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
She left the Army and became a Financial Planner Mum, With St James's Place Academy | Katie Volker
In this episode of the financial planner life podcast, Sam Oakes sits down with Katie, a former Army officer who transitioned into a successful financial planning career with the St. James’s Place Academy.
Katie’s story is one of resilience, adaptability, and building a business that fits around life’s big moments, including becoming a mum mid-way through growing her firm.
We cover:
✅ How military skills like leadership, discipline, and resilience translate into financial planning
✅ What it’s really like going through the St. James’s Place Academy (and how Katie passed her exams in just 6 months)
✅ The importance of mentorship and building your support network
✅ How social media, especially Instagram Stories, has helped her win new clients
✅ Balancing business growth and motherhood, and how becoming a parent opened new networking opportunities
✅ Why financial planning needs more diverse voices and more women in leadership
✅ Tips for using LinkedIn and Instagram for business development
✅ The power of storytelling and human connection in financial services
Whether you’re ex-military, thinking about a career change, or wondering how to balance parenthood with self-employment, this is a must-watch.
Begin your financial planning career journey today
Whether you are looking to become a paraplanner, administrator, mortgage and protection adviser or financial planner, the Financial Planner Life Academy is for you.
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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Reach out to Sam@financialplannerlife.com in regards to sponsorship, partnerships, videography or career development.
Just being able to build my own business, having that opportunity to go set up my own business with my own ethos, my own values, working with clients that I want to work with, building it in a way that I want to build it, really appealed to me.
Speaker 2:How many years are you into your journey with St James's Place?
Speaker 1:Three years.
Speaker 2:How long did you spend in the Academy? Six months. How long did it take to pass your exams?
Speaker 1:months. Wow, really fortunate to be paired with an excellent mentor on the academy who is now a very close friend and we work together a lot. Even now I talk a lot on my stories and that gets really good engagement and I think it helps with the know like trust process when you meet somebody new, so I feel like they then book a meeting. I've got a link to my calendar on on Instagram so they can book in and I think they they already know who they're going to meet and I think that helps. You don't have to physically go to a professional networking event to network. You can network just in your normal life and that's what I did when I became a mother.
Speaker 1:I just networked in a different place.
Speaker 2:So, katie, thanks so much for joining us today on the Financial Planner Live podcast. This is, of course, a special partnership with St James's Place and St James's Place Academy, where we bring people on to hear about their journey into financial planning, perhaps where they've switched from why financial planning and, hopefully, the success that they've had so far. But don't shy away from telling us about the hard stuff as well, because we all love to hear about the tough things, what you've had to get over and the realities, really, of working in the financial planning profession. But first off, thank you so much for joining me. How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm good, thank you. Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. We've had a lovely pre-podcast chat. One of my favourite parts of being a podcaster is I get to actually have this pre-podcast chat before any podcast and I really get to know people a little bit deeper. It's actually a really great business development tool, so remember that one.
Speaker 1:I will. I'll put it in my book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, right, okay, so just tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 1:You obviously worked in the military didn't you?
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, tell us a bit about that then, and then we can move into how you transitioned into becoming a financial planner so I'm a big fan of the squiggly career, um.
Speaker 1:So I graduated in music as a music musician, um, and whilst the university I joined the otc. So I was like if I'm going to study music, I can't do everything music, it's too much. I need to do something else a bit grounding. So I joined the OTC, which is very loosely cadets and it's for potential officers and you go and you learn about leadership and doing that. I just fell in love with it. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:So after graduating from university I joined the army. So I commissioned from the Royal Military Academy, sandhurst and spent seven years serving in the army in a variety of different roles. And I was fortunate enough that the army was sponsoring me to train to be an accountant. But it had quite a long return of service attached to it. So I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to do that and so decided to leave and go to a big four firm to confirm if I actually wanted to be an accountant and continue that path or not. And whilst I was there I realized I was way more people driven than just looking at numbers, so decided not to qualify as an accountant, but still interested in finance. And then from there I went to a startup consultancy firm back into the people function, really enjoyed that completely different challenge to being in a huge corporation, to being in a startup, and then, whilst there, you know, had the confidence, then applied to join the SJP academy, which then saw me move into financial planning.
Speaker 2:Amazing. How did you hear about SJP?
Speaker 1:So I actually came across SJP during resettlement from the army. So there are various different resettlement events that you can attend and find out about different industries and SJP actually hosted one of the events that I went to. But it turns out that actually one of my very best friends from school her parents run a very successful SJP partner practice. I just never really knew about it because it wasn't something that had sparked my interest. I didn't really know about it until I started looking at SJP and then realised that that's what her family did. So actually it was always in the background. I just didn't really know about it.
Speaker 1:So St James's Place they had an arrangement with the military to be able to articulate what it's like to be a financial planner like a careers day or something like that, yeah, kind of. So there's loads of different events that you can go to. An SJP hosted one which was actually more broadly for financial services as a whole, so they had different banks in attendance and different wealth managers in attendance, but SJP were hosting it. So SJP talked about their academy. They had some partners there who'd gone through as an ex-military person. They talked about their experience, and then you had other firms and other banks there talking about their military transition programs as well. So it was a really broad event and actually I think that was good because it let you compare SJP's offering to other options in finance, and I think that was the comparison was quite good.
Speaker 2:What was it about St James's Place and financial planning that really piqued your interest?
Speaker 1:The people and I think that's key because you have to enjoy the people you're working with and, although you're self-employed as an advisor at SJP, the SJP environment, the whole of SJP is really important to your success and for the client's success. So that really sparked my interest and just being able to build my own business, having that opportunity to go set up my own business with my own ethos, my own values, working with clients that I want to work with, building it in a way that I want to build it, really appealed to me.
