Financial Planner Life Podcast
Welcome to The Financial Planner Life Podcast. We cover an intimate and honest account of what it’s really like to work in the financial planning profession.
Our guests share their stories of success, failures and learnings, as well as what to expect from a career in the financial planning profession! We host guests at various stages in their careers, as well as multiple roles to ensure that our audience has a variety each week.
Financial planners, business owners, paraplanners and back-office staff all have their own story to share, and The Financial Planner Life podcast is a platform for them to talk about their personal and professional journey. The podcast covers a multitude of topics, from mindset and motivation, health and wellbeing all the way to diversity and inclusion.
We approach each episode with the idea that it is going to educate and spark a conversation within the industry with topics that may not be openly discussed. So, if you are thinking of becoming a financial adviser, or you’re curious about learning more about this brilliant sector, we urge you to give the podcast a listen.
The Host: Sam Oakes is the host of The Financial Planner Life Podcast. since 2008 Sam has been supporting leading national and global financial planning firms in finding the best talent, he was the director of Recruit UK, a 7 figure turnover financial planning recruitment company that he successfully exited in 2024, Sam now works as the Head of Creative for Hoxton wealth, building out podcasts, YouTube and social content for this fast growing fee based international financial planning firm.
Sam has always had a passion for financial services, starting out as a trainer for leading product provider in the UK, he has been in the industry for over 20 years.
He sees himself as a partner to the industry and wants to contribute useful resources such as this podcast to educate those further who are seeking advice and help about how to push their careers forward in this amazing profession.
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Financial Planner Life Podcast
He Built £12M AUM With Just LinkedIn and a Laptop - Financial Planner Success! | Aleem Nijabat
In this episode of the Financial Planner Life podcast, Sam Oakes speaks with Aleem Nijabat, a self-employed financial planner who built £12 million in AUM without a client bank, without leads, and without a background in finance.
Aleem started during lockdown, working alone from his bedroom. He had just qualified, had no clients, and relied entirely on cold outreach through LinkedIn to get started.
This conversation is packed with practical advice for anyone considering a self-employed career in financial planning, especially those thinking about going it alone.
What we cover:
- How Aleem used LinkedIn Sales Navigator to connect with ideal clients
- Why consistency in cold outreach beats waiting for inbound leads
- What it really felt like starting during a market downturn
- The role mentorship played in levelling up his client base
- How joining Foster Denovo changed the game for his business
- Why testimonials and authentic content now matter to his strategy
- His goal of becoming a Senior Partner before the age of 30
This episode offers a real-world view of what it takes to build a financial planning business from the ground up. It’s not about shortcuts or luck - it’s about showing up every day and doing the work.
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With limited entry-level job roles, giving yourself the best financial planning career education, will not only kick start your financial planning journey with relevant qualifications and skills, but it’ll also help you achieve success much faster.&nbs
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And today's guest on the Financial Planner Life podcast is Aleem Nijabat. He is a financial planner who cut his teeth straight away as a self-employed financial planner, so he shares today how he prospected his way to 12 million of assets under management.
Speaker 2:From the start. I've always been quite active in my own prospecting right, so that would involve a lot of LinkedIn work, a lot of messaging, a lot of calling as well. So really big in the prospecting, active prospecting for myself space.
Speaker 1:He talks about his LinkedIn strategy so you can learn from him how to use Sales Navigator to generate quality clients. We talk about his career development since joining Foster De Novo the power of mentorship, training and career development.
Speaker 2:I knew that I was at the very start of this journey. I wasn't going to learn it without being with people, shoulder to shoulder, learning what they're doing. Learn it without being with people, shoulder to shoulder, learning what they're doing. If I look at the type of clients I'm bringing on now, the, the high level, nature of them, the size of them, it's just a simple fact.
Speaker 1:I wasn't bringing these clients on before I joined we talk about his aspirations to be one of the youngest senior partners at foster de novo and how the blueprint here and building a practice is a massive part of his future career progression I'm hoping to achieve senior partner this year, which will put me in quite a small group of people who have achieved that before age 30, which is something that I am quite keen to do.
Speaker 1:You're going to love this episode if you want to learn more about what it's like to be a self-employed financial planner. Like to be a self-employed financial planner. So, aleem, thanks for joining me today on the Financial Planner Live podcast here at Foster De Novo, one of our special partnerships. Really lovely to meet you. We had a really good chat on the telephone before this podcast and I love your career journey's really inspiring. So today let's get stuck into that and let our listeners know what it takes to be a fantastic financial planner in London at Boster De Novo. Well, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here, my pleasure, okay, so I tell you what. Let's kick things off by just getting an understanding of how you got into the financial planning profession.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure. So, as we spoke on the phone, I actually my degree background was nothing to do with finance, nothing to do with economics, it's actually history. So I find myself as a history grad with my degree, I guess, kind of like any graduate after the degree, really looking for different roles to apply for. I knew I wanted to be in the, the corporate space, the finance space, if you like but wasn't really sure what avenue to go down and was also aware that I had limitations due to my degree. Um, funny enough, it was actually my older brother my brother was in this space as well who suggested why don't you look into financial planning? Because he thought that I had some personality traits that would suit you quite well. And when I looked into it, I thought, yeah, I thought there's some, there's some points of this that resonate with me quite well. And when I looked into it, I thought, yeah, I thought there's some, there's some points of this that resonate with me quite well in terms of my character and my skills and my strengths. So so I got into the industry.
