Hoxton Life

Entrepreneur vs. Intrapreneur: How Financial Planners Can Scale Without the Headaches - with Moheen Ahmed

• Hoxton Wealth

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What if the thing holding you back isn’t your talent - but your business model?

Moheen Ahmed had everything a financial planner could want - an established practice, a strong client base of C-level executives and business owners, and over £1M+ in investable assets per client.

But as his business grew, so did the burden - compliance, recruitment, and admin pulled him away from what he loved most: working with clients.

Mo had to make a decision:


 Stay independent and manage it all alone?
 Or integrate with a firm that would allow him to scale smarter?

After rigorous due diligence, one name kept coming up - Hoxton Wealth. By joining, Mo gained the freedom to focus on growth while leveraging world-class infrastructure that handled everything else.

Now managing $175M AUM, Mo shares:


✅ Why running a firm doesn’t always mean freedom
✅ The entrepreneur vs. intrapreneur mindset shift
✅ The real benefits of integrating with a larger firm
✅ How Hoxton helps financial planners scale without the headaches

If you're a financial planner feeling stretched too thin, this episode is a must-listen.

🎙️ Listen now on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

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Speaker 1:

I would say my penny dropping moment when I joined Hoxton was relatively early on the way that I saw Chris move and he was managing to get another two days out of one day that I was managing to do.

Speaker 2:

At what point, though, is it right to delegate, would you say?

Speaker 1:

I think the way that I run my business is. I'm a very logical individual in the sense that there has to be a blueprint to the way that I run my business. We sit down, we go through every single client almost as a line item basis and then actually understanding what do they need, what needs to be done and actually where is a value proposition that can be delivered. Your ability to learn you don't need to learn every single lesson yourself. That's the painful way of doing so. Where is this bus going? Is it actually aligned with what it is I'm doing? And if you're on a growth journey and you want to continue to grow your business, well then I personally think you know there's no better place.

Speaker 2:

So, mo, thanks for joining us today on the Hoxton Life Podcast. How are you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm great. Thank you very much. How are you doing?

Speaker 2:

I'm very well, very well. It's great to have you here, somebody who spent so long within the offshore financial planning space, what I like to call the international financial planning space, it's not offshore it's not an oil rig, is it?

Speaker 1:

No, far from it actually.

Speaker 2:

So getting someone like yourself with such vast experience you've worked from BDM all the way up to running your own brokerage yeah, correct before eventually joining Hoxton. So what I really would love to do at this point is just kind of take me back in time to when you were running your brokerage, okay, and you then decided to join Hoxton. How long ago was that? And then why?

Speaker 1:

So I guess, first and foremost, I wasn't running my own brokerage. I was kind of appointed as kind of one of the lead partners for our biggest office as a brokerage. So kind of my general kind of as a high level overview in terms of the journey was BDM stepped up to become an advisor Advisor, became area manager and then kind of grew within that particular role up until a point in time where I was kind of headhunted to come and run one of the offices for one of the bigger brokerages at that point in time. So that was something that we, you know we were very much in the DB transfer space. We were traveling a lot.

Speaker 1:

At that particular point in time Business was going fantastically well. We then, you know the business was continuing to grow at that point in time as well. So then what we naturally did was, you know, as that was growing, the industry changed, regulation continued to change because, as everyone will know, that in the international space regulation has become tighter, very similar to the UK in actual fact. It's become more stringent. So as that's kind of come become more apparent, you know, businesses naturally come under certain pressure and the way that I always describe the business is, you know a large majority of the international advisory groups. You reference kind of oil rigs. I always kind of described them as kind of oil giants because they were built on hundred dollar barrels. But then what naturally happened was the industry kind of turned into you're only making $60 barrels, right? And the way that I always kind of describe Hoxton. We were actually born out of a very lean era, so there wasn't, you know, in terms of the margins that existed in other places at that point in time weren't necessarily apparent. So me and three other partners at that point in time so all of which still actually very much work with me, kareem nabil's are here.

Speaker 1:

So all of these guys, we were the firm that we were at. We decided actually we didn't necessarily see eye to eye with you know, should I say the oil giant? I won't reference any names um, and we decided actually well, I think it's best place for it in order for us to go do something different and go work under a different banner. And at that point in time, when we started to kind of really explore the options, do we go down the route of setting up our own company? Do we go down the ar route? Do we just go work for somebody and I think we we approach the business slightly differently at that point in time. Um, so, as opposed to going speaking to all the guys that ran all of these businesses, you know, and the way that I see it, they're all going to tell you exactly the same thing, right? You know we're the best things in sliced bread. You know our firm does this, blah, blah, blah. And the way that I kind of saw it was okay, well, why don't we? We know exactly what business that we're doing as a group of advisors. So let's go speak to the institutions.