Speaker 2:What was your perception of financial planning before you actually joined the profession? What did you think that you actually did?
Speaker 1:I actually didn't know much about it.
Speaker 1:No, one does I actually didn't really know exactly and I honestly didn't know. I thought perhaps it was very structured and it is, isn't it In a way, in in terms of compliance? It's structured in the way you have to do some of the regulatory activity, but how you build your business. You can be really creative, just like you building your business, like you can work with lots of different people and if you challenge the status quo in terms of how you build the business, you can find fulfillment in that.
Speaker 2:I'm a creative person and we had the conversation about entrepreneurialism and intrapreneurialism right the ability to be able to go into an ecosystem or an environment and be able to change things and do it your way right. Music I know what music were you, what was your, what was your creative outlet when it came to music then?
Speaker 1:Through university, do you mean?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm a singer first.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So I grew up as a chorister I know Very, very interesting and then I got into musical theatre Right and then at university I specialised in early music. So you know Renaissance, very early music, so not the pop music you hear on the radio.
Speaker 1:Definitely not my style but can't find that in HMV though yeah, exactly, um, but yeah, I just love music. It's still such a big part of my life now, and actually I have more time for music now than I did in the army, so that's a great benefit of running your own business studying that then what impact did that have on your future career?
Speaker 2:what did you? How did it shape you today when you invested so much of your early years in music?
Speaker 1:I think so much comes from music, because music is performance.
Speaker 1:It's interpreting something that's written down and performing it to an audience for them to interpret how they interpret. And this is a very tenuous link. But if you think about a pension recommendation, which you know can be dull if you're just reading a suitability letter to someone, it's about interpreting that information, isn't it? And performing it or presenting it to somebody in a way that's actually accessible, enjoyable, makes sense to their wider life plan, rather than just looking at numbers like this will actually enable you to go to that round the world trip that you really want to do, or support your grandchildren when they get married or you know, whatever the client's goal is, and I think music actually really helped with that in terms of performance and being confident and being able to present information standing up in front of people that you don't know. I think all of that and the same in the army you present all the time, are skills that you really need as a financial advisor. I think it'd be really hard to be a shy financial advisor.
Speaker 2:Why.
Speaker 1:Because you have to be confident and you have to be able to make the client feel comfortable, and if you're uncomfortable yourself and you can't put a client to ease, it's not going to work. The relationship won't work.
Speaker 2:I get you Whilst you were talking. It's classic. I've got this kind of idea in my head of the St James's Place musical in the West End.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine.
Speaker 2:Like a 30-minute monologue about pensions and you're on the stage singing.
Speaker 1:I don't think there's so many tickets, do you?
Speaker 2:The Switch, the musical.
Speaker 2:We're on that one. Yeah, that would be fun. It would be fun. You should tell me that happened. You should do it. Run that one up the ladder, exactly what sjp would do right now. Musical theater, right, cool, great. But you feel like it's kind of that gives you confidence, and doesn't it, to be able to go out and speak to people, put yourself into situations like, if you get up on a stage and you can sing and you can dance and you can do all of that kind of good stuff, then, as you're saying, you've got to be a confident person. Really, within financial planning.
Speaker 1:And prepare. You can only stand up and perform in a musical setting if you've prepared. You've memorised the words, you understand the music, you know how the music works. It's the same in financial services.
Speaker 1:You have to know your stuff. You have to prepare. You have to know your clients. You have to know your stuff. Yeah, you have to prepare. You have to know your clients. You have to be able to present the information because you deeply understand it. Yeah, you don't need to share all of that depth with all of the clients and bamboozle them from a technical perspective. You need to make sure they understand and that they can ask questions, and so, yeah, the preparation is really key is the preparation for you when it comes to the learning, or is it for the client?
Speaker 2:is it to give you confidence that you know what you're talking about, even though you don't need to probably go into the level of detail that is outlined in RO1 to RO6, for example? Does it make you more confident knowing what you're talking about, or is it more for the confidence of the client?
Speaker 1:Both, absolutely both. You know you can't, you shouldn't be recommending something to a client you don't fully understand like that. I think that goes without saying. So you need to fully understand your own recommendation. But also the client needs to be able to ask you questions and you need to be able to give them confidence that you know the answers and you can explain the answers to them, and I think that is important. I think clients can lose trust if you don't have the answers to their questions. I don't think you need to know them immediately all the time and it's better to say do you know what? Let me just go and double check that and I'll come back to you then guessing on the spot. But I think you do need to have that firm understanding because it's important. We are, you know we are a profession and you need to know your stuff to be a professional do you ever worry, though, when you go into meetings all the time?
Speaker 2:yeah, all the time. I bet you do, yeah I can sense. You're probably that person. You know. I thought about this. If I thought about that, like, what about this? Well, what they asked me? That nine times out of ten they never ask nine times out of ten, they never ask.
Speaker 1:You will always have somebody who will ask you a technical question that you don't know the answer to, and I still I still maintain it's better to say do you know what? Let me go and check and I'll come back to you. And there's always someone to ask. And that's why, like your, your financial advising network is really important, as well as, like your prospecting network, because you need to be able to have people to bounce ideas off. You need to have technical experts that you can ring if it's particularly con. You know complex um area, and that's where SJP, I think, is brilliant, because it it gives you that, that support to be able to find answers if you don't know them.
Speaker 2:How many years are you into your journey with St James's Place? Three years. How long did you spend in the academy? Six months. How long did it take to pass your exams?