Speaker 2:I started off at SJP as as an associate, got qualified pretty quickly and was really keen to get going. Um, so I got qualified actually in january, and I was due to start in april 2021, I think. Um, and in that april, lockdown hit and so obviously, everything changed, the landscape changed completely, and I was basically told your, your starts of advice will be delayed at least six months, maybe even 12. And I just thought you know what I feel. Ready now, I've put the yards in, I've gotten qualified pretty quickly, I'm gonna go for it. So so I left SJP, I joined a small IFA firm, completely sort of remote based, self-employed from the start, and just went for it really, and was there for a year and a half. It was a real, real interesting time that I'm sure we'll get into in a second. And then, yeah, after 18 months, joined forces and over, and I've been here for two and a half years now brilliant.
Speaker 1:So, okay, a couple of things to dissect there at the history degree, but felt like it wasn't enough to become a financial planner. I've always found that really interesting because financial planning is one of those professions where you actually don't even need a degree to become a financial planner, you need to do the qualifications right. Yeah, I think it's quite unique in that sense. I always remember I thinking to myself what professions can you earn a hundred thousand pound a year in plus where you don't need to agree? And financial planning is 100 one of those. So not having a degree or having a degree that you feel that isn't, isn't suited to finance is garbage in this profession. In fact, it's open to absolutely everybody, degree or not, right? How come your brother recommended financial planning then? What does he do?
Speaker 2:he's, he does it himself, does he? Yeah, yes, he's in the industry, he works at sjp. Yeah, um, and he, you know, he saw me applying. He was like, look, we're both quite similar characters. So I think being self employed, having our own autonomy work, works for both of us. Um, it's like you're a people person, you're a hard worker. Um, you know, you've got the capacity to have those high level conversations. Why not? Why not look into it? Why not give it a go? And I think financial maybe it's changed now.
Speaker 2:But when I was a student, you know financial planning as a, as a career choice, it wasn't as spoken about. Maybe it wasn't as illuminated I'm not sure necessarily what the right word is there, but considering the barrier to entry is so low and, like you said, there's so many advantages to the career and also, like I'm sure we're going to discuss, it needs young advisors. This industry, right, you'd think it's spoken about a lot more, but I was, you know, at the time of getting my degree. It was was like right, private equity, banking, maybe corporate law, financial planning wasn't really there. So hopefully that's beginning to change because it's a great opportunity for students.
Speaker 1:This is what we're trying to do with the Financial Planner Live podcast is to create that kind of window into the financial planning profession. Obviously, the distinct lack of new people coming in, especially young people Average age of advisors 56 years old Crazy and not enough young people coming in. So you're absolutely spot on. Why aren't they talking about it at university career fairs? You tend to find it's accountancy, solicitor, banking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I was told I was honestly pretty much shoehorned that you've got a history degree, therefore you must become a corporate lawyer if you want to work in a corporate space. Right, honestly, was shoehorned that, and I've done a couple of work experiences and I was like no, this isn't for me, this definitely isn't for me. You know, there has to be something else out there.
Speaker 1:Why do you think it wasn't for you that route and why do you think financial planning is the route for someone like you? What is it about you, your personality, your skillset, that lends itself to financial planning? And maybe we can sort of educate some people who are listening to see whether or not they've got the right skillset and personality to match.
Speaker 2:I think that's a great question. I think, firstly, I am quite a people person, right. So I enjoy going out there, creating relationships, building, maintaining relationships. So maybe being a little bit, you know, especially when you start off in the law space, you are a lot more back office and I think I was just a lot more suited to be in front office a lot earlier in my career maybe than others.
Speaker 2:The autonomy part is a massive thing, right. Obviously we're talking a bit more about being self-employed right now compared to the employed route as an advisor, but route as an advisor. But if you're a, you know, a self-employed advisor, you've got autonomy pretty early on. Now. That can be an advantage or a disadvantage, I think, depending on the type of character you are, if you can handle that. But if you can, then I see that as a massive advantage, right. And when I was looking at what some of the solicitors are doing and funny enough, they're now my clients, so I can see firsthand how many hours they're putting in. And you think you know that work life balance is important, right, and not to say we don't work hard here but some of the hours they put in is pretty insane, right. So I think, just finding that balance and then, yeah, like I said, having those personal and personable skill sets. Right To say, right, I want to be in front of people.