Speaker 1:

So we went to the institutions and we were like who's placing the most amount of business with you guys? Who do you like the way that their infrastructure is? We didn't really have an interest in working too much for Hoxton we like the name of it, but we had a fully functioning business in ourselves. So we had BDM capabilities, we had administrative capabilities. We were falling short on the compliance side, but that's where we would lean on a business and we set up kind of much more of an AR business. So we had a completely separate office that's set up in Dubai. We had our own BDMs, we had our own kind of advisors and we just kind of grew that side of the business out and that's where you know we were doing great and Chris was doing great at exactly the same time.

Speaker 1:

But I think it came to a realization, which is I don't really enjoy running the business, but I love what it is that I do. So me and Kareem and a lot of the other guys were kind of very much in exactly the same position, which is actually this is good fun, business is going really well, but you try and drag me into a room and speak to me about compliance for three hours. The reality is you'll probably lose me about three minutes into it and everyone will know that. And not to say that I don't have an interest I have an interest where I need to have an interest, but actually at a very macro level, and trying to navigate the complexities of being an international advisor in multiple different jurisdictions is no easy feat, right.

Speaker 2:

That's a really great point, right? A couple of things came up there. One is like if you're going to do your due diligence on a firm, go and speak to product providers. They'll tell you who are crap and who are good, right, so that's a really good tip anyway for somebody who's thinking about leaving a firm, joining another one. Speak to product providers, speak to some of those investment companies. They'll tell you who's doing well and who's not right. That's a really, really good point.

Speaker 2:

Hats that you're wearing when you're running a business whether you're self-employed, you're an ri, you're an ar, there is a level of responsibility you have outside of what you truly love, right. It sounds to me you're somebody that truly loves the client journey. You love interacting with clients, right, you love winning new clients, bringing them on, but when it comes to things like compliance doesn't mean you don't care about it, it's just do you need to wear that hat? Is there a level of detail that you need to go into? Can you pass it to somebody else who's more qualified and experienced to be able to do that on your behalf, right?

Speaker 1:

yeah, exactly that, I think, is any, any journey or running a successful advisory group.

Speaker 1:

And I I feel like I'm quite fortunate because I've seen it from various different sides.

Speaker 1:

I've seen it purely as an advisor, I've seen it purely as a bdm, I've seen it as a as a manager, I've seen it as a shareholder. I've seen it as a shareholder, I've seen it as a partner. And then you come to realize, actually, you know, trying to do this in this space at this moment in time, at the level that we're aiming to do it in, you know that takes a considerable level of resources and expertise and you need to go out and find the right professionals to do that for you and trying to manage those professionals. And I think the difference is is you know that, you know I look at Chris and the way that Chris does it. Chris really wants to do this. He loves the running of the business side of it and I've worked with guys that run successful businesses but I wouldn't say that they love running successful businesses. They know how to do it, but it's not what gets them out of bed every morning. I would say I think you and I both agree.

Speaker 2:

I think it's a very different set of circumstances when it comes to chris, and you know, in terms of what we've, what we're building right now, yeah, huge, definitely talk to me about. So you know, obviously you were partners in the, in the brokerage, you're building the business out. You then, about five years ago, decided to come across to hoxton. The transition from where you were. You've done your due diligence, you'd worked out what it where you wanted to go and why. Chris was on the same trajectory as you respect you. You understood what you're doing and you thought that was a home for me. But at that point you weren't really willing to kind of fully come across to Hoxton. Then, at that point, you were looking at it from an AR perspective, were you?

Speaker 1:

yeah, I think we were looking at it from an AR perspective, but we were doing really so our kind of let's say there's kind of four advisors collectively. We were doing really well for ourselves and we had kind of an infrastructure that we were very comfortable with. So we didn't feel the requirement or the need to go work for anybody else. It was okay, well, we're doing it here. We don't feel like we're seeing eye to eye with the individuals that run the business. So, okay, naturally, as you know, as business relationships go, you know you have a great time, it does really well, you don't necessarily see eye to eye and then you decide to move on. So it was time to move on and then it was okay well, what's the timeline of establishing a business, going out and getting it licensed and you know, doing that whole process of deciding, okay, well, you know, let's say, our collective four business, you know financial advisory group, and that's actually a very long winded exercise in itself, and even more long winded today than it was back then. And so we realized actually, well, that's not something that we were particularly interested in in terms of kind of paper pen and starting from scratch. So the AR route was the most sensible route to go down and we were very comfortable with the AR route, which was okay. Well, we can run our own business. We were kind of you know, you use the term entrepreneurial. We were kind of running that kind of model anyway, because we didn't need to be told when to get out of bed and what our clients needed. We were doing that on a day-to-day basis and we knew exactly what was required from an activity perspective in order for us to see x, in order for us to. You know, in terms of the revenue targets or the revenue ambitions that we had as a group of advisors, we were all very much on track with that. So the ar mold actually fitted very well. But then that just kind of.

Speaker 1:

So whilst we had that, and then, you know, what chris was doing at exactly the same time was just as well, even more impressive than what we, what we thought we were doing. So we were like actually, well, you know we're, and we kind of sat down, all of us kind of collectively sat down, and it was okay, well, we're all going to the same destination, but we've just kind of split it up in a various number of cars. You know, are we all on the same mission? Are we happy to immerse ourselves, and what does that look like?