Speaker 1:Six months.
Speaker 2:Wow, great, okay, cool. So happy days. So you're up and running. Did your qualifications? Got through it all? I need to just ask you some questions around the ecosystem, then, of St James's Place, because you just said, like the advisor network. Just for the people listening here and maybe they're trying to understand how St James's Place actually does support you on your journey to be a financial planner, just give us some scenarios, give us some examples of why that network or ecosystem is beneficial to you.
Speaker 1:So I think it comes down to how much you use it as well. I think it's down to how much you use it as well. I think it's a two-way thing. Sjp puts so much on offer but you running your business have to take ownership to go and find that information as well. So it's a two-way street.
Speaker 1:But I was really fortunate to be paired with an excellent mentor on the Academy who is now a very close friend and we work together a lot even now and I'm pleased to say the relationship isn't just me taking all the time that I actually offer stuff back to her now, so it's definitely more mutually supporting. But we team up on clients. Even now we're working on a case together and she's been instrumental to me writing business and talking through recommendations and because she's doing the job as well she's, she helps me work out how to explain something to a client or how to position something with a client. So firstly, being paired with an excellent mentor was really useful. Then I've I've gained informal mentors along the way. So there's a couple of ex-military partners who I've met through SJP, who run their own businesses, who've kind of taken me under their wing and we work together on clients and I always ring them.
Speaker 1:So there's a couple of ex-military partners who I've met through SJP who run their own businesses, who have kind of taken me under their wing and we work together on clients and I always ring them for chats or talk through a recommendation with them. So that's really important. And then SJP just have so many technical helplines that you can ring, but you have to have the confidence to ring them. So my first year I always wanted to find the solution myself and work it out and I'd spend ages trawling on the portal to try and find the information. But now I just ring the helpline. I say look, this is my question, this is where I've looked. Can you help me find the answer?
Speaker 2:And it's just once you realize that they're actually there to help you and they don't mind you calling. It's really useful. Interesting, isn't it, that we think that we can't call people because perhaps it might expose us as being like we don't know. We don't know what we're talking about. We're actually like.
Speaker 1:Everybody I speak to within financial planning will openly admit they don't know it all exactly everyone's at different learning stages and even if you learn everything and you know everything, you get 100 in all your exams, it changes right. Every budget changes something, so that cpd element and then double checking stuff and rules change and talking it through is just really helpful how do you find balance, so, between being book smart and being relationship driven, and how?
Speaker 2:how has that been in your journey?
Speaker 1:the relationship's so important. It doesn't. You could be the best financial planner in terms of the numbers, but if you can't work with people, you'll struggle, because the relationship is really important. Building trust so clients respond to your recommendation, they trust that you're well-researched, that you're giving them the best recommendation to give them the best outcome they can have is really important. So relationship is by far more important in my opinion. I'm sure there'll be financial planners out there who don't agree, but I think the relationship is really important because you need you need full disclosure from the client. If something changes, you want them to be comfortable to ring you which affects recommendation.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, relationship is really important well, it works both ways, doesn't it? It's not just about building relationships with clients. It could be building relationships with introducers. It could be building relationships internally within the ecosystem of St James's Place. You know one of the things I do.
Speaker 2:I've just obviously recently gone into a financial planning company. I'm now in internal as well as being external with financial plan of life that I am so inquisitive. I want to know the ins and outs of everything to the point. It probably pisses a lot of people off, right. I'm literally sat on their desk like tell me what you do, how do you do it, why you do it that way, why does it take so long? I'm literally on it, yeah.
Speaker 2:But from doing that, I also try to recognize how I can add value to them all the time like, where can I? I'm listening, I'm, I'm, I'm interested because I feel like I want to add value to you. I want to give you some value. I want you to like me. I'm a people pleaser type person. I want everyone to like me. I probably just do everyone's head in by asking them so many questions, but what I found is that by doing that is that I get a real understanding of the business and how it works, how it operates, where it's got inefficiencies, where it's really efficient, where I can add value and I will add value where I can but from that, though, I've built some really great relationships.
Speaker 2:Yeah, even if I piss somebody off, we're now friends because at least they know the true side of me and I know that I can go to them and ask them questions whenever I actually want, because they kind of understand my approach and they understand my style and that I'm not doing it to get their back up. I'm just doing it because I want to get something done. But at the same time, I want to understand why is it not done and what pressure are you under, and I wonder if I can help you in any way. Or is there something that I know in the other side of the business that could help speed up your processes or take some pressure off of you, because not everybody um, not everybody speaks up and wants to connect in that way. They just kind of get the red down and do the job and do it in that way. So I've learned a lot from that, and I think building relationships within, within a business, is hugely important, absolutely, and being able to direct people as well that are brand new to somebody of help who's helped you in the past.
Speaker 2:You know signpost people. Uh, is is incredible as well. You let's just go back to this mentor that you had female mentor. Yes, how important was it, you had a female mentor, or was it?
Speaker 1:I know this is interesting. You posed this last week. I'm not sure I still. I've thought about it, I've reflected on it. I still don't know, because I've always worked in male dominated industry. You know, military, very male dominated, and then female officers is just like a tiny portion of the overall female footprint within the services as well. And then obviously the big four is still you know the stats last time I checked is still quite male dominated, specifically in audit, which is where I was. And then the stats last time I checked is still quite male dominated, specifically in audit, which is where I was. And then the startup consulting firm I moved into a tech firm, which was also really male dominated.
