Hoxton Life

How Mentorship Shapes a Financial Planning Career - with James Trewren

• Hoxton Wealth

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What if the biggest risk in your career was never taking one at all?

Most people want success - but how many are actually willing to leave behind everything familiar to chase it?

James faced that exact question growing up in Cornwall, where life is slow, comfortable, and deeply rooted. Most people stay. He chose to leave.

His journey took him from a quiet coastal town to London, then to Qatar, and finally to Dubai - where he became employee number 15 at Hoxton Wealth and built a career in international financial planning.

But it wasn’t easy.

In this episode of Hoxton Life, James shares the realities of breaking into financial planning, the challenges of going from trainee to financial planner, and why most people fail before they even get started.

💬 We talk about:


✅ Why financial planning is more about trust than fees
✅ The transition from Business Development Manager to Financial Planner
✅ The importance of mentorship and learning from experience.      
✅ Why most people have no idea what retirement actually looks like.    

James’ story proves that success isn’t about luck - it’s about sticking with it when others quit.     

🎙️ Search ‘Hoxton Life’ on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts - links in the comments.

What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career? Let me know below 👇

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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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!

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Speaker 1:

When you do talk to clients about pensions, self-reflection is a big part of it, because whenever I ask what is your number, what is the figure that you need for retirement, they always ask me what does other people say? You're not going to be a millionaire overnight. It doesn't work like that. Clients don't buy products anymore. Products are just a by-product of, obviously, obviously, the strategy that you're going to obviously offer that client. Being different in the financial advisory industry, I think is key to being successful, because the world has too many sheep. You need leaders. When you look back at the Abu Dhabi office, when I first started, when Chris was talking about expansion and global expansion, it just meant he was going to get another row of desks in. Now, when you look at it and he's talking about the global offices and everything, it's from where we first were, I think six years ago, six and a half years ago.

Speaker 2:

It's where we are now, like it's unimaginable so, james, thanks so much for joining me today on the hoxton life podcast. How are you?

Speaker 1:

I'm all good, thank you, how are you? You're okay, I'm all right. Yeah, good, thank you for asking.

Speaker 2:

Actually no one I don't think it was ever asked me that. Actually, on the podcast, I am good. Now you've opened up a can of worms, I'm going to tell you all about my day. So I spent about eight, eight hours today doing podcasts, back to back, wow, which sounds like quite a lot, but I do find it quite energizing. I quite enjoy it, but it's been a good day. Some impressive people that work for hoxton, you know, and it's all about hearing their stories and sharing it with the world and what a wonderful talent attraction tool that is beats a boring job advert, doesn't it of?

Speaker 2:

course yeah, there's lots of different personalities that work within financial planning, james, isn't that? Do you see lots of different Hoxton?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think when you look at Hoxton as a blueprint, it's not a one-size-fits-all. And I don't think Hoxton wants to be a one-size-fits-all. We kind of want to be different in the financial planning field or international field. So yeah, if you look at the actual blueprint of Hoxton itself, it's every office is different, Everyone in that office is different. Yeah, if you look at the actual blueprint of Hoxton itself, every office is different, everyone in that office is different.

Speaker 2:

Yeah exactly, and also different locations around the world. Not only are we impacted culturally based on that country, but it creates the actual work culture changes as well. Like the UK work culture at Hoxton Wealth would be very different to the Dubai culture here, and there is stark differences between a financial planner in the UK to a financial planner out here, without a shadow of a doubt. So it's important for me actually, as we sort of progress this Hoxton Life journey and as the business gets bigger across the world, that we bring those different cultures out. It's really, really important. But they all align to the core values of the business, which is mostly important. So, james, tell us a little bit about who you are and what you currently do at Hoxton Wealth.