Speaker 1:

So, the way that I see it, it was almost kind of like, you know, big slice small pie or small slice big pie. And you know, I was much more comfortable with the small slice big pie scenario because it meant that there was more professionals running the relevant departments, that I needed to run those departments, and it was less conversations, and it so and it wasn't necessarily less conversations, that it was more related to. It allowed me more time and every one of the guys to focus on what we were best at, and I think that's what exactly the message was. It was okay, well, what can we do on a day-to-day basis that allows us to deliver the best version of ourselves in the bit that we enjoy the most?

Speaker 2:

and what was that?

Speaker 1:

bit. That was very much the advisory side of the business. The advisory side of the business, the face-to-face side of the business. That's the bit that I enjoy the most. You know I've done, you know, I would say you know even managing floors and managing advisors. It was. You know we did well at it. I wouldn't say I thoroughly enjoyed it okay, great, that's, that's perfect.

Speaker 2:

So let's look at this ar model because, like in the uk, right, an ar would say sit underneath a network, right, yeah, now you're still wearing multiple hats. When you are, an ar is technically running your own business. Like you said, no one was telling you to get out of bed at a certain time or anything, so you're still wearing multiple hats to get that business running?

Speaker 2:

yeah, so what were those things that you were having to do that you thought this is way harder or more time consuming? I mean, it's not so much harder, you're more than capable of doing it. Yeah, but like, what are the things that you identified that were really starting to go? Jesus christ, this is way more than I thought. In respect of my time now I'm limited on the time that I'm actually putting myself in front of clients doing the bit I enjoy. So what were those kind of pillars? I?

Speaker 1:

think the biggest, I think one of the biggest ones for us was probably recruitment, and recruitment being largely because of the fact that, from a recruitment perspective, is when we were structured as a silo and we were a group of individual, you know, naturally you want, you know, young, smart, hungry, motivated individuals. Now those individuals are naturally going to be inclined to bigger titles and bigger companies. So trying to convince those individuals to come and sit with you and four guys in a room and about all of your ambitions and all of your dreams is significantly harder than doing it when you know you've got, you know, a fantastic office and you've got all of this, you know we're, when we're in a box kind of you know serviced office with a you know um, you know pokey little meeting room, trying to convince this young, motivated guy who's just moved over to the middle east that you know we're going to change his life and genuinely I would. I would said it. I said it with conviction because I believe that was always going to be the case. But actually there's a much more compelling argument when you walk into a bigger office, and so I think the flip side of that is, rather than us feeling as though we need to really convince this individual to join us, whereas now the kind of the shoes firmly on the other foot and naturally, as it is with bigger businesses that are successful, it's those individuals that are wanting to join you and therefore you can focus on a getting better talent through the door, getting them through the door in a faster fashion, but actually putting them into a framework that is much more constructive in order for them to become better and more efficient quicker.

Speaker 1:

So, you know, rather than all of a sudden, you know, the reality is is, if I need to train one particular individual and I've got five client back-to-back meetings the following day, I'm gonna. I naturally, of course, I still has to, kind of, I will prioritize my client side of the business more, because that's the most important and the most valuable, you know, asset that I've got at this moment in time. So then me deciding okay, well, let me try and train up this individual for six hours of the day, and I'm still not convinced that he's the guy, he or she, in actual fact.

Speaker 2:

You know, in reality, you could start to get quite resentful yeah, it's.

Speaker 1:

It's, I think, probably not resentful, but more frustrated in in the sense that you, you have to, you're trying to be significantly more selective, but you don't have the talent pool to be selective from. Yeah, that's the.

Speaker 2:

I think that's kind of the the, the difficulty so goes back to, let's just kind of you mentioned entrepreneur a second ago. It's one of my favorite words at the moment entrepreneur up against entrepreneur. You're clearly an entrepreneurial individual and you had the drive to want to build something right On your own.

Speaker 1:

I've had that.

Speaker 2:

I've been there, you know, 16 years of building a recruitment business. I had that drive of wanting to do it on my own right, wanted to do it on my own right. I still kind of do my financial plan of life. I don't think it's ever going to go away. However, the other term is intrapreneur.

Speaker 1:

Can you be entrepreneurial inside a business? I think you have to be. In order to be successful, you have to be. I think the way that I run my business is, you know, making sure that my business is not reliant on any one particular individual or any way shape or form. That you know I need somebody to give me X or I need to be provided with Y. I don't run my business in that particular basis Is if I, you know, if I feel like my back's against the wall, it's me kind of in a meeting room, kind of buckling down and deciding okay, well, how do we turn a corner on this particular kind of hurdle that we faced? And I think you naturally have to be that way inclined, and you will. Of course, you know, and if you are entrepreneurial, you're going to want to have the right guys around you and the right individuals, the right team members around you that actually allow you to do your job successfully, team members around you that actually allow you to do your job successfully. That's the way that I'd kind of see it, but then that's a very.