Speaker 1:I want to be making these relationships, maintaining these relationships, having these high level strategy conversations as well. That's what really drove me, I think, in legal as well. It's such a trodden path that it's like you get piled on, piled on workload yeah, it is pretty much, but every single hour in in your early, in your early years and you're not going to earn that much. Very, very interesting when you notice that, within financial planning, the autonomy and the ability to actually earn higher amounts quicker, to progress quicker, to be in control of your destiny quicker, there's more flexibility 100% within financial planning, and that's something that people should actually look at.
Speaker 1:You know it's not being shoehorned into a structure that's been there for years and years.
Speaker 2:It's a bit like accountancy as well.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, you kind of you're in there, put your graft in and then you become a partner at some point, whereas actually, within financial planning, dependent upon your attitude to your progression and the risk you're willing to take, you can accelerate that journey. Yeah, far, far quicker.
Speaker 2:It's all down to you, yeah, it's all down to you. And I say it to the, to the younger guys in the firm now all the time, the ones that are just getting qualified, thinking about they're going to go employed, they're going to go self-employed. A lot of them have this image in their head that they're going to go employed for a few years, get really good at the job and then jump into self-employed and just hit the ground running. And I say to them look, it doesn't really work like that.
Speaker 2:When you go self-employed, there's a period at the start where it hurts, right, it's difficult, and you're not going to avoid that by going employed for a couple of years. So my advice to you would be whilst your expenses are still low, whilst you know maybe you're still living at home, you know. So you haven't got huge expenditure, you haven't got a family, you haven't got kids, take the risk, you know. Jump into that difficult period as soon as possible so that you'll be out of that period as soon as possible. And then all the things you just mentioned having the high earnings, the autonomy, mastering your own destiny that will all come as soon as possible fantastic.
Speaker 1:Look, you went straight into self-employment, right? Yeah, tell us a little bit about that baptism of fire, because there is a element of risk involved going self-employed yeah so.
Speaker 2:So just to give the context again, so I started in lockdown right at the start of lockdown when, you know, we didn't really know what was going on at that time. We was all at home, um, so I I went straight into a small ifa firm and, don't get me wrong, the firm was great to me that the managing director of that firm, you know I probably couldn't have asked for a more supportive boss to start with, right, but it was still very much just me in my room, no leads, no clients given to me, no experience, nothing at all. Right. So just doing my prospecting every day, quite a month, in quite a mundane thing to do, right, anyone that's done prospecting in you know the best way to do that is around a desk with other people, you know, sort of building off each other's energy. So just doing that in your room, you know, with no one really to to bounce off of, every single day, it gets quite mundane quite quickly, right? Um? So I was just doing that every day, trying to find leads, trying to get my first few clients, um, and and I think not having the experience as well was was a really difficult thing that I made. Maybe I didn't quite realize how like little I knew until I jumped in right, because then you get into it and you're starting to have a few conversations and all it took was a set of circumstances in a meeting that I wasn't really familiar with and I probably think I probably crashed and burned that meeting because, if it wasn't right, he earns this amount, he has this amount in pensions, etc. If there was anything where it's slightly different, I probably didn't handle that very well. So it took some time to be able to develop that, and then around six to eight months into the job. So I'm starting to find my feet a little bit at this point.
Speaker 2:The markets crash in 2022. And so every single client that I had was down sort of 10 to 15% with me in less than a year, right, and that was actually really difficult for me, to be fair in in two ways one in difficult in a sense of being able to handle that conversation with the client and manage those expectations, but also just more the pressure I felt on my shoulders, right. So you know if I look now, right, well, let's say you've worked with an advisor and a client for 10 years and that client's achieved eight percent per year. They're up 80 at this point and then the market crashes. It drops 15, but that client's still up with you, right? The investment's still up.
Speaker 2:In that time with me, every single one of my clients had actually lost money through being with me, right? Do you know what I mean? Because we started zero and we're now down 15, and so that was. I felt the pressure on my shoulders. They're like wow, that's, this wasn't supposed to be how it goes, right, I've I've seen as an associate before, you know, a market bull run pretty much since 2008 to 2022, just year-on-year growth.
Speaker 2:And then I've started and and I was like this isn't how it's meant to go. So that really took a lot of resilience actually to be able to deal with that. And just, you know, understand that these things do happen. It's a short-term blip. Over the long term they will recover. So, yeah, between the lack of you know, the lack of leads, lack of even knowing when I'm next going to be paid, right, when you start self-employed and you've got no client book, no leads given to you, I really had no idea when I would next be paid. So dealing with that and then dealing with the market crash is really really made for an interesting, an interesting first sort of 12 to 18 months in the industry and at that point were you not working for foster de novo? Not at that point. No, I was still.
Speaker 1:I still had a small ifa firm at that point you were cutting your teeth in your back bedroom during lockdown, then a market crash, yeah, and you have to deal with all those things really kind of in a small business on your own, yeah I wouldn't want to quite say on my own right, because there was a team there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I said, I did have the manager, the boss there, the admin support and they were great. Yeah, but it was still me in my room, right. So it's that whole thing. You can team someone and ask someone for a little bit of help, but it's very different scenario to really having that you know support hub with you, if that makes sense I've got to ask then at that point, you you're doing the hard work, you're doing the hard graft.