Speaker 1:So I don't know how important the female mentor was. I think it helped that her business was only four years ahead of mine, so she still remembered the journey I was on and she had come through the academy and started completely from scratch, just like I had, and she also wasn't from financial services. So I think that helped. She was a mother and I think that helped. So perhaps it did help that she was female because I had a baby shortly after leaving the academy, which presented some challenges in terms of my business plan and what was actually realistic and having to adapt that. But I've since had, you know, informal male mentors. So the two military people I've met from SJP who run their own businesses have also been offered great value. So I I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it was relevant that she was female or if it was more like the life stage we obviously need to attract more women into professions where there is a distinct lack of them.
Speaker 2:I actually think it's going to do with putting more women into leadership roles. That's my take on it right, you can have less women within the profession.
Speaker 1:Just whack more women into leadership roles but it takes time, right, if you're making a change for women, to get the experience to then succeed in those roles, does it?
Speaker 2:There's probably plenty of women, probably within financial planning, that should be in leadership roles.
Speaker 1:True, because women have been in financial services as well.
Speaker 2:The company that I've got into, there's no women in leadership roles. It's all men Interesting. So when I'm thinking about how can I add more people to the profession, how many female leaders can I attract? That's like. It's not like I want. Yeah, women at each level is important, right? Yeah, but I do just think the profession just needs to start promoting more women into leadership roles, board level roles, investment committees, all of that kind of stuff. There's plenty of people that can be, that can be put up and the way you do that, you can do that. More women, women in leadership, more women see it. More women want to join. Have more women out there speaking about it as well, opening up about it. Can I ask you a question as well with?
Speaker 2:it so if it was more female dominated financial planning, would it make you feel any different?
Speaker 1:no no no, not for me. I think it probably would, for other people perhaps. But no, it's the role for me. It's the role. Do I enjoy what I'm doing? Is the role suited to me? Can I help clients? Like, if I felt I wasn't helping clients then I would probably leave the profession quite quickly. But I know I add value to the clients I work with and I really enjoy it and I take, I really find it really enjoyable when I have those conversations with the clients and I'm like you know we're saving for that house deposit and you're almost there and you know that's realistic and if we put this plan in place, you will hit that goal in five years, which ties up to when you want to leave the army, for example. Um, so if I think it would be, I would celebrate if there were more women in the industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you just celebrate, right? Yeah, it's the same. You just want to welcome it. Do you think there's a huge amount of opportunity, regardless of whether you're a male or female, right in financial planning? Do you think right now there is a huge opportunity?
Speaker 1:yeah, absolutely. I don't think the need for financial advice has been any less than it is today, and I think it's becoming more complex the more, the more it changes through the budgets and the more they change pension rules. I think people only just got their heads around it and it's potentially changing again. I think people need more advice than they've ever needed before. It's just making it accessible to people and making people know that they don't have to have a set amount of money to work with a financial advisor and I know some have, you know, minimums but you know it should be accessible to everybody and everybody can benefit from financial advice. So I think it's a great time to be in the industry offers a lot of work-life balance as well, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah you mentioned that you had a family, so since joining St James's Place, yes congratulations on having a family. I have a daughter. What a wonderful time to be alive. I love my daughter. Well, she's giving me a bit of hassle lately. Oh no, eight and a half sassy. She's constantly on roblox and youtube oh no, that's hard, mine's too.
Speaker 1:So we're in the toddler tantrum phase and that is quite a challenge. Yeah, quite a challenge so what was your?
Speaker 2:you know you had a child. Um, was that part of your business plan?
Speaker 1:no, no, it wasn't, um, but I'm pleased to say it's just changed my business plan. So you know it. It did have an impact. I don't think you can become a parent and it not have an impact on your life, whether you're employed, self-employed in financial services or not. It just has a massive impact on your life, doesn't it? I'm pleased to say that, after panic, sheer panic, I took a deep breath. I looked at my plan. I thought it's fine, we'll just adapt it and yeah, it's worked out for the better. But you can't predict the future, can you? It's like when you say to clients you know you can't predict markets. It's the same. You can't predict life as a parent, but you can put like safety measures in and like boundaries in so you protect family life and you also protect business opportunity, and then it's like a balance of both did it change your trajectory in any way?
Speaker 2:having a child? You know you may have had specific types of business development plans that um didn't involve children. You might still be on on track to hit those business development plans, but did it? Let's look at the opportunities it brings, because did it bring many opportunities for you?
Speaker 1:absolutely. Yeah, it's a whole new network when you become a parent. Yeah, like part of the mum club and that's a big club, you know, and you kind of see women with parents with children and you see them. You know having a tantrum in matriarch, know, and you kind of see women with parents with children and you see them. You know having a tantrum in waitrose and you think I'm with you. Solidarity, I know how that feels and you know when you're talking to clients and they've got families, you can relate to that and I think when you have commonality with clients, that really helps.
Speaker 1:Um, but it did change. You know there's lots of opportunity in terms of the new network it's open to me that I didn't have access to before and perhaps I would have had access to them before I had children, but I probably wouldn't have approached them or thought to approach them or have much in common with that where now I'm like I'm with you, I get it. These are the challenges, these are the financial risks that perhaps you didn't know about, that you didn't have before you had children. So it's just trying to. I think when you're a financial planner running your own business, your life is your business. Like it's not. It's not distinct. It's not like Katie at home and Katie financial planner, because it kind of interweaves. So you know, you're the business card for your business, aren't you? So you don't have to physically go to a professional networking event to network. You can network just in your normal life and that's what I did when I became a mother.
Speaker 1:I just networked in a different place, um. So it's been interesting to see the difference waiting to start networking at the school gate.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, when you're waiting for your kids.
Speaker 1:I've heard about that one.