Speaker 1:

The way that I see it is you know the way that I'm running my business, or even you know the book that I manage. It's a small advisory group in itself, right? You know we speak to advisory groups on a day to day basis. We know how much they manage. You know, we know which ones that we've you terms of gone out and built into our business over the last year or so Trying to do that. As you'll know, that's a full-time business. Trying to manage that book of clients. Now, actually the ancillaries around that, ie your compliance, the recruitment, all of these particular parameters, that's another job in itself, and trying to do both, I think is a very difficult task. I don't think it's an impossible task. It's too difficult for me to want to do, if I'm being honest.

Speaker 2:

No, I get it. I mean, if you want to go far, if you want to go fast, go alone.

Speaker 1:

If you want to go far, go together.

Speaker 2:

One of the things that I've noticed from running my own business is I used to often wish I had the people around me that I could turn to. There were experts within specific areas of running a business. Right. Finance was never one of my brilliances. I kind of handed that off to somebody else within my business and I wish I, I wish I and I didn't, and he wasn't very good, to be honest. Yeah, so it's the blind leading the blind coming into somewhere like hoxton where I can literally go charlie, who's an absolute finance whiz, and I can get an answer massively, you know, instantly. I've learned so much within a short period of time. That's improved my skills, even around things like budgeting, growing my department.

Speaker 2:

You know my department's got a huge budget, you know, and I'm responsible for a massive budget, but I've lent into the finance team to help me to manage that budget and be realistic, and one of the things that charlie said to me is like I'm not here to stop you from from developing your department right. We want people that are entrepreneurial, who want to grow with us. They've got growth mindset. I'm here to make it happen within the, within the restrictions of what we can and what we can't do. So let's make it work and I love that. Whereas, before you get carried away with your ideas, can you're going to do this, we're going to do that. They actually welcome those ideas I found at hoxton and they help you achieve that by putting in a proper plan around the areas that maybe I'm weak on.

Speaker 1:

I think with you know, as with this business, there is a fundamental blueprint, you know, in terms of the way that it's structured, and I think that extends out to every single role and position within this business. There's a blueprint to the way that I run my business. There's a blueprint to the way that I run my business. There's a blueprint to the way that my team run their businesses. You know, it's something that we, you know, we ultimately pride ourselves on quite aggressively, because I, you know the reason I sit in meetings with so much confidence.

Speaker 1:

It's not because I feel that I know everything that there is to know. By no means. It's much more related to I don't believe that there's a single question that could be put in front of me in the universe that I have discussions, in, that I can't lean on one individual in our particular business, or that we could pick up a phone, you know, pick up the phone and make a call to somebody that would have the answer to that in an incredibly, at an incredibly high level okay, so you came into five years ago.

Speaker 2:

You came into hoxton. You came in with the impression that you were going to run your own practice.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, standalone, yeah, and then bolt in. So you made the decision then to go. Well, actually we're not going to do that anymore, we're going to come fully underneath Hoxton. Yeah, what was the turning point?

Speaker 1:

What made you actually do that? So it was more I it was kind of handshakes, kind of some formal agreements but nothing to extend. But it had gone on for a period long enough that it really needed to be formalized. So we'd kind of sat down and kind of it was time to formalize it as okay, well, you're going to be responsible for this department in your AR business. You're going to be responsible for this department in your AR business. You're going to be responsible. And me and Karim and Nabil are looking at each other at that moment in time and saying is this even worth it In terms of the revenue, or the end result isn't too dissimilar to what would happen on both sides of the fence.

Speaker 1:

And actually I think it was more so related to the fact that we were so aligned with what was taking place in Hoxton and what we were doing. We were pretty much and you know, in the in the world of financial advice and financial services there's so many different facets to the business and there's so many different avenues that you can choose to go down. But the avenue that Hoxton was going down was the exact same avenue that we were. So we were very aligned in the nature of the business, the type of business and the discussions that we were having or where resources were being deployed. So, with that being said, it was kind of a natural alignment.

Speaker 1:

In my personal opinion, I think it was a just kind of an element of a huge element of trust and respect is okay, well, you guys are doing that. And that's where we were kind of I think that's something that we kind of struggled with, um, because we, you know, we naturally trusted and respected ourselves, hence the reason we chose to do business. You know, we'd kind of had various different encounters over that particular journey. So it was like, okay, well, you know, there's been a long enough time frame, we're doing our thing, these guys are doing their own thing, trust and respect them the way that they're running their business. So that was kind of Matt and Chris. At that point in time it was like, okay, yeah, cool, this is starting to make a lot more sense and, at the same time, it's actually what we have the opportunity to deliver a far better solution for clients if we're actually all joined.