Speaker 1:It sounds like you're picking up the telephone. It sounds like you're reaching out to people developing new business off your own back, gone through some difficult times why then did you choose to leave that company and join foster daynova?
Speaker 2:yeah. So with respect to that company, I always felt that that would be a short-term, first sort of move into the industry and then I'd move on. Um, a couple of reasons for that. So, firstly, I am quite sociable guy, so I did miss the social element of having an office and having a hub of colleagues to, you know, bounce off of and work with. So I definitely knew that just working at home every day wouldn't be for me and I was.
Speaker 2:I was very intentional about when I made my move actually to Fossa de Novo, because I wanted to be at a place where I had developed as an advisor, so I was now starting to bring on some business, some some good clients. Um, so I had something to bring to the new, to the new firm. Right, I could show an evidence of my success but equally didn't want to leave it too long where it's a real headache getting all of your clients across. So there's a sort of sweet spot to find there. And when I was looking for my next firm, I I was very, again, intentional in thinking right, I was at the IFA firm for 18 months. I was at SJP before that for 18 months. The next place I find I would like to be here for a little while. Right, I'd like to embed myself in this firm and be here for the long term, and so to that, finding a firm that felt like a level up was really important.
Speaker 2:No-transcript to get into this a little bit later as well but having people there senior advisors that I could, you know, just ask their advice how would you handle this case? How would you structure the meeting? What would you focus on? How would you talk to this type of client, these sorts of things? Right, because I knew, listen, I knew that I had loads to learn, right, I knew that I was at the very start of this journey. I've always been a fairly confident guy, don't get me wrong, but I knew that there was plenty for me to learn in this industry, and I wasn't going to learn it without being with people, shoulder to shoulder, learning what they're doing. So that was really what inspired me to find a new firm, and it um, it wasn't long at all. Before, you know, I had a few conversations with helena and I was ready to sign yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 1:So you identified very quickly gaps in your knowledge, perhaps gaps in your um strength and skills that needed filling and identification around that was mentorship and being able to learn off of others. Being an environment where you can bank side is, I think, being sat in your back bedroom for so long. There's only so much you can learn right. Absolutely you know, unless you're literally. I always say to people people say how do I get ahead? It's like, well, go into a company and find out who the top 10 are and sit next to them and just listen to what they're doing and do it better.
Speaker 2:And and it's funny because I'm from a generation, right, that seem to prefer working from home yeah, and I just don't understand that, right? I do not understand that at all. You have to be in that environment, you know, together with your colleagues, with the people you want to learn from, to get ahead. I don't think there's any other way to do it.
Speaker 1:I think you're smart, mate I think the the idea that working from home is going to help you progress when you're a trainee wealth manager or a trainee planner it's absolutely bonkers and it's going to hold your career back without a shadow of a doubt. So you did the 18 months then, not at foster de novo. You then joined foster. You put yourself into a position where you had some clients proof of concept, so when you did go into interview you could show that you demonstrated you were able to to do the job. Um, tell me a little bit about the aum that you had at that point and when go. Yeah, so tell me about the assets under management you had before you joined foster. They know, but how much was it?
Speaker 2:it was literally. It barely scratched them. I think it was just under a million pounds at that point. Okay, cool, so pretty, on the low side, obviously okay.
Speaker 1:So you did really kind of think right early stages, proof of concept.
Speaker 2:Now I need to push forward somewhere yeah, because I just thought, because the other side of it right is, you want to show stability to your clients, so you don't want you know, I didn't want to take on loads of new clients, knowing in the back of my mind I plan on leaving soon. Yeah, because, yeah, chances are they'll stick with you and, and, in fairness, every single one of my clients that I had did come with me, which is always a good sort of testament that you've done a good job with them. But I, I knew that, yeah, I didn't want to wait around too long, and that's kind of just how I am anyway, even how, even how I started, I did. I just didn't want to wait around too long, so I just wanted to get going with it and I was like, right, everything's open again. Now I see an opportunity, let's go for it beautiful.
Speaker 1:So how long have you been at foster de novo? Two and a half years now, brilliant, yeah. What have you achieved within that time? Tell me about aum. What are you on now?
Speaker 2:so now, obviously it's been an interesting couple of weeks in the markets recently, but now we're around 12 12 million fantastic.
Speaker 1:So in a very short period of time you've pretty much generated 11 mil.
Speaker 2:Yeah which is, which is incredible. How old do you have interest? 29, 29, so clinging on to those 20s.
Speaker 1:But that is really impressive within a short period of time going self-employed from the very, very start. You know, I know financial planners are in their 50s. Got about 10 million of them, those lifestyle type financial planners. You've obviously got your head down and pushed forward Now. Is that because Foster DeNobo just gave you a load of clients? How did you develop that?