Speaker 2:Yes, I talk to everybody. Yeah, like I've met so many people because I used to, like I ran my own business. Um, so I was. I was flexible, I was able to like my wife used to drop isabella off when she was a baby, right like nine months, carry on, went back to work and she works in retail and she used to drop Isabella off when she was a baby, right like nine months.
Speaker 2:Kerri-ann went back to work and she works in retail and she used to drop drop my daughter off to me in the office in the pram and she was like she was. She was the office baby like everybody loved the office. She was the office baby like she was in our office for two, good two or three years. Everybody knew who she was, all of that kind of stuff. So I was always kind of looking after and I lived in central bristol and the school was around the corner, so she started going to school. I was picking her up from school and then bringing her back to the office, but I would meet all the mums and the dads that were there and had some fantastic conversations and built some really good relationships with them exactly and you get to know people really deeply.
Speaker 2:If you go to the park after school yeah, you know we go sit in the park there's this group of nice to go with. We'd sit at the park, sunbathe, kids would play together. It was really sociable fact. Now I'm saying I miss that massively. Yeah, I haven't got that at the moment. I really miss that. I'm working too much and I'm not spending enough time with my daughter outside. Yeah, I'm definitely.
Speaker 1:I need to sort that out, actually sorry and you never get that time back, do you? That's what I was conscious of when I had isabel, my daughter's yeah. I said I'll never get this time back. So this needs to be a balance between the business and being a mum, because she won't be one again no, she won't, do you know? So I think that balance is hard.
Speaker 2:And you can totally do it. Yeah, it's like you can totally marry the two together.
Speaker 2:It's not exclusive, it's not one or the other, it's not binary no, you just, you just combine it and it's not easy, because I think sometimes people think it's easy and it's not easy, but it can be done. It's as hard as you want to make it right. Yeah, you know it is as hard as you can make it. I think when you are in a career where you can control the hours that you work, um different story. You know like my job is rather demanding right now.
Speaker 2:If is Isabella was one years old I'm living in Dubai I'd have probably got a nanny in all sorts yeah and I reckon I probably wouldn't have been the father that I actually am like and what I was at that time, and I'm hugely grateful for being able to balance my work and my family commitments. And often, as I sometimes say to myself, why aren't I further ahead than I am right now? It's because I was a dad and I look back on that. I'm proud of the fact that I spent time with my daughter, proud that I picked her up from school. I'm proud that I was there at home at four, four o'clock to play with her and go down the park with her, and I feel quite sad that I don't have that with her right now. So it's, this is quite interesting actually. It's kind of just opened me up a little bit.
Speaker 2:But this is what I find with financial planning Whether you're a father or whether you're a mother, it offers flexibility to be able to have that work-life balance you can control. That you can't really do when you're employed. It's a lot harder when you're employed. So that flexibility you get is a massive benefit and I think that's one of the one of the areas we should be promoting more with financial planning for women. Why we should attract more women is that you're going to want to have a family at some point, more than likely.
Speaker 1:This is a hell of a career to be able to have a family in and be flexible and be flexible if you want that, if that's the style of life that you actually you actually want and if you challenge the status quo and what a financial planning meeting should look like, it doesn't have to be in an office, no, in a suit.
Speaker 1:So, like, one of my client meetings was a friend I met through having isabella and she was like you know, let's have a meeting and we met at her house on a play date so we both had both our children there. I never, ever, thought I would take isabella to a meeting, um, but it worked and the client felt comfortable and the children knew each other and it just worked and that that wouldn't work for every client and the majority of clients obviously I wouldn't take my daughter to, but it's just challenging the status quo. It doesn't have to be in a beautiful office block, in a meeting room. You know those meetings can take place anywhere, as long as it's confidential and you know it's an appropriate location and the client's comfortable. It can, you know, challenge what?
Speaker 2:and let's get creative around this, right, yeah because there's a lady in Dubai who was on um the apprentice I think her name is Khalija or or something. So she has a network of cafes and these cafes are networking cafes that also have like soft play, for kids love it. So all the kids go soft, playing it up, having a great time, building relationships. You're then building relationships with other people in business and you're having lovely coffees and everybody's winning and like that's a really cool way to actually network as a, as a parent, like and that's inclusive, isn't it?
Speaker 1:yeah it's not saying you can't come because you're a mother. Yeah, like it's really. It is deeply inclusive. It's I'd have definitely done that a hundred percent. Maybe that's what I should do in hampshire set up a networking cafe with this well crikey spend most of your time with a little kid that soft plays, don't you?
Speaker 2:in the winter, because that's the only thing you can actually do because it's so wet. With the military, you hear it all the time. Right, this is classic People in sport, people in military, would make great financial planners. Why Do you think that's true, and why are we so interested in people from the military, for example, to come into financial planning?
Speaker 1:I think there are many skills you learn in the military that apply, and I think it applies to being a financial planner, but also being self-employed or running business as a financial planner. I think it's kind of two hats. First is discipline. You do learn discipline in the military, and I think discipline for compliance in financial services is like a big tick and if you can do that and just know you have to do it and set up processes around it and try and outsource it as quickly as you can, that's really good. So I think discipline is probably a really good skill that you learn um, which is really transferable.
Speaker 1:I think having a sense of humor like having a sense of humor helps, and I learned to laugh a lot in the military and just like not be worried about being outside in the rain or being sleep deprived, um having a sense of humor. Um, resilience like you learn resilience by the bucket load in the military, because it just your environment changes all the time. The people you're working with changes all the time. Um, you go through physical challenges on exercise. So you, you learn resilience, you build resilience, and I think it's something where you know your resilience can dip and you can rebuild it again. It's not something you just have or don't have. I think it's something you can work on, it's something you can learn.