Speaker 2:

Okay, cool, good if we're actually all joined. Okay, cool, good, that's, that's good. So you're at a point, right. One is like keep control, it's my business, I'm going to keep control and I'll just plug into you and I'll do it my way. And then there's now I'm going to immerse myself actually in the hoxton environment. This is where the intrapreneurial side comes in right, yeah you kind of make that transition over.

Speaker 2:

I can imagine it was. You'd come to a decision. It was the right decision, so you'd almost tried before you buy right. Yeah, by being in it and you experienced it, you saw it, you were able to go right. That's exactly aligned to what we want. So it makes more sense that we now come into hoxton. You're not and it's what I want people to understand is that you're not, you weren't letting go of your practice, your business, right, you were just bringing it into hoxton, into alignment. So, for people who are listening to this, who like building teams yeah, building teams because you need to build teams to be able to get more assets under management, etc. Because you can't do it all on your own yeah, did it impact you in any way? Did it? You know, in actual?

Speaker 1:

fact, in actual fact, no, it actually made life a lot easier, right, and the reason it made life easier was because it allowed us to focus on the bit that was important and the bit that we enjoyed and actually where the margins really matter, and actually the pieces that we weren't focused on or we weren't kind of naturally fixated on, they were kind of it was for. For us, I think, you know, I think all three of us would confirm it was a bit of a sigh of relief. It it was okay. Well, we don't need to try and figure this Rubik's Cube out on the fact that the client is sat in this jurisdiction and we're sat in this jurisdiction and he's about to move to a third. I don't need to figure that bit out Whereas I've got now somebody that's got the resources. We're now kind of completely partnered up with somebody that you know. Essentially we've got significant resources that are being deployed to answer those questions for us. So I think for us, I don't think it was a particularly difficult decision. I think it made life easier and it allowed us our growth trajectory to actually improve quite significantly, because I think as we came through the door, we actually recruited. So all three of us managed to recruit. You know um around our teams quite well. So, therefore, you know, we would just kind of it was okay.

Speaker 1:

Well, this is the only task that we need to do and that's the bit that we knew best, if that makes sense. Yeah, so that was the bit that we knew. We knew back to front and we knew that we could run a business, but it wasn't something that we had historically been doing. Yeah, so, and then when you come to realize it's okay, well, it's not something that I, you know, I've been doing and it was like, well, I know why I didn't do that. So I know why, why I wasn't running a business in the offshore, in the international spaces, because it wasn't. I think the client focus is, like I said, is you know I'm I'm best served, is doing what I believe I'm best at, and my natural personality is inclined to to start to get frustrated when I'm doing stuff that I don't like to do, and I think everyone in the business could probably vouch for that yeah.

Speaker 2:

So as your ambition grows right and you'll continue a very ambitious individual right at your early stages of your career, still, you're ambitious. You want to push forward. Have you noticed the? Because you've been here for five years, being on the, the mothership, if we call it the mothership, or chris likes to call it the bus right yeah, the hoxton bus. Has it gone? Has it gotten better? Has it gotten more efficient? Has it gotten faster? Is it improving? And, as a byproduct of that, do do you improve?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think Hoxton is a very different animal today than what it was five years ago. Naturally, of course, and the way that I actually explained it to clients is, I feel like you know, naturally, when a business is growing, it's very much centered around is okay, well, we think you can do this job. Why don't you do that job? And we think you could do this job. But now I feel like what you're seeing at this present point in time is a lot of the right chess pieces in the right places and actually the compounding effect of those.

Speaker 1:

So, rather than you know, we we had a conversation about, you know, managers in this particular industry and naturally, I think the industry has a natural kind of course of action of is okay, well, this individual is the best you know advisor in, or you know from a revenue or whatever it may be, okay, well, he's naturally going to be the greatest manager.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think you know, and I think that's something that you know typically tends to fall short, not necessarily just for this industry, but industries in in actual fact. So I think now, I think the difference is is we've got a lot of the right players in the right places and you know from the point where everyone seems to be doing a fantastic job. So what our you know to address your question, you know directly is are we different to where we were five years ago and are we more efficient, like significantly? So I think what what we're able to do today versus what we're able to do three, four, five years ago is, you know, in terms of the timelines have just reduced astronomically and also the buy as a byproduct, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

as the business get, as the hoxton as a whole grows and becomes more established and more well known, the more money they pump into things like branding, marketing, uh, recruitment? Um, it could be in-house training and development, our fantastic pathway program where they're training some brilliant business developers. Yeah, ultimately, when it's your own business, you've got to think also about training, development, brand marketing, ai technology. I mean, it's overwhelming right to think shit, how am I going to keep up with all of this and run my, my business?

Speaker 1:

so it makes sense to hand that over to the business whilst you focus on exactly what it is that you're actually doing I think it's relevant to like what do you enjoy and what's really important to you, right, in terms of what part of the day-to-day, in terms of running a practice, do you enjoy the most? And you know, where do you believe that your skill set and your resources are best spent? In terms of you know, no different to the way everyone would typically have a successful business. You know where do I get the best return on my investment? Do I get the best return on my investment waste? Know spending. You know four hours a day. You know talking about recruitment when I'm not a recruitment advisor yeah, and I don't actually, you know. So the the individuals that I'm going up against that are actually recruiting are actually recruitment. There's a recruitment team. They have these conversations.