Speaker 1:

So I am a financial planner at Hoxton. A little bit about myself in terms of where I grew up. Predominantly, I spent most of my time in Cornwall. Everyone knows it for the beaches, the summer, but if you actually hear or listen to or talk to anyone about Cornwall, they never really mention about the winter. It's pretty bleak, to be completely honest. So I think that kind of stimulated my mind to kind of look elsewhere and move outside of Cornwall, because the community is quite deep rooted in Cornwall and you either stay there or you move. Quite deep-rooted in Cornwall and you either stay there or you move. And I think in terms of that has helped me be resilient in the fact that I actually moved out of Cornwall and then experienced other places and other cultures, other surroundings in the world Fantastic.

Speaker 2:

So what do you currently do at the moment with Hoxton?

Speaker 1:

So I am a financial planner. I work directly with my team, with my clients, to essentially make sure that they are pronounced in the world of retirement and when they get to retirement. Because when you actually speak to people and speak to clients, they don't know what retirement actually means, they can't put it in words or can't put a number to it. So my job is to kind of help them realize and and put things in place that they weren't actually aware of, that we could actually put in place for them lovely.

Speaker 2:

I always like the idea of what is your number yeah you know what age you want to retire what is your number?

Speaker 2:

how much do you need, like, what is your number? It's a great opening line when it comes to pensions. I kind of took that from Talk Club, which is the men's mental fitness charity, which was how are you out of 10? It gets people to stop, doesn't it, and to actually have to think of a number. And if you can't think of the number, then there's a situation and I think it's quite relatable to pensions because no one really thinks about they're. Oh, I'll probably retire 70. So where do you hear that from?

Speaker 1:

and I think I think when you do talk to clients about pensions, self-reflection is a big part of it, because whenever I ask what is your number, what is the figure that you need for retirement, they always ask me what does other people say? And they're always trying to compare themselves to other people. But my job is to look at every single case by case. It's not to kind of surround everyone in the same ballpark figure and then push a retirement plan for that figure. It's to go well, what do you need it for? What do you need it for? And then we move from there.

Speaker 2:

So when you were in Cornwall, did you have big ambitions and big dreams to be a financial planner in Dubai.

Speaker 1:

No is the honest answer, because I think people breathe slow in cornwall if I'll be honest life is very slow and very methodical and it's quiet and there's a funny saying that we, we actually say it's like for the little coastal villages they're. They're a drinking town with a fishing problem so it's like they uh, yeah, they are, they are very comfortable.

Speaker 1:

So I think, coming to realization of okay, what, what is out there for me, I think it was making sure that I was comfortable within with being uncomfortable and then actually taking the leap of faith to move out of cornwall when did you you do that.

Speaker 1:

It was 2017, 2018. I moved directly from Cornwall to London Brunel University. I studied there and then got my degree and then moved directly from London out to Qatar where I first met Chris Ball and I worked under his team he was my area manager at the time and then, within a year and a half and a couple of months of hoxton actually opening, then I joined his his team in abu dhabi when it was first open. So it was quite cool. I always, always tell my clients I was um employee number 15 employee number 15 out of how many?

Speaker 2:

now we've got what?

Speaker 1:

350, yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's funny when you look back at the Abu Dhabi office. When I first started, when Chris was talking about expansion and global expansion, it just meant he was going to get another row of desks in. That's all he really meant by that. So now when you look at it and he's talking about the global offices and everything, it's from where we first were I think ago, six and a half years ago to where we are now like it's unimaginable. And you compare that to the likes of other large financial advisories in the uk and where they are at the moment. If you looked at where they were five, six years into their growth, I think we are probably past that yeah so it's nice to be there from the start.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and being out here for the last, how long have you been out in the Middle East then? Eight years, eight years, and have you seen a massive transition in the international financial planning space? I know Hoxton have obviously done quite well within that six year period, but what about the competition? What about the other advice firms out here?

Speaker 1:

Are they evolving?

Speaker 2:

as well as hoxton, do you think? I would hope so.

Speaker 1:

Diplomatic answer yeah, I would. I would hope so in the sense of me. When I first came out, I joined a, one of the largest international financial advisory firms, and I think for them it's it's very much a a client product, next client product next. It's almost like a conveyor belt. I think with the likes of hoxton, especially with myself, we don't really compare ourselves against anyone else. It's more of a what, what are we going to do and what? And if we're doing the right thing, then growth will, will come along with it.