Speaker 2:Not quite. I mean, look, from the start I've always been quite active, big in the prospecting, active prospecting for myself space. I've done that from the start. Um, that's always been there, that will continue to be there. I think it's a really effective method of generating leads and business for yourself.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm now at a place where, you know, referrals are starting to become a secondary source of leads. I've got a few relationships with professional sort of introducers, accountants, solicitors, that sort of thing and and of course, that foster. Then over there is the employee benefits work as well. So there's now quite a few sources of leads, right, and at that point now it's about, okay, the at the start, the hardest thing in the world is just getting in front of someone to have a conversation.
Speaker 2:Now I'm at a place where that part between those four elements, that part, kind of takes care of itself. So now it's about honing your craft. How do you structure your meeting process? How do you present your advice? How do you present the fees, for example, right, if you're talking about a fairly chunky fee, how do you articulate that in a way that the client understands the value that that brings? And so those are the parts now that I'm more that I've been working on and I'm continuing to work on to you know, continue to build the, the work that I've done so far top man.
Speaker 1:So we talk about prospecting. We're talking about picking up that telephone and speaking to somebody, right? We're talking about sending a message. We're talking about reaching out to somebody who doesn't know who you are. You know, historically we call that cold reach out right, that's what we call it, and ultimately, a lot of people find that incredibly uncomfortable. Yeah, how long were you doing that for before you started to see a return on your energy?
Speaker 2:gosh, uh. So I mean, I've been doing that type of prospecting for maybe five or six years now. Um, so even before I was an advisor, I was doing that for for other advisors at sjp. Um, and I would say, from when I started advising myself, you're picking up the phone and even if you book them in for a meeting, you're not signing them up for another six months. I'd say right, so so I'm a very big believer in what I'd call discipline over motivation, and what that means to me is doing the same things every day that you know you have to do, regardless of if you feel like doing them or not. So for me, what that meant was sending out all of the messages, sending out all like the linkedin connections maybe, and picking up the phone and just hitting my targets every single day and listen, they would have been.
Speaker 2:The thing with that sort of activity is, it's a numbers game, right? So the more you put in, the more you'll take out. And you know, sometimes I'll go literally a week or two of doing that stuff every single day and wouldn't get a meeting in, and then sometimes in the space of 30 minutes, there's three leads leads been generated. So you really have to get comfortable with. You don't know how successful this is going to be. You you know for a fact. In the short term it won't be, but in the long term, this as it stands again going back to my psychology at the time I I don't have any other lead source, I don't have any client bank to to build off of this is my best chance of success, so I may as well throw myself into it. No, I love that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, it is a numbers game. Yeah, for sure If you're not talking to people, if you're not putting yourself into those positions, how are you supposed to create an opportunity to be able to generate a client right? You always find as well, when you do that and you have that outreach, it always leads to something else. It might not lead to a referral, it might lead to somebody who creates an introducer relationship. Not putting yourself in that position, you're not going to get something.
Speaker 2:And what I would say to that as well is to anyone that's maybe doing this sort of thing as well is you get it all the time right. You speak to someone and they say not right now, reach out to me in six months, and I reckon 90% of people won't bother reaching out again in six months and I reckon 90 of people won't bother reaching out again in six months. And I would always say to everyone make sure you do, because I think it really makes you stand out. The amount of times I've heard on the phone so I've reached out to someone again and they've gone oh, you actually reached out again. Normally people never do and that just immediately, you know, puts you, puts you up, puts you a level up, and then they're much more comfortable with a meeting because they can see that, okay, he's a bit more diligent. You know he pays attention to the details, etc. So I would, I would definitely encourage people to do that earlier on in the podcast you talked about solicitors, legal professionals.
Speaker 1:Is that a niche that you focus on in?
Speaker 2:terms of clients? Yeah, not necessarily. So link anyone that doesn't know the way. The way I mainly work is through linkedin premium that's. That's that's the sort of hub of my, of my prospecting, and that's a great tool because you can really use that to hone in on the different type of clients. You want right type of client profile. So certainly a type of profile would be solicitors, and I have a bank of client clients now that are solicitors at the sort of corporate firms in london. Another bank might be tech entrepreneurs or just tech professionals, so helping them with their rsu income, that sort of thing. Another type might just be more sort of limited company owners, so contractors. So you can use it to refine the type of prospects you're looking for and then tailor how you're going to speak to that client to then speak to their needs.
Speaker 1:So it's a really useful tool so when you are hanging your hat on these specific types of niches, do you tend to approach them with the same sort of problem solution?
Speaker 2:the thing with our industry. Right, it does sound a little bit cliche, but no two clients are the same, so even two solicitors wouldn't have the exact you know you wouldn't approach it the exact same way. So in you'd have your sort of introductory part, I guess, which is quite similar for one niche. But once you're five or ten minutes into that conversation it becomes pretty clear that you just need to personalize the advice to the person you're in front of. You know there's no one size fits all model to financial planning. You just have to really listen to what the person in front of you is saying and build from there.