Speaker 1:You can grow, um, and I think to be a financial advisor, you have to be resilient, um, because not many people have 100 conversion rates right, so you have to be able to dust yourself off and carry on and start again. Meet new people. You have to go to networking events. You have to be resilient to do that. You know, if you're feeling a bit tired, you have to say discipline comes in, and you go anyway and you meet someone, and so resilience is massive and I think in financial planning you have to be resilient have to be resilient.
Speaker 2:Where in your career so far have you had the biggest like oh shit moment like this is actually hard. Have you had any periods like that where you got a bit of self-doubt?
Speaker 1:in financial planning yeah or you really struggled.
Speaker 2:Has there any been? Has there been a period yet within the journey where you had to really go through a period of resilience?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think when Isabella was first born, I had to go through resilience, not necessarily because I was a financial advisor, but because I had to readjust my mindset, that my goals would probably need to change a little bit because my time is now more limited and where I could work any hour that I wanted to work before, suddenly I have this dependent on me who just needs me, um. So I had to be quite resilient to know that the business would be okay and I would come back to it and it would grow again at some point. Um, but I set myself a goal during that maternity leave period that I would look after the clients that I had already onboarded really, really well and growth would come later. But that took a lot of resilience through that time. Because when you train for something, you prepare through the academy, you leave, you're ready, you know you're on that, you've got that momentum and I knew I would lose some of that momentum and that I would have to go through that hard work again to get the momentum back up again. So I had to work through that.
Speaker 1:Um. So it's not easy. Yeah, there, there will always be, I think, points where your resilience is knocked and you have to really think about you know I'm doing the right thing, remember your why, why you're doing something, why you enjoy it, and then find a solution. And there's always a solution isn't there. You just have to find it you're really struggling professionally, right?
Speaker 2:who's the first person you phone?
Speaker 1:oh, that's a good one. Oh, that it depends, right, it depends on. It depends on what the struggle is either my husband right, yeah um my mentor okay, great or I'm in a peer group as well and I've met a really good friend. She is an advisor in a practice but she has three young children and we talk through cases quite a lot, so perhaps her. So it depends on what the challenge is, who I would ring. I have many people in my phone book that I would ring.
Speaker 2:I'm not shy to ring people if I'm struggling Fantastic, but you've built a support network within the actual ecosystem of St James's Place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's important, was the mentor handed to you or did you have to go and find the mentor? We were paired, so my academy development manager, um, had supported her through her academy journey and he thought we would be a good match. Okay, so I mean I'm really fortunate because that relationship was really important to me, um, and still is today but you've got to work at mental relationships.
Speaker 2:I've mentored people throughout my time. Crikey, I did a bloody 12-step program and actually take people through a 12-step program and I was mentored by somebody else through it. So I know the value and the benefit of giving up your time for somebody else, because you learn, you see them grow, you train them to then be a mentor for somebody else and it's really massively rewarding. Yes, that whole teaching thing, isn't it? That kind of teaches you. It's very spiritual, but I like it. It does. It does work. Do you, do you mentor others now? Do you get stuck in and help others on their journeys? Is that important to you?
Speaker 1:yes, so in our group we all ask each other questions. So if someone asks a question and if I know the answer, I will always take the time, make the effort to reply. And yeah, I would love to mentor someone in the future because I've personally benefited so much from a relationship like that that I would love to pass it on. I'm a big believer on like pass it on, you know big believer on like pass it on.
Speaker 1:You know, if you, if you receive something really really great like pass it on and then the world's a better place for everyone pay it forward.
Speaker 2:It's a really good. Exactly, pay it forward, wasn't it? With kevin spacey? That's such a nice, great movie. Yeah, it's good. Um, what does the future hold for you? You know you're three years into your, your career. You're a partner, which means that you are running your own business. Yeah, um, what does the future look like to you? And and really, what are you prioritizing to get there?
Speaker 1:oh, it's a hard question because there's just so much to answer. Um, go for it. Growth, you know, growth I. I really want to run a practice where I can bring other advisors in as well and grow a really solid business. That's not just me, so I started that already with outsourcing, admin and power planning etc. But I'd really like to have a team where it's all about financial planning, all with my business ethos, rather than outsourcing to people who are all self-employed as well. I'd really like to build a business with my ethos or working with, with clients that get a really good service who can ring, you know, ring the phone, ring the ring the phone and get a really good service. Um, so I'd like to really build out a practice. And then I'd also like to build my family, grow my family, you know, and, like we were saying, it's a balance, but you can have both, and there are examples in SJP where that is the case and you see people like Carla Brown and other people doing it, so it is possible.
Speaker 1:Oh, carla, I love Carla yeah and I don't know, carla, I just feel like I do because I've watched a lot of her podcasts and her articles and stuff she was on my podcast recently.
Speaker 2:She's the president of the PFS right yes yeah, so we had her on the podcast. I didn't even realise she was an SJP one snuck that one in. You get a free one on me, but it's great talking to her yeah, and she does it.
Speaker 1:You know she's mum, she's got, she's grown a really successful practice with an in-house team.
Speaker 2:This isn't SJP, but I'll talk about it anyway because I think she's a shining example. Do you know the mortgage mum?
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:What a great model that is.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And she literally just like, she hires mums and turns them into mortgage advisors so they can have that work-life balance, and that's the whole model. So people are building models off the back of this.
Speaker 1:And you can see her ethos.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know and you can see her business has a personality and that's what I think is important. That's what my business is, it's got a personality.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's got a personal brand. I mean, she was a singer beforehand.