Speaker 2:

So okay, so tell us about your career journey then. Okay, so you obviously met chris when you guys were working for devere, right? We're allowed to say that, by the way. Um, when you were working for devere, chris left devere set up hoxton. A few months later, you joined, yeah just tell us about your journey then through hoxton. What did you start out doing when you first joined, to where you are now as a financial planner?

Speaker 1:

so when I first started I was a business development manager, yeah, and in terms of what that role kind of helps or or starts. As for for the financial planning piece of advice that finally we get down the the journey to for our clients, that is such an important role because you are the first point of contact for a client, so your job is to introduce obviously the company, explain exactly what we do and and kind of help guide them understand the logistics of what we actually offer and what we help with. Because when you've been out in the middle east with how it was seven, eight years ago, I've heard people that I've spoken to call it a bit of a cowboy situation and and I think with financial advisory in general it is. It is very sales driven. So I think, being a starting as a bdm and understanding that role, you you need to kind of have a look at what is in the best interest of the client not getting incorporated into the sales aspect of of the situation of financial advice.

Speaker 1:

Do you think that's something that's easy, that can easily slip into, then I, yeah, I think, I, I think personally the the worst trait in a human being is greed. So I think when you look at sales roles and sales positions in the financial industry, greed can slip in very easily. And I think if you just stick to your own morals and believe in what is right for the customer first and foremost, then, yeah, the positivity will come out.

Speaker 2:

Which is important, obviously, for a firm so heavily regulated on a fee-based model as Hoxton Wealth is incredibly important that anybody within the business doesn't slip into that mentality. You know it's not a sales business, it's a client-centric focus, solutions for the client business. You know, and if it's not right it's not right. There shouldn't be square. You know pushing somebody down a pathway should there. They shouldn't be square. You know pushing somebody down a pathway should they're like towards something that's going to pay a big commission, which historically, I suppose back in the day, happened a lot within the international space and probably still does in certain jurisdictions yeah, and I think, for for the situation of hoxton and especially myself and where we come from, it's clients don't buy products anymore.

Speaker 1:

It's not. That used to be the old days and now and I think the position of where a client comes from is, can I actually trust this person? Am I going to understand the position that my advisors or planner is going to basically put me in later down the line? And if they can trust you in that, then products are just a byproduct of, obviously, the the strategy that that you're going to obviously offer that client so we have the pathway program here.

Speaker 2:

It's been running for quite some time and each year it gets tweaked and tweaked and tweaked and tweaked. We just did an episode today, actually on the pathway for 2025. We're talking about a three-year period. You know, realistically, a three-year period before really you should be ready to if you want to progress outside of the pathway. So what about yourself then? You're you from a, from a business development manager perspective, that's like within the first year of being in in the pathway. Now we kind of put that within there. What's your, your journey been like from, from BDM? How long did you spend in a BDM role? Have you progressed into things like administration, power planning before you then became a financial planner? Just tell us a little bit about that journey, that transition as well, to becoming the planner.

Speaker 1:

I think starting out as a business development manager, you learn the skills to kind of move yourself up to the position of being fully, kind of regulated and have then the qualifications to be able to provide the advice. So when I first started, I was a business development manager for almost five years. Within two years I got my qualifications to become a financial planner. But I think learning under someone else and the mentorship that I got from working under a financial planner was more important than just stepping up and then try and accelerate yourself through the ranks, so to speak. So I think, yeah, as a business development manager it does help build resilience and it helps build understanding and trusting of the process a little bit. And then, moving on to financial planner, that's more of a you agree or believe in what you're obviously discussing with your clients and almost stand by your words.

Speaker 2:

Speaking to some of the business development managers within the business. They can actually earn really good money. It's not unusual for a business development manager to earn above 100 hundred thousand a year. Now, moving from business development into, say, financial planning, is there a drop in income? Do you have to take that into consideration?

Speaker 1:

I think that there there will always be a drop in income.