Speaker 1:So let's just look at that prospecting LinkedIn's a really great tool for you. I love LinkedIn. I made all my money out of LinkedIn. You talked about LinkedIn premium. You talk all my money out of LinkedIn. You talked about LinkedIn premium. You're talking about LinkedIn premium, or are you talking about LinkedIn? Sales navigator, sales navigator, sales navigator Right, so let's just get into sales navigator. Then Some people think I don't want to pay the. I think it's 80 quid a month or something. Yeah, talk to us about how you refine your outreach in sales navigator.
Speaker 2:Let's educate a why it's beneficial. I mean linkedin could treble that price tomorrow and I'll still happily pay it. It's that.
Speaker 1:It's that important to what I do.
Speaker 2:I hope they don't hear this and do, please don't but, um, yeah, so my source of process would be, like I said, refine the searches. So it would be solicitors. There may be limited company owners, um, maybe elderly clients that might have more in assets, so that the advice maybe is more estate planning in that way kind of thing. Build those searches and those searches will just automatically produce more. Every week, every month, there'll be new leads for you to reach out, to Do the prospecting, send the connections, et cetera. Like we said, right, tailor those to tailor the messaging to the person you're speaking to, right? So obviously, if it's a solicitor, I'm not going to talk about the RSU stuff. I'm going to talk about maybe something else. So tailor the messaging to the niche that you're now focusing on and you can just get so specific with it. That, to me, is the real value of the sales navigator part is how specific and in detailed you can make your prospect searching it is very interesting because you can be like, so hyper focused.
Speaker 1:If you know a specific type of individual in a certain job role earns a certain amount of money, you can build a list based around that very, very quickly and then you know that, okay, they're definitely going to be an earner of 250k yeah you can refine it almost like that yeah so you can refine it specifically to solicitors.
Speaker 1:You can start to approach companies that have got more than 250 staff if you want to get into companies exactly. So there's loads of different things that you can do to refine it. I'm with you on that. You can build these prospecting lists really, really quickly, really really quickly. Um, I can ask you to sort of how much outreach are you doing through LinkedIn now on a weekly basis? How?
Speaker 2:many messages are you sending? So it's getting less as my business just builds, so I have a bit less time for this sort of thing. I think the number one non-negotiable the first non-negotiable is to send out the maximum number of LinkedIn requests that LinkedIn offers you. I think it's 100 or maybe 150 per week. So that's a non-negotiable. Get that done. This is connection requests.
Speaker 2:Connection requests at this point, right, whether that's in the evenings, whether that's on the weekends, you have to find the time to get that, because that's the engine that then churns everything else. Without new connections, there's nobody else to message, is there? So that's the first non-negotiable. And then I'll send you don't want to pester these people, you don't want to to overdo it, right? I think that's really important to find that balance. So I'll send one message and then maybe a few weeks later, just check in, say look, I know we're busy. Did you have a chance to review what I've said? Leave it there. I don't think you need to message any more than twice. And, you know, maybe give them a call. If they're, if they're comfortable and open to that, then drop them a call and um, I just think that's a much more effective direct way of prospecting okay.
Speaker 1:so do you get biggest response through a direct message? Do you ever send voice notes? Do you ever send like a loom where you're going over a presentation and sending it to them, or maybe you're looking over their profile and you're sort of talking over it? What's your approach to actually that first connection? What do you think is the most effective?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've done voice noting before. I stopped doing it, though, actually, because I noticed that a lot of people wasn't comfortable listening to a voice note. I couldn't really tell you why, but that's just what I found. That was the feedback I got off of that. So now it's more just send the message. Like I said, tailor it a little bit to them, right, maybe not necessarily as far as going for, you know, summarizing their profile for them, but just saying, look, let's say it's a solicitor, right. So saying, look, I've got a few clients that work in magic circle firms in london. We're aware of the higher tax position you're in relative to your age. You know it might be worth us having a conversation, that sort of thing, right. So you're making it tailored to them, but not going over the top of either.
Speaker 1:What's the feedback you're getting from those types of individuals? Are they being approached a lot by financial planners on LinkedIn or not?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, all the time, right, all the time. And that's why the calling part is so important. Okay, because loads of advisors are messaging them. Hardly any are calling, so that that stands you out right. And obviously I've got quite a unique name. So when I give them a call and I say look, it's just aleem here following up on linkedin, they go oh yeah, you know, quite often they remember my name just because it's quite unique. So it's just that little bit warmer straight away, right. So, um, that's why I'm a big advocate for not just doing the messaging part follow up, follow up that call you know.
Speaker 2:Nine times out of ten, the worst you're going to hear is sorry, I've already got an advisor I reckon nine, nine, nine out of ten times people don't actually pick up the phone.
Speaker 1:I reckon that's.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's definitely true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just tons and tons and tons of messages get sent, but no one has the balls to pick up the phone. Yeah, um, and it is still the most effective way to quickly build a relationship with somebody and you. You can't get warmer than someone accepting a connection request and you've been able to look over their profile and saying they kind of recognize you work here, I've seen you work here previously.