Speaker 1:

I'm having the most watered down version of that particular conversation that I've decided. You know I pulled my resources in and decided, okay, well, I need to get serious about recruiting a paraplanner All of a sudden. Well, how do I do that? And what do I jump on indeedcom and see what you know, what paraplanners are being offered and decide what I can afford to do. You know, it's those pieces there that I think are quite integral to growing the business and, I think, quite integral to, to grow in the business. And I think, you know, fortunately it's worked remarkably well for me because it's allowed me to focus on what it is that I'm responsible for and what it is that I enjoy doing. But then, at the same time, I've got, I do have, I've got, I do have a very keen interest as to the way that the business is being run and how it's being run and why decisions are being made. And the way that the business is being run and how it's being run and why decisions are being made and the way that the directions are moving.

Speaker 2:

And you know, that's something that I've got a very keen interest in and I think that's just more the entrepreneurial side of the way that my mind works yeah, I'm a bit like that, yeah, yeah, I think that's Chris's head and sometimes because I kind of like to know the ins and outs and everything, but it's it's because I've been in that place, so understanding what they're doing over here could impact me. Understanding what they're doing over there could impact me and what I'm trying to do for everybody as a whole, so I like to understand the bigger picture. I think that's a very that's like being in a position where you haven't. Some people just do their job right and they're siloed, almost.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I think you know when you've been exposed to it, it's very difficult to not go back, I think if you go to the first presentation on our conference in January, that was quite.

Speaker 1:

I found it incredibly interesting in order to introduce that to the business, because it's all good and well managers being sat in a room and deciding this is how we want to grow the business and this is what we want to do. But it's integral for every single person in the, in the industry and and not necessarily not the industry in the company to know okay, well, what is this? You know what? Where is this bus going? Yeah, where is this bus going? Is it actually? Is it aligned with what it is I'm doing? And if you're on a growth journey and you want to continue to grow your business, well then I personally think you know there's no better place. Yeah, um, and then actually, even if it's a housing exercise, there's plenty of you know we've got we've got plenty of guys in the business as well that just use it as a housing exercise.

Speaker 2:

What do you mean by housing?

Speaker 1:

exercise. Housing exercise is okay. Well, you're not. You know you're not really growing your business. You don't have a huge interest in growing your business, but you manage a sizable book enough In the correct fashion.

Speaker 2:

Great. You're obviously a very good leader because you have a really strong team and you have achieved significant assets under management within the space and the time that you've been running. How much have you got under management at the moment?

Speaker 1:

So assets under management now is 175 million US dollars.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, about 140 UK.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, just over 140 UK. Yeah, yeah, about 140 uk. Yeah, 100 just over 140 uk. Um, and that I'd say, you know that's, that's probably been built up over the course of the last like nine years or so, yeah, last nine years or so, kind of. So it's been a, it's been a solid, you know so, and some of those years have were absolutely fantastic, and then others were relatively mute, but, um, overall, I think, you know, the aggregate is solid, brilliant.

Speaker 2:

Give us, our listeners, a bit of a breakdown of your team then. Yeah, who do you have in place? What are they doing and why has that evolved over?

Speaker 1:

time as well. I invest a significant level of resources within to my team. So my team is kind of my backbone, is kind of very much Sheila. Sheila is my backbone in terms of the business. So she's my EA and an all-encompassing kind of guardian angel. When it comes to financial advice, she might not, yeah, no.

Speaker 1:

So and then in terms of you know, and I've got two other key members of my team, which is Linda Lago, who was recently on the, so she was very much brought into the business, brought into my business. So I actually took her from another department of the business. So that's quite key to naturally, people are going to want to progress and move into different departments of the business. So she was a paraplanner in on one side of the business. So I brought her in directly as a paraplanner help manage my business. So she's fantastic at in terms of everything related to my UK client book, in terms of solutions, and I feel like you know there's a lot of you know even as much as she's my paraplan.

Speaker 1:

And the reality is there's a number of kind of discussions where, with my team members, I actually ask them for advice as to what would you do and you know what, what should, what we should, what should we be doing in relation to this?

Speaker 1:

Because I don't, you know, at times I don't have the time to go speak to all of the institutions or understand all of the solutions, and that's kind of part and parcel of their role. And the way that I've kind of the way that I've built out the team is making sure that everyone understands the business and the mission, as opposed to thinking of it as a silo kind of task-based job. And then I've got Faraz. Faraz is very much kind of my right-hand man. He's over here, so he's once again has a para-planning role in terms of so where Linda is kind of my right-hand when it comes to the UK side of the business, faraz is very much that in terms of the international side. So you know our job is and where I'm investing all of my resources is very much centered around the idea of improving the client proposition. That's my whole mission and that's where all of my resources are being delivered at this present point in time.

