah, and what's the reality of the role? That's the key thing. I think a lot of people see something like a trainee wealth manager, but they don't understand what it is they actually have to do. And also, historically, people hear horror stories of going abroad.

Speaker 1:

If you want to hear a case study. I think you've had Joe on here, haven't you? Joe Cookney, yeah, yeah, so Joe again. If I had 10 of Joe I'd be very happy in my team. So he joined in October last year, so it's just over a year now. He didn't do a deal for the first three or four months. Yeah uh, I knew he had potential because he was. He'd never done anything in um sales before. He used to work in costa yeah um, but he had a finance degree.

Speaker 1:

So you know he's willing, willing to learn um, but put the hard work in. He's like a sponge. He just absorbs information. You tell him and if you guide him correctly then he listens well, and now he's now. I think this year he's brought on 50 clients. So it can all just change if you do it correctly. Don't worry if you've not done anything in the first few months, because it can all just come at once Fantastic.

Speaker 2:

So just be patient. Yeah, absolutely, it's not a gun to someone's head, is it Just trust the process?

Speaker 1:

I know it's quite a common saying, but do trust it because it works. Yeah, oh, fantastic wise words kane.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for sharing that with us today and I'm sure if anybody's got any more questions on reach out to me on linkedin, more than welcome. Fantastic thanks. Cheers, sam, cheers buddy.