Speaker 1:I had clients that also did that, and I had a client yesterday that I spoke to has this problem. Maybe you were experiencing the same thing. Um, it'd be great to you know, grab a coffee with you and just tell you a little bit about what I'm up to. I mean, it doesn't have to be complex, it can be as simple as that. Simple as that. People get really scared by it, um, which I understand if you're not used to picking up the phone, if you're not used to, uh, outreach on a cold basis but look, it's not cold. You've got a connection request, it's. You've got information. They've accepted it. They're almost if someone to me. If someone's accepting my connection request, that means they're accepting my approach.
Speaker 1:They want to hear why it is that I've got to say yeah, now, a lot of what you do which I love, by the way, is the outreach- yeah and it is, without a shadow of doubt, the most um, inexpensive way of delivering results.
Speaker 1:Okay, and a lot of people tend to put a lot of energy and money into their linkedin profiles by creating content. I, for one, I'm that person. I've got a whole kind of marketing strategy based around content that drives people to me. But I can tell you right now that took a long time and it's expensive. Okay, it took a long time to get a return on investment, and the only way I could do that was the fact that I had a recruitment business that paid paid for me to be able to create a brand and create content and establish myself as that type of individual, and I'm really pleased that I have that. What are you doing about content creation? Does that sit in the back of your mind or do you just sort of kind of think well, I'm not that bothered about that because I know the front end works so well. Why do I need to?
Speaker 1:create this content in the background. So when people land on my profile, they're seeing me chatting or reels or tiktok. Yeah, do you think about that at all? Is that, is that on your mind?
Speaker 2:it's definitely something that I'm trying to balance now, right. So first few years of my career it was just 100 outbound. Now I'm a lot more keen to balance that off for a couple of reasons. Outbound, I think, is very effective, very cost effective, but it's very time expensive, right. So the busier I get, there's not always a huge amount of time to focus on these things.
Speaker 2:And the other element of it is, of course it might sound obvious, but you always have to do it right. It doesn't sort of just work on itself in a way, it doesn't organically grow itself in a way right, whereas inbound does eventually lead to that if you do it correctly and you can allow it to grow organically Right. And the other element, of course, is you know I'm sending these connection requests, you know propositioning myself as a potential financial advisor to these people, right. And so you know, with financial advice there's a lot of trust involved. If I'm managing their investments, managing their retirement funds, they need to trust that I know what I'm doing and I, first and foremost, I am who I say I am. You know, if we're getting to the point of just building leads at this point, forget about clients just building leads at this point they have to know that I am who I say I am.
Speaker 2:So having an organic, you know, linkedin profile with videos, reels et cetera, where you have a brand, I think is really important to that trust element. So that's something I'm really trying to build, I think, for myself, as I'm I'm sort of starting to enter this space. What's really important for me is to find that balance between building that online brand but keeping making it feel very authentic. Yeah, I think that's authenticity is a huge thing for me. So trying to find that balance of, you know, putting myself out there but still being true to myself I'm not, you know, marketing myself in a way that I don't really feel like is myself is something that's really important 100.
Speaker 1:Now a bit of advice I think you should potentially take. Right is to not put you yourself at the center of the universe, is to actually put your clients at the center of the universe. So how many of those clients that you've worked with would be willing to give you a testimonial?
Speaker 2:I reckon.
Speaker 1:Well, all of them, I guess yeah, now people buy from people who help other people. So if the story is about the success that you've had with the client, then it's coming from the client himself.
Speaker 2:That is powerful.
Speaker 1:So when Mr or Mrs Smith takes your LinkedIn request and you can say, look, these are two people that I've helped in a similar position to you, you might want to give it a quick watch.
Speaker 2:That is powerful.
Speaker 1:So I almost think advisors now not enough of them do it create these testimonials, video testimonials. It could even be just over Zoom. You know something as simple as that. When you start building up those testimonials, it is hugely powerful.
Speaker 2:And also it's not I can imagine yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not saying like oh, look at me, look what I do, look how brilliant I am. It's not egotistical, right? It all about you. It's about them and problems that you have solved for them and why their financial well-being, or plans, are now a positive aspect of their life. What have you done to solve some problems and I think it really works well, it's something I'm pushing into myself. Yeah, I love the stories that come. Yeah, the great work that gets done by financial planning that's more than numbers.
Speaker 1:It's more than investments. It's about what impacts positively am I having on somebody's life.
Speaker 2:When someone sees that and it's a transferable problem across all your clients and the prospects that you're talking to, they buy into you really quickly it's a great point and I think, honestly I, if I also ask my clients you know what are the main advantages that I bring, what are the biggest positives I've brought? They're not going to talk about investment return and they're not going to talk about the tax I've saved them. They're going to talk about the impact. I've made the peace of mind that I've bought them right. So I think you're spot on there so mentorship, career development, foster de novo.
Speaker 1:What part has that played in your journey and where is it now going to take you?