Speaker 2:

To elaborate on that then.

Speaker 1:

So you know, in reality, as I mentioned, you know I'm managing 175 million US dollars, right. So at this present point in time, that's my most valuable asset by far. It's not the client that I'm going to take on tomorrow, it's not going to be the client the one next year. Right now, everything and all of my resources are how do I improve my client relationship moving forward. So you know, the mission is is always to run a proactive business model as opposed to a reactive business model.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to. You know, I never want to feel that the way that I'm running my book of clients is ever, in any way, shape or form, that I'm on the back foot when it comes to them needing something or them requiring something. We want to kind of be very forthcoming is okay. Well, if you're in the uk, you've got tax allowances making sure that they're allowed, they're, they're entitled to understand what they are and why they would be using those and helping them understand those solutions. But you know, I guess, in reality, just really structuring the business to improve the client proposition is what do you know? You know everyone, anyone that's had a financial advisor is what do you want out of your financial advisor? And if I sit down and write what I would want out of my financial advisor.

Speaker 2:

You know, and I'm trying to answer those questions for them, even though I don't know what their shortlist looks like you mentioned, 65 of your clients are based in the uk and I think it's difficult for a UK advisor, for instance, listening to this right now and understanding where you live in. You live in Dubai, but you're 65 percent of your clients are in the UK. How can you do that?

Speaker 1:

yeah, I think it was. I think it was two parts right. So I've always managed a number of clients internationally and that's kind of largely how the the book of business was built. But as most individuals and most Brits that live overseas, they will naturally go home. So you know of that six, you know in terms of, of that, 65 percent, I would say. A fair share of those individuals are repatriated individuals.

Speaker 1:

So they've gone back to the UK and now all of a sudden we're talking about international options, but now you just go purely and you're only having domestic sighted conversations. Fortunately, the world's an incredibly small place at this present point in time and even if you could see people face to face, the reality is it's probably they don't usually have the time to do face to face. So actually teams and you know I'm terrible when it comes to technology but the reality is is you know, being able to deliver the level of service and actually the number of times that I can get back and see, you see particular clients, is usually you know there's been instances where you know I'm seeing more my clients more times in the UK than they would be seeing their, even their accountant or their tax advisors, anything of that nature, and even if they're in the and even if they're in the city of London.

Speaker 2:

What type of clients are you dealing with? What's the average investable assets of them?

Speaker 1:

The idea, and the concept is is I've got a number of clients in the UK that a large majority of their wealth is tied up in businesses, so really helping them find solutions at very much a corporate business level Brilliant so the kind of client demographic that you're dealing with.

Speaker 2:

If someone's listening and thinking, oh, over in Dubai they're just dealing with, you know, mickey Mouse clients out there over in expat land, you're not.

Speaker 1:

You're dealing with serious business, yeah no, you know, I would say every single one of my clients is C-level exec and above right. Yeah, and I don't. You know I'm not, I don't do anything on a regular basis. A large majority of it, if not all of it, is very much lump sum orientated investments and you know the way that I'd always describe the business is an internal as well as an external network.

Speaker 1:

So where you've got individuals that are cross border, you know internally, you know we can get somebody to set up your will and we can. You know we've got a tax desk and you know there's somebody that can help you on the property side of things. But we may not always have all the solutions. But the reality is, if you did need a tax advisor that was a specialist, let's say, on Dutch taxation, we don't necessarily have that internally, but my ability to find that individual for you is going to far supersede you going on to Google and deciding, ok, well, where do I find a Dutch tax advisor that can speak English and knows my UK tax obligations as well as my in the Netherlands? So it's that kind of, it's those kind of resources that are kind of the external network I always think is a very, an incredibly important resource for clients as well yeah, I 100% agree.

Speaker 2:

Any penny dropping moments, aha moments since being part of Hoxton that really kind of changed how you think about your own business or helped you build a more efficient team or anything like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would say my penny dropping moment when I joined Hoxton was relatively early on, because before we had joined, in my mini universe of financial advice that I lived in, I was actually doing really well and we were going through the motions, we were growing the business and we were overcoming certain hurdles and kind of getting, let's just say, metaphorical trophies and we were doing all of that. And then we kind of started working with Chris and Matt matt. And then, you know, I saw, you know, and then the way that I saw kind of chris move and he was managing to get I don't know like another two out, another two days out of one day that I was managing to do, and me and I remember me and kareem specifically having the conversation I was just like this guy. I was like this guy's something else. I was like I'm actually kind of getting a bit frustrated here as to how does he manage to do as much as he manages to do? And you know, I kind of pulled him into a room and I was like, chris, I tip my hat to you. I was like obviously you've got two more kids than I have. You know, you're doing this and you're doing that. And I was like how do you do it?