Speaker 1:She actually came on the x factor, wasn't she?
Speaker 2:x factor. She came on my podcast but I see I'm what you know, I'm seeing. Her journey is fantastic. She's on this morning and all sorts of stuff and she had a baby, not a similar time to when I had isabella through her business and her business was running so yeah, yeah, personal brand. How important is that to you?
Speaker 1:you're working on it, yeah yeah, so I'm an instagram user and some of my biggest clients actually came from Instagram, and that is my thing for this year is have a better strategy around it. I use LinkedIn not as often as I ought to, but again, when I do use it and put time in, I always have people engaging. So I think, yeah, it's really important to build your personal brand. I don't use Instagram. I post stuff on there, but I don't use it's really important to build your personal brand.
Speaker 2:I don't use Instagram. I post stuff on there, but I don't use it as a tool to business develop. I think in the period of time that I've used it, I've probably had a handful of people who come to me that I've turned into clients, actually quite decent sized ones. Linkedin's my thing, like LinkedIn, for me, as I describe it, is always networking on steroids. It's just so pinpointed and you can be laser targeted and laser focused on the network that you want to build. There's just so much information on there. Yeah, and ways in to talk to people. Linkedin is I. I feel like. I feel like there should be some sort of linkedin training for financial planners, because I come across so many that just don't they post right and then they network with other financial planners, yeah which is brilliant for me.
Speaker 2:This is brilliant for me but I'm like, so just tell me about your network. Who are you actually posting for? You posting for your clients, or are you posting for other financial fighters? Well, most of the people I connect with the financial planners.
Speaker 1:I'm like, well, you're not gonna it's not gonna work, it's not gonna work.
Speaker 2:You know it's really, really not gonna work unless those financial planners have got a shed load of clients that you know um following them and they like your posts and they see it. It's like get laser, get laser, focus. Who is your, who is your client you're looking to attract? What's your strategy for reaching out?
Speaker 2:yeah you know, don't worry too much about, don't even worry too much about the content creation side and how you're perceived online. Just have a strategy of who you're targeting. Get sales navigator and make sure that you are doing like a hundred reach outs on a weekly basis. If you can't, after three months, develop business through LinkedIn by being that targeted and that strategic, you're not doing it right. It's like there is. It's a absolute goldmine, linkedin. It's just underutilized and the advisors that I know that are using it.
Speaker 1:Sam, you're adding to my to-do list. Maybe this is what I need to do, but it's a value add one. Tell, but it's a value add one, yeah.
Speaker 2:Tell me about Instagram, though, and how you. You know what do you do on there. Do you talk about financial planning? Do you talk about yourself? You know how have you managed to develop some really great clients on there? Teach me, because I'm not an Instagrammy type vibe.
Speaker 1:I actually don't post a lot of content to my grid.
Speaker 2:I use it for stories.
Speaker 1:You know the bits where you can post something for 24 hours and it disappears. I like stories actually, yeah, and honestly, I just started just by posting what I'm up to and people reply. They'll be like oh, I didn't know you did that. Can we have a chat? And the way Instagram works is it's your networks to start with, isn't it? People that already know you, and then, as they like and comment on your stories or your content, then the algorithm shows it to more people. So then you'll get more followers, and actually I don't have very many followers at all, but my reach is quite good because I post on stories consistently not for the last month, but normally consistently and then more people see your content. So I literally will post oh, I'm today, I'm doing a client review meeting. It's really important to catch up on plans and update them if positions change.
Speaker 1:And I talk very generally about what I do and what I'm up to, because I think a lot of it. Like we said, people don't really know what financial planners do. They think they don't have enough money, so I'll put something on just about what I'm working on and I don't. I don't include, you know, I don't include call to actions. I don't talk about anything, um, that would be considered as a financial promotion. So my content that I post on my grid, I'll make sure if it's promotional gets signed off and all the approvals and things. But on stories I'll talk more broadly and people like that yeah, they do and they see behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:But it is weird because I had one lady reached out for a meeting and we had a meeting and she she asked me something like, oh, how, how was I'd been somewhere and she was like, oh, how was that? And I said, oh, how how do you know about that? She said, oh, it was on Instagram and and they, they know you because they've been following you for a few months and you might know them like from your outer network or you might know like a really tenuous link to somebody that you know. But then they feel like they know you a little bit more and I talk a lot on my stories and that gets really good engagement and I think it helps with the know, no, like trust process when you meet somebody new. So I feel like they then book a meeting. I've got a link to my calendar on Instagram so they can book in and I think they already know who they're going to meet 100%, and I think that helps.
Speaker 2:Massively helps If you can be in front of them, so the eyes and if you can get into their ears, even better. Let's say, for example, you had an advertisement board in Piccadilly Circus for the year, right, and you'd have 10 million people looking at it. But you can actually go further than that and be selective and you can actually choose those 10 million people that see it. If you're strategic about the network that you build, you are improving the chances of the right people seeing it. Now they're seeing it, but at the same time, those 10 million people are listening to you 24 7. It's even more valuable. Yeah, that's why I did some calculations recently. So I got about I got about 10 million impressions a year. Right, that's what I do organically. And then from a podcast perspective, 75 hours a day of like consumptions over a 24-hour period, which means that every second of the day someone is listening or watching my content.
Speaker 1:It's really it's really big, isn't it?