Speaker 1:

If you, the longer you'd be a business development manager, because I think the wealth that you build with your clients of course you're going to build more clients you wouldn't be a business development manager but only taking on one or two clients a year. I think, in terms of moving into the pathway, stepping up, yeah, you do have a drop in in income, but I think it's going to expedite the process a little bit quicker in in the in the future, because essentially what you want to do is is build your own team, build your own almost like an ecosystem within the Hoxton brand, and then once you've built that team, then essentially you've got your client bank, or I call them my client team because they essentially we all work for each other within that. So for me, being on the pathway program, my plan was always to be on it for two years and then, once I've come away from that pathway, then I can start building out my own brand and kind of let the reins off a little bit. Yeah how?

Speaker 2:

How did you find that transition?

Speaker 1:

Difficult at first. To be completely honest, yeah, it was difficult and I think it would be difficult for everyone. To be completely frank, it's not the industry of financial advice. It's been around for 5,000 years. It's not a career path that's going to be gone. Yeah, it's changed a lot 5 000 years. It's not a career path that's going to be gone. Yeah, it's changed a lot in the last 300 years. But I think, in terms of the actual um stepping away from from the program and and how I'm going to find it, I think it would be obviously really beneficial for me moving forwards would you class yourself as an introvert or an extrovert?

Speaker 1:

a bit of both. Yeah, I think I think, especially with I would probably class myself as an extroverted introvert. Yeah, because for me I think the benefit of that is I listen more than I speak. That obviously helps with with clients, because they can see I'm not just trying to sell them something. I'm not sure I'm actually listening deep down to exactly what they want to do.

Speaker 1:

Um, I think sports has definitely helped me with that. Growing up in Cornwall there wasn't really football, it was rugby. Luckily, my size and my position, it was easy enough to go down that route. But I think with sports has helped me understand networking, understand teamwork, moving out from rugby into golf, which I would say I got to a very good standard and good point that it's very much like it's it was. It's the opposite of rugby. It's very much like if you lose then it's it's on you, it's not on anyone else, it's not a team, it's not anything to do with the team, it's on you. You've failed in that situation. So I think that is in terms of an introvert or an extrovert. I think that has helped um become obviously the person I am today yeah, good, I'd say.

Speaker 2:

I would definitely say I'm an introvert, extrovert, so I can spend a lot of my time like now out there, put myself on podcast and all that, but most of the time I like to spend one of my personal time. For instance, I spend a lot of time on my own. Yeah, I quite like to spend time on my own and not be around anybody. I suppose it's because an element of recharging perhaps there's so much energy that goes into having to do something like content creation. It kind of takes it out of me a little bit and I could imagine it's the same when you give up so much of your energy to a client, for instance. There comes a point where you kind of have to recharge.

Speaker 2:

It's like you know, it's amazing when you see these people go at it like day in, day out and then the next day doing exactly the same thing I think, I think it.

Speaker 1:

I think, just following on from that, it it comes down to when you're speaking to clients and things you need to be aware of. Everyone's different and it's okay to be different. It's you're not going to take on every single client that you speak to or I speak to and I'm okay with that. And I think when you look at the best people in in the business and best people worldwide, globally, for financial advisors, momentum is the secret. It's if you can that momentum and you take on a new client every single week or every single day hopefully, then that's what will make you become a great financial advisor. But it's okay if that's not you, that's not your position. As long as you feel comfortable enough to kind of take a step back when things don't go the way that you want and you self-assess and you understand that you're not going to get on with that certain client, you're not going to get on with everyone that you meet, then that's when you actually, deep down, start understanding people a lot more. I think.

Speaker 2:

What part has mentorship played in your career?

Speaker 1:

Luckily, I think mentorship has been massive. So I think I think luckily I was paired with a very, very good financial advisor and she was a woman in a very male dominated industry and I think, working under her, it was the ability to understand different perspectives that potentially a woman might give you rather than a man. So if I was speaking to a man with financial advice, they may go down this path, but if I was speaking to a woman down financial advice they may ask me different questions. That the actual client psychology side of things is a lot different and it makes you think and it makes you look at different angles when you speak to people. So I think mentorship is massive in terms of that and that has really helped me, not only within the business but personally as well.