Speaker 1:

And it was, and it was kind of the kind of the two key tells from that it was. One was obviously delegation is making sure that you are centered and you're focused on the tasks that are the kind of the most important and where you're best served, similar to the way that we were talking about the business. And then the second to one is kind of the pound and penny task relationship, which is okay. Well, you know, making sure that you're focused on the pound task, not necessarily the penny task. So, and with that being said, I think you know, and Kareem's conversation in my name, kareem's conversation, you know, I recruited Sheila at that point in time, which I remember.

Speaker 1:

You know, delegation is always hard when you're running kind of like a mini business because, you know, I think the immediate, kind of the immediate, I guess, thought that goes through most individuals mind when I have similar conversations is OK. Well, if I'm going to spend all of this money on this particular individual, how do I make sure I get nine hours, eight hours a day out of them? But all of a sudden now, if that resource is sat next to you and you do have hours to fill when you do have, all of a sudden you have the ability to kind of improve your business because you're not necessarily doing the tasks that you're not best served doing. So I think one of my earliest lessons here in terms of the Hoxton framework was, obviously, I think delegation was, was, and I think that's been key into me growing my been key to me growing my business.

Speaker 2:

At what point, though, is it right to delegate, would you say?

Speaker 1:

I think you have to be pragmatic and, you know, I think sometimes you almost need to treat yourself as a bit of a management consultant. I think what I've always done is, you know, always kind of look at what it is that you're doing, take a step out and read yourself as a business. Where are you spending all of your time and what is the return on investment in that time being spent? And I think, if you treat it on that particular basis, which is, take a step out and all of a sudden, if you've lost two days doing administration tasks, well you know it's time to delegate. Yeah, because you know, all of a sudden, you've lost 40 percent of your week doing something that doesn't necessarily have a return on investment and it's not something that you're great at also it comes to point, doesn't it?

Speaker 2:

you did exactly that, you. You pulled chris into a room and you you, from afar, you were admiring, thinking like how how is he doing this? Yeah, and you said it almost frustrated you, but you dropped it. The ego came humble, went into a room and just asked right, and when you ask, you get, and sometimes a simple conversation like that is a thing that can take you to the next level yeah, absolutely I think it.

Speaker 1:

There's no point having kind of star players or you know, you know some, some great guys around you if you're not going to choose to learn the lesson of them. Right, you know, leave the egos at the door and, you know, making sure that if you, if you're not learning from them, well then it's, um, then it's a bit of an irrelevant universe 100, right?

Speaker 2:

let's finally finish on non-negotiables, right? People will be looking at you and thinking, wow, you've done a fantastic job, you're growing, but that's hard work, that's graft, okay. So let's say somebody's looking at you thinking how do I do it? What are the non-negotiables when it comes to being a successful financial planner?

Speaker 1:

the non-negotiables? I think it's. I think that's a bit of a difficult question actually. I don't know. My non-negotiables when it comes to the business is it's not really accepting excuses that things can't be done, if that makes sense, it's really just making sure. I think my non-negotiable is always having a framework.

Speaker 1:

I think the way that I run my business is I'm a very logical individual in the sense that there has to be a blueprint to the way that I run my business. So what me and my team do twice a year is we sit down and we go through every single line, every single client, almost as a line item basis I have the privilege of doing that because I don't have a huge number of clients and then actually understanding what do they need, what needs to be done and actually where is a value proposition that can be delivered. So we do that twice a year and then we break out the team. It's okay. Well, linda, you're responsible for this, sheila, you're going to be doing this and Faraz, you're responsible for this. Sheila, you're going to be doing this and Faraz, you're going to be doing that.

Speaker 2:

So the non-negotiables are very much everyone understanding their roles and knowing what it is that they need to do and in terms of from a value enterprise perspective, that's a kind of a key one for me yeah, I love that fantastic and anybody at any stage really in their career can actually plug into Hoxton Wealth like you did and actually get that blueprint, get that framework, because it's been tried and tested with great people like yourself that are doing so well. So for somebody who's maybe sitting on the outside, I spoke to someone recently 90 million under management, but he's fed up, he's bored, he hasn't, he can't recruit the right, the best people, he can't grow and it's like well, come into our ecosystem, continue to be an entrepreneur an entrepreneur on an entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial basis and plug into the amazing stuff that we've got and the tried and tested frameworks that work, and it's a great.

Speaker 1:

It's a great, non-negotiable, isn't it and I think you know and in terms of people always ask you know, do you mo? Do you need to go into the office and do you need? In reality, I don't, but I'm an office advocate. I would much rather be in a dynamic environment and making sure that we're having conversations because if if you're in earshot of you know a particular kind of client, a case study or something along those lines your ability to learn you don't need to learn every single lesson yourself. Yeah, that's the painful way of doing so.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, perfect, love it Mo. Real, real pleasure talking to you. We're definitely going to do some more episodes with you in the future. So thank you so much for sharing your very well. Hoxton life really really appreciate it. I'm sure lots of people will probably want to reach out to you on on linkedin, so be prepared for that. Yeah, never know, you might find the next superstar for your team. Yeah, true, cracking cheers, mate. Thank you. Thank you very much.