Speaker 2:yeah, massive. I mean, if I look at the type of clients I'm bringing on now, the the high level nature of them, the size of them, it's just a simple fact. I wasn't bringing these clients on before I joined, right, so you can take a fairly logical conclusion to that that you know, something's happened along my way since being here. That's helped me to do that and I kind of touched on it earlier. But having the senior advisors to speak to and run these through as well, it's just been so important, right? People like Nikos, david Stockwell, gary Ryan there's so many, right, so many that I've been able to just go to, just ask them, you know, what do you think of this? How would you approach this? How would you structure the fees for them? How would you talk about this stuff?
Speaker 2:I think, on the fee side, that's actually a really important point, because it's not easy propositioning a large fee at the start, right, it's, um, it can be a little bit nerve-wracking, if you like. So knowing how others do it and seeing you know the success they have builds that confidence for sure. Speaking the language of high-level clients, right, I think that's a really important point. David Stockwell always said that to me, right, you have to speak the language of the person in front of you, right? That's not to say you change who you are because of who you're in front of, but you have to be able to speak their language so that they resonate with you.
Speaker 2:And then just being able to actually structure that meeting right. You, and then just being able to actually structure that meeting right, you come across a client who has millions here, millions there. You know just so much going on. How did you go from that introductory call, where you're just taking notes of everything they have, to actually putting a structured plan in place when there's so much going on? These are the things that you know undoubtedly. I've picked up a lot of skills from the senior advisors on these points excellent and the training in here, the mentorship, is really valuable for sure, for sure.
Speaker 2:And everyone is so open, right, everyone's an open book. There's no like competing against each other or not wanting to help each other. It's just a constant revolving door of who needs help. Let's, let's try, and, you know, find them that solution.
Speaker 1:I do, like the infrastructure at foster. They know, though, where you can basically build a partner practice within the business, and they have those highly skilled individuals already within here. It's almost like a plug and play model, isn't it? For self-employment? Have you started to structure a team around you, for instance, um, and what are you working towards during goals you're working towards?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think the team part is so important, probably something that I had to learn actually, because I was. When I was at my previous firm I done everything myself from an admin point of view, or pretty much everything myself. Then I joined here and it wasn't like that right, it wasn't even really. You have the choice to do everything yourself. You know there's a structure in place where you have admin support, you have power planning support, so you have to use that, and I'm someone that, at the start, wasn't great at delegating and just had that mentality there where if you want to do it right, do it yourself right. That's how I've always been. So it took some time for me to to a accept that I need the team around me and then be refined that team to have it working as smoothly as it is now. So, yeah, definitely working to some, to some important goals. This year. I'm hoping to achieve senior partner this year, which will put me in quite, a, quite a small group of people who have achieved that before age 30, which is something that I am quite keen to do and that wouldn't be possible without having the team, the right admin support, the power planning support that I have, and now it's just seamless, right. It just feels like new case comes in. We know how to handle it, we know what we're doing. Catch up with my admin support a couple of times a week. Catch up with my admin support a couple of times a week. Catch up with my paraplanner. So now it's in a really good place actually, which is uh again.
Speaker 2:Um, going back to what you said about how was foster de novo developed to me before, I was just completely a one-man band and genuinely believed that I had to do everything myself to get it done properly, whereas here, speaking to the senior advisors, they was like, look, the first thing you have to do is get out of that mentality because you're just putting a glass ceiling on yourself, which is that. That was something that took a little while for me to adapt to, but as soon as I did and also going back to what we were speaking about before, it does require investing into yourself, right, because there was a point where I was actually paying for more support than I needed and I probably could have done with that money, in fairness, but it was about knowing okay, I'm almost investing in myself now to put the structures in place so that when I am busy and you know the time is allocated, it's just smooth. And that's exactly where we are now, which you would never have done if you were on your own in your back bedroom.
Speaker 1:No, it would never happen, would it?
Speaker 2:so it's what a glass ceiling would be because? Because, then, how much of your time can really be spent on seeing clients? Yeah, if you've got to do all the admin work, all the follow-ups, all the application forms, etc.
Speaker 1:You're, you're just, you're handicapping yourself absolute recipe for success foster de novo, with the blueprint that supports you and energizes you, um, and the team around you as well, that can guide you, train you and develop you and mentor you, which is just so needed for for anybody within financial planning, not just young people coming in right, it's, it's absolutely needed. I've got no doubt you're going to smash it. I speak to so many financial planners. Your energy, your, your attitude and um, your awareness, your self-awareness is huge. I just love that. Like you know, you're an asset to foster de novo in my eyes and you're going to absolutely smash it in your career.
Speaker 1:If you're doing what you're doing now, before the age of 30 years old, there's no doubt you can be part of that elite group here at foster de Novo, which is senior partner by the age of 30 years old. So, listen, thank you so much for sharing your journey with us today. We've got some exciting news, because Foster De Novo Talks the podcast is going to be launching very, very soon. So if anybody's listening to this episode now and wants to learn more about what it is like working for Foster De Novo, then do check out foster de novo talks their own podcast, and we wish you all the best. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