Speaker 2:

I think it's good yeah, there's not enough women in leadership roles. There's not enough women in financial planning in general. So you've had a massive benefit being a guy being mentored by a female financial planner. You've seen it from a different perspective, up against, like how a male would approach it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely. I think in terms of the way that our team was set up and run, we did embrace the fact that we were different, and being different in the financial advisory industry, I think is key to being successful, because the world has too many sheep. You need leaders, there needs more leaders. So, for being different and being under a woman mentor and a woman financial planner, I think that did give us the edge in in the in the industry and I, when I was a business development manager working alongside it, helps almost explain that and explain that she will give you different ideas, different angles, different things to think about when when you look at your finances as a whole so how long have you been career building your own book?

Speaker 1:

coming up to two years coming up to two years.

Speaker 2:

So how have you found that two years then?

Speaker 1:

I think. I think the first three months was difficult and I thought I'm a little bit of a fish out of water here. Um, but the I think, in terms of the, the amount of time that I've spent doing it, I'm a I'm a quick learner, so you kind of have, if you get thrown into the deep end, you kind of have to learn that. I think it would be very difficult to do that without the pathway program, because that gives you the resources, gives you the, the mentorship and and the skills to kind of progress, and it's not only just in terms of being a financial advisor, financial planner, speaking to, to your clients on a daily basis. That's not what the pathway program's there for is to kind of understand how to deal with a team, how to build your own team, how to be an entrepreneur within within the ecosystem of hoxton and when you've got mentors that have teams of 5, 10, 12, 15 people. It's that's what you're trying to strive to, to achieve within that.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, is that what you want to do? Do you want to build a team with 10 to 15 people? Is that so when you think about your career? Success? Is it exiting with a certain sum of money? Is it managing a certain amount of people? Is it building a business? What does the successful career look like for you?

Speaker 1:

it's a good question, um, in terms of success and how I see that, I probably dial it down to one by one, almost like a small step. So my success could even be just speaking to one person a day and as long as I've helped them in that respect, then that's success to me. I wouldn't really turn around and say I need to have 200, 300 different clients. That is providing me an income of X. That's not really what success is for me. It's doing good and making sure that my clients will kind of look at me and go that's my financial advisor. That's what success is to me.

Speaker 2:

It's a positive recognition from the people that you're helping.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2:

Do you think about your career as a, as a roadmap? Because obviously we've got a roadmap. We, we help advisors, we help people from no experience all the way to actually being able to exit out of this business and sell their book into um, into hoxton, and leave with a lump sum, for example. You know, do you see? Your like I'm trying to kind of establish with you is like where are you on that journey? Where, where do you? How old are you now?

Speaker 2:

30 30, yeah, so let's break it down for you where do you see the next 10 years?

Speaker 1:

I would hope to be within the next 10 years to be, hopefully, a manager within, obviously, my own team, but what I want to do is build out the, the roadmap for someone else that is becoming a financial planner. So if I've got a team of business development managers underneath me, they can learn from me. I'm making, I'm changing their outlook on, obviously working for Hoxton and, with mentorship being such a large um part of becoming a good financial advisor, I want to be able to do that for them and then potentially, in five to ten years time who knows? With with hoxton, you can go wherever you want. You can be whoever you want to be. You can set up an office wherever you want to set up. So I don't know, maybe singapore? I'd love to move to singapore and and and start an office over there and and start building the, the or the leadership team of of of singapore or asia okay.