Speaker 2:it's massive, and it's really it's really big, isn't it it's massive and it's like when you stop and you think about that and then you think, well, how many people listen to podcasts where it's like I don't know, maybe like 12, 13 000 people on a monthly basis, 13 000 people listening. Imagine having that in a room, yeah, like looking up at a impiglottis circus at your sign, listening to you. It's really really powerful and being consistent around it is the most important thing. The stories I think people love a story. You know, an image is kind of like, but a story behind it. It drives emotion, doesn't it? Yeah, one of the things I think that people don't understand.
Speaker 2:Because I'm moving now into the client side, I really want to get into client stories. Money stories right, the emotional connection with money. Why you think the way you do, why you think you might not be worthy of getting money, where you think perhaps you've got a money blockage and you don't allow yourself to get help. But you might allow yourself to get help through a PT, because you want to lose some weight or you want to get fitter, but why don't you want to talk about your money? Let's bring those stories to life. Let's bring those stories to life and I want to do that through client stories and I want to put it out there. But it's even more basic than that, right? It's like okay, you're a financial advisor, done it right back.
Speaker 2:What do you actually do in the first meeting? What is the exploratory chat all about? How much does it cost? When does the cost come into it and what am I getting for the cost? But first off, what are we going to explore? What's the uncover and discover process? So, if you can, you could absolutely do hours of content around the stuff.
Speaker 2:That isn't even advice, and that's the bit that I love. Right, I don't want to be a financial advisor. I want to sit down with people and open them up and make them think holy shit, I need to speak to a financial planner. This is not what I expected it was. I did it yesterday with somebody. He sat there for an hour Rob, he's been, he's been filming for ages with me with financial plans, because I've never actually realized that that's exactly what a financial planner does. Yeah, I was like there you go. So how many people out there don't understand what a financial planner does? And just just that. Just get the complexities out the way and just focus on the human side of money and that's the bit that people buy into and then go. Oh my god, it God. It's like you were talking. You're talking about property, you're talking about careers, you're talking about lifestyle, you're talking about family. You know not these complex events that come up. Yeah, complex events are great because you can trigger somebody, because something's coming up like a tax change or something.
Speaker 2:You know, I did a video recently about inheritance tax planning for farmers. It's like a mini documentary, but I'm going to use that to communicate with farmers that I understand what you're going through and we have a team of experts that are going to help you. Listen to Mr and Mrs Miggins about their dairy farm and how scared they were with these changes that are coming in, but now how brilliant they feel because they've actually reached out and got some advice from us and we've helped them and now they understand that their legacy can continue and their family business that they've had for 400 years can do the same. It's the story, it's the emotion attached to it and how that person feels. With mr and mrs miggins did it, then we'll do it as well. Sam, can we come and then I use that story or that video to then smash into other communities across the uk.
Speaker 2:So I want to be like farming community there. Farming community there. It's the stories of those individuals who you're helping, but also who you are and how you help people and how you make people feel financially. I know it's like financial well-being. Yeah, is that?
Speaker 1:that's how I look at it, I agree, and it's showing the transformation yeah because I think people don't understand what the end point is yeah and the end point is them achieving their goal, or retiring earlier than they thought they could, or retiring with enough money, and I think people don't focus on that bit, do they? It's like all the problems and then being sold something yeah, and not actually the transformation, which is quite simply like have a plan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I never had a plan. As soon as I put a plan in place, I was like, oh my god, I've been like running at it like a lunatic and put myself under so much pressure and so much immense stress because, like, financial insecurity was rife in me. As soon as I realized that, with a plan that is changeable over time, I can have financial security in the present moment, yeah, and now I'm learning to build my financial security cup up and lo and behold, I'm feeling more confident about my future and it's having money now to live life now while you're young, fit, healthy, young family that you can enjoy all your hobbies but have the knowledge and the safety that you're going to have financial well-being in the future too yeah so it's not.
Speaker 1:You're not robbing your future self of security, but you're still living life now because, I think there's a balance so you can meet some people who just put everything away and don't live life now and you think but you might die young yeah, you might you know you? You're young now. You're fit, you're healthy. There's a balance to be had, isn't there?
Speaker 2:but sometimes you need permission from somebody yes right, yes, that person sometimes could be your husband, or your wife could be telling you until you're blue in your face. But it's like you almost have to go to somebody who doesn't know you. Yeah, and then they, when they work it out, and they and they give you permission, you're like, oh, thanks, thanks for letting me know that.
Speaker 2:And then they hold you accountable to your plan exactly you know it's perfect and you can't get that from your friends or family because they know you too well. Yeah, so you have to seek that from an outside source, but that outside source has to feel like a trusted person and it can be uncomfortable, right?
Speaker 1:if you're saying to somebody which I've had to do a couple of times you know you're not saving enough for your retirement, given you what you, what you've, what you've told me you want to do in retirement and how much we predict that's going to cost, taking into account inflation, you're not saving enough. You know. And this is how much you need to try and put away to be able to reach that. And it's highlighting it early and it's having that uncomfortable decision discussion and having the confidence to have that uncomfortable discussion and say you need to do something about this. And that's why they're paying you as an advisor right to go and tell them and help them work that out. And I think sometimes if you're working with a couple married or unmarried, but a couple in a relationship, it's easier sometimes for a third party to challenge a member of the relationship as well.
Speaker 2:If it's not uncomfortable, uncomfortable it's not working. Get comfortable being uncomfortable yeah, it's where grief happens, absolute pleasure. Talking to you today sounds like your career is going from strength to strength and you're balancing life and work really, really well, and I'm super pleased that the ecosystem here at st james's place is serving you by the sounds of it. And that's the most important thing, and I think your story would inspire other people to get stuck into financial planning, male or female right, we want them all and that St James's Place, whether it's going through the academy or coming on as an experienced advisor, is a fantastic home.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