Speaker 2:

So you're not limited to yourself to like to buy. You are opening yourself up to the future. You're thinking about other, and that's a nice thing, isn't it? When you're an international company and someone like you've moved around quite a bit, it's quite nice to know that you can move to a different country and do something the same as what you're doing now, without having to actually leave the, the company that you work for, or lose the clients because of the multi-jurisdiction licenses. It's a nice way, it's a nice touch, isn't it? So it does kind of. It does kind of open you up to the rest of the world, right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think with me and kind of how my day starts. Anyway, I'm up 5.45 every morning, before my wife goes or after my wife goes to work. I'm there dealing with clients across 12 different time zones. So, being under the Hoxton model, it's wherever you've got the majority of your clients, then you can move and be where they are, because every advisor has their niche and every advisor has the jurisdiction or what they do best at. So if you are doing best within the asian market or you're doing best within australia or doing best within the gcc europe, then you can move there. There's no issue with not moving there or you having to sell your book and then moving across over to France, for example, start your book again. You can do it. It's on you to do it. But as long as you can take that first step, which takes a little bit of grit and determination, then you can do it. Hoxton isn't a platform that's going to stop you doing that. They would actually probably boost you to to go do that okay, cool.

Speaker 2:

So do you mentor and train anybody at the moment? Is that part of your part of your job role?

Speaker 1:

it's not, but I try. I try to because I think it's so important for people within hoxton to to feel like there is someone there that can obviously help them with that, with with me, my, my team. I obviously started just myself a year and a half ago, two years ago now. I've got two members within my team. I work with a lot of business development managers and I will do all I can to kind of explain to them the strategy, the phases, the step-by-step processes that I'm going down with a client, from A to B or A to Z, for them to understand when they do want to step up and become a financial planner. They already know what is the good advice to follow when they do step up Great stuff.

Speaker 2:

So, looking at the wider picture, the whole globe, have you started doing any other qualifications towards any of the other jurisdictions? Have you got your eyes on any? Sometimes it's like there's so many different qualifications that you can do it almost feels a bit overwhelming.

Speaker 1:

You could literally be globally qualified, but, at the end of the day, what's the point in having a qualification if you're not going to use it? It's almost like having a driver's license but not driving a car what's what's the point? So I think once you build up your client team, then I think that's when you start obviously working out where you want to kind of experience a bit more growth within that. So, um for me, and and what I'm doing at the moment is I'm completing my advanced exam for scisek, which is the european union examination um to be regulated there in terms of the gcc and and and the gulf states, it's um. There's one qualification that I'll hopefully look to do within the next couple of years, but yeah, in terms of actual qualifications, where you go, you can do it anywhere.

Speaker 2:

We've obviously got a lot of new people that come into our business we're a very young company, ok and they start off in that business development manager role and then they work themselves through the pathway program and they can become an administrator, a power planner, they can move into all different aspects of the business, but ultimately a lot of people want to become financial planners. So what advice? Let's just give some advice now to newcomers, okay. What should they expect? Right?

Speaker 1:

And what advice can you give them for that first couple of years? Expect the unexpected. It's not a one-size-fits-all People are difficult to to deal with. People are very easy to deal with, but there's not a one client that you will speak to and it will be the same for every single person. So I think, coming into the industry, make sure that you understand that, that you understand that it's not going to be easy. It's it's. It's a relatively hard industry to first get yourself into. But having a mentor there that will help you understand the different um phases of becoming a financial planner is really important. But I think the actual skill that you need resilience is definitely up there. You're not going to be a millionaire overnight. It doesn't work like that. I think, in terms of understanding people as a whole, it's making sure that you are self-aware of your flaws as well. And if you don't bring on a client, then it's not their fault, it's your fault. So understand the silver lining behind that and then you can actually grow yourself personally and within the business as well.

Speaker 2:

So, james, thanks so much for sharing your Hoxton life today. I think it's gonna be really inspiring to anybody who's thinking about coming in the business. I mean, you've been in the GCC now for eight years. You've seen the good, you've seen the bad and you you've seen the ugly and you've been part of Hoxton for five years. So if anybody knows it, it's you. So I think lots of people that are thinking about especially this pathway program of ours right, which we're now ramping up, any of those people that are thinking about getting on it and starting a career within financial planning, they know that it can be done. You yourself have done it. So thanks so much for sharing that.

Speaker 1:

Really, really appreciate it no problem, and I just wanted to say thank you to you, thank you to the team, obviously thank you to my team as well for being there and obviously thank you to the client team as well that I've got and helped me obviously grow to who I am today. So thank you fantastic.

Speaker 2:

Cheers, james perfect.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much.